304 BETHANY EBONY-TREE MR. KNUDSEN. 



we deemed it necessary to move slowly on toward the Cape 

 Colony. Accordingly, on the 9th of July we left our camp 

 on the Aamhoup, a place where we had experienced both 

 misery and happiness. 



Our course lay along and at the foot of a very picturesque 

 range of table hills, averaging about one thousand feet in 

 height. To the westward were also mountains of a similar 

 nature, but less regular. They were of the trap formation, 

 and consisted chiefly of limestone. 



Water continued for a time to be tolerably abundant, but 

 pasturage began soon to fail us. Two causes were to be as- 

 signed for this, namely, the devastation of the locusts, and 

 the inferior quality of the soil, which became stony, inter- 

 spersed here and there with ridges of sand. 



Among the latter we encountered herds of gemsboks, and 

 troops of lions following on their scent. The mere sight of 

 the tracks of the latter frightened a friend with whom~I was 

 traveling almost out of his wits. We were riding in advance 

 of our cattle at the time, and it was with difficulty that I 

 could prevent him from returning with precipitation. 



On the 4th of August we arrived in the neighborhood of 

 another Rhenish missionary station, called Bethany. Here 

 we met with the ebony-tree, of which I had only before seen 

 a few stragglers in the Swakop River, near the Usab gorge. 

 Hence on to the Orange River this tree became more or less 

 abundant, but it was stunted and gnarled. Our bivouac fires 

 usually consisted of its wood. 



While Hans and the men were busy preparing our food 

 and camp for the night, I strolled on to the station, which I 

 found deserted by every living creature. Only a short time 

 previously the Rev. Mr. Knudsen officiated here, but had been 

 obliged to leave on account of some disagreement with the 

 native tribe and its chief, David Christian. It had always 

 been considered as inferior to most of the other missionary 

 stations in this part of Africa ; but, what with the absence 



