xii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



When at length a waggon was required to convey these to 

 the Cape, together with a large quantity of ivory which he had 

 collected, he set off for Namaqua Land, accompanied by a 

 single attendant, to procure one of these vehicles. It was a 

 hurried journey of four months' duration ; and probably neither 

 on any former or subsequent occasion did he suffer more from 

 hunger, thirst, the burning rays of the sun, and over fatigue 

 than he did on this journey. Bearing in mind all these hard- 

 ships and sufferings, which, thanks to the elasticity of his spirit 

 and his still unbroken strength of body, he was happily enabled 

 to endure, one cannot wonder at his exclaiming, in the words 

 of a former traveller, "To journey in Africa requires the endu- 

 rance of a camel and the strength of a lion/ 7 



This little expedition was not without its sporting results. 

 One night he chanced to fall asleep in his skarm, when his 

 mind became impressed with a confused sense of danger : whilst 

 between sleeping and waking he could not make out the nature 

 of the peril ; but on coming fully to himself he distinctly heard 

 the breathing of an animal immediately near his place of con- 

 cealment, and a sound somewhat resembling the purring of a 

 cat. A lion had crept close up to him as quietly as possible, but 

 still not unnoticed by his dangerous neighbour. Andersson 

 seized his gun, which was lying ready close by his side, aimed 

 at the dark mass before him, and fired. The beast's roarings 

 and convulsive movements showed plainly that the ball had told. 

 It was not, however, until daylight that Andersson ventured 

 forth from the skarm to ascertain the effect of his shot, when 

 he found, to his great satisfaction, the lion lying dead at no 

 great distance. 



In the early part of 1854 Andersson repaired to Cape Town, 

 and shortly afterwards visited Europe, where he published his 

 well known work ' Lake Ngami/ At the end of 1856 he was 

 back again at the Cape, for the purpose, as previously agreed 

 upon, of joining his friend Frederick Green in an expedition 



