vi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



some three months from their first landing in Walvisch Bay 

 to get all things in proper order. 



Their course in the first instance was directed to Richterfeldt, 

 from whence they made an excursion in a south-easterly direction 

 to Barmen, another missionary station, at a distance of some 

 days' journey from Richterfeldt. 



On their return Andersson had his first serious adventure with 

 a lion. At a short distance he had shot at the beast and lodged 

 a ball in its body, when, finding itself wounded, it faced about 

 and prepared to attack him. Andersson fell on one knee in 

 readiness to fire his second barrel, but, being unable to obtain 

 a proper view of its head, he delayed discharging his gun. The 

 beast in the meanwhile suddenly made its spring, but, happily, 

 overshot its mark, and passed clean over its opponent. With 

 good reason Andersson called his escape " a lucky " one, as 

 when making its bound the lion seldom miscalculates the 

 distance. Some few days after the above occurrence the beast 

 in question was found dead, and that at only a short distance 

 from the scene of conflict. 



From one cause or another their movements were slow. It 

 was not before the beginning of March 1851 that Galton and 

 Andersson left Schmelen's Hope, situated near the river Swakop, 

 to set out in good earnest on their journey of discovery. Their 

 first plan of visiting Ngami had been abandoned, because Galton 

 determined on proceeding to another and nearer lake (the Oman- 

 bonde), of which he had received wonderful accounts from the 

 natives. After somewhat more than a month's travel through 

 part of Damara Land never previously explored, they reached 

 the lake in question, which bitterly disappointed the expectations 

 of both travellers. A dried-up mere, altogether without water, 

 about an English mile in length, and partly overgrown with 

 reeds, was the only reward for months of labour and anxiety. 



After a short sojourn at this so-called lake, in the vicinity of 

 which Andersson had, for the first time, the pleasure of seeing 



