98 SOUTH AFRICA. 



indicating approximate underground flow of the 

 precious element so necessary to all kinds of life. 



My first visit to this great Thirst Land occurred 

 early in the fifties, shortly after the discovery of 

 Lake N'Ghaami by Livingstone and Oswell. On 

 this occasion I was accompanied by a valetudinarian 

 whose acquaintance I made during a visit to Cape 

 Town, and who had been sent out by his doctors 

 to recuperate his very delicate lungs. I have 

 reasons for withholding his name, although he 

 joined the majority at a very good old age some 

 few years since. He was a pleasant, clever fellow, 

 but eccentric and obstinate to a degree typical of 

 John Bull in excelsis. In those days no railway 

 facilitated progress towards the far interior, and 

 we jolted patiently along in our bullock waggons 

 over the thinly settled old Colony, enjoying 

 occasional sport, till we reached a large native 

 kraal called Kange, a little to the south of Mang- 

 watto, where Seiomi, the father of the well-known 

 Khama, then reigned. My plan was to stick to 

 the hunting-road via Mangwatto, then reach the 

 lower part of the Botletle, where it loses itself 

 in reedy swamps of immense extent, and where 

 elephants abounded. This road, which is still in 



