48 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. VII. 



towards Kurrechaine, I shall be excused being a 

 little more minute in my descriptions. 



The road from Kuruman to our intended halting 

 ground was so circuitous that we despatched the 

 waggons in advance, and rejoined them by a more 

 direct route accompanied by Andries, who, after 

 all his achievements, was not a little mortified at 

 perceiving that the sorriest horse of all had been 

 reserved for him. Naturally of an unassuming dis- 

 position, he humbly conceived himself entitled to 

 the best : and thus disappointed, unhesitatingly 

 declared his inability to show the way, which never- 

 theless to his disgust we contrived to find for our- 

 selves. The presentation of an old waistcoat in the 

 evening, however, had the effect of soothing his 

 feelings. 



The next morning, a messenger arrived with 

 letters for us from Mr. Moffat to the missionaries 

 at Motito and Mosega. A Bechuana gentleman 

 of quality, to whom we had been introduced at 

 Kuniman, came at the same time with his two 

 daughters, having conceived a desire to join our 

 mess as far as Motito. We had received a bad 

 character of this personage, but as far as our ex- 

 perience of him went, he was very orderly, and 

 afforded a fund of entertainment by his ridiculous 

 attempts to colloquise in Dutch. His skin was 

 blacker than a boot, and in texture resembled a 

 rhinoceros hide : yet he studiously interposed a 

 parasol, composed of ostrich plumes, betwixt the sun 

 and his nobility, leaving his little daughters to 



