Chap. XIV.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 113 



They often clambered into our beds without cere- 

 mony, and obtruded themselves stark naked when 

 least required. 



We unyoked for breakfast on the bank of one of 

 the numerous streams that here form the source of 

 the Mariqua, a river of which I shall have occasion 

 frequently to speak. A spacious and level valley, 

 hemmed in on three sides by the skirting hills of the 

 Kurricane range, was intersected by three or four 

 of these rivulets, whose serpentine course could be 

 traced by the sedges that rose high above their banks. 

 As soon as the governor had completed his break- 

 fast, and the waggons were ready to proceed, the 

 extension of his excellency's greasy hand announced 

 his intention of leaving us and returning to Mosega. 

 A severe 2mm2)-handling, and the presentation of 

 two bunches of beads to himself, and a brass-wire 

 collar to his little son, whilst it firmly cemented our 

 friendship, terminated our acquaintance for ever, 

 under a parting assurance, that he had made a fa- 

 vourable report of us to his royal master, who was, 

 he said, " Monantl, Monanti, Monanti,^' or in plain 

 English, the most gracious of sovereigns. 



As the waggons proceeded, we turned off the road 

 in search of a rhinoceros, and speedily became so 

 entangled in a labyrinth of thorn fences, newly con- 

 structed to entrap game, that we had great diffi- 

 culty in extricating ourselves. Stiff thorn branches, 

 too high to be surmounted, were firmly fixed in the 

 ground, and so entwined amidst a dense grove of 

 mimosas, that after fruitless endeavours to force a 



