230 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap, XXVI. 



mament is remarkably brilliant and beautiful. We 

 frequently sat for some hours, over imadulterated 

 " tea-water," witnessing Mohanycom's ludicrous 

 imitations of the dancing of our country-women at 

 the Cape, or listening to tales of the success of the 

 king's arms. One favourite theme was the defeat 

 of Sobiqua, king of the Wangkets, in accomplishing 

 whose downfall 'Lingap had aided and abetted- 

 Like many other African potentates, he had been 

 found guilty of possessing too many cattle, and was 

 presently compelled to fly to the Kalahari desert, 

 with the wreck of his tribe. Conjecture, too, was 

 alive, as to the fate of a commando, that had four 

 years before been despatched for the subjugation of 

 the Damarasj but of which no tidings had ever been 

 received ; and the proceedings of a Dutch trader 

 were not unfrequently brought on the tapis. It 

 appeared that this wretch had undertaken, in return 

 for a quantity of ivory, to add a white female to the 

 beauties of the king's seraglio ; and had actually suc- 

 ceeded in enticing a farmer, with his fair vrouw, to the 

 very borders of the country, within which a commando 

 was in readiness to seize the lady. The diabolical 

 scheme being suspected, however, his designs were 

 frustrated ; and a fear of Moselekatse's implacable 

 revenge has obliged him to relinquish all trade with 

 the savages, whilst the colonists, on the other hand, 

 have placed the delinquent beyond the pale of society. 

 Our horses having now greatly improved in con- 

 dition, we resolved to proceed immediately to the 

 country of the Bakone, or Baquaina, where came- 



