246 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXVIII. 



our oxen were in snperb condition, our supplies abun- 

 dant, and our followers in better heart than usual ; 

 but knowing from experience how little reliance can 

 be placed upon a savage's estimate of distance, we 

 were not without reasonable apprehensions of being 

 detained beyond the Bukaws until after next rains, 

 and thus exceeding our leave. All circumstances 

 but this, conspiring to favour both the successful 

 continuance of our journey, and the discovery of the 

 " great water," — it was with feelings of no oi'dinary 

 regret and disappohitment, that we felt ourselves 

 thus compelled to return, at the very moment when 

 a prize of such value appeared actually within 

 our grasp. 



Although not more than fifty miles to the south 

 of the tropic of Capricorn, we did not find the heat 

 by any means oppressive ; a circumstance which 

 was of course in a great measure to be attributed to 

 the prevalence of rain. After the thunder-storm 

 which usually ushered in the night, the mornings 

 had been always remarkably cool ; and even during 

 the middle of the day the range of the thermometer 

 in the waggons had rarely exceeded 85°. Before 

 turning to the southward, we crossed the Limpopo, 

 and made an excursion of forty miles to the north- 

 eastward, on horseback, with a design of determining 

 the course assumed by this interesting feature in the 

 geography of Southern Africa. So far as it was 

 possible to comprehend the descriptions given by 

 savages, which are not the clearest in the world, this 

 river, after being joined by another, called the 



