248 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXVIII. 



determined our position in so level a country with 

 sufficient accuracy. Rude as it may appear^ few 

 inland portions of this vast continent have been 

 surveyed by a more scientific process ; and during 

 the early part of our journey, especially while 

 travelling between known points, I had frequent 

 opportunities of satisfying myself of its practical 

 correctness. 



Judging, therefore, from a minute daily register 

 kept throughout our journey, we must now have 

 been about the tropic, our distance to the north of 

 the known latitude of Mosega being upwards of one 

 hundred and fifty miles. We retraced our steps 

 on the 1st December, the previous night having been 

 passed at a kraal of starving Baquaina, for whom 

 we had killed a rhinoceros. Fearful indeed was 

 the uproar that attended the division of the carcass 

 — a large party of ladies, possessing remarkably 

 slender wardrobes, rushing forth like witches, and 

 leaving nothing in the course of a few hours but a 

 pool of blood. 



Thus far we had been treated by the guides with 

 tolerable civility. No sooner, however, had we turn- 

 ed to the southward than they began to evince the 

 greatest impatience at their detention, complaining 

 loudly of their limited rations of snuflF and bread, 

 and insolently urging our return to the Cashan 

 mountains with all expedition, upon the plea that 

 the king would be displeased at our making so long 

 a stay ; his Majesty having, they said, instructed 

 them that we were only to hunt during one moon. 



