Chap. XXVIII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 249 



Knowing this to be false, we continued hunting 

 giraffes, and paid little attention to their remon- 

 strances ; but on arriving opposite the scene of the 

 Griqua defeat, we were joined, on the 6th, by four 

 Matabili warriors from Kapain, who stated that 

 they had been following our waggon tracks, by 

 command of the king, for ten days past, in order 

 peremptorily to direct our return to the Cashan 

 mountains, where we should be met by our friend 

 Um'Nombate, who had a further message to com- 

 municate. This mysterious intimation had the 

 effect of conjuring back the dormant apprehen- 

 sions of the Hottentots : Andries, as usual, gloom- 

 ily persisting that the king had never intended to 

 let us go through by the Vaal River, and was now 

 about to recal the permission we had extorted. 

 Although we stoutly combated these dismal fore- 

 bodings, there really appeared to be some grounds 

 for entertaining them — ^it being impossible to ima- 

 gine why else the minister should have been sent. 

 The result of our deliberations, however, was, that 

 nothing short of main force should induce us to re- 

 linquish the permission we had purchased ; and 

 that having successfully struggled thus far with 

 difficulties and annoyances, we would now 



" Not bate a jot 



Of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer 

 Right onwards." 



With this determination we hurried our advance to- 

 wards a large Matabili kraal, which, situated to 

 the north of the Cashan range, among a group of 



M3 



