286 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXII. 



miles up the right bank of the Nama-Hari without 

 discovering a ford, we halted at a spot where the 

 banks might with some labour have been pared 

 down sufficiently to admit of our waggons crossing ; 

 but our scouts discovering a practicable road two 

 miles higher up, we were fortunately spared the 

 trouble. 



Two hours' toil the following morning placed us 

 safely on the southern bank of the Nama-Hari ; and 

 after filling up our water-casks, and endeavouring to 

 persuade the cattle to drink their fill, which at so 

 early an hour they refused to do, we resumed a 

 south-westerly course, and again made sail over the 

 interminable plain. Our attention was presently 

 arrested by the fresh spoor of several horsemen in 

 pursuit of elands; and, after a hundred sapient 

 conjectures had been offered on the subject, some 

 of the Hottentots, feeling convinced that the hunt- 

 ers would prove to be a band of Bastards from 

 Lishuani, determined to follow them, and inquire 

 the news. A few hours afterwards, however, they 

 Returned in dismay, with the intelligence that they 

 had unexpectedly come upon a spot near the river, 

 where the ground was spread with human skeletons 

 as with a table-cloth, under which circumstances 

 they had thought it prudent to return. 



The day was distressingly sultry, and by the time 

 we had advanced twenty-five miles, three more of our 

 invalid oxen had been left to perish. Hour after 

 hour the prospect was still the same. Tantalized 

 by the dancing mirage, we had scoured the country 



