THE BUSHMEN'S REVENGE 103 

 There is not a watering place in the Bush- 

 manland desert which has not some tragic 

 story connected with it, some reminiscence of 

 a lonely thirst-death, some tale having for its 

 motif the shedding of blood usually by 

 treachery. But death, accidental or designed, 

 was always the theme. Not many miles from 

 where we were camped that night one of the 

 earlier Wesleyan missionaries travelling from 

 Warmbad to the half-breed settlement on 

 the Kamiesbergen had been shot to death with 

 poisoned arrows. This happened early in the 

 nineteenth century. The murderer was exe- 

 cuted some time afterwards at Silverfontein. 

 The first white man who crossed this tract 

 did a venturesome thing. For although at 

 that time the Bushmen had already been con- 

 siderably thinned out by the Hottentots and 

 half-breeds, many of them still lurked in the 

 less accessible parts. From time to time they 

 emerged, singly or in small parties, and 

 wreaked a wild and often quite inconsequent 

 revenge. 



Their mode of attacking travellers was to 

 steal up at night among the tussocks and dis- 

 charge a flight of poisoned arrows at point- 

 blank range, among those surrounding the 

 camp fire. They would then immediately de- 



