446 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



tered applause, for they knew just as well as I did 

 that their enemy had been slain. 



From here we trecked through the ruins of several 

 deserted villages, but war had driven away the inhabi- 

 tants, and time had destroyed their dwellings. What 

 once were their fields are now desolate wastes ; what 

 once were their houses are a home for the hyaena, 

 the bat, or, worse still, the hideous, bloated reptile. 



After a long day's treck we arrived at night beside 

 a large pond, formed by banking up the course of a 

 rivulet. Several of the inhabitants came out to welcome 

 me ; to my surprise many spoke English. Shortly 

 after dark I was sent a present of meat and vegetables, 

 but, incredible as it may appear, so many came to see 

 me eat and assist me in the performance of so necessary 

 and not uncommon a duty, that I discovered that these 

 presents were far from a paying game. 



Next morning at break of day I got the cattle in, 

 and when I took them out of the yoke I was in front of 

 the blue gum-trees before Mr. Jansen's house at Moiloes. 

 Thus ends my wandering in the Kalahari desert, for 

 here I leave it and enter the Transvaal. The agony 

 that my poor cattle, my boys, and I had endured in the 

 Great Thirst Land was now practically at an end. Our 

 sufferings had been intense, but we had come, thank 

 God, safely or at any rate tolerably so through it 

 all. Truly may that region be called the Thirst, nay 

 the Great Thirst, Land, for there, more than in any 

 other country I have ever visited or travelled in, are 

 unfortunate animals and miserable natives subjected to 

 periodical visits of excruciating scourges ; and the 

 tremendous hardship is that no amount of experience 

 can possibly avail to prevent the recurrence of the 



