220 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



freight a small Schooner to take me and my traps about 1000 miles up the Coast to 

 Walfisch Bay where I land and go towards the interior. The assistance and kindness 

 in every possible way, both of Government here and of all the people, has been extreme. 

 I take out credentials for establishing friendly relations between our Government and 

 different tribes, in opposition to the movement of these Dutch Boers, and they have 

 given me an immense parchment passport, engrossed and in English, Dutch and 

 Portuguese, with a hugh seal 8 inches in diameter, set in a tin box and dangling 

 on to it, so I go as a great swelP. Sir Harry made a long speech to me the other 

 day after dinner at Government House, to say, I was a good fellow — and he spoke 

 very kindly indeed. 



Andersson is a right good fellow, and does whatever he is told, which is particularly 

 convenient. My head-man is one of the best known servants in Cape Town. He is 

 Portuguese — has travelled all his life, speaks Dutch and English perfectly and has 

 always been liked by everybody. Then I have a Black, to look after my nine mules and 

 horses. He calls me " Massa " and that also, is very pleasant. He is a tall athletic 

 well built fellow, who has worked uncommonly well in Kaffir land. Next comes a smart 

 lad to help him, and then I have 2 Waggon drivers and two leaders for the Oxen. One 

 of the Drivers has worked 4 years together at a blacksmith's and waggon maker's shop 

 here, and is a very good workman, so that he can repair anything that goes wrong in 

 my waggons, and one of the leaders can also drive. Our party therefore consists of 

 seven servants Andersson and myself, and except Juan, the head-man, their wages run 

 from £3. 10. to £1. 10. a month. I have been obliged to lay in a very great 

 quantity of stores, for the place where I am going to land, has no communication 

 established with any other port, and nothing that is forgotten can be replaced, of these 

 things about half go to exchange for oxen, of which there are plenty there, and 

 to get me guides and so on, of the rest I leave one half as a depot at a missionarj' 

 Station, so that I have always a place to fall back upon. If the roads are good, I go with 

 my waggons and my cart, if there is doubt about water ahead, I send on my cart alone 

 with the mule — and if the road is execrable, I hunt about for a better one, using my 

 mules as pack animals. The country is utterly unvisited bj' any White, after the first 

 300 miles, no traveller or sportsman has ever been there at all, only a few missionaries 

 and traders — but the universal account from the Natives is, that the further you go, the 

 richer it becomes. There is this large reported lake. Lake Demboa, only 200 miles from the 

 furthest missionary Station. It will be my first object to reach this, and trace the river 

 that flows out of it, and which is said to be a branch of the Cunene to the sea, and if 

 the river be as large and the country as fertile and healthy as it is declared by the 

 natives to be, it will most assuredly rise soon to great importance. The Cunene is the 

 river that bounds the Portuguese possessions on the West coast, to the South. I daresay 

 I shall bring back a lot of ivory and gold dust from there, for I shall certainly swop any 

 of my stores for them, if I can do so to advantage. I am comfortably provisioned, 

 barring meat, for two years and have an immense quantity of the things, that these 



' This remarkable document is now in the Galton Laboratory. According to 

 Galton's own account the seal had originally been attached to a royal mandate creating 

 a deputy or lieutenant-governor of the colony. Sir H. Smith wanted something to 

 impress the natives, so he cut it off and attached it to the aforesaid parchment ! 



