The Reairakeidixj : Scieidijic Exploration 231 



We may now return to the home letters. 



Fehy. 22nd [1851]. I^t. 22, Long. 18° 50'. 

 Dearest Mother, 



We are all well provisioned here, I have about 85 oxen and 30 



small cattle. Still, eating nothing but meat, and having so many mouths to feed, 

 an ox hardly la.sts 3 days. I allow 4 lbs. of meat to each man. I have quite lost all 

 care for vegetables, and I have only drank wine (or rather brandy) once since landing 

 at Walflsch Bay. We have had admirable health and now although the sun is high yet 

 the rainy season has brought its clouds and the climate is really very pleasant. I am 

 becoming a stunning shot with my ritie, and always shoot plenty of ducks, partindges 

 and guinea fowl with it. Andersson is quite invaluable, and I have a very good set of 

 servants now, some I picked up in the country. Tliree I turned away — one of these 

 committed some barefaced robberies, but the natives were afraid to take him prisoner. 

 I happened to be at Rehoboth sliortly after he left it, where I heard of what he had 

 done, and I rode very hard to the Southward for a night and day — changing oxen after 

 him, but a stern chase is a long one, and he had too much start, so that I could not 

 catch him. — Oxen are certainlj' cheap among the Daniaras — you recollect my guns that 

 I gave 9s. 3c?. each for — well I get 5 large oxen for each gun — I heartily wish I had 

 more. — I do not think that I shall be more than 6 months from here, as I must keep my 

 eye on the Naraaquas. If fortune favours me, I shall be able, I have no doubt, to 

 make an entirely open road for future commerce here — where people may travel and 

 trade without any danger. I have taken great pains about mapping the country. — It 

 is a great amusement, and the Government at tlie Cape, expressed so much anxiety al)out 

 creating a cattle commerce here, that I have no doubt that what I have done will be 

 soon followed up. We have found that tliere really is a lake, corresponding to what was 

 placed down as Demboa, in the map you had from me — its name is Omabonde — there 

 I am first going. I have several blacks in my service who have been there. The 

 Ovam|X) Blacks live close by. They are a good set of people, everybody speaks well of 

 them. For interpreters I am right well ofif and on the whole, all looks very favourable. 

 I fear my letter is very dull — when I can write again I do not know, but do not expect 

 to hear from me at any fixed time. — There are so many difficulties in sending letters that 

 it is impossible to be punctual but in 6 months I dare say you will get one. Give my 

 best love to each and all of the Family and believe me ever, Your afifectionate son, 



Frank Galton. 



Lat. 22, Long. 16° 50'. Feby. 23rd, 1851. 

 Dear Darwin, 



We had such a chivy after a hj'ena two nights ago, the dogs found him 



just as we had all turned in to sleep. I jumped up, had only time to put my shoes 

 on and dressed in them, my shirt and my gun and nothing else, had a scamper up and 

 down, through thorns and over hills for ever such a way. I could have speared him two 

 or three times, but could not shoot for the darkness and the dogs. — At last he stood at 

 bay in an open place where I shot him through the back bone. Talking of back bones, 

 as 1 have just left the land of the Hottentots, I am sure that you will be cui-ious to 

 learn whether the Hottentot Ladies are really endowed with that shape which European 



