SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 83 



I threw my gun into my left hand to be in readiness, to the 

 amusement of my followers, who, knowing I had never as yet 

 fallen in with the baobab (Adansonia digitata), had led me a 

 little aside to grin at my astonishment. Tnese quaint, enormous 

 trees seem to have belonged, like many of the animals of Africa, 

 to a bygone world, and, finding the present doesn't suit them, 

 they are taking their leave. A few of the old ones still remain, 

 but I never saw a young one. The largest I measured was 

 74 feet girth at four feet from the ground, and the smallest 

 45 feet, but I perhaps overlooked smaller specimens. 



We had very good sport, unbroken by accident or anything 

 remarkable. Our starvelings had fattened day by day, and 

 were now shining and very merry and happy in their new skins. 

 Uncivilised man does not take long to pick up ; he only wants 

 food, and plenty of it. Shall I be believed if I say that Kafirs 

 will eat, if you give it them, from 12 Ibs. to 15 Ibs. of solid meat 

 in the day ? It appears, I know, an impossible feat, but I can 

 vouch for it and partly explain it, too ; for in a short journey 

 with Livingstone, between the Chobe and Zambesi rivers, two 

 or three years after this, we had no sort of meal with us, and 

 were. consequently obliged to live on meat alone. And I cer- 

 tainly thought the dear old Doctor was very greedy, for he 

 would eat 4 Ibs. for his breakfast and the same or more for his 

 dinner. On telling him my opinion of his performance, he 

 retaliated, ' Well, to tell you the truth, I've been thinking just 

 the same of you ! ' The fact is that a very large quantity 

 of meat is required if nothing else is eaten. When I got back 

 to the waggons I tried giving two or three of the men a handful 

 of beans with their rations, and found they could not possibly 

 eat more than 3 Ibs. of flesh, the smaller mixed diet meeting all 

 the requirements of the system. 



We had harried the country of the Bakaas a good deal, 

 and decided on seeking a new field along the banks of the 

 Limpopo, where we heard the game elephants especially were 

 in great abundance ; so, setting our heads about E. by S., we 

 journeyed onwards, and, travelling slowly, came to it on the 



