LATER VISITS TO SOUTH AFRICA 123 



one and a half would be its proportion. On hard ground the 

 'Nakong runs with difficulty the swamp shoe is a hindrance. 

 Instead of escaping by flight or concealment in the bush, this 

 antelope, on being disturbed, makes straight for the water, sits 

 down in it, and submerges all but the nostrils until the danger 

 be overpast. 



When Murray and I reached Kolobeng in 1849 we found, 

 for some reason or other, Livingstone had already started, but 

 we caught him up beyond the Ba-Mang\vato, with the chief of 

 which tribe we had again a little difficulty. By the way, six 

 or seven miles south of his kraals we found a hot, brackish 

 spring, which bubbled up as if laden with gas. 



Our trek to the lake was a hard one, and we were very 

 anxious to see some of the dwellers of the desert, that we 

 might gain information of the path and waters in advance ; but 

 messengers from Secomi, chief of the Ba-Mangwato, had gone 

 through the land ordering all Bushmen and Balala to keep 

 out of our way, and by no means to give us any assistance. 

 If they happened to be anywhere near our line of march, 

 they had instructions to step heavily on their toes, and, 

 pressing the sand behind them, to make as good an imita- 

 tion as they could of frightened wildebeest or quagga. We 

 noticed these tracks, but were never able to use them to 

 our advantage, though we saw through them, for in that land 

 of thirst we could not afford time to follow the trail of people 

 hostile to our advance, with perfect knowledge of the country 

 and its hiding places, and likely to lead us in their flight as 

 far from water as they possibly could. That they were often 

 about us, even quite close, we knew ; but we never sighted one. 

 A little dog strayed one day into our camp : we caught it, and 

 covered it with rings of beads, brass wire, and tinder boxes, 

 then loosed it with a sudden crack of the waggon whip, in the 

 hope of its running back to its ambushed masters and giving 

 evidence of our friendly intentions ; but nothing came of it. 

 Again, I tried to lure our unseen watchers through that most 

 sensitive organ, the stomach. Elephants trooped down one 



