i 2 "LATER VISITS TO SOUTH AFRICA 133 
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= 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. 
4 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-Mangwato, 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 
_ aboutus, 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 
