SOUTHERN AFRICA. 191 



Our horses having- now greatly improved in condition^ we 

 resolved to proceed immediately to the country of the 

 BakonCj or Baquaina^ where camelopards were reported by 

 the savag^es to be very abundant ; and according-ly^ on the 

 15th November, having* previously cleared away several of 

 the trees, we contrived to cross over to the north side of the 

 Cashan mountains, by a perilous and barely practicable 

 path. The wagg'ons were several times onty prevented from 

 being" dashed to pieces by means of g'uy-ropes, which for- 

 tunately preserved their equilibrium, and we were enabled to 

 encamp on the western banks of the Limpopo, some dis- 

 tance below the point where it winds throug-h the bowels of 

 the mountains, which rise on either hand in abrupt preci- 

 pices, as thoug'h torn asunder by some mighty convulsion 

 of nature. Here the country ag'ain assumes a more level 

 •character, but is broken to the eastward by detached hills 

 and low ridg-es, imperceptibly increasing' in importance, until 

 they g"row into a g^reat rang-e of mountains, known to the 

 natives as the Mural. These may be said to take their 

 orig-in about one degree north of the parallel of Delag'oa, 

 assuming* a nearly northerly direction, and dividing* the tracts 

 occupied by the Baquaina and Babariri. During* the rainy 

 season especially, they are infested by a larg-e species of 

 g'ad-fly, nearly the size of a honey-bee, the bite of which, 

 like that of a similar pest in Abyssinia, proves fatal to cattle. 

 A desire to escape the officious visits of these destructive 

 insects, whose persecutions relieved us of two of our oxen, 

 soon obliofed us to abandon the willow-frino'ed river, which 

 threads the mountains for a considerable distance ; and after 

 crossing" the Ling'kling*, the embouchure of which is not 

 many miles above that of the Umpeban, our difficulties were 

 not a little increased by the broken and stony character of 

 the country. 



On the 17th, whilst crossing a nameless and insignificant 



