SOUTHERN AFRICA. 201 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



RETURN TO THE SOUTHWARD PROM THE TROPIC OF 

 CAPRICORN. 



Although hunting* the Camelopard^ we continued to 

 advance to the northward^ by marches of ten and fifteen 

 miles each day^ over extensive rug-g-ed tracts^ strewed with 

 numerous stone walls^ once thronged b}^ thousands^ but now 

 presenting" no vestig'e of inhabitants. Wherever we turned^ 

 the hand of the destroyer was apparent : 



" The locusts' wasting' swarm, 

 Which mightiest nations dread," 



is not more destructive to veg-etation than he has been to 

 the population of this section of Southern Africa. We fre- 

 quently travelled for daj^s mthout meeting* a solitary human 

 being* — occasionally only falling* in with the small and 

 starving- remnant of some pastoral tribe of Bechuana^ that 

 had been plundered by Moselekatse's warriors. These 

 famished wretches, some of whom had been herding* the 

 king-'s cattle during the absence of Kalipi's commando, 

 hovered around us, disputing* with vultures and hyaenas the 

 carcases we left, which they devoured with such brutish 

 avidity as scarcely to leave a bone to attest the slaughter. 



The moon was full on the nig'ht of the 23rd, and a spotted, 

 or " laughing'" hysena, superior in size to the largest mastiff, 

 was shot through the head, by the clear light it afforded, as 

 he was in the act of skulking* under the sheep-pen. The 



