202 EXPEDITION INTO 



great muscular power of this animal^ which is called b}^ the 

 colonists " the wolf," renders it exceeding-ly formidable • the 

 difficulty of determining' the sex being- the most remarkable 

 feature it possesses. On the 27th we ag"ain encamped on 

 the banks of the Limpopo^ in which a bull-buffalo was shot 

 as it was swimming- across. Few other sporting* incidents 

 occurred of an extraordinary character, except the death of 

 a very large black rhinoceros, which, being- pent up in an 

 old stone enclosure, forming- a cul de sac, the entrance to 

 which I closed up, received no less than twenty-seven shots 

 before it fell, dyed with crimson g'ore, and embossed with 

 the white foam that rage had churned around its chaps. 

 A troop of brindled gnoos, being pursued by another of 

 these animals, dashed into a narrow defile in the hills, at 

 the outlet of which, having- stationed m3'self, I disposed of 

 two with each barrel. 



As we approached the junction of the Mariqua with the 

 Limpopo, in about latitude 24" 10', bushes usurped the 

 place of trees j the country daily became less inviting, and 

 the game in consequence less and less abundant, although a 

 supply was still always to be obtained. The few inhabitants 

 that we now met with refused to hold any communication 

 with our escort— seating themselves at a distance, and de- 

 clining- the proffered snuff-box. These men were the wreck 

 of the Bakone or Baquaina, once the most powerfiil and 

 prosperous of the Bechuana nations. Conquered by Mosele- 

 katse, however, and Caama,* their king-, having- been slain, 

 they fled to this part of the country, and are now reduced 

 to an extremity of misery and want, little short of actual 

 starvation — the emaciated forms of many too plainly testi- 

 fying to their precarious means of subsistence. 



The obtaining of information relative to the country and 

 inhabitants had uniformly been attended with nmch diffi- 



* King Hartebeest. 



