206 EXPEDITION INTO 



to the Cashan mountains^ where we should be met by our 

 friend Um'Nombate^ who had a further messag'e to commu- 

 nicate. This m3'sterious intimation had the effect of con- 

 juring* back the dormant apprehensions of the Hottentots : 

 AndrieS; as usual, g-loomily persisting* that the king* had 

 never intended to let us g"o throug"h bj the Yaal River, and 

 was now about to recall the permission we had extorted. 

 Although we stoutly combated these dismal forebodings, 

 there really appeared to be some grounds for entertaining* 

 them — it being* impossible to imag'ine why else the minister 

 should ha"\ e been sent. The result of our deliberations, 

 however, w^as, that nothing* short of main force should induce 

 us to relinquish the permission we had purchased j and that 

 having- successfully strug'g'led thus far with difficulties and 

 annoyances, we w^ould now 



"Not bate a jot 

 Of heart or hope, but still bear up aud steer 

 Eight onwards." 



With this determination w^e hurried our advance towards a 

 larg*e Matabili kraal, which, situated to the north of the 

 Cashan rang*e, among* a g-roup of pyramidical hills, had been 

 selected as the point of rendezvous with the ambassador. 

 On arriving" there, how^ever, crowds of both sexes issuing- 

 forth, we w^ere informed that he was still a day's journey in 

 advance ; and were thus provoking'ly hurried from place to 

 place, until late on the evening* of the 8th, when we reached 

 a small collection of deserted wig'wams, on the Sant river, 

 immediately under the mountains. But even here we were 

 destined to experience further disappointment and suspense 

 — the caitiff g*uides declaring* that the object of our search, 

 w'ho was still not forthcoming*, must have been asleep in one 

 of the kraals that we had passed in the morning* ! Suspecting* 

 the story of his advent to be a hoax, invented merely to annoy 



