THE OKAVANGO RIVER 47 



What an appalling thing this African horse 

 sickness is ! It does more than anything else, I 

 think, in Africa, to check progress. From the 

 pastoral point of view especially, it is a frightful 

 drawback. As a cattle-man accustomed in 

 Queensland to plenty of cheap and good horses, 

 I cannot see how any of the country in Southern 

 Africa can be successfully developed till this cursed 

 horse sickness is stamped out or cured. No 

 cattle will do well unless they have a free run, can 

 feed and water when and where they like, and 

 are able to withdraw to the ridges in cold weather. 

 To be compelled to kraal cattle regularly every 

 night is not only to encourage disease, but to make 

 it impossible to expect any satisfactory result. 

 But then if cattle are given the necessary freedom, 

 they naturally become too lively or too flash to 

 be handled on foot and must be worked with 

 horses. All the cattle countries of the world — 

 of course, I am speaking from a ranch or pastoral 

 point of view — and especially the Argentine, 

 Western America, and Australia, have, as a 

 necessity, a plentiful supply of good horses, for 

 without such a supply the cattle could not be 

 economically worked. 



About the eighteenth day we reached Mafoota's, 

 where I had the pleasure of meeting Mafoota 

 himself — otherwise Mr. W. Keys. He has made 

 his home on a red sandy ridge overlooking the 

 Quandoo, a beautiful though lonely spot on the 

 edge of the Sepango forest, a forest that consists 



