"BUSH-RANGERS' REST" 111 



to the Portuguese soldiers who had fled to his 

 kraal for food and shelter from Diriko when the 

 Germans destroyed their fort, and had helped 

 them finally to get away to some of their people 

 in the interior. With him, just as with Libebe 

 and as with every Induna big or small on the river, 

 who were all visited either then or later, we 

 arranged that information and warning of any 

 movement on the part of the Germans should 

 be sent to us immediately. 



It was here that we first learnt of parties of 

 white men camping and hunting on the Okavango 

 river higher up, and we at once decided they 

 must be Dutch rebels from Maritz's former com- 

 mandos, with possibly Maritz himself among 

 them. Rensberg and I went to investigate, and 

 found the report true — there were five of these 

 Dutch rebels, with several wagons, a little below 

 Bunja. Assured of this, and not wishing to 

 attract attention, we worked back across about 

 thirty miles of dry country to the Quito, and re- 

 swimming the river, made home again to the good 

 Bush-rangers' Rest. Lewis had been suffering 

 from a very severe and painful abscess on his leg, 

 caused by one of those beastly poisonous ticks, 

 and we found the camp almost out of meat — a 

 serious thing for us in those parts, for it meant 

 going heavier on our scanty supplies of flour, and 

 using up the supply of grain for the boys. As the 

 previous season had been exceedingly dry on the 

 Quito, there was very little grain to be bought 



