CHAP, m.] OBSTRUCTION TO TRAVELLERS. *73 



Hope house the instant that Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe had 

 made their hurried retreat from that place to Barmen. 

 Jonker had never, even when on the best terms with 

 the whites, permitted any of them to enter Damara- 

 land; the traders were peremptorily refused permission 

 to go there ; and more lately, when Mr. Halm had got 

 everything in readiness at Barmen to explore the 

 interior, a troop of men were sent who drove away all 

 his ride, pack, and waggon oxen, and detained them 

 till the season for travelling was gone by ; the 

 reason being, that if a free intercourse were esta- 

 blished between the whites and Damara-land, the 

 Damaras would soon buy guns and weapons, which 

 would place them on more equal terms with the 

 Hottentots. It can easily then be conceived with what 

 temper Jonker and the others had heard of my landing, 

 and intention to explore ; a plan of sending men down 

 to Walfisch Bay, and to cut me off there, was, as I found 

 out afterwai'ds, publicly discussed. Help or coun- 

 tenance from the Damaras was the last thing I could 

 expect, for they would treat me as a Hottentot, and 

 again, my men were so totally undisciplined and devoid 

 of pluck, and had already cast back so many longing 

 regrets towards the Cape, that I felt that the least 

 check, in the first instance, to my success would dash 

 the whole enterprise. 



At the Cape my plans had ah-eady been thwarted by 

 the emigrant Boers, who chose to cut off all commu- 

 nication with the north by the one side of the 

 Karrikarri desert; and here were the Oerlams, their 

 offset as it were, trying to do the same on the other. 



