164 EXPLORE A ROAD.— REACH PALMS. [chap. vi. 



a great traveller he could never before have seen a 

 white man or one dressed in clothes. 



I am not sure whether or no Omanbonde is the 

 head of that branch of the Omoramba ; it begins quite 

 abruptly, but I found that it also ended abruptly, and 

 yet after a short distance the river-bed recommenced ; 

 in fact the place is Uke a trough with sides and ends 

 to it. The Omoramba, eastward of the place, is a 

 succession of troughs, but whether there are others to 

 the west of Omabonde I do not know ; there are two, 

 and very likely more, that lie parallel to it and at a 

 short distance to the northward. We arrived on the 

 5th of Aprd, and on the 8th I was again in my 

 saddle, and set out on my trusty Ceylon to explore 

 a road out of the Omoramba, which seemed even more 

 impracticable, with regard to thorns, than any place I 

 had yet seen. I longed for the free and luxuriant 

 vegetation of the tropics, and to emerge from a country 

 that was scorched with tropical heat, but unrefreshed 

 with truly tropical rains. Timboo, John Allen, two or 

 three Damaras, and the tall guide accompanied me ; we 

 rode three or four hours down the Omoramba and then 

 turned to the left, and in four or five hours off-packed 

 by the side of one of the most agreeable of objects — as 

 the harbinger of richer vegetation — a magnificent palm. 

 Three hours the next day took us past a large pool of 

 water, and up to another where there was a werft. 

 Here I felt very much at the mercy of my teasing 

 hosts, who took the liberty of annoying me in every 

 way. I had no meat, and they would neither sell nor 

 give me anything, and I feared we should have to 

 return without food. 



