CHAP, vui.] HESITATION. 227 



more could be learnt by inquiries properly made at 

 Mossamedes than anything that I could report from 

 having seen it with my own eyes during so cursory a 

 visit as I proposed. Now, as to the risk I should run 

 by temporising with Nangoro until I had obtained per- 

 mission to go there. My oxen would entirely knock 

 up, and probably die ; and then what could I do ? 

 Even if I walked back to the waggons, leading things 

 of the greatest value to me in Ovampo-land, the want 

 of ride-oxen would be felt most seriously throughout 

 the return journey. They were everything to me. It 

 was on them that I explored the roads, followed 

 tracks, and made the most successful expeditions. If 

 Omagunde, through whose pasture grounds I must 

 return, was to attack us, as I thought he most probably 

 would, it must be by the ride-oxen alone that we should 

 have a chance of escaping. I could not spare them 

 nor risk losing them. It would be impossible to 

 replace them before many months, as it is not one ox 

 out of forty that will make a ride-ox, for only those are 

 fit to break in that show far less gTegariousness of 

 disposition than oxen ordinarily do. The beasts that 

 walk first, and lead the herd, are the only oxen that 

 can be ridden with any comfort or success ; the others 

 jib and crowd together, and fight with their horns, when 

 you try to urge them on, and the whole caravan comes 

 to a stand-still. It takes half a year to break in an ox 

 to anything like travelling purposes ; he has not only 

 to learn to be quiet, but also to bear a weight on his 

 shoulders. Now, with great trouble I had collected 

 together fifteen efficient ride and pack oxen : they were 



