CHAP. VIII.] BEST WAT OF GETTING THERE. 231 



their cattle, eat off all the grass near, and then move 

 on to a fresh pasturage. 



I should have said that I use the word Ovampo in 

 the Damara sense, in which it includes all the corn- 

 growing tribes to their north. These seem to be 

 of precisely the same race, manners, and customs ; 

 and they speak one language. I have seen men from 

 several of them ; and whenever I asked the Ovampo, 

 they said that all their neighbours were just like 

 themselves. 



On my voyage back to England, as I was very 

 anxious to determine the question of how the Ovampo 

 river was connected with the sea, and whether it 

 afforded a good road up the country, I waited a 

 month at St. Helena for the chance of a vessel to take 

 me to Little Fish Bay ; owing, however, to the sup- 

 pression of the slave-trade, none of our cruisers called 

 there as they used frequently to do, neither was it 

 expected that they would do so : I therefore abandoned 

 the attempt. 



But a traveller who, starting from the north, desired 

 to make the expedition, should go in the first instance 

 to Rio, and thence plenty of opportunities would offer 

 of crossing over to Africa. 



Though no slaves are exported from the countries 

 in which I travelled, yet there is a kind of slavery in 

 the countries themselves. It is not easy to draw a line 

 between slavery and servitude ; but I should say that 

 the relation of the master to the man was, at least in 

 Damara and Hottentot land, that of owner rather than 

 employer. 



