348 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



the expedition had been overtaken by the unhealthy 

 season in the lonely and malarious swamp country 

 lying between the rivers Teouge and Chobe; that 

 their oxen had nearly all perished from tsetse fly 

 and lung sickness ; that whole families had been 

 carried off by fever and starvation ; and finally that 

 the miserable survivors had, after untold sufferings, 

 at length emerged, with a few waggons and oxen, 

 upon the higher and healthier country of the eastern 

 borders of Damara and Ovampo-lands. After some 

 delay, the Cape Government, prompted by feelings 

 of humanity, despatched a ship with provisions and 

 necessaries to Walfisch Bay, on the south-west , 

 coast, whence the much-needed aid was sent through 

 Damaraland to the Boers. 



Nothing more, whether of good or evil, was for 

 some time heard by the outer world of the expedition ; 

 but it was understood that the survivors had, to 

 some extent, recovered themselves, and were gaining 

 a livelihood by trading and hunting on the borders 

 of Ovampoland. Early in 1887, tidings came that a 

 Mr. W. W. Jordaan, a Cape colonist, had proceeded 

 to Ovampoland in the year preceding, and had' 

 obtained a large concession of land from Khambonde, 

 the young chief of the Omandonga Ovampos, that 

 he had joined hands with the Boers, and had 

 established a settlement under the name of 

 Upingtonia — so called after Sir T. Upington, the 

 late Premier of the Cape Government. It was 

 further stated that the prospects of the new State 

 were most promising. The ceded tract lay some 

 200 miles or so north-west of Walfisch Bay, between 

 the eighteenth and twentieth degrees of south 

 latitude, and included in its area the rich copper 



