Ciiap. III. DEPARTURE FROM KOLOBENG. 53 



CHAPTEE III. 



Departure from Kolobeng, 1st June, 1849 — Companions — Our route — 

 Abundance of grass — Serotli, a fountain in the desert — Mode of digging 

 wells — The eland — Animals of the desert — The hyaena — The chief 

 Sekomi — Dangers — The wandering guide — Cross purposes — Slow 

 progress — Want of water — Capture of a Bush woman — The salt-pan at 

 Nchokotsa — The mirage — Reach the river Zouga — The Quakers of 

 Africa — Discovery of Lake Ngami, 1st August, 1849 — Its extent — 

 Small depth of water — Position as the reservoir of a great river system — 

 The Bamangwato, and their chief — Desire to visit Sebituane, the chief 

 of the Makololo — Refusal of Lechulatebe to furnish us with guides 

 — Resolve to return to the Cape — The banks of the Zouga — Pitfalls — 

 Trees of the district — Elephants — New species of antelope — Fish in 

 the Zouga. 



Such was the Desert wliich we were now preparing to cross, — a 

 region formerly of terror to the Bechnanas from the numbers of 

 serpents which infested it and fed on the different kinds of mice, 

 and from the intense thirst which these people often endured 

 when their water-vessels were insufficient for the distances to be 

 travelled over before reaching the wells. 



Just before the arrival of my companions, a party of the people 

 of the lake came to Kolobeng, stating that they were sent by 

 Lechulatebe, the chief, to ask me to visit that country. They 

 brought such flaming accounts of the quantities of ivory to be 

 found there (cattle-pens made of elephants' tusks of enormous 

 size, &c), that the guides of the Bakwains were quite as eager to 

 succeed in reaching the lake as any one of us could desire. This 

 was fortunate, as we knew the way the strangers had come was 

 impassable for waggons. 



Messrs. Oswell and Murray came at the end of May, and we 

 all made a fair start for the unknown region on the 1st of June, 

 1849. Proceeding northwards, and passing through a range of 

 tree-covered hills to Shokuane, formerly the residence of the 

 Bakwains, we soon after entered on the high road to the Bamang- 

 wato, wliich lies generally in the bed of an ancient river or wady 

 that must formerly have flowed N. to S. The adjacent country 



