94 THE LAST AND LONGEST JOURNEY. Chap. V. 



CHAPTER V. 



Start in June, 1852, on the last and longest journey from Cape Town — 

 Companions — Waggon-travelling — Physical divisions of Africa — The 

 eastern, central, and western zones — The Kalahari Desert — Its vegetation 

 — Increasing value of the interior for colonization — Our route — Dutch 

 boers — Their habits — Sterile appearance of the district — Failure of 

 grass — Succeeded by other plants — Vines — Animals — Want of the 

 horse — The horse-sickness — Its effects on wild animals — The boers 

 as farmers — Migration of springbucks — Wariness of animals — The 

 Orange river — Territory of the Griquas and Bechuanas — The Gri- 

 quas — The chief Waterboer — His wise and energetic government — 

 His fidelity — Ill-considered measures of the colonial government in re- 

 gard to supplies of gunpowder — Success of the missionaries among the 

 Griquas and Bechuanas — Manifest improvement of the native character — 

 Dress of the natives — A full-dress costume — A native's description of 

 the natives — Articles of commerce in the country of the Bechuanas — 

 Their unwillingness to learn, and readiness to criticise. 



Haying sent my family home to England, I started, in the 

 beginning of June 1852, on my last journey from Cape Town. 

 Tins journey extended from the southern extremity of the conti- 

 nent to St. -Paul de Loando, the capital of Angola, on the west 

 coast, and thence across South Central Africa in an oblique 

 direction to Kilimane (Quilimane) hi Eastern Africa. I proceeded 

 in the usual conveyance of the country, the heavy lumbering 

 Cape waggon drawn by ten oxen, and was accompanied by two 

 Christian Bechuanas from Kuruman, — than whom I never saw 

 better servants anywhere, — by two Bakwain men, and two young 

 girls, who, having come as nurses with our children to the Cape, 

 were returning to their home at Kolobeng. Waggon-travelling 

 in Africa has been so often described, that I need say no more 

 than that it is a prolonged system of picnicking, excellent for the 

 health, and agreeable to those who are not over fastidious about 

 trifles, and who delight in being in the open air. 



Our route to the north lay near the centre of the cone-shaped 

 mass of land which constitutes the promontory of the Cape. If we 

 suppose tins cone to be divided into tlnee zones or longitudinal 

 bands, we find each presenting distinct peculiarities of climate, 



