Chap. XIII. THE CHOBE— HIPPOPOTAMI. 231 



array of baggage excited the cupidity of the tribes through 

 whose country we wished to pass. 



The instruments I carried, though few, were the best of their 

 kind. A sextant, by the famed makers Troughton and Sims of 

 Fleet-Street ; a chronometer watch, with a stop to the seconds 

 hand — an admirable contrivance for enabling a person to take 

 the exact time of observations : it was constructed by Dent of 

 the Strand (61) for the Royal Geographical Society, and selected 

 for the service by the President, Admiral Smythe, to whose 

 judgment and kindness I am in this and other matters deeply 

 indebted. It was pronounced by Mr. Maclear to equal most 

 chronometers in performance. For these excellent instruments 

 I have much pleasure in recording my obligations to my good 

 friend Colonel Steele, and at the same time to Mr. Maclear for 

 much of my ability to use them. Besides these, I had a ther- 

 mometer by Dollond; a compass from the Cape Observatory, 

 and a small pocket one in addition ; a good small telescope with 

 a stand capable of being screwed into a tree. 



11th of November, 1853. — Left the town of Linyanti, accom- 

 panied by Sekeletu and his principal men, to embark on the 

 Chobe. The chief came to the river in order to see that all was 

 right at parting. We crossed five branches of the Chobe before 

 reaching the main stream ; this ramification must be the reason 

 why it appeared so small to Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851. 

 When all the departing branches re-enter, it is a large deep 

 river. The spot of embarkation was the identical island where 

 we met Sebituane, first known as the island of Maunku, one of 

 his wives. The chief lent me his own canoe, and, as it was 

 broader than usual, I could turn about in it with ease. 



The Chobe is much infested by hippopotami, and, as certain 

 elderly males are expelled the herd, they become soured in their 

 temper, and so misanthropic as to attack every canoe that passes 

 near them. The herd is never dangerous, except when a canoe 

 passes into the midst of it when all are asleep, and some of them 

 may strike the canoe in terror. To avoid this, it is generally 

 recommended to travel by day near the bank, and by night in 

 the middle of the stream. As a rule, these animals flee the 

 approach of man. The " solitaires," however, frequent certain 

 localities well known to the inhabitants on the banks, and, like 



