3o0 PACKAGES FROM MR. MOFFAT. Cuai\ XXV 



ing among bushes on the banks we were occasionally stung 

 by hornets, which hang their nests, in form like those of our 

 own wasp, on the branches of trees. The ferocity of this 

 insect in the breeding season is such that it will pursue any 

 one who happens to brush too closely past its nest for twenty 

 or thirty yards. Its sting is more like a discharge of elec- 

 tricity from a powerful machine than anything else, and 

 produces momentary insensibility, followed by the most 

 pungent pain. Tsetse were numerous between Nameta and 

 Sekhosi, and we observed an insect of prey, about an inch in 

 length, long-legged and gaunt-looking, which springs with the 

 greatest ferocity upon tsetse and other flies, and, sucking out 

 their blood, throws the bodies aside. 



Long before reaching Sesheke we had been informed that a 

 party of Matebele had brought some packages of goods for me 

 from Mr. Moffat to the south bank of the river, near the 

 Victoria Falls. The Makololo imagined that the parcels were 

 directed to me as a mere trick, whereby to place witchcraft- 

 medicine into their hands. When therefore the Matebele on 

 the south bank called to the Makololo on the north to come 

 over in canoes and receive the goods sent by Moffat to "JSake," 

 the Makololo replied, " Go along with you ; we know better 

 than that ; how could he tell Moffat to send his things here, he 

 having gone away to the north ?" The Matebele answered, 

 " Here are the goods ; we place them before you ; and if they 

 perish, the guilt will be yours." When they had departed, 

 the Makololo, with fear and trembling, carried the packages 

 carefully to an island in the middle of the stream, and built 

 a hut over them to protect them from the weather ; and there 

 I found them in September, 1855, after a year's interval, in 

 perfect safety. I found the news was very old, and had lost 

 much of its interest by keeping, but there were some good 

 eatables from Mrs. Moffat. 



Having waited a few days at Sesheke for the horses which 

 we had left at Linyanti, we proceeded to that town, and found 

 the waggon and everything we had left in November 1 853, 

 perfectly safe. A grand meeting of all the people was con- 

 vened to receive our report and the articles which had been 

 sent by the governor and merchants of Loanda. I explained 

 that none of these were my property, but that they were sent 



