104 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



and the West Coast, and endeavouring to make peace between the various 

 warlike tribes of the district, while he traded in ivory and skins, and made a 

 careful study of the natural history of the district, but the wars between the 

 Namaqua Hottentots and the Damaras, rendered it impossible. The follow- 

 ing picture of the scene in which he hoped to settle, will give a good idea of 

 the beauty and fertility of vast tracts in Central Africa : — 



"In the course of the ensuing fortnight I removed to Wilson's old place in 

 the Schwagoup river, where my cattle were grazing. I made a pit for the 

 cattle, and one for ourselves, with a garden, &c, and collected material for 

 building a house, in the hope of yet being able to make peace between the 

 hostile tribes, and bring my wife and family to settle in this country, with a 

 view to prosecute for a few more years my researches in natural history, &c. 



" The site at the " shambles," as the spot was called, was a lovely one for 

 a dwelling, surrounded by a park of most gigantic and graceful anna trees. 

 Over these trees, at the back of my residence, peeps out a large smooth mass 

 of granite mountain, towering a thousand feet above the plain ; and on the 

 southern or opposite side is another reddish-looking mountain sparsely covered 

 with green grass and bush. In this hill copper has been found. To the 

 westward the hills are crossed with wavy streaks of quartz through soft grey 

 granite. The werft was overrun with dry burr-grasses, the seeds of which, 

 together with a wild vegetable, or spinach, called omboa, constitutes an 

 article of food of the Damaras. Dark and heavy clusters of a creeping or 

 parasitical plant hang gracefully around the thick stems of the anna trees. To 

 the north there are open, undulating, bush-dotted plains, extending for several 

 miles, and terminated by sharp-angled, serrated hills in the distant north and 

 west. Pheasants run cackling about on my homestead by hundreds, de- 

 stroying my garden, and guinea-fowls and korhaans are heard. The zebra, 

 the koodoo, the ostrich, and other tenants of the wilds, are to be found on the 

 station. The grazing and the water is good and abundant, and nothing is 

 wanting but peace in the country to make this, and a thousand other equally 

 pleasant spots, a delightful place of residence. 



" Continual rumours of immediate attack by the Hottentots, however, 

 forbid anything like repose. We are kept in a state of constant alarm, and 

 all exercise of peaceful industry was rendered impossible. This state of 

 suspense which paralysed all useful effort, was succeeded, after some weeks, 

 by a lull, and it was understood that an accommodation had been come to 

 on the part of the respective leaders, and that the strife between the Damaras 

 and Hottentots was virtually at an end. Encouraged by these reports, and 

 finding it impossible to exist in Damara Land, I resolved upon removing my 

 property into the Hottentot country, and as the Damaras were again gaining 

 courage and moving up to Wilson's and Bessingthwaite's places, near the 

 Hottentots, I succeeded in getting a few to accompany me to the matchless 



