2 THE BAKWAIN COUNTRY. 



preparations were well advanced, I went northwards to 

 visit the Bakia and Bamangwato, and the Makal&ka, 

 living between 22 ° and 23 south lat. The Bakaa mountains 

 had been visited before by a trader, who, with his people, 

 all perished from fever. In going round the northern 

 part of these basaltic hills near Letloche I was only ten 

 days distant from the lower part of the Zouga, which 

 passed by the same name as Lake Ngami * ; and I might 

 then (in 1842) have discovered that lake, had discovery 

 alone been my object. Most part of this journey beyond 

 Shokuane was performed on foot, in consequence of the 

 draught oxen having become sick. Some of my com- 

 panions who had recently joined us, and did not know 

 that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard 

 by me discussing my appearance and powers : " He is 

 not strong, he is quite slim, and only appears stout because 

 he puts himself into those bags (trousers) ; he will soon 

 knock up." This caused my Highland blood to rise, and 

 made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the 

 top of their speed for days together, and until I heard 

 them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers. 



Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage 

 to our proposed settlement, I was followed by the news 

 that the tribe of Bakwains, who had shown themselves 

 so friendly towards me, had been driven from Lepelole 

 by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time of 

 forming a settlement there were at an end. One of those 

 periodical outbreaks of war, which seem to have occurred 

 from time immemorial, for the possession of cattle, had 

 burst forth in the land, and had so changed the relations 

 of the tribes to each other, that I was obliged to set out 

 anew to look for a suitable locality for a mission station. 



In going north again, a comet blazed on our sight, 

 exciting the wonder of every tribe we visited. That of 

 1 8 16 had been followed by an irruption of the Matebele, 

 the most cruel enemies the Bechuanas ever knew, and this 



* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing 

 sound heard in the end of the word " comz'«£\" If the reader puts an 

 i to the beginning of the name of the lake, as Ingami, and then sounds 

 the i as little as possible, he will have the correct pronunciation. The 

 Spanish n is employed to denote this sound, and Ngami is spelt iiami 

 — naka means a tusk, naka a doctor. Every vowel is sounded in all 

 native words, and the emphasis in pronunciation is put upon the 

 penultimate. 



