86 
SEHOREE AND HIS WIVES. 
[1820- 
waggons on the outside. The aged chief Sehoree 
was sitting with a few of his people in the public 
place dressing skins. We went and viewed a 
new house, which he, or rather his wives had 
erected, and found it very neat. These females 
presented us with some excellent thick milk, in 
return for which I presented each with a pair of 
gilt coat-buttons, which greatly pleased them, and 
to both them and Sehoree we gave some tobacco. 
The young people at first were much afraid to 
come near us ; but when they perceived that 
their parents welcomed us gladly, they ventured 
to approach. The town contained about thirty 
houses, with probably one hundred and fifty 
inhabitants, and is under Lintua, the chief of 
Patannee. No place could be more retired from 
the rest of the world than Letakka. It is situ- 
ated on the very edge of that immense desert 
which commences in the south at the Great 
Orange River, and runs northward, perhaps to 
the Equator,* extending also to the west as far as 
Great Namaqua land and the Damara country, 
which lies along the shore of the Ethiopic, or 
* It seems to be so from the time taken to travel from Lat- 
takoo to Mampoor, and from appearances on the western coast, 
which has been surveyed, at least a great part of it. If so, it is 
unquestionably the most extensive desert yet known in the 
world. 
