94 DEPARTURE FROM MOOSHUANA. [1820. 
tion near them, and from another river called 
the Mesaree, but that the Krooman does not 
now receive any supply from them. They 
blamed the Matslaroo for drying up the river by 
means of witchcraft. When asked if that people 
were enemies to water, and stood in no need of 
it to satisfy their thirst, living as they did upon 
its banks ; they all laughed, and said they believed 
it was done by the hand of God. No stream now 
ever flows within its banks, but large pools are 
formed in its bed in times of much rain. 
We left Mooshuana at half past two p.m., and 
instead of continuing to travel in the bed of the 
river, the course of which led to the westward, 
we turned to the S. S. W. over the desert, for 
the sake of reaching a pool, the situation of 
which had been described to us. The way was 
covered with deep sand, and with tufts of withered 
grass and bushes intermixed. At six p. m. we 
halted near the only hill in that part of the desert, 
which we called Erskine's Hill.* 
24th. In the morning, water was discovered 
in a cavity at the foot of the hill, about three 
feet in circumference. The water oosed from a 
* After Dr. John Erskine, of Edinburgh, who preached the 
first Missionary Sermon, before the Edinburgh Missionary 
Society. 
