THE KALAHARI DESERT. 
15 
By Cann’s advice I engaged a Bushman whom he 
recommended as a guide, and two Bastards who 
wanted to join in a hunting expedition, Dirk and 
Klas by name : two little coffee-coloured specimens of 
humanity, with ferret-like eyes, long crinkly hair, and 
a meagre moustache ; both sharp, shrewd hunters, but 
lazy and cowardly to the last degree. They had two 
horses and a waggon with a team of fourteen oxen, 
which I hired, giving them in addition half the skins 
and half the feathers of what we killed — the meat of 
course to be common property. The waggon was 
necessary to store our skins and hides in, and to carry 
VIEW ON THE KALAHARI DESERT. 
a sufficient supply of water and meal along with us, as 
we might get plenty of game in one place and then go 
for days without seeing any ; and the same with water. 
The men were old hunters, and foretold plenty of 
hunting, for, although the long drought had driven the 
game away, the reports were that after the recent 
rains there was plenty of sama, and the game was 
coming back in abundance, while the Bushmen, who had 
left their usual haunts to follow the game, had not 
returned to disturb them. The only things the 
Bastards were afraid of were lions, and they wanted me 
to pay for any cattle or horses that might get killed, 
but this I declined to do. 
