168 
EECAPTUEE OF EUNAWAY CATTLE. Chap. VIII. 
by four of the party being seized with fever. I had seen tins 
disease before, but did not at once recognise it as the African 
fever; I imagined it was only a bilious attack, arising from full 
feeding on flesh, for, the large game having been very abundant, 
we always had a good supply; but instead of the first sufferers 
recovering soon, every man of our party was in a few days laid 
low, except a Bakwain lad and myself. He managed the oxen, 
while I attended to the wants of the patients, and went out occa¬ 
sionally with the Bushmen to get a zebra or buffalo, so as to 
induce them to remain with us. 
Here for the first time I had leisure to follow the instructions 
of my kind teacher, Mr. Maclear, and calculated several longi¬ 
tudes from lunar distances. The hearty manner in which that 
emment astronomer and frank friendly man had promised to aid 
me in calculating and verifying my work, conduced more than 
anytliing else to insphe me with perseverance in making astrono¬ 
mical observations tlmoughout the journey. 
The grass here was so tall that the oxen became uneasy, and 
one night the sight of a hyaena made them rush away into the 
forest to the east of us. On rising on the morning of the 19th 
I found that my Bakwain lad had run away with them. Tliis I 
have often seen with persons of this tribe, even when the cattle 
are startled by a lion. Away go the young men in company with 
them, and dash through bush and brake for miles, till they tliink 
the panic is a httle subsided; they then commence wliisthng to 
the cattle in the manner they do when milking the cows : having 
calmed them, they remain as a guard till the morning. The men 
generally return with their sliins well peeled by the thorns. Each 
comrade of the Mopato would expect his feUow to act thus, without 
looking for any other reward than the brief praise of the cliief. 
Our lad Kibopechoe had gone after the oxen, but had lost them 
in the rush through the flat trackless forest. He remained on 
their trail all the next day and all the next night. On Sunday 
morrdng, as I was setting off in search of liim, I found him near 
the waggon. He had found the oxen late in tlie afternoon of 
Saturday, and had been obhged to stand by them all night. It 
was wonderful how he managed without a compass, and in such a 
country, to find liis way home at all, bringing about forty oxen 
with liim. 
