Chap. XIII. 
THE CHOBE—HIPPOPOTAMI. 
231 
array of baggage excited the cupidity of the tribes through 
whose country we wished to pass. 
The instruments I carried, though few, were the best of their 
kind. A sextant, by the famed makers Troughton and Sims of 
Fleet-Street; a chronometer watch, with a stop to the seconds 
hand—-an admirable contrivance for enabling a person to take 
the exact time of observations: it was constructed by Dent of 
the Strand (61) for the Eoyal Geographical Society, and selected 
for the service by the President, Admiral Smythe, to whose 
judgment and kindness I am in this and other matters deeply 
indebted. It was pronounced by Mr. Maclear to equal most 
chronometers in performance. For these excellent instruments 
I have much pleasure in recording my obligations to my good 
friend Colonel Steele, and at the same time to Mr. Maclear for 
much of my ability to use them. Besides these, I had a ther¬ 
mometer by Dollond; a compass from the Cape Observatory, 
and a small pocket one in addition; a good small telescope with 
a stand capable of being screwed into a tree. 
lltJi of November^ 1853.—Left the town of Linyanti, accom¬ 
panied by Sekeletu and his principal men, to embark on the 
Chobe. The chief came to the river in order to see that all was 
right at parting. We crossed live branches of the Chobe before 
reaching the main stream ; this ramification must be the reason 
why it appeared so small to Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851. 
When all' the departing branches re-enter, it is a large deep 
river. The spot of embarkation was the identical island where 
we met Sebituane, first known as the island of Maunku, one of 
his wives. The chief lent me his own canoe, and, as it was 
broader than usual, I could turn about in it with ease. 
The Chobe is much infested by hippopotami, and, as certain 
elderly males are expelled the herd, they become soured in their 
temper, and so misanthropic as to attack every canoe that passes 
near them. The herd is never dangerous, except when a canoe 
passes into the midst of it when all are asleep, and some of them 
may strike the canoe in terror. To avoid this, it is generally 
recommended to travel by day near the bank, and by night in 
the middle of the stream. As a rule, these animals flee the 
approach of man. The “ solitaires,” however, frequent certain 
localities well known to the inhabitants on the banks, and, like 
