OBSTRUCTIONS BY THE MACCALACAS. 
403 
my absence they have set the velt on fire m 
a hundred places ; the grass is as dry as old tinder, 
and with the high wind we have daily it roars away 
for scores of miles, thus driving the little game there 
is away. What their object is, except to drive me 
away, I don’t know, as they have no cattle, sheep, or 
goats. 
I shot a waterbuck yesterday, for no reason but 
just variety, as they are bad eating, but I want to see 
how many different kinds of antelopes are to be got 
in the interior of South Central Africa. From what 
Dr. Livingstone told me, I believe that I am now 
within a couple of days of the middle between the 
east and west coast, two days nearer the former. 
25 th .—My plans are entirely changed, and I intend 
now to make the best of my way to Mosilikatse’s 
country, as I have quite lost heart of finding elephants 
here, and the ground is so frightfully stony as to make 
our unshod horses dead lame in a few days. 
I was disappointed in trading any tusks from the 
Makololos, for some reason or other best known to 
themselves; but I believe the captain is exceedingly 
annoyed at a number of his men lent by his father to 
Dr. Livingstone remaining behind, and he blames the 
Doctor, who, he says, ought to have made them come 
back, and he is vexed also at the non-arrival of the 
cannon and horses which the Doctor was to have 
brought him—at least, so says my interpreter ; but 
I have not much faith in his veracity. 
Sept. 9 th. ■— Tamashaki. — I hardly know what I 
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