98 
THE NEW AFRICA 
behind should receive encouragement from the smoke it made 
to come on, and then I went out towards a little depression 
visible on the left in the faint hope of finding water, and on 
approaching near saw the glimmer of a small pool, muddy and 
thick, it is true, but still water. A ‘ gentle cheer ’ that I 
gave soon brought the others up, the poor boys staggering 
under their loads, and then there was a rush pell mell for the 
pool, in which donkeys, goats, and niggers took an even part. 
One of the bushmen, Affrontur by name, distinguished himself 
by the quantities of the oozy liquid he drank. Lying on his 
belly, he sucked up the fluid with such vigour, that when he 
rose there was a marked difference in the circumference in his 
previously attenuated anatomy. We ourselves preferred to wait 
until the tea was boiled before risking a drink of this foul mess. 
Hastily sending water on the back track in calabashes to help 
the weaker boys along, we camped for the night, and felt more 
cheerful when the last of the bearers put in an appearance 
about nine o’clock. This day’s march was the severest we had 
ever made. 
That evening Franz related to us how poor French got lost 
from Selous’ party. 
French and Selous had been shooting elephants during the 
morning near the Mababe; and French, discontented with his 
bag, went off after a wounded bull, in spite of Selous’s anxious 
warnings to be careful not to miss his way in this treacherous 
country. Accompanied by three boys, who carried a calabash 
of water, he took the trail, wandering away from the stream. 
The elephant, however, had travelled too far to be overtaken, 
and after French had drunk all the water in the calabash, and 
found it growing dark, he camped under a tree and set the 
grass alight, perhaps as a signal for those on the look-out for 
him. Selous, growing restless at the prolonged absence of his 
companion, climbed up a tree, from which he saw the grass fire 
in the distance, and immediately went off in the night with 
some boys carrying water and food to French’s rescue. But 
when he got there he found only the bed of grass which French 
