198 
THE NEW AFRICA 
him in good humour, which, instead of propitiating him only 
increased his demands, till at last we fairly had to stop, and told 
him that he would not get another piece of cloth or brass wire 
until we had reached our destination, I often wonder why 
he escaped without a good serviceable thrashing. Our policy, 
however, pursued from the first, to only strike in self-defence, 
probably saved him from this extreme; but we subsequently 
decided that never again should such a rascal escape our hands 
without being given his quantum for such outrageous behaviour. 
But we also made up our minds never again to traverse unknown 
regions with such a pitiably small force for defensive purposes. 
When harmony was restored by our ‘shelling out’ several 
more presents to Sakoonima, we started the best of friends 
again, and went on through open valleys and strips of trees for 
about six miles in a west-south-west direction, passing many 
pans of water on the road, until we reached a small temporary 
village inhabited by some of Debabe’s people from the Okovanga 
who came to gather mabulas. We halted here to hunt for food, 
as our supply of meat was exhausted, and mabula soup is but 
poor stuff to work on. 
Game, hitherto very abundant, was getting scarce in these 
sand belts, and I walked about four miles before meeting with 
anything; then I came upon four blue wildebeest. They saw 
me at the same time that I caught sight of them and were 
off, and I went after them, seeking as much cover while run¬ 
ning as the thinly wooded country would afford. When next 
they halted, seven hundred yards intervened between us, and 
while I was trying to lessen the distance by a stalk they ran off 
again; but as everything depended upon our getting food I kept 
after them, and when next they stopped, about a mile on, I 
managed by keeping behind a friendly bush to get up to within 
five hundred yards. It was a long shot, liable to mistakes in 
the execution, but taking steady aim at one standing half side 
on, looking in my direction, I pulled, and then away went the 
troop. But, hold ! only three of them, so I rushed up, followed 
by the three boys who accompanied me, and right enough the 
