CHAPTER XYII 
Thirst—Natives go down ant-bear hole for moist mud—Expedition eating their 
sandals from hunger—Franz scares away troop of wildebeest, fruitless 
chase after them, also after giraffe—Kill hartebeest—Lion injures boy in 
the night—Okovanga at last—Island in river—Meet Portuguese trader, 
Gonsalvus by name—King Debabe or Indala turns rusty—I interview King 
on island—He tries to poison me with beer—Franz demoralised. 
On August the 25th we got away from Makoyo with six extra 
bearers and guides he brought us, after we had parted with a 
few more trifles to him as presents, and made twelve miles in a 
west-by-north direction, through sand-belts and laagte as before. 
The new boys came on grumbling sorely at the necessity of 
carrying loads, and it was owing to their lagging behind that 
we had to camp in a sand-belt without water for the night. We 
had waited near some large trees for those following to come up, 
so that we could continue the march on to water, but as it was 
quite dark when they arrived, we thought it was unwise to pro¬ 
ceed, being afraid that some of them might bolt with their 
loads. We suffered intensely from thirst, for we had made no 
provision for sleeping without water, by filling the calabashes as 
usual when we expected to camp in a belt. The boys got so 
thirsty during the night that some of them went off to search 
the neighbourhood for water, carrying firebrands as protection 
against possible lions lurking about. A shout in the distance 
induced us to walk over to where some of them had gone with our 
mess calabashes, when we were surprised to find two boys squat¬ 
ting on the ground holding the legs of one of their companions 
who had gone down head first an ant-bear hole in search of water 
below. By-and-by he gave a signal and was hauled up; but 
what was our astonishment to find when he was pulled out that 
he had hold of the legs of another boy, who in his turn brought 
