CHAPTER XVIII 
Indala takes our goods—No food—Palaver with our boys—Discover a horse on 
the island—Indala’s treachery and murder of Van Zyl—Our brave boys— 
Women bring us food at night—Obstacles to our crossing the river—Consider 
what to do—Hammar tries to shoot Indala—Native juggling—The bar of 
lead tradition—Franz lied somewhere. 
In the morning Indala came to visit us at our camp, under 
pretence of selling us a cow. He asked to see what goods we 
had to barter with, and on displaying some blankets, beads, and 
linen, he ordered the men accompanying him, one of whom was 
the messenger whom we met on our first appearance, to walk 
off with the lot, a joke they hugely enjoyed, as they cleared 
away the goods. When asked about the cow, he said she would 
be coming to-morrow. Indala sat at our camp for several hours 
asking for things, but seemed afraid to come nearer than about 
twenty yards from the skerm, where he squatted, feasting on 
fish and drinking beer the greater part of the time, but never 
offering us a mouthful. In the vain hope of propitiating him, 
we gave him many little odds and ends that took his fancy, 
and begged to be ferried over the river, as we thought it more 
advisable to go up the opposite bank, judging from the nature 
of the country, and the descriptions given us by natives of the 
topography ahead, that there were likely to be fewer affluents 
running into the Okovanga from the south than was the case 
from the north, which would require fording in our upward 
course,—a most undesirable fact, as we, without a boat of our 
own, would be at the mercy of every fiddling little chief at the 
crossings, who would certainly use the opportunity to blackmail 
us. 
To-morrow Indala would attend to all our wants. To-morrow 
he would ‘ call again ’ to talk over our affairs with us. To-morrow ! 
