228 
THE NEW AFEICA 
and hunted in the neighbourhood of Ngami for elephants, to 
whom in the course of years Indala sent many messages that he 
should come up the Okovanga, ‘ Cubango ’ (native) to him, and 
hunt for ivory on shares with him. Induced by two tusks and 
the friendly messages Indala sent to him, young Van Zyl trekked 
up with his wagon and a cart, bringing his wife and young 
child with him, and the horse now grazing on the island to hunt 
the elephants with. Indala received him kindly, and also made 
great friends with his half-breed Hottentot driver, whom he 
treated with unwonted liberality. Yan Zyl drew his wagon 
and cart up close by, on the south bank of the Cubango, and 
when all the friendly preliminaries were over, and the agreement 
made about elephant-hunting, that Indala should have the tusk 
that fell nearest the earth, of each elephant killed, the usual 
arrangement when hunting on halves with a king, Indala in¬ 
duced him to hunt on the north bank of the Cubango, with tales 
of vast troops of elephants supposed to haunt that country. 
The horse was ferried over, swimming between two canoes, and 
when it was properly rested on the other side, the unfortunate 
Van Zyl, accompanied by the Hottentot as gun-bearer, and 
many of Indala’s hunters, proceeded into the sand-belts we knew 
so well, to look for elephants. While riding along, he found 
himself suddenly deserted by all the natives, and left alone with 
the Hottentot who was carrying his gun. On consulting with the 
Hottentot what this desertion might mean, the man cocked 
the gun and ordered him from his horse, saying that he was 
going to shoot him, and that as it was a white man’s custom to 
pray, he must now pray to his God before death. Utterly 
astounded and unarmed, Van Zyl at first thought the man was 
joking, but realising at last that he was in earnest, asked the 
reason of this turn of affairs, when the Hottentot told him that 
Indala had ordered him to kill his master on pain of being killed 
himself, and also told Yan Zyl that the king had offered to 
share his goods with him. He then shot Yan Zyl through the 
head, and, taking his clothes and horse, returned to the river, 
where he was ferried over. Mrs. Yan Zyl, seeing the Hottentot 
