238 
THE NEW AFRICA 
at the advancing blacks until they came close enough to make 
things uncomfortable, and then, mounting their horses, retired 
about eight hundred yards, where they again dismounted and 
poured in a fire on the advancing enemy so destructive that 
these bolted, to be followed up in their turn by the Boers, who 
relentlessly pegged away at them all day, marking the time to 
suit their own convenience with such cool accuracy that the 
natives, bewildered, perplexed, panic-stricken, and shot, without 
being able to get at their avenging assailers, were at last 
exhausted, and fairly sat down to it. The number killed 
was only regulated by the quantity of ammunition the Boers 
found it convenient to expend on them, for they only rode off 
to rejoin their trek when their ammunition was exhausted. 
Probably the trek Boers had never heard of Van Zyl’s fate, 
for, though a Boer, he had no connection with them, being 
simply a hunter on his own account. Otherwise it might have 
been bad for Indala. 
Franz, who had been deeply in confab with Paul during the 
morning, at last came to us with the suggestion that it would be 
better for us to make for Lake Ngami, and told us he was 
unwilling to go anywhere else, a matter of little moment at the 
time, as he and the bearers would simply have to follow us ; for 
their own safety lay in accompanying us, and we felt no uneasi¬ 
ness on that score. What interested us a good deal more was 
the arrival of a phenomenally large canoe, capable of taking all 
our goods over at one time, manned by two majestically tall 
stout boatmen whom we had not seen before. 
I noticed a commotion amongst some of our boys as we 
started packing the things into the canoe, and inquiring into 
the cause of their excitement found that they were watching 
something on the opposite river bank with much interest. With 
the telescope I soon discovered what the matter was : there were 
two men in European clothing watching the bank, and a nearer 
inspection revealed the fact that they were black. What people 
could these be ? None of the Mombokooshus had been seen 
with clothes on before, and in fact they had no sources to pro- 
