294 
THE NEW AFRICA 
Haramar looked through at the reflection of the sun and stars 
in a little iron box containing water that looked like molten 
lead, whilst I looked in a wooden box, and when Hammar 
shouted I wrote something down on a piece of paper?—the 
process of taking observations with sextant, chronometer, and 
artificial horizon. It took us long to explain these circum¬ 
stances, but when Hammar volunteered to produce the mystic 
articles in question to prove their harmlessness, he was hastily 
informed that it was not necessary at all, they believed him on 
his word. Something now passed between Marteens and the 
king which we did not understand; all we saw was that a mes¬ 
senger was hastily despatched, who returned later with a little 
girl, the daughter of Marteens, just five years old. Meanwhile 
the king told us that we had done very wrong to come into his 
country by a back way. To which we replied that we were not 
responsible for having entered his country at all, for our inten¬ 
tion, as we had told him, and he knew from Intuhe’s people, was 
to go to the West Coast. We had not left the Chobe banks at 
all to spy into the Cubango’s course near his boundary—a 
lucky thing for us that we left the connecting stream between 
the rivers alone, or our fate would probably have been sealed in 
any case—until we made for Indala’s from the Chobe, a country 
that lay beyond his line. Our boys were also cross-questioned, 
and as our separate representations did not waver a hair’s 
breadth, a current seemed to set in in our favour, except in 
the ferocious heart of staunch old Da Tapo, who only growled 
out that we deserved killing; else what were Paul and Styr- 
man doing with us ? Our whole tale was lies. 
I may point out that if there had been any discrepancy in 
our tales, or if there had been any alteration in our story from 
yesterday’s statements, these facts would have complicated our 
position most seriously. 
Suddenly a little white man appeared in the Kodthla, who 
took Da Tapo by the arm and walked him off out of the council, 
holding him in a friendly manner by the arm. 
Marteens’ daughter was now brought before the king, who 
