338 
THE NEW AFRICA 
past services, shown, not only by the words he spoke, but in 
a more substantial manner by cattle and a wagon that Strem- 
boom bad presented to bis staunch retainer, who now lived with 
him more as a friend and a companion, attending to the cattle 
and gardens adjoining the factory. 
In four days our biltong was dry enough to permit our 
return to the lake, where we gave the king bis share of the 
meat and also a giraffe skin, which he promptly traded to 
Stremboom for goods. 
During our absence the Dutch hunter, Piet Jacobs, returned 
from hunting on the Chobe. He had heard from some natives 
on the Chobe, who brought him the sheets of the nautical 
almanac we had torn out and thrown away, that we had passed 
there. They informed him that we had been killed near 
Matambanja by the natives, who probably knew no better, not 
being able to account for our disappearance across the desert. 
Jacobs gave us some valuable information regarding the system 
of the northern position of the Cubango network of water. He 
had travelled up the Selinda river in canoes, and actually 
traversed the anastomosis between the Cubango and Chobe ‘ by 
water,’ which he gave as about three to four feet deep. The 
natives there had induced him to cross the Chobe to shoot 
elephants, which still ran in great herds on the land strip between 
the Chobe and Zambesi rivers. He had not felt safe among these 
natives, who had persuaded him to go much further than he 
had intended at the outset, with promises of no end of ivory 
to be obtained on ahead, for the mere trouble of shooting. When 
he crossed the Chobe, a native armed with a flint-lock gun under¬ 
took to guide him to the elephants; and soon brought him to an 
enormous old bull-elephant, whose tusks were so huge that they 
appeared a heavy encumbrance to him; he lived in solitude, 
probably driven out of the herd by the younger bulls. While 
crawling up to within shot of this enormous beast, he had in¬ 
sisted that the guide should keep alongside of him, for the man 
refused to take the lead, and otherwise behaved in such a strange 
manner that he was afraid to allow him to remain in the rear. 
