370 
THE NEW AFRICA 
more virulence than before, and our poor oxen spent a wretched 
time, tied to trees which they vainly tugged at, to break away 
from the awful torments they endured. We ourselves were well 
protected by the nets, which, when properly pitched and tucked 
under the skins forming the underlay of our beds, effectively kept 
the mosquitoes out. But our servants deserted us en masse , and 
fled for miles into the sand-belts, where they spent the night 
beyond the reach of their tormentors. They had gone so far, in 
self-protection, that they only returned towards eight o’clock 
next morning. A few nights of this, we felt sure, would have 
killed the oxen, who were much swollen about the nose, eyes, 
ears, and other soft parts of their bodies, from the bites. 
The river water in this neighbourhood was weakly diluted 
with a salt giving it a most unpleasant taste, which also acted as 
a strong laxative, very weakening to the cattle. 
Nine miles beyond Pompey’s we reached the point where the 
road to Mongwato leaves the river, and enters the bushy 
country lying between here and Thlakane, the first perennial 
water on the road that can be relied upon for watering cattle. 
In the neighbourhood of Pompey’s and the ‘Turn Away,’ 
Nature, not satisfied with tormenting us with mosquitoes all 
night, provides a stinging blood-sucking fly, much like the 
common house fly in size and appearance, but of a greyer 
colour, to harass humanity during daylight. These little plagues, 
appearing in great numbers, settled all over us without even 
the preliminary introduction of a buzz, and, if left for a 
moment, inserted their sharp stings into our skins in a manner 
that kept our arms going like a set of waving dervishes to 
frighten them off. All’s well that ends well, however, for, with a 
five mile track on the 4th December away from the river banks 
to a small pan of water lying in the belt, we distanced our dual 
tormentors, mosquitoes and flies alike. The water of this anony¬ 
mous pan we found less brackish than the supply of river water 
we had brought with us in the casks, so we refilled them here 
and trekked on a mile to another small pan which we found 
more brackish again. Here we rested the poor cattle till 
