THE BOER TREK OF 1879 
375 
and bleated vigorously for liim to come on, running backwards 
and forwards between the fast-receding cart and the recalcitrant 
Paul, in evident distress. At last its patience gave out, and, 
taking a short run, it butted Paul so severely from behind to 
wake him up, that he was glad to hurry up matters a bit, 
followed by the goat, who kept well behind, prepared with 
another dose of its panacea to keep him up to the mark. 
We fairly gave in with laughing over this comical event, and 
made a gift of the goat to Paul on the spot. 
We calculated the distance from Haakedoorn Vley to the 
Malatzwye pits to be twenty-one miles through heavy sand. 
VIEW OF KALAHARI DESERT NEAR MALATZWYE 
This pit is situated in the middle of a large sand-belt, overgrown 
with scrub, in a quartzite formation that crops up at this spot. 
It was at Malatzwye that the Trek Boers of 1879 suffered the 
most harrowing disasters from thirst, on their long journey 
through the desert with their heavily-laden wagons. They 
had reached Shoshong from the Transvaal in safety, and had 
arranged with Khama for their free passage through to the lake, 
but, from mistrust of his motives, refused to adopt the advice to 
cross the desert in small parties of three or four wagons at a 
time, given by Khama in excellent faith, as he knew that the 
small amount of water at the pans and pits by the way would 
not suffice for the wants of a large party. This advice seemed 
