Chapter TWELVE (2)

When I was in the desert in 1872, I had one of the chief Bushmen captains engaged with many of his people to hunt for me. Hearing of the atrocities committed on these Bushmen by the border tribes, I told him to collect a few of the injured ones, and bring them to my waggon, that I might see them. In a week he collected fourteen, all, more or less, having lost a hand or fingers, a foot or a greater part of it. One Bushman had a red-hot iron ramrod forced through his body under the arm-pit and it came out on the other side. I saw the skeleton a few days after it occurred. Some are shot down, and the children stolen and taken for slaves. They are also tied to stakes and burnt to death, and I was taken to the places where these crimes had been committed, and saw the remains and the site of the fire. Having satisfied myself as to the correctness of all these statements from personal inspection and from more than fifty Bushmen who told me of others equally horrible, all of which I noted in my journal, I was frequently importuned by these people to become their chief, which I declined. I was then asked to write to the Great Mother (the Queen) to solicit Her Majesty's protection, and take them over as her children. This, I saw, was impracticable. I then told the chief head-men to call all the Bushman families together near at hand, at a drift where I had had the bad luck to get my waggon capsized, and where there was plenty of water, and to meet me there at the full moon a fortnight hence.

True to the appointment, seventy-seven of the head-men and their families were there, forming a large camp, and as quiet and orderly as any assemblage of people could be. I took down the probable number there would be within a radius of seventy miles, from Klasson, the chief spokesman, which numbered 3986.

They stated, if the Great Mother could not be written to, would I write to the Great Chief at the Cape? This I agreed to, and told them I would write out a petition which they would sign, and I would forward it with a letter explaining the circumstances under which it was sent to his Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, detailing the atrocities, and praying to be taken under English protection, which was in due course forwarded, and some months afterwards I received a reply from his Excellency, stating "he had received the petition and my letter, but as the Kalahara desert was so far removed from the Cape Colony, he could not see how it could be done at present, but at some future time it might be considered." And from that time these peacefully-disposed people have been left to the tender mercy of the border tribes. His Excellency, it appears, did not know that the Kalahara desert joined the northern border of the Cape Colony, which shows how little interest was taken to ascertain the true position of the country from which the petition was forwarded.

The country to the west of this region up to Damaraland, 200 miles, up to the mountain regions of that country and Great Namaqualand, is undulating, with vast stretches of wood and open plains; isolated hills of granite and limestone in other portions. One extensive district was covered with water-worn pebbles, garnets, agates, and other beautiful stones, also large broken pieces of stone of a rich crimson colour. When broken small cubes of iron pyrites like gold are embedded. The grain is very fine, and it would make splendid vases, cups, plates, or any other ornaments.

I had been foolish enough to collect specimens of every kind of stone, until my waggon became so full and heavy that I had to throw them away. I made a collection of 3000 agates of every variety of colour and shape, which had to be abandoned. Many cairns or graves are seen with heavy stones surrounding them.

Not far from them are several ancient stone huts, built upon a small hill, that must have belonged to a former race, and close to a dried-up river. Some of the stones are six feet in length, two feet wide, and one and a half thick. They were placed on end and covered in. None of them would hold more than four persons. They are in small clusters of seven and eight together, and some less. They were covered in with large stones, that have long since fallen. No account can be obtained of them from the Bushmen. Their huts are a few sticks stuck up with grass thrown over.

Several fresh Bushmen and women came to my camp this morning. Some of the young girls were very good-looking, and with a profusion of native ornaments upon them made entirely of ostrich eggs. A perfect set comprised a tiara, three inches in width, for the head; a broad necklace, six bracelets on each arm, and eight anklets or bangles to each leg, and finally, a rope of beads of sufficient length to go round the loins twice and fastened in front with a piece of rimpey. These constituted the entire dress of one of the girls. She looked like a young African queen, and it had the effect of making her look half pretty.

I bought two sets for six yards of print each. I think there cannot be less than 8000 beads in each set, between each bead a piece of leather of the same size, which becomes black, so that they look like black and white beads, which has a good effect upon their black skin. They were delighted with the exchange. When disrobed of their ornaments, they threw the print over their shoulders like a mantle. The ornament had the appearance of having been handed down from generation to generation. At Narukus, on the Nosop river, I came upon a family of Bushmen, ten in number, of a different type to those I had in my service, evidently a lower caste. They have no forehead; the wool on their heads comes close down to the eyes, and the head falling back like a baboon; projecting mouth, small nose, a sort of hair or wool all over the chest, arms, and legs; their eyes are small and restless, watching every movement that is going on; the tallest man did not exceed four feet four; their skin was of a reddish-brown. A few old skins, broken ostrich eggs, and bows and arrows, seemed all they possessed of worldly goods.

They would have decamped and hid in the bush, but I sent some of my Bushmen and brought them back. I asked my own boys, if they were their brothers, meaning of the same race; they repudiated the idea, and said they were monkeys not men, and told me there were very few ever seen, it was very seldom they ever came upon any; they eat carrion. They are evidently a distinct race from the Masara Bushmen who are largely distributed over the desert. One of the women had a baby not much bigger than a half-grown kitten; all of them were destitute of clothing.

The country through which the Oup and Nosop pass, in many places is very pretty and picturesque. At a fountain on the branch of the Oup, I remained several days to hunt, to supply so many people with food.

_24th February_, 1872. A terrific thunderstorm broke over us soon after midnight, and continued until six this morning, striking and splitting up some large trees a short distance from our camp, and it rent into three a large rock which stood out alone from the base of the hill. The country was swamped with water, the oxen at one time standing half knee-deep in it. My escort of Bushmen and their families for once in their lives had a good shower-bath. The baboons also in the hills must have felt its effects, for they could be heard far and near, with their half-human grunts.

My Bushman with the stump foot told me he could understand the baboon language, when, they are frightened or hungry, or are to meet together to defend themselves against an enemy, or to meet to play, and he knew well what they said and could talk to them. The old ones beat the young baboons with sticks if they do anything wrong, such as stealing the food from others. The Bushman's language has a great many grunts in it similar to these animals.

I find there are four types of Bushmen in this desert; the lowest is the one already described with no forehead and half wool and hair on their bodies and legs. The second is the wild Bushmen, who live in the mountains near the Orange river, also mentioned, who war on all men, but they are of good form, without hair. The third is the Masara Bush family, also of good proportions and of gentle dispositions, inoffensive and harmless, ready to help or do anything, and they make good servants. It was this tribe I had with me in my wanderings. The two girls I took in charge made good cooks, washed the clothes, and mended them. The fourth is much taller and well-formed, great rascals, who cannot be trusted with anything; they inhabit the eastern portion of the desert, and down by Langberg. A similar tribe were those Sir Walter Currie drove out of the colony, some of whom I fell in with at Quassam under Coche Africanda. The Bushmen of the northern Kalahara are much the same as the Masara, every one of them quite distinct from the Drakensberg Bushmen, whose form and colour differ entirely from the others, which I believe to be a distinct race, and which I described in the first chapter.

One amusing circumstance I omitted to mention in connection with one of these wild Bushman boys, when at Swaart-Modder in the Hygap river, where we had built a stone house under the cliff to keep our goods during our stay there. A young Bush boy came in the evening to the camp and made himself comfortable by the fire. After some time my boys asked him where he came from, but he would give no reply. At last they got from him that he had run away from his people, because his mother had burnt his fingers for stealing, and he came to get something to eat. This was his second visit, and as he had been well fed before, he came again, but managed at the same time to steal some of my boys' food. On this evening, we had a young man from the colony to drive the cart and look after the boys, and as our stone house was infested with large mice, this young Hancock was catching them in an iron pot, and throwing them out amongst the boys for amusement. As one by one, up to seven, were thrown, this Bush boy picked them up, put them into the red-hot ashes to cook, and, when half-done, ate them as they were. Thinking he must be awfully hungry, I told my cook to put on a pot and cook some Boer meal, which is wheat ground but unsifted; two pints of this were cooked in water, and when ready it was set before him and soon disposed of.

After all the people were asleep, he stole the food they had left, and in the middle of the night, sucked three of my goats dry. The following morning he was not to be found, and for nearly a month we did not see him again; when we had travelled 100 miles north, and were outspanned, he presented himself again, as if it were his first visit. We found out he had lived in the bush, existing on a wild water-melon, called shama or kongive, and had kept us in sight as we travelled. I tried to tame him, but it was of no use; his age was about eleven years. He kept with us off and on for three months, then disappeared altogether; the lions would not let him remain long, without making a meal of him.

We were now travelling through a very pretty part of the desert, open glades and timber trees, lofty pyramidal hills, partly covered with bush, fine grass, with white feathery tops, no inhabitants; a wild and picturesque region, crossing open plains, then gentle rises with low bush; in the distance, mountains with their lofty peaks fading away into nothing. The perfect calm and silence that pervades everything around, the variety of game quietly grazing in all directions, the very loneliness of my position, being many hundred miles from any white man, surrounded only by my own Bushmen, and those who accompany me, living in all their natural innocence as their forefathers lived in prehistoric ages, add immensely to the pleasure one feels in viewing a scene so novel and so seldom to be enjoyed.

The country as we approach Damaraland becomes more wild and broken, lofty mountains come into view as we advance westward. We were nightly visited by lions and wolves, which kept us constantly on the watch, and our fires kept lighted. It is an anxious time, particularly when in the stillness of the night we hear their roar at no great distance, in answer to others far away. The roar of a lion in the still evening can be heard miles away.

One morning about eleven o'clock, as we were outspanned in an open plain about 300 yards from a small pool of water, our oxen, horse, and a few goats grazing on the opposite side of the waggons, several of my boys asleep, the Bushmen and the women cooking some flesh in the hot embers, we saw seven lions leisurely walking up to the water. After drinking, they went to a small rise, bare of grass and sandy, and commenced playing, some lying down, others jumping over them, growling in their deep bass voice, acting the same as cats at play. This lasted twenty minutes, when they as leisurely walked away, taking no notice of us whatever. If I had fired and wounded any, they might have come at us, which would have been dangerous to our oxen, by dispersing. When an ox or a horse smells a lion, they will bolt away anywhere, and some might have been lost, therefore we left them alone and enjoyed so unusual a sight, watching the movements of these beautiful but dangerous kings of the forest, in their wild and natural state in the wilds of Africa.

The Kalahara, that portion, on the borders of Damara and Ovampolands for 300 miles, becomes much more densely wooded and hilly. Some of the mountains attain a height of 8000 feet, in which lead, copper, iron, and coal, also limestone, both white and dark grey, crop up everywhere. Granite forms the hills. The Black and White Nosop and the Elephant river, and their several branches, drain all this region. The country is very dry, rain seldom falls, and when it does, it comes down with a rush, which soon passes away; but the vegetation is excellent, fine timber and thick bush predominate over this vast but little inhabited country. The road from Walfish Bay on the west coast passes through, in an easterly direction, to Lake N'gami, Zambese, Ba-Mangwato, and other territories on the east. The road is difficult to travel for want of water, but when the country is more opened up, means will be found for procuring it by well-sinking and pumps, to make it as easy to travel as any part of Africa. There are several permanent watering-places now along this route. In the dry season it is three and four days' trek between them, but as it is limestone nearly all the way, water can be procured by digging wells. The country is subject to drought, more particularly in the southern portion of the desert, consequently there is more game to be found in the northern region. Elephants are seen in troops of two or three hundred, also the zebra, and the various antelopes, giraffes, rhinoceros, wild boar, and others.

The country is very favourable for rearing cattle; large numbers of horses are yearly taken through the desert from the Orange River Free State to Damaraland, and exchanged for Damara oxen, which are found to make the best trek oxen, having small hoofs and being nimble on their feet; they are compact and strong. Another advantage is that they are bred on sour grass; when they arrive in the colony, it is sweet, which improves their condition.

_April 30th_.--At Hoab, a lovely, calm morning, after a heavy rain last night, at a vlei; there are several large ones in this open grass country that contain water at this time of year, being the rainy season. This station is on the desert-track from the lake to Ovampoland.

Outspanned under a large tree; boys employed skinning a koodoo, killed early this morning by one of my Bushmen guides with his poisoned arrow. The arrow-head is of bone, very small, the shaft two feet in length, and the bow two feet six inches. The shaft, close to the head for four inches, is covered over with their poison, which, in penetrating the flesh, paralyses the animal; the flesh killed in this manner is very good, and has no bad effect on those who partake of it. Several Bush people have come to our camp begging for food; they look poor and miserable, their only covering being a few pieces of ragged skins thrown over their shoulders. Several of the grown-up boys and girls had not even that to cover them. They are complete wanderers in the desert; no home or fixed abode, but live on roots, berries, insects, and anything they may by chance shoot: I gave them some flesh, and a fire to cook it.

The hot winds, which are very oppressive, come in waves, and are very enervating, more particularly in the dry season, when they dry up everything. The wood-work of the waggons shrinks to such an extent, that the wheels are kept together by ropes of raw hide bound round them; and your own system becomes so dried-up, that the natural functions of your body partly cease to act; to remedy this, fat is absolutely necessary, and nature craves after it. You will see the desire after fat in the native tribes, not only to grease their skin, to protect it from the sun, but to use as medicine.

When treking, some days afterwards, we were overtaken by one of those gigantic whirlwinds so common in all tropical countries. We were entirely enveloped in it; everything that is loose in the way of clothes is carried up hundreds of yards. One of my boys had his hat taken by the current, and it fell nearly a quarter of a mile from where he lost it. Many of these whirlwinds may be seen at one time passing over the desert.

At this outspan, late in the afternoon, sitting on my camp-stool where my boys were skinning a buffalo I had shot, I saw in the distance a Bushman coming. When near enough to distinguish, I saw it was a Bush girl, tall and well-made, and for a wonder quite fat; she was marked over every part of her body--face, legs, and arms--with white stripes, like the stripes of the zebra, and had nothing else on. She came up, holding out an old piece of leopard-skin. My Bushman spoke to her, but could get no answer. I gave her some tobacco, when, dropping the skin, she walked to the fire and sat down. We gave her a piece of cooked meat, thinking she might be hungry, which she took, and after remaining some ten minutes, got up and walked away in the same direction she came; but no word could we get from her. She was even strange to my Bushman. It was a strange visit, and a strange mode of decorating herself. The only other occasion on which I fell in with Bushmen so marked was more to the cast, nearly 300 miles, when nearly a dozen came to my waggon, to tell me I had that day ridden over a grave where a few days before they had buried one of their people. The stripes may have something to do with death, but the Bushmen I have spoken to know nothing of such custom.

One of the vleis, which was full of water, appeared to be full of frogs, from the noise they made at night; going down, next morning, I found several small ones, having a peculiar appearance. Catching one, which was very narrow in its body compared to its length, and having a short tail, I concluded at once from its general shape that it was half-lizard and half-frog. It had all the action of the frog in its long leaps, without any attempt at running; all the others were of the same form, and with tails. I brought it to the waggon to take its measure, viz. from front of head to commencement of tail one and a half inch, length of tail three-quarters of an inch, beautifully marked with green and light-yellow spots. Not having any means of preserving it, I took it back to the vlei, where there were hundreds sitting on the bank; as I neared them they jumped into the water and disappeared. The Bushman brought in to-day several ostrich eggs, quite fresh from the nest, which we had cooked in our large iron pots, mixed with a little flour--a kind of omelet; one is sufficient for three persons. The Bushman took me to a nest that the old birds had been sitting on for some time; there were eighteen in the centre, and fourteen on the outside, formed into a circle round them, which are kept for food for the young birds, which lasts them a few days when hatched; the hen bird then takes and teaches the chicks to eat grass.

_Thursday, 18th_.--Our camp was visited by a party of traders and Korannas on their way from Meer down South--the chief Puffadder, old Mr. Ryland, from Kopie's farm and Low Blaat, four waggons, and a lot of cattle, horses, and sheep. They remained the afternoon and night, and started early the next day for Kebeum. They told me a trader on the border of Great Namaqualand, going down to Walfish Bay, had been shot, and his waggon and everything seized by the Gobabis Hottentots for plunder, and that the country was in a fearful state of tribal wars. I told them of my little affair with the Bushman Hottentot at Quassam; they said I was most fortunate to escape as I did, particularly with all my belongings, as they are noted as a nest of thieves, and have robbed traders of everything.

I left them for Abequis pita, which are in limestone; it is a Koranna station, under the chief Puffadder. The country is open and flat; the grass in many places was up to my chin with white feathery flowers; at a distance it looks like snow. The road is very good for waggon travelling, and around Springbok fountain the scenery is very pretty. At Abequis pits the Korannas have many huts, and seem to be doing well; they have flocks of goats, and a few Africander sheep. They brought me some very good feathers, which I took in exchange for powder and caps; many of them have the old flint gun, which would be a curiosity now in England.

The winters here are warm; it is now mid-winter, thermometer in the shade 68 degrees. The men wear old leather trousers, which constitute their dress, the women an old blanket thrown over the left shoulder, and brought round and held in front by the hand. Overmodesty is not a failing with them. They were very civil, supplied my people with goats' milk, and I gave them what they much needed, tobacco, as the women are great smokers. Dozens of them will sit or be lying round my fire, having only two or three bone pipes between them, each taking a few puffs and passing it on to the next, until all have had a turn; then they begin again, the old ones keeping a pipe to themselves. My maids, Topsey and Nina, the daughters of my Piet, knew these people, therefore I got on very well, Piet also lived once with them. The country towards the south and west was a level plain as far as the eye could see.

The next morning after the second day, started to the northwards; we passed a large vlei on the left, six miles from the Koranna station, which is the commencement of the sand-dunes. The dunes are small until sixteen miles of country are passed, then they assume great proportions. A mile to the left is another vlei, where we filled our water-casks and gave the oxen water, and remained the night, to have a clear day to pass over them. There were three Griquas' waggons outspanned, each waggon was full of women and children, each Jack had his Jill, and each a baby, plenty of little naked children of both sexes. They told me they were on the trek to the Orange river. These people are always quiet and civil, they exchanged a fat sheep for some tobacco. All the country, including the sand-dunes, is limestone with sand above, and full of low bush, many large and small land-shells are mixed up in the sand.

_July 17th_.--The Griquas left early in the morning, and we started to cross the sand-dunes. A fearful road, their sides are about at an angle of thirty, and every time we ascend one, we have to put two spans of twenty-eight oxen in, to pull one waggon up at a time, which causes much delay shifting them backwards and forwards, as each dune rises from 150 to 200 feet in height, with deep sand in the road, the wheels sinking nine inches into it. After struggling over these for five hours, the oxen were done up, and we outspanned for the day at another large dry vlei, but on the bank a small spring of water was issuing, sufficient for the oxen and ourselves, a grand discovery, as we did not expect to find any until we had got clear of this heavy road. A short distance from the water were several families of Bushmen, sitting round a large fire; some of them had most extraordinary figures, thin calfless legs, prominent chests and abdomen, altogether different from the other Bushmen of the desert, and the colour of their skin was much lighter. A thin band of leather round their loins, and a skin over their shoulders was their only covering; long bundles of skins rolled up with several spears were lying on the ground. The food they live on in a great measure gives them this peculiar formation. They had the short bow and arrow, and quivers made of skins, full of arrows, cleverly made with bone heads, all smeared with poison. They appear to be half-Bushman, half-Koranna.

I started the next morning, and after toiling for several hours, rested, and again went on, crossing those lofty ridges until dark, outspanned for the night in a deep hollow, where there was plenty of good grass, and trees, and dead wood for fire. Our trek this day was about eight miles; two great fires were made, and our little party of twenty-six all told, made themselves comfortable over their supper, and at ten all were fast asleep. But we did not get much rest, the lions kept round the camp making a great noise, and being surrounded by these hills and thick bush, we were the greater part of the night obliged to keep a sharp look-out that none of our animals were taken. Early the next morning I took my rifle and mounted one of these sand-dunes before inspanning, and found from the base to the summit registered 204 feet. But what a sight when I looked round; as far as the eye could see, nothing but these immense sand-dunes in every direction, here and there open patches of yellow sand and bush, a wild, rugged, and howling wilderness, that appeared interminable, the fit abode for savage man and more savage beast, and here we find them, man in primitive nature, as low a type as the world can produce, little removed from the beast, for it is here I have met those wild men which I have described elsewhere; they are partly covered with short woolly hair, and have no forehead, the scant wool reaching the eyes. They are rarely now seen, even by the Bushmen of the desert, as they have repeatedly told me, and here they may find a home for many years to come, for no other living man will fix his residence in such a region of desolation,--

"A wilderness howling and drear,
Forsaken by man from famine or fear."

_Pringle_.

On our trek we started many head of game, which are easily killed by the Bushman arrow, and with these and the many wild fruits they manage to exist. It has taken four days to cross this wild and hilly region which extends over an area as far as I have explored it, fifty miles from east to west, and nearly forty north to south: the home of the leopard and a legion of wild tiger-cats, that are spotted or striped,--their skins make beautiful karosses. On leaving these dunes we come upon a level plain of limestone, which we have ten miles to cross, where there are several watering-places, fountains they may be called, and enter sand-dunes again for some fifteen miles, and then come upon a bush country, with gentle rises and low wooded bills with isolated conical hills of granite. Close to the hills, I outspanned near a swamp; the noise from the bull-frog kept us from sleep. They are monsters, a foot across the back and quite black. The Bushmen eat them; they would form a fine dish for our French neighbours.

The weather is very fine, like an English spring day, everything seems springing into life. Clouds begin to collect on the horizon, and the sunsets are most brilliant, purple and gold, forming celestial landscapes of the most gorgeous hues. There are many ostriches to be seen on the flats, but the country is so full of holes, partly covered with grass, that it is dangerous to follow them. Far and wide in every direction the character of the country is the same, which we pass through up to Meer, the Bastard station.

We passed several small Bushmen kraals; the women and children as we approached hid themselves in the bush, but when they found we were friendly, and giving presents to the men, they came forward. At one we remained a few days to buy feathers, during the time my Bushmen and the girls soon made friends with them, and dancing went on in their fashion every evening. These women daub their faces and bodies with black stripes, which they consider ornamental. Their natural colour is half black, consequently these stripes show out prominently; they are a mild, timid race, very good-natured, willing to do anything, and, if left alone by the border tribes and the Bastards, their lives would be happy; their wants are few and easily supplied, clothes they do not require, the climate at all seasons of the year is seldom colder than our English summer, and, as these children of the desert are constantly shifting their locations, huts are not required, or only of the most primitive kind, a few sticks stuck in the ground, and the long grass thrown over them. This is a portion of the central part of the Kalahara.

When we arrived at Meer, all the people were out ostrich-hunting close round the village, a great excitement, the birds running in all directions, and the Bastards after them on their horses; they managed to shoot seven; the others, about fifty, made their escape.

Meer is a straggling village, the soil is rich and grows good crops of corn, the two pans supply the people with water. Dirk Falander, the head-man, is supreme over the people. They possess several waggons and have large herds of cattle, and live very comfortably, sending down to the colony for what supplies they require. Coffee and sugar are in great demand.

After a delay of two days, I left for Chuane pits, distant one hundred miles; as the rains were very early, there was plenty of water to be had. This occupied me eleven days. I remained some time on the Oup and Nosop rivers, hunting, and it was necessary for one or two guns to be out every day to supply my little family with food, and as there was plenty of large game about, we had no difficulty in procuring it.

The wild aspect of the country, bush here, open plains there, with long ridges of low hills, no living soul to be seen until we arrived at the pits, and there we found a small family, who on our approach ran into the bush, but my own Bushmen called them back; they came very reluctantly, but soon became friends, some fifteen in all, a little dahka and a few beads as presents soon restored confidence amongst them.

I am much interested in the Bushmen of the desert, and also in the white Bushmen of the Drakensberg mountains, because they appear from their isolation from the outer world, and cut off as they have been from the tribes that now occupy the regions around them, to be the descendants of the people who occupied the lower end of this ancient continent before the tribes from the north came down, and pushed their way south, bringing with them their Asiatic and Hebrew customs, which all without exception now practise more or less, evidently proving from what regions they had migrated. Eventually they nearly penetrated to Cape Town. Not so with the white Bushmen of the Drakensberg, the Hottentots, or Bushmen of Cape Colony, and the Bushmen of the Kalahara Desert, each retaining up to the present time distinctive physical formations and distinctive dialects, so entirely different from those tribes that come down south and overrun the southern peninsula of the African continent. These ancient aborigines of South Africa are comparatively pigmy races to those above referred to, who are as tall, robust, well-formed specimens of the human race as can be found in any part of the world. Then again their language, if it can be called such, is entirely different from any other known tongue, their thoughts are described by certain clicks, four in number, the white Bushmen of the Drakensberg have only these clicks, the Hottentots or Bush men of the Cape have, in addition to the clicks, sounds which accompany the clicks which come from the throat like grunts. The Bushmen of the desert have also these clicks, showing, I think conclusively, that these early people were in existence before languages,--what we understand by language, words formed by the mouth, tongue, and lips, as the nations of the world now converse and talk. Some of the South African missionaries have committed to paper these clicks, and they state it is a most beautiful and expressive language. At any rate, my belief is, that the earliest formed language of man was by sounds such as clicks and grunts before they advanced so far as to express their ideas by forming words, and language has been progressive as man advanced in civilisation. In travelling over South Africa and listening to the sounds of the baboons as they move about the rocks above you, you can detect a great similarity in their guttural sounds and the Bushman language, and I could quite understand when my Bushman told me he could converse with, and knew much of what these said, showing a connecting link between them. Therefore I take much interest in watching their characteristic qualities, in connection with the general run of mankind. Anthropological study naturally embraces the study of their early implements, where, and how found, their artistic qualities, and for what purpose made, for peace or war, and this desert is particularly rich in these interesting relics of past ages.

The desert on the east and south of these Chuana pits, extends up to the chiefs Sechele, Montsioa, and Gaseitsive, that join on the eastern boundary 230 miles, unbroken by rivers or native towns, one immense tract of wood and plains, long flats, and in other parts undulating, with the exception of the detached mountain ranges, which run north and south--the continuation of the Langberg range--and they terminate 100 miles south of Lake N'gami. They are beautiful, picturesque and lofty hills, rising from their base 3000 feet; many of their sides and deep kloofs are thickly wooded with fine timber of great value, and in the extensive ravines are ancient caves, some of them now used by the Bushman tribe. This range is distant from these pits about twenty miles on the east. Game of every kind is plentiful; lions, also, we hear for hours every evening. Hawks, kites, vultures, eagles, locust-birds are almost always seen on the wing.

As there was good water at these pits, in consequence of several heavy thunderstorms having passed over the last few days, I have remained here to have a little exploration of the country and provide a good supply of dried meat, which is called biltong, for my people; and in the evenings, when all work is over, they amuse themselves dancing, singing, and shooting at targets with their arrows for small presents, which causes great fun; they are the most happy people in the world. To amuse them I made a kite about three feet in length, and with some string sent it flying, to the astonishment and delight of all.

Spring was now advancing fast, everything springing into life. The little, happy African lark flying up some thirty feet, where it remains a few seconds, then down it comes with such a sweet plaintive voice, and this is repeated every few minutes, and as there are many of them about, their little notes are constantly heard. Thunderstorms are now coming almost daily, and the evening sunsets are the most brilliant and gorgeous that can be imagined, portraying golden lakes, mountains and waterfalls, rivers and islands, with noble castles, and everything to perfect a landscape, and this remains long without alteration. It has been a source of much pleasure in this lonely region to endeavour to convey the like on canvas.

As we had now plenty of water and could go anywhere, I struck north, leaving these pits on the 30th October; but a few days previous to my leaving, I found several small quartz reefs of the right sort for gold. After spending three days with pickaxe and hammer, digging and breaking off nearly a ton of quartz, I was rewarded with one little speck of gold, finding, so far as I could see, that these reefs were not rich; and if they were, the distance is too great to make it pay to work them. On leaving, my friends, whom I found in possession of the pits, wanted to join my party. Treking due north, keeping west of these mountains, I outspanned, after four hours, close to one of the highest of the range for the night, as I wanted to make an excursion to the top the next day, to see the country and take observations, altitude, and get the difference in temperature at the highest part. The night passed off very quietly, except hearing in the stillness of the night an occasional roar of a lion and other wild beasts, to give us warning not to sleep too sound. The sun rose the next morning in a magnificent glow of crimson light. After breakfast I started with my driver and five Bushmen, each with a rifle and ammunition, all on foot, leaving the waggon at 6 a.m. I soon reached the foot of the mountain, when the difficult part of the journey commenced, passing round projecting rocks, crossing deep kloofs, thick with bush, where we had to keep a good look-out, having only one dog to tell if any lions were near. I managed, after three hours' labour, to reach the highest summit about 10 a.m., a clear lovely morning, without a cloud. The view from this elevated position was grand. In all my wanderings I have never seen anything to equal it, no lofty hills to break the view for 150 miles. The outlook from this point extended both east and west over 200 miles; the lofty hills near Secheles could only be distinguished with the telescope, and then like a pale lavender cloud, the country between thickly wooded, and long stretches of open country, apparently a waterless region; the same on the western side, excepting that the country was more open, and the ancient river system could be distinctly traced by the trees and bushes that grew on their banks. The game in the open looked like ants. One of my Bushmen called the attention of the others to something they went to look at behind some bushes. Going to see what they were examining, I found the remains of four fires that had recently been alight, and several pieces of bone broken near some stones to extract the marrow, but nothing else could be discovered. Evidently there were Bushmen in these mountains, but no sign of them could we see. After exploring the ins and outs of the topmost ridges, I selected a good position for taking observation, after which we disposed ourselves for lunch; the walk up and pure air gave an edge to our appetites. Cold tea and a dash of brandy, which gives the tea the flavour of wine, was served to all alike, and they then disposed themselves on the grass for a smoke. I found the elevation at this point above sea-level to be 6470 feet, and from the base of the mountain to where we were 2795 feet.

At 3 p.m. we made a start for the return journey to camp, taking a different route down, which was much more difficult, the mountain being broken up into many almost perpendicular ravines, and gigantic rocks projecting in all directions. Half-way down my Bushmen called out in an excited tone that there were several Bushmen on a projecting spur making for cover. We counted eleven; how many more we could not tell. I told my boys to call to them to come, but they paid no attention, and suggested that some should go and bring them, but they refused, being afraid they should be shot by the poisoned arrows; and they informed me they were monkeys, not men, meaning they were of the same type as those I have mentioned previously as having woolly hair on their body, legs, and arms. As we wound round the mountain, it being too steep to come straight, we came suddenly upon three more, a man, a woman and child, quite naked, and of a reddish-brown colour. My Bushmen called to them in their language of clicks to stop, we were friends, but they seemed much alarmed. A present of beads to the woman gave them confidence. They appeared very young, not more than seventeen. The height of the man was about four feet two inches, large bodies for their size, thin legs, and small receding head, and disgustingly ugly.

Passing round one of the overhanging rocks, I came upon several caves, none of any great extent, but evidently made use of as dwellings from the numerous remains of fires in them and the smoked appearance of the roofs and sides, and heaps of broken bones lying about, but no one was in them. If I had had the means of sending this little family down to the colony, I should have done so. After a delay of nearly an hour looking about, we continued our downward movements, and reached camp soon after sundown.

During our absence one of our Bush girls went out with two other little ones to dig up inches, a small bulb like an onion growing in the veldt-- good to eat--when a lion seized and carried her off. The screams of the girl and the two little ones brought several of the Bushmen with guns, but no trace of the girl could be found. This occurred just before our arrival, when I formed a party of seven and went to look for her, but night coming on and very dark, it was impossible to follow up the spoor. Early next morning by break of day all that could be spared started, but nothing could be seen, the bush being so thick. Many of the Bush people are carried off in this way. All last night the roar at intervals could be heard far and near; the man-eating lions are the only ones these people greatly fear.

To go through my daily routine from place to place, the same duty daily, would become too tedious. We therefore, after leaving this place, visited various localities. My Bushmen knew that water could be found at Hoodedoon, and the dry river where we managed to capsize the waggon. We reached Reitfontain and Wahlberg, my old station, at a pan situated at the north end of that mountain range; I had left five weeks back, and encamped once more for a rest. I call this my station in 22 degrees 10 minutes South latitude, 22 degrees 12 minutes East longitude. The whole of the country is high, 3880; at my pan the mountain registers 6880 above sea-level. After a stay of ten days I left for Lake N'gami.

The importance of this desert cannot be over-estimated in connection with our interior trade. Whatever nation secures it, secures all the trade to the Zambese, which would be an immense loss to England and the Cape Colony. It is capable of great improvement, and under a proper government will become a most valuable field for emigration.