aruba). Here, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the
language, I cut myself off from all European society for about six
months, and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of
thinking, laws, and language of that section of the Bechuanas called
Bakwains, which has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse
with them ever since.

In this second journey to Lepelole--so called from a cavern of that
name--I began preparations for a settlement by making a canal to
irrigate gardens from a stream, then flowing copiously, but now quite
dry. When these preparations were well advanced I went northward to
visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living between 22 deg. and
23 deg. south latitude. The Bakaa Mountains had been visited before by a
trader, who, with his people, all perished from fever. In going round
the northern part of these basaltic hills, near Letloche, I was only ten
days distant from the lower part of the Zouga, which passed by the same
name as Lake Ngami; and I might then (in 1842) have discovered that
lake, had discovery alone been my object. Most of this journey beyond
Shokuane was performed on foot, in consequence of the draught oxen
having become sick. Some of my companions who had recently joined us,
and did not know that I understood a little of their speech, were
overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers: "He is not strong;
he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself into
those bags [trousers]; he will soon knock up." This caused my Highland
blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at
the top of their speed for days together, till I heard them expressing
proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.

Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage to our proposed
settlement, I was followed by the news that the tribe of Bakwains, who
had shown themselves so friendly toward me, had been driven from
Lepelole by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time of forming
a settlement there were at an end. One of those periodical outbreaks of
war, which seem to have occurred from time immemorial, for the
possession of cattle, had burst forth in the land, and had so changed
the relations of the tribes to each other that I was obliged to set out
anew to look for a suitable locality for a mission-station.

In going north again a comet blazed on our sight, exciting the wonder of
every tribe we visited. That of 1816 had