her man--whose life I had saved before, after he had been
tossed by a buffalo--attempted to spear the lion while he was biting
Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe and caught this man by the shoulder, but at
that moment the bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down
dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been his
paroxysms of dying rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the
Bakatla on the following day made a huge bonfire over the carcass, which
was declared to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen. Besides
crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds on the
upper part of my arm. It was a long time in healing.

The exact position of Lake Ngami had, for half a century at least, been
correctly pointed out by the natives, who had visited it when rains were
more copious in the desert than in more recent times, and many attempts
had been made to reach it by passing through the desert in the direction
indicated; but it was found impossible, even for Griquas, who, having
some Bushman blood in them, may be supposed more capable of enduring
thirst than Europeans. It was clear, then, that our only chance of
success was by going round, instead of through, the desert.

On July 4, 1849, we went forward on horseback toward what we supposed to
be the lake, and again and again did we seem to see it; but at last we
came to the veritable water of the Zouga, and found it to be a river
running to the northeast. A village of Bakurutse lay on the opposite
bank; these live among Batletli, a tribe having a click in their
language, and who were found by Sebituane to possess large herds of the
great horned cattle. They seem allied to the Hottentot family. Mr.
Oswell, in trying to cross the river, got his horse bogged in the swampy
bank. Two Bakwains and I managed to get over by wading beside a
fishing-weir. The people were friendly, and informed us that this water
came out of the Ngami. This news gladdened all our hearts, for we now
felt certain of reaching our goal. We might, they said, be a moon on the
way; but we had the River Zouga at our feet, and by following it we
should at last reach the broad water.

When we had gone up the bank of this beautiful river about ninety-six
miles from the point where we first struck it, and understood that we
were still a considerable distance from the Ngami, we left all the oxen
and wagons, except Mr. Oswell's, which was the smallest, and one team,
a