rt.

So off we went, about twenty of the village natives, a motley crew armed
with every kind of gun, marching ahead and singing songs. Then came the
waggon with Captain Robertson and myself seated on the driving-box,
and lastly Umslopogaas and his Zulus, except the two who had been left
behind.

We trekked along a kind of native road over fine veld of the same
character as that on which Strathmuir stood, having the lower-lying
bush-veld which ran down to the Zambesi on our right. Before nightfall
we came to a ridge whereon this bush-veld turned south, fringing that
tributary of the great river in the swamps of which we were to hunt for
sea-cows. Here we camped and next morning, leaving the waggon in charge
of my _voorlooper_ and a couple of the Strathmuir natives, for the
driver was to act as my gun-bearer--we marched down into the sea of
bush-veld. It proved to be full of game, but at this we dared not fire
for fearing of disturbing the hippopotami in the swamps beneath, whence
in that event they might escape us back to the river.

About midday we passed out of the bush-veld and reached the place where
the drive was to be. Here, bordered by steep banks covered with bush,
was swampy ground not more than two hundred yards wide, down the centre
of which ran a narrow channel of rather deep water, draining a vast
expanse of morass above. It was up this channel that the sea-cows
travelled to the feeding ground where they loved to collect at that
season of the year.

There with the assistance of some of the riverside natives we made our
preparations under the direction of Captain Robertson. The rest of these
men, to the number of several hundreds, had made a wide detour to the
head of the swamps, miles away, whence they were to advance at a certain
signal. These preparations were simple. A quantity of thorn trees were
cut down and by means of heavy stones fastened to their trunks, anchored
in the narrow channel of deep water. To their tops, which floated on the
placid surface, were tied a variety of rags which we had brought with
us, such as old red flannel shirts, gay-coloured but worn-out blankets,
and I know not what besides. Some of these fragments also were attached
to the anchored ropes under water.

Also we selected places for the guns upon the steep banks that I have
mentioned, between which this channel ran. Foreseeing what would happen,
I chose one for myself behind a particularly stout rock and what is
more,