The Chobe was followed up to 16 degrees 40 minutes, south latitude, where two branches come down from the north. The Chobe is a fine river, with many rapids and falls, and swarms with crocodiles and hippopotami, snakes and iguana.
The natives have many canoes and are great fishermen, using a kind of harpoon for the larger fish. The Mambo natives are very expert in this sport and lay traps for them. Bows and arrows and spears are the general weapons used, but many guns have been introduced into the country of late years. The arrows are poisoned with the seed of a plant that is a runner, very large, the petals long, flowers yellow, from which the poison is extracted.
I met with several of the Wayeiye natives on the Tonga, who hunt the hippopotamus and crocodile. When at my station on that river, opposite Nakane village, in 1867, a curious affair occurred, which shows the wonderful amount of sense and affection crocodiles possess. A little below my waggon, a native boy caught a young crocodile about a foot in length, and took it up to the huts, and put it into an old basket. About two hours afterwards, my driver called out there was a large crocodile crawling up the bank, and making for the hut where the young one was in the basket, the natives running away. On looking out of my waggon, sure enough, a large one, about eleven feet in length, was up to the basket, when my Kaffirs ran up with rifles and shot it. The distance of the hut from the river was over 100 yards. It was impossible to say how the mother found out the whereabouts of her baby; it might have been by smell, or she might have seen the boy put it into the basket. I have heard many similar statements from the natives, of the old ones following their young when taken, but put little faith in them until I absolutely saw for myself the truth of these statements. Crocodiles are also very tender over their eggs; they scratch a hole in the sand, lay about a dozen, then cover them with sand, and watch with great care until the young come forth.
The altitude of Linyanti above sea-level is 2813 feet, the same as the water-level of the Chobe, Lake N’gami, river Zouga, and the large brak vlei Makarakara, showing the perfect level of these points. This country is full of pans and vleis, dense bush, sand everywhere, not a stone to be seen in all this region. At a vlei called Sixteen Vlei, the road goes to the Victoria Falls; but with all its flatness, there is an indescribable charm in travelling through it; there are so many novel objects to take the attention of an explorer, in addition to hunting, and sometimes being hunted by the large game when stalking them in the dense bush or under lofty trees, far away from the human world. One may die and be forgotten, and no one may ever hear how. My death has been reported twice, at different times, to the Governor of the Cape, once by the Rev. Mr Thomas, of Shiloh in Matabeleland, in 1869, that I had been killed by the Makalakas, in the desert, my waggon destroyed, and property taken, and my friends in the Colony in duty bound were mourning my loss for several years, as I had not been down south, having treked far in beyond any white traders, and was never heard of.
I was pursuing my work in blissful ignorance of the many tears that had been shed for the lone traveller in savage lands. When I came south, after being buried three years, calmly treking along with my waggon, oblivious of the scare I should create amongst my friends, so fully convinced were they that the report of my death or murder was correct, that, on presenting myself in the flesh, many of them could not for some time realise they were looking upon a mortal man. Information was forwarded to his Excellency the Governor, that I had turned up from the far interior, in sound health and strength as man could wish to be.
The other occasion was when I was in the North Kalahara desert, away for nearly three years, over all those northern regions up to the Zambese, and in this particular region. Natives came down and reported to the missionary at Secheles, that the Karkabrio Bushmen had burnt my waggon, and that myself and people had been speared. Again the report was sent on to the Government at Cape Town, and again my second resurrection took place, much to the delight of my friends, who had given up all hope of my ever returning from a country so entirely beyond the limit of the hunter or the traveller. It is true, I have had some very narrow escapes in passing through regions where hostile tribes occupy the country; particularly in Damara and Ovampoland, and amongst the southern Bushmen who once infested the Cape Colony. Fever and the perils of hunting were never thought of. To avoid the former never take unboiled water; weak cold tea, if possible, or weak brandy and water, will in a great measure prevent it, with an occasional dose of quinine. Sunstroke can also be avoided by wearing a very high-crowned, broad-brimmed felt hat, with several holes as ventilators, with a light kerchief inside the hat on the head, which cuts off the fierce rays of the sun from the brain. Though I have spent so many years under a tropical sun, exposed daily and all day long to its perpendicular rays, I have never once felt the slightest indication of sunstroke, which I attribute to the above precaution.