WANA WENA, THE NEW KING OF THE MARUTSE.
The sky was now quite clear, and the refreshing breeze that blew down from the hills over the Impalera Island acted on me like a stimulant. I took my gun and brought down some of the baobab fruit that was hanging over me, and whilst the crews were unloading the boats, my own people made their way to the woods to get more fruit.
For crossing the Chobe on the 15th I was obliged to pay three times the ordinary amount of passage money. This extortion was practised on me simply because it was known that I was leaving the kingdom.
Having a great dread of passing the night in the marshy Chobe district, I sent my servants forward at once with a portion of my baggage to the Leshumo valley, where Blockley had placed two waggons at my disposal until Westbeech should arrive. For myself I required a little rest, but quite intended to follow them before the evening. I engaged a number of Masupias to conduct me and carry on the rest of the luggage to the place of rendezvous, but just as we were on the point of starting a violent storm came on, and compelled me after all to remain where I was; I was consequently obliged to spend the night in the miserable hut where Bauren, who had died at Panda ma Tenka a few days since, had first been taken ill. In the morning I began my slow and painful march, and found myself necessitated to take a whole day in accomplishing a distance which is ordinarily traversed in a few hours. Almost every hundred yards I was obliged to stop and rest, while the perspiration poured from my body, and as a consequence of my exertions I had to lie by completely all the next day.
As I felt myself tolerably well recruited on the 17th, I was very anxious to go out and do a little botanizing in the immediate neighbourhood of our waggons; the rain, however, came down so continuously, that I had no chance of indulging my wishes. For the last few days I had been expecting Westbeech, and his non-arrival was giving me some uneasiness, as my small stock of tea, sugar, and salt had come to an end; accordingly it was a pleasant surprise to me when my servants returned from one of their rambles and brought a good supply of honey.
During the night which I had been forced to spend on the bank of the Chobe, my forehead and my hands had been stung all over by some very venomous mosquitoes, and the places now came into pustules, of which I carried the scars for months. I had much to harass me and to contribute to my discomfort, but amidst all my grievances I had the satisfaction of being attended by trustworthy and industrious servants; I could only regret that they were not to be induced to take my breech-loader and procure some game from the woods; their assegais were quite unfit for the purpose of killing gazelles, elephants, or buffaloes, which were the animals that chiefly haunted the locality. Only two nights before our arrival a large herd of elephants had passed quite close to the spot where the waggons were stationed.
With the assistance of my people, I took a little walk on the 19th, and collected some plants and insects. For pressing my botanical specimens I used the only two books that I had saved, and as these were octavo volumes instead of quarto, many of the plants had to be divided under the prospect of being joined together again at some future time; I was careful to keep a special note-book, in which, besides other particulars, I recorded the different names by which the plants were called by the Masupias, the Manansas, and the Matongas respectively. Of such funguses as I could neither press nor dry I took sketches, an employment that gave me occupation on a number of sleepless nights. My entomological curiosities had to be stored away in a wide-mouthed pickle-jar that Westbeech had given me, having thoughtfully filled it with slips of writing-paper, which he knew would be useful; the insects were killed by plunging the jar several times into boiling water in my coffee-pot.
The beetles that seemed to me to be most abundant were the ground-beetles (Cicindela, Mantichora granulata, Carabidæ), scarabæidæ, leaf-beetles, weevils, and sand-beetles (Psammodes). Of this last genus there are such countless varieties that they excite the astonishment of even the phlegmatic Dutch farmers; they have thick hard tails, which they raise every few seconds, and give a tap to the ground or floor on which they are crawling; this habit has made the Dutchmen say that they are knocking, or calling for one another. I was glad to find the Mantichora and the Anthia thoracica, which are very interesting; they live in holes already made in the ground, or in cavities scraped out by themselves, often so deep that it was quite a wonder how they could be pierced in the loose sand; their industry seemed to keep them at work all day long, and they had a habit of rearing themselves up on their long legs, as though they were making a survey of what was going on all round. Another habit they have—well known to the Dutch, but of which I, as a novice, had an experience far from pleasant some years previously—whenever they are captured they discharge a very offensive fluid from their body; and I can testify that it is ill-luck for the entomologist if this flies into his face and eyes.
On the next day Westbeech’s servant Diamond, accompanied by some Manansas, arrived at the waggons. They had all been out on a hunting-excursion.