In London in the present year (1880) I heard that the survivors of this wild enterprise were in a condition so destitute that the English Government, assisted by free-will offerings from the Dutch and English residents, had sent out to them several consignments of food and clothing, despatched by steamer, viâ Walvisch Bay. Such was the end of the undertaking originated by a party of headstrong men, who, in ignorant opposition to reform, and from motives of political ill-feeling, rushed with open eyes to the destruction that awaited them.
Before reaching the Notuany, I had found out that the game which at the time of my last visit had been very abundant on the Limpopo, had been considerably reduced by the continual hunting carried on by the emigrants. I found only a few traces of hippopotamuses and some giraffe-tracks in the bushes by the footpath down by the river, but neither had I opportunity for hunting myself, nor did I wish to reveal their existence to the Boers.
During one of our excursions I had a narrow escape of my life. We were chasing a flock of guinea-fowl that were running along in front of us, one of which kept rising and looking back upon us. Coming to a broadish rain-channel about twelve feet in depth, and much overgrown with long grass, I called out to Theunissen, who was close behind me, to warn him to be careful how he came; but his attention was so entirely engrossed by the bird of which he was in pursuit that he did not hear me, and at the very edge of the dip he stumbled and fell forward. His rifle was at full cock, ready for action; his finger slipped and touched the trigger; the bullet absolutely grazed my neck. Another eighth of an inch and I must have been killed on the spot.
To explore the neighbourhood, we remained for a few days upon the banks of the Notuany. I first went southwards down to the confluence of the river with the Limpopo. In striking contrast to the time of my previous visit, when the entire district seemed teeming with game, I had now to wait long under the shade of the mimosas before getting any sport at all; at length a solitary gazelle bounded out of the grass in front of me, and as I was all ready with a charge of hare-shot, I soon put an end to its graceful career. Some Masarwas, dependents of Sechele, residing in the wood close at hand, brought me some pallah-skins, of which I made a purchase.
The shores both of the lower Marico and the Limpopo are composed of granite, gneiss, and grey and red sandstone, the last often containing flints; these rocks sometimes assume very grotesque forms; one, for example, on the bank of the Limpopo, being called “The Cardinal’s Hat;” occasionally they contain also greenstone and ferruginous limestone. To the first spruit running into the Notuany above the Limpopo I gave the name of Purkyne’s Spruit. Some of the mimosas here were ten feet in circumference; here and there I noticed some vultures’ nests, and the trees were the habitat of many birds, amongst which we noticed Bubo Verreauxii and maculosus, Coracias caudata and C. nuchalis and parrots.
I left the Notuany a day sooner than I intended, moving about four miles down the valley of the Limpopo, where the country seemed to promise me some desirable acquisitions. On the 14th, I secured the skins of two cercopithecus, one sciurus, two guinea fowl, and two francolins. An ape that I shot was disfigured and no doubt painfully distressed by two great swellings like abscesses. It was impossible to go a hundred yards along the bank of the river without seeing a crocodile lift its head above the water, to submerge it again just as quickly.
When we quitted the river-side, we proceeded to cross the wooded heights, sandy on one side, rocky on the other, that would bring us to the valley of the Sirorume. On our way, Niger enjoyed the excitement of chasing two spotted hyænas that crossed the path, but he did not succeed in overtaking either of them. By the middle of the day we reached the pond which I have already mentioned as lying on the top of these heights, and soon afterwards found ourselves descending towards the river. The name of Puff-adder valley, which I had given the place, seemed still as appropriate as ever, for we killed two of these snakes that were lying rolled up together just where we passed along. Following a Masarwa track that I remembered in search of water, I came upon a pool some ten feet deep; fastening my cap to my gun-strap, I was about to dip my extemporized bucket below the surface, when I caught sight of something glittering half in and half out of the water, which proved to be another puff-adder trying in vain to escape from a hole.
To judge from the tracks, I should be inclined to say that leopards are almost as abundant as snakes, the thorn-bushes and the crevices in the rocks affording them precisely the kind of hiding-places that they delight in.
In the course of our next day’s march we came to a Bamangwato station. Sekhomo had not had sufficient men at his disposal to keep a station there; the consequence was that Sechele at that time looked upon the locality as his hunting-ground. It appeared to abound not only with giraffes, koodoos, elands, and hartebeests, but likewise with gazelles and wild swine, and numbers of hyænas and jackals.
I reached Khame’s Saltpan on the 17th, and had the bullocks taken to drink at the cisterns in the rocks. Some Bamangwato and Makalahari people were passing by, from whom I obtained several curiosities, amongst which was a remarkable battle-axe. I came across some of the venomous horned vipers, which fortunately give to the unwary notice of their presence by the loud hissing they make.