Note 3. The “Macobas” are the boatmen of Lake Ngami. They have affinity with the Bechuanas; but are of a race and class apart. They are also of darker complexion.
Note 4. Both Indian corn (maize) and Caffre-corn (Sorghum Caffrorum) are cultivated in Southern Africa, and the meal of both is in common use among the Boers of the Transvaal. The Caffres also grow large quantities of another species of Sorghum (S. Saccharatum) for the sake of its stem; which they chew, as the negroes of America do sugar-cane, its juice being equally as sweet.
Note 5. The “Baavian-touw” (Anglice, “baboon-rope”) is a species of climbing plant, or liana, with long stems and heart-shaped leaves. By the Boers it is employed as cordage, and for many purposes, this primitive sort of rope being often convenient, where no other is obtainable.
Chapter Eighteen.
A River Run Out.
The stream on which the Vee-Boers had embarked was unknown to all of them. Even their guide was unacquainted with it, though he had once accompanied a party of English hunters to a point farther north than where they now where. By its general direction it should run into the Limpopo, which river they had crossed some days before, on their trek northward. But where it joined the latter, and how far below, as also the character of the stream itself, were questions undetermined.
Nor knew they much more of the Limpopo. Van Dorn had been on it farther down, at the place where Smutz and the hunting party passed over; but neither he nor the Hottentot had followed its course for any great distance. They were acquainted with but ten or fifteen miles of its course, beyond which all was terra incognita to them, or, as the baas in his Dutch vernacular expressed it, “verder onbekend.”
Thus they had entered on a voyage, whose termination hinged on many uncertainties, and might be prolonged by many delays, to say nought of the dangers.