The Supply Of Water In The Wagons
Had Been Wasted By One Of Our Servants, And By The Afternoon Only
A Small Portion Remained For The Children.
This was a bitterly anxious night;
and next morning the less there was of water, the more thirsty
the little rogues became.
The idea of their perishing before our eyes
was terrible. It would almost have been a relief to me
to have been reproached with being the entire cause of the catastrophe;
but not one syllable of upbraiding was uttered by their mother,
though the tearful eye told the agony within. In the afternoon
of the fifth day, to our inexpressible relief, some of the men returned
with a supply of that fluid of which we had never before felt the true value.
The cattle, in rushing along to the water in the Mahabe,
probably crossed a small patch of trees containing tsetse,
an insect which was shortly to become a perfect pest to us.
Shobo had found his way to the Bayeiye, and appeared,
when we came up to the river, at the head of a party; and, as he wished
to show his importance before his friends, he walked up boldly
and commanded our whole cavalcade to stop, and to bring forth
fire and tobacco, while he coolly sat down and smoked his pipe.
It was such an inimitably natural way of showing off, that we all stopped
to admire the acting, and, though he had left us previously in the lurch,
we all liked Shobo, a fine specimen of that wonderful people, the Bushmen.
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