Just Before The Arrival Of My Companions, A Party Of The People Of The Lake
Came To Kolobeng, Stating That They Were Sent By Lechulatebe,
The Chief, To Ask Me To Visit That Country.
They brought
such flaming accounts of the quantities of ivory to be found there
(cattle-pens made of elephants' tusks of enormous size, &c.),
that the guides of the Bakwains were quite as eager to succeed
in reaching the lake as any one of us could desire.
This was fortunate,
as we knew the way the strangers had come was impassable for wagons.
Messrs. Oswell and Murray came at the end of May, and we all made a fair start
for the unknown region on the 1st of June, 1849. Proceeding northward,
and passing through a range of tree-covered hills to Shokuane,
formerly the residence of the Bakwains, we soon after entered
on the high road to the Bamangwato, which lies generally
in the bed of an ancient river or wady that must formerly have flowed N. to S.
The adjacent country is perfectly flat, but covered with open forest and bush,
with abundance of grass; the trees generally are a kind of acacia
called "Monato", which appears a little to the south of this region,
and is common as far as Angola. A large caterpillar, called "Nato",
feeds by night on the leaves of these trees, and comes down by day
to bury itself at the root in the sand, in order to escape
the piercing rays of the sun.
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