Lake Ngami/Chapter 42
CHAPTER XLII.
After about a month's absence, I returned in safety to the Lake, and was delighted to find that affairs were going on prosperously at my camp. My men, however, complained much of the begging and pilfering of the natives. They had also been greatly annoyed by Lecholètébè, who was one of the first persons I encountered on my arrival. I had long been puzzling my brains how I could most effectually pay off the chief for his treachery, and had resolved to assume an angry and dissatisfied air; but a glance at his smooth, sly, smiling face was sufficient to mollify every feeling of resentment; and when, with the most innocent look, he inquired if I had seen Libèbé, and if I felt satisfied with the trip in general, my anger was turned into mirth, and I burst into a hearty laugh. This was all my cunning friend wanted: he seemed like one resting completely on a profound sense of his own merits, and waiting to receive the thanks and praises which he felt to be his due.
When stopped so unexpectedly in my exploring career by the artifices of Lecholètébè, I made up my mind to return forthwith to the Cape, partly for the purpose of obtaining a fresh outfit, and partly to procure boats suitable to navigate the Ngami and its water-sheds, and then return to the Lake to follow up my discoveries. But it was not to be.
As the reader will probably remember, I reached the Ngami by means of pack-and-ride oxen; but I had found this mode of traveling so exceedingly inconvenient that I almost dreaded a renewal of it. Moreover, my collection of ivory, specimens of natural history, curiosities, &c., had by this time so increased that I found my few remaining half-broken-in cattle altogether inadequate to the task of conveying me and my stores to the Cape. A wagon had become absolutely necessary, and the only possible way of obtaining one was to return to Namaqua-land, where, should my man Eyebrecht not have such a vehicle at my disposal, I was in hope of being able to borrow one from the natives. To insure dispatch, although I stood sadly in need of rest and quiet, I determined on undertaking the journey.
After about a week's stay at Batoana-town, I set out for Namaqua-land on the 10th of September, accompanied by only one man, leaving Timbo in charge of the camp in my absence.
Before I returned to the Lake, and was fairly on my way home, four months had elapsed; but, though this portion of my travels was not devoid of interest, the volume has already swelled to such a bulk that I must content myself with relating merely one striking incident that befell me, and a few general remarks.
Journeying in a very lonely part of the country, and only accompanied by a single native, I arrived one day at a fountain, situated in a defile between some craggy rocks. The water issued from different parts among these cliffs, forming little pools here and there; and though the place was difficult of access, elephants and other large game were in the habit of flocking to the water nightly. As the stony nature of the ground afforded excellent "ambuscades," and being much in want of provision, I determined to watch the pools in question for a night or two.
The first night was a failure, but in the second I succeeded in killing a white rhinoceros. After this, though I watched long and well, nothing appeared, and at last sleep overtook me. How long I slumbered I know not; but on a sudden I thought, or dreamed, that I was in danger. From much night-watching, my hearing and sight had gradually acquired such an acuteness that even in sleep I was able to retain a certain consciousness of what was passing around me, and it is probable that I was indebted to this remarkable faculty for the preservation of my life on the present occasion. At first I could not divest myself of fear, and for a while my senses were too confused to enable me to form any accurate notion of the imagined danger. Gradually, however, consciousness returned, and I could distinctly hear the breathing of an animal close to my face, accompanied by a purr like that of a cat. I knew that only one animal existed in these parts capable of producing the sound, and at once I came to the conclusion that a lion was actually stooping over me.
If a man had ever cause for dread, I think I certainly had on this occasion. I became seriously alarmed. My first impulse was to get hold of my gun, which was lying ready cocked immediately before me, and the next to raise myself partially from my reclining position. In doing so, I made as little noise as possible; but, slight though it might be, it was sufficient to attract the notice of the beast, who uttered a gruff kind of growl, too well known to be misunderstood. Following with my eyes the direction of the sound, I endeavored to discover the lion, but could only make out a large dark mass looming through the night-mist. Scarcely knowing what I was about, I instinctively leveled my gun at the beast. My finger was on the trigger; for a moment I hesitated; but, by a sudden impulse, pulled it, and the next instant the surrounding rocks rang with the report, followed by roarings from the beast, as if in the agonies of death. Well knowing what a wounded lion is capable of, and how utterly helpless I was, I regretted my rashness. The wounded beast, who at times seemed to be within a few paces of the "skärm," and at others at some little distance, was rolling on the ground, and tearing it up, in convulsive agonies. How long this struggle between life and death lasted is hard to say, but to me it appeared an age. Gradually, however, and to my great relief, his roars and moans subsided, and after a while ceased altogether.
Dawn at length appeared; but it was not until after some time, and then with much caution, that I ventured to ascertain the fate of the lion, whom, to my great satisfaction, I found dead within fifty yards of my place of concealment. The beast was of an average size, but, unfortunately, the hyænas and jackals had played sad havoc with his skin.
Some time previously, my men, Eyebrecht and Klaas Zaal, had also shot a lion in this identical spot; but, owing to his fearful growls while dying, they thought it best to decamp at once without ascertaining his fate.
During the four months that I was absent from my men, I traveled, either alone or accompanied by a single native, sometimes on foot, and at others on horseback or ox-back, over upward of a thousand miles of country, parts of it emulating the Sahara in scarcity of water and general inhospitality. Tongue is too feeble to express what I suffered at times. To say nothing of narrow escapes from lions and other dangerous beasts, I was constantly enduring the cravings of hunger and the agonies of thirst. Occasionally I was as much as two days without tasting food; and it not unfrequently happened that in the course of the twenty-four hours I could only once or twice moisten my parched lips. Sometimes I was so overcome by these causes, coupled with bodily fatigue, that I fainted. Once both my steed and myself (as seen in the sketch below) dropped down in the midst of a sand-plain, where we remained a long time in a state
AUTHOR AND STEED BROKEN DOWN.
bordering on unconsciousness, and exposed to all the injurious effects of a tropical sun. I would at times pursue my course with a pained and listless step, scarcely knowing what I was about, and staggering like a drunken man. "This," says Captain Messum, when speaking of the hardships he had undergone in a short tour into the interior of the West Coast, "was the pleasure of traveling in Africa. It requires the endurance of a camel and the courage of a lion."
SIGNAL STATION AT CAPE-TOWN.