Page:Seven Years in South Africa v1.djvu/353

 village, the population of which was composed almost exclusively of Montsua’s shepherds and hunters. They gave us a most discouraging description of the road to Moshaneng, and declared it all but impossible for us to accomplish the journey to the royal residence with oxen so weak as ours. The road was indeed in a deplorable condition; the sand was very deep, and sorely tried the strength of our poor animals; the woods were full of holes a foot or more in depth, that had been rain-pools in the rainy season, and, besides this, the dust rose in clouds from the sand-drifts, parching our mouths and throats, and making our faces smart considerably.

In one of the smaller hollows now overgrown with grass, I found hundreds of a glistening blue Litta, marked with a rusty red spot, a species which I never met with but once again when I was on my subsequent journey in some woods not unlike these, about fifteen miles to the north of Shesheke. I also shot a buzzard of the kind known as the honey-buzzard (Pernis apivorus) that was hovering over me.

The state of the road next day showed no improvement; and when we came to two salt-pans, nearly dry, where the sand was some fourteen inches deep, we almost despaired of getting across, but by the aid of various expedients, and by the exercise of much perseverance, we managed to reach the opposite side, where we halted to enjoy the rest that we felt both man and beast had so hardly earned. In the woods we found two kinds of