Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/27

 bed is very often perfectly dry, but as the stream was very much swollen, the current was too strong to allow us to cross without waiting for it to subside; the district, however, was so attractive that it was by no means to be regretted that we were temporarily delayed. The high plateau, with its background of woods, projected like a tongue into the valley, and opposite to us, about three-quarters of a mile to the right, rose the Mamusa hills.

We visited Mamusa, encamping on its little river a short distance from the merchants’ offices under the eastern slope of the hills. A few years back it had been one of the most populous places representing the Hottentot element in South Africa, but now it was abandoned to a few of the descendants of the aged king Mashon and their servants. Some of the people had carried off their herds to the pasture-lands; others had left the place for good, to settle on the affluents of the Mokara and the Konana, on the plains abounding in game that stretched northwards towards the Molapo. This small Koranna principality is an enclave in the southern Bechuana kingdoms, a circumstance which is not at all to their advantage, as any mixture of the Hottentot and Bantu elements is sure to result in the degeneration of the latter.

The merchants received me most kindly. One of them, Mr. Mergusson, was a naturalist, and amused himself by taming wild birds. He showed me several piles, at least three feet high, of the skins of antelopes, gnus, and zebras, which he intended taking to Bloemhof for sale. He and his brother had twice extended their business-journeys as far as Lake Ngami.