Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/332

 I slipped off, and woke to find myself lying in a great pool of water that had dripped through the thatch. Of such a night’s rest it was hardly to be expected that I should escape the consequences.

I yielded next morning to the solicitations of the boatmen, and started, much against my inclination, on a hunting-excursion across the plain stretching far away from the Sesheke woods towards the west. Overgrown with grass four or five feet high, the plain was full of swamps, and was subject to floods that left nothing unsubmerged except the few hillocks on which the Marutse had erected some stragling villages, the largest of which is called Matonga. The whole expedition was damp and dreary, and as far as sport was concerned absolutely fruitless. Before I reached our encampment, when we had only about another mile to go, I was seized with a sudden weariness, which increased so rapidly that I was unable to move a step, and my servants had to carry me the rest of the way back. I understood the symptoms only too well, and could come to no other conclusion than that I was in the preliminary stage of fever.

The boatmen were inclined to be very angry because we had come back without bringing a supply of game, and were also ready to make a disturbance with the villagers in Matonga for not procuring them enough corn and beer. I began to fear that I should have a difficulty with them; but happily Sekele, the sub-chieftain who had the oversight of things, took my part and brought them to reason.

During the night one of Moquai’s waiting-women was reported to be missing, and it was soon found