In this second journey to Lepelole—­so called from a cavern of that name—­I began preparations for a settlement by making a canal to irrigate gardens from a stream, then flowing copiously, but now quite dry.  When these preparations were well advanced I went northward to visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living between 22 deg. and 23 deg. south latitude.  The Bakaa Mountains had been visited before by a trader, who, with his people, all perished from fever.  In going round the northern part of these basaltic hills, near Letloche, I was only ten days distant from the lower part of the Zouga, which passed by the same name as Lake Ngami; and I might then (in 1842) have discovered that lake, had discovery alone been my object.  Most of this journey beyond Shokuane was performed on foot, in consequence of the draught oxen having become sick.  Some of my companions who had recently joined us, and did not know that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard by me discussing my appearance and powers:  “He is not strong; he is quite slim, and only appears stout because he puts himself into those bags [trousers]; he will soon knock up.”  This caused my Highland blood to rise, and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the top of their speed for days together, till I heard them expressing proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.

Returning to Kuruman, in order to bring my luggage to our proposed settlement, I was followed by the news that the tribe of Bakwains, who had shown themselves so friendly toward me, had been driven from Lepelole by the Barolongs, so that my prospects for the time of forming a settlement there were at an end.  One of those periodical outbreaks of war, which seem to have occurred from time immemorial, for the possession of cattle, had burst forth in the land, and had so changed the relations of the tribes to each other that I was obliged to set out anew to look for a suitable locality for a mission-station.

In going north again a comet blazed on our sight, exciting the wonder of every tribe we visited.  That of 1816 had been followed by an irruption of the Matabele, the most cruel enemies the Bechuanas ever knew, and this they thought might portend something as bad, or it might only foreshadow the death of some great chief.  On this subject of comets I knew little more than they did themselves, but I had that confidence in a kind overruling Providence which makes such a difference between Christians and both the ancient and modern heathen.

As some of the Bamangwato people had accompanied me to Kuruman, I was obliged to restore them and their goods to their chief Sekomi.  This made a journey to the residence of that chief again necessary, and, for the first time, I performed a distance of some hundred miles on oxback.