Sunday morning, as I was setting off
in search of him, I found him near the wagon. He had found the oxen late
in the afternoon of Saturday, and had been obliged to stand by them all
night. It was wonderful how he managed without a compass, and in such
a country, to find his way home at all, bringing about forty oxen with
him.

The Bechuanas will keep on the sick-list as long as they feel any
weakness; so I at last began to be anxious that they should make
a little exertion to get forward on our way. One of them, however,
happening to move a hundred yards from the wagon, fell down, and,
being unobserved, remained the whole night in the pouring rain totally
insensible; another was subjected to frequent swooning; but, making beds
in the wagons for these our worst cases, with the help of the Bakwain
and the Bushmen, we moved slowly on. We had to nurse the sick like
children; and, like children recovering from illness, the better they
became the more impudent they grew. This was seen in the peremptory
orders they would give with their now piping voices. Nothing that we did
pleased them; and the laughter with which I received their ebullitions,
though it was only the real expression of gladness at their recovery,
and amusement at the ridiculous part they acted, only increased their
chagrin. The want of power in the man who guided the two front oxen, or,
as he was called, the "leader", caused us to be entangled with trees,
both standing and fallen, and the labor of cutting them down was even
more severe than ordinary; but, notwithstanding an immense amount of
toil, my health continued good.

We wished to avoid the tsetse of our former path, so kept a course on
the magnetic meridian from Lurilopepe. The necessity of making a new
path much increased our toil. We were, however, rewarded in lat. 18
Degrees with a sight we had not enjoyed the year before, namely, large
patches of grape-bearing vines. There they stood before my eyes; but the
sight was so entirely unexpected that I stood some time gazing at the
clusters of grapes with which they were loaded, with no more thought of
plucking than if I had been beholding them in a dream. The Bushmen know
and eat them; but they are not well flavored on account of the great
astringency of the seeds, which are in shape and size like split peas.
The elephants are fond of the fruit, plant, and root alike. I here found
an insect which preys on ants; it is about an inch and a quarter long,