Three years later, one of these missionaries, the Rev. John Mackenzie, left Shoshong for Kuruman, where suitable buildings had been erected by the London Missionary Society for the embryo theological institution he was at the time of the events now narrated conducting at the former place. His loss must have been felt by many, both travellers and others, to whom he was ever ready to lend a helping hand. On the present occasion, Frank Oates felt strongly sensible of what he owed him for his friendly aid and counsel, and some time later, after the traveller’s decease in 1875, it was again this gentleman’s good services and sympathetic words that first softened the sorrow of his friends at home when they received the unexpected intelligence of his death in the interior. [Illustration: SNUFF-BOXES MADE FROM GOURDS.] [Illustration: Map of M^R. F. OATES’S ROUTE from SHOSHONG to TATI Drawn from his own observations _London: C. Kegan Paul & Co._] CHAPTER II. The journey resumed--Halt on the Seruli--Bushmen on the Gokwe--The Shashe--The Tati settlement--Adventure with a lion--W. E. Oates returns to the coast; particulars of his journey. Frank Oates left Bamangwato on the 7th of August, and the following day joined his brother, who had been waiting for him a little way out of the town. In the evening the Makalapsi River was reached, where were a number of Dutchmen just returned from hunting on the Motloutsi, to the north of the Limpopo. They had got a number of rhinoceros, but no elephant. Continuing their journey the following morning, and subsequently crossing the Touani and Lotsani Rivers, the brothers reached the Palatswe River on the 12th. “The scenery here,” writes Frank Oates, “is very pretty. A row of low kopjes on the right, with large stones piled on one another, forms a natural terrace to the eastward, from which you look over a sea of green bush, with a few kopjes standing out from the midst.” Here goat’s milk was brought in a large tortoise-shell from a kraal somewhere near, and exchanged for a small piece of tobacco. Most of the natives carried guns, and game was scarce and wild.