Now when I was in Cape Town there was a very general feeling that the interior of South Africa would become an extensive and open field for colonial commerce; since the discovery of Lake ’Ngami had shown a way to it. Hence it was doubly annoying that the emigrant Boers, whose treatment of the blacks was not very many shades better than that of the Oerlams, should not only keep us from these countries, but also generate a hatred on the part of the blacks against white faces, which years of intercourse on our part might not efface. His excellency the Governor, guided by these views, took advantage of my intended expedition, and also of Mr. Oswell’s, who was then in the neighbourhood of Lake ’Ngami, by formally requesting each of us to establish “friendly relations” on the part of the Cape Government with the black tribes who were subject to the attacks of these marauders. We were simply to convey expressions of good-will and strong assurances that the proceedings of the Boers met with no countenance on the part of the colony. I, therefore, knowing that Jonker still felt some fear of and respect for the Cape Government, wrote him a long letter in legible characters, which I was assured could be deciphered by some of his people. I told him how much displeasure the emigrant Boers had caused,—that his actions were as bad as theirs,—and that therefore he would probably be regarded with the same displeasure as they, if he persisted in attacking the Damaras now that he had been warned. I ended with an assurance that I should call the Damara chiefs together, and express to them what I had been requested to do in the case of the nations threatened by the emigrant Boers. After I had written my letter in English, I had it translated into simple Dutch, and written on a magnificent sheet of paper, and, finding a messenger, sent it by him to Jonker, who lived fifty miles off, under a high range of hills which was distinctly visible from Barmen. Mr. Hahn spoke highly of Hans, and strongly advised me not only to take him into my service, but also to buy up his stock of oxen and sheep, as it would save me infinite trouble; and this I did. I paid him, by cheque on Cape Town, 71_l._ for fifty oxen and a hundred sheep and goats. Of these about fifteen were more or less trained, and two or three were ride-oxen. It was the best bargain I could possibly have made, for a month’s barter among the Damaras would never have bought so many. The poverty of the land began to strike me, and the extreme inconvenience of having no currency, which makes bartering a very different matter from buying at a shop. I was grieved, too, to find that very many of my articles of exchange were ill-chosen and worthless, and also that I should require a very large troop of slaughter oxen, as hardly any game seemed to exist in this part of the country.