PREFACE.

The following pages contain the description of a part of Africa hitherto unknown to Europeans, but which has recently been travelled over and explored by the Author. His journey was a tedious and a very anxious one, but happily brought to a close without loss of life or serious accident to any member of his large party, which altogether amounted to nearly forty men.

The result of this excursion has been to fill up that blank in our maps which, lying between the Cape Colony and the western Portuguese settlements, extends to the interior as far as the newly discovered Lake ’Ngami.

The country of the Damaras—warlike, pastoral Blacks—was in the first instance explored; beyond them he found a broad tract, inhabited by aboriginal Hottentots; and, again, to the north of these, the Ovampo, a race of intelligent and kindly negroes, who are careful agriculturists, and live in a land of great fertility.

On his return southwards, a quick journey was made into the interior, near the line of the southern tropic, until a road, which had recently been travelled from the borders of the Cape Colony to Lake ’Ngami, was reached, and in this way a practicable route between the Lake and the Atlantic was proved to exist.

Few new objects of natural history were either collected or heard of, as the tract in question was for the most part a high barren plateau, that supported but little variety of either animal or vegetable life.

The journey may perhaps produce a useful result, by indicating a very favourable opening to missionary enterprise, namely, among the Ovampo. The writer has no wish to commit himself to extreme views either on this or on kindred subjects, but, if philanthropists continue anxious to promote African civilisation, the remarkable advantages of Ovampo-land, as a leverage ground in these matters, should not be lost sight of. The healthiness of the climate, the position of the country, the intelligence and orderly habits of the natives, their travelling and trading propensities, and, lastly, the ready access which it admits of from a healthy sea-coast, form most cogent recommendations. In addition to these, though bordering on slave-producing countries, Ovampo-land is itself exempt from that scourge, and there would be one prejudice the less for Christian teachings to encounter.

A traveller who, starting with the same views that the Author did, chose to start from Little Fish Bay, or elsewhere, in Benguela, and explore to the eastwards and southwards, would be likely to make a very successful journey. He would find shooting in abundance, and have opportunities of learning everything about as highly interesting a race of negroes as is probably to be found in the whole of Africa. The Author’s fate certainly led him over a great deal of barren country, and many monotonous days were passed; still he cannot regret that he undertook the journey, for, besides the enjoyment of robust health in Africa, habits of self-reliance in rude emergencies were acquired, which are well worth possessing, though an English education hardly tends to promote them.

A question is commonly put to explorers, “Why could you not go further when you had already succeeded in going so far?” and the answer to this is, that several independent circumstances concur in stopping a man after he has been travelling for a certain time and distance. He must refit, for his cattle become worn out; his articles of exchange, which are his money, expended; and, indeed, the medium of currency among the people he at last reaches being unknown to him, has of course been unprovided for. His clothes, necessaries, luxuries, all become exhausted, and the capital out of which he has to support himself fast disappears. On the other hand, infinite difficulty is found in acquiring the confidence of a strange nation; a new language has to be learnt; native servants refuse, and are unfitted, to accompany their master in countries strange and probably hostile to them, and whom months of joint labours had educated into a kind of sympathy with his cause; and so, when an explorer intends to cross the frontier of a neighbouring tribe, he finds that all his old travelling arrangements are more or less broken up, and that the further progress of the expedition will require nearly as many preparations and as much delay as if it were then about quitting the borders of civilisation. But his energies are reduced, and his means become inadequate to the task, and therefore no alternative is left him but to return while it is still possible for him to do so.

It is therefore not to be expected that any large part of the vast unexplored region before us will yield its secrets to a single traveller, but, rather, that they will become known step by step through various successive discoveries; and as the experience of nearly a century corroborates these views, it is probable that for years to come there will still remain ample room in Africa for men inclined for adventure to carry out in them, if nowhere else, the métier of explorers.

FRANCIS GALTON.

8, St. James’s Place, April 27th, 1853.

The four Mimosas that, to the exclusion of nearly every other tree or bush, form the vegetation of Damara-land.

DATES OF MY JOURNEYINGS.

1850 August Sail from Cape Town and land at Walfisch Bay.

September Travel with cart and mules to Otjimbinguè.

October } Buy oxen and send them down to fetch the waggons, while I stay at Otjimbinguè and at Barmen.

November }

December Make an excursion on ride-oxen to Erongo.

1851 January Take waggons to Schmelen’s Hope, and ride thence to beyond Rehoboth.

February Interviews at Schmelen’s Hope; adjacent country is explored.

March Travel with the waggons to the northward.

April Pass Omanbondè—reach Okamabuti—a waggon breaks down.

May Meet the Ovampo caravan, and return with them on ride-oxen to Ondonga.

June Stay a fortnight at Nangoro’s, then go back to Okamabuti.

July Return southwards with the waggons by the Omoramba.

August Reach Barmen and go on to Jonker’s.

September Take waggon to Elephant Fountain, ride thence on ox-back to Okomavaka.

October Cross plain to ’Tounobis; stay a week and return.

November Travel with waggons down towards the coast.

December Reach Walfisch Bay and wait for the ship.

LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES OF PRINCIPAL POINTS.

See p. 161, vol. xxii., “Journal of Royal Geographical Society,” for details of the calculations and for further latitudes.

South Latitude. East Longitude.

Schmelen’s Hope 22° 0′ 16° 56′

Okamabuti 19° 31′ 18° 20′

Nangoro’s Werft in Ondonga 17° 59′ 16° 14′

Elephant Fountain 22° 27′ 18° 59′

’Tounobis (or Otchombindè) 21° 55′ 21° 55′

ITINERARY OF MY PRINCIPAL ROUTES.

From WALFISCH BAY to NANGORO’S 719 English Miles.

” ” ’TOUNOBIS 518 ”

The hours given are those of actual travelling, exclusive of all delays. I allow 2½ English miles for each hour; but, reckoning as the crow flies from point to point, 2 geographical miles will be found to be very near the truth.

Hours. Walfisch Bay to Barmen. 207 Miles. Hours. Barman to Omanbondè. 219 Miles.

From Walfisch Bay to— From Barmen to—

1 Sand Fountain. 8 Schmelen’s Hope.

5 Scheppmansdorf. 1¾ Okandu.

16 Oosop Gorge. [No W.] 5¼ Okamabondè,

9 Daviéep Gorge. 4½ Kutjiamakompè.

13 Mouth of Tsobis R. [W.] 6½ Okandjoë. [No W.]

7 Tsobis. 6¼ Omoramba R. [No W.]

7¾ Kurrikoop. [No W.] 2½ Okatumba.

2 Otjimbinguè. 2½ Otjikururumè.

3½ In river-bed. 2½ Ontekeremba.

5 Okandu. 5 Wells.

2 Ondjiadjikennè. 3 Ozukaro.

4 Etamondjua. 5¼ Ombarombonga.

4 Reedy Fountain. 8¾ Wells. [No W.]

3½ Barmen. 20 Okavarè (or Omanbondè) [W.]

82¾ or 207 miles. 91¾ or 228 miles.

Hours. Barmen to ’Tounobis. 310 Miles. Hours. Omanbondè to Nangoro’s. 284 Miles.

From Barmen to— From Omanbondè to—

3 Foot of first hills. 10 Okatjokeama, S. Vley. [W.]

11½ Katjimahas old kraal. [W.] 4¾ Okapukua.

4 Eikhams. 4¼ Otjamuneè.

12¼ Wells on Quieep R [W.] 3¼ Okamabuti.

5 Bend of Quieep R. 4 Namboshua.

18½ Noosop R. [No W.] 6 Ootui.

2½ Kurrikoop. 8 Otchikango. [No W.]

1¾ Water in Noosop R. 12 Otchikoto. [No W.]

13 Elephant Fountain. [No W.] 9¼ Otjando. [No W.]

11½ Twas. [No W.] 14½ Omutchamatunda. [No W.]

9 Okaietoura. [W.] 10½ Wells in Flat. [No W. for 9½ hrs.]

6½ Okanyindu [W.] 21 Vleys, 2 hours in Ondonga. [No W.]

5½ Okomavaka. 6 Nangoro’s Werft.

20½ ’Tounobis. [No W.]

124½ or 311 miles. 113½ or 284 miles.

The letters in brackets affixed to those stages which exceed 5 hours, mean as follows:—[W.] that there is water sufficient in quantity for cattle on the road in one or more places, [No W.] that there is not.