Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-10-31
IN A DESERT.

IN A DESERT.
One of the cheeriest Christmas days
was that spent on the pleasant banks OF
the Limpopo river not many years since.
Two hunting friends were trekking
through Bechunanland toward the Zam-
bezi, and it happened by great good for
tune that just at the junction of the
Notwani and Limpopo rivers they found
outspanned the wagons of two hunters
and traders southwark bound from the
far interior. These men were travelling
down country with heavy loads of
ivory, ostrich feathers, skins and other
produce, and they had with them a big
troop of cattle, obtained in barter. In
these fitful encounters in the African
wilderness men are always we'll met,
and it needed no pressing from the new
found acquaintance to induce them to
outspan together and combine forces
for Christmas cheer and Christmas
chatter. A brief council of war soon
settled the all important question of
commissariat. Smallfeld, the younger
of the traders, had shot good rooibok
the evening before, which furnished
venison for all, and they had already
baked store of bread from fresh Boer
meal. The newcomers, on their side,
freshly equipped from Kimberley, could
provide timed plum puddings, timed
tomatoes, peas, jams and other luxuries,
including dried onions, most precious
of vegetables in the veldt, and they had,
further, some excellent Scotch whisky.
They had besides half dozen brace of
guinea fowl and pheasants, shot during
the day in the jungles bordering the
river, SO that all the concomitants of a
capital African banquet were ready to
hand.
Just at sundown the preparations
were complete, and no merrier party,
you may swear, ever sat down to their
Christmas meal. They supped by the
light of roaring campfire, eked out by
a lantern or two placed ON the cases that
served for tables. The servants were
enjoying themselves at another fire a
little distant; the oxen lay peacefully
at their yokes; the wagons loomed large
alongside, their white tents rejecting
cheerfully the ruddy blaze of the fire.
The night was perfect, still and warm,
and the stars, like million diamond
sparks, scintillated in the intense indigo
of the dome above. What wonder, then,
that all felt happy and contented?
Supper at length was over. The coffee
kettle was banished to obscurity and
the whisky produced. The travellers lit
their pipes and toasted their absent
friends and each other, and then ensued
long and delightful evening.
The traders were two capital, manly
fellows, well versed in the sports and
tolls and pleasures of the far interior.
The newcomers themselves had been in
the hunting veldt before, and they had
all, therefore, many things in common.
Many and many a yarn Of the chase and
adventure they exchanged; many head
of gallant game they slew again by the
cheerful blaze. The up country trekkers
mentioned that they thought of trying
new bit of veldt rather away from the
beaten track, if they could but find wa
ter in the desert and good guides and
spOorers. They were bent on entering
the wild and little known tract of coun-
try north of the road to the Mabebe
veldt.
"Well," said the elder of the traders
-Kenstone was his name-''you II find
game there after the rains-giraffe,
gemsbok, hartebeest, Gland, koodoo,
roam antelope and perhaps a few ele-
plants or rhinoceros or two. But it's
wild, barren veldt. The country as
you 60 north is good deal broken, and
unless the rains have been good water
is terribly scarce.
"As for myself, gazing rather mood
lily at the campfire and stroking his
thick brown beard, 'I once went into
that veldt and never wish to see it
again. l had most uncanny adventure
there, an experience never again wish
to repeat if live to be a hundred. In
all the years (and they are close on five
and twenty now) have been in the
hunting veldt I never spent SO incom-
prehensible and horrible time as the
few days I am thinking of. Ughn' and
the big man shivered as he spoke
Naturally the curiosity of his audi
ence was at once excited. The younger
trader, Smallfeld, spoke first
"Why, George he said, 81 never
heard you speak of that country. I nev-
er even knew you had been in it.
What's the yarn? 1t must be something
out of the common if it gives you the
blues. You're not sentimental as far as
l remember"
mo, Jim," returned Kenstone. 81
never mentioned the thing to you or to
any one else, bar perhaps two or three
folks. It's II years gone since it all
happened. My old partner, Angus (he's
down in the colony now, who was with
me at the time, knows all about it, and
reported some of the circumstances to
Transvaal Landdrost when we got
back. Otherwise I have never talked
about the matter. I should only be
chaffed, and it's not a pleasant topic
It the best Of times. 1t gave me very
nasty fright at the time, l remember.
However, it's all far enough away now.
It you and these gentlemen would like
to hear the yarn, why, I'll break my
rule and tell you all about it. And,
mind, what I tell you are solid facts.
You know I don't blow, Jim, or spout
tall yarns for the benefit of down coun-
try folks or bar loafers at Kimberley.
What saw saw, and, please God,
hope never to see again.
All were as keen as mustard for the
story, and Kenstone went on.
"Well, let me fill my pipe, and here
goes:
"It was in 1874 that Angus and were
making our third trip to the Lake
N'gami country. This time we had got
leave from Khama to trade and hunt II
Mababe and the Chobe river country,
and we meant to push even beyond to
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