square, filled with spare shirting, trowsers, and shoes, to be used when we reached civilized life, and others in a bag, which were expected to wear out on the way; another of the same size for medicines; and a third for books, my stock being a Nautical Almanac, Thomson’s Logarithm Tables, and a Bible; a fourth box contained a magic lantern, which we found of much use.  The sextant and artificial horizon, thermometer, and compasses were carried apart.  My ammunition was distributed in portions through the whole luggage, so that, if an accident should befall one part, we could still have others to fall back upon.  Our chief hopes for food were upon that; but in case of failure, I took about 20 lbs. of beads, worth 40s., which still remained of the stock I brought from Cape Town, a small gipsy tent, just sufficient to sleep in, a sheep-skin mantle as a blanket, and a horse-rug as a bed.  As I had always found that the art of successful travel consisted in taking as few “impedimenta” as possible, and not forgetting to carry my wits about me, the outfit was rather spare, and intended to be still more so when we should come to leave the canoes.  Some would consider it injudicious to adopt this plan, but I had a secret conviction that if I did not succeed, it would not be for want of the “knick-knacks” advertised as indispensable for travelers, but from want of “pluck”, or because a large array of baggage excited the cupidity of the tribes through whose country we wished to pass.

The instruments I carried, though few, were the best of their kind.  A sextant, by the famed makers Troughton and Sims, of Fleet Street; a chronometer watch, with a stop to the seconds hand—­an admirable contrivance for enabling a person to take the exact time of observations:  it was constructed by Dent, of the Strand (61), for the Royal Geographical Society, and selected for the service by the President, Admiral Smythe, to whose judgment and kindness I am in this and other matters deeply indebted.  It was pronounced by Mr. Maclear to equal most chronometers in performance.  For these excellent instruments I have much pleasure in recording my obligations to my good friend Colonel Steele, and at the same time to Mr. Maclear for much of my ability to use them.  Besides these, I had a thermometer by Dollond; a compass from the Cape Observatory, and a small pocket one in addition; a good small telescope with a stand capable of being screwed into a tree.

11Th of November, 1853.  Left the town of Linyanti, accompanied by Sekeletu and his principal men, to embark on the Chobe.  The chief came to the river in order to see that all was right at parting.  We crossed five branches of the Chobe before reaching the main stream:  this ramification must be the reason why it appeared so small to Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851.  When all the departing branches re-enter, it is a large, deep river.  The spot of embarkation was the identical island where we met Sebituane, first known as the island of Maunku, one of his wives.  The chief lent me his own canoe, and, as it was broader than usual, I could turn about in it with ease.