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198   APPENDIX.

About noon the Ovampo had desisted, and Mr. Hahn having most fortunately heard, only the night before, that uninhabited plains might be reached at no great distance in a south-west direction, that course was adopted ; and ultimately, after a forced march of three days and two nights making a wide circuit, they reached the Otjihako wa Motenya utterly exhausted. The missionaries appear to have reached Barmen without further disaster, and Mr. Green dates his letter from the shores of Onondoaa, the new lake.

A letter of 1\Ir. Ch. J. Andersson has also been received, in which he announces his intention of himself starting for the Cu-116n6. He adds that he is wretchedly equipped, but that rather than lose the season he will start at once.

A discussion followed the reading of this paper from which the following is extracted. Mr. Gallon said : " I must express great regret at the tenor of a large part of this account. I quite gather from Mr. Green's letter that he adopted a domineering tone towards the Ovampo, which I believe to have been eminently injudicious, to have been construed by them as a menace, and to have been resented in the way we have heard. In passing judgment on the conduct of the Ovampo, we must try and place ourselves in their position. Their territory is visited, almost invaded, by a strong party of foreigners, who are judged to be kindred to the Namaqua chiefs from their colour, language, creed, and intermarriages ; and the Namaquas are a race of marauders, who have lifted cattle from the very borders of Ovampoland, and are known to be awaiting a favourable opportunity for invading that country. These foreigners are fully armed and dictatorial in their ways ; they refuse to give those presents which are well described as taking the place of customs duties in African nations. They show scant courtesy to the king, and. they very probably trespass in not a few of the many requirements of a witchcraft ceremonial. Why, if such a thing could be imagined as that thirty or forty headstrong Englishmen o`-,re-to make a sudden descent upon the shores of a continental power, at a time when war seemed to impend, professing peace but armed to the teeth and ready to fight, unfurnished with any kind of credentials, violating quarantine laws, setting all authority at nought, and coming for no conceivable purpose except that of making an armed reconnaissance, I presume they would have been treated by the nearest inhabitants or military guard in a not less