Here, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the
language, I cut myself off from all European society for about six
months, and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of
thinking, laws, and language of that section of the Bechuanas called
Bakwains, which has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse
with them ever since.
In this second journey to Lepelole--so called from a cavern of that
name--I began preparations for a settlement by making a canal to
irrigate gardens from a stream, then flowing copiously, but now quite
dry. When these preparations were well advanced I went northward to
visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka, living between 22 deg. and
23 deg. south latitude. The Bakaa Mountains had been visited before by a
trader, who, with his people, all perished from fever. In going round
the northern part of these basaltic hills, near Letloche, I was only ten
days distant from the lower part of the Zouga, which passed by the same
name as Lake Ngami; and I might then (in 1842) have discovered that
lake, had discovery alone been my object.
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