BLACK CHIEF'S WHITE SLAVES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1928, Page 4

BLACK CHIEF'S WHITE SLAVES

MEN WHO STEAL THE LION’S PREY. Jt is curious how legends and romance surround the unknown. Here, on the edge of the least known of all African desorts, I have gathered many strange sforics from limiters and prospectors who claim to have wandered in this wasteland. There are stories of unlimited wealth in diamonds, platinum, and radium to bo found in the desert, and that in the swamps round Lake M’Gnni our expedition may find the mythical graveyard of elephants ivitl) its treasure of ivory buried in the swamps. I wonder if there is in the world any more extraordinary story than that of the white slaves of Molcpolole? Moßpolplo is a native krnnf ruled oyer by a black chief, buried some miles in the desert. In that kyaal arc two fanijlies of whites, the remnants of a Dutch trek many years ago, into the desert.

IJarried by wild Bushmen and lack of water, a few survivors of the white caravan staggered into the kraal. Thpre they have remained ever since, and to-day the descendants of the Dutch pioneers are serfs of the native chief.

'j'hey qre perfectly content wjth their lot. They have no desire to leave tho native kraal.

Once the authorities in South Africa offered to place them on other lands nearer to civilisation. The offer was refused. Tliov have lost all touch with

civilisation. SEARCH FOR. GIANT BEAST. It is suggested that in the swamps (if tiie Okavango which the expedition is to traverse, we may find many of the mystery animals of Africa now believed extinct. There are actually rumours of a brontosaurus having gone north frpm the Orange River. In the region of the Orange River natives tell stories of a beast of the veld that they call the “groot slang,” and Cornell, tlie South African explorer, is the one white man who professed to jiavo seen the gigantic beast. It is ]X)ssihlc that we may discover a quagga, another mystery animal of Africa. It is half mule and half zebra. Tho quagga is generally supposed to have been extinct for many years. Most interesting of all the secrets that the expedition wjll attempt to solve is that of the nomadic Bushman. How can this most primitive form of man exist in a desert without water? | AA'e know that lie lives a good deal on melon and that he conceals water in ostrich eggs buried in the sand. ] For food ho often follows the spoor of a lion. He lets the beast kill his prey and then scares it away. Half-1 famished, as lie usually is, ho falls • upon the kill.