vanished, and its inconvenience was felt. There was no space proper for the tent and the waggons; no space proper to make fast the oxen; and, worst of all, there was no water. Our cattle tasted water only once in the three days; though the thermometer was from 75 to 80 degrees in the shade. We had a nightly concert, composed of the roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the bellowing of buffaloes, the yelping of jackals, and the lowing of our frightened oxen.

On the evening of the seventh day, we encamped on the verdant bank of a lake, about three miles in circumference, and six from the sea. The water was perfectly clear, and as salt as brine. The bottom was, for the greatest part, a solid mass of salt as hard as a rock. This is one of the lakes known by the name of zout, or salt, pans; to which the colonists resort for the purpose of procuring this valuable article.

On the borders of the zout pan we found encamped a farmer and his whole family, consisting of sons and daughters, grand-children, oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs. He was removing to a new habitation, and the rest of his moveables were stowed in two waggons. He advised us to make our oxen fast to the waggons at night, as two of his horses had been devoured by lions the night preceding. This royal beast, like many other royal personages, does not merit all the praises that have been bestowed upon him. He does not always attack his prey openly, but frequently lies in ambush; nor does he spare a sleeping creature, but takes his prey as he can find it.

On the evening of the eighth day, we arrived at Zwaart Kops bay, from whence I returned again to Graaff Reynet.

134

CHAPTER XI.

GRAAF REYNET TO THE GREAT, OR ORANGE RIVER.

HAVING made the several excursions from Graaff Reynet of which I have already given an account, I quitted it for the last time, on the 11th of May, determined to reach the Great river by the shortest way, and proceed beyond it as far as I should find it practicable.

After crossing an extensive plain, surrounded by hills, we ascended the Sneuwberg, and as I now travelled in a family waggon, drawn by horses, belonging to one of the farmers, I dined at a farmhouse about twenty miles north-west of Graaff Reynet, and passed the night at a farm-house about the same distance from the former. On the second day of the journey we reached Magis fountain; on the third, after travelling along the banks of the Buffalo river, we arrived at another house; and on the fourth day, in less than three hours, we reached a place called Three fountains, the habitation of the next farmer.

In the morning I walked to the top of some hills, and, except a small portion of cultivated land near the house, the surrounding country produced only heath and bushes. In the afternoon we left Three fountains, and, being drawn by eight excellent horses, we travelled at the rate of seven miles an hour, and in two hours arrived at the dwelling of the next farmer, where we remained the whole of the following day.

On the seventh day we came to a house, which, though not at the boundary of the colony, was the last habitation of white men. I saw here a female Bosjesman sixty years of age, and only three feet nine inches in height; and I saw some Bosjesman prisoners, who had been pursued, after having stolen a yoke of oxen, and who were taken while devouring one of them. Among these was a man who had long been the terror of the neighbourhood, and who, though often taken, had always found means to escape. He was known among the colonists by the name of the Beardman, he being the only one of his countrymen ever seen here with that appendage to the face. When he was asked why he was so addicted to theft, he pointed to his body, which hung together in folds, and taking a part of it in his hand, he drew it out to its utmost extent, to indicate how much it would hold: then, without waiting for an answer to this demonstrable reason for his depredations, he asked for something to eat!

Behind the house was a small hut composed of reeds, the habitation of an old blind Bosjesman. I found him asleep, lying on a sheep-skin, which served him for mattrass and apparel, and constituted the whole furniture of his hut. I asked I asked myself a question which I did not propose to him, "Could life have any charms for such a being?" Without internal resources, and apparently deprived of every external means of enjoyment, he was probably yet attached to life by some cord unknown to me. I told him, by a Hottentot girl, my interpreter, that I hoped the condition of his countrymen would be improved under the British government; but he intimated in a very significant

manner that, coming from a white man, he would not believe it till it took place.

After halting some time, we proceeded on our journey, and left behind us the habitations of civilized men. At night we halted among low hills, in a place that the farmers who accompanied me said abounded with lions. whole of the following day. tures between the colonists animals, I shall select two.

Here we remained the Among many advenand these tremendous

Two brothers, Tjaard and John Vander Wolf, farmers in the Sneuwberg, followed the track of a large lion, and found him in a ravine overgrown with brushwood. They stationed themselves on each side the entrance of the ravine, and sent in their dogs to hunt him out. The lion rushed towards John, crouched to make a spring at him, and was, at the same instant, shot by him. Unfortunately, the shot only grazed the ear, and one side of the breast; and the animal, after having been stunned for some seconds, recovered, and rushed towards his enemy, who had barely time to leap on his horse and endeavour to fly. The lion was instantly after him, and sprung upon the back of the horse, which, overpowered by the burden, was unable to move. The enraged animal tore the man's garment with his teeth, and stuck his claws into his thigh. The man clung with all his force to the horse, that he might not be torn off, and, at the same moment, hearing his brother galloping after him, he bade him fire, not regarding whom or what he might hit. Tjaard instantly dismounted, and taking aim coolly, shot the lion through the head, the ball lodged in the saddle, without hurting either the horse or the rider.

The other encounter I shall relate as nearly as possible in the words of the man to whom it happened, a farmer of the name of Van Wyk, who lived near the extremity of the colony. "It is now more than two years ago," said he to me, "that my wife was sitting within the house, near the door, and the children playing around her, and I was without, doing something at a waggon; when suddenly, though it was mid-day, an enormous lion came up, and laid himself quietly down in the shade, on the very threshold of the door. My wife, frozen with fear, remained motionless in her place; my children took refuge in her lap. The cry they uttered attracted my attention, and I hastened, unarmed as I was, towards the door. The animal had not seen me, and, scarcely knowing what I meant to do, I stole softly to the back of the house, and reached the window of my chamber, where I knew my loaded gun was standing. By a most happy chance I had placed it within my reach, for you may observe that the aperture of the window would not have admitted me. From this window, the chamber door being open, I had a full view of the groupe at the outer door. The lion was beginning to move; I had no time to think; and, telling the mother, in a low voice, not to be alarmed, and calling upon the name of the Lord, I fired my piece. The ball passed immediately over the hair of my boy's head, and lodged in the forehead of the lion, just above the eyes, which seemed to shoot forth sparks of fire: it stretched him on the ground, and he never stirred more."

On the ninth day we proceeded on our journey, having now no road; and, as our track would be