The inverted horns, and fringed and scalloped dewlaps of these animals, gave me some uneasiness, as I imagined that these improvements. could not have been made without inflicting pain; but a little reflection convinced me that it was friendship on the part of the Caffers; and that if they had not regarded the oxen with kindness, they would not have taken the trouble to ornament their persons.

I had quitted the common track at the Hassagay bosch river, for the purpose of seeing the Caffers, and I had travelled over the grassy plains of the Zuure Veldt with little difficulty; but we had now to cross the river Kowie, and to descend to it by a steep precipice, strewn over with fragments of rock, and in some places covered with brushwood through which we had to cut our way. Waggons are bad travellers on such a road; but in two hours, with the assistance of care and patience, we left it behind us, and passed along a narrow defile, sometimes hemmed in by woods which crept up the sides of the mountains, at others, by walls of naked rock. The sufferings of my oxen had been great in the descent: I spare myself the recital of those they endured in mounting the opposite hill, and the means that were employed to compel them to perform that labour.

Being now only five days' journey from the residence of the Caffer king, I sent to ask his permission to pay my respects to him.

On the following day, observing near the coast a long train of fires, and supposing them to proceed from a party of Caffers, we turned out of our way, and made towards them. The smoke advanced; the wind increased; and we found our

selves in a blaze of burning grass. The smoke was suffocating; the flames rose up on each side of the waggons; the feet of the oxen were burnt, and they became unmanageable, and galloped off, Either by sagacity or chance, however, they had set their heads against the wind, and they soon got through the danger. The flames ran along the dry grass with incredible celerity, and the face of the country, for several miles, was a sheet of fire. We passed over a considerable extent of ground among black ashes, and soon after reached the mouth of the Great Fish river. The banks descended with a fine smooth slope from the elevated plains on either side, and were covered with grass to the water's edge.

The mouth of the Great Fish river is in latitude 33o 25, south, and in longitude 27° 37′ east. – The distance from the Cape is about six hundred miles.

Numbers of hippopotami appeared with their heads above the water; and being desirous of having a nearer view of this animal, I set out the next morning to hunt. We soon discovered the recent track of a hippopotamus, and followed it to the place where, it had entered the water. It quickly appeared, but it had reached the opposite shore. Two of my Hottentots swam over, to force it nearer to us; but it plunged so often and so quickly, that it was never in the spot we expected it, and we fired thirty shots without touching it. At length a shot was so well directed that the hippopotamus received it. It immediately dived, and soon after appeared with the greater part of its body, which was agitated by a convulsive motion, out of the water. I fired, and lodged

my ball in its breast. It plunged again, and did not appear till the expiration of twenty-seven minutes, when it floated, dead, on the surface of the water. Some of my Hottentots then swam to it, and pushed it to the bank.

I do not love to be the minister of death wantonly; and with regard to myself, as I was excited by curiosity, not by hunger, I think the hippopotamus had as good a right to live as I. With my Hottentots the case was different; to them the hippopotamus was a feast. I saw them broil steaks two or three feet in length, and a foot in breadth. They melted the fat, and drank it from basons as if it had been broth; and having satiated their appetites, they rubbed it on their skins, till they looked as if they had been varnished.

From the muzzle to the root of the tail, the hippopotamus was ten feet seven inches, and the body was eight feet eleven inches in circumference. It was a female, and its teeth were only five inches long, and one inch in diameter in the thickest part.

I found here three different kinds of the bird called indicator, on account of its indicating where honey may be found. Having discovered a nest, it attracts the notice of some individual by a particular cry, which the Hottentots well understand, and then hopping from branch to branch, or from ant-hill to ant-hill, it leads the way to the prize. When the bird arrives at the honey, it stops, and the cry ceases; the treasure is plundered, and the discoverer feasts upon the remains. The skin of this bird is so thick that it can scarcely be penetrated by a pin; a shield given it by providence to protect it from the weapons of the insects on the produce of whose industry it subsists.

All the chasms that intersect this part of the country, all the sides of the knolls and banks of the rivers, are covered with wood. Among this was the euphorbia, throwing out a number of naked arms from a straight trunk thirty or forty feet high; the Caffer's bean tree, with large clusters of red flowers resembling branches of red coral ; the Hottentot's bean, with bunches of scarlet flowers intermingled with its dark green foliage. Touracoes, perroquets, and other beautiful birds were fluttering about the trees, and the plains were besprinkled with elegant flowers. The touraco is the finest of all birds. Its colour is a bright grass green; its head is crowned with a tuft of the same colour bordered with white; its wings are of a most beautiful purple; its form and its motions are elegant.

Having skirted the banks of the Great Fish river, we came to the first ford. The following day we passed the river, though not without difficulty, the banks being high and steep, the stream rapid, the water deep, and the bottom rocky. We now entered the country of the Caffers.

57

CHAPTER V.

COUNTRY OF THE CAFFERS.

THOUGH no part of the colony that I had seen could be compared with that I passed through during the two first days I travelled in Cafferland, which is comprehended between the Great Fish river and the river Keiskamma; though we passed several villages composed of neat huts, we saw not a human being. At this river I met the messenger I had sent to the king, accompanied by a chief who was dispatched to invite and attend me to his residence.

The Keiskamma is a large river; and leaving my waggons behind me, I crossed it, and proceeded on horseback. The village where the king now resided was only fifteen miles distant; but the hills were covered with thick underwood, and on the plains were so many scattered acacia trees, just distant enough for their thorny branches to meet and annoy the traveller, that we were continually obliged to quit the road, which was never more than a foot path. We passed a number of villages, containing from ten to thirty huts each; some deserted; others very populous. A crowd of people, men and women, flocked down on every side and followed us.

On arriving at the king's residence, we found that, not expecting us so soon, he had gone to his grazing village, ten or twelve miles to the north