CHAPTER XX.
RESIDENCE AND TRANSACTIONS AT KLAARWATER; AND PREPARATIONS POR
RESDMING THE JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR.
J a n u a r y 1st, 1812. The commencement of a new year seldom fails
to occasion reflections on the lapse of time; and when, in the evening,
this day was recorded in my journal, I felt what any person
similarly situated would, I believe, naturally feel, somewhat anxious to
look into the Book of Futurity; so far in it, at least, as the termination
of my present journey. But now that this period is past, I clearly
see and confess the wisdom of the dispensation by which that book
has been so inscrutably closed. Anticipation would have weakened
the impression of every agreeable occurrence, and have strengthened
that of all my troubles and difficulties. Than to possess such knowledge
as this, better is it to remain from day to day in ignorance of
what shall happen on the morrow. How many times may I have
exclaimed to myself, with peculiar aptness, ‘ Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof.’ Frequently; when surrounded by difficulties,
have I long continued struggling through them, supported only by
the hope and expectation that the morrow, or the morrow, would end
them. Draw but the picture of one solitary European, wandering,
unsheltered, over the vast plains of Africa, deep in the interior eleven
hundred miles; without a friend or companion from whom to ask
advice, or to whom to communicate his thoughts; surrounded by
savages, men of another color, of a strange and almost unintelligible
language, often of hostile inclinations, or of suspicious manners,
awakening every day some new anxiety for his personal safety; unprotected
from the caprice of lawless tribes, whom no visible restraint
withheld from making his property their own, and to whose
power his life, either sleeping or waking, lay at all moments exposed;
daily vexed and thwarted by those men on whom he had
placed his only dependence for assistance; exhausted by corporal
and mental labor without respite; and, through want of suitable
food, reduced even to the lowest degree of bodily weakness; draw
but this picture, and it will then present no more than the outlines
of the history of the following year. Yet, in the midst of all these
troubles and dangers, the highest enjoyments may be found by all
who are not insensible to those charms, the powers of which have
just been faithfully portrayed. The events which succeeded my departure
from Klaarwater were marked by a new character; and the
vicissitudes and incidents which chequered my way, assumed, not
unfrequently, a character of the romantic.
3rd. The heat of the weather was at this time daily increasing,
and the summer had nearly attained its greatest height. During the
nights the air was exceedingly warm, and at seven in the morning
the thermometer was generally found to be about 76° Fahrenheit
(19°’5 Reaum.; 24°-4 Centig.); and frequently 96° (28°'4 Reaum;
35°'5 Centig.), at four in the afternoon. The hottest days were
often the most calm; and at such times the stillness of the atmosphere
was sometimes suddenly disturbed in an extraordinary manner
: whirlwinds raising up columns of dust to a great height in the
air, and sweeping over the plain with momentary fury, were no
unusual occurrence. As they were always harmless, it was an amusing
sight to watch these tall pillars of dust, as they rapidly passed
by, carrying up every light substance to the height of from one to
even three and four hundred feet. The rate at which they travelled
varied from five to ten miles in the hour: their form was seldom
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