towards Litakun, left us to pursue our journey unmolested and
alone.M
y own men, feeling themselves now freed from a place where
they had been living in a state of fear and uneasiness, regained, in
proportion as we increased our distance from it, somewhat of their
usual mood, and began to encourage a hope that I should ultimately
relinquish all intention of returning. But, as I was desirous of completing
my knowledge of this tribe, or, at least, of collecting information
on many subjects with which I considered myself as not yet
sufficiently acquainted, I had resolved not to allow the troublesome
manners of the inhabitants to deter me from an abode among them
as long as there appeared a prospect of obtaining there any portion
of the principal object of my travels, or of acquiring that kind of
experience which I deemed necessary to success in my future progress
through the unknown regions of the Interior.
The narrative of these travels having now proceeded as far as it
was intended, the two following chapters, containing observations
extracted principally from the subsequent parts of the journal, are
added for the purpose of completing the work as an account of the
inhabitants of the interior regions of Southern Africa, and more
especially for conveying as much general information as may be
sufficient for filling up the description of the Bachapins.
CHAPTER XVII.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN OF LITAKUN ; ITS HISTORY j REr
-pULATIONS. ; POPULATION ; ARCHITECTURE ; DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENT
; SITUATION ; AND CLIMATE.
T h e Town of Litakun (Letarkoon) lies in the parallel of
27°. 6'. 44'. of south-latitude ; and, according to estimation by course
and distance, on the meridian of 24°. 39'. 27". of east longitude from
Greenwich. It is distant from Cape Town about 972 miles by the
road, in the direction of north-east. The nearest sea-coast is, according
to the latest charts, that which is named | the coast of Natal,’
on the eastern side of the continent; a distance which, if actually
travelled, would probably be found to be not less than 700 miles;
as Algoa Bay, the nearest sea on the south, is at a journey of about
750 miles. The mouth of the Gariep*, the nearest coast on the
west, appears to be equidistant with Algoa Bay.
~ * The mouth of this river has been placed in various maps, in the latitude of 28£°,
on the authority only of an observation, said to have been made by Colonel Gordon, a
Dutch lieutenant-governor of the Cape.