should receive us. Their disappointment was very evident; and it
was only by the strictest injunctions, that I could restrain them from
the open expression of their indignation at the want of feeling
which those men must have, who could suffer any persons under our
circumstances, to pass their door without a welcome, or even a civil
salutation.
Of one of the Hottentots of the place, we asked instructions
respecting the road which we were to take; and as soon as all were
ready for starting, our friend Riizo, to whom I had as great pleasure
in making a present of a large stock of tobacco, as he had in receiving
it, took his leave to return to Kaabi’s Kraal. We separated under
an expectation, equally agreeable to both, that we should soon meet
again. I had supposed that the old Bushman and his son would also
have quitted us at this place; but after witnessing the little respect
which, at this farm, had been shown even to a white man, he was so
fearful that, as soon as I was gone, Oud Baasje Jacob would seize the
boy and detain him as a slave, to work for him, that he resolved to
leave him under my protection; begging that he might be kindly
taken care of9 and restored to him at our return.
As soon as this arrangement was agreed to on my part, the father
and Riizo, hasted away back to the mountains, while the son (Little
Leanman,) well pleased with his lot, slung his bow and quiver at his
back, and considered himself now, as one of the Englishman’s own
party.As Van Wyk’s hospitality, and the business of unloading and
loading up again, had not delayed us longer than an hour and a
quarter, we had still four hours’ sun to enable us to reach some more
friendly place. Soon after we left the house, the boor drove off in
his waggon, and we saw him going across the plain to the eastward,
for the purpose, as we afterwards heard, of reporting to the veld-
cornet, that a party of strange men had entered the colony.
For two hours we rode along a beaten waggon-road, an accommodation
which we had not met with for several months, and which
enabled us with ease to travel at a quicker rate than usual. From
this we turned out to the right in order to take a nearer path, and
ascended a rugged kloof practicable only for cattle. A representation
of this pass is given in the vignette at the end of the chapter.
At this high level, we entered upon a very extensive open plain,
abounding, to an incredible degree, in wild animals; among which
were several large herds of quakkas, and many wilde-beests or gnues:
but the springbucks were far the most numerous, and, like flocks of
sheep, completely covered several parts of the plain. Their uncertain
movements rendered it impossible to estimate their number, but
I believe if I were to guess it at two thousand, I should still be within
the truth. This is one of the most beautiful of the antelopes of
Southern Africa; and it is certainly one of the most numerous. The
plain afforded no other object to fix the attention; and even if it had
presented many, I shouldnot readily have ceased admiringthese elegant
animals, or have been diverted from watching their manners. It was
only occasionally, that they took those remarkable leaps which have
been the origin of the name; but when grazing or moving at leisure,
they walked or trotted like other antelopes, or as the common deer.
When pursued, or hastening their pace, they frequently took an extraordinary
bound, rising with curved or elevated backs, high into the
air, generally to the height of eight feet, and appearing as if about to
take flight.* Some of the herds moved by us almost within musket-
shot ; and I observed that in crossing the beaten road, the greater
number cleared it by one of those flying leaps. As the road was quite
smooth, and level with the plain, there was no necessity for their
leaping over it ; but it seemed that the fear of a snare, or a natural
disposition to regard man as their enemy, induced them to mistrust
even the ground which he had trodden.
* When Mr. Barrow asserts of the springbuck (Tray. p.lot.) that “ its usual pace
is a constant jumping or springing, with all four legs stretched out, and off the ground at
the same time," he only proves how little he himself knew of a subject on which he was
attempting to give information to others; and presents us with a specimen of the accuracy
with which his book has been put together. I do not mean to say that in this description
he is guilty of any intentional misrepresentation ; for I really believe that he wrote it as well as he could.