admit of fecurity for their ihipping within the bar, they built a
fort upon the left bank, and (kept there a fmall eftablifhment for
a ihort time ; till the difcovery of Rio de la Goa, farther to the
north-eaft, promifing more folid advantages, made them abandon
Rio Infante.' The banks defcended with a fine fmooth
Hope from the elevated plains on each fide, and were covered
with grafs to the water s,.edge. 1 That on the Kaffer fide was
beautifully ikirted with thick woods. Towards the evening a
vaft number of Hippopotami, or fea-eows as they are called by
the Dutch, were feen with their heads above the furface ; but
keeping clofe to tffc- oppoftte ihore, they were too far to be
eafily hit with a mufquet ball. Several of the paths o f thefe
animals led from various parts of the river to a fpring of frelh
water about a mile diftant. To this fpring they go in the
night-time tOj drink, the water of the river, for a confiderable
diftance from the mouth, being fait. They alfo graze during
the night, and browfe among the ihrubbery. Short-fighted
man would be apt to fay that the Providence of Nature Ihould
ieem to have flept, or that flie had committed a miftake, when
fhe placed this unwieldy misihapen animal in an element where
it cannot exift, arid in which are not to be found the means of
its fuftenance, for it eats nothing that the rivers or waters
afford.
The latitude of the mouth o f the Great Fiflr river we found
to be 33° 25' fouth, and longitude 27° 37' eaft. The diftance
from the Cape, as before mentioned, is about fix hundred
miles.
The
The coaft, as far as could be feen from the high hillocks of
fand, was wild and rocky, and without bay of indent.
The well-clothed plains of Zuure Veldt, when inhabited by
the Dutch, abounded with a variety of game, efpecially of the
antelope tribe ; but fince the arrival o f the Kaffers they have
moftly been deftroyed or chaced into fome other part of the
country. The mannerdn which thefe people hunt ». not only
a very deftruftive one, but it fo much frightens thofe animals
that may chance to efcape, that they abandon the > place. A
large party, confifting fometimes of feveral hundreds, men, women,
and children, furround a plain on which they have perceived
a herd of antelopbs. As foon as they have ¡formed the
circle each proceeds towards the centre of it, narrowing the
diameter, and clofing .upon each other, till the animals are
completely fenced in. Antelopes, particularly that fpecies
called the fpringbok, like iheep, always follow where one leads.
As foon, therefore, as the hunters have approached within a
certain diftance, an opening is made in the circle for the neareft
animals to pafs. All the reft follow in a line ; and while by
ruihing together they retard each other, the men, armed with
fpears, clofe in upon the line and make dreadful havock among
them.' Scarcely a fpringbok is now to be met with in Zuure
Veldt. We found the fteenbok, the bofchbok, the rietbok, and
the orabie, towards the extremity of the colony, and ihot federal
bartebeefts. This is one of the fineft animals of, the family
of antelopes. The male is about feven feet and a half long
a n d five feet high, a n d the female fix and a half feet long and
forir feet high : the horns branch out of a fingle trunk that pro-
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