Boejefmans is not of that nature to fupply much information
refpefiing the country they inhabit. The mouth of the Orange
river is much nearer to the Cape than the plains behind the
Kaffer mountains j yet it was but the other day that the exlft-
ence o f the Camelopardalis was afcertained near the former
place, though no favage nation, but a civilized tribe of Hottentots
only, intervened. Certain animals, as well as plants, confine
themfelves to certain diftri£ts of the fame country. The
animal above mentioned was never known to have paffed the
Orange river. It would appear allb that in Northern Africa it
has its limited range ; for, fince the time of Julius Csefar, when
one was publicly exhibited in Rome, it had been loft to Europe
till within the prefent century. The accounts given of it by
ancient writers were looked upon as fabulous. The gnoo is
found only in certain parts of Southern Africa; and the blue
antelope, (the leucophtea,) which confined itfelf to the banks of
one fmall river in the vicinity o f Zwellendam, is now entirely
loft to the colony. The fpringbok, feen in the northern parts
in troops of thoufands, never made its appearance in any part
of the diftrift of Zwellendam.
The Bosjefmans have no knowledge of any doubts concerning
the exiftence of fuch an animal as the unicorn ; nor do they
feem to think there is any thing extraordinary that a beaft
Ihould have one horn only. The colonifts take it for granted
that fuch an animal exifts beyond the limits of the colony.
Father Lobo, in his hiftory of Abyffmia, defcribes the unicorn
as a beautiful horfe j but Father Lobo was confidered as a per-
fon worthy of little credit, becaufe he related things that were
new.
new. A modern traveller through the fame equntry, in detail*
ing fopie of the fame circumftanees touched upon by the former
writer, has met with nq better fuccefs. The fchooled mind is
apt to feel a propenfity for rejesfting eyery thing new, unleis
conveyed to it through the channel of demonftrative evidence,
which, on all occafions, is not to be obtained; whilft, on
the other hand, credulity fwallows deception in every flimfy
covering. The one is, perhaps, equally liable to ihut out
truth, as the other is to imbibe falfehood. Nature's wide domain
is too varied to be {hackled with a fyllogifm. What
nations, what animals, what plants, and other natural productions,
may yet be difcovered in the unknown parts o f the
globe, a man, who has ftudied nature in the clofet only, would
hardly be fuppofed prefumptuous enough to form a conjeilure ;
yet fuch is the bias that the reputation of a name begets with
the multitude, that the verdift o f half a dozen generally
decides the queftion.
O f all the aeeeflible parts of the earth, the interior of Southern
Africa is the leaft known to Europeans. A few paltry
eftabhihments o f the Portugwefe lie widely fcattered along the
two coafts ; and the Dutch have colonized a few hundred miles
from the fouthern angle along the two ihores ; but neither the
one nor the other have fupplied any information of the interior.
Among the latter, Colonel Gordon was the only man
who feemed defirous of extending the knowledge of the fouthern
part of this continent, and his travels were very circum-
fcribed. This gentleman had feveral occafions to fee the drawings
of the unicorn made by the favages, a circumftance to
prove