(( As in Jove’s war, by rebel giants pil’d,.
<s Enormous Pelion tower’d on Ofla wild,
** Behadur thus, the Pelion o f our wood,
“ On ileek Peauree, broad as Ofla, ftood,” &c.
The gigantic elephant is a harmlefs animal in companion to
the lion, the leopard, wolves, and hyaenas, and other beafts of
prey with which this wild part of the country abounds ; and
thefe even are much lefs to be feared than a neft o f the moft
atrocious villains that ever difgraced and difturbed fociety,
which thefe thickets conceal. The gang confifts of feven or
eight Dutch peafants, and a body of armed Hottentots which
they retain in their fervice. They have no • fixed habitation,
but rove about from place to place in the woods. They live
by the plunder taken from the neighbouring peafantry, and
from unfortunate fufferers by ihipwreck, which frequently happens
on this wild coaft. They are all outlaws; and rewards
have been offered by government for them dead or :alive ; but
the peafantry are fo much afraid of them that none dare approach
the place. This gang is known to be intimately con-
ne&ed with the emigrant Kaffers, who have been inftigated by
them to continue in the colony.
On the morning o f the third of September, as we were preparing
to proceed, we had a vifit from the four chiefs, Tatcboo,;
Comma, Taloofa, and Hamboona, having each with him a detachment
of his vaffals. They at once confeffed their fears o f returning
into their own country, left the king ffiould make war
upon them ; and prefled us to intercede with him for them.
The
The route from Haffagai-bofch river had been taken out of
the common track in order to fpeak with the Kaffer chiefs, as
well as to have a view of that part of the coaft where the Bof-
jefman and the Kareeka rivers difcharged themfelves into the
fea. Over the graffy plains of Zuure Veldt there is little difficulty
in finding a road, where the deep glens, through which
the branches of rivers run, can be avoided; and we had met
with no obftacle till our arrival at the Kowie, which falls into
the fea a little to the eaftward of the Kareeka. In order to
crofs this river it was neceffary to defcend from the plain into
a deep chafm two miles in length ; not only down a fteep precipice
ftrewed over with fragments of rock, but in feveral places
we had to cut a road through thick clumps of bruihwood. A
more difficult and dreadful place was certainly never attempted
by wheel-carriages. A fingle falfe ftep might have been
attended with the total deftrudion of waggons and cattle. In
the fpace of two hours, however, we found ourfelves in the
bottom, where we paffed along a narrow defile, hemmed in-on
either fide, fometimes by woods of tall trees creeping up the
fteep faces of the mountains, and at others between two walls
o f naked rock. The difficulty o f the defcent had confiderably
exhaufted the oxen ; but to rife the oppofite hill, hie labor,
“ hoc opus f l i t .” In vain the animals ftrove; the drivers
Ihouted, and ftamped, and flogged with their enormous whips,
and the Dutchmen fwore. The firft waggon got about a hundred
yards up the afcent, which was near a mile in length, but
was unable to be moved a ftep higher. After an hour’s trial,
bruifing and fatiguing the oxen to no purpofe, they had re-
courfe to the method that ought in the firft inftance to have
been