1777- they had collected in the mountains; they were armed with November. J t '—v— 1 bows and arrows, and the captain who was with them had a Haffagai or fpear in his hand, and heavy ivory rings on his right arm. On my return to the farmer’s houfe, I found them to be of the tribe of Chonacquas. On the evening of the twenty-third, one of the fervants informed us, that he had feen a Lion before fun-fet, about a thoufand yards from the houfe. Expecting a vifit from him men have their haunts. This is beft difcovered by the fmoke of their fires. They are found in focieties from ten to fifty and a hundred, reckoning great and fmall together. Notwithftand- ing this, the farmers will venture on a dark night to fet upon them with fix or eight people, which they contrive to do, by previoufly {Rationing themfelves at fome diftance round about the Craal. They then give the alarm by firing a gun or two. By this means there is a fuch a con- fternation fpread over the whole body of thefe favages, that it is only the moil bold and intelligent among them, who have the courage to break through the circle and fteal off. Thefe the captors are glad enough to get rid of at fo eafy a rate, thofe that are ftupid, timorous, and (truck with amazement, and who, in confequence of this ftùpor, allow themfelves to be taken and carried into bondage, anfwering their purpofe much better. They are, however, at firft, treated by gentle methods ; that is, the vi£tors intermix the faireft promifes with their threats, and endeavour, if poflible, to (hoot fome of the larger kinds of game for their prifoners, fuch as buffaloes, fea-cows, and the like. Such agreeable baits, together withf a little tobacco, foon induce them, continually cockered and feafted as they are, to go with a tolerable degree of chearfulnefs to the colonift’s place of abode. There thefe luxurious feafts of meat and fat are exchanged ' for more moderate portions, confiding for the mod part of butter-milk, frumenty, and hafty- pudding. T h is diet, neverthelels, makes the Boihiefman fat, as I faid before, in a few weeks. However, he“ foon finds his good living embittered by the maundering and grumbling of his mader and midrefs. The words T ’guzeri and T ’gaunatfi, which, perhaps, are bed tranflated by thofe of Young Sorcerer and Imp, are expreflions which he mud frequently put up with, and fometimes a few curfes and blows into the bargain ; and this for negle&, remiffnefs or idlenefs ; which lad failure, if it cannot be faid to be born with him, is however in a manner naturalifed in him. So that, both by nature and cudom, deteding all manner of labour, and now, from his greater corpulency, becoming dill mòre flothful, and having befidesbeen ufed to a wandering life, fubjeét to no control, he mod fenfibly feels the want of his liberty. No wonder then, that he generally endeavours to regain it by making his efcape : but what is really a fubje&for wonder is, that, when one of thefe poor devils runs away from his fervice, or more properly bondage, he never takes with him any thing that does not belong to him.” in the night, every preparation was made for defence ; but ^fov^ ber, next morning we were informed of its having been at a houfe * < ’ belonging to an old woman, about four miles diflant, and that it had deftroyed fome of her cattle. I went to the place, and we fet a fpring gun in the path where we obferved it had palTed. On the night of the twenty-fifth we heard the report of the gun, and next morning found the animal dead. It proved to be a Lionefs, and not very large; the dimenfions were, Feet. Inches. The length, from the nofe to the point of the tail, 8 95 Ditto, o f the h e a d , ..................................... .............. 1 115 Ditto, of the tail, ......................... • 3 0 > Ditto, from the neck to the t a i l , ............... 4 1 Height before, ...................................... 3 8 Length of the foot from the claw to the heel, . o 8 Ditto, of the claw firetched out, . . . . . 0 31 Length of the e a r s , ..................................... ° 7 i Of the tuiks, ..................................... o a Diftance between the eyes, .................................... 0 6 Circumference of the head between the eyes and ears, 2 4!" On the third of December, I made an excurfion to one of the moft agreeable places, in point of fituation and fertility, that I had yet feen in Africa. It is fituate at the fource of the Elephants River ; it produces plenty of corn with the leaft cultivation imaginable. After the river has overflowed the banks, the natives fow the g ra in ; and the climate is fo favourable, that it is always ripe here a month fooner than at the F
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