T775. had put the languid circulation, and confequently the vital ^ 1; pcjwers into proper motion again. My hoft and I, how-* ever, on out iides, did not negledi to get fome brandy as ■foon as peflible, in order to moiften his lips and nofe with it. I afterwards heard here, on my return from my tour, that this fwdon came on the youth in confequence of their having let him run out of the houfe during the frenzy produced by the fever ; as likewife, that low and fatigued as he was at that time, yet in the fpace of ten or twelve days he had grown quite ftout and hearty, inibmuch, that he had run away from his mafter during the journey to the Cape, in which I mentioned that my hoft intended to make ufe of him as ox-leader. There was an otter extremely well ftuffed, which I now keep in the cabinet o f curiofities belonging to the Academy o f Sciences, but which being a rarity in thofe parts, my landlord intended as a prefeilt for the governor, and had kept it hid up in a private place for that purpofe: he now, however, gave it to me by way of recompence for bleeding the lad, fo thankful was the iimple boor, and fo much charmed with this operation. This otter feemed to be of the fame fpecies with our European otter, and to differ from it only in iize, and in being of a lighter colour. The length of the body, meafuring from the nofe to the root o f the tail, is two feet and a half, and the whole length of the tail rather more than eighteen inches. This animal, in all probability, lives chiefly on a kind o f round crabfiih and frogs; as in the freih water of all the African rivers, that I have laid down in my map, two forts of fifh only, ¡that I know of, are to be found, (and thefe too in a very 6 trifling trifling quantity) viz. a very fmall kind of gilt-head, the fpecies of which I have forgot to defcribe, and the cyprinus gonorynchm, about the fize o f an ordinary herring. On the 1 7th we went from the arid Carrow diftridt into Lange Kloof, (or the long dale) which commences at Brak- rivier. By way of reinforcing my team, I was obliged to buy another pair of oxen here, at eight rixdollars a head. The farmer’s wife, who feemed to be the chief manager here, warranted them to be without fault or blemilh. As one of them, however, when we drove from hence, was ioon found to be rather lame in one of the hind legs, we began to harbour fome fufpidons o f the fair vender’s honefty. Her neighbours at leaft affured us, that with refpedt to the dependence that was to be placed on her word, the ox might have been lame of all four legs, without our having any reafon to blame any thing but our own credulity. We were likewife over-reached with regard to a horfe that we left here, by this fame hoftefs of ours and her hufband. Shortly after this they removed to the Cape, with a view to go into the commercial line there. They were never- thelefs at this time, hofpitable to the fulleft extent of the word; at the fame time, eating themfelves with an appetite that aftoniihed us. As hofpitality is commonly prae- tifed, and, indeed, is a leading feature in the charadter of the country people here, fo it appears to me from feveral eircumftances, that deceit in their dealings is likewife very prevalent in the colony; and by no means confidered in fo tow and defpicable a light, as it is with us, or as it really deferves to be. In «775- October.
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