i-'t- thcv thould be obliged to make front againft the gan'ifon, wbieh, on their tide, felt themfelves fo much hurt by the eomjeuifon, that the attack became very lerious; fo that among other things they loaded on each tide with coat- buttons, pieces o f money, and the like. Since this accident, both theie corps are never exerciied at one and the lame time. Being dilappointed at not having the company o f our countrvman, 1 let oft on my expedition with a Mulatto for mv guide, whom I hired for a quarter o f a lix - dollar per diem. Over his lhoulder he carried a ftaff, at one end o f which hung my apparatus for keeping my herbs, at the other a counterpoiie compofed o f a wallet filled with proviiions and a few clothes. This guide o f mine, proud o f the name o f bajlard, foon gave me to un- derftand, that he was no ilave, as moft o f the blacks are, but was free-born by his mother’s fide, as her mother was a Hottentot, and her father an European (as he fuppofed) o f a tolerable good family. To make fhort of my ftory, I quitted the town, implicitly following my blind deftiny and mv tawny pilot. We fteered our courfe north-weft, and after a number o f traverfes over the plains, by twelve o 'clo ck we had got to the gallows. Heus Viator ! Here we flopped a little to contemplate the uncertainty o f human life. Above half a fcore wheels placed round it, prefent- ed us with the moft horrid fubjects for this purpofe; the inevitable confeqnences, and at the fame time the moft flagrant proofs o f fiavery and tyranny; monfters, that never n il to generate each other, together with crimes and mif- demeanors o f every kind, as foon as either o f them is once introduced into any country. The gallows itfelf, the largeft I ever I ever law, was indeed of itfelf a Efficiently wide door to eternity; but was by no means too large for the purpofe of a tyrannical government, that in fo fmall a town as the Cape, could find feven victims to be hanged in chains. Farther on, where the fand had been formed into a hard mafs by the rain-water lying upon it, I found a number o f cicindeke flopping about, of an unknown fpecies. At this my companion, who had never before feen an infect- hunter, fell a laughing as i f he was out of his wits, and feemed all wonder and aftoniihment. There is not a bridge to he found in all Africa. We were therefore obliged to wade over ibme pretty deep brooks and rivers; fo that herborizing, it muft be owned, is a very troublefome bufinefs here: but then, on the other hand, the harveft is rich. As foon as I had fat myfelf down, I made a curious difeovery o f a remarkably prickly rumex (or dock), and likewife of the tribulus terrejlris. Now and then we rambled up and down recruiting for my regiment o f infedls, and my collection o f plants; an employment which, in proportion as it enlivened my mind, in— fufed freih fpirits into my body, and ftrength into m y limbs. Thefe latter I had likewife an opportunity o f refting on the following occafion. Among the waggons that overtook us, there was one drawn by fix pair of oxen, after the falhion of the country. In this a Have lay aileep, as drunk as- David’s fow, likewife in a great meafure after the country faihion. Another however more fober than he, fat at the helm, with a whip, the handle o f which was three times the length of a/ man, and the thong in proportion. In this country they never ufe reins to their oxen, for which reafon,
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