'775- got to little Zwart-kaps river, and fet off from thence about December. 0 •* . four in the afternoon, and at fix o’clock arrived at great Zwart-kops river. On the rpad we had feen large herds o f the wild afles, called quaggas, and of hart-beefts ; as likewife, for the firft time, fix female buffaloes, with two young ones. Thefe came from the fea-iide, from whence our guide fuppofed they had been forced to make their retreat thus at noon, either on account of the lions or of flies. We had not yet been able to get within reach o f any game, fo that our falted wether had hitherto been our only refource. This, in its fkin bag, had already acquired a pretty ftrong haut gout, in confequence o f the warmth o f the weather. Mr. iMMELMANj who was nice in h i s eating, and not ufed to put up with falted meat, efpecially when it was rather tainted, had, from our firft fetting out, it being now the fifth day, fuffered much from hunger. For our fmall flock of bread would not at this time afford u s above two bifeuits a man per diem, each bifcuit weighing about an ounce and a half. A t this Zwart-kops river, where we were now arrived, and intended to pais the night, we found two farmers had got in before us, who were come thither in order to get fait and hunt. Indeed, they had already fhot feveral heads o f game, which they had hung up in large flips and ihreds on the bufhes, waggons,, and fences, in order to dry it in the fun, in the fame manner as the Hottentots did the elephant’s flefh nezrDiep-rhier, as Imentioned before, Volume I. page 313., From this flefh there was diffufed round about the fpot not only a crude and rank fmell, but likewife a putrid putrid flench from fuch parts of it as had arrived at the Dcc^ b'er. ftate of putrefaction; and the farmers wives and children, together with the Hottentots who had accompanied them, with a view to aflift them as well as for their own pleafure, were employed in feafting upon it, and fleeping, and fearing away a number o f birds-of prey, which hovered round about them and over their heads, in order , to ileal away the flefh. This horrid fpeftacle o f fb many carnivorous human creatures, awakened in me a lively remembrance o f the cannibals in New Zealand^ and had like to have entirely taken away our appetites for a meat fupper, fo that we refolved to bear with our hunger that night as well as we could: but at lall comes our guide, very opportunely, with the fhoulder of a hart-beejl, which we immediately cut, and drefied it in our pot with dripping; a difli which was called by the Hottentots by the name o f the inflrument ('f nora, which means a knife,} with which it is cut in pieces. Our mouths watered at the light o f it, and we eat it with an excellent appetite, which was no- longer fpoiled by any reflections fimilar to thofe I have juft. mentioned. On the 6th, at break of day, my guide and I took a ride, in- order to cut up the hart-beeji he had fhot, and loaded one horfe with as much as he could carry, in order to lay it up in the waggon, by way of making provifion for the journey. The tulbagia, a fmall hexandrous plant, called by L i n naeus after M. T u l b a g , governor at the Cape, grew here in great abundance; though I had never before-feen-more than a Angle fpecimen of it, and that was on the roadto
27f 72-2
To see the actual publication please follow the link above