1 776. Jan u a ry . water; the other, indeed, had had an opportunity, both with the ball and ihot that made up the charge, of wounding the animal, which went on its' road and palled diredtly by h im ; but he could not fee which part o f the animal prefented itfelf before the muzzle of his piece. As foon as he had fired, he flank away, and diredtly afterwards heard the beaft take to the water. The reft of the Hottentots had obferved one o f thefe animals, probably a different one from this, run up on a fhallow along the river fide, and thus make its efcape, without their having been able to prevent it. After this we ftaid here till the afternoon, in hopes that the wounded animals would die and rife to the top o f the water, but we ftaid in vain; and to as little purpofe would it probably have been, had we waited ftill longer, as there grew by the fide of the river a great number of trees, to the roots o f which thefe creatures, it is faid, in the agonies of death, make themfelves faft, by means of their long and crooked tuiks. On the other hand, fuppofing thefe two fea-cows to be but flightly ».wounded, they would be cautious how they made their appearance ; and, indeed, in all probability, it would have been a dangerous fervice to the fportfmen who fhould have ventured to have followed them any farther. Befides, the water had now, in the fpace of a few hours, rifen con- fiderably, and had overflowed many fpots fit for lying in .ambufh; for which reafon we departed to another hippopotamus pit, lefs than this. Here too we laid, by way of fnare, a large blunderbufs, which the farmers had hrought with them for that purpofe ; the Hottentots occupied one poft, Mr. I m m e l m a n and L a b e s c a n j e guarded another; another; the oldeft of the farmers, P o t 6 i e t e r , with his fon , L76- “ ^ • January. F l i p , ftationed themfelves at the third, and placed me in the middle of them. Juft in this part, the banks of the river were of a confiderable height, and the river itfelf was dried up, near an extenfive fhallow, where it was fpread out into a little plain covered with pebble-ftones and gravel. We three then fet ourfelves down clofe by the fide of each other, in a path made by the fea-cows, making ourfelves pretty certain, as the place was flat, and confequently it was light here, of being able, if any hippopotamus fhould chance to come upon the fhallow and look about it, to fee it plain enough to kill it, with a volley of three ihot. But, to the great endangering o f oUr lives, we, on a fudden, found the animal much quicker in its motions, as well as bolder than we had thought i t : for while I was fitting half afleep and moralizing on the fubjedl, ftruck with the confideration, thatwe,with our guns* had at that prefent moment the dominion over Job’s Leviathan or Behemoth, while on the other hand, the flies, or fmall mufquitos, had the dominion over us, (fo much, indeed, that I was obliged to wrap my face up in a handkerchief,) a fea-cow came rufhing upon us out o f the river, with a hideous cry, as fwift as an arrow out of a bow ; at the fame time, I heard the farmer call out, m Heer Jefus !” but fortunately at the very inftant he difcharged his piece, which flafhing full in the animal’s face, contributed, perhaps, more than the ball, to make it ftart b a ck; when fetting up another cry, it threw itfelf into the water again with as great precipitation as it came out. V o l . II. N n At
27f 72-2
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