1776. February. VL^VhJ to that where the elk la y ; but that he had now brought with him a confiderable quantity of honey to fmear my mouth with.” I, on my part, accepted both of the ex- cufe and the bribe; as my brother fportfmen, whofe mouths began to water at the latter, unanimoufly voted, that the Hottentot had done better in following the honey-guide, than he would have done had he obeyed our orders. But where could a Boihies-man Hottentot, bred and bom in the wild and defert plains near Zondags-rivier, where could fuch a one as this learn the art of bribing ? Was it of his fimple companions, or rather from the readinefs of the more enlightened colonifts to give thefe heathens in this manner a proof of their forgiving diipoiitions ? It is a great pity that I could not determine this queftion with any degree of certainty, a determination which would have thrown much light on the nature of man in his favage ftate ! It deferves, however, to be remarked, that the Hottentots in Houtniquas, who are in a much more civilized ftate, are faid now and then to endeavour to ibften their judges with prefents of honey ; and even fometimes to fuc- ceed in their attempts, and thereby to obtain befides certain privileges. This day we took an oftrich’s neft, and gave chafe to the elk, which I mentioned at page a n o f this volume, as having fweated blood. At night we laid iiege to a fea- cow-pit, out o f which too a fea-cow came running up, but made its efcape, after two of our company had fired at her in the dark, and miffed her. On the 3d our Hottentots again faw a couple o f rhino- cerofes, a circumftance which, for the information of others, 1 . and and particularly of the pofterity of the colonifts of this ^‘77^ country, with refpedt to the numbers, and, as it were, pe- culiar abode of this huge animal in thefe parts, feems to me to be worth noticing here. It may not be amifs like- wife, for the purpofe of throwing fome light on the dif- pofition of the Hottentots in general, to mention, that our driver fpent twelve hours in running to a place and back again, where he had recollected that he had left his wooden tobacco-pipe two days before, though he could have made another as good in a little more than half the time. Here it may be remarked by the by, that he walked all the way alone and'without weapons, and confequently ran fome rifk of becoming a prey to the lions. Neither this, nor the following night, did we fucceed in our attempts on the fea-cows in the pits of Little Vifch-rivier. On the 5 th, the three farmers who had come to our afliftance on the 2 2d of January, took leave of us in order to go home. We had kept company with each other much, longer than we had at firft expeCted; the reafon o f which was, our having had fuch bad fuccefs in hunting the fea- cow. Once, viz. on the 28th o f January, it was, as I have already obferved, the fault of F l i p . The extraordinary drowfinefs of this youth, o f which I have-given an inftance at page 279 o f this volume, proceeded in all probability from a pafiion, which yet, for the moft part, makes others ileeplefs. For F l i p , though a briik lad in other refpedts, and bold and daring to 'a degree in the chafe, one who had been the death of many a buffalo, and who, at fo early a period as two years before, being out with a hunting party after the lion, had fired the firft ball into the body o f that Q q 2 fierce
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