7 o a V O Y A G E T O THE *775- of other carnivorous animals in a confiderable number, WvSsj Viz. eagles, falcons, and common hawks, were feen foon afterwards to occupy our places about the buffalo’s remains ; though We law none o f them either in the trees or flying about in the air, till we had got to the diftance o f a few gun-lhots from the fpot. We -had fcarcely got half an uur on our road, before we faw a great number o f quag gas, with a huge fat Cape-elk; and befides this, bn the open plains, two male buffaloes came within feventy paces of us. It was fingular enough, that thefe latter did not feem to perceive either us or oUr waggon for a long while, till we made an intolerable noife with laughing and talking; when at length they looked up at us, but ftaid, notwith- ftanding, a good while before they betook themfelves to flight. My Hottentots, who faw I was fond o f hunting o f different forts, the chafe o f flies and butterflies not excepted, thought it very ftrange that I fhould now neither fhoot thefe animals myfelf, nor fuffer them to do it. They, however, owned at length, that I was perfectly in the right, in confequence o f my reminding them, that they were covered up to the eyes in buffalo’s fa t; and that the fleih with which they had already loaded the waggon, both infide and out, would be quite putrid before they could eat it all u p ; that they ought not to put themfelves on a level with fo voracious a beaft as the wolf, o f which they -often expreffed their hatred and abhorrence, on account o f its killing and wounding every thing it met with; and finally, that thefe buffaloes, i f they were fpared at prefent, i apd C A P E of G O O D H OP E. and -not feared away, ¡might :prove ejftfemely , ufeftil to fomebody: elfe ; perhaps, indeed; to ourfelves on our return home. This moderation acquired me afterwards a great deal of refpeift from many o f the colonifts, , as with great reafon, they were very, mtich difcontented with the capricious condudt of feveral fportfmen, who, merely for the pleafure of ihboting, are guilty of waiting the trea- fures of nature in the mpft unjuftifiable manner; and by unneceffarily deftroying the game, fpoil their own fport in future, as w-dl as that of others:- For when they now and then make .a little hunting excurlion;'¡(¡as. they term it) they feldom or ever return from the purfuit o f a herd o f game, before they have made a great havock among them, though the carcafes are afterwards left to rot on. the ground. It is true,t at-every iliot ¡they take they leap off their hories; to difcharge their pieces; but mounting again immediately, load their guns, at the fame time that they are continuing the purfuit of the gazels.’ In the mean time, I could not help picturing tb my ^imagination, .the pleafure ¡which; on the other hand, fuch a fhot as I had .had That day; would have giVenitne'ip the ¡South Sea, when I might have treated myfelf and .my familhed mefs-mates. with fame excellent high-flavoured roaft beef. of .buffalo’s fleih j Ji ft We took the oxen out o f the waggon, and baited a con- flderable time at .ther*ivgr Keiffi- knnni aati, which, ini the Hottentot language, bears pretty,nearly -the iigniflcatipni.of Let not the ugly drink here. This river is by the colonifts otherwife called Litile Bofhies-mans~river. i* ■ ; f The fleih as Well as the marrow of the buffalo, was in itfelf very delicate; but both Mr. Immelman and I could 1 I i not
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