accosted the party in a language wholly unintelligible; but
the signs they made use of could not easily be mistaken.
They gave them something to eat, which, with a little tobacco,
had an instantaneous effect on their spirits, and caused
them to dance for joy. They were just able to make the
party understand that their names were Jacob and Jeptha,
and that they had been disciples of the two missionaries
above-mentioned.
Pursuing their journey over these dreary and desolate
plains, where few living creatures except a quacha, a harte-
bcest, or an ostrich were occasionally seen browsing at a
distance, the party arrived on the evening of the 23d at a
brack or saltish river, where they pitched their tents for the
night. Here they were again accosted by a solitary Bosjes-
man, who called himself Wildboy, indicating by signs, for not
a creature could comprehend the meaning of a single syllable
lie uttered, that he was extremely hungry. Having ordered
as much food to be given to him as was sufficient to satisfy
the craving of his appetite, he stole away in the course of the
night, and they saw no more of him.
At a little distance from the next halting place, the Lion’s
fontein, one of the party had the good fortune to shoot a
quacha of a larger size than what any of the boors had ever
recollected to have seen, of which Mr. Daniell made a very
accurate drawing. I t was the first wild quadruped they had
procured. In the midst of so extensive and dreary a desert
they were not a little surprized, though by' no means an unusual
thing, to meet with a Dutch boor of the name of Kolc,
who, with a waggon and his whole family, his slaves, his
Hottentots, his cattle and his sheep, was travelling leisurely
from the Orange river towards the skirts of the' colony. The
disinclination of these people to establish themselves on a
particular spot, and to live in any sort of comfort, is very
remarkable, and can only be explained on the principle of an
irresistible charm which unbounded liberty and unrestrained
possession exert on the human mind, and which operates
most powerfully on him who has never known the pleasures of
social life. I t is a well known fact, that numbers of the French
officers in America, led by the impulse of this principle,
retired into the Indian settlements, threw aside their clothing,
painted and tatooed their bodies and became, in every
respect, savages of a much worse description than the natives,
by uniting with their new condition all the vices of civilized
life. To rove about the desert wilds of Africa, to harass and
. destroy the harmless natives, to feast on game procured by
their Hottentots, and to sleep and loiter away the day while
jolting in his waggon, are to the Dutch boor among the
most exquisite pleasures he is capable of enjoying. By indolence
and gluttony, from the effects of a good climate and a
free exposure to air, these people usually grow to a monstrous
size; and if suffered to continue their present uncontrolled
mode of life, they may ultimately give birth to a race of Patagonians
on the southern extremity of Africa, not inferior in
stature to their tall brethren on the opposite coast of America.
Continuing their journey on the 28th and 29th over a,
rugged country and a constant succession of hills, whose
surfaces were strewed with a greater abundance of stones
3 b