to grasp the pole-axe, a method will not be resorted to whose
only recommendation is that of reducing an animal by intense
pain into a helpless condition, for the greater convenience
of taking away its life which, in fact, is all they
pretend to accomplish by this method a t the Cape of Good
Hope; for though all slaughtered oxen there are brought to
the ground by dividing the spinal marrow, yet none are
killed by it.
The party having travelled sixteen days along the river,
sometimes close to its bank, and at other times several miles
distant from it, over a rough and almost impassable country,
on the 27th they struck off to the southward, and on the 29th
fell into their old track at the Komatoo spring, situated on
the edge of the great Karroo which extends from hence to
the skirts of the Roggeveld. On these desert plains few supplies
of provisions are to be expected, not even of the most
common and plentiful sort of game peculiar to Southern
Africa; and a few straggling Bosjesmans which may chance
to be crossing it, roving about in quest of food, are the only
human creatures likely to be met with. About half a dozen
of these wretches were seen in the whole journey, from two of
whom the party received a very seasonable supply of delicious
honey in exchange for some tobacco. It was contained in a
bag made of the skin of a small antelope.
Little that is worthy of remark occurred on these dreary
plains of Africa where, to use the words of Dr. Johnson, “ the
“ night and the day are equally solitary and equally safe.” The
■ 4
time employed in crossing them was thirteen days, at the end
of which, on the 12th April, they arrivèd within the confines
of the colony, not sorry to have brought so near to a conclusion
a long and fatiguing journey, the novelty of which
must necessarily have been purchased at the expence of
much of the ordinary comforts and' conveniencies of life.
« We praised God,” says Mr. Truter, “ for his gracious
“ assistance and protection through our long and dangerous
“ journey over deserts wide and unfrequented, livers deep
<! and rapid, into the midst of a strange nation inhabiting a
“ region hitherto unexplored.”
EN D OF T H E JO U RN EY .