408 AFRICAN RESEARCHES. 



slight variation in the moving power; but a slow, jog-trot 

 pace is the general order of the day. All the rubbishing sto- 

 ries with which the Namaqua grannies send their brats to 

 sleep, are crammed into Sir James, who eagerly gulps them 

 down, and, religiously taking them for gospel, sends them 

 forth in his j ournal for the edification of his readers. Nothing 

 in the world would induce our knight errant to bathe in the 

 Orange river, for fear of being sucked down the horrific jaws 

 of the Hippopotamus, or swallowed by a " dread Leviathan " 

 that was reported to have crawled out of the water on one 

 occasion, and to have devoured a newly-born calf. Nor 

 would he take a solitary ramble along the luxuriant banks of 

 this magnificent stream, lest he should be clawed hold of by 

 a great dog-faced baboon, five feet in height, covered with 

 long black hair, and which he tells us is infinitely more to be 

 dreaded than a lion, or a Boschman's poisoned arrow. 



The following awkward adventure with one of these hairy 

 monsters, occurred to Sir James's man-servant. — 



" One day, while fishing alone under the trees, he was diverted by the 

 gambols of some young baboons on the opposite cliffs, when suddenly he 

 heard a loud ' quah ' behind him : and looking round, he saw a great ba- 

 boon close to him. Robert had no weapon to defend himself with. The 

 hairy monster cried ' quah' again, when a number of other baboons were 

 seen rapidly descending a neighbouring hill. There was no time to be lost 

 — Robert snatched up a branch which he found at hand, and when the ba- 

 boon was closing with him, and showing his horrid teeth, with the intention 

 of biting him to death in the neck, Robert struck desperately at his head ; 

 the baboon put up his left arm, and received the blow on it, and immedi- 

 ately wrested the stick out of Robert's hands, though he was a strong sai- 

 lor. Flight was now Robert's only chance, and he took to his heels as fast 

 as he could, followed by the baboon, who, though partly crippled by the 

 blow, still 'quah quahed' after him, till Robert gained the open country, 

 and the Namaqua encampment, from which he had come, appeared ; — the 

 baboon then gave up the pursuit." 



How gloriously well our travellers would have pulled to- 

 gether, had they only arranged to have united their forces 

 at starting ! The gallant Captain espies an elephant in the 

 distance, flapping its huge ears, and whetting its ivories 

 against the trunk of a tree ; and, without thinking it necessa- 

 ry to say a syllable to any one of his party, shoulders his rifle 

 and marches singly off, with a determination to scrape ac- 

 quaintance with the lordly animal. If all the hairy baboons 

 in the universe lay in his way, or were crying " quah" behind 

 him, he would not so much as condescend to whisk his cap at 

 them. At forty yards distance he has brought his piece to 

 bear, and covered the fatal spot behind the shoulder of the 

 noble beast ; the trigger is about to be pulled, when he finds 



