REFLECTIONS ALLEN SICK GAME ABUNDANT. 301 



less nights I was often seized with an indescribable sensation 

 of sadness and melancholy. Death itself I did not fear ; but 

 to perish in a foreign land, in the midst of strangers, far away 

 from all I loved, was an idea tp which I could hardly recon- 

 cile myself What hand would close my eyes? what mourn- 

 er would follow my coffin ? or what friend would shed a tear 

 on my lonely and distant grave? 



I was alone ! Oh, may the reader never experience the 

 full meaning of that melancholy word ! 



After upward of two months of no ordinary sufferings, my 

 strong constitution prevailed, and I was convalescent; but 

 several weeks elapsed before I recovered my usual health and 

 vigor. 



John Allen was also seriously ill from the same malady, 

 which had the character of an epidemic, for in a very short 

 time it spread like wildfire throughout the length and breadth 

 of Great Namaqua-land, and vast numbers of people suc- 

 cumbed under it. The disease, indeed, was of so destructive 

 a nature that it swept off whole villages. In one kraal in 

 particular, all the inhabitants perished, and the cattle were 

 left to take care of themselves. 



Fever (the cause of which is unknown) is not common in 

 these parts, and makes its appearance only occasionally. 



We had pitched our tent, as already said, near the Houn- 

 top River. The country thereabout was a succession of vleys 

 or gulleys, then filled with excellent clear water, teeming with 

 water-fowl. Quails, birds of the grouse tribe, and wood- 

 pigeons, were also numerous. Of the larger animals we tad 

 the zebra, the springbok, the ostrich, and an occasional oryx 

 and hartebeest ; but, from their being much persecuted by 

 the natives, combined with nakedness of the country, they 

 were extremely wary and difficult of approach. 



Game of many kinds being thus abundant, it may well be 

 supposed that, as soon as my strength permitted me to carry 

 a gun, I at once took the field, as well for amusement as for 



