20 MEMOIR OF LE VAILLANT. 



This first excursion, however, did not altogether 

 satisfy his curiosity; he undertook several others 

 even into more distant regions, and at length formed 

 the project of traversing the whole African conti- 

 nent. 



On the 15th of June -783, he set out from the 

 Cape and directed his course towards the north. 

 This second journey was much more troublesome 

 and fatiguing than the first. The greater part of 

 his equipage, which consisted of oxen, perished in 

 consequence of the excessive aridity of the country 

 through which he passed ; another part of his train 

 he was compelled to abandon on the left or south 

 bank of the Orange river. In these discouraging 

 circumstances, and with only a small retinue of 

 Hottentots, who had faithfully accompanied him 

 since his outset, he prosecuted his enterprise, ad- 

 vancing into regions then wholly unknown to 

 Europeans, and taking as his guides those succes- 

 sive hordes of savages through whose territories he 

 wandered, and whose friendship he had the good 

 fortune to propitiate by the frankness and affability 

 of his manners. 



But the farther he proceeded, the more did he 

 become convinced that his original design was im- 

 practicable. At length he arrived among the Hou- 

 suanas or Bushmen, who subsisted by plunder, and 

 whose very name spread terror among all the adja- 

 cent tribes Happily for our traveller he succeeded 

 in conciliating their good will; and judging from 

 their hardy and daring character, he conceived the 



