124 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



lope frequent these pans for the purpose of licking the 

 brack or salt ground, to which they are very partial. 

 The pan vi^hich we had reached was formerly visited 

 by Boers and Griquas for the purpose of obtaining salt, 

 but had of late years been abandoned for others yield- 

 ing it of a better quality. The country around was 

 consequently undisturbed; and, being utterly uninhab- 

 ited, was lonely, and as still as the grave. 



On the morning of the 21st I left my wagons encamp- 

 ed beside the salt-pan, and, having proceeded about half 

 a mile in a northerly direction along a seldom-trodden 

 wagon-track, I discovered a fountain of excellent water, 

 but very strongly impregnated with saltpeter. This 

 fountain I afterward learned is termed by the Boers 

 " Cruit Vonteyn," or Powder Fountain, its waters re- 

 sembling the washings of a gun-barrel ; but the Gri- 

 quas more elegantly call it "Stink Vonteyn." At 

 breakfast-time I was joined by a party of ruffianly Gri- 

 quas, who were proceeding with a dilapidated-looking 

 wagon, which had no sail, to hunt hartebeests and blue 

 wildebeests in the vicinity of a small fountain to the 

 northeast, where game was reported abundant. They 

 were accompanied by several wild-looking, naked Bush- 

 men attendants, whom they had captured when young, 

 and domesticated. These drove their shooting-horses 

 loose behind the wag:;n, grazing as they went along. 

 I also observed a couple of milch cows with calves 

 among their loose oxen, a healthy luxury without which 

 that race of people seldom proceed on a journey. The 

 country occupied by the Griquas extends from Rhama, 

 a village on the Orange River, about thirty miles to the 

 east of my present position, to Griquastadt, their cap- 

 ital, a village situated about a hundred miles to the 

 northward of the junction of the Vaal with the Orange 



