CiiAP.XX.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 171 



selves down to repose — previously relaxing their 

 leathern girdles, wliich are so contrived as to be 

 readily expanded according to their girth. 



How truly has it been remarked by Captain 

 Owen, that the state of those countries which have 

 had little or no intercourse with civilized nations, is 

 a direct refutation of the theories of poets and philo- 

 sophers, who would represent the ignorance of the 

 savage as virtuous simplicity — his miserable poverty 

 as frugality and temperance — and his stupid indo- 

 lence as laudable contempt for wealth ; widely 

 different indeed wei'ethe facts wdiich came imder our 

 observation ; and doubtless it will ever be found, 

 that imcultivated man is a compound of treachery, 

 cunning, debauchery, gluttony, and idleness. 



As the sun was setting, our friend the rhinoceros 

 imprudently appeared upon the bank of the river 

 within pistol shot. Five balls were immediately 

 lodged in his body, with which he retreated, and 

 was picked up the following morning. 



Leaving the Tolaan River, we passed between two 

 ranges of hills, and travelled nearly south-east, over 

 a rugged country, strewed with huge loose masses 

 of stone, and thickly covered with low bush. To the 

 right, extensive stone walls marked the site of a once 

 flourishing Bamaliti town, now destroyed. At noon 

 we unyoked in a well- watered valley, covered with 

 turf and abundantly cultivated. Here 'Unchobe, 

 the captain of an adjacent Matabili kraal, paid us 

 the compliment of climbing into the waggon, and 

 of squatting himself without ceremony upon my 



