278 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXI. 



close behind her, she did not perceive either Piet or 

 myself, and was retiring, when one of the followers 

 foolishly firing at her, she galloped back through 

 the middle of our party, and being joined by a lion, 

 disappeared among the bushes. 



The savage loneliness of this wild spot might 

 well have constituted it the metropolis of Fera ; 

 but in spite of all the warnings we had received, it 

 was with the greatest difficulty, and not before we 

 had set the example in person, that the perverse 

 Hottentots could be induced to suspend hostilities 

 against the Zeekoes, and construct a thorn fence 

 for the security of the cattle. Scarcely was it com- 

 pleted before there set in a drenching and dismal 

 night, which has left behind it, on my mind, an 

 indelible impression. If the panorama that pre- 

 sented itself on our first arrival, had agreeably re- 

 called to recollection the inconsistent medleys of a 

 dream, the gloomy terrors of the night that now 

 succeeded, might fitly be likened to an incubus. 

 " Darkness that could be felt," and torrents of rain, 

 accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning, and peals 

 of deafening thunder, were rendered trebly terrible 

 by the howling of the wind, the incessant snorting 

 of hippopotami in the river, and the prowling of 

 lions around our slender fortification. About mid- 

 night the affrighted oxen contrived to effect their es- 

 cape, and after fruitless attempts to recover them, we 

 were left in no very enviable plight, to muse, while 

 we counted the tedious hours until morning, upon 

 the improbability of our ever finding them again. 



