CiiAP. XXXII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 281 



into the thicket. At length every thing was ready. 

 Little dreatning of the distance that still divided 

 them from their beloved gin-shop, the Hottentots 

 cheered and fired a salute, as they turned their 

 backs upon the " yellow river," and upon the exe- 

 crated dominions of his beer-drinking Majesty. 



We had not advanced more than three miles 

 before our progress was opposed by a furious storm 

 of hail and thunder. Many of the stones were half 

 an inch in diameter, and the oxen being unable to 

 face them, turned their backs to the pitiless shower, 

 and stood in the yokes. With some difficulty we at 

 last gained the shelter of a neighbouring hill, in an 

 amphitheatre enclosed by which we passed the night. 

 To Andries in particular this friendly spot wore an 

 aspect of charmed interest, it having been described 

 by 'Lingap^ with what truth I know not, as the scene 

 of Truey's enslavement. To me it is remarkable 

 from the circumstance of my having there, for the 

 last time, seen and destroyed the rhinoceros. 



Thus far on our pilgrimage we had been directed 

 in some measure by the course of rivers and moun- 

 tains, but daring the remainder of our journey we 

 were to be guided by the compass alone. A per- 

 fectly unexplored country intervened betwixt us and 

 the colony, and the distance that we had travelled 

 south of the known latitude of Mosega, convinced 

 me that we were still much farther from it than the 

 maps would indicate. It was believed by the Hot- 

 tentots that a southerly course would have led us to 

 Lishuani, the residence of Peter David, conjectured 



