Chap. XXXV.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 313 



fastnesses, nine of them at length ventured down, 

 and having replied to our questions in fear and 

 trembling, received some tobacco and retreated. 

 Their intercourse being conducted wi^h such cir- 

 cumspection, the sum total of intelligence gained 

 was, that Piet Whitefoot, the Coranna captain, 

 resided about three days' journey to the westward. 

 At sunset, having advanced twenty miles, we crossed 

 a small stream and drew up on the bank, making 

 the whole of the cattle fast to the waggons, lest 

 they should fall into the hands of the Lilliputians, 

 several of whose watch-fires were visible on the sur- 

 rounding hills. 



The following morning we unyoked for half an 

 hour at a small river, near a nest which contained 

 upwards of thirty women. These gipsies, as usual, 

 approached the waggons with great familiarity, 

 pointing to the flatness of their stomachs, and suing 

 for tobacco, which luxury was doled out to them 

 by the inch. Twenty miles more brought us to 

 another deserted camp of the emigrant farmers, in 

 which, amongst other interesting marks of human 

 labour, stood a lofty scaffolding, used in the manu- 

 facture of riems, or leathern halters. Hence, a made 

 road led us across a stream of considerable size, 

 pronounced by the followers, with their usual sa 

 gacity, to be the Reit river, although subsequently 

 it was discovered to be the Modder, rising near the 

 missionary station of Thaba Uncha, and joining 

 the Likwa a little above the embouchure of the Nu 

 Gareep. The sheep having been placed in a deep 



P 



