340 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXVIII. 



tongue of rumour had not been idle. Our colonial 

 friends, who had entertained so contemptuous an 

 idea of our travelling capabilities, were by no means 

 unprepared for this dismal intelligence, which had 

 spread far and wide, and was even credited at the 

 Cape. Unimportant though it may appear, it had 

 nevertheless proved the death-blow to tiie domestic 

 happiness of most of our followers — their faithless 

 consorts having soon forgotten their plighted vows, 

 and embraced the earliest opportunity of casting 

 aside their widow's weeds. The report was sub- 

 sequently traced to a Lothario from the frontier, 

 who had actually backed the offer of his hand and 

 heart to Ethaldur's relict, with the assurance that 

 he had himself performed the last melancholy offices 

 for her husband, to whose corpse the infidels had 

 offered indignities too barbarous to be here recorded. 

 Sixty-nine casualties had already occurred 

 amongst our oxen; and on the 24th another 

 victim being left in the Sneuwbergen, we had 

 barely a sufficient number remaining to drag our 

 waggons into the village of Graaff Reinet. This 

 dreadful mortality, although partly attributable to 

 the rapidity of our march, which will have been 

 estimated from the extent of ground we passed over 

 — was owing in a still greater measure to the neg- 

 lect and cowardice of the Hottentots, and eventually 

 swelled the expenses of the expedition to £800 

 sterling. But it is proper to state, for the informa- 

 tion of those of my Indian friends who may resolve 

 upon such a campaign, that by entertaining a suffi- 



