342 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXVIIJ. 



less desert hath charms for me, which it would not 

 possess in the eyes of the less enthusiastic, they would 

 have found no cause to repent of their rashness. 

 To all others I prefer a life of adventure — its very 

 privations, when coupled with scenes such as I have 

 attempted to describe, constituting an excitement 

 peculiarly adapted to my humour. The tracts 

 through which we travelled extending into the tem- 

 perate zone, and being surrounded also on three 

 sides by the ocean, while they possess the advantage 

 of a moderate climate, are the nursery of the noblest 

 quadrupeds. There was something tnily soul- 

 stirring and romantic in wandering among these 

 free-born denizens of the desert — realizing as it 

 were a new creation, in regions hitherto seldom, if 

 ever, trodden by white man's foot. During the 

 whole period that we were absent from the colony, 

 I never once omitted to take the field at break of 

 day, or as soon after as the weather would permit, 

 frequently preparing my own breakfast, and never 

 returning imladen with spoils. Firmly determined 

 to bring back correct delineations of the whole of 

 the ferae naturae inhabiting Africa, south of the 

 tropic, I never moved without drawing materials 

 in my hunting-cap, and during brief cessations from 

 hostilities, found ample employment for the pencil 

 instead of the rifle. 



Although the Indian traveller, who has been ac- 

 customed to the accommodation afforded by tents 

 and retinue, can form little conception of the ten 

 thousand difficidties, distresses, and drawbacks. 



