220 EXPEDITION INTO 



of our expedition had been thus for fully accomplished^ we 

 should at once set out on our return to the Colony by the 

 unexplored route. 



Right joyfully was this announcement received by our fol- 

 lowers. Ever discontented with their present lot, the Hot- 

 tentots had long" impatiently sig-hed for the drunken brawls 

 of the canteen, and the bewitching- smiles of their absent 

 sweethearts. Coeur de Lion could instantly perceive in dim 

 perspective the auspicious termination of Ids perils b}^ sea 

 and land ; nor was the worshipper of the cow^ in his turn, 

 less pleased at the increased prospect of escape from a land 

 so little suited to the prejudices of his caste. The bovine 

 appearance of most of the African animals having* precluded 

 this faithful follower from partaking- of their fleshy he had 

 suffered g-reater privations than any one, and had not unfre- 

 quently been compelled to observe a fast. Without a mo- 

 ment's loss of time, Kobus repaired his dilapidated violin, 

 which in a fit of passion he had broken over a comrade's 

 head ; and a wild-peppermint tea-part}-, wuth dancing- to its 

 discordant notes round our g-ipsy fire, celebrated the ap- 

 proaching- termination of the campaig-n. 



At noon on the 16th of December, then, bidding- a final 

 adieu to the enchanting- forests of Cash an, we turned our 

 faces to the southward, and having crossed a small rang-e of 

 hills, which were all that divided us from the vast plains of 

 the Yaal River, entered at once upon a new reg'ion, totally 

 different in character from all that we had hitherto tra- 

 versed. Such had been the recent abundance of Avater, 

 that our people had for some time past allowed the whole- 

 some practice of filling- the water-flag-ons to fall into des- 

 uetude ; and we had in consequence the felicity of passing- 

 the night without any of that necessary, although A^'e tra- 

 velled until dark in the hope of finding- it. A ponderous 

 bull eland, with only one horn, being observed in the 



