SOUTHERN AFItlCA. 2G1 



like figures of human form were observed through a telescope, 

 making- Avith all dispatch for a neighbouring- hill, the sum- 

 mit of which was crowded with them. Anxious to obtain 

 information regarding our position, we halted the caravan^ 

 and made friendly signs to induce the wild beings to ap- 

 proach. After waril}^ reconnoitring us from their 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 with such 

 circumspection, the sum total of intelligence gained was, 

 that Piet Whitefoot, the Coranna captain, resided about 

 three da3''s 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 surrounding- hills. 



The following morning we unyoked for half an hour at a 

 small river, near a nest which contained upwards of thirty 

 women. These saucy gipsies, as usual, approached the wag- 

 gons with great familiarity, pointing to the flatness of their 

 stomachs, and suing for tobacco, A\hich 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 

 loft}^ scaifolding, used in the manufacture of riems, or lea- 

 thern halters. Hence, a made road led us across a stream 

 of considerable size, pronounced b}' the followers, with their 

 usual sagacity, to be the Beit river, although subsequently it 

 was discovered to be the llodder, rising near the missionary 

 station of Thaba Uncha, and joining the Likwa a little above 

 the cmhouclmre of the Nu Gareep. The sheep having- been 

 placed in a deep pit to prevent them from straying, were 

 visited during the night by a party of hyoenas, which slaugl;(. 



