CHAP, n.l THE GHOU DAMUP. 49 



September 25th. — ^We came to a water-hole in the 

 sandy river bed, at a j)lace where it was flanked with 

 deep reeds. Stewartson had made us travel in the 

 middle of the day, and right in the midst of the deep 

 sand of the river — he seemed to have a most mar- 

 vellous dread of lions, though at this season of the 

 year night is the only fit time for travel, and I saw 

 clearly that the mules were knocked up; indeed we 

 only travelled three hours a day. There were lions 

 roaring about us all night, and as there was a long 

 reach of dry reeds, we set fire to it. It makes a 

 glorious bonfire, frightens the wild beasts, and im- 

 proves the pasturage very much. 



2Qth. — Intensely hot. We passed some Rhinoceros 

 spoors, and had a long chase after him, walking or 

 running many miles, but without success ; the chase, 

 fortunately, led us parallel to our course, so that we 

 regained the cart pretty easily. In the middle of the 

 day we met some Ghou Damup, and persuaded four 

 of them join us, I had a great curiosity about these 

 natives. It was so peculiar to see Negroes speaking 

 the language of a light-coloured race, the Hottentots, 

 and that too in a far more northern part of Africa 

 than Hottentots were believed to exist in. All published 

 maps up to the last two or three years, place a dotted 

 line no gi-eat distance north of the Orange River, with 

 the remark, that that is the northern limit of the 

 Hottentot race. Now not only were the Hottentots 

 by Walfisch Bay natives in the country, but here were 

 black people, a race living in amity with, but as 

 inferiors to these very Hottentots, and also speaking 



