A NIGHT IN THE DESERT. 99 



tirely, and after wandering for several hours in the dark, 

 and firing blank shots at intervals, we lay down in the 

 open plain to sleep till morning, having tied our horses 

 to a thorny hush beside where we lay. I felt very cold 

 all night, but my thirst continued raging. My clothes 

 consisted of a shirt and a pair of knee-breeches. My 

 bed was the bull's hide laid over a thorny bush, which 

 imparted to my tough mattress the elasticity of a feath- 

 er bed. Having slept about two hours, I awoke, and 

 found that our horses had absconded; after which I 

 slept little. Day dawned, and I rose ; and on looking 

 about, neither Jacob nor I had the most remote idea 

 of the ground we were on, nor of the position of our 

 camp. 



Within a few hundred yards of us was a small hill, 

 which we ascended and looked about, but could not in 

 the least recognize the. ground. . I, however, ascertain- 

 ed the points of the compass and the position of my 

 camp by placing my left hand toward the rising sun. 

 I was then returning to the spot where I had slept, 

 when suddenly I perceived, standing within three hund- 

 red yards of me, the horse which I had fastened beside 

 the cow oryx on the preceding evening, and on going up 

 I found both all right. I immediately saddled the horse 

 and rode hard for camp, ordering Jacob to commence 

 skinning the cow, and promising to send him water and 

 bread as soon as I reached the wagons. 



On my way thither I met Cobus on horseback, bear- 

 ing bread and a bottle of water, wandering he knew 

 not whither, having entirely lost his reckoning. My 

 thirst had by this time departed, so I did not touch the 

 water, but allowed him to take it on to Jacob. He in- 

 formed me that John Stofolus was coming on with the 

 baggage- wagon to take up the venison, and before rid- 



