124 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



lope frequent these pans for the purpose of licking the 

 brack or salt ground, to which they are very partial. 

 The pan which we had reached was formerly visited 

 by Boers and Griquas for the purpose of obtaining salt, 

 but had of late years been abandoned for others yield- 

 ing it of a better quality. The country around was 

 consequently undisturbed ; and, being utterly uninhab- 

 ited, was lonely, and as stiU as the grave. 



On the morning of the 21st I left my wagons encamp- 

 ed beside the salt-pah, and, having proceeded about half 

 a mile in a northerly direction along a seldom-trodden 

 wagon-track, I discovered a fountain of excellent water, 

 but very strongly impregnated with saltpeter. This 

 foimtain I afterward learned is termed by the Boers 

 " Cruit Vonteyn," or Powder Fountain, its waters re- 

 sembling the washings of a gun-barrel ; but the Gri- 

 quas more elegantly call it " Stink Vonteyn." At 

 breakfast-time I was joined by a party of ruffianly Gri- 

 quas, who were proceeding with a dilapidated-looking 

 wagon, which had no sail, to hunt hartebeests and blue 

 wildebeests in the vicinity of a small foimtain to the 

 northeast, where game was reported abundant. They 

 were accompanied by several wild-looking, naked Bush- 

 men attendants, whom they had captured when young, 

 and domesticated. These drove their shooting-horges 

 loose behind the wagon, grazing as they went along. 

 I also observed a couple of milch cows with calves 

 among their fcose oxen, a healthy luxury without which 

 that race of people seldom proceed on a journey. The 

 country occupied by the Griquas extends from Rhama, 

 a village on the Orange River, about thirty miles to the 

 east of my present position, to Griquastadt, their cap- 

 ital, a village situated about a hundred miles to the 

 northward of the junction of the Vaal with the Orange 



