Mr. Patterson's Travels in Africa. 



Extract from Mr. Pattersons Travels in 

 Africa^ in the Year 1778. 



" In the month of August we reached the Hart Beast 

 Hiver, situated in the Interior of Africa, in the Country of 

 the Hottentots, and several hundred miles north of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The Country which we had passed 

 through in coming from the Cape was very mountainous, 

 and most of the Hills form Pyramids of large, loose, red, 

 iandy stone. Here we found but few Plants in flower, 

 except of the succulent kind. We were now arrived near 

 the Camis Berg, a very high mountain, where we found a 

 good supply of water; in the morning we directed our 

 course to the West, and in our road passed several danger- 

 ous precipices. In the afternoon we came to a House 

 belonging to a Dutchman, near a River called the Green 

 River; here we stopped all night. 



u The Hottentots were very civil and friendly, and 

 brought us some milk, for which we exchanged with them 

 tobacco and hemp leaves, which they prefer to the former. 

 Their manner of living is plain and simple, nor did they 

 seem to possess that savage and uncouth character which 

 has been so generally attributed to them by travellers. 

 They amused us for a part of the night by a spectacle of 

 dancing, and in return we treated them with tobacco and 

 dacka. Their music consists chiefly of flutes, which they 

 form from the bark of trees of different sizes. In the after- 

 noon we directed our course northwards, through a heavy 

 sandy plain, which our cattle had much difficulty in cross- 

 ing, and at night we came to the Great River, and our 

 Horses being much fatigued, we waited till our waggon 

 arrived. Here we found many Hippopotami or River 

 Horses of immense size and bulk, and wounded one, which 

 afterwards escaped by plunging into the tream. 



