2a CUPIDO. 
and never had I felt the sun more powerful than on 
this occasion, the thermometer standing at 98° in the 
shade of my tent on the river’s bank, and rising to 
140° on exposure to the sun. Feeling now particu- 
larly anxious to ascertain how far distant we might 
be from Griqua Town, and in what direction it was 
situated, I made every inquiry of the Bushmen, who 
gave me to understand that they knew nothing of 
such a place; but that their chief Waterboer’s kraal 
was about a day’s journey on the other side of the 
river. We here found extremely useful the services 
of an active young Bush-boy, named Cupido, who 
had accompanied the farmer’s son from Winterveldt. 
He had been brought up with the Boors, and spoke 
Dutch; we therefore made him our interpreter. 
Having with some difficulty prevailed upon one of 
the native Bushmen to accompany me to the “ Groote 
kraal” of their Chief, which I conjectured to be the 
place I was in quest of, the next thing to be done 
was to convey our horses over the river, here about 
four hundred yards in breadth, and with an ex- 
tremely rapid current. The Bushmen had a super- 
stitious dread of crossing at the spot where we were 
stationed, saying, that it was “ evil water,’ which 
often drowned people. They insisted on our going 
a considerable distance farther up, where they af- 
firmed the water was “ good ;” and where their 
women, from the opposite side, came down singing 
and clapping their hands, as if to soothe and pacify 
