36 
CONFIDENCE AND MISTRUST. 
3 March, 
them, the greater part being women. To all I gave a piece oF 
tobacco, which was received with great joy. On this, the men 
forming one party and the women another, they proceeded instantly 
to light their pipes ; and sat talking and smoking with the highest 
glee and enjoyment. But in spirits, the women excelled their com- 
panions, and chatted with each other in a style of volubility which 
I had not supposed the Bushman language, with all the impediments 
of its numerous claps, susceptible of They invited us to hunt a 
rhinoceros which had lately been observed browsing in the vicinity 
of their kraal. 
So much confidence and goodwill, shown us by a people whom 
the Klaarwater missionaries had represented as the most ferocious of 
savages, warmed my heart with equally kind feelings towards them, 
and dispelled from my own mind every sensation of fear, however 
firmly I had resolved that no favorable appearances should ever 
lull our vigilance to sleep, or tempt us to think that precaution 
might ever be dispensed with. But most of my own Hottentots 
betrayed their timidity ; and both by their looks and conversation, 
declared their uneasiness at seeing so many visitors coming around 
them ; although their number, including the women, amounted only 
to fourteen. 
As soon as the heat of noon had passed, we left the verdant 
meadows of Grass Station, and rode the whole of this day in a 
south-easterly course over plains, in a right line towards Water- 
point, the eastern point of the Hyena Mountains, where we had been 
informed that we should find the kraal of our Bushman friend Kaabi. 
Ihe natives give it a name importing " Water-point," on account of 
the river taking its course round it. At the western end of this 
range, two table-mountains form a remarkable feature. 
When we had travelled nearly eight miles, we ascended a low 
hill on which we were glad at finding a small pool of water, and 
though it was quite muddy, halted that all the party might drink ; 
for the weather had become so excessively hot, that it felt almost as 
though the sun were pouring down liquid fire upon us. 
I had suffered myself to be guided over this hill by our last 
