1812. 
MEETING WITH RIIZO AND KAABI. 
23 
act of generosity at once established me in their good opinion, and 
Kaabi, for that was the chief's name, to express his gratitude, pledged 
himself for my safety while I remained in his part of the country, 
and for a friendly reception at his village. 
We then rode forward ; our Bushman friends following on foot, 
and evidently as happy at having gained my friendship, as I was at 
securing theirs. Guided only by my compass, as the day was dark 
and cloudy, we continued for nearly three hours travelling over a 
plain having no visible termination, nor any eminence to break its 
perfect uniformity. Its soil differed totally from that of the plain 
which we had crossed in the morning : the surface was of a harder 
nature, and in some places it was strewed with pebbles ; but scarcely 
any grass, and not a bush or shrub higher than half a foot, was any 
where to be seen. 
A herd of antelopes * of the species known among the boors 
by the misapplied name of Gemsbok f was observed at a distance, 
but on account of the openness of the country, it was useless for us 
to pursue them, as we could never have approached within musket 
shot. 
It rained incessantly the whole afternoon ; but towards sunset 
the weather began to clear up ; and, as all were most uncom- 
fortably wet, we resolved to unpack at the first spot which offered 
any shelter for the night, and the means of making a fire to dry our 
clothes. But no such place presenting itself, we were at last content 
to take up a station amongst a few stunted DriedoormX (Threethornsj 
the largest of which was not higher than three feet. Here, exposed 
upon the bare open plain, we passed the night. 
* Antilope Oryx. 
f The name of Gemsbok belongs properly to the Antilope ntpicapra of Europe, the 
Chamois of the Alps. By the same misuse of names, the Kanna of the Cape Colony is 
called Eland, which is the proper name of the Cerims Alces or Elk. So also is the name 
of a common European animal, the Reebok or Roebuck, applied to two animals of another 
genus, and which are found only in Southern Africa. 
:j: Rhigozum trichotomum ; described in the 1st volume, at page 299. 
