88 
AN UNPLEASANT NIGHT. — HOTTENTOT COOKS. 12, 13 March, 
exceedingly cramped his movements, and obliged him to bend for- 
ward in a posture the most inconvenient. 
Having satisfied my curiosity, 1 left the party and retired to rest, 
it being my intention to proceed on the journey at an early hour in 
the morning. There was much lightning and thunder during the 
night ; and, to render it more unpleasant, I had not long fallen asleep, 
when I was awakened by a cold piercing wind blowing so keenly 
through my blankets, that it felt as if there had been no covering 
whatever upon me. Our fires being out, I was obliged to content 
myself with wrapping my blankets, and watch-coat closer about 
me ; but scarcely had I again laid my head on the saddle, when a 
heavy shower of rain and hail poured down, and soon ran through 
my bedding and completely flooded the ground. As it was not 
possible at such a time to make a fire, and as the night was ex- 
tremely dark, I remained patiently in that situation till morning, still 
hoping for sleep. 
13th. As soon as daylight appeared, I rose from my miserable 
bed, which I found literally lying in water ; and, shaking off the hail- 
stones from the blanket, dragged it over a bush that it might dry a 
little before it was packed up. Few of these hailstones were much 
less than half an inch in diameter ; and I found them, under the 
bushes, where they had been drifted in large quantities by the wind, 
frozen together into solid masses. The thermometer therefore, if I 
had had one with me, would have been found at least as low as the 
freezing point. 
As soon as fuel could be collected on the plain, the men made 
a fire and cooked breakfast ; but though Hottentots are always 
bad cooJcSi these men had lately become worse ; and my meat was 
brought to me, more in the state of something picked up after a con- 
flagration, than of any thing intended to be eaten. Though never 
boasting myself Epicuri de grege poixum, my patience in these matters, 
was now exhausted : I scolded my cook, and for the first time on the 
journey, I made some attempt myself at cooking ; and, although I 
could not help smiling at my own inexpertness and at this laughable 
