266 
PLAINS OF TALL GRASS. — ALARMING APPEARANCES. 20 June, 
" Then, Sir, we shall, not one of us, ever come back ; we are all 
murdered men !" 
20th. From the Kora Rock-Fountain, we travelled over a level 
country varied here and there with hills of moderate elevation. The 
soil, which was of a sandy nature and remarkably red, was every 
where thickly covered with standing grass about three feet high, 
which, being at this season quite dry and having assumed an 
autumnal tint, presented exactly the appearance of European 
cornfields of boundless extent ; and which, from its height and 
color, very much resembled that variety which farmers term * red 
wheat.' * 
When we had travelled about twelve miles, my Hottentots, 
who, like all their tribe, possessed an extraordinary power of sight 
in discerning objects at a distance, came to me and with evident 
alarm^ reported that they saw on before us, six strange men whom 
they believed to be Bushmen. The story which I have just re- 
lated, or the impressions they had received at Klaarwater, appeared 
to have taken fast hold on their minds, so that they were ready to 
view every dubious occurrence as the forerunner of danger. I im- 
mediately took out my telescope, but although with the naked eye 
1 myself saw nothing, I was enabled with the glass to distinguish but 
little more than they had already discovered without it. Two of 
these strange men appeared to carry guns, and as they were running 
with great speed, we concluded that they had fallen in with Speelman 
and Keyser who had preceded us for the sake of hunting ; and that 
having murdered them, and robbed them of their muskets, they 
were thus hastening out of our reach. This suspicion, which was 
instantly taken for fact by all my men and which I could not myself 
think very improbable, seemed to be confirmed by our observing 
* The chief grasses were of the genera Andropogon, Aristida, Anthistiria and Poa. 
A new species of Cissampelos met with here, is to be found generally in every part of 
the Transgariepine ; it is the 
Cissampelos calcarifera, Catal. Geogr. 1795. Fruticosa scandens volubilis (saepe 
humilior et erecta). Folia lineari-elliptica, pubescejitia. Petioli ad bases subtiis calcare 
brevi aucti. Flores parvi herbacei. 
