1812. 
MATTIVI'S BROTHER. 
337 
We had not, in our daily hunting excursions, which extended to 
the distance of several miles from our station, discovered any village 
or residences of the natives. Those who had visited us, had always 
come a long way from their home ; and this was the reason of our 
having hitherto seen so few inhabitants ; but in the afternoon, three 
Bichuanas joined our party, and remained with us till the next day. 
They told me they were herdsmen to Mattivi, and were lying at a 
cattle-place lower down the Makkwarin. 
They had lately been at Litakun ; and now reported to me that the 
elder brother of Mattivi, as soon as he heard of the approach of a white- 
person from the Colony, and supposing that he would return imme- 
diately after visiting that place, had conceived the desire, and actually 
formed the resolution, of making a journey to Cape Town, of which 
he had heard many accounts at Klaarwater. His plan was to return 
thither with me, and he had therefore long been expecting my arrival 
with impatience ; but having heard that I had finally left the Trans- 
gariepine, and had gone back to the Colony, (this report related to 
my journey to Graaffreynet) he had now, under great disappoint- 
ment, relinquished his intention. 
This story raised my curiosity and, at the same time, a wish to 
intended to contain my collection ; but on examination, the antelope I sought, was not 
there, neither were some others which were equally rare and valuable. At length an old 
packing-case was found, which had been nailed up in a manner which evinced that the 
preservation of its contents had not been the purpose for which it was intended ; and on 
its being opened I discovered, the skin of my Antilope lunata, together with another unde- 
scribed species, of which that also was the only individual ever shot or seen, and six others, 
all swarming with live moths and maggots, and their hair dropping off. That this irrepar- 
able destruction was attributable to a want of due care cannot be denied ; since those dupli- 
cates which I had retained in my own collection, remained still in as good condition as when 
they were first brought home. The motives which induced me to give these quadrupeds 
to our national museum, induced me also, to give the best of all which I possessed ; and I 
therefore permitted the person who was engaged by the museum for stuffing them, to come 
previously to my house and select those which he thought the finest and the most perfect. 
I have now only to regret the time and labor which have been lost during my travels, 
in preserving and bringing away those skins; as it would have been less vexatious to have 
left them to be eaten by maggots in the deserts of Africa, than in the British Museum : 
and I do hope, for the credit of that establishment and for the character of my country, 
as it relates to the pursuit and encouragement of science, that every future gift will meet 
with less neglect, and with a better fate, than mine has unfortunately experienced. 
VOL. II. X X 
