1812. 
AN EXCURSION PROPOSED. — NUAKKETSI SPIES. 
489 
were, in consequence, not so much molested ; but as we could no 
longer trust our provisions in the baggage-waggon where we had 
been used hitherto to leave them, the Hottentots were at last obliged 
to keep every thing of that kind behind them in the hut where they 
were sitting. 
This scarcity of provisions, and the continued state of fear in 
which most of my men had been during our residence at this town, 
determined me to make an excursion for three or four weeks, in order 
both to gain a stock of dried meat, and to allow my party some 
respite from their fears and some time to recover their former tone 
and spirits. 
To convince them, that such was my intention, I desired Gert, 
who, as I have remarked, could speak the Kora dialect with tolerable 
facility, to inform the Kora Captain privately, that when he and his 
people left Litakun, they should wait for me at the distance of two 
or three days-journeys out of the town ; and that I would follow them 
thither for the purpose of exchanging beads for some of their oxen : 
but that it was requisite that this arrangement should be kept a secret 
from the Bachapins, who possibly might endeavour to interrupt my 
bartering with them. This proposal afforded him much satisfaction, 
and was gladly accepted. 
Mattivi possessed a large share of that species of cunning which 
is peculiar to low and little minds, and which often has, upon the 
unwary, its intended effect. As I had seldom shown myself very 
credulous of tales fabricated from such materials, he considered that 
they would more easily operate upon my Hottentots, than upon 
myself; and, therefore, frequently intermingled information of this 
nature, in his conversations with them, as he sat by their fire in the 
evenings. 
It was with the view of deterring me from attempting to travel 
into the country of the Nuakketsies, that he informed my men that 
the three people of that tribe, who lately visited Litakun under 
pretence of bartering, were, in reality, only sent as spies, and detached 
from that body of robbers who had carried off the cattle from the 
three out-posts ; that their object was to ascertain who the white-man 
VOL. JT. 3 II 
