A REGULAR TRADE FOR IVORY. 
541 
the traders would not arrive among the Bichuana nations during the 
months when their corn is standing on the ground, as no business of 
this nature could, agreeably to their customs, be transacted at that 
season. A glance at the map will at once point out the most 
advisable road : from Uitenhage the caravan should take the direct 
road to GraafFreynet ; thence, over the Snow Mountains, and along 
the Seacow river, in which district the required number of sheep may 
be purchased at the cheapest rate, should the natives still continue to 
prefer these to beads : the caravan should then cross to the right 
bank of the Nugariep, along which it should continue to travel till it 
reached the Kygariep ; and afterwards following the course of this 
river upwards till it fell in with the Hart river, it should keep com- 
pany with this latter stream as far as the Kora Kraal of that name ; 
and from this point, proceeding northward, it would arrive in the 
heart of the elephant-country, without communicating with the 
inhabitants either of Klaarwater or Litakun, whose jealousy, possibly, 
might operate in throwing obstacles in the way of persons whom tliey 
might consider as interfering in a market which they might wish to 
render exclusively their own. 
The length of the journey here proposed, appears, indeed, to 
present some obstacle to an undertaking of this nature ; but it may, 
with respect to time, be rendered less formidable by stationing a relay 
of draught-oxen at one of the farms near to, but not immediately on, 
the Colonial boundary : an arrangement which would be equally 
beneficial to the caravan either outward or homeward-bound. With 
respect to the expense attendant upon so long a journey, it would 
seem that the profits of a trade of this kind, would well counterbalance 
it ; and offer sufficient inducement to put the speculation to the test; 
of at least one journey. 
The history of geographic knowledge shows us that mercantile 
enterprises have, more frequently than any other single cause, opened 
the way to a better acquaintance with foreign nations and countries. 
They bring men in contact for their mutual advantage, and bind them 
in friendship, by the benefits which each derives from the other : they 
nake nations known to each other, whom no motive besides self- 
