So 
TRAVELS IN 
and in all countries, should be received with a degree of 
caution. Those of Africa, I have generally observed, are 
much disposed to the marvellous. Before I ascended the 
hill in question I was told that the suftbcating smell of sul- 
phur constantly given out was scarcely to be supported, and 
that there was always a prodigious smoke, both of which 
were palpable falsehoods. 
We found encamped on the borders of the salt-water lake a 
farmer and his whole family, consisting of sons and daughters, 
and grandchildren ; of oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and dogs. 
He was moving to a new habitation ; and, in addition to his 
live-stock, carried with him his whole property in two wag- 
gons. He advised us to make fast our oxen to the waggons, 
as two of his horses had been devoured on the preceding night 
by lions. This powerful and treacherous animal is very com- 
mon in the thickets about the salt pan ; treacherous, because it 
seldom makes an open attack, but, like the rest of the feline 
genus, lies in ambush till it can conveniently spring upon its 
prey. Happy for the peasantry, the Hottentots, and those ani- 
mals that are the objects of its destruction, were its noble and 
generous nature, that so oft has fired the imagination of poets, 
realized, and if his royal paw disdained to stain itself in the 
blood of any sleeping creature ! The lion, in fact, is one of 
the most indolent of all the beasts of prey, and never gives 
himself the trouble of a pursuit unless hard pressed w^ith hun- 
ger. On our arrival at a farm-house on the banks of the 
Zwart-kop's river, a lion had just been shot by a trap-gun ; 
and shortly after one of the Hottentots had brought down a 
Jarge male buffalo. This animal (the bos cnffer of the Sijstema 
