SOUTHERN AFRICA. 131 
very short, the marks of exuberant imagination strongly ap- 
peared. Me intitles it Pelion and Ossa. 
" As in Jove's war, by rebel giants pll'd, 
" Enormous Pelion tower'd cn Ossa wild, 
*' Behadur thus, the Pelion of our wood, 
" On sleek Peatirecy broad as Ossa, stood," i^c. 
The gigantic elephant is a harmless animal in comparison to 
the lion, the leopard, wolves, and hyeenas, and other beasts of 
prey with which this wild and rugged part of the country 
abounds ; and these even are much less dreaded than a nest 
of the most atrocious villains that ever disgraced and dis- 
turbed society, which these thickets conceal. The gang con- 
sists of seven or eight Dutch peasants, and a body of armed 
Hottentots which they retain in their service. They have no 
fixed habitation, but rove about from place to place in the 
woods. They live by the plunder taken from the neigh- 
bouring peasantry, and from unfortunate sufferers by ship- 
wreck, which frequently happens on this wild coast. They 
are all outlaws ; and rewards have been offered by govern- 
ment for taking them dead or alive ; but the peasantry are so 
much afraid of them that none dare approach the place. 
This gang is supposed to be intimately connected with the 
emigrant Kaffers, and to have instigated them to continue 
their abode in the colony. 
On the morning of the third of September, as we were pre- 
paring to pi'oceed, we had a visit from the four chiefs, Tatchoo, 
€omma,Yaloosa, and Hamboona, having each with him a detach- 
ment of his vassals. They at once confessed their fears of re- 
s ^ 
