SOUTHERN AFRICA. 145 
in riding. The hills were mostly covered with thick under- 
wood, and on the plains were so many straggling trees of 
the thorny mimosa, just distant enough from each other for 
their spreading branches to meet and annoy passengers, 
that we were obliged to quit the direct road, wliich was no 
more than a foot-path, every moment. In the course of the 
journey we passed a number of villages containing each from 
ten to thirty huts, some of which were deserted, but others 
very populous. A great crowd of people of all descriptions 
flocked down on every side and followed us along the roud. 
The weather being warm, the men had thrown aside their 
cloaks and were entirely naked. But the women reserved 
their cloaks of calf-skin and close leather caps, which, with 
the heat of the weather, and the exertions they made to 
gratify their curiosity by the sight of the strangers, seemed 
to incommode them not a little. 
On arriving at his place of residence, we found that the 
king, not having expected us until the following day, had 
gone to his grazing village situated about ten or twelve miles to 
the northward, in consequence of some intelligence he had re- 
ceived of the wolves having committed great depredations 
among his young cattle on the preceding night. A mes- 
senger was therefore immediately dispatched after him ; 
and in the mean time the king's mother, a well-looking 
woman, apparently about five-and-thirty, and his queen, 
a very pretty Kaffer girl, about fifteen, with their female 
attendants, to the number of fifty or sixty, formed a circle 
round us, and endeavoured to entertain us with their good- 
humored and lively conversation, which would have been the 
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