SOUTHERN AFRICA, 175 
nient disposal of an unpleasant obje6l, became a siibjed: 
of ostentations parade ; and the -funeral pile by its extra- 
vagance having at length exhausted the forests, necessity 
obliged them to have recourse to other means, some to inter- 
ment, and others to exposure in high places to be devoured 
by crows and vultures. Had the Kaffers ever burned their 
dead in the country they now inhabit, they were under no ne- 
cessity of discontinuing the practice for want of fuel, being 
still immured in the midst of inexhaustible forests. 
The business that had brought us to the Kaffer king being 
finished, our next step was to examine the mouth of the Keis- 
kamma. The magnitude and strength of this river being so 
much superior to those of the Great-Fish River, gave us a hope 
that there might be found at its embouchure some kind of bay 
or harbour. Little is known of any part of the Kaffer coast 
between the mouth of the Great-Fish River and the Bay of 
Rio de la Goa ; so little, indeed, that in our latest and best 
Charts, this part of the Eastern coast of Africa is laid down 
on no better authority than what the reckoning has given of 
ships making the land on their homeward bound voyage from 
India. I shall have occasion hereafter to make a few ob- 
servations on this subject. 
As in our journey to the mouth of this river we had an un- 
travelled and an uninhabited country to pass, in order to ar- 
rive at our object, most of the party thought fit to quit us, 
and to seek amusement in shooting sea-cows in the Keis- 
kamma, whilst we turned off to the southward towards the 
sea-coast. In the dusk of the evening we came to a small 
