228 
TRAVELS IN 
I perceived not a single human creature, but my ears were 
stunned with a horrid scream hke the war-hoop of savages ; 
the shrieking of women and the cries of children were heard 
on every side. I rode up in company with the commandant 
and another farmer, both of whom fired upon the kraal. I 
immediately expressed to the former my very great surprise 
that he, of all others, should have been the first to break a 
condition which he had solemnly promised to observe, not to 
fire upon the poor wretches, and that I had accordingly ex- 
pected from him a very different kind of conduct. " Good 
" God !" he exclaimed, " have you not seen a shower of 
" arrows falling among us ?" I certainly had not seen either 
arrows or people to shoot them, but I had heard sufficient to 
pierce the hardest heart ; and told the commandant that if 
either he or any of his party should fire another shot, I should 
certainly order them up to Cape Town to answer for their 
proceedings. In justification of their conduct they pretended 
to search on the ground for the arrows, a search in which I 
encouraged them to continue, in order to give the poor 
wretches a little time to scramble away among the detached 
fragments of rocks and the shrubbery that was growing on 
the side of the heights. On their promises I soon found 
no sort of dependence could be placed, knowing that, like 
true sportsmen when game was sprung, they could not with- 
hold their fire. Of this I had a woful proof on repairing to 
the opposite side of the hill, where the report of a musquet had 
reached us. On riding round the point, I perceived a Bos- 
jesman lying dead upon the ground. It appeared, on inquiry 
into the circumstances of the case, that as one of our partv, 
who could speak their language, was endeavouring to prevail 
