354 TRAVELS IN 
to treat it, I directed them to apply poultices of bread, 
onions, and oil, and to wash the wound well with a solution 
of ammonia prceparatay and to give him plenty of vinegar to. 
drink. At the end of four days, which it took me in round- 
ing the mountain, the patient was no worse, but the wound, 
on the contrary, seemed to put on favorable appearances ; 
the other was nearly well. 
The Bosjesmans have been generally represented as a 
people so savage and blood-thirsty in their nature, that they 
never spare the life of any living creature which may fall into 
their hands. To their own countrymen, who have been taken 
prisoners by, and continued to live with, the Dutch farmers, 
they have certainly shewn instances of the most atrocious 
cruelty. These poor wretches, if retaken by their country- 
men, seldom escape being put to the most excruciating tor- 
tures. The party above-mentioned, having fallen in with a 
Hottentot at some distance from any habitation, set him up 
to the neck in a deep trench, and wedged him in so fast with 
stones and earth that he was incapable of moving. In this 
situation he remained a whole night, and the greater part of 
the following day; when, luckily, some of his companions 
passed the place and released him. The poor fellow stated 
that he had been under the necessity of keeping his eyes and 
mouth in perpetual motion the whole day, to prevent the 
crows from devouring him. 
The habitations that compose the division of the Ilantam, 
lie scattered round the feet of that mountain. The face of 
the country is similar to that of the Sneuwberg, and the breed 
