AFRICA. 253 
whofe promlfes I prudently repofed very little 
confidence, I ordered fome frefli branches to 
be thrown into thefe fires, to keep them burn« 
ing till day-light, and we then went and laid 
ourfelves down on mats at the diftance of 
fifty paces farther. We were not difturbed 
in our fleep; and next morning Hans, with 
two of my Hottentots well armed, fetting 
out before, I appointed them to meet us at a 
place two leagues diftant from us, that is to 
fay, within a league of the kraal, and to 
come immediately and give us an account of 
what they had feen. In two hours they re- 
turned, and informed me, with equal grief 
and aftonifliment, that they had found the 
kraal In very good condition, but that, like 
the reft, it was abfolutely deferted ; upon 
which I continued my route to the fpot, and 
took poffeffion of this new empire. In this 
kraal, which was remarkably extenfive, we 
found above an hundred huts apparently very 
ancient, and conftruded with great folidlty ; 
they were diftributed in the ordinary manner, 
and ^it the ufual diftances, and it appeared 
that the inhabitants had been alarmed with- 
out caufe, for we obferved no ruins, and not 
a fingle dead body. In one of the huts they 
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