AFRICA. 273 
ceed towards a clufter of mountains to the 
fouth-eaft. The horde to which I was travel- 
ling was nearly three leagues diftant ; and to 
reach It we muft have marched directly againfl: 
the wind, which would not have been praai- 
cable. 
T gave orders, therefore, for our departure. 
My baggage, which was now buried in fand, 
was uncovered ; the oxen were loaded, and v/e 
fet off. But though we had the wind a little 
on one fide of us, it greatly retarded our pro- 
grefs. My favagcs endeavoured in vain to 
drive the oxen in a dired line toward the 
mountains : the wind was fo impetuous, that 
the poor beafts, as well as ourfelves, in fpite or 
all their efforts, gradually declined to leeward ; 
fo that our backs were frequently turned to the 
path we intended to purfue. 
^ What I here relate will by no means fur- 
prife thofe who have travelled in the fourhern 
parts of Africa. They know the terrible effeds 
of the fouth-eaft wind ; and they are not Igno- 
rant, that, if certain diftrifts, and more efpe- 
cially certain mountains, are deftitute of every 
kind of vegetation, and confequently uninha- 
VoL. III. T bitable. 
