364 TRAVELS IN 
offered to provide me with a team of fix oxen 
well trained to the yoke, if I would give him 
in exchange one of my mufkets, with twelve 
pounds of powder, and lead enough to caft 
two hundred balls. 
The bargain would have been fufEciently 
advantageous to me, and, had he afked triple 
the value in other articles, I would not have he- 
fitated. But to furnifh a man of his charader 
with arms was putting it in his power to do 
ftill greater mifchief: I therefore pofitively 
refufed. He, on his part, would hear of wo 
other terms, and there the matter refted, not- 
"withftanding the reprefentations of my Hot- 
tentots, who, tired of the pains they had 
taken to train thefe untameable beafts, urged 
me to compliance. 
Thefe men, who at firft had made a jeft 
of the trouble of breaking them in, now de- 
fpaired of it. I was well aware of the per- 
plexity of my fituatipn ; but I was refolved 
to fuffer any diftrefs rather than confent to the 
bargain. Accordingly, renouncing all hope 
of coming to an agreement, I fixed for my 
departure the 2 1 ft of May ; and, when the day 
arrived, the oxen w^ere yoked. 
I The 
