AFRICA. 371 
was become a ftratum of turf, a fiilphureoua 
and inflammable foil. 
No one had attended to this ; no one in- 
deed could have well perceived it ; for the 
whole fpot on which we encamped was com- 
pletely covered with a few inches of finefand, 
which had been conveyed thither by the winda 
But no fooner had we lighted our nodurnal 
fires than they communicated to the dried 
dunghill underneath its covering, and, fecretly 
pervading the mafs and penetrating it in every 
direftion, at laft inflamed the whole. In pro- 
portion as It burned and was converted to 
afhes, it funk down, and thereby occafioned 
vacuities which, affording a paffage to the air, 
increafed and fpread the combuftion. At 
length, about the middle of the night, the con- 
flagration burfl: forth, the flames made their 
appearance, and they who firfl: perceived them 
gave the alarm of fire to waken the reft and 
procure afliftance. 
I was afleep in my waggon : their cries 
fuddenly awaked me ; and the reader may 
judge of my fright, upon feeing- twenty pillars 
of fire afcending from the midft of my camp, 
my Hottentots removing their huts, howling 
B b 3 like 
