AFRICA. 
fo far as to have refpeding them nothing to 
apprehend. 
Fortunately no perfon was loft, and my 
oxen only fuffered by the accident. Several of 
them were lamed by confiderable burns, and 
one perifhed in the flames, without its being 
in our power to afford him affiftance. 
To behold this huge animal ftruggling in 
the midft of the conflagration, the fury of 
which was increafed by his violent plunging, 
was a fight at once dreadful and fublime i The 
diftant air rung with his cries. He foon ex^^ 
pired. The fire was fo ftrong, that he was. 
roafted to the very entrails ; and when it was 
extinguiflied, my people ate his remains, with- 
out any farther preparation. 
Warned by the fatal accident that might 
have befallen me, I cannot too ftrongly recom- 
mend to thofe who may travel in Africa, never 
to encamp on old deferted kraals. Had the 
wind blown towards the fide where I was 
fituated, there is no doubt but the flames would ^ 
foon have communicated to my waggons ; and 
it is more than probable that, as I flept in 
the one which contained my whole ftock of 
powder, I fhould have been blown up and 
B b 3 deftroyed, 
