AFRICA, 137 
I recruited a few more Hottentots ; and I 
purchafed feveral oxen and goats; together 
Vvlth a cow, to afford me milk ; and a cock, 
which I intended to be my natural alarum in 
the morning. 
There is not a fmgle naturalift, nor even a 
clown, in the country, v/ho does not know that 
a cock crows regularly during night at the 
fame hour, and that he takes care to proclaim 
the return of day. 
I muil here obferve that fome have pre- 
tended, in more than one public paper, to 
ridicule this precaution (which procured me 
pleafure, if it did not afford me a refource in 
the moment of necefiity), by making me utter 
abfurd fpeeches, which agree very ill with the 
emphafis of the narrator. When they affured 
the public that I expedled to fupply by a cock 
the place of my watch, fhould it happen to be 
deranged, they ought alfo to have informed 
< 
the incredulous, at leaft, in what manner a cock 
can ever become a w^atch. In the fame ftyle 
it has been faid, that, meeting a lion for the 
firft time, " we ineafured each other with a 
haughty iook^ and fuffered each other to pafs 
" quietly; 
