288 TRAVELS IN • 
been wounded in the leg by one of them, was 
ill for more than fix months. 
Mr. Mallard, an officer belonging to the 
regiiiient of Pondicherry, at the Cape of Good 
Hope, being pricked in hunting one of thefe 
animals, had nearly loft his leg by the wound ; 
and, notwithftanding all the care that was taken 
of him, he fuiFered dreadful tortures for more 
than four months, during the firft of which he 
w^as confined to his bed. 
The porcupine, however, is excellent eating; 
and its flefii is often ferved up on the genteeleft 
tables at the Cape, after it has been carefully 
fmoked. 
■9 
After travelling an hour and a half, I or- 
dered my caravan to halt ; but we flopped no 
longer than was neceflary to colled a fuffi- 
cient provifion of fait on the borders of a 
brackifli lake which wq found in our way ; 
and, two leagties farther, I advanced before the 
reft, to vifit a plantation which I perceived on 
our left. I found that it had been plur.dered 
and burnt by the Caffres ; for nothing re- 
mained of it but fome pieces of the walls, 
black with fmoke, and calcined by the flames : 
a very difmal appearance in the bofom of a 
defart ! 
An 
