340 TRAVELS IN 
I thought that this retreat might enable me t® 
follow a new plan of life; and it was here 
that I intended for a little while to eftablifh 
my petty empire, if difagreeable news, or 
fome misfortune, did not oblige my mefTen- 
gers to return. I had however no time to 
lofe ; and precaution, always more indifpen- 
fable, and which I made a moft fevere law, fuf- 
ficiently engaged me to be expeditious. Ott 
the report of my commiflioners, I judged that 
we might encamp very conveniently in Koks- 
Kraal ; and the firft view of this charming 
fpot did not deceive my expedlation. Having 
reached it in three hours, we found an enclofure 
about fifty feet fquare, formed by a dry hedge 
of branches of trees and thorns; it was deftroyed 
in fome places, but it required fcarcely a day 
to repair it. For (heltering our cattle the dif- 
covery of this enclofure was fo much the 
luckier, as it commanded a view of almoft 
the whole neighbourhood ; on one fide we 
obferved the river, from which we Were dif- 
tant not more than three or four hundred 
paces. Wild beafts, however, were not the 
principal objeds of my uneafinefs ; I thought 
more of fecuring them from the CafFres dif- 
perfed over the country, I conCdered that, 
not 
St 
