14 THAVELSIN 
receive. It h with pleafure I dwell upon this 
incident. May future travellers derive inftruG- 
tion from it ; for, how^ever ingenious may be 
their precautions in other refpeds, they mufi: 
exped: to fuffer amidft the defarts of Africa, if 
they do not provide themfelves with oxen as. 
friends, and young goats as play- fellows. 
It was at laft neceflary to tear myfelf from 
this incomparable family, whom I prcmifed 
more than once to call upon, in the courfc of 
my rambles round the Cape. I kept my word. 
This tranquil and auguft habitation, indeed, like 
an irrefiftible loadftone, often attracted me at a 
confiderable diftance, and 1 experienced no 
fubjed of pleafure that I did not haften to de- 
pofit in the bofom of the celeftial fociety that 
pccupied it. 
I have fomewhere faid, that one of the men 
who were moft attached to me, and from 
whom I had derived the greateft fervices In 
periods of danger, was old Swanapoel. I 
had difpatched one of his comrades to requeft 
him to come to me at the Cape. He haftened 
thither immediately. I confidered it as partly 
cularly incumbent upon me to recompenfe his 
lideUty ; and in telling him that we were to 
|depart together upon a fecond expedition, I 
gav^ 
