AFRICA. i&uj 
lioufc inhabited by a widow, Van-Zell, and 
her -family, which I difcovered by feeing fome 
cultivated fields. I repaired to it, and met with 
the moft friendly reception. The widow 
fold me fome fheep, and alfo four hundred 
pounds of tobacco, which I thought proper to 
add to my ftocL For this tobacco, which 
was of her own growth, I paid at the rate of 
two-pence Dutch money per pound, which 
made about eighty livres for the whole quan- 
tity. I purchafed alfo fome ftrong liqupr, to 
fupply the place of that w^hich I had already 
confumed. The widow, in the courfe of our 
converfation, confirmed the account of the 
Hottentot fhepherd refpedling the difaftrous 
drought by which the country was defolated ; 
a drought indeed fo exceffive, that all the 
hordes of the Lefl^er Nimiquas had quitted the 
interior parts of the country, in order to ap* 
proach the fea-coaft. 
By the dreary profpeft before me, I was en- 
abled to judge what the country would be in- 
to which I was about to enter ; and yet I ftill 
entertained hopes, and endeavoured, as I may 
fay, to quiet my fears by delufion : fo poffible 
and even probable does that appear^ which co- 
incides 
