A P k I C A. 
probability, perhaps, ought rather to have led 
me to believe that thefe animals, without 
changing from the one bank to the other, had 
retired into the interior parts of the country. 
A defire of meeting with a herd or two, and of 
hunting them, had neverthelefs fo heated my 
imagination, that, by attempting to gratify it, I 
expofed myfelf to the danger of being irrepa- 
rably loft, with the beft Hottentot of my ca- 
ravan. I fliall here give a particular account 
of this celebrated inftance of fool-hardinefs, 
which was nothing lefs than to crofs with my 
lire- arms, baggage, and attendants, a confider- 
able river fwelled by inundations, in order to 
encamp on the oppofite fide. 
Fortunately I had with me excellent fwlm- 
mers, to whom the crofling of a river, what- 
ever might be its breadth, could be no caufe of 
uneafinefs. With me the cafe was entirely dif- 
ferent. The reader will recoiled that I once 
before imprudently rifqued my life, in my firft 
journey, when purfuing an eagle on the banks 
of the Queer-Boom. Warned by this danger, 
I had fince exercifed myfelf frequently in fwim- 
ming, and had indeed never negleded it when 
an opportunity occurred, I was however as 
yet 
