AFRICA. 247 
was the nature of the confolatlon that dimi- 
nifhed my horror ? I ftrongly felt upon this oc- 
cafion how much the calamities of man are 
lefTened by being divided. I commiferated the 
poffible fate of my brave attendants, who feem- 
€d upon the point of facrificing their lives to 
their attachment to me : yet this attachment 
took away the bitternefs of death : I fhould at 
leaft not be abandoned till I had experienced 
all the attentions of friendlhip. 
Meanwhile my poor Hottentots, panting, 
cxhaufted, and deprived of ftrength, called on 
each other with a feeble voice to perfevere. 
Not one relaxed his hold of the thong; not one 
ceafed to fwim, or to oppofe fome fort of re- 
fiftance to the ftream; they had recourfe to fkill 
where ftrength failed, and were attentive to 
improve every poffible advantage. One of 
them was wholly new to my fervice, a ftranger 
to my intercourfe and my perfon ; yet he did 
not-yield to his comrades in pertinacity, and I 
believe would have been one of the firft to 
perifh in the exertion. 
Death feemed to ftare us in the face, when 
I began to perceive, by the diminilhed re- 
fiRance, that we had fufBciently cleared the 
R 4 centre 
