284 T R A V E L S I N 
XLS excellent pafturage and abundance of watef | 
while thofe who had gone out in the oppofitc 
diredion had obferved a cloud or two peep- 
^ ing above the horizon, from which they au- 
gured in their turn that a ftorm was not far 
diftant, and that it would certainly make it^ 
appearance either during the night or to« 
morrow. 
Under the immediate pre flute of difficulties 
and danger, fuch vague conjedures infpired 
me with little confidence : but the affeding 
teftimonies of attachment I had received, ren- 
dered lefs painful to me the thoughts of a dif» 
folution, which I confideied as rapidly ap- 
proaching. I exhorted all my people to be- 
take themfelves to refl ; and I retired myfelf td 
my waggon, where I fpent the whole night in 
the moft gloomy refledions. At break of day 
I was fuddenly roufed from my reverie by a 
clap of thunder, which confirmed, to demon- 
ftration, what had been announced by one of 
my Hottentots, I jumped with alertnefs from 
the carriage, and, by a natural movement, raifed 
my hands in adoration towards the clouds, 
which the thunder feemed to be driving before 
it. My friends, tranfported like myfelf, ranged 
them^ 
