130 
JOURNEY IN ALBANY. 
[1813. 
farewel to the eastern coast of Africa, and the Indian 
Ocean, to travel across the continent till we should 
reach the western shores, and the Ethiopic Ocean, 
which 1 hoped to find practicable. 
On the beach near the mouth of Buffalo River, 
some soldiers belonging to one of the forts had been 
fishing, and having thrown the entrails of the fishes 
they caught into the sea, a number of sharks were 
thereby collected. As one of the soldier s children was 
walking near the water, a shark made a spring at him, 
and nearly had him in his mouth. A red frock which 
the child wore was thought to have engaged the atten- 
tion of this ravenous animal. 
Our travelling was now in trackless deserts, for there 
were no paths, except such as had been formed by wild 
beasts going to drink. One of our Hottentots brought 
me from a pool, which we were passing, one of the finest 
water flowers I had ever seen. It was nearly the size 
and shape of an ordinary sun-flower, but its colours 
resembled those of the passion flower, and the scent 
was very grateful, somewhat resembling the sweet pea. 
It grows in the water, near the side. The outer leaves 
are of a very light blue; the first row of petals are 
dark brown, having each a light blue ball at their tops ; 
the next rows, which are more thinly scattered, are 
light yellow, with darker blue tops ; the centre, which 
is about the size of a sixpence, is still darker yellow. 
Being no botanist, I knew not its name, or whether it 
has a name; but it deserves to be called the star 
