AVG,] CONTINENT OF AFRICA. 37^ 
would be swept down by the stream, and should this 
happen in the niglit, when we were asleep, we should 
also be carried away together with our property — 
and such risings of the river frequendy occur in the 
course of half an hour. After much examination, 
an opening in the thicket appeared a little higher up 
the river, which we entered, and after penetrating 
through various obstructions, and passing different 
ascents and descents of the ground, in a winding 
direction, we at length reached the extremity of the 
wood, to the no small satisfaction of us all. We were 
about three hours in accomplishing this formidable 
business of crossing that noble river. Our kind 
Griqua friends, whose waggons were on the other 
side, were obliged immediately to separate from us, 
as the sun was gone down, and they scarcely had 
light to find their way across to their friends, who no 
doubt were anxiously expecting them. We felt 
much at parting, especially with John Hendric, who 
had never left us from his first joining us on this side of 
the Great River, immediately after we had crossed 
the Bushman country, about three months before, but 
had followed us in all our journeyings. 
