AUG.] CONTINENT OF AFRICA. 
383 
except in producing a little curiosity ; and they were 
as indifferent about our departure, as if they had said, 
you may come, or stay, or go ; it is the same to us. 
They are so immured in the heart of this great conti- 
nent, that probably none of them have heard of any 
sea. At our departure, (at two, P.M.) a few women 
and children went to the top of some rising ground, 
and witnessed our moving along, but with a dull, un- 
meaning stare. 
On the nortli side of a river there is a plain without 
any visible end, as void of trees as of hills, producing 
only brown heath. Our way was chiefly over hard 
loose stones, chiefly marble, white, blue, and purple, 
which was very trying to our waggon wheels. At five, 
the iron ring of one wheel was knocked off, which 
obliged us all to halt for the night. Travelling N.W. 
Thermometer at sun-rise 44 : noon 82. 
Q7th. Thermometer at sun-rise 42 : at noon 84. 
Near our waggons was a solitary grave, having a heap 
of stones raised above it, and two long ones placed in 
the centre. Whether Bushman or Coranna was buried 
there, none of our party knew. On the other side of 
the river, to the north, was a plain, bounded only by 
the horizon, without trees, and covered only with heath, 
which very probably is a part of the same desert we 
had seen higher up. The Great River might be led 
out to this plain, and made to run in various branches, 
which w ould spread fertility as far as these branches 
extended; but in this land there are no people who 
