174 TRAVELS 11^ 
them ; and, as long as I lived, I fhould rievef 
have forgiven myfelf, if, when an opportunity 
offered, I had failed to embrace It. 
Befides, the dreams of imagination incef* 
fantly affailed me, and infinuated, that beyond 
the river I fhould find a country more pleafant, 
more fertile, and more eafy to traverfe ; and I 
fuffered myfelf to be impofed on by chimeras, 
w^hich had no foundation but my extreme de- 
fire of meeting new objeds. 
Klaas Bafter and Schoenmaker told me alfo 
a hundred tales, which ftrengthened my cre- 
dulity. To hearken to them, the Great River 
was never dry, its banks were covered with 
lofty trees, and I fliould there find every con- 
venience for a pleafing encampment. They 
fpoke to me of rare birds, as well as of hip- 
popotami, rhinocerofes, giraffes, and every 
kind of game, which abounded in this boafted 
place, and gave me an ardent defire of arriving 
there. 
Throughout the whole of this canton I 
found a great number of fmall vultures, of a 
pale yellow carnation colour ; the fame fpecies 
as Buffon defcribes under the name of the 
Egyptian vulture. The Nimicjuas call it ouri- 
gourap 
