AFRICA 
iicult It would be to procure another, if I loft 
that which chance had fo fortunately put into 
my hands. The very pains I had taken in 
curing it gave it, to my apprehenfion, an ad- 
ditional value. In fine, there was nothing I 
had fo much at heart as to keep it in my own 
pofTeffion ; and the following was the method 
I adopted. 
Refledling on the ground I had travelled 
over, and the courfe I had taken, I imagined I 
could riot be more than eighteen or twenty 
leagues from my camp on Orange River, aiid 
confequently I could reach it in four days by 
travelUng ftraight thither. 
It is true, I had accomplilhed but one of the 
two motives of my little excurfion : it was not 
fufEcient to have become acquainted with the 
giraffe ; I had ftill to purchafe oxen for my 
waggons ; but the country was too barren, 
aind the Caminouquas too wretched, to afford 
me any fupply, I purpofed, therefore, to make 
another wandering excurfion among the neigh- 
bouring countries, which, perhaps, might be 
more fortunate ; and in the mean time I 
thought only of putting my giraffe in a place 
of fe<^unry. 
My 
