404 A JOURNEY IN 
continiiarice in tliat line. His more powerful neighbours 
might feel disposed to quarrel with him for having suffered so 
small a party of white men, which he might have prevented, 
to pass through his territory into theirs. ¥/hatever the motive 
might have been^ the Chief was so earnest in his remonstrances 
that the commissionei*s considered it prudent to desist from 
their original design ; and although they had obtained little more 
than 100 head of cattle, at the rate of two and three pounds in 
weight of coloured porcelaine and glass beads for each, they re- 
solved to prepare for their return. It was not without extreme 
regret that they afterwards discovered, when they had returned 
as far as to the Orange river, that the Barroloos were in fact a 
numerous, wealthy, and friendly people. A hastaard Hotten- 
tot, who had travelled into that country, assured Mr. Truter 
that there was not in all Africa so perfectly good-humoured 
and so well-disposed a people as the Barroloos ; that they had 
many towns, the largest of which was so extensive that it 
required a whole day to walk from one extremity to the 
other ; that their houses were of the same kind as, but much 
better built than, those of the Booshuanas ; their gardens and 
grain lands better cultivated ; that the whole surface of the 
country was covered with trees and shrubs ; water and rivers 
abundant, and the soil every where productive ; that the 
Barroloos were a very ingenious nation, and skilful in carving 
wood and ivory ; that he had seen their furnaces for melting 
iron from a brown earth and stone, and copper from a grey 
earth ; that the distance from Leetakoo did not exceed ten 
days^ journey of the common rate of travelling. This inform- 
ation was, however, obtained too late ; and the country of 
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