May.] 
FLIGHT OF THE OXEN. 
13 
depressed, and we had little to spare, but even 
that little we did not intend to give them, till they 
had felt the pain of hunger some time longer, in 
order to impress, if possible, upon their minds the 
folly of selling their provisons on a journey, at 
least without retaining as much as would support 
them to the place of their destination. 
In the morning some knoos observing our oxen 
feeding at a distance, and taking them for the 
kind of animals among which they were accus- 
tomed to feed, proceeded towards them, but the 
instant they perceived their mistake, they fled with 
their greatest speed. Our oxen seeing this fol- 
lowed them as fast as they could run, and both were 
soon out of sight. Some of our men were there- 
fore obliged to pursue them, and it was upwards 
of two hours before they succeeded in bringing 
them back. 
At noon torrents of rain began to fall, and con- 
tinued incessantly for six hours, when all the 
space round the waggons became a pool of water. 
The only dry spot was the circumference of a 
few feet in the middle of the tent, that spot being 
a little higher ; but the rest of the tent-floor was a 
puddle of clay and water, which rendered our 
situation very uncomfortable, Not a whisper 
could be heard from any of the Hottentots, Mat- 
chappees, or Mashows, all were sheltering them- 
