June.] 
RECOVERY OF THE OXEN. 
41 
is, that the Bushmen steal in small companies, 
and the others generally in great parties, like an 
army. The same way of judging is as common 
in Europe as in Africa, the crime and the charge 
seem both to be lost where the perpetrators are 
numerous. 
The men who followed the oxen were all of 
opinion that it was the wolf and not the Bush- 
men that chased away the oxen, or that the 
Lattakoo cattle had some idea of the approach 
of home, and had led away the others in that 
direction. Soon after the arrival of the oxen, a 
wolf came within a hundred yards of the wag- 
gons, when our men pursued and shot him. A 
Matchappee, while in the act of skinning him, was 
asked if he would eat any of the wolf? Look- 
ing up with surprise at such a question, he said, 
" Is he not a beast !" Our men must have tra- 
velled fifteen miles before they recovered the cat- 
tle, as it took three hours for those on horseback 
to find them, and the Hottentots on foot reached 
the spot nearly as soon as the horsemen, so much 
had our situation stimulated to exertion. Before 
the cattle had been overtaken they discovered a 
Bushmen kraal among some trees, the Bushmen 
stood with their bows and arrrows ready to 
defend themselves if necessary ; notwithstand- 
ing which the Hottentots rode fearlessly to the 
back of the kraal, lest some of them might be 
