August.] HALF-STARVED DOGS. 283 
service to the children themselves. The expense 
would be comparatively trifling. A few^ pounds 
annually laid out in the purchase of beads, would 
procure a sufficient number of cows from the na- 
tives higher up the country to support the insti- 
tution. 
Many ill-fed dogs are kept at all the kraals, 
which renders it necessary, when halting at any 
of them, to keep a good look out for the protec- 
tion of every thing made of leather about the 
waggons, otherwise, in a single night, the depre- 
dations by the dogs might render it impossible 
to proceed in the morning. Cornelius, my Hot- 
tentot driver, was cutting up a piece of wood in 
the morning, when feeling himself too warm, he 
put off his shoes. One of them was imme- 
diately seized and carried off by a hungry dog, 
and while Cornelius pursued the thief, another 
dog carried off the other shoe, which was nearly 
eaten up before he returned from his unsuccess- 
ful pursuit. Such a loss on a journey in the in- 
terior of Africa was no trifling matter ! 
