334 
ARRIVAL AT CAPE TOWN. 
[1820. 
three p. m. ; at nine the road led us across to the 
Karroo desert, and at half past ten p. m. we halted 
at Helbeck Fountain, on the same spot we had oc- 
cupied in going up the country. We were six 
days travelling in the desert, during which three 
of our oxen, that were reduced almo&t to skele- 
tons from want of food, were obliged to be left to 
perish, being unable, by every exertion, to get 
them forward. On the 27th of October we 
happily reached Mr. De Vos', at the head of Hex 
River valley. From thence we departed for Cape 
Town, where we arrived on the afternoon of 
Friday, November the 10th. Thus ended a ten 
months' journey into the interior of Africa, which 
had been providentially accomplished without 
any serious accident occurring, or losing a single 
person by disease, or by any other cause, and 
without experiencing myself the least illness for 
a single hour. The loss of a few oxen was com- 
paratively of small importance. 
