TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
rain prevented my feeing any part of the country ; and to- 
wards the end of the month, the hills, near the Cape, were 
covered with fnow for feveral days. During the winter, there- 
fore, I was only able to indulge myfelf in fliort excurlions 
from the Cape town ; while I made more ample preparations 
for a journey into the country when the feafon might be more 
favourable. 
I was particularly fortunate in meeting with a gentleman, 
Captain Gordon, (now Colonel) who had travelled in this 
country fome years before, (about 1774) and was lately re- 
turned from Holland, as fecond in command, and appointed 
to fucceed Colonel Du Phren, v/ho was then commander in 
chief. Colonel Gordon is a gentleman of extenfive informa- 
tion in moft branches of natural hiftory ; and, I believe, is the 
only perfon who has any conliderable knowledge of that coun- 
try, being acquainted with the interior parts for near one 
thoufand five hundred miles from the Cape. He had acquired 
the language of the Hottentots, which, together with his 
perfect acquaintance with the Dutch language, gave him an 
advantage over moft other travellers. 
As Mr. Mafon, in his letter to the Royal Society, has de- 
fcribed the country about the Cape, it is imnecefTary for me 
to enter into a geographical defcription, or to fay any thing 
of this traO: of territory, except what came immediately under 
my own obfervation. 
The period which I had propofed for my long journey was 
the beginning of October, when a fettled flate of the atmofphere 
