2IO 
TRAVELS IN 
more certain method of deftroying him was to watch at night 
behind a bufh clofe to his path; and, as he paffed, to wound him 
in the tendons of the knee-joint, by which he was immediately 
rendered lame and unable to efcape from the numerous Hafla- 
gais that afterwards alTailed him. Numbers of this huge ani- 
mal ftill remain in all their large rivers ; indeed they feem not 
very folicitous about deftroying it. The tufks, though of the 
fineft ivory, are too fmall for the ufual purpofes to which they 
apply this article ; and they feem to have lefs relifh for greafe 
than either the Hottentots or the colonifts. The fpoils of the 
chace are always bellowed upon their perfons. The tufks of 
the elephant furnifh them with ivory rings for the arm ; the 
leopard fupplles his fkin to ornament the front of the cloak ; 
and the fkin of the tyger-cat is ufed by the women as pocket- 
handkerchiefs. 
Befides the illicit trade that the Dutch farmers have carried 
on with this people, confifting of pieces of iron, copper, glafs- 
beads, and a few other trifling articles, given to them in ex- 
change for their cattle, the Kaffers have no kind of commerce 
with any other nation except their eaftern neighbours the Tam- 
bookies. In addition to the young girls which they purchafe 
from thefe people, they are fupplied by them with a fmall quan- 
tity of iron in exchange for cattle. It has been fuppofed that 
the Tambookics, and other nations farther to the eaftward, pof- 
feffed the art of obtaining iron from the ore ; but it is much 
more probable that they are fupplied with it by the Portuguefe 
fettlers of Rio de la Goa, not far from which their country is 
fituated. The only metals known to the Kaffers are iron and 
copper ; 
