\ 
184 TRAVELS IN 
fire under the belly of an ox, becaufe it could not draw the 
waggon up the fame kloof. 
As it was our intention to examine the mouth of the Great 
Fifli river, the boundary ot the colony to the eaftward, it was 
thought advifable to fend forward, in the mean time, two inter- 
preters to the Kaffer king, carrying with them a fmall prefent 
in the name of the governor of the Cape, in order to obtain 
permiffion, as embafladors from the faid governor, to enter his 
territories, and to pay our refpeds to him. By this ftep we 
were not only more likely to fecure his protedion, but it would 
alfo fhew him that the treaty made with them in the time of 
the governor Van Plettenberg, and renewed in the year 1793, 
was held facred by the Englifli government. The diftance 
from the place where we now were to that of his refidence was 
calculated to be a journey of five days : the eighth day there- 
fore was fixed on for the interpreters to meet us in Kaffer- 
land at a certain fpot, well known to them and to our guide 
Renfberg, which was a journey of two days' diftance from the 
Kaffer court. 
On the fourth, therefore, the interpreters proceeded to the 
eaftward, and we diredled our route towards the mouth of the 
Great Fifh river. The country over which we paffed was per- 
fectly flat ; and in thofe parts where the Kaflfers had not yet 
been, there was abundance of long grafs. On approaching the 
fea~coaft we obferved a long train of fires ; and, fuppofing them 
to have been made by a party of KalFers ftationed there, we 
turned 
