PREFACE. 
In the narrative, the strict form of a journal has been adhered 
to, as being that which best enables the reader and the author to 
travel, as it were, the journey over again, and view, in their proper 
light, the facts in connection, and the impressions made by each 
event in succession. The object of this journal being to give a 
natural and faithful picture of passing scenes and transactions, many 
circumstances of less importance have been allowed their place in it ; 
just as, in a landscape or historical painting, even of the sublimest 
conception, the weeds of the foreground, or the stones of the pave- 
ment, however trifling in themselves, must be represented, in order 
to complete the whole, and convey the just resemblance of nature. 
In these pages modesty may read without fearing to meet with 
descriptions and allusions which might raise a blush upon her cheek. 
This is the more necessary to be stated in a preface, as books of 
travels, though professedly lying open to every class of readers, 
sometimes contain matter offensive to decency, and which renders 
them unfit for general perusal. Such indelicacies will never be found 
in these volumes. 
The author, during this expedition, which lasted four years, 
had no companion or assistant, nor other attendants than a few 
Hottentots, the number of whom never exceeded ten. Of the party 
which set out from Cape Town, he was the only one who returned to 
that place ; the rest having quitted him, and been several times re- 
placed by others during the journey. In a course of four thousand 
five hundred miles, exclusive of numerous smaller excursions, regions 
never before trodden by European foot, were explored and examined. 
Besides that general information respecting these countries and their 
inhabitants which it was his principal object to obtain, and which 
are communicated by the following narrative, considerable collections 
in Natural History were made, and a multitude of objects hitherto 
unknown to science brought to England. Of these a few are 
occasionally mentioned, and distinguished, either by a reference 
to the ' Geographical Catalogue,' or by the letter B ; and, not 
