1811. 
MEETING A PARTY OF HOTTENTOTS. 
287 
which the oxen and sheep were secured. It is fortunate for travel- 
lers, that this animal preys on cattle always in preference to man. 
5th. Our next stage, owing to a very pleasing circumstance, 
was only seven miles. Just as a place called Patrys Fontein (Par- 
tridge Fountain) appeared in view, we were agreeably surprised at 
seeing a party of Hottentots coming towards us, with between fifty 
and a hundred oxen. These were men with the relays from Klaar- 
water, and were, it may be imagined, warmly greeted by the rest of 
the people, who, having been above six months absent from their 
homes, were eager in making enquiries as to the state of affairs 
there. 
As soon as the four horsemen, despatched from the Karree 
river, arrived at Klaarwater, the Hottentot captain there immediately 
collected from the settlement as many oxen as could be spared, and 
sent them off with remarkable expedition ; they having been only 
nine days on the road, although it was a distance of three hundred 
miles. 
The men with the oxen, reported that the Kraal of Cajft'es on the 
Great River, or Gariep, were peaceable and quiet ; nor had any symp- 
toms of evil intention towards the Klaarwater Hottentots been ob- 
served. Neither were any of that tribe seen at Schiet Fontein, the 
place where, we had been so often told, they meant to attack us. Thus 
were all apprehensions on that head done away. Our prospect, 
in the state of the country we had to pass through before we reached 
the river, was less agreeable : beyond Schiet Fontein, the springs 
were every where very nearly dried up ; and the consideration of the- 
little chance there was for so many oxen as we had with us, to obtain 
water, became a source of serious uneasiness. But, if the unusual 
drought of the season was, in this view, extremely unfavorable to us, 
it was, on the other hand, the cause of great convenience, as it 
rendered the Great-river so shallow, that we might expect to ford it 
without trouble or danger. Near a place well named Leeuwe Fon- 
tein (Lion Fountain), the relays had been followed by three lions, 
one of which, a female, was shot by the Hottentots. 
The hunters were very successful to-day, and came home in the 
