20 
MEMOIR OF LE VAILLANT. 
This first excursion, however, did not altogether 
satisfy his curiosity ; he undertook several others 
even into more distant regions, and at length formed 
the project of traversing the whole African conti- 
nent. 
On the 15 th of June *783, he set out from the 
Cape and directed his course towards the north. 
This second journey was much more troublesome 
and fatiguing than the first. The greater part of 
his equipage, which consisted of oxen, perished in 
consequence of the excessive aridity of the country 
through which he passed ; another part of his train 
he was compelled to abandon on the left or south 
bank of the Orange river. In these discouraging 
circumstances, and with only a small retinue of 
Hottentots, who had faithfully accompanied him 
since his outset, he prosecuted his enterprise, ad- 
vancing into regions then wholly unknown to 
Europeans, and taking as his guides those succes- 
sive hordes of savages through whose territories he 
wandered, and whose friendship he had the good 
fortune to propitiate by the frankness and affability 
of his manners. 
But the farther he proceeded, the more did he 
become convinced that his original design was im- 
practicable. At length he arrived among the Hou- 
suanas or Bushmen, who subsisted by plunder, and 
whose very name spread terror among all the adja- 
cent tribes. Happily for our traveller he succeeded 
in conciliating their good will; and judging from 
their hardy and daring character, he conceived the 
