SECOND JOURNEY. 
59 
and eighty-four, by Governor Vander Steil, but found great September 
fcarcity of wood and water. There is, at a little diftance, a '— 
brackhh fountain which is frequently dry in the fummer. In 
the evening we arrived at a fmall fountain, where we had 
hardly water enough to fuffice us and our cattle. We, how¬ 
ever, refolved to remain there all night, being informed that 
we were thirty miles diftant from the next water. 
We thence direded our courfe north. About ten, in the 
morning, we faw feveral natives approaching, armed with 
bows and arrows, whom we fuppofed to be bufli Hottentots, 
and therefore thought it prudent to load our guns. They foon 
overtook us, and alked me for fome tobacco, which I wil- 
lingly gave them. One, who fpoke Dutch, told me, that they 
had no cattle, and that they lived upon roots and gums ; and 
fometimes feafted on an Antelope, which they occalionally 
fhot with their poifoned arrows. Soon after one of the inha¬ 
bitants of the Nimiqua Land overtook us, and requefted I 
would accept of his company to the Great River. His nation 
being at war with, the budi Hottentots, he was rather afraid, as 
they frequently rob the Nimiquas of their cattle, and often 
kill the people. In the evening we came to a fmall fountain, 
where we ftayed all night, having travelled about thirty miles 
without meeting with a drop of water. 
The following morning we directed our courfe north by 
eaft, through a iandy plain ; and about funfet came to a brack- 
idi fountain, where we ftayed all night. Next morning I made 
an excurfton to a high mountain, to the eaftward, where I 
