io8 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779- lie declined the offer, and foon withdrew to his cottage. He 
t ——' j was defcribed as by far the oldeft perfon any of the party 
had ever feen, and judged to be, by thofe who computed 
his age at the loweft, upward of ioo years old. 
As our people had imagined the mountain not to be more 
than ten or twelve miles from the bay, and confequently, 
that they Ihould reach it with eafe early the next morning, 
an error into which its great height had probably led them, 
they were now much furprized to find the diflance fcarce 
perceptibly diminifhed. This circumflance, together with 
the uninhabited ftate of the country they were going to 
enter, made it neceffary to procure a fupply of provifions; 
and for that purpofe they difpatched one of their guides 
back to the village. Whilft they were waiting his return, 
they were joined by fome of Kaoo’s fervants, whom that 
benevolent old man had fent after them, as foon as he heard 
of their journey, laden with refrefhments, and authorized, 
as their route lay through his grounds, to demand and take 
away whatever they might have occafion for. 
Our travellers were much aftonifhed to find the cold 
here fo intenfe; but having no thermometer with them, 
could judge of it only by their feelings; which, from the 
warm atmofphere they had left, muft have been a very 
fallacious meafure. They found it, however, fo cold, that 
they could get but little lleep, and the natives none at all; 
both parties being difturbed, the whole night, by conti¬ 
nued coughing. As they could not, at this time, be at 
any very confiderable height, the diftance from the fea 
being only fix or feven miles, and part of the road on a 
very moderate afcent, this extraordinary degree of cold 
mull be afcribed to the eaflerly wind blowing frefli over the 
fnowy mountains. 
Early 
