89 
A journey of twenty miles first brought us to Loharon, at which there was said to exist. a fair prospect of obtaining 
water, when that in the bottle, like Hagar’s, should be spent; but alas! the only tank in the whole country was completely 
exhausted, and we dug im the sun-eracked bed to no purpose. The small supply that we had brought in the waggons was 
barely drinkable even in coffee, yet what were our sufferings compared with those of the unhappy oxen. Although tired to 
death with so long and sultry a march, they ran franticly in every direction in quest of some pool at which they might slake 
their burning thirst, making the air resound with their mournful lowings. No alternative presented itself but to travel night 
and day in search of this necessary of life, and as the sun went down for the second time, and the gloomy night again 
closed around us without even one hour's moon to guide our path, the prospect was indeed most disheartening. At length some 
horses that-we had obtained from our enthusiastic friend Sutton—and which having recently crossed the desert, were fortu- 
nately well acquainted with the /ocale—by a singular instinct, suddenly separating themselves from the party, galloped off the 
road—when, following in the direction they had taken, the screaming of water-fowl sounded like music in our ears, and 
we had the gratification of finding a small pond of mephitic water. Of this cheering discovery both man and beast appeared to 
be simultaneously apprised. Water was the universal cry, Rushing to the brink, and throwing themselves on their faces, the 
_ Hottentots swallowed large gulps of the impure liquid, indifferent to the crowd of oxen, horses, and sheep, which pressed close 
upon their heels— whilst the teams in the waggons were with the utmost difficulty restrained until the yokes had been re- 
moved, when impatient of their burning thirst, they dashed headlong into the now muddy pool. A dense fog ushered in the 
following morning, and as it rolled tardily away, disclosed some fifty Bonteboks standing at the water's edge within pistol shot 
of our camp, but in utter ignorance of our promixity. As the herd scampered off, a volley was’ sent after it without effect, 
nor were their numbers sufficient to admit of our way-worn and famished horses overtaking them. 
The country through which we travelled, being chiefly characterized by open plains or straggling forests, the Indian 
deer-stalker will readily comprehend why wood-craft availed little in the destruction of game, Many of the wild animals that 
oceur in Southern Africa, are by nature slow and heavy; the gregarious habits of the fleeter,.—of which, notwithstanding its 
clumsy proportions, the Bontebok is one—rendering them so easy of approach @ cheval, that from the mighty elephant down 
to the most diminutive antelope, almost every species may be successfully pursued and shot from the saddle. The usually level 
character of the ground, moreover, is highly fayourable to this mode of proceeding, and after galloping to the head of a closely 
jammed column of Bonteboks, for example, there is ample time to dismount, fire, load, and fire again, before the glittering 
army has passed,—a fine heavy fellow usually falling to each crack of the rifle, Who shall attempt to describe the sense of 
buoyancy and exultation that glows within our bosom whilst thus flying at the heels of retreating thousands! Free are we as 
themselves, and as the winds that blow over the broad plains that we traverse! 
It is sufficiently obvious, then, that the success of a campaign directed against the wild denizens of such a region, must 
mainly depend wpon the number and condition of the horses; but neither is the safety of the party m event of an attack from 
savage tribes, hanging less upon the same contingency. Searcely a day elapses, either during which some of the steeds are not 
pressed into the service for the recovery of straying cattle, and owing to some peculiarity in the Hottentot conformation that ill 
adapts him for equestrian exercises, in lieu of being 
Incorps’d and demi-natur’d 
With the braye beast, 
whilst “witching the world with noble horsemanship,” he rolls and bumps in the saddle like a sack of pease, and never 
fails to bring home the palfrey with a galled back. Instead of our sixteen half starved shoeless garrons, with nothing 
more solid than grass to eat, and not so much even as a cloth to protect their bare ribs from the cold and wet during a 
long succession of inclement nights, we could therefore have found ample employment for forty, with ten wagegon loads of grain, 
and at least an hundred weight of shoes! But whilst none of our many trading advisers, who had doubtless in their time ex- 
perienced the difficulty of destroying ou foot sufficient game for the subsistence of their followers, had suggested our going pro- 
vided with a better stud, they had unfortunately succeeded in dissuading us from our intention of carrying a supply of the two 
latter essentials, of which we never ceased to deplore the absence. The anxiety may be estimated, wherewith, as each succeed- 
ing day drew near its close, we watched the condition of our meagre hunters after this hard day's work—received the report 
of one or more of the favourites being “away,” and likely to prove food for lions—or, during the construction of the pound 
designed for the security of the rest, strove to free them from the clusters of bursting ticks, which having been contracted 
among the bushes, sought to rob them of the little blood that they possessed. What would we not haye given for a tough 
little stall-fed Arabian, with abundance of hard flesh upon his ribs? To men circumstanced as we were, the sorriest scrub 
that was ever ridden in the East, would well have been worth his weight in the purest gold! Nevertheless it is only justice 
to the manifold merits of the Cape horses to declare, that ragged and rawboned though they be, they do but require feeding 
to render them the most useful allies during an African foray. Hardy, docile, and enduring, any number may be driven along 
the line of march by a single Hottentot; and whilst, like camels, they can subsist for weeks together upon the tops of sap- 
less and sunscorched bushes, they are readily habituated to graze unattended within sight of the waggons, wherever grass is to 
be found—the more restless being simply Anee-haltered, or shackled like a gipsy’s donkey, to limit their rambles. In the chase, 
the most formidable looking animals inspire them not with the slightest alarm, and the bridle being thrown oyer their heads, 
although sometimes guilty of playing the truant, they will generally remain standing in the wilderness for hours together, with- 
out attempting to stir from the spot. 
