Obliged to maintain a numerous troop, and being desirous that the whole horde should participate in my game, of which I procured abundance, I went out daily to the chace, always accompanied by a great number of the Houzouanas. If I hunted in the mountains, I climbed the rocks with them. In the plain I used one of my horses; but, whether they followed me or were employed in driving towards me the zebras and antelopes, they shewed themselves indefatigable; and, however fast I rode, I always found them keep pace with me.

My people, prejudiced against this nation, were filled with alarm whenever they saw me thus occupied. Every report of my gun made them tremble. They continually imagined that the Houzouanas were in the act of assassinating me, and that they should afterwards experience themselves the same fate; and they never beheld me return to my camp without testifying their joy, considering me as a man escaped from death.

For myself, being daily employed in rendering them services, and seeing these savages, on their part, ever ready to oblige me, I laughed at such vain terrors. In my way of judging, I had nothing to apprehend from a people who gained so much by my presence, and who would, consequently, have been considerable losers by my death.

During the long excursions which we made together, they in no instance belied their character. In many respects they appeared to resemble the Arabs, who, being also wanderers, and, like them, brave and addicted to rapine, adhere with unalterable fidelity to their engagements, and defend, even to the last drop of their blood, the traveller who civilly purchases their services, and puts himself under their protection.

If my plan of traversing from south to north the whole of Africa was at all practicable, I repeat it, it could have been accomplished only with the Houzouanas. I am convinced that fifty men of this temperate, brave, and indefatigable nation would have been sufficient to enable me to carry it into execution; and I

shall always regret that I became acquainted with then too late for the trial, and at a period when numberless misfortunes had compelled me, for a time at least, to renounce the idea.

With whatever confidence, however, their fidelity had inspired me, I did not neglect the precautions dictated by prudence. I never trusted myself with them beyond the precincts of my camp, unless when well armed. I will even confess that, at first, I made my people keep watch; that I had constantly a dog in my tent during the night, and that my fire-arms were always well loaded.-But at the same time, I must also acknowledge that, in taking these precautions, I had not so much in view the Houzouanas of the horde, as the rest of their nation, who, not being acquainted, and having contracted no alliance with me, might discover my fires, and think themselves authorised to take me by surprise, and attack me in the night, after the manner of those free-booters known in general by the name of Boshmen.

My adventures have given me already many opportunities of speaking of these Boshmen. I have before said, that the people at the Cape comprehend under this general appellation every man, of whatever nation or colour, who, deserting, retires to the forest or the mountains, there to associate with other fugitives, live with them under such laws as a band of robbers may be supposed to form, and subsist by rapine, without even sparing similar associations of his fellows and equals.

The Houzouanas, being known only by their incursions and plundering, are in the colonies often confounded with the Boshmen, and distinguished by the same appellation. Sometimes, however, from their tawny colour, they are called the Chinese Hottentots; and, by means of this double denomination, ill-informed travellers may easily be led into an error, of which the consequence must be, that their narratives will be replete with absurdity and falsehood.

Their real name, and the only one which they give

emselves, is that of Houzouana; and they have noing in common with the Boshmen, who are not a disnct people, but a mere collection of fugitives and ee-booters. The Houzouanas form no alliances but nong themselves. Being almost always at war with e surrounding nations, they never mix with them; id, if they consent at any time to admit a stranger to their hordes, it is only after a long acquaintance, sort of apprenticeship, during which he has given roofs of his fidelity, and established his courage. he Hottentot whom I found there, had submitted this trial, and from the manner in which he had cquitted himself, was held in the highest estimation. Though the Houzouanas are wanderers in their ountry, and spend the greater part of the year in migrations and distant excursions, they inhabit an mmense district, of which, indeed, they are almost he sole inhabitants, and from which, in my opinion, no nation would be able to expel them. It forms that part of Africa, which, in a direction from east to vest, extends from Caffraria to the country of the Greater Nimiguas. With regard to its breadth from south to north, I am ignorant of its extent; but I believe it to be very considerable; and not only because an immense territory is necessary to so wandering a people, but also because I have reason to hink the individuals of this nation to be very nu

merous.

It is supposed at the Cape that their population is small; and the reason of this opinion is, that when they emigrate to the western coasts, whether for the purpose of subsisting there for a time or to plunder, they are never seen in large bodies. But with these people this is only a stratagem. Afraid of being attacked, were their numbers known, they conceal their march as much as possible. They pursue their course through the narrowest defiles, or over the tops of mountains; and frequently even they travel only by night. This causes them to be the more dreaded; and it is often imagined that they are already in the neigh

bourhood, when they are a hundred, or perhaps tw hundred leagues distant.

I am inclined to believe that the Houzouanas are the original stem of the various nations inhabiting at present the southern part of Africa, and that from them all the tribes of the eastern and western Hot tentots are descended. Proofs of this, I think, may be perceived in their features, and in that clapping noise in the tongue when they speak, which in them is much more striking.

These, however, are vague conclusions, insufficient to establish the fact in question, which requires more decisive testimonies. The people themselves know nothing of their origin. In vain did I several times interrogate them on the subject; they always replied that they inhabited the same country which had been inhabited by their ancestors; and this was all the satisfaction I could obtain.

VAILLANT'S TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

SECT. CXIX.

OF THE AFRICAN ELEPHANTS.

AFTER travelling fourteen leagues, which was the business of three days, I arrived at the Green-River. But how much did I still deceive myself by the dreams of my imagination!

The first object I noticed on my arrival was the dung of an elephant, yet warm. This indicated that some of these animals were near. I took Swanepoel with me, and, without losing time, set off to trace them, while my camp was erecting. To see me depart attended only by a single man, it seemed as if I were going to kill a hare or a rabbit. Formerly I should not in this manner have ventured at such sport; but insensibly we become hardy, so that the greatest dangers appear no more than common occurrences.

We had not proceeded three hundred paces before we perceived five elephants standing in the midst of the trees that skirted the river. Each of us singled

out his object, each brought down his beast, and the other three fled. At the report my hunters hastened to us; and when arrived, my old Swanepoel, hitherto considered by them as an honest fellow fit only to take care of my chickens, tauntingly pointed at the elephant he had killed, and asked if they could mend

the shot.

The animals were both males, and nearly of the same height and bulk, measuring about ten feet each.* This is the usual size of elephants in Africa, where it is very rare to meet with any that reach to eleven or twelve feet. They were, however, not of the same age, and consequently their tusks were very unequal; those of one weighing seventy or eighty pounds, while those of the other did not exceed five-and-thirty or forty.

What convinced me still more of the difference of their ages, was, that the heavier tusks were nearly solid throughout, while the others were hollow two thirds of their length: the elder, too, had his grinding teeth much worn, while the grinding teeth of the other were in good preservation and entire. The ivory of old elephants, being more compact and heavy, is more valuable, and fetches a higher price: from its density it takes also a finer polish, appears whiter, and is less liable to grow yellow.

The Green-River was covered with aquatic fowls of all kinds, particularly pelicans, flamingoes, and wild geese. I also met with the night-heron, the crested purple heron, the common heron, and the black stork, all exactly similar to those of Europe.

The dead elephants procured me several birds of prey. I constructed, within shot of their carcasses, a little harbour, in which I concealed myself to lie in wait for such birds as should come to feed on them. From morning till night they alighted by hundreds,. and I killed such as appeared to me to deserve the preference.

VOL. II.

*Ten feet eight inches English.