to fhelter them; for every thing is fuited to a people whofe conftitutions are proof against the feverest fatigue. If, however, they ftop any where to fojourn for a while, and find materials proper for conftructing huts, they then form a kraal; but they abandon it on their departure, as is the cafe with all the huts which they erect.

"This cuftom of labouring for others of their tribe announces a focial character and a benevolent difpofition. They are, indeed, not only affectionate husbands and good fathers, but excellent companions. When they inhabit a kraal, there is no fuch thing among them as private property; whatever they poffefs is in common. If two hordes of the fame nation meet, the reception is on both fides friendly; they afford each other mutual protection, and confer reciprocal obligations. In fhort, they treat one another as brethren, though perhaps they are perfect, ftrangers, and have never feen each other before.

"Active and nimble by nature, the Houzouana confiders it as a mufement to climb mountains and the most elevated peaks; and their fkill in this refpect was very advantageous to me. The rivulet near which I encamped had a coppery tafte and a naufeous fmell, which rendered it impoffible for me to drink the water. My cattle, accustomed to the bad water of the country, were fatisfied with it: but I was afraid that it might injure my people; and I would, on that account, not permit them to use it. The Houzouanas had no milk to give me, as they poffeffed only a few wretched cows which they had plundered. Having afked them if they knew of any good fpring in the neighbourhood, to which I could fend my company to procure 1796.

a fupply of water, they fet out themselves in an inftant, without making me a reply, clambered up their mountains, and in lefs than two hours brought back all my leather bottles and veffels full of excellent water.

"During the whole time of my refidence on the rivulet, they rendered me the fame fervice, uniformly difplaying the fame zeal and the fame readinefs. One of these expeditions would have employed my Hottentots a whole day.

"When on a journey, fcarcity of water gives them no uneasiness, even in the middle of a defert. By a particular art they can difcover water that is concealed in the bowels of the earth; and their inftinct, in this point, is even fuperior to that of the other Africans. Animals, in like cafes of distress, find water alfo; but it is only by the smell. There must be a current of air to convey to them the exhalation which rifes from it; and confequently they must be to the windward. While I refided in the defert, during my first journey, my favages had hown more than once the fame faculty; and I myself acquired it alfo from their inftruction, as I have mentioned in my narrative.

"The Houzouana, more expert, employs only his fight. He throws himself flat on the ground, takes a diftant view, and, if the space which he traverses with his eye conceals any fubterranean fpring, he rifes and points with his finger to the fpot where it is to be found. The only thing by which he difcovers it is that ethereal and fubtile exhalation which evaporates from every current of water, when not funk to too great a depth.

"With regard to pools and other collections formed by the F

rain,

rain, as their evaporation is more fenfible, they are discoverable even when hid by an eminence or a hill; and the vapour of ftreams, fuch as rivers or rivulets, being still more abundant, is fo diftinctly marked by it, that their courfe and even all their finuofities may be traced. "I endeavoured to learn this art of the Houzouanas, during the time I refided amongst them. I followed their example, and praetifed their leffons; and was at length able to make fimilar difcoveries, and with as much certainty. My talent, however, was far from being fo extenfive as theirs; for, owing either to the natural weak nefs of my fight or the want of experience, I could diftinguish water at no greater diftance than three hundred paces, while they could perceive it at a distance much more confiderable.

"The only arms of the Houzouanas are bows and arrows. The arrows, which are very fhort, are carried on the fhoulder in a quiver, about eight inches in length, and four in diameter, made of the bark of the aloe, and covered with the fkin of a large fpecies of lizard, which thefe wanderers find in all their rivers, particularly 'on the banks of Orange and Fish River.

"Obliged to maintain a nume rous troop, and being defirous that the whole horde fhould 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 mountaitis, I climbed the rocks with them. In the plain I used one of my horfes; but, whether they followed me or were employed in driving towards me the zebras and antelopes, they howed themfelves indefatigable;

and, however faft I rode, I always found them keep pace with me.

"My people, prejudiced against this nation, were filled with alarm whenever they faw me thus occupied. Every report of my gun made them tremble. They continually imagined that the Houzoua. nas were in the act of affaffinating me, and that they fhould afterwards experience themselves the fame fate; and they never beheld me return to my camp without teftifying their joy, confidering me as a man efcaped from death.

"For myfelf, being daily employed in rendering them fervices, and feeing these favages, on their part, ever ready to oblige me, I laughed at fuch vain terrors. In my way of judging, I had nothing to apprehend from a people who gained fo much by my prefence, and who would, confequently, have been confiderable lofers by my death.

"During the long excurfions which we made together, they in no inftance belied their character, In many refpects they appeared to refemble the Arabs, who, being alfo wanderers, and like them brave and addicted to rapine, adhere with unalterable fidelity to their engagements, and defend, even to the laft drop of their blood, the traveller who civilly purchases their fervices, and puts himfelf under their protection.

"If my plan of traverfing from fouth to north the whole of Africa was at all practicable, I repeat it, it could have been accomplished only with the Houzouañas. I am convinced that fifty men of this temperate, brate, and indefatigable nation would have been fufficient to enable me to carry it into execution; and I fhall always regre!

that I became acquainted with them too late for the trial, and at a period when numberlefs misfortunes had compelled me, for a time at least, to renounce the idea."

"The Houzouanas, being known only by their incurfions and plandering, are in the colonies often confounded with the Boshmen, and diftinguished by the fame appellation. Sometimes, however, from their tawny colour, they are called Chinefe Hottentots; and, by means of this double denomination, illinformed travellers may easily be led into an error, of which the confequence must be, that their narratives will be replete with abfurdity and falfehoods.

"Their real name, and the only one which they give themselves, is that of Houzouana; and they have nothing in common with the Boshmen, who are not a diftinct people, but a mere collection of fugitives and free-booters. The Houzouanas form no alliances but among themselves. Being almoft always at war with the furrounding nations, they never mix with them; and, if they confent at any time to admit a ftranger into their hordes, it is only after a long acquaintance, a fort of apprenticeship, during which he has given proofs of his fidelity, and established his courage. The Hottentot whom I found there had fubmitted to this trial, and from the manner in which he had acquitted himself was held in the highest eftimation.

Though the Houzouanas are wanderers in their country, and fpend the greater part of the year in emigrations and diftant excurfions, they inhabit an immenfe diftrict, of which, indeed, they are almoft the fole inhabitants, and from which, in my opinion, no aation would be able to expel them.

It forms that part of Africa which, in a direction from east to weft, extends from Caffraria to the country of the Greater Nimiquas. With regard to its breadth, from fouth to north, I am ignorant, of its extent; but I believe it to be very confiderable; not only becaufe an immenfe territory is neceffary to fo wandering a people, but alfo becaufe I have reafon to think the individuals of this nation to be very numerous.

"What particularly infpired me with a predilection in their favour, was their open and fmiling countenance. Such is the habitual ftate of their features, that the gloomy and dubious impreflion of uneafinefs and miftruft is never perceptible on them. The Houzouana, it is true, has violent paffions, and, when he is under their influence, they are depicted on his countenance in a forcible and striking manner: but the ftorm is of fhort duration; he foon comes to himself, and his face inftantly refumes the expreffion of his frank, unfufpecting, and loyal mind.

"Among all the other African nations, almoft without exception, I found an imbecile stupidity, which made them enraptured with every thing I carried with me for my ufe. The Houzouanas contemplated them with thofe emotions of curiofity which every production of induftry would naturally excite in a people deftitute of arts; but this curiofity was neither ftupid admiration nor the childish defire of favages in general.

Nothing filled them with real aftonishment but my fire-arms. During the whole time they were with me, thefe were the subjects of their attention and difcourfe. But it is to be obferved, I had endea. voured to infpire them with the F2

greatest

greatest terror by difplaying their effects. I never fuffered them to touch my fufees, and I was particularly careful not to fhow them the mode of ufing, them. When once they had imbibed the defire of poffeffing them, perhaps it would not be long before they would contrive means of procuring them; and then how dangerous would be these mountaineers to the plantations, and even to the Cape itfelf; fince, fecure from attack in their mountains, and indefatigable in their expeditions, their nocturnal and unexpected attacks render them already irresistible enemies! Often have I rejoiced that the nation was one of the pooreft of Africa; and that, being deftitute of every thing, it had nothing to barter by way of trade. But for this, fuch of the olonifts who follow the occupa

tion of traverfing the deserts, would perhaps have penetrated as far as these people; perhaps would have fupplied them with powder and fire-arms, and certainly would have instilled into them the defire of procuring them; and who can tell to what this defire would have led!

"Yet these formidable people infpired me with more love and efteem than any other tribe in Africa. With them I would have undertaken without fear to traverse the whole of that quarter of the globe, had my good fortune permitted me to know them fooner: and if ever circumstances allow me to refume the project, which it has been fo painful to me to relinquish, they are the only ones that fhall be my companions in the enterprise, and to them alone will I direct my fteps without delay."

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