Spite of every impediment, I had preserved a number of objects unknown in Europe. I had the fatisfaction to see my riches daily increase, having taken such precautions, that the water had not injured them, We found no game of the deer kind in this wood, except the Gazell Bobock, and another fpecies rather fmaller, which I have mentioned in paffing the Duiven Ochs, The plain (in addition to three forts of partridges I have already specified) abounds in a bird called the Red Pheasant, its feet and breast, which are bare, being of that colour, There are plenty of Hyænas and Tygers about this place, but no lions, The ferene weather and beautiful afpect of the fky, feemed now to promise us a recompense recompenfe for our former cruel fituation. The hill of Pampoen Kraal, where I had pitched my tent, pleafed me extremely. At a little diftance from it was an eminence covered with a thicket of thirty or forty feet diameter, whose trees and bushes were fo interwoven with each other, that the whole seemed of one growth. I determined to make this my refidence, and in pursuance of this defign, had an opening of about seven feet high, and sufficiently wide to afford an eafy paffage, cleared to the center; here, by the help of our hatchets, we formed two compleat fquares, in one of which I placed a table and chair, and named it my Workshop, the other I adorned with the kitchen utenfils, and reckoned it my dining-room, These receffes, naturally roofed with branches and leaves to an impenetrable thickness, were to me a most charming and refreshing retirement! Here, after the morning's morning's chafe, when covered with duft and oppreffed with heat, I would shelter myfelf from the mid-day fun; when fatigue had sharpened the appetite, how excellent was the repaft! When thought ftole on, how pleafing were my contemplations! or, if furprised by fleep, how gentle, how peaceful, were my flumbers! Sumptuous grottos of our wealthy fi nancers, magnificent villas of English citizens, nabobs and plunderers, what are your purling streams, your cascades, your artificial mounts, zig-zag walks, bridges, ftatues, or all thofe objects which flatten on the sense, and fatigue the eye-what áre ye when compared to the fimple unaffected beauties of Pampoen Kraal! Though loath to leave this charming folitude, I began to prepare for my departure. One day, while I was viewing the environs, and obferving which road we |