hen went
to the stables, and took the three best horses which the Dutchman had,
put some corn in a sack for each of them, took some cord for halters,
mounted, and rode away as fast as we could. As we knew that we should
be pursued, we first galloped away as if we were going eastward to the
Cape; and then, as soon as we were on ground which would not show the
tracks of our horses' hoofs, we turned round to the northward, in the
direction of the Bushman country. It was dark soon after we had altered
our course; but we travelled all night, and although we heard the
roaring of the lions at a distance, we met with no accident. At
daylight we rested our horses, and gave them some corn, and then sat
down to eat some of the provision we had brought with us."

"How long were you with the farmer at Graaff Reinet?"

"Nearly eight months, sir; and during that time we could not only speak
Dutch, but we could make ourselves understood by the Hottentots and
other natives. While we were eating we held a consultation how we
should proceed. We were aware that the Dutchmen would shoot us if they
came up with us, and that they would come out in strong force against
us; and we were afraid that we had killed the man, and if so, they would
hang us as soon as we got to the Cape; so we were at a great loss to
know how to act. At last we decided that we would cross the country of
the Bushmen, and get to the sea-side, to the northward of the Cape. We
determined that it would be better to travel at night, as there would be
less fear of the wild beasts, or of being seen; so we went fast asleep
for many hours. Towards the evening, we found water for the horses, and
then we fed them again, and proceeded on our journey. I won't tell what
passed every day for a fortnight, by which time we had pretty well
killed our horses, and we were compelled to stop among a tribe of
Gorraguas, a very mild, inoffensive people, who supplied us with milk,
and treated us very kindly. We had some adventures, nevertheless. One
day as we were passing by a tuft of small trees, a rhinoceros charged
upon my horse, which very narrowly escaped by wheeling short round and
getting behind him; the beast then made off without meddling with us any
more. Every day we used to shoot some animal or other, for provision:
sometimes it was a gnu, something between an antelope and a bull; at
other times it was one of the antelope kind.

"Well, we stayed for three weeks with th