Volume 181321
A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor].
- William Fordyce Mavor
- Date:
- 1813
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A general collection of voyages and travels, including the most interesting records of navigators and travellers, from the discovery of America by Columbus, in 1492, to the travels of Lord Valentia / [William Fordyce Mavor]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![j the colour of amber, and impregnated with iron, Vaillant proceeded to the last post belonging to the Dutch Company, where he was kindly received by the commander, and supplied with about twenty pounds of gunpowder. From hence he found an opportunity | to write to his friends, and to transmit a.small col- lection of birds and insects to Mr. Boers. He now sent a detachment of his people to clear a abounded with a variety of birds, and exhibited seve- ral traces of elephants and buffaloes. His orders were accordingly obeyed, and his tent pitched in the piea- santest part, while a murmuring ril] rolled softly over the grass at a small distance, anda verdant eminence yielded a rich supply of pasturage for the horses and oxen, . A sufficiency of fruits, vegetables, and milk was easily procured from the inhabitants of the district,. who were frequently enticed. to the camp-by the. bottles of spirits which were possessed by our adven-: turer. in this situation the time insensibly glided away, amidst the successive diversions of walking, hunting,: and shooting, till the latter end of the mouth, when- long-and heavy rains, attended by the most dreadful lightning, obliged the travellers to quit their abode, and form anew encampment. It was, however, ap- parently. impossible to leave the fores., as they were completely encompassed with rapid torrents, that raged with unremitting violence along the country, and bore down with resistless fury whatever opposed their course. The poor Hottentots were dejected, sick, and repin- ing; the oxen had deserted the camp; the provisions were exhausted ; and the scene, that was so lately di- versified with charming walks, crystal streams, and verdant bowers, was now laid waste by the dreadful inundation, and changed into a dreary, inhospitable desert.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33029854_0021_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
