those inhabiting the Garieb (the Orange) River strengthens the supposition.
I had ordered Eyebrecht to meet me on the Nosop, and I found him in company with a handsome Griqua girl, whom he had married according to the fashion of the Namaquas. The union bade fair to be a fruitful one, for the happy couple were already blessed with an infant. The face of the tawny-complexioned husband was beaming with paternal pride and satisfaction. He was living with his father-in-law (Jan Zaal), a great hunter, with whom I also took up my quarters for a short time. The people were exceedingly kind to me, and remarkably clean and neat in all their household arrangements. Besides, I enjoyed an unlimited supply of sweet and sour milk, both of which I greatly relished.
During my stay on the Nosop I observed for several nights a remarkable comet. On the last of April, about eight o'clock in the evening, when about to set, the latitude being 23° S., it bore 296° by compass.
Having engaged my host's son, Klaas Zaal, to accompany me as a wagon-driver as far as Tunobis, whence he and Eyebrecht were to return, I was again on the move on the afternoon of the 4th of May. For a day or two we followed the right bank of the White Nosop, and then crossed over to the other branch, where, in order to explore the road before us, we rested a couple of days.
Having proceeded one morning in search of game, I became very hungry, and, observing an inviting bean-looking fruit, I ate greedily of it, but it nearly cost me my life. I was seized with giddiness, vomiting, and racking pains, and arrived in a staggering and bewildered state at our camp, completely exhausted. I then learned that the pulse I had eaten was, in a raw state, highly deleterious, but if cooked, could not alone be eaten with impunity, but was really beneficial.
Almost from my first entrance into the country, thinking
