CHAPTER XXV. THE AUTHOR'S TENT TAKES FIRE-HE LOSES EVERYTHING BUT HIS PAPERS -HE IS LAID ON A BED OF SICKNESS-WANT OF MEDICINE, ETC.REFLECTIONS-WHOLE VILLAGES INFECTED WITH FEVER-ABUN DANCE OF GAME-EXTRAORDINARY SHOT AT AN OSTRICH-A LION DAMARA LIVE ENTIRELY WITHOUT WATER-CROSS THE ORANGE RIVER- THE old adage, Misfortunes never come singly,' was exemplified in my case. The wound in my leg being now nearly healed, we were preparing to leave Rehoboth, when one evening my hut accidently caught fire, and, being entirely constructed of dry grass and sticks, it was burnt to the ground before anything of moment could be saved. By rushing through the flames, however, I fortunately succeeded in preserving the greater part of my papers and memoranda, which to me were invaluable. I also rescued my saddle; but, in so doing, my clothes took fire, and I had a very narrow escape from being burnt to death. A shirt, a pair of trousers, a cap, and a pair of under-done shoes, which had not been long enough at the fire to be thoroughly roasted, were all that was THE AUTHOR IS SEIZED WITH FEVER. 309 left to me. My situation, consequently, was not very enviable. Through the kindness of Messrs. Kleinschmidt and Vollmer, however, I was once more able to appear decently apparelled. But I was soon destined to experience a greater calamity. A few stages south of Rehoboth, which we left on the 22nd of April, en route to the Cape, and while camped on the banks of the Hountop, I was attacked by intermittent fever, which quickly carried me to the verge of the grave. My sufferings and privations during this period were indeed severe. Regularly every morning at eleven o'clock, I was seized with a violent shivering fit, which lasted three hours. Then came the fever, of almost as long duration, accompanied by racking headache and profuse perspiration. After this, my head was tolerably free from pain; but I was so completely exhausted, that to turn in my bed was a laborious effort. The climate, moreover, at this season, was very trying; for, whilst the days were moderately warm (the thermometer averaging 65° at noon), the nights were piercingly cold and frosty. At sunrise, the ice was from an eighth part of an inch to one inch thick. I became very sensitive to these changes, inasmuch as during the greater part of the illness, I was compelled to sleep in the open air, having previously disposed of our waggons to the natives. What little medicine I once possessed, was consumed in the recent conflagration; and the missionaries-owing to the fever having broken out most alarmingly among themselves and the natives-were unable to spare me any. To add to my misfortunes, no suitable food was procurable. Milk and meat were my only diet. The latter I could not digest, and the former soon became insipid to my taste. The men, it is true, had once the good fortune to surprise an ostrich in its nest, but the eggs were too rich and heavy for my weak stomach. Death itself I did not Up to this period, my busy and roving life had left me but little time for serious reflection. Now, however, that the cares of the world no longer occupied my thoughts, I felt the full force of my lonely situation. During the long and sleepless nights, I was often seized with an indescribable sensation of sadness and melancholy. fear; but to perish in a foreign land, in the midst of strangers, far away from all I loved, was an idea to which I could hardly reconcile myself. What hand would close my eyes? what mourner would follow my coffin? or what friend would shed a tear on my lonely and distant grave? I was alone! Oh, may the reader never experience the full meaning of that melancholy word! After upwards of two months of no ordinary sufferings, my strong constitution prevailed, and I was convalescent; but several weeks elapsed before I recovered my usual health and vigour. John Allen was also seriously ill from the same malady, which had the character of an epidemic; for, in a very short time, it spread like wild-fire throughout the length and breadth of Great Namaqua-land, and vast numbers of people succumbed under it. The disease, indeed, was of so destructive a nature, that it swept off whole villages. In one kraal in particular, all the inhabitants perished, and the cattle were left to take care of themselves. Fever (the cause of which is unknown) is not common in these parts, and makes its appearance only occasionally. We had pitched our tent, as already said, near the Hountop river. The country thereabout was a succession of vleys or gullies, then filled with excellent clear water, teeming with water-fowl. Quails, birds of the grouse tribe, and wood-pigeons, were also numerous. Of the larger animals we had the zebra, the springbok, the ostrich, and an occa EXTRAORDINARY SHOT AT AN OSTRICH. 311 sional oryx and hartebeest; but, from their being much persecuted by the natives, combined with nakedness of the country, they were extremely wary and difficult of approach. Game of many kinds being thus abundant, it may well be supposed that, as soon as my strength permitted me to carry a gun, I at once took the field, as well for amusement, as for the purpose of replenishing our larder, which was but very ill supplied. One day I made a capital shot at an ostrich, which, when running at full speed, I brought down at the long distance of two hundred and thirty paces. On a previous occasion I killed one of these splendid birds when upwards of three hundred paces from me. Another day I had the good fortune to shoot a rhinoceros. He was probably a straggler; for these animals have long since disappeared from the part of the country where we were then encamped-and, indeed, are now very rarely to be met with south of the Kuisip river. Early one morning, one of our herdsmen came running up to us in great fright, and announced that a lion was devouring a lioness! We thought, at first, that the man must be mistaken; but his story was perfectly true, and only her skull, the larger bones, and the skin, were left. On examining the ground more closely, the fresh remains of a young springbok were also discovered. We therefore conjectured that the lion and lioness being very hungry, and the antelope not proving a sufficient meal for both, they had quarrelled; and he, after killing his wife, had coolly eaten her also. A most substantial breakfast it must have been! On only one other occasion have I known lions to prey on each other. This was when on my way to Lake Ngami. On a certain night, we had badly wounded a lion. He retreated growlingly into the bush, and immediately after 312 SHOOTING STAR. MIRAGE. wards a whole troop of lions rushed upon their disabled brother and tore him to pieces. A singular and interesting atmospheric phenomenon occurred at Hountop. Between seven and eight o'clock in the evening of the 24th of June, when reading by the side of my bivouac fire, I was suddenly startled by the whole atmosphere becoming brilliantly-nay, almost painfully-illuminated. On turning to the quarter of the heavens whence this radiance proceeded, I discovered a most magnificent shooting star, passing slowly, in an oblique direction, through space, with an immense tail attached to it, and emitting sparks of dazzling light. The fire by which I sat was exceedingly bright, and the moon clear and brilliant; yet they were both totally eclipsed by this immense body of light. Its great beauty and brilliancy might, perhaps, be best realized, by saying that it was like a star of the second or third order when compared to the moon at full. After a time, the pasturage being nearly exhausted in the neighbourhood of the Hountop, we removed our camp a few miles southward, to another periodical river called the Aamhoup. During our stay here, we observed some very striking and singular horizontal refractions of the air. Once I saw an ostrich walking on the horizon line, whilst its double-clear and well defined-appeared immediately above it. Both the ostrich and its double, moreover, were divided into three different portions by as many different strata of air. Again regularly every morning, for nearly a month, the projecting ledge of a rock was converted into the semblance of a splendid and embattled castle. As the atmosphere became uniformly heated, the mirage melted away into a soft, watery haze. In usual refractions, the inverted image of an object |