Born 1753.--Died 1824.
Peculiar excellence of Le Vaillant’s style--Born in Dutch
Guyana--Early pursuits--Is brought to Europe--Studies--Conceives
the idea of travelling--Repairs to Holland--Embarks for
the Cape of Good Hope--Arrive--Dutch hospitality--Cape
Town--Hurricane--Character of the colonists--Admiration of the
English, and detestation of the French--Saldanha Bay--Mutton
Island--Gazelle and panther-hunting--Harpooning a whale--The
Dane’s grave--Prodigious clouds of birds--Blowing-up of a
ship-of-war--Loss of Le Vaillant’s papers, collections, and
travelling-chest--Melancholy--Meets with a friend--Recommences
his collections--Prepares for a journey into the
interior--His wagons, merchandise, and arms--Choice of
travelling companions--Hottentot followers--Departs from
Cape Town--Sweets of liberty--Magnificent scenery--Vast
herds of antelopes--Curious species of tortoise--Augments
his followers--Arrives on the Dove’s River--Pleasant mode
of spending his time--African story-teller--Abundance of
game--Seashore--Beautiful district--Fairy-land--Spenser--Gardens
of Adonis--Shoots a touraco--Pursues it through the woods--Falls
into an elephant-snare--Danger and alarm--Escapes--Torrents
of Africa--Verdant palace--Proceeds to the Black
River--Accident--Is attacked by illness--Oppressed by
melancholy--Recovers--Discovers the footmarks of elephants--Sets
out in chase of them--Shoots an elephant--Pursues the herd--Is
in imminent danger--Escapes--Exquisite flavour of an elephant’s
foot--Falls in with a tribe of wild Hottentots--Manners and
opinions--Approaches the country of the Kaffers--Terrors of
his followers--Despatches messengers into Kaffer-land--Fury
of an African storm--Wild beasts--Meets with a new tribe of
Hottentots--Exchange of presents--Enamoured of a Hottentot
girl--Return of his messengers, accompanied by Kaffers--Dutch
spies in the camp--Alarm of the Kaffers--Their departure--Prepares
to enter Kaffraria--His people refuse to proceed--Selects
a small number of the bravest of his Hottentots for the
expedition--Quits his camp--Enters Kaffraria--Solitude and
desertion of the country--Returns--Contemplates his return to
the Cape--Enormous herds of antelopes--Sublime scenery of the
Sneuw Bergen--The Bushmen--Great scarcity of water--Reaches
the Cape--Reposes--Unhappy opinion--Projects a second
journey--Preparations--Departure--Nests of the white ant--Dreadful
scarcity of water--Discovers a well in the desert--Elephant’s
River--African harpies--Is near perishing in the Elephant’s
River--Abandons his chariots in the desert--Forerunners of
a tempest--Cloud-worshippers--A storm--Quenches his burning
thirst--Visits a Hottentot horde--Hospitality--Is overtaken
by a Dutchman, who intoxicates his followers--Terrible
accident--Horrors of the savage life--Proceeds on his
journey--Beholds a giraffe, and kills one--Presence of women in
the camp--Arrives on the frontiers of the Hoozwana country--New
terrors of his followers--Solitude of the desert--Discovers
a horde of Hoozwanas--Obtains their friendship--Character
of these wild people--They reconduct him to his camp on the
Gariep--Accident--Oxen stolen by the Bushmen--Follows them
to their kraal--Battle--Recovers his cattle, and returns
to the camp--Befriends a miserable white family--Is on the
point of death--Recovers--Returns to the Cape--And then to
Europe--Publishes his travels--Dies 262