The knowledge of Europeans respecting the Cape territory had hitherto been confined by the Karroo or desert, and the formidable range of the Sneuwberg beyond it. In 1801, a scarcity of cattle being felt, Messrs Trutter and Sommerville undertook an expedition, with the view of obtaining a supply in some of the more remote districts. Having passed the Snow-mountain and the country of the Bosjesmans, they came to the Orange river, a broad stream flowing westward to the Atlantic, and on the banks of which were the Koras or Koranas, a pastoral people with numerous herds. The information here received induced them to proceed into the country of the Boshuanas, which continued to improve as they advanced, till, to their utter surprise, in the midst of these savage wildernesses of Southern Africa, they found a regular city. Lattakoo was composed of 2000 or 3000 houses, neatly and commodiously built, well enclosed and shaded from the sun by spreading branches of the mimosa, The country around was not only covered with numerous herds, but showed considerable signs of cultivation. The king, a venerable old man, invited them to his house, and introduced them to his two wives. The travellers met every where a hospitable reception, and were the objects of an eager but friendly curiosity. Their report, in fact, encouraged the idea that the golden age was renewed in the centre of Africa.

The Cape government afterwards undertook to follow up this discovery. Lord Caledon sent Dr Cowan and Lieutenant Denovan, at the head of a party of twenty men, with instructions to strike across the continent in a north-eastern direction, and by endeavouring to reach Mozambique, to connect the two great points of African geography. The

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travellers passed Lattakoo, and accounts were received from them nearly eleven days' journey beyond it, when they were in the midst of a richer and more beautiful country than they had yet seen in Southern Africa. A long and anxious interval had elapsed when the governor sent a fast-sailing vessel to Sofala and Mozambique, the captain of which was informed that the expedition had come to a most disastrous issue. It was stated, that the party having arrived in the dominions of the King of Zaire, between Inhambane and Sofala, had been attacked in the night and all cut to pieces, with the exception of two individuals. Mr Campbell was afterwards assured, that the catastrophe had taken place among the Wanketzens, a nation immediately beyond Lattakoo, where the travellers, trusting to the friendly behaviour and professions of the people, had neglected the most common precautions. The officers went to bathe, leaving one party in charge of the waggons, and another to guard the cattle. Thus split into three divisions, they were successively attacked and destroyed by the treacherous barbarians.

Dr Henry Lichtenstein, after surveying several of the Cape districts, extended his journey to the territory of this newly-discovered people, accompanied by one of the natives, named Kok, who had been for some time absent from his country. The first party whom they met accosted them with such demonstrations of kindness and cordiality, as conveyed the most favourable impression of their character, and relieved some apprehensions under which the traveller had laboured. The inhabitants, too, of the first village at which they arrived, received them in a manner quite frank and hospitable, though

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they showed rather an excessive eagerness to obtain a supply of tobacco. Crossing the river Kuruhman, and proceeding by a winding path through a noble forest, they reached Lattakoo. The curiosity excited by their arrival attracted a crowd so immense as to make it impossible for the waggons to proceed; but still the multitude seemed to be animated by the most friendly sentiments. The venerable old king next appeared, and promised to pay them an early visit. On a pipe of tobacco being presented, he began to inhale the smoke by large draughts; and after being satisfied, handed it to his prime minister, who transmitted it to the next in dignity; thus it passed from mouth to mouth, till it reached the lowest of the attendants. The king afterwards introduced the doctor to his two wives, of whom the principal one, Makaitshoah, dazzled him by the beauty which had raised her from a low degree to the station that she now occupied. She was loaded with African finery, -a mantle trimmed with rich furs, and fastened to the shoulder by a bundle of cats' tails, sundry necklaces of bone, copper, and coral, and on one arm no fewer than seventy-two copper rings, on which she set the highest value; she displayed, and saw them counted with peculiar delight. The ladies paid a very long visit, but showed little regard for tea, which was at first presented as most suitable to their rank and sex; while wine, and more especially brandy, were highly relished by them. In the course of a long conversation, the lot of European wives, in having each a husband to herself, became, as usual, the favourite theme; but Makaitshoah, though she approved of the system in general, thought that in Africa, where the waste of war was so great, poly

gamy, to a certain extent, was necessary to keep up the numbers of the nation.*

Dr Lichtenstein had intended to proceed considerably farther into the interior; but his views were changed by a proposal earnestly pressed upon him by the king to accompany, and assist with his firearms, an expedition which his majesty was about to undertake against his neighbour Makkrakka. Finding that he could not remain without involving himself in the deadly feuds of these African chiefs, he chose rather to return to the colony.

Mr John Campbell, animated by the benevolent desire of imparting to this people the blessings of true religion, undertook, in 1813, a mission into Southern Africa. Passing the Sneuwberg in the direction followed by Messrs Trutter and Sommerville he reached Lattakoo, which, by a change not unusual in Africa, had been moved about sixty

The group in the above plate represents the Queen of Lattakoo, a Lattakoo warrior, and two Bosjesman Hottentots.

miles to the southward of its original situation; but the new city had not yet attained more than half the dimensions of the old. His reception was at first marked by a peculiar caution and jealousy. Not a sound was heard in the city; and he walked through empty streets to the great square in front of the pa lace, where several hundred men were drawn up armed and in battle-array. All this precaution wa suggested by the fear that he and his companions were sent to avenge the death of Dr Cowan and Mr Denovan; but no sooner were the inhabitants satisfied that he came with no commission from government, and with no hostile object, than they crowded round him with their usual frankness, and eagerly begged for tobacco. Soon after, Mateebe, the king, entered with a numerous train of attendants, bearing spears tipt with ostrich-feathers. He did not, in passing, take any notice of the English strangers; but immediately after admitted them to an interview, though without receiving them quite so gra ciously as they could have wished. He particularly demurred to the proposal of founding a mission at Lattakoo, on the ground that it would interfere with the tending of their cattle and other occupations; but this being Mr Campbell's favourite object, he pressed it so earnestly, and represented in such fattering terms the superior wealth and industry of Europeans, that Mateebe at length gave his consent to the establishment of missionaries, and promised to treat them well.

Mr Campbell's observations finally dissipated all that yet remained of the original illusion, which had represented this people as enjoying at once the inno cence and the felicity of the primitive ages. There was indeed, as not unfrequently happens in unci