It
is the custom of the Dutch to send parties from time to time to explore
the country, and those who go furthest are best rewarded. A number of
soldiers went in a party with a sergeant who commanded them, and
advanced far into the country, where they made a large fire at
midnight, both to protect themselves from lions and for warmth, and lay
round it to rest. When they were asleep, a lion seized one of the
soldiers by the arm, and immediately the sergeant fired a shot and slew
the animal. When it was dead its jaws had to be forced open, with great
effort, in order to release the soldier's arm, which was pierced from
side to side. It is apparent from this story that it is an error to
suppose that lions do not approach a fire.1 The Cafres healed the soldier's arm in twelve days. There are in the fort several skins of lions and tigers:2
Among others there is the skin of a horse which the Cafres killed. It
is white barred with black stripes pricked out like a leopard, and
without a tail.3 At a distance of two or three leagues from
the fort the Dutch found a dead lion with four porcupine's quills in
its body, which had penetrated the flesh three-fourths of their length.
It was accordingly concluded that the porcupine had killed the lion.
The skin is still kept with the spines sticking in the foot.4
At
one league's distance from the fort there is a fine village which grows
from day to day. When the vessels of the Dutch Company arrive, if any
soldier or sailor wishes to remain there he is welcomed. He takes as
much land as he can manage,5 and, as I have above said, all kinds of vegetables
1
Ball notes that some African travellers have been of opinion that a
lire attracts lions, and that a substantial fence is requisite for the
protection of a camp.
2
By tigers here we must understand leopards, as tigers do not occur in
Africa any more than lions do in the eastern and southern parts of
India, where Tavernier has so often referred to their presence in
previous pages.
3 Zebra; it should have had a tail. On the zebra sent from Abyssinia to Aurangzeb, see Bernier, 135, 143.
4
Numerous cases are recorded of tigers having died in India from this
cause, and some have been found, when shot, to have porcupine quills
sticking in them.
5
Here we have an early reference to the first Dutch Boer settlement at
the Cape. In 1671 the first purchase of land from the Hottentots,
II
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