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either by the authority of others, or by his own experience: indeed, this author's testimony is much more to be credited when he informs us, that the "negroes in the northern parts of Africa, are used to catch lions in pits, but do not dare to eat any of the flesh, for fear left the other lions fhould be revenged on them." In this particular, however, I have not found the Hottentots, or inhabitants of the fouthern parts of Africa, equally fuperftitious, as they told me, that they ate the flesh of lions, and looked upon it to be both good and wholefome. They likewife informed me, that the lions as well as hyenas, had been formerly much bolder than they are at prefent, as they used to feize them at night, and carry them off from their cottages at the fame time they affured me, that a lion that had once tasted human fleth would never after, if he could help it, prey upon any other. They added, that for the fame reason they were obliged to fix benches up in trees to fleep on; fo that they could not fo readily be caught unawares by the lions, and might likewife the eafier defend themselves when they were attacked by them.

"So that, in fact, they were obliged to acknowledge, that with the affiftance of the Chriftians and their fire-arms, they are at prefent much lefs expofed to the ravages of this fierce animal; while, on the other hand, I could not but agree with them, that the colonists themselves were a much greater fcourge to them than all the wild beafts of their country put together; as the Hottentot nations, fince the arrival of the colonists in this part of the world, have found themselves reduced to a much narrower space in their poffeffions, and their numbers very much decreased.

"In these times, at leaft, the lion does not willingly attack any animal openly, unless provoked, or extremely hungry; in which latter cafe he is faid to fear no danger, and to be repelled by no refiftance. The method in which the lion takes his prey, is almost always to spring or throw himfelf on it, with one vaft leap from the place of his concealment; yet, if he chances to mifs his leap, he will not, as the Hottentots unanimously affured me, follow his prey any farther; but, as though he were afhamed, turning round towards the place where he lay in ambush, flowly, and ftep by step, as it were, measures the exact length between the two points, in order to find how much too short of, or beyond the mark he had taken his leap. One of these animals, however, was once known to pur fue an elk-antilope with the greateit eagernefs and ardour, without any one getting to fee the end of the chace. It is fingular, that the foxes in Europe, according to M. Collonn's Hift. Nouv. de l'Univers, tom. iv. p. 20. when they have leaped fhort of their mark, and their prey has got away from them, meafure the length of their leap, in the fame manner as the lion does.

"It is particularly near rivers and fprings, that the lion finds it beft anfwers his purpose to lie in wait. Any animal whatever that is obliged to go thither in order to quench its thirst, is in danger, taxquam canis ad Nilum, of becoming a victim to the irresistible power of this blood-thirsty tyrant.

"It fhould feem, that in cafe gazels, and other fuch animals, had fcent of the lion when he was near them, as ftrong as it appeared to be in my horfes and oxen, they might easily avoid the danger. I do not know how the fact really ftands;

but it is poffible that the lion, like the sportsmen of this country, may know fo well how to chufe the place of its concealment, that the wind may drive its effluvia from the fide whence it might be perceived by its prey.

"Following the example of other travellers in fuch tracts of this part of Africa as are infefted by li.s, we always took the precaution to make loud cracks with our large oxwhip, whenever we were going to pafs a river. Thefe cracks of a whip, which, in fact, make a louder noife, and a greater vibration in the air than the discharge from a piftol, nay, are heard much farther than the report of a gun, is looked upon as a very efficacious method of fcaring away wild beafts. These large whips feem, therefore, to have contributed not a little to the greater degree of dread which, fince the arrival of the colonists, the lions have of mankind.

"The lion's method of taking its prey, as described above, is not, however, probably, fo univerfal as to be without exception. Soon after my arrival at the Cape, I heard fpeak of a married woman, who, fomewhere in the Carrow country, was killed at her own door by a lion, which likewife ate up her head; though others, indeed, thought fhe came by her death in a different manner. Several farmers related to me the following fingular freak of a lion in Camdebo.

"A few years ago a farmer on horfeback, with a led horfe in hand, met with a lion, which had laid itfelf down in the public road where the farmer was to pafs. Thus circumftanced, he thought it moft advifeable to turn back, but found the lion had taken a circle, and laid itself in his way again; he was therefore obliged to turn back again, and

fo alternately backwards and forwards. Whether the lion was scared away by feveral more travellers coming up or no, I cannot fay that I recollect; for I find, that I have forgot to make a minute of the story, probably, becaufe I did not think my authority fufficiently to be depended upon. The following occurrence, however, I think I may relate, as being tolerably well authenticated, and ferving to fhew the cowardice and infiduous difpofition of the lion.

"An elderly Hottentot in the fervice of a Chriftian, near the upper part of Sunday river on the Camdebo fide, perceived a lion following him at a great distance for two hours together. Thence he naturally concluded, that the lion only waited for the approach of darkness, in order to make him his prey and in the mean time, could not expect any other than to ferve for this fierce animal's fupper, inafmuch as he had no other weapon of defence than a stick, and knew that he could not get home before it was dark. But as he was well acquainted with the nature of the lion, and the manner of its feizing upon its prey, and at the fame time had leifure between whiles to rumi nate on the ways and means in which it was most likely that his existence would be put an end to, he at length hit on a method of faving his life, for which, in fact, he had to thank his meditations upon death, and the small skill he had in zoology (or, to fpeak plainly, his knowledge of the nature of animals). For this purpose, inftcad of making the best of his way home, he looked out for a kilpkrans (lo they generally call a rocky place level and plain at top, and having a perpendicular precipice on one fide of it), and fitting himself down

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on the edge of one of these precipices, he found, to his great joy, that the lion likewife made a halt, and kept the fame distance as before. As foon as it grew dark, the Hottentot fliding a little forwards, let himself down below the upper edge of the precipice upon fome projecting part or cleft of the rock, where he could just keep himself from falling. But in order to cheat the lion fill more, he fet his hat and cloak on the stick, making with it at the fame time a gentle motion juft over his head, and a little way from the edge of the mountain. This crafty expedient had the defired fuccefs. He did not stay long in that fituation, before the lion came creeping foftly towards him like a cat, and mistaking the skincloak for the Hottentot himself, took his leap with fuch exactnefs and precifion, as to fall headlong down the precipice, directly clole to the fnare which had been fet up for him; when the Hottentot is faid, in his great joy, exultingly to have called out, t'katfi! an interjection of very extenfive import and fignification.

"This is not the only inftance of lions in Africa being enfnared in the midst of their leap. In the outhouses and wafte grounds about farms, where a lion has been upon the watch for fome animal and miffed it, or where they have other reafons to expect him, they fet up the figure of a man close by the fide of feveral loaded guns; fo that thefe difcharge themfelves into the body of the beast, at the very inftant that he fprings or throws himself upon the dreffed figure.

As this is done with fo much eafe and fuccefs, and as they hardly ever think it worth while in Africa to take lions alive, they feldom give themselves the trouble of catching

them by means of pit-falls. From all the moft credible accounts I could collect concerning the lions, as well as from what I faw myself, I think I may fafely conclude, that this wild beat is frequently a great coward; that is, very deficient in point of courage comparatively to his ftrength. On the other hand, however, he often fhews an unufual degree of intrepidity, of which I will just mention the following inftance, as it was related to me.

"A lion had broken into a walled inclosure for cattle through the lat ticed gate, and done a good deal of damage. The people belonging to the farm, were well affured of his coming again by the fame way; in confequence of which, they stretched a line directly across the entrance, fo thick fet with loaded guns, that they muft neceffarily difcharge themfelves into the lion's body as foon as ever he fhould come, which they firmly expected he would, to dif place the line with his breast. But the lion, which came in the daytime before it was yet dark, and probably had fome fufpicions with refpect to the line, ftruck it away with his foot; and without betraying the leaft fear in confequence of the reports made by the loaded pieces, went on fteadily and carelefs of every thing, and devoured the prey it had left untouched before.

M. Buffon (tom. ix. p. 7.) tells us, on the authority of Marmol and Thevenot, that the lions, which in the more cultivated and inhabited parts of Barbary and India, are ufed to experience man's fuperiority, fometimes fuffer themfelves to be intimidated with a few strokes of a ftick (and that even by women and children) from carrying off their prey. This accords with feveral accounts that I heard at the Cape, of flaves who had had cou

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rage enough, with a knife or fome other weapon ftill more infignificant, to defend their master's cattle, which had been attacked in the dark by a lion.

"It is fingular, that the lion, which, according to many, always kills his prey immediately if it belongs to the brute creation, is reported frequently, although provoked, to content himself with merely wounding the human fpecies; or at least to wait fome time before he gives the fatal blow to the unhappy victim he has got under him. A farmer, who the year betore had the misfortune to be a fpectator of a lion's feizing two of his oxen, at the very inftant he had taken them out of the waggon, told me, that they immediately fell down dead upon the fpot clofe to each other; though, upon examining the carcafes afterwards, it appeared that their backs only had been broken. In feveral places through which I paffed, they mentioned to me by name a father and his two fons, who were faid to be ftill living, and who being on foot near a river on their eftate in fearch of a lion, this latter had rufhed out upon them, and thrown one of them under his fcct: the two others, however, had time enough to fhoot the lion dead upon the fpot, which had lain almoft across the youth fo nearly and dearly related to them, without having done him any particular

hurt.

"I myself faw, near the upper part of Duyven-hoek-rivier, an elderly Hottentot, who at that time (his wounds being fill open) bore under one eye and underneath his cheek-bone the ghafly marks of the bite of a lion, which did not think it worth his while to give him any other chaftifement for having, together with his mafter (whom I

alfo knew) and several other Chriftians, hunted him with great intrepidity, though without fuccefs. The converfation ran every where in this part of the country upon one Bota, a farmer and captain in the militia, who had lain for fome time under a tion, and had received feveral bruifes from the beast, having been at the fame time a good deal bitten by him in one arm, as a token to remember him by; but, upon the whole, had, in a manner, had his life given him by this noble animal. The man was faid then to be living in the district of Artaquas-kloof.

"I do not rightly know how to account for this merciful difpofition Does it proceed towards mankind. from the lion's greater refpect and veneration for man, as being equal to, or even a mightier tyrant than himself among the animal creation? or is it merely from the fame caprice, which has fometimes induced him not only to fpare the lives of men or brute creatures who have been given up to him for prey, but even to carefs them, and treat them with the greatest kindness? Whims and freaks of this kind, have, perhaps, in a great meafure, acquired the lion the reputation it has for generofity; but I cannot allow this fpecious name, facred only to virtue, to be lavished upon a wild beast. Slaves, indeed, and wretches of fervile minds, are wont with this attribute to flatter their greatest tyrants; but with what fhew of rea fon can this attribute be bestowed upon the moit powerful tyrant among quadrupeds, because it does not exercife an equal degree of cruelty upon all occafions?

That the lion does not, like the wolf, tiger, and fome other beals of prey, kill a great deal of game or cattle at one time, perhaps, proceeds from this, that while he is

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employed in attacking one or two of them, the remainder fly farther than it accords with the natural indolence of this beaft to follow them. If this be called generofity, a cat may be styled generous with refpect to the rats; as I have feen this creature in the fields among a great number of the latter, where the could have made a great havock at once, feize on a fingle one only, and run,off with it. The lion and the cat, likewife, very much refemble each other, in partly fleeping out, and partly paling away in a quiet inactive tate a great part of their time, in which hunger does not urge them to go in queft of their prey.

"From what I have already related, and am farther about to men tion, we may conclude, that it is not in magnaninity, as many will have it to be, but in an infidious and cowardly difpofition, blended with a certain degree of pride, that the general character of the lion confifts and that hunger muft naturally have the effect of now and then infpiring fo ftrong and nimble an animal with uncommon intrepidity and courage. Moreover, being accuftomed always itfelf to kill its own food, and that with the greatest cafe, as meeting with no refiftance, and even frequently to devour it reeking and weltering in its blood, it cannot but be easily provoked, and acquire a greater turn for cruelty than for generofity: but, on the other hand, not being accustomed to meet with any refiftance, it is no wonder that when it does, it fhould fometimes be fainthearted and creft-fallen; and, as I have already faid, fuffer itself to be feared away with a cudgel. Here follows another inftance of this fact.

"A yeoman, a man of veracity (Jacob Kok, of Zeekoe-rivier), re

lated to me an adventure he had, in thefe words. One day walking over his lands with his loaded gun, he unexpectedly met with a lion. Being an excellent fhot, he thought himself pretty certain, in the pofition he was in, of killing it, and therefore fired his piece. Unfortu. nately he did not recollect, that the charge had been in it for fome time, and confequently was damp; fo that his piece hung fire, and the ball falling fhort, entered the ground clofe to the lion. In confequence of this he was feized with a panic, and took directly to his feet; but being foon out of breath, and closely purfued by the lion, he jumped up on a little heap of ftones, and there made a ftand, prefenting the butt-end of his gun to his adveríary, fully refolved to defend his life as well as he could to the utmost. My friend did not take upon him to determine, whether this pofition and manner of his intimidated the lion or not: it had, however, fuch an effect upon the creature, that it likewife made a ftand; and what was ftill more fingular, laid itself down at the distance of a few paces from the heap of ftones feemingly quite unconcerned. The fportiman, in the mean while, did not dare to fir a ftep from the fpot: befides, in his flight, he had the misfortune to lofe his powder-horn. At length, after waiting a good half hour, the lion rofe up, and at first went very flowly, and ftep by step, as if it had a mind to fteal off; but as foon as it got to a greater distance, it began to bound away at a great rate. It is very probable, that the lion, like the hyæna, does not eafily venture upon any creature that makes a fand against it, and puts itself in a pofture of defence. It is well known, that it does not, like the hound, find out its, prey by the

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