Tortoises and snakes, in great variety, crawl
over the ground, mostly after the rains. Rats and lizards - there
are but few mice - are very abundant, and feed both in the fields
and on the stores of the men.
The wily ostrich, bustard, and florikan affect all open places.
The guinea-fowl is the most numerous of all game-birds.
Partridges come next, but do not afford good sport; and quails
are rare. Ducks and snipe appear to love Africa less than any
other country; and geese and storks are only found where water
most abounds. Vultures are uncommon; hawks and crows much
abound, as in all other countries; but little birds, of every
colour and note, are discoverable in great quantities near water
and by the villages. Huge snails and small ones, as well as
fresh-water shells, are very abundant, though the conchologist
would find but little variety to repay his labours; and insects,
though innumerable, are best sought for after the rains have set
in.[FN#3]
The Wanguana or Freed Men
The Wa-n-guana, as their name implies, are men freed from
slavery; and as it is to these singular negroes acting as hired
servants that I have been chiefly indebted for opening this large
section of Africa, a few general remarks on their character
cannot be out of place here.
Of course, having been born in Africa, and associated in
childhood with the untainted negroes, they retain all the
superstitious notions of the true aborigines, though somewhat
modified, and even corrupted, by that acquaintance with the outer
world which sharpens their wits.
