seen them on our journey to Graaff Reynet. In fact, we were now on a portion of the same country, and of the same ridges of hills, as before described.

On quitting this forest of most beautiful and luxuriant shrubbery, at least thirty miles in extent, I observed, at a little distance, a whole line of strelitzias in full flower, which, on approaching, I was pleased to find were not of the species reginæ, but a new species (at least in England), with pointed instead of spoonshaped leaves, and from six to ten feet long. I procured half a dozen roots for the botanical garden at the Cape, whence the plant was sent to England; but I have not happened to meet with any one of them in our hot-houses.

On the evening of our escape from the shrubbery, we encamped on the verdant bank of a beautiful lake, of an oval form, about three miles in circumference, the water perfectly clear, but as salt as brine. The bottom was one continued body of salt, like a sheet of ice-a mass of crystals as hard as rock. Here we found a peasant encamped on the green bank, with his whole family of sons and daughters and grand-children, men, cows, sheep, and dogs. He stated that two of his horses had, in the preceding night, been devoured by lions; that these treacherous animals, like the rest of the feline tribe, lie in ambush till they can securely pounce upon their prey. While we were here, one of the farmer's Hottentots brought down a large male buffalo (Bos Caffer), the strongest and the fiercest of the bovine genus. Its immense horns are so broad at the base as to leave only a narrow channel down the forehead; and this is said to fill up with age, giving to the animal a front of horn as hard as rock. The lion

sometimes attacks the buffalo, but always by stratagem, and generally succeeds.

Our next halt was on the shore of Algoa Bay, which the Dutch named Zwart Kop's Bay, from the river of that name, which flows into it. We found H.M.S. 'Hope' at anchor in the bay, having been sent expressly by Admiral Pringle to meet us; and here we remained a few days to examine, and make observations on, the bay and the surrounding country. In Lieutenant Rice I found an expert and intelligent gentleman; and on my proposal we agreed to take advantage of thus meeting, to ascertain by lunar distances the latitude and longitude of the best anchorage. He had already obtained the latitude of the landing-place, which I took several occasions to repeat, and found to be 33° 56', the same as that of the anchorage in Table Bay; and this result occasioned some surprise, as all the old charts made the trending of the land nearly N.E. from the Cape L'Aguillas to Algoa Bay, whereas, by our observations, the said Cape and Algoa Bay are not more than E. by N. of each other. The land, therefore, from the Cape to Algoa Bay, juts out into the sea far beyond what was supposed, and laid down in the charts; and it was probably owing to the want of this knowledge that the unfortunate loss of the 'Grosvenor,' East Indiaman, may be ascribed.

On the western part of Algoa Bay, where the landingplace was pointed out, as being the most practicable and secure, a beautiful verdant terrace of grass and shrubby clumps extended about a quarter of a mile along the coast, but elevated above it, and enclosed on its northern side by a bushy ridge. It appeared to me so lovely a spot, and so delightfully situated, that I was tempted to

M

declare I would erect there my baaken, or landmark, and solicit from the Governor possession of it, either as a free gift or by purchase. Future events, however, put an end to this speculation; and I understand that now a whole line of houses and gardens occupy my enviable

terrace.

At the distance of fifteen miles, which I rode over, to the westward of the bay, and close to the sea-shore, I was agreeably surprised to meet with an extensive forest, of many thousand acres, covered with trees of various kinds and dimensions, the most common apparently being the geel-hout, or yellow wood (Taxus elongatus); many of the trees rose to the height of thirty or forty feet without a branch, with a trunk of ten feet in diameter. Next in size was the yzer, or iron-wood (sideroxylon); hassagai-hout (Curtisia faginea). This beautiful tree is used for the naves and spokes of waggon-wheels. Stink-hout takes its name from an offensive odour which it exhales while green, but which goes off entirely with age. It is by many degrees the best wood produced in the colony, and well calculated for use in ship-building, either as knees, beams, timbers, or planks. Not being anywhere described, that I was aware of, I gave it the name of Quercus Africana. Several other timber-trees were growing here and along the coast, of which I procured specimens to the amount of about forty different kinds; yet in Cape Town a general complaint prevailed of the want of wood, and the extravagance of prices, which no doubt long before this have found a remedy.

The Zwart Kop's River meanders, in its course to the bay, through a valley about twenty miles long, and two to three wide, the hills on either side exhibiting an

unbroken forest of trees and shrubby plants, among which are the tree crassula, euphorbia, and several aloes. The whole of this rich valley was divided among four families, each having not less than five thousand acres of land; yet not content, they made endeavours to burn the enclosing shrubberies, in order to get more grass-land for their cattle, but the heated aloes and euphorbias burst open their stems, and the rushing streams of their juices extinguished the fire.

In game, Zwart Kop's district was the most prolific we had yet seen. We found five or six species of antelope; and among them the pigmaa, supposed to be the smallest of hoofed quadrupeds, except only the pigmy musk-deer. We found also a third species of korhaen, or bustard, larger than either of the other two, called the wilde pauw, or wild peacock; and also the falco serpentarius, which the Dutch have named the secretary bird, from the pen-like feathers sticking on its head.

I have so fully described the moral and physical character of the Hottentot, his good qualities, and the cruel and inhuman treatment he receives from the Dutch boors,* that I must forbear, in this place, any further notice of them. In vain have I endeavoured to discover by whom, or on what ground, the name of Hottentot was conferred on the tribe. In their own language, it has neither place nor meaning: they call themselves, in every part of the country over which they are scattered, Quaiquæ. But the mystery is from whence and how they came to the extreme point of a continent, hemmed in on one side bynegroes, and on the other by Kaffirs, neither of whom, nor any other nation on that continent, have feature, form, character,

* Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa.

or colour, bearing the least resemblance to theirs. From all that I have seen of them (and I have had them in my service from five to six years), I have ever found them, with one single exception, an honest, faithful, intelligent, and well-conditioned people.

We are now about to proceed among a very different race of men, called Kaffirs, a name of whose origin they are equally ignorant as the Hottentots are of theirs: they call themselves Koussie. Advancing on our intended visit to the party, who had established themselves within the British colony, on the 29th of August we crossed the ford of the Sunday River, and encamped on its wooded banks, where, during the night, for the first time, we were disturbed by a troop of elephants coming to drink; but on finding the place occupied, they turned quietly away, without further molesting us. We saw them next morning in an extensive thicket, and chased them many hours, but to no purpose.

Thirty miles over a wild and uninhabited country brought us in the evening to the banks of the Bosjesmans' river, after a tedious journey through thickets of shrubbery, in which a road had been cut just wide enough to admit the waggons. The next day we reached the Hassagai-bosch River, whose source is in the Riet-berg, a range of hills that extend to the eastern limit of the colony, and lose themselves in the high banks of the Great Fish River.

We had now passed through a portion of the ZuureVeldt, on which the emigrant Kaffirs had placed themselves and their herds of cattle; and were about to proceed to an interview with their chiefs, when several farmers with their waggons, and a party of thirty or forty boors, approached, for the purpose, as it appeared,