or year to the farmers; others make mats and brooms for sale; and some breed poultry.

They attend regularly at church, where it is their ambition to appear in neat and clean attire. Persuasion and example had convinced them that cleanliness in their persons not only adds to the comforts of life, but is one of the greatest preservatives of health; and that the little trifle of money they had to spare was much better applied in procuring decent covering for the body, than in the purchase of spirits and tobacco. Their deportment during divine service was truly devout, and I never heard a discourse, delivered by one of the fathers, more suited to his audience, more replete with good sense and admonition; at the same time so truly pathetic, that tears flowed abundantly from the female part of the congregation. The singing of these was plaintive and affecting, and in general their voices were sweet and harmonious. About fifty, I understood, had been admitted as members of the Christian faith by the ceremony of baptism.

It will scarcely be credited, and yet it appears to be too true, that the brutality and gross depravity of the boors, even so near to the capital, had led about thirty of them to enter into a confederacy to murder the three teachers, seize all the young Hottentots, and force them into their service. On a Saturday evening, they had assembled to carry the villainous intention into effect on the following day. The teachers had some days before been made acquainted with their plan through a Hottentot, who had deserted from the service of one of the confederates, and they sent instantly to acquaint Sir James Craig, who immediately took steps to dissolve the confederacy, and threatened vengeance on their

heads if he heard anything more of it. The overseer of the valley received the letter, and the very day they had assembled for their infamous purpose read it to them, on which the poltroons sneaked off each to his own home.

On the 17th I reached and descended the Hottentots' Hollands' Kloof, a difficult and almost impracticable pass at that time over the mountains into the Cape district; but which now, I am told, has been made a fine turnpike road. Its distance from Cape Town is about thirty-six miles, an easy day's journey, which I made on the 18th of January; not sorry to have brought to an end a seven months' tour, in the course of which many personal inconveniences and difficulties had occurred, to be borne and surmounted only, by a determination to perform a duty, as well as to gratify curiosity at the expense of comfort.

SECTION VI.

Journey into the Country of the Namaaquas.

I HAD the great satisfaction to find that Lord Macartney was much pleased with the brief account I had been able to give him, occasionally by letter, and on my return in person, of my travels; of which I told him he should have a detailed account fairly drawn out in writing, but that I had yet another journey to make, in order to complete the examination of the outline of the colony, by proceeding to its farthest northern boundary on the western or Atlantic side, and through that part of it which is inhabited by certain tribes of the Hottentot race called the Namaaquas. Lord Macartney said,

"I cannot, in conscience, send you forth again immediately; and, besides, I shall have occasion for you here: however, if you think it advisable now to finish your labours, it is better, perhaps, that you should go at once, and what I wish to communicate to you can be done on your return." I said, "It certainly was my wish to complete what I had nearly finished, and I shall start forthwith, with your permission, and avail myself of the privilege of taking voorspan oxen or cattle, supplied by the farmers, from station to station, for the service of Government free from charge."

I knew that April was the worst time of the year to commence a journey of this kind, on account of the drought and the approach of winter; nevertheless, I left Cape Town and its fascinations with a covered waggon and twelve stout oxen in good condition, a single horse, a negro slave, a waggoner and leader-my old companions--and an additional Hottentot to attend the oxen as relays. These are afforded for the convenience of those who travel on public service, and are a tax on farmers, which obliges them to furnish these voorspans or forwarding teams of oxen, free of expense, in consideration of the powder and ball formerly supplied to them by the Dutch Government for their expeditions against the Bosjesmans. I was authorised in both journeys to avail myself of this privilege, which was never once refused, but complied with without a murmur, and, I may add, very rarely exacted from

them.

I was alone, and none of my Hottentots knew a step of the way; but I could go, as the Dutch used to send their letters, van huis tot huis (from house to house). Eighteen miles the first day brought me to Koe-berg,

twenty miles on the second to Greene-kloof. Here I found plenty of water and good pasturage for cattle and horses, and plenty of antelopes and smaller game to shoot. The family of Slabert, of Tea-fonteyn, is well known to all travellers; it was my next stage, and they amused me with the romances told by M. Vaillant, whom they lodged for some time. The next stage was Saldanha Bay, a much superior anchorage for shipping of all sizes than Table Bay, but surrounded by a deep sandy country and without fresh water.

Saint Helena Bay is the next stage, but exposed to the northward like Table Bay; the Berg River, a great mass of water, flows into it, but the entrance is so sanded up that boats only can cross the bar, and that but occasionally. As it was necessary I should cross this river, I travelled fifteen miles from its mouth to arrive at a ford to get the waggon over, and the deep sand on the opposite side made our progress so very slow that it became dark and required three hours' dragging backwards and forwards before I found the intended halting-place--a wretched hovel of rushes in the midst of a sandy plain; the night cold, and neither food nor shelter for the horses nor water for the cattle. I therefore pushed on at the risk of losing my way a second time, having about four miles yet to proceed through deep sand before I should reach the next station, which, when reached, turned out to be a hovel, very little better than that I had left, where every thing wore evident marks of poverty.

It was on these miserable plains that the Abbé de la Caille undertook and terminated the measurement of his base, for ascertaining the length of a degree of the meridian of the southern hemisphere. In this horrible

tract of sand and bushes he actually measured a base line of 38,802 feet, and repeated it three times over. The British Government, desirous of following up what the French had commenced, established first an observatory near to Cape Town, and having supplied it with all the instruments necessary for astronomical purposes, the astronomer was directed to procure such assistance as should be requisite, and to remeasure the same line; and I have understood that it very closely approximated that of M. de la Caille.

At the end of my next journey the oxen for relays having followed the waggon alone without the Hottentot, his companions grew uneasy about him. Having complained of head-ache on the previous evening, I gave him an emetic, and, naturally enough, they kept repeating in my hearing that he must have died on the road, insinuating that the emetic had killed him. In the morning, however, he made his appearance, having it would seem fallen asleep. Though dark and without knowing a step of the way, he discovered us by the track of the waggon. A Hottentot is wonderfully clever op het spoor, that is, tracking foot-marks; he knows the print of every wild animal that he has ever seen, but the great variations in the feet of domesticated animals will sometimes puzzle him; as the wolf, for instance, he easily distinguishes from the tame dog, but he is perplexed by the marks of such dogs as he has not had any acquaintance with: of the numerous species of antelope he will point out the spoor of each.

At the eastern extremity of the vast sandy plain, I passed the Picquet-berg, a clump of hills that stand in front of a range of mountains, at the foot of which the Elephants' River flows to the northward before it turns