perfection to which any particular use of the mind may be brought
by constant exercise; for, with these people, tending and managing
their cattle is the grand employment of life. For myself, it was
a long time before I was able to distinguish my own team, even
from those belonging to the other waggons.
The weather prevented our setting out until a late hour, and it
became dark before we had advanced more than seven miles and a
half; when we unyoked at an outspan-place, in the midst of
rhinoceros-bushes, which abound in this part of the country.
22nd. This day proved very fine ; and so early as eight o’clock
in the morning, the thermometer was not lower than 57 ’ (11T R .;
13'8 C.) although it was now the depth of winter ; a circumstance
from which some estimate may be formed of the general mildness of
the winters at the Cape.
Soon after we left this place, Table Mountain was seen very
distinctly : its form is too remarkable, in this part of the colony,
to be mistaken for. any other. During the whole of this day’s
journey, which was twenty miles, the road was exceedingly even,
being over an open, and, in most parts, a rhinoceros-bush country. *
After advancing a couple of hours, we halted to take dinner ;
while the oxen were left standing in the yoke. I could not but admire
the expedition with which the Hottentots made a fire and broiled their
meat. The rhinoceros-bush is well known for its valuable property of
burning while green, as freely as the driest fuel; and whole plants
which we threw on the fire, blazed up in an instant, the larger stems
giving a very strong heat and flame. Although one may venture to
assert that the whole plant contains a considerable quantity of either
inflammable oil, or resinous gum, these are not discoverable by
the eye.
We continued travelling by moonlight, till a little before nine
* A variety of proteaceous plants, decorate the sides of the road: among them were
Protea scolymus three feet high, and Mimetes purpurea. A very pretty Blairia, forming
a little shrub a foot and a half high, was now covered with blossom.
in the evening, when an accident suddenly put a stop to our further
progress this night. Philip, happening unluckily to drive a few
yards out of the beaten road, on ground which was sandy and much
softened by yesterday’s rain, the waggon sunk into the earth up
to the axletrees, and defied all our power to move it from the
spot. Immediately we set to work with pickaxe and spades to clear
away the earth from before the wheels; and four oxen more being
then added to the team, we succeeded in releasing the waggon.
But before it had advanced a yard forward, it sunk again as deep
as before; and with the struggling of the cattle to drag it out, the
fore-rope snapped asunder, and the pole broke ; nor was it possible
to extricate the waggon without unloading a great part of its contents.
This dilemma obliged us to wait till the morning.
The place where we happened to be thus detained, was called
Olyvenhout-bosch (Olive-tree wood), so named from the Olyf boom *,
a tree so much resembling the European Olive, as to have been
mistaken for it by botanists ; but few were now growing here. It
attains a large size, and the wood, which is exceedingly compact and
heavy, is very handsome, and well suited for cabinet work.
23rd. The next morning we bound together the broken pole,
unloaded several of the boxes in order to lighten the waggon; and,
after again digging away the earth, a layer of bushes was placed in
the track, to render the ground firm. With the strength of sixteen
oxen it was at last dragged out.
This affair gave me an opportunity of witnessing the helplessness
of Hottentots, and their want of contrivance, in occurrences a
little out of the common way. They could not imagine any other
mode of extricating the vehicle than by main force; and it was in
this foolish attempt that the pole was broken. When they discovered
that such means would not answer, they stood looking on
with a most provoking apathy, silently smoking their pipes; and
# Olea similis, B ; 0 . Europaa, Th. et O. Europeea, var. verrucosa Pers.
A A