and, with instructions that they should be conducted back into their
own country, ordered them to be put on board a ship which was
just then going to sail to Algoa Bay. Their principal leader was a
chief of the name of Dansa or Danser. He was a man of high spirit;
and, feeling indignant at having been sent away from Cape Town
against his inclination, openly avowed a hostile disposition against
the colonists. We, however, agreed that it would be best to proceed
as far as the boundary of the colony, where we should better ascertain
the truth of this report; and whether or not, they would be too
strong for u s: if they were, it was my determination to take the route
by N&maqualand.
In the afternoon I took a walk to the waggon-maker’s, and
on the way collected some plants. * On my return, it being then
nearly dusk, the delightful fragrance of the Avond-bloem (evening
flower), a species of Ixia (Hesperanthera), began to fill the air, and
led to the discovery of the plants. In the day-time their flowers,
which, though white within, are of a dusky color on the outside,
and, being then quite closed, do not readily catch the eye.
M l Speelman, who had been sent out for game, returned in a
couple of hours with the first-fruits of his hunting, a kind of antelope
called Duyker by the colonists; together with a small species of Otis,
or bustard, called Korhaan (or Kriorhaan), a name which is given also
to two or three other kinds of Otis. This bird was about the size of
a large domestic fowl, and, for eating, is esteemed one of the best of
the feathered game. Its plumage having been plucked off before I
* Stcebe rhinocerotis
Anthospermum ciliare
Anthospermum lanceolatum
StrumariaJilifolia
And species of the genera : —
Hermannia
Buchnera
Cyperus, 2 sp.
Oxalis, 5 sp.
Psoralea
Phylica
LidbecTcia turbinata
Watsonia plantaginea
Amaryllis ciliaris
Aspalathus
Hesperanthera
Glycine
saw it, prevented my ascertaining to what described species it should
be referred.
The Duyker (Diver) * is one of the smaller Antelopes, being
not much above two feet in height ; very light and elegantly made,
like most of that tribe. Its color is an uniformly dusky grizzled
brown ; the males have short, upright, and straight horns : the tail
is not more than three inches long, black on the upper side, and
white beneath. But the mark which distinguishes this animal from
all the rest of the genus, and perhaps from all the ruminating tribe,
is a singular little black, upright, thin tuft of long hairs, growing on
the top of the head, between the ears. The Duyker is found chiefly
in bushy places ; and, from its mode of eluding its pursuers, by a
sudden strong leap over the bushes, instantly plunging down amongst
them again out of sight, it has gained thé name it bears. The meat
is very good eating, but is, at all seasons, like most of the vënison
at the Cape, rather dry, and much inferior to that of England : the
cause of this is a total want of fat ; a defect which the Cape cooks
endeavour to remedy by larding. This animal is found only in
Africa ; some authors regarding it as the same with the Guinea
antelope f , while others suppose it to be a different species peculiar
to the southern point of this continent.
The clouds which had threatened to fill the Breede river and
detain us at Tulbagh, disappeared in the course of the forenoon,
and the wind shifted round to the south-east, a quarter from which
the inhabitants of this village seldom receive rain. This is, doubtlessly,
to be attributed to the immense tract of arid Karrô, and dry
country, which lies in that direction. In the afternoon the two
missionaries commenced their journey.
3rd. The waggon being finished, was brought home to day ;
and by the evening, the loading and arrangement of it were completed.
Gert was appointed to be the driver, and Maagers’s son'
* Antilope, mergens. f Antilope Grimmia, Gmel.
B B 2