acquainted; and, not to hurt his vanity, or lower him in the eyes
of his scholars and employers, I sometimes confessed myself vanquished
by his arguments, because, indeed, they were incomprehensible
; and was rewarded for my submission by the complacency
and good humour which he showed in return. The three sisters
and the good old lady, listened with attention to all that was said,
and whenever they gave an opinion, it was in favor of the Heer. At
last, having exhausted the learned sciences, he began to prove his
knowledge of the politer accomplishments, by introducing the subject
of dancing. This art he offered to teach the young ladies; whereupon,
immediately starting up, he proceeded, in a laughable attitude,
to show them the five positions; and, happening to be correct in
three of them, looked round with a happy satisfaction, to receive my
approbation.
All these harmless vanities excited a great deal of good-
humoured mirth, and the coldness and ceremoniousness of strangers
very soon wore off. They insisted on my taking all my meals in the
house, and omitted nothing in their power to convince me that I was
heartily welcome to partake of their homely fare.. This offer of
hospitality was no empty complimentary pretension to friendship,
such as, in more polished society, is too trite to deceive: it was
the more sincere for being made under a knowledge of the probability
of my remaining here several days; for they had received
intelligence that the missionaries, whom I must have passed on the
road during the night-time, were far behind, and not likely, from
their slow rate of travelling, to come up with me for three or
four days.
A boor, who had received orders to furnish the next voorspam,
sent in the morning to enquire when they would be wanted ; but, as
I had now determined on proceeding with my . own oxen, he was
informed that no further services would be required.
A young farmer, living in the neighbourhood, who had heard
of my being on my way to the countries beyond the Gariep, or
Groote rimer, as it is called by the colonists, a country where he had
spent all the first portion of his life, paid me a visit. His name was
Carel Krieger, nephew to the Jacob Krieger who unfortunately accompanied
the expedition of Dr. Cowan, and son of a person of the
same name, who was trampled to death by an elephant in the
country of the Bushmen.
These two brothers, having trespassed against the laws, fled
from the colony, and, for many years, led a wandering life among
the tribes on either side of the Gariep. Their ingenuity, together
with their courage, enabled them to procure a subsistence in the
deserts, and, in some measure, to gain the good-will of the natives.
When the colony fell the second time into the hands of the English,
the surviving brother, by an act of amnesty, was permitted to return
within the boundary, and was living on a small farm in the Rogge-
veld at the time when that expedition was set on foot. The knowledge
of the country, and the experience which he had gained during
his extensive wanderings among the savages, occasioned his being
selected, as peculiarly fitted for remedying any want of experience
in the others ; and he was tempted to join their party, fated never
to return.
This young man spoke with evident pleasure of thé different
countries I was to pass through ; and so interwoven with his feelings,
was the predilection he had imbibed for the mode of life of his early
youth, that he expressed the strongest desire to accompany me, and
seemed to regret that he had just purchased a farm. The truth,
however, appeared to be, that he was on the point of being married.
He still recollected something of the Sichuâna and Kôraqua languages
: the former of which he called Briqua, and wrote down about
twenty words.
The farm of Pieter Jacobs, being employed only for the rearing
of cattle, was visited at this time by a slagter's knegt -(butcher’s man),
for the purpose of purchasing a large number of sheep. A: slag-
ter’s knegt is a person commissioned by a butcher in Cape Town to
travel into the grazing districts, and buy up the number of sheep or
oxen he may require ; for which the man pays the grazier, not in
money, but in small notes of hand, called Slagter’s brief, previously
signed by his employer, and the validity of which is certified
at the Fiscal’s office. These are considered as good as cash, into
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