to be the same kind of Suiker-vogel (Sugar-bird) * which I had seen
in the vicinity of Cape Town. Their elegance and beauty, added
to their soft, delicate, warbling notes, engaged my admiration and
attention for a long time; and it was indeed with reluctance that I
permitted my desire of having this bird in my collection, to overcome
my natural feelings, and induce me to kill it. With much less
hesitation, I plucked some of the flowers from which they had been
sipping: it was the most showy plant at this time in bloom. I
collected a few others f j but it was not now the bloemtyd, as the
boors express it, the flower-season, here.
The rains, contrary to our expectations, had not yet fallen; and,
on that account, we found, wherever we came, only dry. channels instead
of rivers. This unlooked-for drought had already produced a
melancholy, and a too visible,' effect on our oxen. Lean and weary,
they were not in a state for crossing the Bushman country ; and
it was intended to have halted at this place for two or three days, to
recruit their strength; but in this plan we were disappointed.
The scarcity of pasture and water, determined us to remove to a
place about three miles further, pointed out on the map by the words
Sugar-bird Station, where our spitting visitor assured us there was
plenty of both. Here we were again disappointed: nothing was to
be found but the dry bed of a rivulet, and a parched country all
around, worse even than at the last station.
No one doubted that the boor had intentionally given us a false
account, in order to get rid of us, that our. cattle might not deprive
his flocks of their scanty herbage. It was, at the time, remarked by
* Nectarinia chalybea ; Certhia chalybea^ Linn. Syst. ed. Gmel. vol. i. p. 475. *
Le Sucrier à double collier, Le Vaill. Ois. d’AJr. tome-vi. pl. 178.
Convolvulus
Gnapbalium
Cotula nudicaulis ?
Calendula amplexicaidis ?
Cynoglossum hirsntum, Th.
Hemimeris montana ?
Hemimeris diffusa ?
Heliophila chamcemelifolia
Festuca
Salvia •
Medeola asparagoïdes, Linn.
our party, that this is an artifice very .commonly practised by the
farmers, who, too often, are desirous of appropriating to the use of
their own herds, that which is the common property of all, or, speaking
more correctly, of government.
This was an old deserted cattle-place, as appeared by the ruins
of a miserable hut, where some of our people took up their quarters.
After searching for an hour or two along the bed of the river, some
water was at length discovered, at a great distance from the waggons;
but as it was barely sufficient for our own drinking, and for the purposes
of cooking, our unfortunate oxen were obliged still longer to
endure a painful thirst.
Speelman and Philip, during our stay, were employed in making
a step-frame for the little waggon, which the waggon-maker, in the
hurry at Tulbagh, had omitted. For this work they cut down, without
leave or ceremony, as much timber as they required; no one
reprimanding them for trespass, or calling them to account. Such
is the custom, as I was told, in this part of the colony, that
whoever has occasion to appropriate any particular tree, need only
put his mark upon it, and his neighbours will respect it as his
property.
At Ongeluks river, we received information that the body of
hostile Caffres, before mentioned *, had separated into four divisions,
waiting to attack us, either at the Zak river, or in the Karreebergen
(Karree-mountains), in the Bushman country; and that they had
neither women nor children with them; a certain indication of the
party being oh some warlike or plundering expedition. In the
evening, two of our Hottentots returned from a visit to some of
their countrymen, who lived in a.hut not far off, and brought a confirmation
Of the report, as far as regarded their numbers, their hostile
intentions, and their lying in wait for us in the Karree-mountains.
This intelligence created among all our party much weighty conversation,
respecting the most prudent steps to be taken. Our
* At pages 64 and 185.