appeared to be very near, yet it Was not till a quarter before ten
that we arrived at the spot where it was proposed to take up our
station. 1
The country, from Snyman’s to this place, has a gradual rise,
which, in the distance of four-and-twenty miles, must amount to a
very considerable increase of elevation.
• I now delivered to Mulder a package, containing the botanical
specimens collected between Tulbagh and the Karro Pass, and for
which Snyman had issued a requisition conformably to the government
order, that they should be forwarded from one field-comet to
another, till they reached Cape. Town. Mulder promised to take
charge of them himself, together with a letter to my agents, as he
intended setting out for the Gape in two or three days. '
' With the view of ensuring their safe arrival, I wrote, by an
opportunity which- presented itself three weeks afterwards, to the
Landdrost of Tulbagh, to apprise him of the circuihstance; yet
neither these, nor the letter to my agents, ever reached their destination,
a fact I was not informed of till my return to Cape Town.
Every enquiry was then made, but without discovering them;
and, in the mean time, another landdrost was appointed. After I
finally left the colony, the enquiry was continued officially by the
Deputy Colonial Secretary, who obtained information that the package
had been duly delivered to the Field-commandanf, Pienaar, residing
in the Bokkeveld; by whom they were said to have been left in
Cape Town, at the house of a person named Zeyler, who denied its
having ever been seen' by him. Pienaar, on being further questioned,
declared that, as soon as he received it, he gave due notice at
the Drostdy. Here the clue was lost, and the affair ended. I mention
this circumstance, for the purpose of cautioning future travellers not
to trust too much to such a mode of communication. This is the only
loss my collection has sustained: it is not altogether inconsiderable,
as it amounts to 585 specimens, and must occasion, in the numbers
of the Geographical Catalogue, an hiatus that cannot now be filled up.
4th. At this station nothing new was observed: but, expecting
the relays, I did not stray far from the waggons; -otherwise it is
probable that many interesting objects would have rewarded my
search. Euphorbia Mauritanica was here very abundant; and several
other thorny species, resembling in growth the Torch-thistles [Cacti)
of South America, of which they are in Africa the representatives;
assuming, like them, the globular as well as the prismatic form, and
occupying the same arid or rocky situations.
As neither oxen nor boors made their appearance this day,
though the weather was quite favorable, we were compelled to
remain stationary.
5th. It rained during the whole night, and continued all the
next day in heavy showers, with now and then only, a short interval of
sunshine. At eight in the morning, four boors came with the voor-
spans; but the rain had rendered the road so slipper}', that, it being
useless to attempt the ascent, they went with their oxen to wait at
Van der Westhuisen’s, till the weather cleared up, and the road became
dryer and less dangerous.
The field-cornet’s requisition produced but a trifling supply of
flour; and the whole quantity obtained from three farms was not
more than four pecks.
The day passed miserably cold and wet; the thermometer being
as low as 43° (6-l 1 Centig.) * Our station being on a declivity, occasioned
a new species of inconvenience : the water washed away our
fire, and drove the Hottentots to another spot. Here they contrived
to keep one alight, by digging a channel to turn the water off. Under
a shelter of mats, they sat patiently the whole day; a patience as
much to be attributed to brandy and tobacco, as to their natural
disposition to endure hardships without complaining. At night
they strewed under the waggons a layer of bushes, that the water
* As the whole of the observations on the weather, the state of the thermometer, and
the distance travelled each day, are given in the Itinerary at the end of the volume, it has
not been thought necessary to repeat them in the Journal, unless they were remarkable,
or otherwise required by the narrative. Where no particular thirmometer is mentioned,
that of Fahrenheit is always to be understood; and, for its corresponding degree on
Reaumur's scale, the Itinerary is to be referred to.