During these days, the weather was remarkably variable: sometimes
very hot, the thermometer at 80°, and, at other times, down
to the freezing point; attended with rain or hail, and violent winds,
generally from the south-west quarter. The only shelter my men
could find, was a few bushes, against which a mat was placed. Here
they sat the whole day, their chief employment being smoking, talking,
keeping up the fire, or attending their pot. Each, in his jas
(great-coat) defied the weather, and sat quite at ease. The brim of
Speelman’s grand hat was now let down, and, during the rain, completely.
answered the purpose of an umbrella. Hannah, wrapped in
her kaross, seldom stirred from her seat under the bush; while
Philip, to show his greater degree of civilization and polish, seated
himself on one of the water-casks, leaving Gert to take advantage of
a small mound of earth near the fire. As I sat in my waggon,
I made a drawing of this party: it which forms the subject of
the vignette at the head of the chapter.
Here I obtained a sort of Partridge *, of a uniform ash-brown
color, every where marked with fine white lines, excepting the quill-
feathers and the head. The feathers of the breast, each with a white
stripe down the middle; the beak and legs of a bright red : but the
ridge of the upper mandible, the nails, and the eyes, were black, and
had two nasal caruncles, of a blackish ash-color. It was called by
the colonists Faisdnt (Pheasant), a name, in this instance, quite
misapplied.
The Schaapwagtertje (the Little Shepherd), so called from its
familiarity in approaching the Hottentots while tending their sheep,
is a bird common in all the open country of this part of Africa. +
Here we received the information that Africaander, a noted
Hottentot freebooter, had forced one of the missionaries in Nama-
qualand to fly from his station on the Orange river (Gariep), and take
refuge within the colony. This name has been rendered more formid-
* Perdix Capensis.
t I t is Le Traquet Pâtre of Le Vaillant, Ois. d’Afr. pl. 180.; and, perhaps, the
Motacilla aurantia, Sys. N a t ed. Gm.
able, by its collecting into a single, history the deeds of two men
equally worthless, the father and son. The former, being at this time
too old to commit more mischief, was living peaceably; but one of
his sons had proved himself a successor not inferior in villany. The
others condemned their brother’s conduct, and had as yet shown no
symptoms of a similar disposition. This lawless leader, who had
associated with him a strong party of marauders of various tribes,
and was the terror of all the country around, had advanced upwards
along the river, as far as the great waterfall, where, falling
in with a party of the Klaarwater Hottentots, he had harassed
and attacked them: nor was it ; known at the time this intelligence'
came away, whether they had been able to stand against him or not.
In addition to this unpleasant news, it was reported that seventy
oxen had been driven off from Klaarwater by some, of the hostile
Bushmen.
A few days before we arrived at the Karree river, four horsemen
were despatched to Klaarwater, or, as many of the Hottentots called
it, Klaarfontein, to fetch fresh oxen; those belonging to most of the
waggons appearing in a very lean and weak state.
Although every thing exhibited an extremely parched and
sterile appearance, there was still plenty of water in different hollows
of the river; and in these, every evening, a multitude of frogs commenced
their croaking concert, producing an extraordinary loud noise.
The latitude of this place I computed to be 32° 3'88" | ; and
confirmed my former observation of the magnetic variation being
27£° W.
24th. Yesterday the violence of the wind and inclemency of
the weather, with even some snow, prevented our travelling. Earjy
this morning the ground was again covered with snow; and which,
although the sun shone the whole morning, was not entirely melted
away till noon. The thermometer was, at that hour, only 31 y and
rose no higher during the day than 45° (7°-2 C.),
* 18th August, 1811, at the Karree river, observed meridional altitude of the siin’s
centre, 4.4*’ 35' 42".