those within the influence of the maritime air, receive theirs in the
opposite season of the year. In the former, the showers are pro-
duced by thunder-clouds only, and are very irregular and uncertain
as to their season ; sometimes falling very early, and at other times
continuing unusually late. August and September are considered
as the best months in which the journey from Klaarwater to the
Cape, can be performed ; as, at that time, the weather is coo], and
the oxen can arrive thére while the grass of the colony is fresh and
green.A
fter the middle of October, no frost is expected for seven
months ; but in the mornings of May it is always found to return,
and is the signal for the return of their horses from the Roggeveld,
whither they are sent in January to avoid the Paarde-ziekte, a fatal
distemper to which they are liable during the hotter months.
Those who object to sending their horses to so great a distance
from the settlement, are content to run the risk of keeping them on
the Langberg (Long Mountain), an elevated mountainous country,
lying in a W.N.W. direction, distant about fifty miles. This, however,
not being so cold as the Roggeveld, is less safely to be depended
on. It does not seem that this distemper acquires its full
force till the beginning of February; but after then, the lower
districts of the whole of the extra-tropical part of Southern Africa
are, as far as my information, enables me to speak, subject to its
baneful effects. Experience has shown that the first frost, whenever
it happens, fortunately puts a stop to its further ravages.
A mild kind of ophthalmia is a complaint prevalent amongst the
Hottentots in this part of the country. It returns at two opposite
seasons of the year; most frequently in November and May, but
sometimes in the three following months. I have, termed it mild, because
I never heard of its having ended in blindness ; although it is
said to be very painful and troublesome. I performed many speedy
and effectual cures by the distribution of small quantities of an eyewater
made with a very weak solution of sugar of lead* in plain
* Acetas plumbi.
water. The missionaries suffered from its attacks; but I had the
good fortune always to continue free from even the slightest
symptoms.
About two years ago the measles found its way here from out of
the colony, and made much havoa It is, perhaps, the first time of
its spreading so far into the interior.
The malUpox had made its appearance in this part of the Interior,
a little more than three years before, and raged from November till
June at Klaarwater, where, although every individual was infected,
not more than thirteen died under i t ; while, at the same time, with
a more unsparing hand, it thinned the numbers of the Bushmen
and Koras. Of the latter it swept off half the inhabitants of a large
kraal bordering upon the country of the Bachapins. Amongst these
tribes, I saw many individuals whose faces were left deeply pitted by.
that disease; but this was not the first time it had made itself known
to them.
The vaccine matter which I brought with me, proved, on trial, to
have lost all its power. This was occasioned by the great length of
time consumed in the journey, added to the excessive dryness of the
weather.
Young children frequently die of convulsions; a disorder very
general at that age. Cases of jaundice sometimes occur; but the
most dangerous malady is a kind of cancerous sore or ulcer, called in
the colony the Hottentots Zeer (Hottentot Sore), which spreads wide,
and corrodes so deeply as often to prove fatal. It is said to be communicated
by contact, and seems, in most instances, to attack the head
and upper parts of the body. The remedy chiefly relied on at Klaarwater,
and in some parts of the colony, is onions; the juice of which
must be applied to the sore as soon as the existence of it is ascertained.
Whenever the patient is so fortunate as to get cured, he bears the
marks of it about with him for the rest of his life; a large scar always
remaining behind.
The whole catalogue of their disorders, including some ailments
too trifling to be enumerated, is not great; and from this it may
justly be inferred, that the climate of the Interior is healthy. Judg-
3 b 2