ror of his name, rendered every one afraid to encounter, him, and
unwilling to proceed.
2nd. The effect of these reports was not a little increased
by the opinion of the three missionaries, who laid great stress
upon them, and apparently were not less alarmed than the Hottentots
themselves. Still I continued to forward the arrangements
for departing: I ordered Muchunka (Kees) to remain
constantly at the waggons, and hold himself in readiness for the
journey; and sent the same orders to the other men whom I had
engaged.
The next morning the missionary, who had the chief direction
of the affairs of the settlement, and the leading voice with his two
companions, paid me a visit at my waggons, for the purpose,
formally and in the name also of the others, of dissuading me
from attempting to proceed on my journey with so few men. They
had, he said, been consulting on the affair, and had agreed on the
propriety of opposing it by every means of dissuasion; alledging
for this, two reasons : the first, my own personal risk, and that of
my men; and the second, the very serious consequences to them,
and to the settlement, which would result from Africaander’s getting
possession of my guns and ammunition; and concluded with a
clinching argument,—he had ascertained that none of the men I had
lately engaged, had any intention of going beyond Litakun; and
that the one named Manell, had no other view in going with me
than that of suiting his own convenience in bartering with the
natives of that town, and then to return home.
The latter part of this unexpected communication, for which
I was not at all prepared, was deserving of some attention, as I foresaw
in it, if true, the total subversion of my present plans. There
was, however, a certain incongruity in his arguments which puzzled
me, and held my mind undecided. During our former casual conversations
on the subject of Dr. Cowan’s failure, it had been
his opinion that the exploring of the interior of this part of
Africa could perhaps only be accomplished by means of the missionaries;
and I- therefore could not but naturally conclude that
he really believed that a journey, such, as I had planned, was
neither so perilous, nor so impracticable, as I it was now represented
to be.
In the afternoon, the other missionaries called on me, for the
purpose of adding arguments to the same effect as those which I
had heard in the morning.
4th. On examining deeper into this affair, and coming to a
fuller explanation with the people lately hired, I found it too true,
that they were not by any inducement to be persuaded to go beyond
the country of the Bachapins ; and that the understanding they had
had with my own men, was, that it was not my intention to venture
farther into the interior.
I confess that, at first, I could not help giving way to some
depression of spirits, the effect rather of anxiety, when I felt myself
assailed on all sides by teazing obstructions, and my plans defeated,
in every quarter.
5th. As the missionaries had told me that Klaas Berends was
to set out, in the course of the week, for the Roggeveld, it struck
me as practicable that Gert might be sent, under the protection of
that party, back to Cape Town, with a commission to my friends
thereto hire men, and dispatch them with the utmost expedition to
the Roggeveld, in order that they might be in time to cross the
Bushman country in company with the men and horses which were to
leave the colony on the first of May; which, with the assistance
of horses, and using all diligence, there would have been sufficient
time for accomplishing.
Satisfied with the practicability of this plan, I repaired directly
to the village to communicate it to Mr. Anderson, and consult with
him, in order to make the arrangements for carrying it into effect.
But in an instant he threw cold water upon it, by informing me that
Klaas would not take his departure within three weeks; from which
delay it followed, that there could not be time for my men to reach
the Roggeveld by the day appointed. He, however, as it proved