speaking or writing in English ; while the converse of this, in writing
in Dutch, would prevent mistake or confusion with those who are
acquainted only with that language. Precisely this has already taken
place with some names in daily use, such as Kaapstad, Tafelberg,
Leeuwmkop, Zoute rivier, Zondags rivier, Grootevisch rivier, for which
the English inhabitants have substituted, both in speaking and in
writing, Cape Town, Table-mmmtain, Lion’s-head, Salt-river, Sunday-
river, and Great Fish-river. But the aboriginal Hottentot names
ou<dit, on no account, to be altered; they should, on the contrary,
rather be sought for, and adopted, as being far more appropriate
to Southern Africa, than a multitude of foolish names of modern
imposition. ' ■ .
1 Ith. I spent the forenoon in drawing some views, as memorials
of a spot which I might never visit again. The landscape is mountainous
and open, and, though it no where presents the desirable
feature of wood, it is not deficient in beauty, in the grand, flowing
outline of a range of mountains on the opposite side of the valley,
and in which the mountain called Babylonsche Toren (Tower of Babel)
stands conspicuous. * This mountain is, perhaps, the most remarkable
of any in the colony, on account of the immense distance at
which it is visible. About three years and a half afterwards, I saw it
from the spot marked in my map by the words Mountain Station,
which is distant 120 miles in’a straight line; and a peak, which I
distinguished when near a place called Helle, near Gaurits river,
could hardly be any other than this same mountain, though the distance
is not less than 157 miles in a right line. This would seem
incredible, if allowance were not made for an extraordinarily re*
The qnnexed. engiaving is a representation o fth is mountain, as viewed from the
baths. '
fractive power which the atmosphere possesses under a peculiar
combination of circumstances. The intervening country, being free
from high mountains, is favourable to great refraction. By mentioning
this curious circumstance, I hope to excite the attention-of other
travellers, who may pass that way, to ascertain whether or not, I have
been mistaken in supposing the mountain which I saw from that
spot, to have been Babylonsche Toren.
Not many miles from the Baths, is a small spot, called Hemel-en-
aarde (Beaven-and-earth), surrounded by high mountains, where there
is an hospital (Ziekenhuis) for those afflicted with that dreadful and
incurable malady the leprosy. This hospital is maintained at public
expense; for defraying which, an express tax is levied on the colonists.
Early hours are kept throughout this country, and dinner is
really that which its Dutch name implies, a noontide meal [middag
maal). This enabled us to take our departure from the Baths in
good time, as we hoped, to reach the end of our day’s journey before
dark. We mounted our horses, and took the road to Genadendal
(Grace vale), the chief establishment of the Moravian missionaries;
a place interesting in many respects, and which it was one of our
principal objects to visit,
M e re-passed the .bath river, and, doubling the western point
of Zwarteberg, took a northerly track, inclining, a little eastward.
a earth was generally of a reddish color; in some places, of an
argillaceous, and, in others, of a sandy nature. The face of the
country was open, and its surface varied with smooth hills, covered
almost exclusively with a neat pale bushy shrub, of the height of
three or four feet, called Uhinoster bosch (Rhinoceros bush) *, and
said to have formerly been the food of the huge rhinoceros, till
lose animals fled before the colonists, as these gradually advanced
over the country where the shrub grows. Of Eurbpean plants, the
W W m m b Mb « sB r m ] 1 B si2e. small, and, though verv numem ; manner ° fth e cypress; the flowers are
herbaceous color. S ew a l suedes of St T her,s.h? ''7 nor °1™me”tal, being o f a simple
without distinction, called bv d T r V “ gr0wth resemble ™e, are all,
.lays, been equally the f a v o u ^ T h ’e S “ ’ ^