CHAPTER VIII.
RESIDENCE AT CAPE TOWN, AND PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY.
A p r i l 23d. The objects principally in view in the foregoing excursion,
had all been attained, excepting that of hiring Hottentots for the service
of the journey. But I did not doubt, should I succeed in obtaining
Jan Tamboer, that he would be able to engage as many of his
countrymen as would be required. The petty deceptions which are
often practised on this race of people render them in general suspicious
of the promises of white men ; but if one of their own tribe should
undertake to persuade, they readily listen to every thing he says, and
often assent without giving themselves , the trouble of examining the
proposal; relying more on the word of a Hottentot than ott aft the
arguments and promises of a colonist. I therefore considered it the
better mode to depend on this man for the management of these
affairs. Nothing, however, could be done till his discharge from the
regiment had been granted: for. that purpose I waited on the
Governor, to solicit i t ; when he very politely and readily promised
to do all that depended on him for procuring the man’s release.
30th. At the end of the month my waggon was finished and
sent home. ' The price I paid for it, exclusive of the tilt, and all the
other separate articles required in travelling, was 585 rix dollars, at
that time equal to eighty-eight pounds sterling; in addition to which,
the fitting up of the inside with chests and- various conveniences,
amounted to a considerable sum. The length of it was fifteen
feet, and breadth at bottom two feet nine inches. The frame
work of the tilt was made of bamboo cane, covered over with
Hottentot mats, above which there was a painted canvas; and over
all a covering of sail-cloth, having a flap to close up the ends,
rendered the whole impervious to rain. * The height, from the
bottom of the waggon to the top of the tilt, was five feet and a half.
The sides [leer) were two feet high in front, gradually rising up to
two feet and three quarters at the back, and painted on the outside.
The rail that forms the upper and lower edge of the sides, is distinguished
by the colonists, by the names of opper-leer-boom, and onder-
leer-boom. The planks of the bottom (builc plank) were two inches
thick. The axletrees were perfectly horizontal and tapering. A bar
of iron an inch and a half wide, called the scheen, is let into the
underpart of them, to receive the friction of the wheel.' Besides a
set of linchpins of the common form (steek-lens), there is another to be
used occasionally, named platte-lens, having a broad head, like an
umbrella, to shelter the end of the nave and axletree from the mud
and sand which might drop from off the upper fellies. The diameter
of the hind wheels is five feet, of the fore wheels three feet and a
* The engraving at the beginning of this chapter, represents the geometrical elevation
of the waggon, with the canvas partly rolled back to show the formation of the tilt,
drawn from an actual measurement of every part, and proportioned to the scale of
English feet marked beneath it. At the end of the chapter may be seen a transverse section
of it, according to- the same scale; together with all the diiferent articles necessary for its
equipment - By the help of these two engravings, and the following description
the excellent construction, and peculiar advantages of a Cape Waggon, will be easily
understood. . .