and, as it carried no load, we travelled at a quick rate; although
along rugged and steep roads, through the highest and most mountainous
part of Sneeuwberg. For a considerable part of the way,
our course was directed towards Spitskop ; and afterwards, by a very
steep descent, we joined my former road, at a few miles southward of
Hirholdt's, where we arrived before noon.
This colonist and his wife received me with much hospitality
and attention, and expecting that I should have been accompanied
by the minister, they had made preparations for our accommodation.
Not only the whole of my party were here waiting for me, but
several more than I expected. One was a Hottentot whom I had
rejected at Graaffreynet, and was one of those who had been selected
for me by Mari| so that it was thus clearly proved that the men
intended for my assistance and protection on a long and perilous
journey into unknown countries and among savage nations, were such
as had been thought too useless to be retained at the public works;
since those whom I had no need of, were turned loose to seek a
master elsewhere. This boy being thus adrift, and finding nobody at
the village willing to employ him, had followed my people in hopes
of being allowed to accompany us; to which step he was encouraged
by my having already consented to receive in the same manner, one
who had not been hired. As a Hottentot of this description would
only have been a trouble to me, I positively forbade his coming.
My party, who were lying at a fire at a little distance before the
house, surprised me at first sight by their number: but on examination
I found that a whole family had joined us, under the thoughtless
supposition, that they would be permitted to remain with us during
the whole journey. These were Platje's wife and her two eldest
daughters; besides whom, she had three other children left at Graaff-
reynet. As I already knew by experience that such people would be
a heavy encumbrance, independently of the greater difficulty of
finding food for so useless an addition, and who could not assist in
providing for themselves, I refused my consent to their coming,
although Platje pleaded for them, and assured me that they could bear
the fatigues of the journey, as well as the men. But this affair was
ultimately arranged to the satisfaction of all parties; as Herholdt
offered to receive them into his service and take care of them, on
condition that Platje should consider himself as hired to him, from
the day when he should be released from his engagement with me.
The other new-comers were Juli’s wife, and her child only three
months old. At first he was told that she could not be allowed to
follow us beyond the boundary, and, notwithstanding the earnestness
with which he begged permission for her, I considered it would be
folly to take a woman with so young an infant, on an expedition of
this kind; of the real nature of which, my new men seemed not
sufficiently aware; although I had explicitly told them that it most
probably would not be free from danger and great fatigue. He then
solicited that she might go as far as Klaarwater, and promised that
she should be left there during our journey farther into the Interior.
The poor creature herself, looked so anxious while I was considering
the reply, and there was something in her countenance so innocent
and mild, and so expressive of goodness, that I could no longer
refuse to grant, what I saw would make them both happy, and render
them perhaps more contented in my service.
Her name was Truy.* She was a genuine Hottentot, although
perfectly ignorant of that language, and was, like her husband,
acquainted with none but the Dutch. She was of small and very
delicate form, with hands and feet of those neat proportions, for
which the women of the Hottentot and Bushman nations are
remarkable. For her child, whom she had named Windvogel, she
appeared to possess the greatest maternal affection. All that I have
said on the good qualities and fidelity of her husband, might here be
repeated of hers, which if weighed impartially, would I think preponderate.
I should do this good creature injustice, if I did not
declare, that it is not in my power to point out a fault in her character;
or at least, I never had, during all the time of her being in my ser-
* Trig, or as it was here commonly pronounced, Troiy, is the ismiliar name for
Geertntyda or Gertrude.