discover that our course would be more direct, if we kept more to
the eastward of that track, leaving Geranium Rocks to the left.
Accordingly we quitted our former road, at Pond Station, and
proceeded across a plain of a mile and a half; at the termination of
which I halted to take the bearings of Spitskop * and Groote Tafelberg,
which were both in sight. These, but more especially the former,
will be found of great use whenever a survey is made of this part of
the colony, as they are too remarkable to be mistaken, and can be
seen in different directions, from a very great distance.
At the distance of an hour and a half farther, we passed a farm
named Wortel Fontein (Carrot Fountain); but none of its inhabitants;
had any communication with us. At about six miles and a quarter
beyond this, we found the last colonial habitation on our road; and
as no one was residing here at this season, we took possession of the
empty house.
So large a party occasioned a rapid consumption of our stock of
provisions, and we were obliged to kill a sheep, which, had we waited
half an hour longer, we might have spared. For Keyser, desirous of
proving that he was a good marksman, had immediately on our
halting, taken his gun to go in search of game, and soon returned to
let us know that he had shot a quakka. This circumstance was
doubly pleasing, as, besides giving us a large supply of meat, it showed
that this Hottentot had at least one useful qualification.
I climbed the rocky hill close behind the house, to get a .view of
the country and take some bearings for the construction of my map,
and was pleased at distinguishing on the horizon, the Bushman Table-
Mountain near Kraaikop’s Kraal, although at the distance of not less,
than sixty-seven miles by the road. This remark is a sufficient proof,
. * The vignette at the end of this chapter, represents the mountain of Spitskop, or the
Peak o f Sneeuwberg as viewed from the south-east, at the distance of about twenty miles
in a direct line. The sketch from which this engraving has been made, was taken about
eleven months afterwards when on my final return into the Colony. The intervening
country here shown, consists of lofty rugged mountains, which appear to shut in one
behind the other, and above which, this lofty and remarkable mountain stands highly
pre-eminent.
and indeed the best that could be had, of the open, and generally
level, nature of the intervening country.
6th. The only stranger who came near us, was a Hottentot
shepherd belonging to some boor, whose place, he said, was not far
off. This man was therefore the last person whom we saw belonging
to the colony.
After travelling about ten miles from Elands Fountain, we considered
that we had crossed the boundary of the Colony, a line very
ill-defined, especially along the northern border, and marked by no
appearance which can inform the traveller precisely when he has
quitted the settlement, or when he enters the wild country of the
Bushmen; both being equally wild, and, excepting immediately
around the boors’ dwellings, equally destitute of every trace of cultivation
or human labor.
VOL. II. B B