kind than that which they themselves make by their virtuous or
vicious conduct.
17th. The absence of the other three men, caused me considerable
uneasiness, as we were unable to account for their having
remained away two nights. They were all mounted on horseback,
and could easily have overtaken u s; or have escaped from any
inimical kraal of natives who, mistaking them for part of a commando,
might have made any hostile attempt upon them. At one
time, a suspicion arose in my mind, that they had deserted, and returned
back to the Colony; at another, I believed them to be waiting
for us lower down the river. In hope, if they happened to be near,
of giving them notice of our situation, I sent one of the people to a
hillock close by, to make a large fire and keep it burning for several
hours; and I resolved in the afternoon to move forward along the
banks of the river.
Having waited till more than two hours after mid-day, I gave
orders for packing the oxen i but just as we were on the point of
departing, VanRoye, Cornelis, and Platje, made their appearance;
having been guided by our fire on the hill. Their story was, that
having hunted for a great distance northward, and not discovering
our track, nor falling in with any Bushmen of whom they could ask
information, they concluded that we were still remaining at Kaabi’s
new kraal, which we had distinguished as the kraal where we had
obtained the two oxen, and that they had returned thither in search
of us. The inhabitants there had behaved very kindly towards them;
and, being just about to remove their whole village, Kaabi had not
thought it worth while to send any of his people with us to bring
back the two pack-oxen; but desired the Hottentots to tell me that
I might keep them till I again returned to his country.
We travelled parallel with the river about eleven or twelve miles,
over a flat covered principally with a species of Mesenibryanthemum*
and at twilight halted on the banks, at a spot abounding in rushes, and
* Resembling Mesembryanthemum veruculatum.
which I have therefore marked as, Rushy Station. Here the water
was found still to continue perfectly fresh: and it is probably only at
the lowest part of this river, and in the dry season, that it becomes
brackish.
At this place I found Marsilea quadrifolia, an European plant,
growing in the water and along the bed of the river, in abundance.
The wide dissemination of many species of cryptogamic vegetables
all over the earth, is an interesting fact, and one which might
deserve particular attention : from a philosophical view of it, there
is much to be learnt. Instances of a similar dispersion of what are
called phwnogamous plants, are much more rare, and may often be
traced to some visible cause, such as the current of rivers or of the
ocean, or the winds; or even to the instrumentality of man. I shall
not here stop to discuss the subject, but shall merely remark that
the seeds of cryptogamic vegetables, being infinitely finer than those
of the other class, and so excessively minute as to be, in most cases,
invisible, even by the aid of the strongest microscope, are more
easily borne along by currents of air: and this consideration should
be taken in addition, when contemplating philosophically the admirable
harmony and wisdom of their primitive location; by which
term I would express, the situation assigned to each species at the
creation or commencement of the present order of created objects
upon the surface of this globe.
We were visited by a few natives: they were personally strangers,
but, having long heard of our passing through their country, they
came to us in the usual friendly manner. Some of them were ornamented
with a fresh necklace of twisted entrails. This is one of the
most common ornaments, not only of the Bushmen and other tribes of
the Hottentot race, but also of the Bichuana nations. To imagine that
these entrails are hung round their necks just in the same state in
which they are taken out of the animal, would be to entertain an
exceedingly false idea of them; but it is one which those persons,
who do not think, in giving an account of a foreign country, that the
truth is sufficiently interesting, endeavour to create, supposing that
by such means they render the proverbial filthiness of Hottentots
VOL. II, E E