They appeared to be very lofty, and it was said that on the other
side there is little descent, the country continuing at the same
high level: which fact, as the air must there be colder than in the
lower plains about Klaarwater, has induced the Hottentots to keep
their horses there during the season of the paardeziekte (horse-dis-
temper). The plains on the other side, are called by the name of
Zandveld (Sand-country). There is another elevated tract between
Langberg and The Kloof, where horses are also kept, and which is
therefore named Paardeberg (Horse-mountain). Respecting the
regions lying westward from Zandveld, I could obtain no information.
13th. Stonebucks were met with in the surrounding plains; two
of them were shot by Juli, who soon began to prove himself a good
marksman, a qualification which Hottentots in general are very
desirous of acquiring, and which they consider as one of the most
valuable and important.
The three men whom I had sent to fetch Muchunka, did not
return till this morning, having found the journey to Langberg,
longer than they were able to perform in one day. Their powder-
horns were empty, all their bullets gone, and yet they had shot
nothing: to account for which, they asserted that they had missed
their aim every time they fired. But they had been at an outpost of
Klaarwater people ; and this was the true cause of all their ammunition
being gone. What they got in return for it, I could not discover;
it is probable that the people at the Kraal required it of them, as an
act of friendship from one Hottentot to another. There are two
things much wanting with many of these Hottentots, and which, it is
to be hoped, the missionaries will not think too much beneath the
notice of evangelical teachers to instruct them in the best mode of
acquiring: these are, veracity and a conscientious discharge of the
moral duties.
However, their arrival, with or without ammunition, gave me
much pleasure, when I saw that Muchunka was with them; as I had
long been greatly in fear that when the time for his services arrived,
it would be found that he also had been dissuaded from venturing to
accompany us: but fortunately for me, he was a man not much
wanted, and of no particular importance to the settlement. I was
glad to add to my party, not only an interpreter, but a person whose
manners were a little more lively than those of Hottentots; and I
hoped therefore that his presence would give some animation to our
fireside.
Mr. Anderson, who was desirous of having a drawing of Klaarwater,
had requested that I would make one for him. With this
I readily complied, as he engaged expressly that it should not be
sent to Europe before I arrived there myself, and that it should
not, at all events be engraved from. As I was exceedingly anxious
to quit that village, I was unwilling to delay my departure on this
account; but promised to finish it at Ongeluks, while waiting for
Muchunka’s arrival. This promise I now performed; and sent the
drawing by one of the Hottentots of the out-post, who returned to
Klaarwater on the following day.*
14lA. All the members of the party with whom the journey was
to be performed, were now at length collected together; and amounted
only to ten Hottentots, and a native interpreter. As a body of men
intended for their own defence, against the assaults of a hostile tribe,
this number was very insufficient; but with a due proportion of
prudence and personal courage, they would be enough for repelling
any predatory attack ; and might in a favourable situation, be able,
with the advantage of fire-arms, to stand against a multitude of such
opponents as those men would probably be, whom we were likely to
meet, should they even prove disposed to harm us.
There was still some work to be done about the waggons, which
would have employed my people here another day, but as I wished to
remove them beyond the reach of further communication with the
* Sequel. On my return to Cape Town, at the termination of my travels, I found
that other people had been much more expeditious than myself; for not only had the
drawing reached that town, and proceeded to England, but it had even made its way back
again; and was recognised in the form of a print engraved to be the principal
ornament of a book of Missionary Travels by a person who visited Klaarwater five months
after I finally left it, and who so much admired this drawing, that he has thought it worthy
of being published as his own.
i i 2