fact of a much more pleasant scent than any other of the Hottentot
Bukues. I detected, by the delightful fragrance which it emitted as
I walked over it, a small frutescent kind of basil* not less aromatic
than the garden species. An exceedingly pretty sort of Celastrus f
with red branches and very small leaves, decorated these rocks and
occupied the same situations here, as at the Asbestos Mountains.
Just where the spring flows out of the rock, I observed some
ochraceous deposition ; but the water was, nevertheless, wholesome
and of a good taste. This fountain affords a constant supply of
water throughout the year, and the mountains in the vicinity are said
therefore to be inhabited by Bushmen.
Seven years before this, two Hottentots in the service of a missionary
named Jan Kok who was himself a Half-Hottentot, were returning
home from the Briqua country with their wives and children,
with a waggon loaded with elephants’ tusks, and a large herd of oxen
belonging to the missionary; when the temptation of so much booty
protected only by two men,.induced the Bushmen to attack them ; and
after repeated assaults along the road, one of the Hottentots was
killed just beyond this spring, and the other not far from Doom
river : while at the same time, one of the daughters was inhumanly
stabbed with a hassagay, and several of the children wounded with
arrows. The murderers succeeded in carrying off' the greater part of
the cattle, and were on the point of returning to attack the waggon,
now defended only by women and children, when the most providen -
* OcT/mum Jruticidasum, B. C. G -2160. Planta fruticulosa pedalis erecta. Folia
lanceolata nuda semicollapsa. Racemi terminales midi. Flores verticillati breve pedun-
culati. Verticilli 4—6-flori. Herba tota odore gratissimo (Basilici) gaudet.
f Celastrus saxatilis, B. C. G. 1671. Frutex rigidus spinosus 4-pedalis glaber.
Ramull juniores castanei coloris. Spina* ssepius nudse rectse patentes. Folia integerrima,
in ramulis junioribus solitaria ovata, in ramulis anni prsecedentis fasciculata elongate-
obovata. Pedunculi laterales ex fasciculis foliorum, pauciflori. Capsula majuscula coccinea.
At the Kora Rock-Fountain were also found
Olea similis, B. Cheilanthus. Aristida.
Acacia stolonifera, B. Justicia. 2 Sp. Rhus.
Acacia detinens, B. Pkamaceum. Clematis.
Acacia Capensis, B. Andrapogon. Celastrus.
Acacia elephantina, B. Tarchonanthus. &c.
Pteris ? calomelanos. Euclea.
tial and unexpected arrival of a large party of colonists under Land-
drost Van de Graaff, rescued them from the death which awaited
them, and obliged the barbarous robbers to take instantly to flight. *
The two unfortunate Hottentots were certainly to blame for their
imprudence in venturing, with so little probability of being able to
defend themselves, to traverse a country of lawless savages, with a
large quantity of property, by which the wretches were too strongly
tempted to attack them.
This fatal occurrence has contributed to impress the Hottentots
with the idea that the Bushmen inhabiting the country between
Ongeluks fountain and the Kamhanni mountains, are more ferocious
and dangerous than any others ; and, consequently, a mutual mistrust
and enmity now exists between them. While we were at
Klaarwater, it was not omitted to infuse into the minds of my men,
serious fears on this account, and I had the vexation of witnessing
their effects on several occasions.
Under the impression, probably, of this story, Gert, when he
came to my waggon in the evening, seemed, by several indirect questions
which he asked, to be very desirous of ascertaining the course
and extent of my journey, and spoke as if he hoped, and expected,
that I should advance no farther than Litâkun. He, and all the
rest of my people, knew that it was my intention to explore the
country beyond ; and therefore, as these questions could only be
the result or symptoms of that timidity with which they had been infected
at that village, the discovery of such symptoms at so early a
period, and at so great a distance from any real cause for apprehension,
could not but open a source of some uneasiness. I had no
doubt that, being admitted, in compassion to his late misfortune,
to more familiarity than the rest, he was employed to find out the
real plan of my journey, and at the same time to hint to me their
disinclination to venture far into the Interior. On being told that
he must not expect our journey to terminate at that town, he replied
* Dr. Lichtenstein, who happened to be one of the landdrost’s party, gives in his
Travels, an interesting account of this occurrence.