enabled to walk again, I saw a tear of joy and thankfulness moistening
her anxious eye.
While 1 was thus engaged, some of my men had been busily
trafficking with the natives, and had been taking advantage of their
simplicity, by purchasing their clothes from oif their backs; and at
so low a rate, that in this, my people showed themselves to have
neither conscience nor feeling. So thoughtlessly fond of smoking,
were these Bushmen, that one old man took oif from his shoulders a
beautiful leopard-skin, and bartered it to Hendrik for less than two
ounces of tobacco ; and Ruit er got from another poor creature’s back,
a fine skin of a lion’s whelp for which the Bushman foolishly thought
an ounce of Dakka-leaves to be an equivalent.
When I discovered these transactions, I felt highly irritated at
the ungenerous advantage which had been taken of the folly of these
savages, not because favourable bargains had been made, but because
they were so very far below the current rate of bartering on this side
of the Gariep, that they bordered closely upon fraudulence. I declared
that such conduct displeased me, and that I would not countenance
their unfairness; that I objected, not to their acquiring the
skins at a cheap rate, but to their getting them for nothing. While
/ was relieving their poverty, they were stripping them naked and
giving nothing substantial in return. I reprimanded Ruiter for his
unconscionable dealings, and immediately gave the Bushman as much
tobacco as I thought to be a fair payment.
Though all these remarks were made in the Dutch language, the
kraal, who attended to every thing which I did, clearly comprehended
the tenor of what was said, and well understood, though ignorant of
our words, the reason of my giving him more tobacco. They watched
this latter proceeding; and then, as if to testify applause, turned
their countenances towards me, that I might behold their satisfaction.
As I rode away from their dwellings, which I have distinguished
by the too-appropriate name of Poverty Kraal, a general salutation
was given by the whole assembly; and in a tone so mild and
expressive of so much gratitude, that a man must have no heart at
all, who could witness a scene like this, unmoved. I confess that to
my ear the sound was grateful in the highest degree; and while I
turned my head to view them for the last time, the pleasure which
beamed in their happy countenances, communicated itself to my own
feelings, in a manner the most affecting and indelible.
We continued our journey across the mountain, and descended
to an extensive plain covered with threethorn shrubs, and abounding
in pitfalls for catching wild animals. Eastward, a pointed and
very distant mountain was seen, which probably was only rendered
visible by the effect of a temporary and extraordinary refraction
in the atmosphere. After travelling about eight miles over the
plain, we again fell in with the river, and as the evening was fast
approaching, we halted for the night at a spot on its banks, where
we were surrounded by the most beautiful fields of grass.
4th. A number of very small finches, (Loxia Astrild) frequented
the bushes at this place, and I took advantage of the circumstance,
to distinguish it by the name of Astrild Station. This little
bird is not peculiar to Southern Africa; it is very common at St.
Helena, and is said to be equally so at Madeira and the Canary
Islands, in the tropical countries of Africa, and in India. It is
known to the Dutch colonists by the appellation of Roode-belye
(Red-beak).
From this station the bearing of the most western of the two
table mountains forming part of the Hyena mountains, was S. 20 W.,
by the compass. Here were lying the bones of a rhinoceros, which, as
our Bushmen informed me, had been shot by one of their countrymen,
who by some means had come into possession of a gun, and had
learnt the use of it ; but who was himself afterwards shot by the
Boors, for sheep-stealing.
At a few miles beyond Astrild Station, we passed through an
opening formed by an insulated round hill on one side and by the
endtpf a rocky ridge on the other, and entered upon a plain which had
more the appearance of a verdant corn-field, than of a wild uncultivated
country. The soil was clayey, and the luxuriant herbage sufficiently
proved its fertility; while the river, well supplied with water
v o l . ii . G