5th. At this time I had nearly recovered from all the effects of
my illness ; hut two of my men were now seized with the same disorder,
and in two days afterwards, the whole of them were lying sick
in the tent. None appeared to suffer so severely as I had; in some,
the symptoms were but slight, and more resembling a violent cold.
It was now my turn to attend on them, for considering that it was I
who had brought them from their homes, where they would have
escaped this attack, I felt it more especially my duty to take care of
them.
At the end of ten days, all were well again; excepting Cobus,
whose age was perhaps the only cause of his remaining indisposed a
few days longer than the rest. This old man, after making many
inquiries among the Hottentots of the country, was unable to gain
any certain tidings of his daughter whom he expected to find at
Graaflfreynet, and on whose account he had taken this long and
fatiguing journey.* All that he learnt was, that she was alive, and
had, not long since, removed to another part of the Colony. With
this intelligence he was obliged to remain satisfied; and now had no
other wish left than to return to his friends in the Transgariepine.
Ham Lucas was more fortunate in his journey, for he regained an
ox, which he had lost two years before, and which he had relinquished
all hope of ever seeing again. He accidentally discovered it among
a herd of cattle belonging to the Drostdy. He immediately recognised
and laid claim to it: and fortunately the circumstances were
so clear, that it was delivered up to him without hesitation. Hans
was at that time on a journey to Cape Town, and it was very well
recollected by the Hottentots who then drove the landdrost’s waggon,
una Soldanellse. Flores dioici: masculi spicis laxis ' parum ramosis; fceminei spicis
brevioribus; viridi-flavescentuli. Pedicelli breves. Bracteae solitariae. Species 2. Tamus
Elephantipes, L’Her., aliaque nondum edita.”
The present plant, which has much smaller leaves than the species long known by
the above name, may be distinguished as the
Testudinaria montana, B. Catal. geogr. 2912. Folia cordata, semicollapsa, latiora
quam longa, obsolete nervosa, subtus glauca.
* See Vol. I. p. 542.
that a strange ox, supposed to have belonged to the Klaarw’ater
people, had mingled itself with their teams, and was brought along
with them to Graaflfreynet.
1th. On the arrival of the post from Gape Town, many of the
inhabitants of the village, and particularly the female part, most of
whom had never been inoculated, were put under great alarm by an
account of the Small-pox having made its appearance there: and in
consequence of this, some intended journeys to the metropolis were
postponed.
Among the boors, the demand for Hottentot labor on their farms
is everywhere so pressing, that all my search and inquiries for men,
ended unsuccessfully. The landdrost declined acting in this business,
without instructions from the commandant on the frontiers ; and as
no answer had yet been received from that quarter, every further
arrangement was postponed.
In the interim, having no means of preserving the objects of
natural history which I might have procured here, I employed myself
in collecting information on the affairs of this part of the Colony, and
often amused myself in drawing. The absence of my flute, was now
felt to be a greater loss than I had supposed ; but I occasionally supplied
its place with an instrument which I little expected to meet with
in this remote corner of Africa. In one of the cottages of the village I
discovered an organ : and through Mr. Kicherer’s introduction to the
owner, obtained free access to it during my residence at this village.
It was at the house of a worthy Hollander of the name of Bremmer.
Here I often passed an hour or tw o; and many times would the
sound beguile my thoughts to a land where I had heard it so much
better played ; and the recollection of distant scenes, or the memory
of some delightful hour recalled by a few notes to which my fingers
accidentally ran, have afforded me in the honest Bremmer’s cottage,
a gratification which I would not have exchanged for all the pleasures
of a grander mansion. Whenever they saw me at the door, some
one of the family ran with a smile to let me in, and pleased at my
coming, immediately went to open the organ and place a seat for me.
The two daughters, the eldest of whom was not fifteen, sometimes
very goodnaturedly took upon themselves the trouble of blowing the