were to remain in a ftate'pf fervitude during their lives. Such
as have been taken very young and well treated, have turned
out moil excellent fervants ; they have fliewn great talent,
great activity, and great fidelity. An oppofite treatment has
been productive of a contrary effect; and the brutal condufit of
mod o f the Dutch farmers towards thofe in their employ has
already been noticed. The poor Hottentot bears it with
patience, or finks under i t ; but on the temper and the turn
of mind of the Bosjefman it has a very different effeCt. He
takes the firft opportunity that offers o f efcaping to his countrymen,
and contrives frequently to carry off with him a muf-
quet, and powder and ball. With tales of cruelty he excites
them to revenge ; he affifts them, in their plans of attack ; tells
them the ftrength of the whole, and o f individuals;; the number
o f their cattle, and the advantages and the dangers that
will occur in the attempt to carry them o ff; the manner in
which expeditions are conducted againft them ; and, in lhort,
every thing he knows refpeCting the colonifts. Armed with
mufquets and poifoned arrows, a party o f thefe people was
bold enough, a few days before we commenced our journey,
to approach within four or five miles of the Drofdy, from
whence they carried off feveral hundred iheep. They were
followed into a kloof of one o f the mountains of Sneuwberg,
where they remained in poffeffion of their plunder, laughing at
their purfuers, and inviting them to approach and tafte a
little o f their own mutton. One of them fired a mufquet,
and the ball grazing the hat of a peafant, caufed the purfuing
party to make a precipitate retreat.
In
In order therefore to bring about a converfation with fome
of the chiefs of this people; to try if, by prefents and a lenient
conduit,, they could be prevailed upon to quit their prefent
wild and marauding way of life ; at the fame time to fee
the ftate of the colony, and the fituation of the inhabitants ;
to infpeCt the boundaries, "and to examine the nature of the
country, a journey to the northward appeared indifpenfably
neceffary. It promifed alfo much curiofity: and as no European
traveller, except the two gentlemen mentioned in the
introductory Chapter, had ever afeended the mountains of
gnpw, a great deal of novelty was to be expeCted from it.
On the 20th of OCtober we departed from the Drofdy,
croffed the Sunday and its accompanying Karroo, and at the
diftance o f ten miles north-wefterly reached the foot of the
mountains, within which a narrow defile of five miles in
length, and a fteep afcent of three miles at the farther extremity,
led upon the extenfive plains, and among the feat-
tered mountains that compofe the Sneuwberg. From the
plains of Camdeboo, the fronts of thefe mountains appear to
be the mod regular formed, though the mod confufedly
placed, of any within the limits o f the colony. The ftone
ftratum that terminates their fummits is fo perfectly horizontal,
and fo regularly fquared at the angles, that their vaft
height and magnitude alone contradict the idea of fuppofing
them to be lines of mafonry.
It was on one of the plains that lie extended within thefe
clufters of mountains, where we encamped in the duik o f the
evening.