and ill-treated in the fervice of the farmers, he faid that they
confidered themfelves driven to defperation. The burden of
their fong was vengeance againft the Dutch.' This little man
was intended to have accompanied us; but as he feemed more
inclined to abide by his wives, he was permitted to follow his
uxorious inclinations.
Proceeding to the northward, a curious but truly deplorable
fpedtacle prefented itfelf. It was a troop o f locufts refting
upon the ground. They covered a fpace o f about one fquare
mile in extent, fo completely that the furface appeared to the
eye, at a little diftance, to have been burnt and ilrewed over
with brown aihes. Not a Ihrub nor blade o f grafs was vifible.
The waggons palled diredtly through them, before which they
rofe up in a cloud that darkened the air on each fide. Defirous
of feeing the whole troop on the wing, the Hottentots ran
amongft them, and the horfes were made to gallop through
them, but without fuccefs ; none but fuch as were immediately
under the feet o f the men and horfes rofe up. The peafantry
affirm that they are not to be driven away unlefs the fignal for
departure fhould be given from their commander in chief, one
o f which is fuppofed to accompany every troop.
On the evening of the 23d, we encamped at the foot of a
large mountain, remarkable for its pointed peak, and alfo from
its detached fituation. It was feparated from all the circumjacent
mountains, on four fides, by as many large level meadows
abundant in fprings of water. It forms one of the higheft
points o f South Africa. The waters flow from the furrounding
ing meadows in every direction ; a circumftance from which
Colonel Gordon probably was induced to give it the name of
the Compafs Mountain. On the fouth-eaft fide is the fource of
the Sunday river. On all the others are fprings whofe ftream-
lets unite at no great diftance from their fources, and flow
direitly to the north. The general furface of the country, on
the northern fide of the mountain, is at leaft fifteen hundred
feet above the fource of the Sunday river ; and the height of
the peak above this general furface was found, by trigonometrical
meafurement, to be alfo very nearly fifteen hundred feet.
The rills of water that meandered through the meadows
were covered with the common reed, and thefe were frequented
with vaft flocks of fmall birds, particularly with the
loxia orix, called by Engliih ornithologifts the granadier, and
by the French, the cardinal of the Cape of Good Hope. The
male is remarkable for its gaudy plumage during the fpring
and fummer months: in thefe feafons the neck, breaft, back,
upper and under part of the rump, are o f a bright crimfon ;
the throat and abdomen are glofiy black. During the other
fix months it is ftripped of its gaudy attire, and adopts the
modeft garb of the female, which is at all times that of a
greyiih brown. They are gregarious, and build their nefts in
large focieties. ; Another remarkable bird we obferved in the
reeds. This was the long-tailed finch, defcribed in the Syftema
Naturae, as the loxia '■Gaffra, on-the authority of Thunberg;
and in the fame book, with more propriety, as the emberiza
longicauda. The changes that this bird undergoes are ftill
more extraordinary than thofe o f the granadier. The black
1 1 2 feathers