moned to meet us here, in order that the commandant might
fele<a as many as ihould be deemed fufficient to enable us to
march through the country. He took fixteen farmers and
eight armed Hottentots, which, with our own party aniT the
other Hottentots employed as drivers and' leaders, amounted
all together to about fifty perlons. There were leven wag»
gons, about a hundred oxen, and fifty horfes, befides a troop
of fifty or fixty fheep for confumption on the journey. The
people whom the commandant made choice of, were all young
men, who, rehnflantly as at all times they take the fervice of
the regular expeditions, feemed delighted on the prefent occa-
fion, which they confidered in the light only of a party of
pleafure.
On the evening of the twenty-fixth we colleâed our forces
at the commencement o f the Sea-Cow river, which was about
fix miles to the northward o f the laft habitation. This river
is formed from the collefted branches that fall to the northward
from the different parts of Sneuwberg, and from the
Roode-berg, or Red mountain, which is in fad; an arm o f the
former, ftretching to the northward. The Sea-Cow river, and
indeed all the ftreams that behind thé Snowy mountains ran
northerly, were remarkably diftinguilhed from thofe whofe
currents took an oppofite direftion, by having their banks
covered with tall reeds, the arundo phragmites, and deftitute of
a ihrub or tree ; whereas the latter were always inclofed by mi-
mofas, willows, and other tall arboreous plants. The northern
rivers confifted generally o f a chain o f deep ftagnant pools con-
neded by the beds o f narrow channels that for the greateft part
of
of the year are entirely dry. Some of the gats, or holes, of
the Sea-Cow river were five or fix, miles in length, and deep
enough to have floated a line-of-battle ihip. They formerly
contained vaft numbers o f the animal from whence the river
has borrowed its name; but the proximity of the colony, and
the great convenience of hunting them in thefe pools, have
been the means of deftroying them almoft entirely. Now and
then a hippopotamus is ftill taken in fome of the holes of the
river.
The following day we paffed over plains that fwarmed with
game. Purfuing the gnoos and different antelopes, we killed a
prodigious large tyger-wolf, fuch as has been defcribed, two
quachas, and a couple of fnakes o f the fame fpecies, one five,
the other near fix feet long; their color was entirely a golden
yellow; they were very fierce, and made feveral attempts to
fpring at the horfes. The peafantry confidered them as very
venemous, and gave them the name of cobra capella.
Twenty miles farther to the northward brought us to that
part of the river where Governor Van Plettenberg ended his
travels towards this quarter ; and, in commemoration o f the
event, he caufed a ftone or baaken to be there ere&ed, which
he alfo intended Ihould ferve as a point in the line of demarcation
between the colony and the country of the Bosjefmans.
Thefe people, however, had thrown down and broken in pieces
the monument; but the place retained the name of the Edel
Heer's baaken; and the large hole of the river, upon the bank of
which it flood, bore the name of Plettenberg.
The