fequence of this information we remained ftill at our encampment
the whole day, and at night proceeded towards the place
where the fires had been feen. Previous to this movement the
colonifts prepared themfelves for the enterprife by finging three
or four hymns out of William Sluiter, and drinking each a
glafs of brandy.
Travelling flawly along, and without noife, till about one
o clock, we halted the waggons, and, taking the other hymn
and glafs of brandy, mounted horfe and advanced towards the
hill, where the reft of the reconnoitring party lay concealed, in
order to obferve the motions of the Bosjefmans. In a country
where there is little variety of furface, where no beaten roads
exift, and hill after hill occurs nearly alike, it would be no eafy
matter for a ftranger to return upon the fame track for a continuance
of twenty or thirty miles which he had but once before
gone over, and that in the night. f A Dutch peafant, though
fufficiently expert at this fort of fervice, always depends more
upon his Hottentot than hirnfelf. The hill, however, that the
reconnoitring party had chofen was fo yery remarkable that it
could not eafily be miftaken. It ftood quite alone on the middle
of a plain; was vifible for more than twenty miles from
every point o f the compafs ; prefented the form o f a truncated
cone from whatfoever fituation it was feen ; and the third tier
o f fand-ftone ftrata that capped its fummit appeared as a mals of
roafonry, a fortification on an eminence that could not be lefs
than a thoufaad feet high- As a diftindtioa we gave it the
name of Tower-berg, becaufe this mountain,
<< . . . . . . . . . above the reft,
“ In ihape and gefture proudly eminent,
“ Stood like a tower-”
About two o’clock in the morning we joined the fcouting
party at the bafe of this mountain. They and their horfes
had been expofed the whole of the preceding day to the fcorch-
ing rays of the fun, not having dared to move from the fpot
left they ihould be difcovered and cut off by the Bosjefmans ;
and they had but juft returned from giving their horfes a little
water,, near fifteen miles off, in the Sea-Cow river. They gave
information, that during the day vaft numbers of the favages
had appeared upon the plain digging up roots: that they came
from different quarters, and in fo many groupes that they concluded
there muft be feveral hordes in the neighbourhood of
this ipot: that the neareft, which it was the intention to fur*
prife, was within two or three miles.
Having halted here a couple of hours, in order to arrive at'
the mouth of the defile, in which the kraal was fituated, juft
at the firft dawn of day, the march was continued in folemn
filence. As we entered the defile it was perceived that at the
oppofite extremity a hill ftretched acrofs, admitting a pafs on
either fide; the party therefore divided into three companies
in order to poffeft all the paffes ; and they again clofed together
flowly towards the hill, at the foot of which the horde
was fuppofed to lie. A Hottentot, having afcended one of the
heights, waved his hat as a fignal of difeovery, and then
pointed to the fpot where the horde was fituated-. We
inftantly