Hottentots, in the whole diftri£t, do not exceed two to each
family; and that of Haves is about five.
Zwellendam affords no great fupply of cattle to the Cape
market, and Hill lefs fo o f iheep. Hories are brought up for fale
in confiderable numbers. The revenue o f the farmers are principally
derived from timber, grain, butter, foap, and dried fruits.
T o anaturalift, this diftridt is the leaft interefting, except in
botany, and in this department it offers an ample field. O f the
number of thofe who have made that branch of fcience their
particular purfuit, and who have vifited this colony, none have
fufficiently attended to the native foreft trees, fo as to be able
to aflign them their places in the prevailing fyftem of arranging
the vegetable part of the creation. Few antelopes, except the
Reebok, Steenbok, and Duyker, are now remaining in the
diftriit of Zwellendam. Formerly the Bonte’bok, the Scripta
o f the Syjlema Natures, was almoft as numerous near the Drofdy,
as the Springbok ftill continues to be in the Sneuwberg. At
prefent they are rarely feen in troops exceeding a dozen. At
one time alfo in the vicinity o f Zwellendam, were a few of
that elegant fpecies o f antelope, the Leucophaea, or blue antelope,
an animal that is now no longer to be met with in the whole
eolony, at leaft none have been feen or heard of thefe ten years
paft. Hares and partridges are plentiful in every part of the
diftrift. The woods of Autiniequas land abound with a variety
o f birds, both great and fmall.
On the twelfth we entered the diftrid o f Stellenbofch, by
crofting the river Zonder-end, and proceeded to Zoete Melk
valley,
valley, a patch of excellent land belonging to government, and
lately converted by it into a ftation for cavalry.
Proceeding up the valley through which the Endlefs river
meanders, we halted, late in the evening, at a place called the
Bavian’s kloof, where there is a fmall eftablifhment of Moravian
miflionaries, or Hernhiiters, fo called from a village in
Saxony where an afylum was offered to them after their
expulfion from Moravia. Thefe people have been feveral
years in this colony, for the exprefs purpofe of inftruding the
Hottentots in the doctrines of Chriftianity, but had met with little
encouragement, in the objed of their million, under the Dutch
government. The number of their profelytes have encreafed of
late to fuch a degree, that they have found it neceffary to fend
to Europe for more teachers of the gofpeh
Early ii) the morning I was awakened by the nolle of lome o f
the fineft voices I had ever heard, and, on looking out, faw a
group of female Hottentots fitting on the ground. It was
Sunday, and they had affembled thus early to chaunt the morning
hymn. They were all neatly dreffed in printed cotton gowns.
A fight fo very different to what we had hitherto been in the
habit of obferving, with regard to this unhappy clafs o f beings,
could not fail of being grateful; and, at the fame time, it excited
a degrefe of curiofity as to the nature of the eftablilhment. The
good fathers, who were three in number, were well difpofed to
fatisfy every queftion put -to them. They were men of the
middle age, plain and decent in their drefs, cleanly in their
perfons, of modeft manners, meek and humble in their deportment,,