fome diftance from each other, in two lines, forming a kind o f
ftreet. At the upper end Hands the houfe of the landroft, built
alfo o f mud, and a few miferable hovels that were intended as
offices for the tranfaftion of public bufinefs: moil of thefe have
tumbled in ; and the reft are in a ruinous condition and not
habitable. The jail is compofed o f mud walls and roofed with
thatch ; and fo little tenable, that an Englifh deferter, who had
been fhut up in it for amufing the country people with an
account of a converfation he had held with fome French officer,
made his efcape the firft night through the thatch. The mud
walls of all the buildings are excavated, and the floors undermined
by a fpecies of termes or white ant, which deftroys every
thing that falls in its way except wood ; and the bats that lodge
in the thatch come forth at nights in fuch numbers as to extin-
guiih the candles, and make it almoft impoffible to remain in a
room where there is a light.
The village is chiefly inhabited by mechanics, and fuch as
hold fome petty employment under the landroft. Its appearance
is more miferable than that of the pooreft village in England.
The neceliaries o f life are with difficulty procured in i t ;
for, though there be plenty of land, few are found induftrious
enough to cultivate it. No milk, no butter, no cheefe, no
vegetables o f any kind, are to be had upon any terms. There
is no butcher, no chandler, no grocer, no baker. Every one
muft provide for himfelf as well as he can. They have neither
wine nor beer; and the chief beverage of the inhabitants is the
water ó f the Sunday river, which, in the fummer feafon, is
ftrongly impregnated with fait. It would be difficult to fay
what
what the motives could have been that induced the choice of
this place for the refidence of the landroft. It could not proceed
frbm any perfonal comfort or convenience that the place
held o u t; perhaps thofe of the inhabitants have chiefly been
confulted, as the fituation is nearly central; though it is more
probable that fome interefted motive, or a want of judgment, or
a contradi£tory fpirit, muft have operated in affigning fo wild,
fo fecluded, and fo unprofitable a place for the feat of the
Drofdy.
On the eleventh of Auguft we fet out from Graaff Reynet
on our projected expedition, accompanied by two hemraaden
whom the landroft thought it advifeable to take, having pro-
pofed to call a meeting o f the inhabitants of the diftant divifions
of his diftriift as he palled through them, to read his commiffion,
adminifter the oath of allegiance, and to proclaim thofe parts of
his public inftrudions as might particularly relate to fuch inhabitants.
He thought by doing this to fpare them the trouble
and expence of a long journey to the Drofdy.
Our firft route lay dire&Iy to the fouthward towards the fea-
coaft, through a country as fandy, arid, and fterile as any part
of the Great defert, and equally ill fupplied with water. Two
farm-houfes only were palled on the firft day’s journey, which
was in the divifion called Camdeboo, a Hottentot word, figni-
fying green elevations, applying to the projeding buttrefles
which fupport the Snowy mountains, and which are moftly
covered with verdure. The farmers here are entirely graziers;
and for feeding their numerous herds each occupies a vaft
a extent