Oftade, who, judging from his pictures, muft have been wit-
nefs to many of the fame kind.
The noife of the Bacchanalians was,accompanied by a ftorm
of thunder j and the rain, that fell in the courfe of the night,
had rendered the air the next morning cool and refrelhing. It
was the firft ihower that had fallen in this part of the country
for near four months, and the effects of it on the ground were
very fenfibly perceived in the courie of four days.
At this feafon of the year, when the earth is thoroughly
heated, the rapidity with which vegetation burfts forth, after
rain, is almoft incredible. Among the earlieft of fuch plants,
a« by the brilliancy of their flowers captivate the fight, are the
various fpecies of the oxalis, the yellow ftar-flower, and the
three-coloured Lacbenalia, with two or three other ipecies of
the fame genus. But one of the moll; Angular among the finall
plants, that blofiom in the beginning of winter, is the feptas,
whofe name is derived from the regular feptenary divifion of
all the different parts of fructification, and is remarkable for being
the only, plant, yet difcovered, in the feventh clafs and fe-
venlb order of the Linnsean Syitem.
The refreihing coo]nefs, occafioned by the rain, permitted
us to extend our march to the river Zander End, or Endlefs
River, near the banks of which the Dutch Eaft India Company
had referred, for its own ufe, an extenfive trait of land called
the Sweet Milk's Valley. It is bounded-on the north fide by. a
range
range of hills that were once well covered with foreft trees,
but thefe have long been cut down, few of any magnitude now
remaining, except in the deep chafms where they are fcarcely
acceflible. The country, on each fide of the river, is extremely
pleafant, and tolerably well inhabited, in comparifon ái: leaft
with other parts; the dwellings being feldóm removed from
one another beyond the regulated diftance of three miles. A
few of the fmall kind of antelopes ftill^ remain, as réebocks,
fpringbocks, griejbocks, and duykers, and plenty of hires and partridges
; but the large bontebocks are almoft totally deftroyed, or
driven to fome other part of the fettlement. I obferved, in thé
former volume, that in the neighbourhood of this river was once
to be found the Leucophoea or blue antelope, but that, for many
years paft, it had been loft to the colony. I underftood, however,
that, a few months before we evacuated the Cape, a fmall
herd of this beautiful animal had again made its appearance
among the wooded hills behind Sweet Milk Valley, where, in-
ftead of fuffering them to remain unmolefted, at leaft for fome
time, the farmers were lying in wait for their deftruCtion,
Clófe to this river is the eftablifhment of the Hemhufers or
Moravian miffionaries, who, by thie protection afforded them
under the Britifh government, and its liberality, through Ge-
neral Dundas, in enabling them to enlarge their territory, had
fucceeded fo far, in the objeCt of their million, as to bring together
into one fociety, not fewer, at the timé of the evacuation
of the colony, than fix hundred poor Hottentots ; whom
they not only inftrùaed in the principles of'the Chriftian religion,
but by example, as well as precept, taught to feel,’ that
their