' 775- Auguft. foetus o f a byjlrix. Neither could I preferve my brandy from the depredations o f my troublefome vifitors, till having put feveral animals into it, and thefe being ihaken to pieces by the jolting of the waggon, the moft inebriating vapours o f the brandy, by the affiftance o f the fun ihiningupon them, were changed into effluvia that were highly difguft- ing, in confequence of the animal particles they contained. Our patience feemed deftined to be tried itili farther, in the beginning of our journey, by feveral trifling misfortunes ; I was obliged to flay here two days to feek every where, though in vain, after one of thè beft cattle in iny tèam. It Was a bull, though in Africa thefe are very fel- dom broke in for drawing burdens. It is true they are very hardy, and not fo apt to be feared by wild beafts, but then they are likewife more unruly. Notwithstanding this,, they had fold me two oxen fo reftive, that my Hottentots, 'any more than myfelf, could not take them Out or put them into the waggon without thè greateft fear and caution. They were all too old and lean for a journey o f the extent of that •which we had undertaken, and every one of them had fome peculiar fault beftdes: in fitte, I had got thè refufe o f the peafant’s worft OSeh. Befldes, I Was fo far cheated in the hull, that having CXcitdd the jealoufy of fome other hulls, he was butted out of the field by them; and as he had been hunted away over a river, was fuppófed to have taken his flight home ; fo that we could not help fufpeft- ing, that the farmer had this in View when he fold him to me. So liable are we to think illof thofe who hàve. already deceived us. As I had no opportunity of purchafiug a tolerable beaft in the room of that which I had loft, I was obliged to drive from this place with only eight oxen; acircumftanee.that fell héavy heavy enough upon them; befides this, the odd one ran loofe by the fide o f the others, and gave us a great deal o f trouble. On the 30th we arrived at Tiger-hock, where we put up. This is a farm which government holds in its own hands. On account o f its great diftance from the Cape, no advantage can accrue to the company from the vending of com; but their moft confiderable income is timber, which is fetched from a wood on the other fide o f rivler Zonder-end, where the company keeps a party o f wood-cutters, which is under the infpeftion o f a corporal, who is at the fame time bailiff o f this farm, and has better pay than any corporal in the garrifon. He is likewife to fuperintend the grafs-land and dairy for the advantage o f government, and to give an account o f the profits. The river Zonder-end was now fwelled up to its banks, and difficult to pafs, for which reaibn I omitted paying a vifit to the wood that lies here; chiefly as the proper time for felling the trees was not yet come, and as I had befides refolved upon going to much larger forefts, viz. Groot Vaders Bofcb, and Houtniquas. On the banks o f the river a craal, or community of Hottentots, to the amount of about thirty perfons, is faid to refide, together with theft herds. The chriftians, in faft, would, it is fuppofed, have elbowed thefe likewife out o f this fituation, had not government found an intereft in permitting them to be near its territories here. The men belonging to this craal, for inftance, were at this time ordered to the Cape with feveral of the company’s waggons; for which fervice, however, th ey [ received payment: fo that I could not hope to have any o f them for my own ufe. A Hottentot or two worked at the A a 2 farm, *775* A u g u f t.
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