'775- known to the botanifts, and, probably, great part of the remainder are under the fame predicament. It is, therefore, to be wiihed, that a botanift had an opportunity of remaining in this place the whole year throughput. Beams, planks for flooring, and timber for the con- ftrudtion of waggons are fetched from hence both by the farmers and by government. Many forts of ihrubs and bullies in fome places, particularly by the fide of the' wood, fill up the interftices between the larger trees, and render the foreft impervious. Among thefe, feveral forts o f prickly afparagufes deierve to be remarked, as well as a new fpecies of callophyllum; which, from its catching, like the thorn-bulh, fail hold of the traveller with its hooked: prickles, and keeping him from purfuing his journey, is commonly called here wakt een betje, or wait a bit. On the i oth, in our way from hence, we had the misfortune to wander ailray on horfeback till a good while after midnight. Being but lightly clad, we were almoft frozen to death, when we arrived at a farm near Slangen- rivier; where, however, we had like to have waited in the open air till the morning, as the miftrefs of the houfe, who was left at home with her female Have only, did not much care (without taking a long time to confider of the matter) to give houfe-room to travellers fo totally unknown to her as we were. Indeed, it was only by the barking o f the dogs, that we had been enabled to difcover this farm in the dark. The next morning we had the plea- fure to fee, that our Hottentots were arrived with the waggon at the diftance of a couple of gunf-ihots from the farm, and were taking the oxen out of the team on a plain plain near a crofs road. They gave us to underftand, that Se '775^ they had got thither fome time after us, by a different by- L/vv/ road. The country round about was extremely dry and arid, and fcarcely a vernal blofiom was to be feen. The reafdn of this was, the univerfal want o f rain, which was every where complained of that fpring. At this place there had been no rain for feveral days before; and yet the trees in Groot Vaders-bofch had, as foreits ufually do, attracted vapour from the clouds, and rain fufficient to water them. This day I had no fmall pleafure in feeing, for the firffc time, fome Hottentots riding their oxen. They rode pretty hard over hills and dales; and my hoftefs told me, that i f I was there when they came back, I ihould fee them galloping neck or nothing; as they were then going to drink out feveral wagers at a neighbour’s of her’s, a farmer, who, ihe faid, had io little confcience, as for the fake o f a very trifling gain, to lead the poor pagans, by means o f his brandy, into riot, intemperance, and excefles o f all kinds. She moreover gave the Hottentots the character of ufing the brute creation, and particularly the oxen they rode, very cruelly. Befide this inftance, I have feen feveral others, which confirmed this remark of her’s ; but am apt to believe it applies bell to fuch of them as have, in a great meafure, departed from their. original fimplicity, in confequence of their intercourfe with the Chriftians. Thefe faddle-oxen muff be tamed and broke in while they are calves. For this purpofe, a hole is bored through the grittle of the nofe, large enough to hold a wooden pin, to both ends of which the rope is fattened, that ferves by
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