>77 5- March. V^"Y>»7 me and other ftrangers, for intelligence concerning them- felves and the very place of their reiidence. For his own part, he was eaiily perfuaded to enter into all my deiigns and favour me with his company; but we were obliged to lay our heads together and Hand firm by each other, in order to get the permiffion of his relations. His mother, a fenfible European lady, together with her lovely daughter, at length gave their confent, and principally o.n this account, that young Imnielman had very weak lungs, and the beft remedy for him would be to take a long journey on horfeback, efpecially as he had the advantage of being accompanied by a phyiician: and on the other hand, he had reafon to fear a more certain and horrid death in confequence of the complaint he laboured under, than any thing that might be apprehended from the attacks of the roving Hottentots or of the wild beafts tip the country. His father, an old experienced foldier, who had ferved both in Europe and the Eaft-lndies, and was then lieutenant in the garrifon at the Cape, at length- gave his confent on the principle, that a lad fhould never be fhy or backward, where there was any danger. For this purpofe Mr. Immelman provided himfelf with a good eafy nag, for which he gave fifty rix- dollars; I had already bought an ordinary galloway for thirty-four, and a new baggage-waggon, about the fize of the ammunition-waggons in Sweden, but covered over with a tilt made of fail-cloth, and finifhed in the fame manner as thofe in which the peafants ufually travel in this colony. The price o f it was likewife what was ufually given for thefe carriages, that is, about two two hundred rixdollars, reckoning feventy-four for the wood-work, and eighty for the iron-work; the yoke, the hind chains, and thofe for the traces, the fail-cloth covering, and a box for the coom, made up the reft of the fum. To draw a waggon of this kind there are ufually required five pair of oxen, which I therefore bargained for at eight rixdollars a head. I further took with me medicines of feveral forts, as well for our own ufe, as for that of the peafants, to whom they might be of great fervice, and procure n s a better reception. I likewife provided myfelf with a fmall ftock o f glafs beads, brafs tinder- boxes, fteels for ftriking fire with, and knives, together with fome tobacco ; all thefe were commodities peculiarly acceptable to the Hottentots. We likewife took with us an oaken cafk, made for the purpofe o f keeping ferpents and other animals in brandy ; alfo feveral reams of paper for drying plants, with leads and needles for infefts, and at the fame time fome neceffary changes o f apparel. Neither did we forget to take with us plenty of tea, coffee, 4. chocolate, and fugar, partly for our own ufe, and partly to iniinuate ourfelves into the good graces-of the yeomen, who, by reafon of the great diftance they are at from the Cape, are often without thefe neceffaries. I was told indeed, that liquors would infallibly anfwer this purpofe much better; but the room they took up, their weight, and the expence o f them, prevented me from taking any with me. We were well provided with needles o f feveral forts, as by means of thefe, and a few good words, we fhould be enabled to gain the good graces of the farmer’s- daughters, f as well as their affiftance in colledting infedts.. I bought
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