422 A J O U R N E Y IN
be attended with regret nor disadvantage, a sufficient portion
of provisions to cany them across the Karroo desert into the
Rogge veld was allotted to them, and they were finally dismissed
from the employ of the commission.
I t was not till the 28th January that the river had sufficiently
subsided to allow the waggons to pass with safety; and they
had scarcely reached the opposite shore till it again swelled
several feet in depth, though not a shower of rain had fallen ;
and the current continued to flow with such violence that
they had very little prospect of again speedily crossing it,
which, however, was necessary to be done at this place, to
enable them to proceed on their intended journey. The Kora
Hottentots, therefore, set to work in felling down trees, for
the purpose of constructing rafts to float over the waggons;
and they were proceeding with great activity and considerable
skill in forwarding these rafts, when a ford was discovered
a little lower down the river. Here they effected a
passage without accident; and before they reached the place
of their destination, they were under the necessity of crossing
this broad and rapid river not less than six times; the last of
which they were in considerable danger of being swept away,
by a sudden rise of the waters to the height of five or six
feet.
A considerable variety of surface presented itself in the
course of this journey, which was sometimes along the banks
of the river, and at other times at a distance from it. The
common mimosa was every where abundant; and some of
these trees were so much loaded with the straw-built edifices
of the gregarious grossbeak, that at a distance they appeared
like so many hay-ricks. Several species of large beautiful
aloes and tall euphorbias appeared on the heights ; and great
abundance of that particular species of the latter, with which
it is pretended the Hottentots poison the springs-of water, in
order to distress their enemies ; but of which the commissioners
met with no instance in the course of their long
journey. Several Kora villages were situated in the route;
the inhabitants of which appeared to be every where happy
and contented with their few flocks and herds and humble
sheds ; always cheerful and in good humour ; and from the
first to the last quarter of the moon never failing to pass the
greater portion of thè night in dancing and singing.
On the 11th February the party arrived at the place of its
destination, where they found a considerable village inhabited
by a mixed society, consisting of Kaffers, Hottentots, and halfcasts
of a variety of kinds, under a chief of the name of Kok,.
who was one of those people usually distinguished in the colony
by the appellation of Bastaard, that is to say, the offspring of a
connection between a colonist and a Hottentot. To every appearance
this horde was abundantly rich in cattle; but they
complained that they had lately suffered to a very considerable
extent, from the predatory attack of a certain free-booter of
the name of Africaaner, of whose future visits they were under
great apprehension, and the more so on account of his-having
lately enlisted into his gang a number of vagabonds- of various
descriptions, who had found the means of escaping out of
the hands of justice from different parts of the colony. Ter