48 
** On the evening of the seventh, we were surprised after 
having retired to rest, by a smart thunder-storm, attended 
with a heavy fall of rain, which rendered our tent untenable, 
and forced us to take shelter in Leroex’s house. This family, 
though within a moderate day's journey of Capetown, is as 
destitute of, and as unacquainted with, the most ordinary 
comforts of life, as any of the erratic boors on the precincts of 
Caffreland. ‘Leroex has few slaves, and is apparently poor; 
but this is no excuse for the filthy, slovenly state of his whole 
establishment, which is quite revolting, and forms a striking 
contrast with the studied neatness observable in the domestic 
economy of the boors in general. We had a pleasant in- 
stance of this in the society of two or three clutches of 
chickens with their dams, that claimed a prior right to the 
apartment wherein we pigged together, and asserted it with 
a noise and clamour that forced us to quit the house at dawn 
and to betake ourselves again to our tent. 
* The dwelling is furnished, like almost every other in the 
country, with three or four spreading oaks before the door, to 
ward off the sunbeams; and a clump of White Poplars in an 
adjoining marsh, which supply spars and small timber for the 
use of the farm. There is likewise a small corn-mill, of an 
extremely simple construction. It consists of a horizontal 
water-wheel, revolving on an axis, the upper end of which is 
fixed in the mill-stone, and turns it round at the same rate at 
which the wheel moves. This mill is a slow grinder, but it 
has the advantage of requiring little or no attendance. 
* We quitted Leroex's on the 12th, and proceeded to 
Daniel de Tait’s farm, situated on another branch of the 
Sonderend, at the distance of twelve miles. Early next 
morning, three of us set off to visit the Moravian establish- 
ment at Bavians Kloof. The road runs along the bank of 
the Sonderend, through a valley undulated in the most 
agreeable manner, and watered by copious streamlets, pour- 
ing down the side of a lofty chain of mountains that rise 
abruptly on the left. The river itself creeps sluggishly along 
the vale, its channel contracted by a thick border of Palmiet. 
As we rode along, a flock of roebucks would start up now 
