316 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



westerly side for a length of about two hundred miles. 

 Both these rivers run through an extensive and apparently 

 very mountainous country, girded towards the east and 

 south by the Draka Mountains, and towards the west by the 

 Wittebergen, till they penetrate the latter mountain chain, 

 and join each other a few miles below our present station. 

 That extensive tract, from the sources of both rivers, and 

 belted by the two last mentioned mountain chains, is inha- 

 bited by the Mantatee people, belonging to several Betchuana 

 tribes. They have chosen this mountainous country since 

 the time they were defeated, and deprived of their original 

 country by the Zoolo despot, Moselecatse. One of their 

 principal chieftains is Siconyela, who resides between the 

 sources of the Caledon River and the Orange River. 



About ten miles' distance from our station up the Caledon 

 River, lies a French missionary station, called " Seven- 

 fontyn," which I once visited, at the latter end of 1836, 

 when I attempted to go into Moselecatse's country by that 

 route, exactly the same on which Captain Harris returned 

 afterwards from the interior towards the colony. I was com- 

 pelled, and most fortunately, to turn back on account of the 

 appalling news that reached us on our route towards the 

 Vaal River, that Moselecatse's warriors had massacred many 

 of those emigrant families who had been obliged to leave 

 the colony to keep their flocks alive, and who had chosen 

 the banks of the Vaal River for a temporary relief. The 

 news of that murderous affair caused great fear amongst 

 my people, and compelled me to return again towards the 

 north-eastern boundary of the colony. When I arrived at 

 "Buffalo Valley," a place where we forded the Orange 

 River, a short distance below the Wittebergen, we met 

 the first body of the emigrants who expatriated themselves 

 under the command of G. Maritz. 



The missionary station at Sevenfontyn, (so called after so 

 many springs rising immediately near the house of the 

 missionary), is well inhabited, for the most part by " Bas- 

 sootas," a Betchuana tribe, with only a few Hottentot 



