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 Wliite 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 alone; 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 



