440 SOUTH AFRICAN PLACE-NAMES. 



schoft ver en ook wel verder als een vuurrook zien kan, op mijn-oog 

 zou de heele rivier van een klipkrans afstorten 2 maal zo hoog als 't 

 casteel hier is . . . kan men 't gedruys als een bruyssende zee ook 

 wel op een schoft ver hooren; en een half uur booven deze waterval, is 

 'l water zeer sterk van trek." 



Later travellers who have visited these Falls seem to have 

 regarded it as an imperative duty to attempt to supersede the 

 descriptive native name, Aughrabies (Hot. ||ora77, a rocky- 

 waterfall), by names that might have been good enough had the 

 falls been without a name. Thompson, who visited these Falls 

 in 1824, gives a graphic description of them (" Travels and 

 Adventures in Southern Africa," 1827, p. 264), and concludes by 

 saying : 



" I named this scene ' King George's Cataract,' in honour of our 

 gracious Sovereign." 



Farini ("Through the Kalahari Desert," 1886, ch. 23 and 

 24) is no less enthusiastic over the grandeur of the scene which 

 the Falls present, of which he furnishes a map, but cannot 

 refrain from trying his hand at beautifying (?) our South 

 African nomenclature by giving names to individual falls of the 

 series, and concludes by naming the whole " The Hundred Falls " 

 (p. 417). Aughrabies let it be. 



There are a few comparatively recent place-names that also 

 call for notice. Mowbray is one that seemed to be somewhat 

 of a mystery. The following notice appears in the Government 

 Gazette, Colonial Office, Cape of Good Hope, 17th June, 1850: 



" His Excellency the Governor having been pleased to comply with the 

 request made to him by the inhabitants of the village of Three Cups, in 

 the Cape Division, to change the name to ' Mbwbray.' Notice thereof is 

 given for general information. 



" By Command of His Excellency the Governor. 

 "John Montagu, 



Secretary to the Government." 



Mr. Butler, the then proprietor of an inn at this village 

 called the " Three Cups," hailed from Melton Mowbray, Eng- 

 land. It was due to him that the request was formulated and 

 presented to Sir Harry Smith, the Governor, on behalf of the 

 residents in the village, that the name should be changed. His 

 inn was subsequently known as the " Mowbray Inn." 



Another name that has yielded its secret is Ceres. It may 

 be remembered that in a previous paper (Report S.A.A.A.S., 

 1915, p. 170) reference was made to the several suggested origins 

 of this South African place-name, no one of which could then 

 be pronounced authentic. It now appears that the place is 

 indebted for its classical and appropriate appellation to the father 

 of Senator Munnik. Compelled by reasons of health to leave 

 Worcester, where he had resided, Mr. Munnik removed to this 

 part of the Bokkeveld, and purchased the farm upon which the 

 present township stands. The village, laid out later, received 

 from him the name of the goddess of Agriculture, Ceres, in 

 recognition of the fertility of the soil in this locality. 



