to Dc la Goa Bay. 59 



of their expedition, as the country up to this had already been, 

 visited by the English Frontier Traders, and a few weeks pre- 

 viously by a party of colonists under Major H. B. Dundas, they 

 entered a nearly depopulated territory, formerly belonging to 

 the Ilambona or Amaponda nation, which had been swept by 

 the spear and fire-brand of the Zoolah conquerer; whose path 

 was indicated by the remains of the destroyed huts and the 

 heaps of skeletons of the murdered inhabitants. This tract, 

 especially near the sea, is represented as beautiful beyond 

 description; the meadows are carpeted with the most luxuriant 

 herbage, and watered every few hundred yards by copious 

 rivulets, whose banks are level with the prairies through which 

 they meauder; the rivers swarming with fish and Hippopo- 

 tami ; the plains and hills, in some parts, are covered with 

 woods of gigantic forest trees, attaining the height of 70 to 80 

 feet, whose recesses are alive with Elephants, and the vegeta- 

 tion, where observed, consisting of the sweet cane, millet, and 

 maze, rich beyond all that the travellers had noticed in the most 

 favorable parts of the Colony. The coast itself was abundantly 

 supplied with oysters of two descriptions, and for nearly thirty 

 miles a space is mentioned as being literally white with this 

 delicious esculent, A very few miles to the eastward of the 

 Omzimvooboo was the scene of the wreck of the Grosveiior, 

 and a remarkable hill which Messrs. C andG. named "Mount 

 George in Windsor Forest," is " the great height" which 

 stopped the further progress of Van Reenen's wagons when 

 in search of the crew of that vessel in 1790. On the sea lino 

 for some distance the country is too much broken to be 

 traversed by wagons, which are therefore obliged, after passing 

 the ford of the Omzimvooboo or St. John's river, to strike up 

 to the north-eastward, where are extensive plains, rather 

 difficult to be crossed from being swampy ; and the great chain 

 of mountains from the Winterberg range on the verge of the 

 Colony, still continues its course parallel with and at a pretty 

 equal distance from the ocean. 



Leaving 1 these enchanting spots with regret, after killing 

 many Sea Cows and much game, the expedition proceeded 

 along the shore, and for thirty -five days travelled without 

 falling in with natives until it reached Mr. Fynn's Kraal, near 

 Port Natal; here the party rested a longtime, visiting the 

 grave of Lieutenant King, who is buried on the southern horn 

 of the Bay, and Lieutenant Farewell's station, and receiving 

 a large mass of interesting information regarding Chaka, the 

 late tyrant of the Zoolas, his country and people. At this point 

 they seem unfortunately to have abandoned their original idea 

 pi' striking off directly northward of Natal, and penetrating 





