A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 41 



Reinet was the capital of the Eastern province, 

 the quiet ebb and flow of its existence were quickened 

 and diversified by the advent of the trading waggons 

 from the far interior, loaded up with ivory, ostrich 

 feathers, hides, and other produce, and the market- 

 place was then a brisk and strikingly picturesque 

 emporium. In those days it must have been a sight 

 indeed to see, as I have seen elsewhere, the great 

 waggons outspanned, their tilts worn and discoloured 

 from long journeying, or patched with green hide, 

 which had hardened in the sun to the consistency 

 of iron, and the worn oxen released from their long 

 and fatiguing trek from distant Transvaal or still 

 more distant Bechuanaland. Many a traveller has 

 started thence for the far interior. Captain Corn- 

 wallis Harris, that most accomplished of South 

 African hunters and naturalists, whose magnificent 

 illustrated works will remain monuments for all time 

 of the splendid fauna of the country, set out from 

 here in 1837 on his expedition to the then unknown 

 and unexplored Transvaal, at that time held by the 

 fierce Moselikatze and his renegade Zulus, who 

 afterwards formed the present Matabele nation. 

 Gordon Gumming passed through more than once 

 on his way down country from those wonderful 

 shooting trips of his, his waggons loaded up with 

 many a heavy tusk of ivory and many a goodly spoil 

 of the chase. Barrow, Burchell, Campbell, and a 

 host of others, all have rested here. 



We much enjoyed strolling about the quaint old 

 town, and were introduced by our Afrikander friend 

 and guide to his fine old Dutch house and to his 

 sister, a young lady to whose excellent singing and 

 playing we were several times charmed listeners. 



