XX INTRODUCTION. 



education and taste, I possessed an ardent desire to 

 contribute my mite to the Geography and Natural 

 History of the countries I was about to explore. 



At the period of my arrival at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, public attention was much excited by an 

 event which has probably no parallel in our Colonial 

 history. I allude to the emigration of a large body 

 of Dutch farmers, who voluntarily forsook the 

 British protection and territory, to effect an estab- 

 lishment in the wilderness, where it was believed — 

 as indeed the result fully proved— they would 

 encounter the severest hardship ; and it was no small 

 additional spur to my spirit of enterprise, that I 

 might trace the steps of these wanderers, and, 

 without mingling in politics, investigate, on the spot, 

 the origin of so remarkable an expatriation. The 

 map that accompanies this volume, for the outlines 

 of which I am indebted to Arrowsmith's Atlas, 

 published in 1834, is principally illustrative of the 

 history of this singular event. Many interesting 

 geographical chasms, however, have also been filled 

 up, and numerous additions made, either from 

 personal observations, or from materials obligingly 

 furnished by missionaries and intelligent traders, 

 upon whose correctness I could rely. Nothing has 

 been inserted upon vague report ; and although it 

 will be remarked that my inconvenient mode of 

 traveUing would not admit of my making a strictly 



