Chap. XXXVll.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 329 



parallel lines along the heights, I reconnoitered the 

 whole country through a telescope, and after 

 having been twice deceived by herds of spring-bucks, 

 at length discovered a veritable flock of sheep, 

 grazing in a distant valley. Overjoyed at the dis- 

 covery, 1 hastened towards the spot, and turning 

 the flank of a detached range, a most cheering 

 prospect was suddenly opened to my view. Forty 

 Dutch colonists, with their kith and kin, were en- 

 camped on the banks of the Calf river, where it 

 wound between two ranges of hills ; the assemblage 

 of snow-white waggon-tilts, around which herds of 

 oxen and droves of horses were grazing, imparting 

 to the animating scene the appearance of a country 

 fair. Several women, attended by their husbands, 

 were washing linen in the river, but as both sexes 

 declined holding any communication with me, I 

 rode up to the nearest tent, and learnt from a slave 

 boy that it belonged to Christian Breck. Pipe in 

 mouth, the portly ^aa^", or master, presently sallied 

 forth, and after the customary salutation, I inquired 

 how many days' journey it was to the Great river. 

 Instead of receiving any reply to this question, how- 

 ever, I was elaborately catechised as to my age, 

 name, residence, calling, destination, and domestic 

 history. The mention of *' Sillekat's land," while 

 it elicited an oath, and an exclamation of surprise, 

 procured me also an invitation to " saddle off;" and 

 walking with mine host into the pall, I was minutely 

 scrutinized through a pair of spectales by the 

 good vroiiic, who was seated, agreeably to colonial 



