70 WRECK OF THE JESSIE. 
tain Winter, had been wrecked off Cape L’Aguillas, 
on the night of the 7th of October; that three 
sailors had succeeded in gaining the shore in an 
open boat, who reported that all on board except 
themselves had perished. 
On the morning after this intelligence was re- 
ceived, in company with several other persons, I pro- 
ceeded on horseback towards the spot where the 
vessel was wrecked. On reaching Hottentots’ Hol- 
land Kloof, we overtook a horse waggon with a party 
of gentlemen, among whom were the parents of 
two of the unfortunate passengers, proceeding to the 
same place in order to obtain information relative 
to the fate of their sons, two young gentlemen 
who had embarked on board the Jessie on a 
mercantile speculation. Leaving them to change 
horses, we proceeded through the kloof, but had not 
gone above a mile up this tremendous pass, when we 
met a farmer coming into town with his waggon 
from the Breede River. This person informed us 
that he was the bearer of a letter from one of the 
passengers, who, with several others, had succeeded 
in reaching that place in an open boat. Perceiving 
the letter was addressed to one of the individuals 
before alluded to, we immediately returned to com- 
municate this intelligence. We were, however, 
alike the messengers of joy and woe: for while to 
one parent it conveyed the gratifying information of 
his son’s preservation, to the other it announced the 
