GRAAFF REINET. 105 



" he would cut her up for bill-tongue" alluding to 

 a description of dried meat commonly used among 

 the farmers. He had since perpetrated one of the 

 most cold-blooded and cruel murders ; and during 

 the time I was at Beaufort, the Government offered 

 a reward of two hundred dollars for his apprehen- 

 sion. One of the persons concerned with him in 

 this murder had been taken, and was afterwards 

 executed. While in the jail, where I saw him, 

 he stated that his companion Avonteur had visited 

 the premises of the above-named Vijoon three times, 

 with the intention of fulfilling his threat, but, the 

 farmer happening fortunately to be at home, he was 

 deterred from attempting it. 



The district of Graaff Reinet, of which Beaufort 

 is a subdrostdy, covers an extent of country con- 

 taining more than fifty thousand square miles, 

 while the population does not exceed fifteen thou- 

 sand souls — so thinly are the inhabitants scattered 

 over this immense territory. The people are en- 

 tirely in a pastoral state, and require extensive 

 tracts of land for the support of their flocks, the soil 

 being for the most part of an extremely barren 

 and sandy description. In consequence of frequent 

 droughts, the springs and rivulets become dry, when 

 the greatest distress is occasioned throughout the 

 country. 



Being by necessity widely separated from each 

 other, the farmers are in consequence much exposed 



