18 March, 1812, GHOOTE TAFELBERG. ^ JACOB VAN WYK. 
105 
how far it was occasioned by any peculiarity in the appearance of this 
family, I cannot determine exactly ; but it was certainly the effect of 
both : for, on comparison with those whom we afterwards saw at other 
houses on our road, these women were insipidly fair, and rendered 
therefore the more remarkable by the contrast of strong black eye- 
brows. To this, both in them and in the men, was added a very 
illshaped and projecting nose. 
■ I accosted them with the usual salutations, which they sHghtly 
and coldly returned. I inquired of them, what part of the colony I 
was in, and at what farm I was arrived : to which they replied, that 
the mountain (pointing to that which had been our beacon) was 
Groote Tafelberg''% and the farm that of Jacob Van Wyk.-\ On this, 
instead of an invitation to come into the house or to dismount, they 
proceeded, in a tone of intolerable insolence, to put a long string of 
impertinent questions. These I patiently answered; because, as I 
soon began to perceive that they were perversel}^ inclined, I conceived 
it to be advisable, as a traveller desirous of beholding them in their 
true colors, not to check them from giving me an undisguised display 
of their natural disposition. And, with the view of leaving the first 
colonists, whom we should meet, at liberty to do on this occasion, 
just as their own sense of hospitality might dictate, I had, before we 
came in sight of the house, strictly ordered that no one of my men 
should ask for any refreshment or assistance. In answering their 
numerous questions, I gave them the information, that I liad left my 
waggons on the other side of the ' Groote rivier ; that I had been three 
weeks travelling through the country of the Bushmen ; and was going 
to Graaffreynet to hire Hottentots. They seemed to doubt this last 
* A representation of Groote Tafelberg (Great Table-mountain), as viewed from the 
south-east, may be seen in the preceding page. In this name, the word ' great' is not to 
be taken absolutely, but merely comparatively with reference to another table-mountain of 
smaller size, hereafter mentioned on the 20th, 
f In the map of this place, a trifling mistake in engraving has escaped correction : 
the shading of the mountains should have been carried a little farther northward, so as to 
have included the dwelling of Van Wyk, which now, improperly, appears to stand upon 
the mountains, instead of being at the foot of them. 
VOL. II. P 
