1812. 
CIVILITIES AT BREMMER'S. 
149 
that a strange ox, supposed to have belonged to the Klaarwater 
people, had mingled itself with their teams, and was brought along 
with them to GraafFrejnet. 
1th. On the arrival of the post from Cape Town, many of the 
inhabitants of the village, and particularly the female part, most of 
Vv^hom had never been inoculated, were put under great alarm by an 
account of the Small-pox having made its appearance there : and in 
consequence of this, some intended journeys to the metropolis were 
postponed. 
Among the boors, the demand for Hottentot labor on their farms 
is everywhere so pressing, that all my search and inquiries for men, 
ended unsuccessfully. The landdrost declined acting in this business, 
without instructions from the commandant on the frontiers ; and as 
no answer had yet been received from that quarter, every further 
arrangement was postponed. 
In the interim, having no means of preserving the objects of 
natural history which I might have procured here, I employed myself 
in collecting information on the affairs of this part of the Colony, and 
often amused myself in drawing. The absence of my flute, was now 
felt to be a greater loss than I had supposed ; but I occasionally sup- 
plied its place with an instrument which I little expected to meet with 
in this remote corner of Africa. In one of the cottages of the villas-e I 
discovered an organ : and through Mr. Kicherer's introduction to the 
owner, obtained free access to it during my residence at this village. 
It was at the house of a worthy Hollander of the name of Breinmer. 
Here I often passed an hour or two ; and many times would the 
sound beguile my thoughts to a land where I had heard it so much 
better played ; and the recollection of distant scenes, or the memory 
of some delightful hour recalled by a few notes to which my fingers 
accidentally ran, have afforded me in the honest Bremmer's cottage, 
a gratification which I would not have exchanged for all the pleasures 
of a grander mansion. Whenever they saw me at the door, some 
one of the family ran with a smile to let me in, and pleased at my 
coming, immediately went to open the organ and place a seat for me. 
The two daughters, the eldest of whom was not fifteen, sometimes 
very goodnaturedly took upon themselves the trouble of blowing the 
