1812. 
THE WEATHER. — ARRIVAL OF BERENDS. 
465 
The 'weather was now exceedingly agreeable j and to those who 
have felt the inconvenience of the over-moist air of the British 
islands, and of their great variability of weather, the almost constant 
sunshine of Africa has, during the winter season when the heat of its 
beams is moderate, a cheering and enlivening effect. A constitution 
naturally susceptible of these effects, would feel them the more 
sensibly when, as at the present time, the nights were extremely 
chilly. The average mid-day heat during this month, did not exceed 
70° (16"8 R. ; 21-1 C), a temperature at which the presence of the 
sun was welcome, and /en desirable. 
About sunset we were surprised by the cracking of whips, and 
the rattling of two waggons driving into the town ; and shortly after- 
wards, their owners came to me. I was much pleased at finding it 
to be our old acquaintance Berends the Hottentot captain : having 
with him Jan HendriJc one of the inhabitants of Klaarwater, together 
with about fourteen other Hottentots. These were part of the hunt- 
ing expedition which had been already noticed as having set out from 
the Asbestos Mountains on the day before I reached that place on 
my return from GraafFreynet. 
Berends informed me that he had left the rest of his party with 
ramification, and of the elegant form of their light masses of foliage. The stimj^s or 
trunlcs are of the Mokdla tree or Acacia giraffce, and having been cut down for the purpose 
of building the town, the branches which have since sprung from them, serve by the 
number of years growth which they exhibit, to confirm the statement that this town had 
not stood in its present situation longer than six years, at the date of these Travels, The 
other hushes are younger plants of the same species. All the Jigiires represent men, 
excepting the three in the foreground, and the one more distant and immediately to the 
left of these. On the right, are two armed men returning from a distant cattle-station, 
and driving before them an ox loaded with hags of mill". Just above the hedge under the 
great trees, may be seen the heads of persons assembled in the rnootsi. The imman in 
the foreground, carrying a piitsa (a pot or jar) on her head, and an ox-horn in her hand, 
is going for water. She is clothed only in the makkubi and musesi, and wears a number 
of thick leathern rings round her ancles. Her daughter, who is playing with an ostrich- 
feather, wears, as usual at her age, only the makkdbi : her peculiar figure or the liollow- 
ness of the back, is often very remarkable among the children of various African tribes. 
The other child, a little boy, has, as usual at that age, no clothing whatever. The other 
objects seen in this engraving, will be rendered sufficiently intelligible by the descriptions 
contained in the two following chapters. 
VOL. II. 3 o 
