ri6 TRAVELS IN 
On the Flassagai-bosch river stood thesecond habitation that 
had occurred in the last three days' journey, and we were here 
informed that there was no other to the eastward. The coun- 
try that iies between the Sunday river and the eastern hmit of 
the colony, and between the Bietberg and the sea-coast, is 
called the Zuure Veldt, or sour grass plains. In its appear- 
ance it is the most beautiful division in the whole district, 
being well wooded and watered, having a great depth of good 
soil, and a thick covering of grass. Till the shameful rupture 
between the peasantry and the KafFers, occasioned entirely by 
the injustice and tjTanny of the former, Zuure Veldt was one 
of the best-peopled divisions in the district,, but since that 
time it has been nearly abandoned. 
It now became necessary to make some arrangement for our 
projected journey into the country of the KafFers. Several teams 
of oxen for the waggons and relays had indeed already been sent 
to us, according to appointment, by the farmers,who had also as- 
sembled tO' the number of thirty or forty persons, all expecting 
to accompany us on the intended expedition. When it was first 
made known to the two members of the council that it might 
be necessary for us to proceed into the country of the Kafters, 
as far as the residence of their king, they immediately proposed 
as a necessary precaution for security, to ta^ce along with 
us a party of twenty armed men. It was in vain to convince 
them that twenty armed men in the heart of a country which 
could bring almost as many thousands into the field, were no 
better defence than four; that by multiplying our numbers 
we should probably multiply the danger of giving offence ; 
that the Kaffers were not to be considered in the same light 
