SOUTHERN AFRICA. 191 
In order therefore to bring about a conversation with some 
of the chiefs of this people ; to try if, by presents and per- 
suasion, they could be prevailed upon to quit their present 
wild and marauding way of life ; at the same time to see the 
state of tlie colony, and the situation of the inhabitants ; to 
inspect the boundaries, and to examine the nature of the 
country, a journey to the northward appeared indispensably 
necessary. It promised also much curiosity : and as no 
European traveller, except the late Colonel Gordon who ac- 
companied the Governor Van Plettenberg, had ever ascended 
the mountains of Snow, a great deal of novelty was to be ex- 
pected from it. 
On the 20th of October we departed from the Drosdy, 
crossed the Sunday river, and its accompanying Karroo, and 
at the distance of ten miles north-westerly reached the foot 
of the mountains, into which a narrow defile of five miles in 
length, and a steep ascent of three miles at the farther ex- 
tremity, led us upon the extensive plains, and among the scat- 
tered mountains that compose the Sneuwberg. From the 
lower plains of Camdeboo, the fronts of these mountains ap- 
pear to be the most regular formed, though the most con- 
fusedly placed, of any within the limits of the colony. The 
uppermost stratum of naked rock that terminates their sum- 
mits is so perfectly horizontal, and so regularly squared at 
the angles, that their vast height and magnitude alone con- 
tradict the idea of their being gigantic lines of masonry. 
It was on one of the elevated plains that lie extended with- 
in these clusters of mountains, where we encamped in th& 
