312 TRAVELS IN 
habitant should in any shape molest the Hernhiiters, on pain 
of incurring the heaviest displeasure of the government. The 
letter arrived on the very day they were assembled, and the 
poltrons, on hearing it read, sneaked off each to his own 
home, and the missionaries since that time have continued to 
exercise their functions unmolested. The cause of the farm- 
ers' hatred to these people is their having taught the Hot- 
tentots the use of their liberty, and the value of their labor, 
of which they had long been kept in ignorance. 
At the point of a small detached mountain, to the south- 
ward of Bavian's kloof, is a warm spring, whose waters are 
pretty much used by invalids from the Cape. They are' 
strongly chalybeate, like those near Olifant's river, and rise 
out of the same kind of black turfy ground, in which were 
large masses of a brown ponderous iron stone, that apparently 
contained from 60 to 70 per cent, of iron. The Dutch go- 
vernment had caused a house to be erected, for the accom- 
modation of such as might be inclined to use the waters ; 
■which is now in so ruinous and filthy a state, that the appear- 
ance of it is much better calculated to hasten the progress of the 
disease, than the convalescence of the patient. Most of the 
English who have used the bath have taken their lodgings at 
a farm house, about a mile from the wells, where there are 
comfortable accommodations for a few persons. The tem- 
perature of the waters, where they first break out of the 
ground, is 114° of Fahrenheit, but in the bath they are re- 
duced to 110°. They are chiefly recommended for rheumatic 
complaints and debilitated constitutions. 
