SOUTHERN AFRICA, 315 
^had accompanied me on the other journies, and an additional 
Hottentot to attend the oxen for relays : for it must not be 
supposed, that the same team of oxen should be able to draw 
daily for a length of time. The farmers, who live only at the 
distance of ten days' journey from the Cape, seldom come 
up with less than a couple of teams of bullocks to use al- 
ternately. They also travel at nights, for the sake of cool- 
ness, and that their cattle may graze or browze during the 
day. 
But for the better convenience of those who travelled 011 
the public service, government imposed a kind of tax on the 
farmers, by obliging them to furnish Voorspann, or teams of 
oxen, free of any expence, whenever they shou-Id be demanded. 
It was considered as a sufficient recompence for this service, 
that they -were supplied by the government, without 
purchase, with powder and ball, to carry on their expedi- 
tions against their enemies, the Bosjesmans. In the present, 
as well a« on the former tour, I availed myself of this privi- 
lege of ancient usage in the colony, and never met with a 
refusal, or even a reluctant compliance with the demand, 
which, indeed, was always requested not>as a matter of right, 
but of favoi'. 
As none of my Hottentots were acquainted with one step 
of the northern tour I was about to undertake, we had to 
depend entirely on the information of the farmers as to the 
road and most convenient halting places. The first day 
Jjrought us to Koeberg, about eighteen miles from the Cape ; 
