SOUTHERN AFRICA. 331 
In the course of a very few days after the rain, the surface 
of the Bokkeveld became one verdant carpet of herbaceous 
plants, embroidered by a multitude of the humble, yet beau- 
tiful, Ojcalis, some red, some white, and others yellow. Game 
of most kinds is very abundant in this district, particularly 
hares, bustards, and partridges, which we daily saw in thou- 
sands ; and they were so very tame, that we had no difficulty 
in procuring vrhatever quantity we wished for. 
The division of Oiidcr or Lower Bokkeveld^ being the re- 
motest in the colony on this side, and bordering on the coun- 
try inhabited by those Maroon Hottentots, called Bosjesmans, 
it became necessary, in order to proceed to the northward, to 
make an addition to my people, not only as a protection 
against the savages, but as guides over an uninhabited desert 
of the same nature as the great Karroo leading to Graaff Rey- 
net. Louw, the Veld Commandant, readily offered his services, 
but he was totally unacquainted with the desert that skirted 
his district. A Hottentot, however, was soon found, to whom 
were known all the places where water was most likely to be 
met with, and he was glad of the occasion to act as guide. 
Having procured a second waggon to carry the necessary- 
provisions and grain for our horses, we set forward at an early 
hour in the morning, in order to arrive at the steep edge of 
the mountain before dark. From this precipice, which in 
many parts is not less than two thousand feet, the Karroo 
plains beneath appeared as a vast sea, and the horizon was 
interrupted only by a few distant hills, rising out of the dreary 
