43S TRAVELS IN 
I wiflied to return it them in kind, to favc 
them the trouble of going to the colony to pur- 
chafe more ; but, to do this, I muft buy it my- 
felf. Van Zeyl had none; but at another 
planter's near, he informed me I might pro- 
cure fome. Accordingly I went thither on 
horfeback, and purchafed the quantity I want*- 
ed, at the exorbitant price of a Dutch fcalin 
(fixpence) a pound. Thus having difcharged 
my debt to my travelling companions, I re- 
paired to Heere-logementy that grotto fo natu- 
rally carpeted by the foliage of a Urge tree, 
and which I have already defcribed. 
Every thing was green in this diftridt, as in 
thofe I had lately traverfed, and confequently 
very different from what it was at my former 
vifit. But the neighbouring planters, by way 
of hulbanding the pafture on their own eftates, 
had driven their herds hither ; and thefe herds 
were fo numerous, that the herbage was almoft 
all eaten up. The keepers of the cattle even 
afTured me, that, if I purfued the ordinary 
route to the Cape, I fliould every where ex- 
perience the fame inconvenience ; and they 
advifed me to travel more to the fouth-weft^ 
through Verloore-Valey (loft-lake), where, the 
I paftur 
