48 
JOURNEY TO BETHELSDORP. [1813. 
must all have perished. Indeed, very little of the 
information I received there has proved correct. 
There is not that difference between the appearance 
of one country and another, as people who remain all 
their days at home are ready to imagine. Cultivation 
and population, and the absence of these, are the two 
opposites. As to the difference of trees, flowers, &c. 
it is but litde ; for, in a week, foreign trees and flowers 
become as familiar to the eye, as the furze and broom 
bushes are to Englishmen. This, with other considera- 
tions, satisfies me that nothing but the unsearchable 
Jehovah, as a man s portion, can fully gratify his im- 
mortal mind. A man who has travelled much will meet 
with little afterwards to excite his admiration ; and if his 
happiness be confined to the production of wonder by 
visible objects, I should not wonder if he became 
weary of this, and be desirous to visit other worlds, or 
other systems; as Alexander, whose happiness was 
chiefly derived from his conquests, after he had con- 
quered the w orld, regretted that there were no more 
worlds to conquer. 
Thermometer, at seven, A.M. 64 : noon, 66, like 
a spring day in England. I do not know how many 
of the boors in South Africa would be able to con- 
sume their time, were it not for the aid of tobacco. 
They seem to have no mental resources ; no taste for 
reading; (many, indeed^ have no books to read :) little 
matter occurs for subjects of conversation t they seem^ 
