NAMACQUA LAND. 
449 
27lh. The morning light discovered to us where we 
were. It was a valley of several miles in circum- 
ference, surrounded by barren rocky mountains, having 
three or four openings between them for getting out of 
the valley in different directions. The grass being 
eaten up in the valley, and its roots invisible, nothing 
but hard earth appeared, which gave to the whole 
scene a most naked, gloomy appearance ; but on the 
return of the rains, when the grass springs up, the ap- 
pearance must be greatly improved. All live in huts 
covered with mats of rushes, the same as the ordinary 
Hottentot houses, only those belonging to Cornelius 
Kok and Mr. Sass are much larger, so that a person 
can walk about in them. 
In the afternoon I visited, with Mr. Albrecht, the 
grave of his deceased wife, formerly Miss Bergman, 
who, after a fatiguing journey of several months from 
Capetown, in which they lost about forty oxen, died 
on the eighth day after her arrival at Silver Fountain. 
Her disappointment on experiencing hardships she 
never expected, no doubt contributed to hasten her 
dissolution. She had been. in that land some time 
before, viz. at Warm Bath, beyond the Great River, 
and fled with the others from the plundering Africaner. 
The women, for some time before their flight, sat up 
whole nights together, apprehending an attack every 
moment. From what she mentioned to Mrs. Sass, 
she had expected no such extreme trials, which is not 
surprising. She had a fine understanding, well culti- 
vated, but of a feeble constitution, ill suited to bear 
3 M 
