VOYAGE TO NEW SOUTH WALES. 
adjacent, committing great depredations on the inhabitants. 
The whole fubfiftence of thefe fugitiv^es depends on this 
precarious method : and even this method would prove in- 
fufficient, were it not for the afllftance they peceive from 
thofe who were once their fellow flaves. Nor is it always 
that they fucceed in the depredatory trips, which neceflity 
thus urges them to take ; they are often betrayed by their 
quondam friends ; and when this happens, as the Dutch 
are not famed for their lenity in punifliing crimes, they 
are made horrid examples of. But neither the fear of pu- 
nifliment, nor hunger, thirft, cold, and wretchednefs, to 
which they are often unavailably expofed, can deter them 
from making Table Land their place of refuge from what 
they confider to be greater evils. Scarcely a day pafTes but 
a fmoke may be feen from fome of thefe inacceflible re- 
treats. 
In the mild or fummer feafbn, which commences in Sep- 
tember, and continues till March, the Table Land is fome- 
times fuddenly capped with a white cloud, by fome called 
the fpreading of the Table-cloth, When this cloud feems to 
roll down the fleep face of the mountain, it is an unerring 
indication of an approaching gale of wind from the fouth- 
eafl ; 
