VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 57 
some tea and goat's milk, Brother Lemmerz joining us, the family 
resolved to accompany us to the waggons to pay their respects to 
Brother Marsveld, whom they had seen at Gnadenthal. We found 
our venerable companion ready to receive them, and hope that 
they derived benefit from their meeting. After some usual inqui- 
ries, he spoke most afi^ctionately with the woman, her slaves and 
children, of the necessity of conversion^ and that blessedness 
which is to be found in communion with the Lord Jesus. His ad- 
dress was heard with much attention, and drew tears ftom their 
eyes. It proved to us all a most edifying morning-service. 
The Hottentots and their cattle not being yet ready to proceed. 
Brother Lemmerz accompanied me on a second walk down the river, 
till the steepness of its banks arrested our progress. The country has 
a most comfortless appearance. To the south, lies a chain of hills, 
among which the Tower of Babel is the highest. They are all bar- 
ren, and chiefly rock. At length our phlegmatic driv7ea"S thought 
proper to proceed, but after three hours, on account of the heat, 
they halted again near a little valley, at the bottom of which flows 
a rivulet in the rainy season; but we now found only a few stagnant 
pools. Here I continued my researches, and saw the first land- 
tortoise, of the species called by the Dutch, Patlooper, from their 
generally keeping on the path- way or carriage-road. It was about 
four inches square, of a greenish colour, the compartments of its 
shell fringed with brown and yellow. Small broken fragments of 
white opaque quartz are here everywhere mixed with the iron and 
sand-stone, gravel, and pebbles. In the evening, we halted again, 
and proceeding slowly, arrived towards morning at the farm of a Mr. 
Klemm, a German, who gave us a very friendly reception. Here 
the road to Gnadenthal, turns to the left. 
15th. As soon as the day dawned, we saw ourselves surrounded 
by the same dreary country as before. Very few shrubs and low 
bushes enclose the Serjeant's Revier in the valley, but the moun- 
tains begin to show themselves to greater advantage. To the right 
lies the Zwaiteberg or Black-Mountain, under the south side of 
