VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
345 
management of all the outward concerns of the establishment. 
He was now building a smithy. 
Our Hottentots having suffered the oxen to go astray, some of 
us visited the people in their kraals, and conversed with them in 
a friendly way. Wild dogs have lately done much harm in this 
neighbourhood. When we were ready to set off, a Berg-adder, re-^ 
ported to be one of the most venomous of serpents, appeared under 
the oxen, and was killed. She was about two feet long, beauti- 
fully marked with a double row of multangular spots down the 
back, and underneath, of a silver-grey colour. 
After an hour's ride across the desert, we arrived at the town of 
George, and immediately proceeded to the house of the landdrost, 
Mr. Van Kervel. He was absent, but soon returned from accom- 
panying Mr. George Rex, an English gentleman, who possesses a 
large farm in Plettenberg Bay, called Melkhout Kraal. Having 
presented Colonel Bird's letter to the landdrost, we conversed some 
time on the particular business, for which we had undertaken the 
journey. He expressed the greatest readiness to render us every 
service in his power, and a wish, that we might find some land to 
suit our purpose, within his district. He advised us to look at a spot 
in Plettenberg Bay, called Jackal's Kraal, which, though rejected 
by Dr. Van der Kemp, as not sufficiently large, might yet suit us^ 
and under cultivation, be made a fit dwelling for a Christian Hot- 
tentot congregation of about five hundred persons, having also the 
convenience of conveyance by water, between the bay and Cape- 
town. 
After some consultation, we resolved to take the landdrost's ad- 
vice. He offered every facility to enable us to perform the jour- 
ney; proposing also, that we should stay at his house till Monday 
morning, that he might send messages to the Veldcornets, both in 
Plettenberg Bay and in the Lange Kloof, to furnish us with oxen at 
the different stations, and prevent delay. We determined accord- 
ingly to spend another day w ith this worthy man, of whose excel- 
lent character we had heard many a true report ; far short, however, 
u 
