VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 189 
beautiful prospect towards the west. A very high peaked moun- 
tain, of a conical form, which we had yesterday noticed, though 
obscured by the rain, appeared now to great advantage, overtop- 
ping all the other hills. It looked like a huge vulcano. Under 
it lay three ridges of subordinate hills, of various shapes, one 
rising above the other. The wood, with our tent, waggons, and 
fires, formed the fore-ground, and the whole was worthy of the 
the pencil of a Nicholson. Both Mr. Melville and I endeavoured 
to obtain an exact sketch of this charming landscape. 
As to our departure, we remained some time in unpleasant un- 
certainty. One spann had been ordered at Essenbosch, and the 
other from a Mr. Miller at Soekow, who was to fetch us from Ja- 
gersbosch. We feared, therefore, that the latter might have passed 
by, during the night. 
Meanwhile Sister Schmitt reported, that on going to procure 
some milk from the farmer's wife, living on the hill eastward of 
our camp, she had found her to be a woman of uncommon size, 
occupying a huge arm chair, above a yard wide, out of which she 
was scarcely able to lift herself. She had expressed a wish to see 
the whole of our party, and certainly, though she herself would 
excite as much curiosity in England, as the famous Lambert, she 
had a right to consider us, as Englishmen, equally worthy of atten- 
tion in i\frica. Otherwise, being perfectly content with things of 
ordinary size and appearance, 1 should not have gone a step out 
of my way to see a monster. But being so kindly invited, we went 
in a body to pay the lady a morning-visit, at her own house, if 
the hovel she inhabited, may be dignified by that name. It con- 
sisted of an oblong square, enclosed in a wall of unburnt bricks, one 
half of which was covered with a roof of rushes. The entrance was 
through the uncovered part. In this vestibule three or four naked 
slave-children were cravvhng about; a woman, partially clothed in 
rags, w ith a child strapped to her breast, was cooking some victuals 
at a fire, and dirt, guts, old shoes, rags of sheep-skins, and other 
filth, occupied every part of the premises, out and inside. On 
