VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 259 
mantic situation. It was six o'clock before we set off. As we 
proceeded, we were surrounded by rocky eminences of consider- 
able height, and the views became still more interesting, especially 
when we reached the highest part of the kloof, where the moun- 
tains exhibited very singular scenery. 
Mr. Melville and I were so long engaged in drawing, that we could 
not overtake the waggons, and were obliged to walk the whole way 
to the next farm, a distance of little less than ten English miles, 
Mr. Rutter, the proprietor of the Groote Paerdekraal, is a Ger- 
man by birth. His house lies about a field's length from the road, 
and both he and his wife received us most civilly. Indeed our 
visit seemed to put him into high spirits. Though seventy-five 
years old, he was remarkably strong and lively, and full of merry 
jokes. I felt at first much fatigued, but soon recovered. Our 
host came from the neighbourhood of Gotha in Saxony, and had 
been present at the building of the settlement of the Brethren in 
that neighbourhood, called Neudietendorf, of which he gave us an 
entertaining account, according to the notions he had formed of its 
institutions, though not quite like those of Madam de Stael. He 
related also some part of his own history, and the manner in which 
he had been decoyed at Amsterdam by a Dutch crimp, and brought 
at last as a soldier to the Cape. Our having noticed a tame ba- 
boon on his premises, led him to tell us the following story: Doing 
duty at the castle at Capetown, he kept one of these comical 
animals for his amusement. One evening, some boys and girls 
entered the place where it was confined, and played with it, un- 
known to him, till it broke its chain. In the night, climbing up 
into the belfrey, it began to play with and ring the bell. Imme- 
diately the whole place was in an uproar: some great danger was 
apprehended. Many thought, that the castle was on fire, others, 
that an enemy had entered the bay, and the soldiers began to turn 
out, when it was discovered, that his baboon had caused the dis- 
turbance. On the following morning, a court-martial was held, 
when Cape justice dictated, that whereas Master Rutter s baboon 
