VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
325 
newt or asker; its bite is said to be very venomous, and as it lodges 
in old thatch, the Hottentots are very cautious in taking down an 
old roof. Under some of the stones we found caterpillars, black 
and hairy. 
By the operation of grubbing up, and removing these stones, 
Avhich may have lain there since the deluge, many flowers, much 
beautiful shrubbery, and a great quantity of aloes, were destroyed. 
I defended them as long as I could, but was obliged to submit to 
the necessity of using the stones. The ground was strewed with 
flowers and bulbs, shattered aloe-leaves and beautiful plants, but 
I was assured, for my comfort, that, after a short rest, the earth 
would bring forth abundantly, and the aloes and fahlblar again 
adorn the spot. By far the greater part of the masses of stone, 
being beyond the power of man to move, they still present a singu- 
lar and beautiful group of rocks, and the removal of the smaller 
fragments, laying the larger masses more open, gave them more 
picturesque dignity. 
9th. Brother Bonatz, after the meeting for instruction, having 
proposed to the men, that they should begin to dig the foundation 
of the church, they immediately fell to work, with great alacrity. 
The ground opened easily, but some remnants of old walls ^vere 
discovered, the farm-house belonging to the Dutch Company hav- 
ing occupied this spot, previous to the building of the present dwell- 
ing-house. At the west corner, water appeared, not proceeding from 
a spring, but oozing out of a sandy stratum. Beneath the sand 
was a layer of a kind of pipe-clay, and to this we were obliged to 
penetrate, to get a firm foundation. In the afternoon, I visited 
several families in the village. 
10th, After breakfast, I Avent to the people at work among the 
rocks. Between two large flat stones, one lying on the othej-, 
leaving a small space bet^v een them, we discovered the nest of the 
serpent, called here, cobra di capella. A Hottentot lad, who had 
fortified himself against the poison of a serpent's bite, was called, 
and took out three young ones. One of them I put into a bottle 
