SOUTHERN AFRICA. 237 
In order therefore to bring about a converfation with fome 
of the chiefs of this people ; to try if, by prefents and a lenient 
conduct, they could be prevailed upon to quit their prefenc 
wild and marauding way of life ; at the fame time to fee 
the ftate of the colony, and the fituation of the inhabitants ; 
to infpe£t the boundaries, and to examine the nature of the 
country, a journey to the northward appeared indifpenfably 
neceffary. It promifed alfo much curiofity : and as no Euro- 
pean traveller, except the two gentlemen mentioned in the 
introdudlory Chapter, had ever afcended the mountains of 
Snow, a great deal of novelty was to be expedled from it. 
On the 20th of Odober we departed from the Drofdy, 
croffed the Sujiday and its accompanying Karroo, and at the 
diftance of ten miles north-wefterly reached the foot of the 
mountains, within which a narrow defile of five miles in 
length, and a fteep afcent of three miles at the farther ex- 
tremity, led upon the extenfive plains, and among the fcat- 
tered mountains that compofe the Sneuwberg. From the 
plains of Camdeboo, the fronts of thefe mountains appear to 
be the moft regular formed, though the moft confufedly 
placed, of any vi^ithin the limits of the colony. The ftone 
ftratum that terminates their fummits is fo perfedly horizon- 
tal, and fo regularly fquared at the angles, that their vaft, 
height and magnitude alone contradidt the idea of fuppofing 
them to be lines of malonry. 
It was on one of the plains that lie extended within thefe 
clufters of mountains, where we encamped in the dulk of the 
evening. 
