1811. 
HOTTENTOT-HOLLAND. 
85 
our horses beginning to grow weary, we halted about one o'clock at 
the Eerste river, at the house of an opulent farmer named Mejburg. 
Here we were immediately invited to take our seat at the family 
table, where we found several other travellers, who, in the same 
manner, had halted there merely with the intention of taking their 
dinner. This house, and many others along the roads most fre- 
quented, is seldom free from visitors of this kind, who often have 
but slight pretensions to any previous acquaintance with their hos- 
pitable host. 
At the Eerste river the sand downs cease, and are succeeded 
by a more fertile soik Here we entered the level tract of country 
called Hottentot-Holland *, in the middle of which is a large grassy 
mountain called Schaapenberg (Sheep-hill). Our road now became 
very good and hard, and the country assumed a more rural appear- 
ance ; with houses and farms, at short distances from each other, 
and several rivulets of good water. It is along these rivulets that 
the houses are generally situated ; most of them being large white 
buildings of respectable appearance. This country produces good 
corn, and, with a proportionate increase of labouring population, 
would probably yield ten times its present produce. As we ad- 
vanced. False Bay came in view ; and as day-light faded away, an 
atmospherical effect was produced on the mountains, by which they 
seemed to be nearer to us than they really were. We continued the 
last hour of our ride by moonlight, and arrived at the place called Fot^- 
tuinfje, belonging to a gentleman named Watermeyer, where his ser- 
vant, an Englishman, in consequence of a letter we brought from 
him, provided us with a supper and good beds. This place is not 
more than a moderate walk from Vischer s-hoek (Fishermen's corner). 
* In Dutch this word would be more correctly written Hottentotsch Holland ; but it 
has been thought unnecessary in this, and in similar cases, to adhere rigidly to the proper 
orthography ; conceiving it to be more convenient to adopt an Anglicised mode of writing 
such words as do not differ much in the two languages. This name, in English, might 
be written more strictly Hottentottish Holland ; but the term Hottentots' Holland is an 
erroneous interpretation of the name. 
