1811. DESCRIPTION OF A CAPE WAGGON. I49 
Governor, to solicit it ; when he very pohtely and readily promised 
to do all that depended on him for procuring the man's release. 
SOth. At the end of the month my waggon was finished and 
sent home. The price I paid for it, exclusive of the tilt, and all the 
other separate articles required in travelling, was 585 rix dollars, at 
that time equal to eighty-eight pounds sterling ; in addition to which, 
the fitting up of the inside with chests and various conveniences, 
amounted to a considerable sum. The length of it was fifteen 
feet, and breadth at bottom two feet nine inches. The frame 
work of the tilt was made of bamboo cane, covered over with 
Hottentot mats, above which there was a painted canvas; and over 
all a covering of sail-cloth, having a flap to close up the ends, 
rendered the whole impervious to rain. * The height, from the 
bottom of the waggon to the top of the tilt, was five feet and a half. 
The sides [leer) were two feet high in front, gradually rising up to 
two feet and three quarters at the back, and painted on the out- 
side. The rail that forms the upper and lower edge of the sides, is dis- 
tinguished by the colonists, by the names of oj^jycv-leeT'-booinf and onder- 
leer-boom. The planks of the bottom [buik plank) were two inches 
thick. The axletrees were perfectly horizontal and tapering. A bar 
of iron an inch and a half wide, called the scheen, is let into the 
underpart of them, to receive the friction of the wheel. Besides a 
set of linchpins of the common form (steek-lens'), there is another to be 
used occasionally, named platte-lens, having a broad head, like an 
umbrella, to shelter the end of the nave and axletree from the mud 
and sand which might drop from off the upper fellies. The diameter 
of the hind wheels is five feet, of the fore wheels three feet and a 
The engraving at the beginning of this chapter, represents the geometrical elevation 
of the waggon, with the canvas partly rolled back to show the formation of the tilt, 
drawn from an actual measurement of every part, and proportioned to the scale of 
English feet marked beneath it. At the end of the chapter may be seen a transverse section 
of it, according to the same scale ; together with all the different articles necessary for its 
equipment. By the help of these two engravings, and the following description 
the excellent construction, and peculiar advantages of a Cape Waggon, will be easily 
understood. 
