1811. 
FAMILIAR NAMES. 
191 
deeper, we could not, without danger, have ventured through. After 
this, we travelled nineteen miles, and, at a quarter past two at 
night, unyoked at the house of Cootje Du Toit, a farmer and a 
Heemraad of the district of Tulbao;h. No one beino; awake to re- 
ceive us, we slept by the waggons till day-hglit ; glad to rest from 
the fatigue of a very long day's journey of forty-seven miles. 
The colonists are so much accustomed to call each other 
by the familiar and shortened forms of their Christian names, that 
I have repeatedly noticed instances of their not immediately compre- 
hending what person was intended when the names were mentioned 
at full length, I have, therefore, in this journal, generally preferred 
as a rule to give such as were found in common use. The owner 
of this place, as an example of the remark, although a respectable 
and affluent person, was seldom spoken of among his neighbours 
by the name of Jacobus (or James) ; being better known as Cootje 
(or Jemmy). 
5th. The Heemraad not being at home, his brother, who lived 
at a neighbouring farm, and acted as field-cornet of this division, came 
to give orders respecting the relays. He told me he had received 
instructions from the Drostdy to supply us with provisions ; but that 
not knowing what we stood in need of, he had not provided any 
thing. Pointing to the clouds that were collecting in the mountains, 
he advised me to commence the day's journey as soon as possible, 
lest the rain should fall, and, making the passage through the Kloof 
impracticable, detain me here for several days. 
At an early hour, therefore, we drove off, and immediately 
began to enter the Hex-river Kloof. In addition to my own people, 
our number was increased by two young men, nephews of Cootje 
Du Toit, and two Hottentot drivers, with their leaders. These 
young men came for the purpose of driving the waggons through, 
not wishing to trust their oxen to Hottentots in this part of the 
road, the most difficult and dangerous of the skoft (day's journey). 
At the entrance to the pass, I met with a curious shrub *, eight 
• Carissa Ai-duina, — Arduina bispinosa. Lin. 
