1811. APPROACH TO THE ROGGEVELD MOUNTAINS. 249 
colony, and consequently had many connections there still, was a 
temptation to the ill-disposed among the slaves and Hottentots, to 
be careless of their duty to their masters and desert them, in reliance 
on finding an asylum beyond the reach of the laws. It was, 
according to his opinion, nothing but a receptacle for the idle and 
worthless. 
After stopping three quarters of an hour, the waggons proceeded 
with two fresh teams, driven by one of Vischer's sons and a boor 
named Piet Mulder, the owner of one of them. 1 had every reason 
for considering them intelligent and obliging men, and I made use 
of the opportunity afforded by their conversation, of improving my 
knowledge of colonial affairs, connected with farming and grazing. 
Thus passed the time, till evening came on, and the moon, 
which was nearly at the full, rose to give a sublimer character to the 
landscape. The country was open, but varied with hills of flowing 
outline. As we advanced, the lofty mountains of the Roggeveld 
seemed, as it were, growing up rapidly before us, as if menacing to 
stop the traveller's further progress : they are one of Nature's 
gigantic walls, with which she has enclosed the Great Karro. The 
clearness of the sky, the brightness of moonlight, and the novelty of 
the surrounding scenery, inspired every pleasing sensation. 
The agreeable effect of these, was not interrupted by halting a 
few minutes at Mulder's hut ; where his wife, expecting him, had 
got the coffee ready, and was very solicitous that he should stop to 
take a regular meal, as he had left home early in the morning. To 
this, I endeavoured to persuade him, but he preferred seeing the 
waggons first to Jan Van der Westhuisen's, the end of their day's 
journey ; and whither a Hottentot had been sent off several hours 
before, to give notice of our coming. 
On arriving there we found the house shut, and all the family 
gone to bed ; so that no admittance could be obtained. In this 
case, as Speelman and Maagers were there in waiting with the oxen 
and sheep, I resolved to advance as far as the foot of the mountain 
that night, in order that we might be ready to make the ascent early 
on the next day. Although the mountain, from its great elevation, 
K K 
