18L1. 
HOTTENTOT PATIENCE. 
251 
probable that many interesting objects would have rewarded my 
search. Euphorbia Mauritanica was here very abundant ; and several 
other thorny species, resembling in growth the Torch-thistles [Cacti) 
of South America, of which they are in Africa the representatives ; 
assuming, like them, the globular as well as the prismatic form, and 
occupying the same arid or rocky situations. 
As neither oxen nor boors made their appearance this day, 
though the weather was quite favorable, we were compelled to 
remain stationary. 
5th. It rained during the whole night, and continued all the 
next day in heavy showers, with now and then only, a short interval of 
sunshine. At eight in the morning, four boors came with the voor- 
spans ; but the rain had rendered the road so slippery, that, it being 
useless to attempt the ascent, they went with their oxen to wait at 
Van der Westhuisen's, till the weather cleared up, and the road be- 
came dryer and less dangerous. 
The field-cornet's requisition produced but a trifling supply of 
flour ; and the whole quantity obtained from three farms was not 
more than four pecks. 
The day passed miserably cold and wet ; the thermometer being 
as low as 43° (6*11 Centig.) * Our station being on a declivity, occa- 
sioned a new species of inconvenience : the water washed away our 
fire, and drove the Hottentots to another spot. Here they contrived 
to keep one alight, by digging a channel to turn the water off. Under 
a shelter of mats, they sat patiently the whole day ; a patience as 
much to be attributed to brandy and tobacco, as to their natural 
disposition to endure hardships without complaining. At night 
they strewed under the waggons a layer of bushes, that the water 
* As the whole of the observations on the 'weather, the state of the thermometer, and 
the distance travelled each day, are given in the Itinerary at the end of the volume, it has 
not been thought necessary to repeat them in the Journal, unless they were remarkable, 
or otherwise required by the narrative. Where no particular thermometer is mentioned, 
that of Fahrenheit is always to be understood ; and, for its corresponding degree on 
Reaumur s scale, the Itinerary is to be referred to. 
K K 2 
