1811. 
AFRICAANDER THE FREEBOOTER. 
271 
able, by its collecting into a single history the deeds of two men 
equally worthless, the father and son. The former, being at this time 
too old to commit more mischief, was living peaceably ; but one of 
his sons had proved himself a successor not inferior in villany. The 
others condemned their brother's conduct, and had as yet shown no 
symptoms of a similar disposition. This lawless leader, who had 
associated with him a strong party of marauders of various tribes, 
and was the terror of all the country around, had advanced up- 
wards along the river, as far as the great waterfall, where, fall- 
ing in with a party of the Klaarwater Hottentots, he had harassed 
and attacked them : nor was it known at the time this intellio;ence 
came away, whether they had been able to stand against him or not. 
In addition to this unpleasant news, it was reported that seventy 
oxen had been driven off from Klaarwater by some of the hostile 
Bushmen. 
A few days before we arrived at the Karree river, four horsemen 
were despatched to Klaarwater, or, as many of the Hottentots called 
it, Klaarfontein, to fetch fresh oxen ; those belonging to most of the 
waggons appearing in a very lean and weak state. 
Although every thing exhibited an extremely parched and 
sterile appearance, there was still plenty of water in different hollows 
of the river ; and in these, every evening, a multitude of frogs com- 
menced their croaking concert, producing an extraordinary loud noise. 
The latitude of this place I computed to be 32° 3' 38" * ; and 
confirmed my former observation of the magnetic variation being 
27rW. 
2Ath. Yesterday the violence of the wind and inclemency of 
the weather, with even some snow, prevented our travelling. Early 
this morning the ground was again covered with snow ; and which, 
although the sun shone the whole morning, was not entirely melted 
away till noon. The thermometer was, at that hour, only 31°, and 
rose no higher during the day than 45° (7°*2 C). 
* 18th August, 1811, at the Karree river, observed meridional altitude of the sun's 
centre, 44^ 35' 42". 
