1812. 
AN ELECTRICAL PHENOMENON. 
519 
which I had just purchased. As soon as he had, as usual, saluted me 
with ' Dag Mynheer,' he gave me to understand that he had some 
good news to tell, and, drawing me aside, proceeded to inform me, 
that, having been privately talking with Hans Lucas on the subject, 
he found him willing to go with us. This I was indeed glad to 
hear, as I had always regarded that Hottentot as a useful and 
intelligent man, and one whom I believed to have some good-will 
towards me. 
22nd. About nine o'clock in the evening, as I was crossing the 
valley*, or mead, in returning home from a visit to the missionaries, 
I witnessed an electrical phenomenon, which never presented itself to 
me but this once : lightning appeared as if emitted from every 
quarter of the compass, the flashes following each other in quick 
succession, but unaccompanied by thunder ; all was still and silent, 
excepting a few heavy drops of rain which escaped from some clouds 
which were exceedingly dense and black. On a sudden I was almost 
blinded by a glaring flash of light, which seemed to have descended 
from the zenith, and, for a moment, every blade of grass around me, 
to the distance of fifteen feet, seemed ignited by the electric matter. 
There was no explosion, no kind of noise was heard, nor was any 
effect whatever experienced from it ; all was still and quiet, and I 
continued my walk, in alternate darkness and flashes of lightning, 
without any repetition of this singular phenomenon. The grass, 
being of a coarse sort, was, just at that spot, about a foot high ; each 
stalk and blade was strongly illuminated, or rather, as it seemed, 
ignited ; but beyond the distance of about fifteen feet, I saw none of 
this remarkable illumination. 
* This word Valley is a Dutch word of most extensive use in the Cape Colony, and 
can seldom be translated by the EngHsh word Valley, as it is sometimes used to signify 
a pond or pool ; sometimes a low swampy place ; or, at other times, a lake, a spring, a 
rivulet, a grassy hollow containing water in the rainy season, a meadow, or, in general, 
any low grassy spot which receives the drainings of the surrounding country. It should, 
therefore, be considered, not as an English, but as a colonial, term, its proper pronunciation 
being as if written Jaly, Avith the a sounded very faintly and indistinctly, and a strong 
accent on the y. 
