CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. 
37 
at unseasonable hours : this was now the case ; and Mynheer Wagh 
at first made numberless excuses to avoid receiving us. As, however, 
we insisted on staying, declaring it was too late to seek any other 
lodging, he found remonstrance was vain, and immediately relaxed 
into good humour, and provided for us an excellent supper. 
October 21 . — On our departure our landlord would receive no 
payment; we were therefore obliged to give the money to the 
slaves, from whom it would find its way to the master. I should 
observe, that at his old house there is the finest orangerie in the set- 
tlement : the trees were forty feet high, and loaded with the most 
delicious fruit, at the same time that the fragrance of the bloom 
scented the air to a considerable distance. The day was most 
beautiful, and the scenery different from any that we had yet 
seen. Several rivulets descended from the mountains, and gave 
a fertility to this valley, that formed a strong contrast with the arid 
sand around, covered with a stunted brush-wood, which is only in- 
teresting to the eye of a botanist. It was a perfect oasis in the 
deserts of Southern Africa. The beauty of the spot has brought 
hither a number of inhabitants, whose white houses, surrounded 
with lofty oaks, greatly enrich the view. We were soon conducted to 
a river, which, as usual, was called the Berg River, over which we 
passed in a boat, guided by a rope, in the German manner. The 
delay occasioned by our double equipage gave some of our party an 
opportunity to bathe, and enabled a boor, mounted on an excellent 
horse, to overtake us : he had a little Hottentot mounted on another, 
and led a third. In this way the boors will travel a prodigious dis- 
tance, occasionally changing the horse, and resting at nigiit at 
different houses. He had been from home ever since the ^Sd, and 
