CHAP. VIII. 
DRIVING TEN IN HAND. 
195 
father, who had been to the Cape in the hope of receiving 
benefit to his sight. 
The abundance of fruit upon our breakfast-table the fol¬ 
lowing morning was to me an agreeable novelty. The peaches, 
figs, mulberries, and grapes were exceedingly fine, though the 
latter were scarcely ripe. Mr. Barker and I passed the greater 
part of the day under a large apricot-tree in the orchard at 
the back of his house, conversing nearly the whole time on 
missionary affairs connected with the station. 
I was stirring by daybreak the next morning, and by five 
was again seated on the omnibus, returning to Cape Town as 
fast as ten horses could convey us. The box was occupied by 
two drivers, both men of colour. One of them held the reins 
ten in hand, and the other plied the whip, touching up the 
leaders, when necessary, with perfect ease and precision. 
In order to accomplish the long journey before me as 
quickly as possible, horses had been selected instead of oxen, 
and late in the afternoon of the 23rd of January, Mr. Thomp¬ 
son and I left Cape Town in a covered cart drawn by four 
horses. We had scarcely proceeded more than eight miles 
when our leaders, taking fright at a waggon, started off the 
road, and our cart was in an instant overturned into a sort of 
pit from which sand had been dug for repairing the road. I 
was a good deal bruised by the fall, and we went on more 
slowly until about midnight, when we reached Somerset or 
Hottentot’s Holland. Here we stopped at an hotel kept by 
an Englishman, of whom we obtained a bed but no refresh¬ 
ment. Early the next morning we resumed our journey, and 
soon reached the commencement of the Sir Lowry Pass. As 
we advanced towards the summit, I was delighted with the 
new kinds of flowers which appeared by the sides of the road, 
especially the esculent and amaranthine species. The rocky 
piles of the mountain’s summit towered high above us, while 
white clouds clearly defined concealed all the valley below, 
