glorious game bird, of the bustard genus, peculiar, I believe, to this colony; it is highly prized by the sportsman, though its flesh is indifferent; but the bird is uncommonly shy, and consequently seldom shot, though subsequently I succeeded in killing two or three. It is about the size of a pheasant, the plumage being a mixture of black and white, the black predominating, and its flight resembles that of the Indian florikan, whilst its note, which is uttered at short intervals in its course, is a most disagreeable croak. Upon entering the quiet little town, I took up my quarters at the house of a lady to whom I had an introduction, and this lady kept a boarding-school; a strange place, it may be supposed, for a traveller to be lodged in ; but where hotels do not abound, one is glad to be accommodated anywhere, and in the present case I was hospitably entertained for nearly two days by Mrs. R and her young ladies, who displayed no extraordinary mauvaise honte at finding a male intruder among them; indeed, I probably felt the most awkward of the party. It must not be inferred, however, from what I have said, that the town was without its hotel, for there certainly was a place of resort for travellers at a Mr. Kinniberg's, where the accommodation was tolerably comfortable, though the charge was dear, for upon two other occasions I had put up at this clean little inn. Kinniberg had been a troop-serjeant-major in the horse artillery, and, I think, had fought at Waterloo; but, from his knowledge of horse-flesh, having been a prime favourite with Lord Charles Somerset during his governorship, he had become a thriving character, and had ultimately settled down amongst a Dutch population at Stellenbosch.

This was not my first visit to the place; for some months previously I made a flying excursion to it under rather novel circumstances, an enterprising friend having proposed driving me from Cape Town in a tandem, a formidable undertaking when the nature of the ground is considered, but which he, nevertheless, achieved, much to the astonishment of the natives, especially of Stellenbosch, who never could have conceived such a feat practicable; but my friend delighted in overcoming difficulties. It must be confessed, however, that the journey cost our horses a severe effort, one falling lame from a sprain, and the other not recovering the effects of the fatigue for months.

The population of Stellenbosch, with very few exceptions, is Dutch, and the houses are, of course, in keeping: they are all low, and thatched, and have gable fronts, and the apparent absence of shops, and the deep shade thrown over the main street by rows of lofty trees on either side, give the little quiet town something of a triste character to a fresh arrival, which it does not, perhaps, deserve. The shade, at all events, is most grateful, during the greatest part of the year; for, being placed in a sort of basin, Stellenbosch has the character of being one of the hottest places in the colony, and so I certainly found it. The day following my arrival was Sunday, and a tranquil one it was, and, in the absence of a more orthodox place of worship, I attended the service of the little Wesleyan Chapel, for the indefatigable missionaries of this persuasion were alive to the spiritual wants of Stellenbosch, and one of

their number visited this spot every Sunday from Cape Town to perform the service.

On the following day, Monday, I was to continue my journey; but heavy rain prevented my making a fresh start till the evening was much advanced, and even then the sky was most uninviting; however, after a severe struggle between rain and sunshine, in the end Phoebus came off victorious, and I had a delightful and most picturesque ride of about ten miles through a portion of the productive valley of Drakenstein. The country en route was rugged and undulating, and thickly interspersed with farms and vineyards, whilst in warm and sheltered nooks well-laden orange trees (Drakenstein being the favoured locality for this fruit) formed a brilliant feature in that afternoon's ride. The evening was rapidly closing in when we reached the scattered village of Drakenstein, for the sun had some time disappeared behind the Simonsberg mountain in my rear.

There is something not altogether agreeable in the uncertainty as to where one is likely to find shelter for the night in a country where there are no inns, as, for instance, the Cape colony. Night was upon us, and it was very cold, with a prospect of rain, yet we were not sure of shelter, being quite dependant upon the hospitable character of the Dutch farmers. Our friends at Stellenbosch (friends of a day, for friendship is of rapid growth under such circumstances) recommended us to a very popular man at Drakenstein, who was partial to the English, and ever happy to entertain them. The houses were so scattered that we had some difficulty in finding him out, and we did not succeed in this till it was quite dark. The heavy rains had swelled the many brooks I had to cross most inconveniently; rivulets had suddenly become torrents, and it was not without some risk of being carried away bodily by the current, horse and all, that I crossed a stream at nightfall within a quarter of a mile of my destination; but time pressed, and in we dashed. Upon my arrival, the owner of the place, Mr. Ardenhooff, received me very courteously, but to my dismay told me his house was full, having that day, as ill-luck would have it, received an influx of relatives from Cape Town! He immediately mentioned one or two places in the neighbourhood where I might be accommodated; but to wander about in the dark searching for them was any thing but agreeable to my taste. After a time, the good-natured man made me dismount, promising to do what he could for me, and I was quite disposed to be grateful for any thing that I could get, being by this time both cold and hungry. Our host, his son-in-law, an Englishman, and myself, sat smoking and warming ourselves over a logwood fire till we were summoned to the supper-table, and never did I relish a meal more. The whole affair was served up in that sort of Anglo-Dutch style that obtains at the Cape, and a most substantial and savoury supper it was; most heartily do I remember to have eaten of stewed mutton and fried potatoes, to which no doubt was added a superstratum of fruit (little less than an attempt at suicide in the case of a dyspeptic traveller, as I Asiat.Journ.N.S.VOL.IV.No.23. 3 T

unhappily was), and I was certainly rewarded with a most glorious nightmare! A long and restless night it was to me, and the Hottentot domestics were up and stirring before I got much sleep. By the way, when bed-time came, I was shewn into a comfortable room after all, some of the family, to my regret, having been displaced to accommodate me: but regrets and remonstrances were in vain. Mr. Ardenhooff, though only a Dutch farmer, was evidently in good circumstances, and having enjoyed the advantages of a short residence in England, he returned to the colony in love with every thing English, and with a certain degree of polish and information, which made him contrast most favourably with the generality of his neighbours. Let me not, however, be mistaken in speaking thus of the sturdy colonial farmers; unpolished, ignorant, and even prejudiced, they may often be, for these are the defects of circumstances, the schoolmaster not having as yet travelled very extensively in those parts; but I will maintain, from my most experience, that no people can anywhere be found who treat the traveller with more true kindness and hospitality. These I experienced in the highest degree from Mr. Ardenhooff, and, on the following morning, when, after a good breakfast, I took my leave, he refused any remuneration, though I had saddled him with myself, a servant, two horses, and a dog.

On the following morning, the sun shone forth most gloriously, and breakfast was no sooner despatched than I started in the direction of Franch-hoek, a picturesque village on the western side of the pass of the same name, and which, as the name signifies, was originally a settlement of French emigrants, who retired to this quiet spot from the persecutions consequent upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On my way thither, I had to ford the Berg river, a rapid stream, which often subjects the traveller, in the rainy season, to much inconvenience and sometimes danger, being often much swollen by the mountain torrents in its vicinity. I found the current very strong, but had no difficulty in fording it, which I certainly should not have succeeded in effecting on the night previous, when there would have been the disagreeable alternative of returning to Drackenstein till the body of water had partially subsided. Here, as also in India, I have long patiently waited for the river to run past so as to be able to ford it with safety.

The country I traversed was broken and undulating, almost void of trees and deficient of pasture, but rich in flowers and shrubs, especially that showy shrub, the Protea, which abounds in all parts of the Cape district. After passing through Franch-hoek, I ascended the pass of that name which crosses the barren and rugged chain of mountains that, running nearly north and south, separates the Stellenbosch from the Worcester district; they were tipped with snow, and when I reached the toll-house, on the other side of the pass, I was suffering much from cold; for July, the period I had selected for my excursion, was mid-winter at the Cape, be it remembered. The road over the pass was an admirable one, and the toll-house was erected, of course, for its benefit. It was a solitary but not an unpicturesque object at the foot

of the rugged, snow-capped mountains, and it served as a comfortable place of refreshment for travellers. The landlord (for, after all, it was much more of an inn than a turnpike-gate) was a Dane by birth, and a ́ sailor by profession, having served with Nelson, and I think he told me as his coxswain at Trafalgar. Nelson, by the way, must have had a most immoderate number of coxswains, for it is an honour often claimed. This man was extremely civil, good-natured, and intelligent, and I certainly fared very well at his house, where I passed the night, and, as I well remember, had another glorious nightmare; for who would not eat a hearty dinner after a cold ride of twenty miles over hill and dale? Civility is usually said to be a very cheap commodity, but when I paid my bill on the following morning, I found that Mr. Holme charged me very high for his. Doubtless travellers were few and far between, and he made them pay accordingly. At this spot I was led to expect some good shooting, but though my pointer Sall and myself worked very hard, we found nothing. In the morning I got amongst some partridges, en route to the Berg river, but I had no time to follow them up.

Leaving the toll-house and the mountain range that now separated me from my domestic hearth at Wynberg, in the rear, I traversed a bare, bold, undulating country, clothed with grass or short shrubs for a distance of ten miles, when I pulled up at a solitary farm-house, the abode of Mr. Peter Villiers, to whom I had an introduction, for his land was said to afford good shooting, and wandering sportsmen like myself occasionally paid him a visit, with the understanding that a moderate charge was to be made for board and lodging. On the evening of my arrival, I think, I killed two brace of partridges, and, on the following day, I bagged two more brace of birds, a brace of pheasants, and a couple of snipes. The next day I was to have been conducted by my host's son, also a keen sportsman, to a snug corner amongst the mountains, for we were shut in by them on three sides, where, to use his own phrase, I might shoot partridges till I was tired. I believe I dreamed of nothing else all that night, but a soaking morning brought disappointment with it; there was no shooting in the snug mountain corner on that day, and on the following I was bound to pursue my journey to Worcester, my destination, to avoid spending Sunday at a farmhouse. I fared well at Villiers', pronounced at the Cape Vilgées; there was plenty of bread and butter, ham and eggs, mutton and game, which was alternately washed down with tea or Cape wine, according to the hour.

Peter de Villier's Place (thus in Dutch) was a fair specimen of a Dutch farm in a civilized part of the colony. It produced corn in all its varieties, but little wine. I saw a brandy-still in active operation. There were orange trees in full bearing; large trees, with dark, dense foliage, and studded thickly with golden fruit. Then there were peach orchards, but the fruit was not then in season. They are usually small but well-flavoured, and in such abundance that the pigs often feed upon them. They are also much used in a dried state throughout the

colony, especially by the Dutch, who stew them with meat. Salt mutton, by the way, is commonly used at the farm-houses, and very good I thought it, in the absence of fresh; the climate renders salting necessary. The rain having cheated me out of my grand day's shooting, I was early in my saddle, and on the road to Worcester, the capital village, not town, of the district of the same name. The distance was somewhere about thirty miles, and my host accompanied me, as he had business at the county town. After a six hours' ride, under a cloudless sky, and over a fine undulating but still treeless tract, we found ourselves, weary and hungry, on the sedgy banks of the Breede (broad) river, within sight of Worcester, which lay about a couple of miles from us on the opposite bank. Here we were bothered; for no ferry-boat was forthcoming, and upon making the usual signal to the men attached to the ferry, who lived on the opposite bank, we were told that the boat was under water, or under repair, I forget which, and would not be available till the following morning. The signal made by travellers at this point is of a primitive character. They light a fire of brushwood, and the column of smoke gives notice of their arrival and wants. We regretted the delay, as the next day was Sunday; moreover, we had been six hours in the saddle, and had to return to the farm of Mr. De Wetts to sleep, a distance of five miles from the river, making in all thirty-five miles, under a hot sun. We supped and slept at De Wetts', and paid dear for the accommodation. The cooking was greasy and bad-the meat redolent of garlic and swimming in tail-fat, the lard produced from the monstrous tails of the Cape sheep. The De Wetts did not quite come up to my host, De Villiers, in civilization and polish; but they were a good-natured, lively family, with a handsome face or two amongst the women. A very pretty modest-looking little damsel said grace for us at the supper-table, according to the Dutch custom, she being the youngest of the party; and a very interesting chaplain she was.

De Wetts' Place, for the locality has no other designation, is celebrated for a hot,,very hot spring; indeed the water seemed to be almost at boiling point, for I attempted to dip my finger in the pool formed at its source, and as quickly withdrew it; of course it throws up a complete cloud of vapour. Fowls, eggs, &c., I have heard, are sometimes cooked in the water by curious travellers, when they are found almost immediately to decompose; a peculiarity I am not chemist enough to account for. The only other remarkable feature in this vicinity was an extensive shallow lake, much overgrown with rushes, dotted with tiny islands, and covered with water-fowl of every kind. There never was a more tempting spot to a sportsman's eye. Its banks, moreover, promised excellent snipe-shooting, and what can be more fascinating? But the intervention of Sunday secured game of all kinds from persecution, at my hands at least; and, indeed, without the aid of a punt, a sportsman would scarcely do much damage amongst the water-fowl.

Early on the morrow, we again skirted the lake, and reached the Breede river at the time appointed, where the boat was in attendance.