On opposite sides of this table were placed ordinary wooden chairs. These were for the master and mistress. Several chairs and benches and a good-sized dining table were ranged about the room. Upon a shelf lay a large Bible and a few other books.
The labor of the farm was performed by a man slave and a few Hottentots. The work in the kitchen and about the house was superintended by the mistress, with a black slave and a Hottentot girl to assist her.
There were three daughters in the family. These were under the instruction of a tutor, a native of Holland, who had lived for nearly thirty years in Cape Colony. He had been an inmate of this family for several months. He could speak quite fluently in English and French, and seemed well able to instruct his pupils for the positions they would occupy in life.
It is no uncommon thing to find teachers of this description scattered over the country. They generally traverse the colony and remain stationed at each house for a period of from a half to a whole year. During this time such teachers agree to instruct their pupils in reading, writing, and arithmetic,—in fact, to finish their education.
The head of the family where Mr. Burchell visited employed his time in rearing cattle. For the disposing of his stock he depended upon the butcher's agent. Such a person is sent by his employer in Cape Town to travel through the grazing districts to select and purchase such cattle as he may deem best. For these cattle he does not pay money, but gives notes or drafts signed by his employer, and bearing an official stamp to indicate their genuineness. Such drafts are considered as good as money, and can be converted into cash by the grazier, or he can tender them in payment to his neighbors.
The inland trade connected with Cape Town was in earlier times a matter of great risk and inconvenience. This was owing to its remote situation at the extremity of the country and to the miserable condition of the roads leading to it. The barren condition of the soil and the lack of good pasturage in the section about the town was a matter of serious inconvenience to the Dutch farmers.
It was the custom for those residing at a great distance to undertake the journey but once in the course of a year. The vehicles on such an occasion resembled very much a traveling menagerie. In addition to the principal members of the family, the poultry, goats, sheep, dogs, monkeys, and other animals reminded the stranger, looking at the motley array, of Noah and the animals that entered the ark. As a matter of protection, and for the purpose of procuring game for food during the journey, a musket or two were carried by the farmer and his aids.
The wagon conveying this mixed load was drawn by a train of at least eight, often ten, or even sixteen, oxen. These, with the enormously long whip of the driver, and the scantily clothed figure of the little Hottentot who led the foremost pair, made a most curious and amusing sight for the stranger visiting the country. The driver's seat was considered a post of honor; the office of leading the oxen was considered a most degrading one, fit only for a Hottentot or a slave.
Between Cape Town and the cultivated farming sections lie extensive sandy plains. These are commonly called the Cape Downs. They are marked by numberless road and wagon ruts in every direction. The soil of these downs, which is composed of loose white sand resting on a bed of clay, is capable of supporting only a few stunted shrubs and coarse rushes. Here and there are scattered a few solitary huts.
Owing to the general barren nature of the country, travelers find no inducement to remain more than a day at Cape Town. After a journey that has perhaps lasted twenty days, during which the barren downs have been crossed, the farmers frequently unyoke their oxen at Salt River, so as to be in readiness to enter the town the next morning at break of day. In this way they frequently dispose of their produce, procure such articles as they may require, and set out immediately upon the homeward journey in the course of a single day.