“Having passed the night with great comfort here, we pursued our journey towards the Gauritz River, over a beautifully variegated country. The mimosa of the most lively and refreshing green was strikingly contrasted with the generally parched and arid appearance of the soil, but this was also frequently relieved by the brilliancy of patches of flowering shrubs of the most lively hues, approaching even to gaudiness, if such a term can be applied to the objects of creation; while the aloes, scattered over the country in boundless profusion, gave finishing touches to the landscape, and produced the happiest effect. The whole of the tract we passed over this day appeared to be fit for cultivation, capable of producing in abundance all the necessaries of life, and wherever industry had been employed, it was apparently crowned with success.
“This day, the 9th day of December, was the hottest we had experienced, the thermometer was at 99 in the interior of the wagon. The wind from the north felt as though it came from a furnace; not a cloud was to be seen, except a few of a white and fleecy description, which were gathering over the summit of the Swartberg; and from their appearance, Colonel Graham, who had been long an observer of the changes of the weather in this country, at once predicted a thunder storm; and his conjectures were accurate, for in less than three hours a most violent storm of wind and rain, with tremendous thunder and vivid lightning, came on, and lasted about two hours. We had, providentially, reached the Gauritz River, and crossed it before the storm came on, and were comfortably sheltered at the house of Esaias Miers, on the left bank. He was a kind and hospitable man; and, with his excellent wife, gave every accommodation in their power to offer. With their assistance, and that of our own cook, we soon procured an excellent dinner. In about two hours the weather cleared up, and gave us a delightful evening for pursuing our journey.
“The banks of the Gauritz are extremely precipitate, and scarcely less than two hundred feet in height; the road, as may be supposed, is very steep, but with the precaution of locking both the hind wheels of the wagon, is not dangerous. The difficulty of ascending is very great. The country people in general travel with two or three wagons in company, for the purpose of assisting each other in getting over these places, which to one team of oxen would be insurmountable. This forms one of the most animating and picturesque scenes imaginable. I have already adverted to it, but to see the wagons ascending from the bed of Gauritz, up a broken road which in other countries would be deemed impracticable, with a long line of, in some instances, thirty-six oxen, through the wildest scenery imaginable, the shouting of the drivers, the echoes occasioned by the cracking of their huge whips, and the passengers in every direction climbing amongst the rocks in pursuit of the nearest way to the summit of the ridge, altogether produces an effect which is indescribable, and of a peculiarly animating character.
“We had in this place an additional proof of what industry and perseverance can perform in overcoming existing difficulties, but it is certainly ‘taking the bull by the horns.’ A small portion of labour applied by legislative investments would soon render these roads practicable for the wagon and its own team, without any of the detention and risk of loss of oxen, and damage to the vehicle which is now constantly experienced; and this being the great road to immense forests in Uitenhage, and to the district of George, it seems the more extraordinary that some exertion had not long before been made by the Colonial Government. In many cases we observed that the road might have been rendered much easier, and consequently safer, and more expeditious, by a little more detour being made in it; but when even it was at all possible, the straight line was most inflexibly adhered to. It was frequently seen that the ruts of wheels were passing over a stone of two or three feet in height, where a deviation of as many yards would have avoided it. But it was a road which the grandfather had gone, and was therefore most dutifully followed by his descendants.
“The Gauritz is frequently in the rainy season a formidable torrent, and impassable for days together, at which time a most singular and picturesque scene presents itself, from the groups of wagons and travellers collected on each bank, forming as it were extensive encampments, their numerous spans of horses and oxen grazing on the steep declivities of the bank, where any food can be found for them, or outspanned on the heights for the purpose of grazing. To these are added on the left bank very large droves of cattle and flocks of sheep, waiting for the water to subside, that they may continue their way to the Cape Town market. The Boors and their Hottentots enjoy these bivouacs much, as they pass the time of their detention in shooting, and the neighbourhood is well supplied with game; nor are the females of the party without their share in the general excitement, as they have the enjoyment of society from which they are precluded in their solitary farms; and as their wagons form very commodious tents, they experience but little more discomfort than in their cots at home, where in many cases the accommodations are hardly superior. To add to the animation of the scene, their little fires blazing in all directions, and the column of blue smoke ascending along the hills, and taking from them the monotony of feature by giving an appearance of distance to those parts dimly seen, increases the general effect of the picture.
“The Gauritz is in no part navigable, from the broken and rocky nature of its bed, and no boats are consequently to be found upon it. Beneath the cliff on the right bank was a remarkable plateau, enclosed in a bend of the winding of the banks, quite level, and of considerable extent, and about twenty feet above the bed of the river. At the first view it appeared well calculated for the site of a village, but in winter it is frequently laid under water; and logs of timber and drift wood scattered over it shewed this to have been recently the case.
“Several wagons laden with timber were met with in the course of this day, on their way to Cape Town, carrying many large yellow-wood beams for building, and logs for converting into planks, also fellies for wheels, and treenails for the repair of ships. It may easily be conceived under what amazing disadvantages this traffic is carried on between the forest and the capital, a distance little short of two hundred miles, and the road lying nearly along the coast. It can be shewn that plank from Norway and from America may be brought into the market at a rate which competes with this which is grown in the colony; but the injury is not confined to the high price of this indispensable commodity. These journeys for the conveyance of timber depopulate the whole country in the neighbourhood of the forest. The labourers and the cattle are constantly on the road; and not unfrequently the farmer and his family seize the opportunity, in order to have their frolic, leaving the cows, the young stock, and the crops to the care of an aged female Hottentot, while every other part of the establishment follows the wagon. Should the scanty portion of grain which he has sown fail, in consequence of his absence, the family have a resource; they can live entirely upon mutton, and game, and tea, and brandy; the two latter articles being never forgotten in the return cargo. The want of hands in the different farms is an universal complaint; and is the only cause that can be assigned, why the immense tracts of fertile land are uncultivated; but the reason is here at once given. The whole population is employed in taking materials for building to Cape Town; while a few hundred hands employed in conducting a coasting trade would effect more completely all that is to be done; and leave the farmers and the farm servants, undisturbed in their rural occupations; ensuring to the former a most liberal return of whatever the ground would produce, while industrious habits would take the place of that wandering, unsettled, and indolent disposition for which the Cape Boor is so remarkable.
“The abundance of all the essentials of life which a kind Providence has showered down on this favoured country, is another great cause of the little advance its inhabitants make in improvement, which is so obvious in most parts of the interior. The want of food is unknown amongst them, either for man or beast; and other wants are easily provided for. Houses built of clay and thatched with reeds are readily constructed; the wood work necessary for doors, windows, and rafters, is easily obtained from the nearest Bosch, as the forest is called; and converted by the roughest tools in such a way as may answer the purpose. The furniture of many of the houses is confined to the frames of a bedstead or two, (the sacking for which is formed of thongs of raw hide) and a large chest serving at once for a store closet and a table. Clothing is easily made from the sheep-skin tanned or untanned; and a few loads of wood or aloes carried to Cape Town market, will procure them brandy and tea, their principal luxuries, and such European manufactures as they may be tempted to indulge in, such as printed calicos, and linen. These journies, as we have shewn, are attended with no other expense or loss than the neglect of their farms. The covered wagon is their dwelling house, and the sleeping apartment for the master and mistress; the children and slaves sleeping under them in dry weather. The journey is divided into schoffs, or distances, calculated from one grazing place to another, called “Out-span” places; these are six, eight, or ten hours from each other, as they happen to be. In the more sandy and arid parts of the colony the schoffs are regulated by the springs of water. The march is generally performed by night in summer, in order to avoid the heat of the sun. As soon as they reach the out-span place, the oxen are unyoked, and turned out to graze. If they have horses, they are knee haltered, by the halter being tied to the fore leg, and so short that when the head of the animal is elevated, his leg is lifted from the ground, and he can only go upon three legs, which ensures his being caught when wanted. In these wild parts of the colony there is little fear of the cattle straying, for they are too much in fear of wild beasts to wander far from protection; and it was very remarkable that saddle horses, which if turned out near the Cape, would be very difficult to catch, will, in the interior, when far from any inhabited place, keep close to the owner, when leading them by the bridle, or if left to themselves.
“As soon as the horses and oxen are turned out, the domestic arrangements begin; fires are lighted, sheep or fowls are killed, and cooking proceeds with great energy. It may be that a buck is brought in, which makes the feast a sumptuous one, in which all are equally interested. The driver and leaders of the oxen are no sooner off duty than they betake themselves to sleep, and only awake for their food, and then sleep again. After the meal, the Siesta becomes general, and lasts till the preparation signal is given for resuming the journey, when all again is bustle; the cattle are yoked, the wagons packed, and the cracking of the huge whips again announces that they are in motion. Such is nearly the history of every day, and of the whole journey, until they reach the immediate vicinity of the capital, when they become restrained by the usages of more civilized life, a fetter which is severely felt by all, bipeds as well as quadrupeds. There are few instances of these travellers being attacked in their night marches by the wild beasts, which infest so many parts of the interior of the colony. The feline species are in general as cowardly as ferocious, and are scared by the noise and the number of the caravans, which of course is not diminished on this account.
“If stationary, in the night the cattle are kept tied to the wagons, and large fires kept burning round the little encampment. In the preceding year, while the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, was on his journey to the Fish river with his family, having stopped for the night on one of the extensive plains over which they had to pass, a little Hottentot boy, the leader of one of the teams, having laid down to sleep at a little distance from the wagons, was seized by a lion. His screams having aroused the people who had not yet gone to sleep, the noise they made in pursuing the animal, induced it to drop its prey, and the child was found at a few yards distance, very little injured by the jaws of the beast.