Simon's Bay opening out far below,and range upon range of crags on one side,with a wide fertile plain,in which lies Hottentot's Holland,at one's feet.The road is just wide enough for one waggon,i.e.very narrow.Where the smooth rock came through,Choslullah gave a little grunt,and the three bays went off like hippogriffs,dragging the grey with them.By this time my confidence in his driving was boundless,or I should have expected to find myself in atoms at the bottom of the precipice.At the top of the pass we turned a sharp corner into a scene like the crater of a volcano,only reaching miles away all round;and we descended a very little and drove on along great rolling waves of country,with the mountain tops,all crags and ruins,to our left.At three we reached Palmiet River,full of palmettos and bamboos,and there the horses had 'a little roll',and Choslullah and his miniature washed in the river and prayed,and ate dry bread,and drank their tepid water out of a bottle with great good breeding and cheerfulness.Three bullock-waggons had outspanned,and the Dutch boers and Bastaards (half Hottentots)were all drunk.We went into a neat little 'public',and had porter and ham sandwiches,for which I paid 4S.6D.to a miserable-looking English woman,who was afraid of her tipsy customers.We got to Houw Hoek,a pretty valley at the entrance of a mountain gorge,about half-past five,and drove up to a mud cottage,half inn,half farm,kept by a German and his wife.It looked mighty queer,but Choslullah said the host was a good old man,and all clean.So we cheered up,and asked for food.While the neat old woman was cooking it,up galloped five fine lads and two pretty flaxen-haired girls,with real German faces,on wild little horses;and one girl tucked up her habit,and waited at table,while another waved a green bough to drive off the swarms of flies.The chops were excellent,ditto bread and butter,and the tea tolerable.The parlour was a tiny room with a mud floor,half-hatch door into the front,and the two bedrooms still tinier and darker,each with two huge beds which filled them entirely.But Choslullah was right;they were perfectly clean,with heaps of beautiful pillows;and not only none of the creatures of which he spoke with infinite terror,but even no fleas.The man was delighted to talk to me.His wife had almost forgotten German,and the children did not know a word of it,but spoke Dutch and English.A fine,healthy,happy family.
It was a pretty picture of emigrant life.Cattle,pigs,sheep,and poultry,and pigeons innumerable,all picked up their own living,and cost nothing;and vegetables and fruit grow in rank abundance where there is water.I asked for a book in the evening,and the man gave me a volume of Schiller.A good breakfast,-and we paid ninepence for all.
This morning we started before eight,as it looked gloomy,and came through a superb mountain defile,out on to a rich hillocky country,covered with miles of corn,all being cut as far as the eye could reach,and we passed several circular threshing-floors,where the horses tread out the grain.Each had a few mud hovels near it,for the farmers and men to live in during harvest.
