Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 78 CHAPTER VI. Disheartening Occurrences at the beginning of1821 Excursion with Mr. Hart Flocks of Springboks Desolate Plains Zureberg Mountains Magnificent Scenery Haunts of the Elephant Valley of the White River Moravian Settlement of Enon Anecdotes of the Caffer Wars African Forests Elephant Sagacity Return across the Mountains Account of the Slaughter of the elder Stockenstrom on the Zureberg by the Caffers. The year 1821 began rather gloomily at Glen Lynden. In the first place, the whole of our wheat crops were destroyed by the rust or mildew. Then a severe drought, which had commenced in December, lasted more than three months; so that the pastures were parched up; the river ceased to flow, except near its sources ; the irrigation of our gardens and orchards was interrupted, and many of the young trees and other plants destroyed. About the same time we received information that the party of 500 Highlanders, who were expected out to occupy the country between us and the new Caffer frontier, had, in consequence of some untoward circumstances, entirely abandoned their intention of emigrating to the Cape; and, to crown our disappointments, the melancholy intelligence soon afterwards reached us, that the other Scottish party, which sailed from the Clyde on the 13th of October, 1820, had perished miserably near the equator, by their vessel, the Abeona transport, being destroyed by fire. Out of 140 of those unfortunate emigrants, only sixteen souls escaped; who, being picked up in their boats by a vessel homeward bound, had returned to Scotland. These concurrent disasters, crowding upon us all at once, greatly disheartened most of our party; and I was urged by some of them to apply to the government to remove us to Albany, since, owing to the failure of the other Scottis...
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