As he was abſent, Jacob de Villiers, one of his neighbours, invited us to remain at his houſe, where we met with a very friendly reception.
The names of theſe planters led us to hope that we were now amongſt people with whom we could converſe in our own language; but theſe Frenchmen by extraction, having been obliged to make uſe of the Dutch for ſo long a ſpace of time, retained nothing of their mother-tongue beſides their family names.
It will not be unintereſting to the reader to know the names of thoſe French families that ſtill ſurvived in the midſt of theſe mountains. They were the following:
Lombart, Faure, Rotif, Blignant, Dupleſſis, Marée, Ponté, Naudé, Cronier, Hugo, de Villiers, Marais, du Buiſſon, le Roux, Deprat, Rouſſeaux, Villiers, Terrons, Hubert.
We were here in a pleaſant valley, where the rays of the ſun, reflected from the ſurrounding mountains, ſoon ripen the grape, which is the chief ſource of wealth to the inhabitants. A good deal of cheeſe is alſo made here.
We employed the two following days in climbing up the mountains in this neighbourhood. I here collected ſpecimens of the protea florida and ſerraria, amongſt a great variety of other plants.
Theſe mountains are compoſed chiefly of gra-
