Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/145

] As he was abent, Jacob de Villiers, one of his neighbours, invited us to remain at his houe, where we met with a very friendly reception.

The names of thee planters led us to hope that we were now amongt people with whom we could convere in our own language; but thee Frenchmen by extraction, having been obliged to make ue of the Dutch for o long a pace of time, retained nothing of their mother-tongue beides their family names.

It will not be unintereting to the reader to know the names of thoe French families that till urvived in the midt of thee mountains. They were the following:

Lombart, Faure, Rotif, Blignant, Dupleis, Marée, Ponté, Naudé, Cronier, Hugo, de Villiers, Marais, du Buion, le Roux, Deprat, Roueaux, Villiers, Terrons, Hubert.

We were here in a pleaant valley, where the rays of the un, reflected from the urrounding mountains, oon ripen the grape, which is the chief ource of wealth to the inhabitants. A good deal of cheee is alo made here.

We employed the two following days in climbing up the mountains in this neighbourhood. I here collected pecimens of the protea florida and erraria, amongt a great variety of other plants.

Thee mountains are compoed chiefly of gra- nite