During our stay here I took care to procure seeds and plants that would be valuable at Otaheite and the different places we might touch at in our way thither.  In this I was greatly assisted by colonel Gordon, the commander of the troops.  In company with this gentleman the loss of the Grosvenor East Indiaman was mentioned:  on this subject colonel Gordon expressed great concern that from anything he had said hopes were still entertained to flatter the affectionate wishes of the surviving friends of those unfortunate people.  He said that in his travels into the Caffre country he had met with a native who described to him that there was a white woman among his countrymen who had a child, and that she frequently embraced the child and cried most violently.  This was all he (the colonel) could understand and, being then on his return home with his health much impaired by fatigue, the only thing that he could do was to make a friend of the native by presents and promises of reward on condition that he would take a letter to this woman and bring him back an answer.  Accordingly he wrote letters in English, French, and Dutch desiring that some sign or mark might be returned, either by writing with a burnt stick or by any means she should be able to devise, to satisfy him that she was there; and that on receiving such token from her every effort should be made to ensure her safety and escape.  But the Caffre, although apparently delighted with the commission which he had undertaken, never returned, nor has the colonel ever heard anything more of him, though he had been instructed in methods of conveying information through the Hottentot country.

To this account, that I may not again have occasion to introduce so melancholy a subject, I shall add the little information I received respecting it when I revisited the Cape in my return towards Europe.  A reputable farmer of the name of Holhousen, who lives at Swellendam, eight days journey from the Cape, had information from some Caffre Hottentots that at a kraal or village in their country there were white men and women.  On this intelligence Mr. Holhousen asked permission of the governor to make an expedition with some of the farmers into the country, requiring a thousand rix-dollars to bear his expenses.  The governor referred him to Mr. Wocke, the Landros of Graaf Rienet, a new colony in his way.  But from the place where Mr. Holhousen lives to the Landros, Mr. Wocke’s residence, is a month’s journey, which he did not choose to undertake at an uncertainty, as Mr. Wocke might have disapproved of the enterprise.  It was in October last that Mr. Holhousen offered to go on this service.  He was one of the party who went along the sea-coast in search of these unfortunate people when a few of them first made their appearance at the Cape.  I am however informed that the Dutch farmers are fond of making expeditions into the country, that they may have opportunities of taking away cattle; and this I apprehend to be one of the chief reasons why undertakings of this kind are not encouraged.