Edward Blount, author of Notes on the Cape of Good Hope Made During an Excursion to that Colony in the Year 1820, recommended travelling on horseback as the most independent mode of travel, even though it did not offer the comfort and accommodation of the wagon. But he cautioned that taking along a servant to take care of the horse was "an indispensable prerequisite", because the local inhabitants regarded any attention to the horse other than feeding and watering as "unnecessary trouble". Though the roads were "good and hard", indifferent surveying could compel the traveller to travel twice the distance to reach his destination, he wrote. Also, the distance was measured in time. For example, going from Cape Town to "Hottentots Holland" was said to be a journey of six hours. The author recommended that the traveller carried letters of introduction to the magistrates of the different districts through which they had to pass. The traveller was assured that he would receive a polite an...
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