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Hippopotamus hunt at the Seekoei River

[In lower margin, hand G:]
Gesigt van de Plettenbergs Rivier op de Z: breete van 31gr: 6gr: lengte Oost van de Caap: met het Camp en de Plaats alwaar ik den Heer Gouverneur Ao 1778 bragt, alwaar ik 's Jaars te voren 9 Hippopotamussen, of hier te lande, sogenaamde zeekoeien, geschoten had; en alwaar alstoen door den Gouverneur en sijn escorte, in den tydt van drie a vier uuren, 22 dier dieren doodgeschoten wierden, sonder de minste danger gevaar; dus al het geene Sparman in syne beschrijving van de Caap segt omtrent het gevaar in de Jagt dier dieren, sprookjes sijn.

[On image, hand G:]
Gordons keerombergen in 1777. de Mosquee berg.

[In lower margin, hand G:]
View of the Plettenberg River at the latitude of 31 degrees south, and longitude of six degrees east of Cape Town, with the camp and the place where I brought the Lord Governor in 1778, and where the year before I had shot 9 hippopotamuses or sea-cows as they are called in this country; and where on this occasion in the space of three to four hours 22 of these animals were shot by the Governor and his escort without the least danger or peril. Thus everything that Sparrman says in his description of the Cape about the danger of hunting these animals is fairy-stories.

[On image, hand G:]
Gordon' turn-around mountains in 1777 The Mosque Mountain

Object data

  • Place: The Seekoei River, then known as the Plettenbergs River, about 26 kilometres west of the present town of Colesberg.
  • Date: 3rd October 1778
  • The hunt is described in Gordon’s journal for 3rd October 1778. On his previous trip he had turned back at what he refers to as the Keerombergen on 23rd November 1777, when he also refers to the surgarloaf hill here called the Mosque and currently Boesmanshoed.

  • Size: h 42 cm × w 50 cm
  • Object nummer: RP-T-1914-17-66