KAFIR NOBILITY. PAOE 10:;. Frontispiece. JT 

 
 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE 
 
 LETTERS TO PERIWINKLE FROM 
 SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 BY R M. BALLANTYNE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE LIFEBOAT," "THE IRON HORSE," ETC. ETC. 
 
 EEUth Illustrations b$ <S. . Smaller 
 
 FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BEENEES STEEET. 
 1879. 
 
 [All rights reserved.]
 
 EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY THOMAS AND ARCHIBALD CONSTABLK, 
 PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THIS book makes no pretension whatever to 
 the dignity of a treatise on South Africa. 
 
 I went to the Cape of Good Hope for private 
 purposes, and had not leisure to devote to that 
 important colony the study and investigation 
 which it deserved. 
 
 During my limited rambles, however, I neces- 
 sarily saw and heard a great deal that was 
 extremely interesting, and wrote an account of 
 the same in a series of letters to my excellent 
 friend Periwinkle. Those letters are now before 
 
 the reader. 
 
 R. M. BALLANTYNE. 
 
 LONDON, 1878.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " A life on the Ocean Wave," . . . .1 
 
 LETTER II. 
 Hunting Springboks on the Karroo, . . . 16 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Somerset The British Settlers Original " Owners " 
 
 Native Church-going, ..... 35 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 Adventures with Ostriches, .... 53 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 More about Ostriches Karroo Gardens A ride with Bonny 
 Sketching under difficulties Anecdotes and Inci- 
 dents, . ...... 67 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 Over the Plains Lion and Tiger reminiscences Frontier 
 forces and escaped Convicts Monkeys and prickly 
 Pears A veteran Settler's experiences of Kafir war- 
 fare Story of the Dutch Farmers' rising in 1815, . 88 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Lion-hunting, etc., in the early Days Bushmen and their 
 
 troubles, ... 106
 
 VI CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rain ! Rain ! Rain ! Baboons River Seahorse Kloof 
 We hunt the hills on horseback in spite of Rain 
 Floods and Accidents Part from Hobsou Mail- 
 Carts and Diamond Diggers, . . . .119 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 Crossing the Great Fish River Travelling at the Cape as 
 it is to be Grahamstown, her early struggles and 
 present prosperity, . . . . 1 38 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 Salem A peculiar Pic-Xic Polo under difficulties 
 
 Lecturing and Singing Sporting at Night, . . 157 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 Algoa Bay Kafirs on the Coast Difficulties regarding 
 
 Servants, etc., . . . . . .176 
 
 LETTER XIL 
 
 Port Elizabeth Algoa Bay Diamonds Kafir Nobility, . 186 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 The " Cape Doctor " The Capetown Mine Mules, Litera- 
 ture, and Customs-Officials, . . 201 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 Stellenbosch, etc., .... .221 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 The Last, ....... 239
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 KAFIR NOBILITY (p. 193), Frontispiece 
 
 STARTING FOR THE HUNT, ..... PAGE 18 
 
 HUNTING IN THREE TABLEAUX, . ... . . 29 
 
 AN "OWNER" OF THE LAND, ...... 42 
 
 SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES, . ... . . 76 
 
 JONATHAN HOBSON'S FIGHT WITH AN OSTRICH. . . .' . 82 
 
 OUTSPANNED ON THE KARROO, . . . . . .89 
 
 HUNTING THE BAVTAANS RIVER MOUNTAINS, . . . 126 
 CROSSING A "DRIFT," . . . : . . . 129 
 
 CROSSING THE GREAT FISH RIVER, 138 
 
 POLO ON THE PLAINS, 166 
 
 UNLOADING AT PORT ELIZABETH, . . . . . 179 
 
 vii
 
 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE 
 
 LETTEE I. 
 
 " A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE." 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA, 1876. 
 
 DEAR PERIWINKLE, Since that memorable, not 
 to say miserable, day, when you and I parted at 
 St. Katherine's Docks, with the rain streaming 
 from our respective noses rendering tears super- 
 fluous if not impossible and the noise of prepara- 
 tion for departure damaging the fervour of our 
 " farewell " since that day, I have ploughed with 
 my " adventurous keel " upwards of six thousand 
 miles of the " main," and now write to you from 
 the wild Karroo of Southern Africa. 
 
 The Karroo is not an animal. It is a spot at 
 present a lovely spot. I am surrounded by by
 
 2 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 nature and all her concomitants. Mimosa trees, 
 prickly pears, and aloes remind me that I am not 
 in England. Ostriches, stalking on the plains, 
 tell that I am in Africa. It is not much above 
 thirty years since the last lion was shot in this 
 region, and the kloofs, or gorges, of the blue moun- 
 tains that bound the horizon are, at the present 
 hour, full of " Cape-tigers/' wild deer of different 
 sorts, baboons, monkeys, and but hold ! I must 
 not forestall. Let me begin at the beginning. 
 
 The adventurous keel above referred to was 
 not, as you know, my own private property. I 
 shared it with some two hundred or so of human 
 beings, and a large assortment of the lower ani- 
 mals. Its name was the " Windsor Castle " one 
 of that magnificent line of ocean steamers belong- 
 ing to the enterprising firm of Donald Currie and 
 Company, of which it is impossible to speak in 
 too exalted terms. 
 
 There is something appallingly disagreeable in 
 leave-taking. I do not refer now to the sentiment, 
 but to the manner of it. Neither do I hint, my 
 dear fellow, at your manner of leave-taking. 
 Your abrupt " Well, old boy, bon voyage, good-bye, 
 bless you," followed by your prompt retirement 
 from the scene, was perfect in its way, and left
 
 PARTINGS. 3 
 
 nothing to be desired ; but leave-takings in gene- 
 ral how different ! 
 
 Have you never stood on a railway platform to 
 watch the starting of an express ? 
 
 Of course you have, and you have seen the 
 moist faces of those two young sisters, who had 
 come to *' see off" that dear old aunt, who had 
 been more than a mother to them since that day, 
 long ago, when they were left orphans, and who 
 was leaving them for a few months, for the first 
 time for many years ; and you have observed how, 
 after kissing and weeping on her for the fiftieth 
 time, they were forcibly separated by the exasper- 
 ated guard, and the old lady was firmly, yet gently, 
 thrust into her carriage, and the door savagely 
 locked with one hand, while the silver whistle was 
 viciously clapt to the lips with the other, and the 
 last "goo ood bye d arling I" was drowned 
 by a shriek, and puff and clank, as the train rolled 
 off. You have observed how the two young sisters 
 madly attempted to run after the train, but were 
 stopped, and then buried their moist faces in 
 their handkerchiefs for a few moments in uncon- 
 trollable grief; how, on looking up again, they 
 found that the train had rolled back (having 
 merely gone ahead to make room for another
 
 4 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 carriage) ; how the face that stopped opposite to 
 them was not that of their aunt, but that of an 
 unsentimental bad boy, who was grinning at them 
 from ear to ear ; how they found the aunt again 
 after an excited search, and were "so glad" to 
 have one more chance, " and such an unexpected 
 one too!" of saying good-bye; and how vexa- 
 tiously the poor things were interrupted and 
 knocked about by passengers wanting to get in, 
 or wanting to get out. How, after a time, both 
 the young ladies and the aunt really began to 
 wish that the train would start, although each of 
 them would have died under the train-wheels 
 on the spot, rather than have acknowledged the 
 presence of such a thought even to herself; how, 
 when the train itself seemed to be getting impatient 
 and made a few slight convulsive moves, which 
 compelled every one to stand back, the two young 
 ladies took to pantomimic methods of saying 
 good-bye, such as the motion of the lips without 
 sound, and the raising of the eyebrows, with 
 endearing expansions of the mouth, and intelligent 
 noddings of the head, and unmeaning gestures of 
 the hands, in all of which efforts, not being used 
 to pantomime, and being somewhat swollen as 
 well as moist, they came at length to look
 
 PARTINGS. 5 
 
 absolutely idiotic. How, after a quarter of an 
 hour's delay, they became quite desperate and 
 turned to express hypocritical interest in subjects 
 utterly unconnected with the pending separation, 
 such as the book-stall, or the weighing-machine ; 
 how, when a frightful shriek from the engine sent 
 a shock of condemnation to their deceptive hearts, 
 they turned again to the aunt in penitent haste, 
 and recommenced the insane pantomime, and 
 kept it up violently till the train was fairly off 
 and out of sight ; and how, at length, they wiped 
 their eyes for the last time and left the station 
 with a strange feeling of repose ; silent, and not 
 a little perplexed to find that the sad parting 
 which they had expected would have become more 
 and more sorrowful, had been converted at last, 
 somehow, into a relief, if not a positive pleasure. 
 
 You 've seen it all, have you not, over and over 
 again, in every degree and modification ? No 
 doubt you have, and as it is with parting humanity 
 at railway stations, so is it at steamboat wharves. 
 
 There are differences, however. After you had 
 left, I stood and sympathised with those around 
 me, and observed that there is usually more 
 emotion on a wharf than on a platform naturally 
 enough, as, in the case of long sea voyages, partings,
 
 6 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 it may be presumed, are for longer periods, and 
 dangers are supposed to be greater and more 
 numerous than in land journeys, though this 
 is open to question. The waiting-process, too, is 
 prolonged. Even after the warning bell had sent 
 non -voyagers ashore, they had to stand for a con- 
 siderable time in the rain while we cast off our 
 moorings or went through some of those incom- 
 prehensible processes by which a leviathan steamer 
 is moved out of dock. 
 
 After having made a first false move, which 
 separated us about three yards from the wharf 
 inducing the wearied friends on shore to brighten 
 up and smile, and kiss hands, and wave kerchiefs, 
 with that energy of decision which usually marks 
 a really final farewell our steamer remained in 
 that position for full half an hour, during which 
 period we gazed from the bulwarks, and our friends 
 gazed from under their dripping umbrellas across 
 the now impassable gulf, in mute resignation. 
 
 At that moment a blessing of inconceivable 
 magnitude befel us. A boy let his cap drop from 
 the wharf into the water ! It was an insignificant 
 matter in itself, but it acted like the little safety- 
 valve which prevents the bursting of a high-pres- 
 sure engine. Voyagers and friends no longer
 
 PARTIAL RELIEF. 7 
 
 looked at each other like melancholy imbeciles. 
 A gleam of intense interest suffused every 
 visage, intelligence sparkled in every eye, as we 
 turned and concentrated our attention on that 
 cap ! The unexpressed blessing of the whole 
 company, ashore and afloat, descended on the 
 uncovered head of that boy, who, all unconscious 
 of the great end he was fulfilling, made frantic 
 and futile efforts with a long piece of stick to 
 recover his lost property. He was watched with 
 considering the value of the cap unnatural 
 earnestness, encouraged with ridiculous fervour, 
 patted on the head, metaphorically, with positive 
 affection, and I have no doubt would have been 
 presented with two or three hundred new caps on 
 the spot if each relieved one had seen his way, in 
 the circumstances, so to express his feelings. 
 
 But we did at last get under weigh, and then 
 there were some touches of real pathos. I felt no 
 disposition to note the humorous elements around 
 when I saw that overgrown lad of apparently 
 eighteen summers, press to the side and wave his 
 thin hands in adieu to an elderly lady on shore, 
 while tears that he could not, and evidently did 
 not care to restrain, ran down his hollow cheeks. 
 He had no friend on board, and was being sent
 
 8 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 to the Cape for the benefit of his health. So, too, 
 was another young man somewhere between 
 twenty and thirty years whose high colour, bril- 
 liant eye, and feeble step told their own tale. 
 But this man was not friendless. His young wife 
 was there, and supported him with tender solici- 
 tude towards a seat. These two were in the 
 after- cabin. Among the steerage passengers the 
 fell disease was represented in the person of a 
 little boy. " Too late " was written on the coun- 
 tenances of at least two of these, the married 
 man and the little boy. 
 
 As to the healthy passengers, what shall I say 
 of them \ Need I tell you that every species of 
 humanity was represented ? 
 
 There were tall men, and short men, as well as 
 men broad and narrow, mentally, not less than 
 physically. There were ladies pretty, and ladies 
 plain, as well as grave and gay. Fat and funny 
 ones we had, also lean ones and lugubrious. The 
 wise and foolish virgins were represented. So 
 too were smokers and drinkers; and not a few 
 earnest, loving, and loveable, men and women. 
 
 A misanthropical tendency which had been 
 gaining on me of late had induced me to believe 
 that, after passing middle-life, a man cannot make
 
 NEW FKIENDSHIPS. 9 
 
 new and enthusiastic friendships. Never was I 
 more mistaken. It is now my firm conviction 
 that men may and do make friendships of the 
 closest kind up to the end of their career. Of 
 course the new friends do not, and cannot, take 
 the place of the old. It seems to me that they 
 serve a higher purpose, and, by enabling one to 
 realise the difference between the old and the 
 new, draw the cords of ancient friendship tighter. 
 At all events, you may depend upon it, my dear 
 Periwinkle, that no new friend shall ever tumble 
 you out of the niche which you occupy in my 
 bosom ! 
 
 But be this as it may, it is a fact that in my 
 berth which held four, and was full all the 
 voyage there was a tall, dark, powerful, middle- 
 aged man, an Englishman born in Cape Colony, 
 who had been " home " for a trip, and was on his 
 way out again to his African home on the great 
 Karroo. This man raised within me feelings of 
 disgust when I first saw him in the dim light of 
 our berth, because he was big, and I knew that a 
 big man requires more air to fill his lungs than a 
 little one, and there was no superabundant air in 
 our berth quite the reverse. This man occupied 
 the top berth opposite to mine. Each morning
 
 10 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 as I awoke my eyes fell on his beard of iron-grey, 
 and I gazed at his placid countenance till he 
 awoke or I found his placid countenance gazing 
 at me till / awoke. From gazing to nodding in 
 recognition is an easy step in ordinary circum- 
 stances, but not when one's head is on one's 
 pillow. We therefore passed at once, without 
 the ceremony of nodding, into a quiet "good 
 morning." Although reticent he gradually added 
 a smile to the " good morning," and I noticed that 
 his smile was a peculiarly pleasant one. Steps 
 that succeed the " first" are generally easy. From 
 disliking this man not on personal, but purely 
 selfish grounds I came to like him ; then to love 
 him. I have reason to believe that the attach- 
 ment was mutual. His name why should I not 
 state it \ I don't think he would object is 
 Hobson. 
 
 In the bunk below Hobson lay a young Wes- 
 leyan minister. He was a slender young fellow, 
 modest and thoughtful. If Hobson's bunk had 
 given way, I fear that his modesty and thought- 
 fulness might have been put to a severe test. I 
 looked down upon this young Wesleyan from my 
 materially exalted position, but before the voyage 
 was over I learned to look up to him from a
 
 THE PASSENGERS. 11 
 
 spiritually low position. My impression is that 
 he was a " meek" man. I may be mistaken, but 
 of this am I certain, that he was one of the gentlest, 
 and at the same time one of the most able men 
 in the ship. At all events, he preached one of 
 the best sermons we had, and this is saying some- 
 thing, as you will admit when I tell you that we 
 had no fewer than ten representatives of " the 
 Church" on board, Wesley an, Dutch-Reformed, 
 Episcopalian, and Lutheran. 
 
 "Jack" had his little touch of chaff at this ele- 
 ment, of course, especially at the number of 
 them, and the swearing smoko-drinkers held them, 
 no doubt, in contempt a contempt equalled 
 only by their love of "pipes, baccy, and lush," but 
 you know me well enough to understand me when 
 I say that it was this clerical element which 
 despite differences of opinion, hot arguments, 
 frequent disputes, touches of unchristian narrow- 
 ness of thought in some, and occasional ebullitions 
 of temper in others lent dignity and interest 
 and pith to the whole voyage. 
 
 But, to return to my berth which, by the 
 way, I was often loth to do, owing to the con- 
 fined air below, and the fresh glorious breezes on 
 deck the man who slept under me was a young
 
 12 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 banker, a clerk, going out to the Cape to make 
 his fortune, and a fine capable-looking fellow he 
 was, inclined rather to be receptive than commu- 
 nicative. He frequently bumped me with his 
 head in getting up ; I, not unfrequently, put a 
 foot upon his nose, or toes, in getting down. 
 
 What can I say about the sea that has not been 
 said over and over again in days of old ? This, 
 however, is worthy of record, that we passed the 
 famous Bay of Biscay in a dead calm. We did 
 not " lay " one single " day " on that " Bay of 
 Biscay, ! " The " ! " seems rather awkwardly 
 to imply that I am not stating the exact truth, 
 but I assure you that it is a fact. More than 
 this, we had not a storm all the way to the Cape. 
 It was a pure pleasure excursion a sort of yacht 
 voyage from beginning to end ; very pleasant 
 at the time, and delightful now to dwell upon ; 
 for, besides the satisfaction of making a new 
 friend like Hobson, there were others to whom I 
 was powerfully drawn, both by natural sympathy 
 and intellectual bias. 
 
 There was a Wesleyan minister Caldecott 
 by name also an Englishman born in South 
 Africa, and of the race of Anak, with whom, 
 and his amiable wife, and pretty children, I
 
 THE PASSENGERS. 13 
 
 fraternised powerfully. My soul was also glad- 
 dened by intercourse with a Dutch-Reformed 
 clergyman the Rev. Leon Cachet well known 
 in the Colony, especially in the Transvaal 
 who, with his pleasant wife and daughter, was 
 on his way back to South Africa after a brief 
 trip to Europe. He was argumentative ; so, you 
 know, am I. He was also good-tempered, there- 
 fore we got on well. He is of the stock of Abra- 
 ham I liked him the more on that account. He 
 is a Christian Jew, and a Dutchman by birth. 
 
 It would be an endless business to name and 
 describe all the passengers who were personally 
 attractive, and who were more or less worthy of 
 description. There were, among others, a genial 
 and enthusiastic Dutch- African legislator of the 
 colony; a broad-shouldered but retiring astro- 
 nomer ; also a kindly Cape merchant ; and a genial 
 English banker, with their respective wives and 
 families. I had the good fortune to sit in the 
 midst of these at meals, close to Captain Hewat, 
 who is unquestionably, what many of us styled 
 him, a " trump.*' He is also a Scotchman. There 
 was likewise a diamond-digger, with a wife who 
 had presented to the world twenty-one children 
 so she said, and who spoke of them numerically.
 
 14 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 "No. 19," she told me, was to meet her in Cape- 
 town on her arrival ! There was a man, too, who 
 seemed to hate everybody except himself, and 
 who was a most fitting subject for the efforts of 
 the men on board whose professional duty it was 
 to reclaim "lost sheep." There were several 
 sportsmen ; one of whom, a gallant son of Mars, and 
 an author, had traversed the " Great Lone Land " 
 of British America, and had generally, it seemed 
 to me, "done" the world, with the exception of 
 Central Africa, which he was at last going to add 
 to his list. There were also troops of children, who 
 behaved remarkably well, considering the trials 
 they had to undergo ; and numerous nurses, some 
 of whom required more attention than all the 
 ladies put together. 
 
 You will now, no doubt, expect an account of 
 romantic adventures on the deep and narrow 
 escapes, and alarms of fire, and men overboard, and 
 thrilling narratives. If so, your expectations are 
 doomed to disappointment. We fished for no 
 sharks, we chased no whales, we fell in with no 
 slavers or pirates. Nevertheless we saw flying 
 fish, and we had concerts and lectures ; and such 
 delightful perambulations of the decks, and such 
 charming impromptu duets and glees and solos
 
 END OF THE VOYAGE. 15 
 
 on retired parts of the deck in moonlight nights, 
 and such earnest discussions, and such genial com- 
 panionship ! Truly that voyage was one of those 
 brilliant episodes which occur only once in a Life- 
 time, and cannot be repeated ; one of those green 
 spots in memory, which, methinks, will survive 
 when all other terrestrial things have passed away. 
 
 I will write no more about it, however, at 
 present. Neither will I proceed in what is usually 
 considered the natural manner with my epistles 
 namely, step by step. Arrivals, cities, travelling, 
 roads, inns, and all such, I will skip, and proceed 
 at one bound to that which at the present moment 
 is to me most interesting, merely premising that 
 we reached Capetown (of which more hereafter) in 
 November, the South African summer after a 
 voyage of twenty-five days. 
 
 I am now sojourning at Ebenezer Hobson's 
 residence on the Karroo.
 
 16 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 HUNTING SPRINGBOKS ON THE KARROO. 
 
 To start for the hunting-field at seven in the 
 morning in a carriage and six, smacks of royalty 
 and sounds luxurious, but in South Africa there 
 are drawbacks connected therewith. 
 
 Hobson's farm is, as I have said, on the Kar- 
 roo those vast plains which at some seasons 
 resemble a sandy desert, and at others are covered 
 with rich verdure and gorgeous flowers. They 
 are named after the small, succulent, Karroo- 
 bush, which represents the grass of other plains, 
 and is excellent food for cattle, sheep, and 
 ostriches. 
 
 These plains embrace a considerable portion 
 of Cape Colony. The Karroo is pre-eminently 
 lumpy. Its roads in most places are merely the 
 result of traffic. They, also, are lumpy. Our 
 carriage was a native " cart," by which is meant a 
 plain and powerful machine with springs that are
 
 OUR " TURN-OUT." 17 
 
 too strong readily to yield. Five of our team 
 were mules, the sixth was a pony. 
 
 Our party at starting numbered five, but grew 
 as we progressed. We took with us provisions and 
 fodder for two days. The driving was undertaken 
 by Hobson's nephew, assisted by his eldest son 
 " six-foot Johnny." There was a double necessity 
 for two drivers. To hold the reins of five kicking 
 mules and a victimised pony required both hands 
 as well as all the strength of the cousin, though 
 he was a powerful fellow, and the management of 
 the whip claimed both arms and all the strength, 
 as well as the undivided attention of his assistant. 
 The whip was a salmon-rod in appearance, with- 
 out exaggeration. It had a bamboo handle some- 
 where between twelve and fourteen feet long, 
 with a proportionate lash. The operator sometimes 
 found it convenient to stand when he made a cast 
 with his fishing-rod weapon. He was an adept 
 with it ; capable, it seemed to me, of picking a fly 
 off one of the leader's ears. 
 
 There was some trouble in keeping our team 
 quiet while rifles, ammunition, provisions, etc., 
 were being stowed in the cart. 
 
 At last the cousin gave the word. Six-foot 
 Johnny made a cast. The lash grazed the leader's 
 
 B
 
 18 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 flank with a crack that might have shamed a 
 small revolver. The mules presented first their 
 noses, then their heels to the sky ; the cart leaped 
 from the ground, and we were off bumping, 
 rattling, crashing, swinging, over the wild Karroo, 
 followed by some half dozen horses led by two 
 mounted Hottentot attendants. 
 
 My friend Hobson, greatly to our grief, did 
 not accompany us, owing to inflamed eyes, but I 
 shared the back seat of the cart with his brother 
 Jonathan, a tall strapping man of middle age and 
 modest mien, who seemed to me the beati-ideal 
 of a colonial hero. 
 
 In an hour or so we came to the solitary farm 
 of a Mr. Green, who regaled us with a sumptuous 
 breakfast, and lent me a spur. I had the liberal 
 offer of two spurs, but as, in hunting with the 
 rifle, it is sometimes advisable to sit on one's right 
 heel, and memory during the excitement of the 
 chase is apt to prove faithless, I contented myself 
 with one spur, feeling pretty confident that if 
 I persuaded the left side of my horse to go, the 
 right side could not well remain behind. 
 
 Mr. Green joined us. Thereafter we came to the 
 residence of a Mr. Priest, who also joined us with 
 his son, and thus we sped on over the flat sandy
 
 THE HUNTING-GROUND. 19 
 
 plains, inhaling the sweet scent of mimosa blossom, 
 glowing in the fervid sunshine, and picking up 
 comrades here and there, until about noon we 
 reached the scene of our intended operations. 
 
 This was a vast, almost level plain named the 
 Plaat Eiver Flats. It lay between two rivers, 
 was eight or ten miles wide and upwards of 
 twenty miles in length a mighty ocean, as it 
 were, of short, compact Karroo, with a boundless 
 horizon like the sea in all directions save one, 
 where a great South African mountain range 
 intercepted the view. Here and there a few 
 clumps of mimosa bushes rose like islets, and 
 lent additional interest to the scene. 
 
 We " out-spanned " and " off- saddled " here 
 for luncheon, and found shelter from the sun 
 under a mimosa, which was large enough to merit 
 being styled a tree. Its thorns were from four to 
 six inches in length. 
 
 The party had now swelled to fourteen all 
 stout hardy descendants of the English, Scotch, 
 or Dutch settlers, who had originally peopled the 
 land ; good rifle shots, and splendid horsemen. 
 One of them was conspicuous by his brawny arms, 
 which were burnt to a deep brown in consequence 
 of his preferring to hunt and work at all times
 
 20 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 with shirt sleeves rolled up above the elbows. 
 Another struck me as having the broadest pair 
 of shoulders I ever saw in a man of his size. 
 
 "Capital water here," said Green to me, on 
 alighting beside the mimosa-thorn. 
 
 " Indeed," said I, thirsting for some, " where is 
 it?" 
 
 " Here ! come ; I '11 show you." 
 
 He led me to a spot among the bushes where 
 lay a small pond of thin mud the colour of weak 
 tea with milk. 
 
 " There you are," said Green. 
 
 I looked at him inquiringly. 
 
 He looked at me and smiled. 
 
 I laughed. 
 
 Green grinned, and assured me that it was 
 " first-rate water." 
 
 He dipped a cup, as he spoke, and drank it. So 
 did his comrades, with evident satisfaction, though 
 the liquid was so opaque that I could not see the 
 bottom of a tea-cup when it was full. 
 
 There could be no further doubt on the point. 
 These reckless and jovial South Africans Euro- 
 pean by extraction though they were, and with- 
 out a drop of black blood in their veins had 
 actually accommodated themselves to circum-
 
 OUR PARTY. 21 
 
 stances so far as to consider liquid mud good 
 water ! More than that, I found that most of the 
 party deemed it a sufficient beverage, for they were 
 all temperance men, if not total abstainers. Still 
 further, I followed their example, drank of that 
 yellow pond, and actually enjoyed it. Subse- 
 quently I made the discovery that there were small 
 animals in it ; after that I preferred it in the form 
 of tea, which was quickly infused by our active 
 Hottentots. 
 
 The discovery above referred to was made when 
 Green (or Brownarms, or Broadshoulders, I forget 
 which) was quaffing a cup of the cold element. 
 Having drained it he spat out the last mouthful, 
 and along with it a lively creature like a small 
 shrimp, with something like a screw-propeller 
 under its tail! 
 
 Enjoying our tea under the shade of the 
 mimosa, we rested for an hour, and then, saddling 
 our steeds and slinging on rifles and cartridge- 
 pouches, we mounted, and sallied forth upon the 
 plain. 
 
 A glorious sensation of freedom came over me 
 as I felt my horse's springy step, a sensation 
 which brought powerfully back the memory of 
 those days when I first galloped over the Ameri-
 
 22 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 can prairies. Surely there must be a sympathy, 
 a mesmeric influence, between a horse and his 
 rider which sends a thrill through each. Hobson 
 had lent me his own favourite horse Rob Roy. 
 He was a charming creature ; well made, active, 
 willing and tender in the mouth, but, best of all, 
 he " trippled " splendidly. 
 
 Trippling is a favourite gait in South Africa, 
 especially among the Dutch farmers. It is some- 
 thing between pacing and ambling, a mption so 
 easy that one scarce rises at all from the saddle. 
 We trippled off into the vast plain towards the 
 horizon, each horseman diverging a little from his 
 comrades, like a fleet of fishing-boats putting out 
 to sea. Most of the party rode without coats, for 
 the sky was cloudless, and we looked for a broiling 
 day. Brownarms, I observed, had his sleeves 
 rolled up, as usual, to the shoulder. Six-foot 
 Johnny rode a cream-coloured pony, which, like 
 himself, enjoyed itself intensely, and seemed ready 
 for anything. Each man grasped his rifle by the 
 middle with the right hand, and rested the stock 
 on his thigh. 
 
 Being a stranger to the work, I had been sup- 
 plied with a Hottentot as well as a horse, to 
 guide me and carry my rifle ; but I scorned to
 
 MY HOTTENTOT "BOY." 23 
 
 ride without my weapon, and did not at first see 
 the necessity of a guide in the circumstances. 
 Ultimately I was only too glad to avail myself of 
 his services ! 
 
 The South Africans call Hottentots "boys," 
 whatever their age or size may be. My " boy " 
 was named Michael. He was a small wiry man 
 of twenty or thirty, more or less, with a dirty 
 brown face, dirty brown garments, and a dirty 
 brown horse. Though a bad one to look at, it 
 was a marvellous horse to go. Michael had a 
 cavernous red mouth, and magnificent white teeth. 
 Likewise he was gifted with a strong sense of the 
 ludicrous, as I have reason to know. 
 
 We advanced slowly into the plain at first, and 
 gradually scattered until some of the party began 
 to look like mere specks in the distance. Pre- 
 sently I saw two or three of them break into a 
 gallop, and observed a few moving spots of white 
 on the horizon. I looked anxiously at my boy. 
 He returned the gaze with glittering eyes and 
 said"bok." 
 
 "Boks! are they?" said I, applying my spur 
 and making a demivolt, or something of that 
 sort, over an ant-bear hole. 
 
 Rob Roy stretched his legs with a will, but a
 
 24 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 howl from Michael caused me to look round. He 
 was trending off in another direction, and pointing 
 violently towards something. He spoke nothing 
 but Dutch. My acquaintance with that tongue 
 was limited to the single word " Ja." 
 
 He was aware of this, and his visage became all 
 eyes and mouth in his frantic effort to assure me 
 it would be wise were I to follow his lead. 
 
 I turned at once and galloped alongside of him 
 in faith. 
 
 It soon became clear what he aimed at. The 
 horsemen on the far off horizon were driving the 
 springboks towards the stream which bounded 
 one side of the great plain. Mike was making for 
 the bushes that bordered that stream in the hope 
 of reaching them before the boks should observe 
 us. 
 
 Oh ! it was a glorious burst that first race over 
 the wild Karroo, on a spirited steed, in the fresh- 
 ness of early morning 
 
 " With the silent bushboy alone by my side," 
 
 for he was silent, though tremendously excited. 
 His brown rags fluttered in the self-made breeze, 
 and his brown pony scrambled over the ground 
 quite as fast as Kob Roy. We reached a clump 
 of underwood in time, and pulled up, panting,
 
 GAME IN SIGHT. 25 
 
 beside a bush which was high enough to conceal 
 the horses. 
 
 Anxiously we watched here, and carefully did 
 I look to my rifle, a double-barrelled breach- 
 loading " Soaper-Henry," to see that it was 
 loaded and cocked, and frequently did I take aim 
 at stump and stone to get my hand and eye well 
 " in," and admiringly, with hope in every linea- 
 ment, did Michael observe me. 
 
 " See anything of them, Mike 1" I asked. 
 
 I might as well have asked a baboon. Mike 
 only grinned, but Mike's grin once seen was not 
 easily forgotten. 
 
 Suddenly Mike caught sight of something, and 
 bolted. I followed. At the same moment pop ! 
 pop ! went rifles in different parts of the plain. 
 We could not see anything distant for the bushes, 
 but presently we came to the edge of an open 
 space, into which several springboks were trotting 
 with a confusedly surprised air. 
 
 "Now Sar, now's you chance/' said Mike, using 
 the only English sentence he possessed, and laying 
 hold of the bridle of my horse. 
 
 I was on the ground and down on one knee in 
 such a hurry, that to this day I know not by 
 what process I got off the horse.
 
 26 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Usually, when thus taken by surprise, the 
 springboks stop for a moment or two and gaze 
 at the kneeling hunter. This affords a splendid 
 though brief chance to take good aim, but the 
 springboks were not inquisitive that day. They 
 did not halt. I had to take a running shot, and 
 the ball fell short, to my intense mortification. I 
 had sighted for three hundred yards. Sighting 
 quickly for five hundred, while the frightened 
 animals were scampering wildly away, I put a 
 ball in the dust just between the legs of one. 
 
 The leap which that creature gave was magni- 
 ficent. Much too high to be guessed at with a 
 hope of being believed ! The full significance of 
 the animal's name was now apparent. Charging a 
 breach-loader is rapid work, but the flock was 
 nine hundred or a thousand yards off before I 
 could again take aim. In despair I fired and 
 sent a bullet into the midst of them, but without 
 touching one. 
 
 I now turned to look at the " boy," who was 
 sitting on his pony with both eyes nearly shut, 
 and a smile so wide that the double row of his 
 teeth were exposed to the very last grinders ! 
 
 But he became superhumanly grave and sym- 
 pathetic as I turned towards him, and made a
 
 MORE GAME. 27 
 
 remark in Dutch which was doubtless equivalent 
 to " better luck next time." 
 
 Remounting I rode to the edge of the clump of 
 bushes and found several of my companions, some 
 of whom carried the carcases of springboks at 
 their cruppers. Hope revived at once, and I set 
 off with them in search of another flock. 
 
 "You've failed, I see," remarked my friend 
 Jonathan Hobson in a sympathetic tone. 
 
 Ah ! what a blessed thing is sympathy ! 
 
 " Yes," said I ; "my shots fell short." 
 
 "Don't let that discourage you," returned 
 Jonathan, " you 're not used to the Karroo. Dis- 
 tance is very deceptive. Sighting one's rifle is 
 the chief difficulty in these regions, but you 11 
 soon come to it." 
 
 Another flock of springboks was discovered 
 at this moment on a distant knoll, towards which 
 we trotted, trippled, and cantered. We quickly 
 scattered, each man taking his own course. 
 Six-foot Johnny, already burdened with a buck, 
 went off at reckless speed. He soon came near 
 enough to cause the game to look up inquiringly. 
 This made him draw rein and advance with cau- 
 tion in a sidling and indirect manner. In a few 
 minutes the boks trotted off. We were now with-
 
 28 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 in long range, and made a dash at racing-speed to 
 head them. The creatures absolutely played with 
 us at first, and performed some of their astounding 
 leaps, as if for our special amusement. Had they 
 set off at full speed at once we should not have 
 had a chance, for they are fleeter than horses. 
 Their manner of leaping is d la indiarubber ball. 
 It is not a bound forwards, but a "stott " straight 
 upwards, six, eight, or nine feet, without ap- 
 parent effort, and displaying at each bound a ridge, 
 or fold, of pure white hair on their backs which 
 at other times is concealed. 
 
 We now " put on a spurt," and the leading men 
 got near enough between two and three hundred 
 yards. They dismounted, dropped their bridles, 
 and kneeled to take aim. Brownarms fired and 
 brought one down so did Broadshoulders. Six- 
 foot Johnny in his eagerness let the cream pony 
 stumble, somehow, and went over its head also 
 over his own, and landed on his knees. The bok 
 he was after stopped to gaze at the catastrophe. 
 Johnny, profiting by his position, took aim and 
 tumbled it over. 
 
 Mike was by this time leading me towards an 
 animal. We got within three hundred yards 
 when it began to stretch out. Further pursuit
 
 HUNTING IN THREE TABLEAUX. PAGE 29.
 
 FULL SWING. 29 
 
 being useless, I pulled up, leaped off, kneeled, fired, 
 and missed again the ball, although straight, fall- 
 ing short. With wild haste I scrambled on Eob 
 Eoy who, by the way, stood like a petrifaction 
 when left with the bridle thrown over his head 
 and hanging from his nose. The horses were 
 trained to this. 
 
 Loading as I ran we soon came to a bok which 
 had been turned by some of the other hunters. 
 Again I raced, pulled up, leaped off, and fired. 
 The pop ! pop ! was now going on all over the plain, 
 and balls were whistling everywhere. Again my 
 bok refused to stop to look at me as he ought 
 to have done and again I missed. Michael's eyes 
 were now quite shut, and his jaws visible to the 
 wisdom teeth supposing he possessed any. 
 
 Growing reckless under disappointment I now 
 dashed away in pursuit of animals that had been 
 scattered by the fusillade, and fired right and left 
 at all ranges between two and ten hundred yards, 
 but without any other effect than that of driving 
 up the dust under two or three of them, and 
 causing many of their astounding leaps. Soon 
 the rest of the party were scattered so far on the 
 plain as to be utterly out of sight and hearing. 
 As far as sensation went, my " Tottie " and I were
 
 30 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 as lonely in that wilderness as was Mungo Park 
 in days gone by. 
 
 All this time the sun was blazing in the sky 
 with unclouded and fervent heat. It had been 
 110 in the shade at Ebenezer a day or two before, 
 therefore I judged it to have been much the same 
 on this occasion. There was not a breath of wind. 
 Everything was tremulous with heat. 
 
 Suddenly I beheld, with the deepest interest, a 
 magnificent lake with beautiful islets scattered 
 over its crystal breast. Often had I read of the 
 mirage of African deserts, and much had I thought 
 about it. Now, for the first time, it was before 
 me. Never was deception more perfect. If I had 
 not known that no such lake existed in the region 
 I should have been almost ready to stake my life 
 on the reality of what I saw. No wonder that 
 thirsty travellers in unknown regions should have 
 so often pushed forward in eager pursuit of this 
 beautiful phantom. 
 
 " Things are not what they seem " truly ! This 
 applies to many terrestrial things, but to none of 
 them more thoroughly than to the mirage. 
 
 While I was looking at it, the form of the lake 
 altered sufficiently to have dispelled the illusion, if 
 I had been labouring under it. In a few minutes
 
 DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES. 31 
 
 it passed away altogether, but only to reappear 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Another curious effect, and rather absurd mis- 
 take, resulted from the different densities in the 
 super-heated atmosphere which caused this mirage. 
 Fancying that I saw two springboks on the 
 horizon I pointed them out to my boy. 
 
 " Ja ! " said Mike, nodding his head and riding 
 towards them at a smart canter. As we advanced 
 I observed that the boks began to grow rather 
 larger than life, and that Mike slackened his pace 
 and began to grin. It turned out that the objects 
 were two carts with white canvas hoods, and 
 when we came up to them we found they belonged 
 .to a party who had come out to join us, but who, 
 up to that hour, had been unable to discover us 
 in the vast hunting-field! 
 
 After directing them to our camp we proceeded 
 on our way. That is to say Mike did. For my- 
 self, I was completely lost, and if left to myself 
 should have been quite unable to return to camp. 
 
 While galloping along, revelling in the sunshine 
 in the love of which I will not yield to cats 
 we came suddenly on the largest snake I had yet 
 seen. It was, I believe, a cobra, must have been 
 fully six feet long, if not more, and was gliding
 
 32 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 with an easy sinuous motion over the plain as fast 
 apparently, as a man's ordinary running-pace. I 
 observed that it did not get out of the way of 
 small bushes, but went straight through them 
 without the smallest check to its speed. It sud- 
 denly dived into a hole and disappeared. It is 
 said that when snakes take to a hole to escape 
 pursuit, some of them have a habit of causing 
 their heads to stop abruptly at the entrance, and 
 allowing their bodies and tails to flip past like 
 the lash of a whip, so that if the pursuer were to 
 thrust in his hand to grasp the tail he would be 
 met by the fangs ! As the bite of most South 
 African snakes means death, if the part be not cut 
 out, or otherwise effectually treated, handling 
 them is carefully avoided. Nevertheless my friend 
 Jonathan when a younger man, let us hope ! 
 was in the habit of occasionally catching deadly 
 snakes by the tail, swinging them round his head, 
 and dashing out their brains on a stone or tree ! 
 
 Soon we perceived tw r o of our comrades driving 
 a flock of springboks towards the river. Mike at 
 once diverged towards a clump of bushes which 
 it seemed probable they would pass. In ten 
 minutes we were down in a hollow, with the horses 
 hid behind a mimosa thorn. The boks had not
 
 SUCCESS AT LAST. 33 
 
 seen us, being too much taken up with their 
 pursuers ; they came straight towards us. 
 
 "Now, sar," whispered Mike once again, while 
 his eyes glared with glee, " now's you chance ! " 
 
 I went down on one knee, carefully sighted the 
 rifle, and looked up. The foremost bok was within 
 good range. I fired and missed ! 
 
 " Desolation ! " said I, cramming in another 
 cartridge while the flock diverged to the left. 
 
 There was no hope now of anything but a run- 
 ning shot. I aimed carefully. The smoke cleared 
 off, the flock dashed on, but one bok lay prone 
 upon the earth. Bang ! went my second barrel, 
 and another bok, leaping into the air, fell, rose, 
 fell again, then rose and ran on. 
 
 Mike was now jubilant. The whole internal 
 structure of his mouth was disclosed to view in 
 his satisfaction, as he viewed the prostrate animal. 
 I may add that although we did not find the 
 wounded bok that evening, we found him next 
 day. 
 
 With our prize disembowelled and strapped 
 behind Mike's saddle we rode in triumph into 
 camp, a little before sunset, and found most of 
 our companions assembled, busy 'preparing supper 
 and making other arrangements for camping out 
 
 c
 
 34 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 on the veldt as they call the plain. Some had 
 been successful, some had failed, but a good many 
 springboks had been killed, and all were hearty as 
 crickets and hungry as hyenas. 
 
 To kindle fires, boil tea, roast venison steaks, 
 spread blankets on the ground, and otherwise 
 attend to the duties of the bivouac, was now the 
 order of the hour. The moon rose while we were 
 thus engaged, and mingled her pale light with the 
 ruddy blaze of camp-fires. We spoke little and 
 ate much. Then followed the inevitable pipe and 
 the pleasant chat, but we were all too ready for 
 rest to care about keeping it up long. I was con- 
 strained to take the bed of honour in the cart. 
 The others stretched their limbs on the Karroo, 
 and in ten minutes every man was in the land 
 of nod. 
 
 Next day we mounted at daybreak and renewed 
 the hunt, but I will say no more about it than 
 that we bagged twenty-six springboks amongst 
 us, and that Six-foot Johnny, having killed the 
 greatest number of animals, returned home " King 
 of the hunt," with a scrap of ostrich feather in 
 his cap.
 
 HOODED CARTS. 35 
 
 LETTEE III. 
 
 SOMERSET THE BRITISH SETTLERS ORIGINAL " OWNERS " 
 NATIVE CHURCH-GOING. 
 
 ON my way to the Karroo I had to pass through 
 Somerset East, and it so fell out that I fell in with 
 a countryman from Edinburgh, who chanced to 
 be going to Somerset in the same "passenger-cart" 
 with myself. His name must have been a novelty 
 once, though much of its freshness is worn off 
 now it was Brown. 
 
 Our cart had a hood ; the roads were very bad, 
 and the behaviour of that hood was stupendous ! 
 Its attachment to the cart was, so to speak, par- 
 tial; therefore it possessed a semi- independent 
 motion which was perplexing. You could not 
 count on its actions. A sudden lurch of the cart 
 to right or left did, of course, carry the hood with 
 it, and, counting on that, you laid your sudden 
 plans to avoid collision ; but the elasticity of the 
 hood enabled it to give you a slap on the face
 
 36 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 before obeying its proper impulse. So, too, it 
 would come down on your head unexpectedly, or, 
 without the slightest provocation, would hit you 
 on the neck behind. I learned with painful cer- 
 tainty in that cart that I had a " small " to my 
 back ! It seemed to me that it grew large before 
 the journey was over. 
 
 Brown was an intelligent man, not an unusual 
 state of things with the " Browns." He had two 
 pretty daughters with him, aged eight and twelve 
 respectively. "We got on well together, and crossed 
 the Zuurberg range in company on the last day 
 of the year. 
 
 It was over passes in this range that the settlers 
 of 1820 went in long trains of Cape-wagons, 
 with wives and little ones, and household goods, 
 and civilised implements of husbandry, and 
 weapons of defence, with high hopes, and strong 
 courage, and with their "lives in their hands," 
 to subdue the wilderness. It was from these 
 heights that they looked over the beautiful and 
 bush-clad plains of "Albany," which lay before 
 them as the lot of their inheritance. 
 
 The breaking up and scattering of the various 
 "parties" was most eloquently and graphically 
 told by the Eev. H. H. Dugmore in a lecture de-
 
 THE EARLY SETTLERS. 3T 
 
 livered at Grahamstown, on the occasion of the 
 "British Settlers' Jubilee," in May 1870 fifty 
 years after the arrival of the " fathers." * I quote 
 one passage, which gives a good idea of the manner 
 in which the land was taken up. 
 
 " And now the Sunday's Eiver is crossed, and 
 the terrible old Ado Hill is climbed, and Quaggas 
 Flat is passed, and the Bushman's river heights 
 are scaled. The points of divergence are reached, 
 and the long column breaks into divisions. 
 Baillie's party made their way to the mouth of 
 the Fish Kiver, where, it was said, the 'Head' 
 had been allowed to choose a territory, and where 
 he hoped to realise imaginations of commercial 
 wealth by founding a seaport town. And the 
 Duke of Newcastle's proteges from Nottingham 
 took possession of the beautiful vale of Clumber, 
 naming it in honour of their noble patron. And 
 Wilson's party settled between the plains of 
 Waay-plaats, and the Kowie bush, right across 
 the path of the elephants, some of which they 
 tried to shoot with fowling-pieces. And Sefton's 
 party founded the village of Salem, the religious 
 importance of which to the earjy progress of the 
 
 * This deeply interesting lecture was published in GrahamstowD 
 as a pamphlet, entitled, The Reminiscences of an Albany Settler.
 
 38 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 settlement, is not to be estimated by its present 
 size and population. These four were the large 
 parties. The smaller ones filled up the interven- 
 ing spaces between them. Behind the thicket- 
 clad sandhills of the Kowie and Green Fountain, 
 and extending over the low plains beyond Bath- 
 urst, were the locations of Cock's, ThornhiU's, 
 Ostler's, Smith's, and Richardson's parties. Skirt- 
 ing the wooded Kloofs from Bathurst towards the 
 banks of the Klienemonden, were ranged the 
 parties of James and Hyman. It was the latter 
 who gravely announced to Captain Trapps, the 
 Bathurst magistrate, the discovery of 'precious 
 stones ' on his location ; and which the irascible 
 gentleman, jealous of the reserved rights of 
 Government, found, on further inquiry, were only 
 ' precious big ones ! ' The rich valley of Lush- 
 ington afforded a resting-place to Dyason's party. 
 Holder's people called their location New Bristol ; 
 which never, however, acquired any resemblance 
 to Old Bristol. Passing on towards the front, 
 there were Mouncey's party, Hayhurst's party, 
 Bradshaw's party, Southey's party, stretching 
 along the edge of the wide plains of the Round 
 Hill, and drinking their Western waters. The post 
 of honour and of danger was the line of the Kap
 
 THE EARLY SETTLERS. 39 
 
 Eiver. This was occupied by the party of Scott 
 below Kafir Drift, and by the Irish party above it. 
 The forlorn hope of the entire settlement was 
 Mahoney's party at the clay pits, who had to bear 
 the first brunt of every Kafir depredation in the 
 Lower Albany direction. Names thicken as we 
 proceed from Waay-plaats towards Grahamstown. 
 Passing Greathead's location, we come among the 
 men of Dalgairns at Blauw Krantz. Then those 
 of Liversage about Manly's Flats. John Stanley, 
 ' Head of -all Parties,' as he styled himself, be- 
 longed to the same neighbourhood. Turvey's 
 party were in Grobblaar's Kloof ; William Smith's 
 at Stony Vale, Dr. Clarke's at Collingham. 
 Howard's, Morgan's, and Carlisle's, bring us by 
 successive steps to the neighbourhood of Grahams- 
 town. . . . 
 
 "My 'reminiscences' are those of an Albany 
 settler; but I do not forget that there was another 
 party, who, though locally separated from the 
 main body, occupied a position, the importance of 
 which developed itself in the after-history of the 
 settlement. I refer to the Scotch party, who 
 were located on the Baviaan's River, among 
 mountains and glens that have been rendered 
 classic by the poetry of their leader, and historic
 
 40 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 by the gallant deeds and indomitable endur- 
 ance of his compatriots in the after- struggles of 
 the frontier. I need make no particular reference, 
 however, to the early circumstances of that body 
 of men, as in Pringle's African Sketches they have 
 a most graphically- written history of their own." 
 
 Thus, in 1820, was the land overrun and 
 taken possession of by the " British Settlers." It 
 had once been the land of the Hottentots, but had 
 never at any time rightfully belonged to the Kafirs, 
 who, after wrongfully entering it, and rendering 
 themselves by their thievish propensities and 
 duplicity an unbearable nuisance, were finally 
 driven out of it in 1819. 
 
 The idea of Government in sending the settlers 
 out to occupy these vacated lands was, that a 
 convenient buffer might thus be placed , on the 
 frontier of the colony to keep the savages in 
 check. That these settlers and their descendants 
 received many a rude shock, and played their 
 part nobly, has been proved, and is admitted on 
 all hands. That they received less encourage- 
 ment and help from those who induced them to 
 emigrate than might have been expected, is equally 
 certain. But things are on a better footing now 
 the condition and claims of the colony are
 
 A TRUANT HORSE. 41 
 
 beginning to be better understood and considered 
 by its maternal parent over the sea. 
 
 Brown and I chatted, more or less, of these 
 things as we toiled up the slopes of the Zuurberg, 
 where the original settlers had toiled fifty-five 
 years before us, and in the afternoon came to a 
 pretty good inn, where a small misfortune befell us. 
 While we were indulging in a cup of tea, one of 
 our horses escaped. We had crossed the moun- 
 tain-range by that time, and the truant had a fine 
 range of undulating country to scamper over.. 
 That animal gave us some trouble, for, although 
 nearly a dozen men went after him on horseback, 
 he kept dodging about actively with hilarious 
 flourishes of heels and tail during the whole 
 afternoon. 
 
 When one is in no hurry, and the weather is 
 fine, a delay of this kind is rather pleasant than 
 otherwise. While men and boys were engaged in 
 the fruitless chase, I wandered off into the bush 
 in the hope of stumbling on a tortoise or a snake, 
 or some other creature that I had previously been 
 accustomed to see in zoological collections, but 
 the reptiles kept close, and refused to show them- 
 selves. I came, however, on a gigantic beehive ; 
 at least it resembled one in appearance, though
 
 42 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 the smoke that issued from a hole in its top sug- 
 gested humanity. There was also a hole in one 
 side partially covered by a rickety door. Close 
 beside it stood a little black creature which re- 
 sembled a fat and hairless monkey. It might 
 have been a baboon. The astonished gaze and 
 grin with which it greeted me warranted such an 
 assumption, but when it suddenly turned and 
 bolted through the hole into the beehive, I ob- 
 served that it had no tail not even a vestige of 
 such a creation, and thus discovered that it was 
 a " Tottie," or Hottentot boy. The sublime, the 
 quaint, the miserable, the ridiculous, and the 
 beautiful, were before me in that scene. Let me 
 expound these five " heads " in order. 
 
 On my left rose the woody slopes and crags of 
 the Zuurberg, above whose summits the white hills 
 and towers, and gorgeous battlements of cloud- 
 land rose into the bright blue sky. Around me 
 were groups of flowering mimosa bushes, with 
 thorns from three to six inches long, interspersed 
 with which were curious aloes, whose weird leafy 
 tops gave them the aspect of shrubs growing up- 
 side down with their roots scrambling aimlessly 
 in the air. In front stood the native hut, the 
 wretchedness of whose outside was only equalled
 
 THE HOME OF THE SAVAGE. 43 
 
 by the filth and poverty-stricken aspect within. 
 Near to this were several native children, as black 
 as coal, as naked as they were when born, as 
 impudent-looking as tom-tits, and as lively as 
 crickets. Beyond all lay the undulating plains 
 studded with flowering shrubs of varied form and 
 hue, and bathed in golden sunshine. 
 
 There . is something sad, ay, and something 
 mysterious, to me in the thought that such a 
 lovely land had been, until so recently, the home 
 of the savage and the scene of his bloody and ruth- 
 less deeds. 
 
 I use the term savage advisedly, because I wish 
 to call things by their right names. A savage is 
 a savage, and in my experience among the natives 
 of different parts of the earth I have never met 
 with what is styled the " Noble savage," nor even 
 heard of a genuine specimen, except in cases where 
 individuals have embraced the civilising GospeL 
 Let me not be misunderstood. I have no sym- 
 pathy whatever with those who regard " niggers" 
 as an inferior race of ignoble men, who are only 
 fit to be killed or turned into beasts of burden for 
 the benefit of the highly exalted and much self- 
 praised white man, those selfish scoffers who 
 question the power of God's Word and Spirit to
 
 44 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 effect a beneficial change in what they call the 
 " red-Kafir." But, on the other hand, I have little 
 sympathy, and no agreement, with those who, 
 forgetting, apparently, that this red-Kafir is in 
 truth a savage, would treat him as if he were 
 already a Christian and civilised man. To treat 
 him kindly, justly, considerately, lovingly ; to try 
 to do him every possible good, and, chiefly, to 
 bring his soul in contact with the Saviour, is our 
 simple duty, but to trust- him is no part of our 
 duty. It is worse than folly, because it defeats 
 our philanthropic views, and prolongs his debase- 
 ment. Who would trust a thief, or a liar, or a 
 murderer? The whole Kafir nation, root and 
 branch, is a huge thief, an inveterate liar, and a 
 wholesale murderer. Those who have read of 
 their doings under Chaka, and such like Neros, 
 will surely admit this to be true. The history of 
 our colonial wars clearly shows it. The monstrous, 
 unnatural, and brutal practices which at the present 
 hour form part of the Kafir laws incontestably 
 prove it. Nobility of a kind the Kafir does in- 
 deed possess. God has given him a noble frame 
 and physique. None who look at him can deny 
 this. He also possesses a noble brain, as we learn 
 from the reports of the grand Missionary Institu-
 
 COMMENTS ON KAFIRS. . 45 
 
 tions of Healdtown, Worcester, and Lovedale, 
 where hundreds of native boys and girls are being 
 educated in many of the branches of human know- 
 ledge, intellectual as well as industrial, and where 
 they are said to equal, if not to excel, the white 
 pupils. 
 
 But the uneducated savage Kafir is an intel- 
 lectual child and a very bad child too. He 
 ought to be disarmed to prevent his avowed and 
 inveterate desire, and constantly recurring at- 
 tempts, to "drive the white man into the sea." 
 He ought to be trained (of course all agree on 
 this point) in the knowledge of God's blessed way 
 of peace with man, and in secular matters also. 
 But he ought to be carefully watched and wisely 
 restrained, until he has become a man si principle, 
 which at present he is not. The savage is un- 
 doubtedly entitled to the same laws as the white 
 man, but not to the same privileges. The Kafir 
 is a very infant in everything except physical 
 force and wickedness. To put him on an equality 
 with civilised whites is equivalent to granting, in 
 England, the franchise to boys. 
 
 It may be said of those who differ as to Kafir 
 management, as of all other disputants, that 
 there are errors on both sides, but from what I have
 
 46 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 seen, heard, and read of South Africa, I feel pro- 
 foundly convinced that if governments, imperial 
 and colonial, could only hit upon and carry out 
 some wise course of native policy, missionaries 
 and schoolmasters would soon progress rapidly 
 with their important part in the grand work 
 of raising the savage to Christianity and civili- 
 sation. They have done so in time past in 
 spite of obstacles witness, among others, the 
 Fingoes, who were created a tribe under our rule 
 by one of the Government's wise strokes of policy. 
 These have been converted by missionaries and 
 schoolmasters into a civilised black people, who 
 have built churches and colleges, and contributed 
 thousands of pounds sterling, since their beginning 
 in 1835, to Christianity and Education. 
 
 On New Year's day in 1876 I dined at a table 
 d'hote in Somerset, in a strange land with 
 strangers. But the strangers were not shy. 
 Neither was I. There were about a dozen of us 
 at table, and before dinner was half over we were 
 as sociable as if we had been bosom friends from 
 infancy. We even got the length of warm dis- 
 cussion, and I heard some sentiments expressed 
 regarding natives and " native policy," with which 
 I could not agree ; but, being ignorant on the
 
 A NATIVE CHURCH. 47 
 
 subject at the time, I stuck to general principles. 
 It seemed to me that some of the speakers must 
 have been born with their brains turned the 
 wrong way. This idea recalls to memory the 
 curious fact that, during my first walk in Somerset 
 I saw a mounted Hottentot policeman wearing 
 his helmet with the fore part to the back, because 
 its rear peak was longer, and a better sunshade, 
 than the front. 
 
 The same tendency to sacrifice appearance to 
 utility is observable among the Malays of Cape- 
 town, who treat their sou'-westers similarly. 
 
 A comrade-in-arms of the Hottentot policeman 
 acted in the capacity of interpreter to the Eev. 
 Mr. Green during his ministrations in the native 
 church of Somerset, and admirably he did it too, 
 at least so I was told, but as the sermon I heard 
 was delivered by Mr. Green (a Wesleyan) in Dutch, 
 and translated into Kafir, I cannot speak of my 
 own knowledge on the point. 
 
 My visit to this native church was on a Sunday, 
 the hottest Sunday I ever spent. The congre- 
 gation was entirely black and brown. It, also, was 
 hot, so that the church was by no means cool. 
 Whatever depth, or want of depth, there might 
 have been in the Christianity of these people, the
 
 48 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 garb and the bearing of civilisation were very 
 obvious and very pleasant to behold. Their 
 behaviour was most orderly and modest, and their 
 equality with whites was clearly demonstrated by 
 the fact, that many of them had gone there to 
 display their finery. 
 
 Taking my place near the pulpit I saw them to 
 advantage. The church was pretty full. I sat 
 down beside a very stout Hottentot girl, whose 
 dress of showy chintz was as much a subject of 
 interest to herself as of indifference to the congre- 
 gation. There were marvellous contrasts and 
 
 o 
 
 surprising harmonies displayed in that church, 
 with not a few discords. Childlike good-humour 
 sat on every countenance. When Mr. Green 
 ascended the pulpit eager expectancy gleamed in 
 every jet-black eye. When the psalm was given 
 out the preparatory clearing of throats and conse- 
 quent opening of thick red lips and revelation of 
 splendid rows of teeth all over the church had 
 quite a lighting-up effect on the scene. They sang 
 heartily and well of course, all black people do 
 so, I think. Just opposite me sat a young man 
 with a countenance so solemn that I felt sure he 
 had made up his mind to "be good," and get the 
 full benefit of the services. His black cheeks
 
 AMAZING COSTUMES. 49 
 
 seemed to glisten with earnestness ; his thick lips 
 pouted with devotional good- will. I do not write 
 in ridicule, but merely endeavour to convey my 
 full meaning. He wore a superfine black dress 
 coat, a gaudy vest, and buff corduroy trousers so 
 short that they displayed to advantage his enor- 
 mous bare feet. Beside him was an elderly man 
 with tweed trousers, a white shirt and brown 
 shooting coat, and a face not quite so solemn but 
 very sedate. Some of the men had boots, some 
 had black silk hats, others wideawakes, which 
 of course they removed on entering. It seemed 
 to me that there was among them every part and 
 variety of costume from morning to evening dress, 
 but no individual could boast of being complete 
 in himself. 
 
 As for the women, they were (as in other cases 
 and places) indescribable. Some of them wore 
 little more than a blanket, others were clothed in 
 the height of European fashion, or something like 
 it, and all had evidently put on their " Sunday's 
 best." One stout and remarkably healthy young 
 woman appeared in a light-coloured polonaise, a 
 brilliant skirt, and an indescribable hat with 
 ostrich feathers on her woolly head. She sat 
 herself down close beside me and went to sleep 
 
 D
 
 50 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 at the beginning of the sermon not out of 
 irreverence, I am persuaded, but from heat. In 
 this state she continued swaying to and fro to the 
 end of the discourse, occasionally drooping, as 
 though she meant to make a pillow of my 
 shoulder, which she would certainly have done, 
 but for a more modestly clad Hottentot girl at 
 her other side, who, evidently scandalised, kept 
 poking at her continuously with her elbow. In 
 justice to the congregation I am bound to add, 
 that I saw very few sleepers. They were most 
 attentive, and despite the distracting elements 
 of a humorous kind that obtruded themselves, 
 I was much impressed with the earnest way in 
 which these people gazed at the tall, intelligent, 
 black policeman, while he translated the Gospel 
 message into the Kafir tongue. 
 
 But it is difficult to avoid sensations of levity 
 when one is placed in such circumstances. During 
 one of my most successful efforts at solemnity I 
 chanced to look across at the pouting young man 
 with the very solemn countenance. He chanced 
 at the same moment to look at me, and observed, 
 evidently for the first time, the stout girl with 
 the polonaise as she made one of her lurches 
 towards my shoulder. Never in my life have I
 
 BAPTISMS. 51 
 
 seen such a brilliant, sparkling change come over 
 a human countenance before. The pursed and 
 pouting mouth expanded from ear to ear; a 
 double row of dazzling teeth appeared suddenly, 
 as if set in an oval ring of red on a field of black, 
 while the eyes dilated till their glittering whites 
 were quite disclosed. I looked away hurriedly 
 and tried to think of other things. There was 
 an elderly Fingoe near. I fixed my attention on 
 him and became interested, for his prolonged stare 
 at the minister was, I felt, too intense to be genuine. 
 The sudden collapse of his eyelids and drop of his 
 head, followed by a little cough and a hypocri- 
 tical look of earnestness, proved that I was right. 
 
 At the close of the service an old Kafir woman 
 came forward to be baptized. It was an inter- 
 esting sight, and brought forcibly to remembrance 
 the only other case of adult baptism I had 
 witnessed, namely, that of a red Indian woman, 
 who near Lake Winipeg in Rupert's Land, many 
 years before, was admitted into the visible church 
 by a Wesleyan minister. 
 
 The baptism of a black baby, which followed, 
 irresistibly brought back the ludicrous, for that 
 creature had its little woolly, and I fear dirty, 
 head imbedded in a regal blue velvet robe lined
 
 52 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 with quilted white satin ! It is well for poor 
 humanity that the "outward appearance" is not 
 regarded on high. 
 
 To write seriously on the work done at this 
 mission would be inappropriate, because I had 
 not sufficient opportunity to inquire into, or ex- 
 amine, the method by which it is sought to elevate 
 these natives. In regard to them, and missionary 
 effort at the Cape generally, the only point on 
 which I have no doubt whatever is the fact that 
 the blessed Gospel of Christ is preached. 
 
 Somerset East is a pretty town on the Little 
 Fish River, at the foot of the Boschberg mountains, 
 which rise abruptly from the plain. It boasts of 
 two banks, a newspaper, several churches, and 
 the Gill College, an imposing edifice which was 
 erected by private endowment. Its population is 
 above eighteen hundred, in regard to whom all 
 I can say is, that the few members I had the 
 pleasure of meeting there during a three days' 
 sojourn were exceedingly hospitable and kind.
 
 OSTRICH-FARMING. 53 
 
 LETTEE IV. 
 
 ADVENTURES WITH OSTRICHES. 
 
 OSTRICH farming is no child's-play. It involves 
 risk in more ways than one, and sometimes taxes 
 both the courage and strength of the farmer. 
 
 In ordinary circumstances the ostrich is a mild 
 inoffensive creature indeed the female is always 
 so ; but when a male ostrich is what I may style 
 nesting when, enclosed in a large field or 
 paddock, he guards his wives and his eggs no lion 
 of the desert, no tiger of the jungle or kloof, is 
 more ferocious or more savagely bent on the death 
 of any or all who dare to intrude on his domain. 
 
 The power of the ostrich, too, is quite equal to 
 his strength of will. He stands from seven to 
 nine feet in height, and is very heavy. 
 
 His tremendous legs are his only weapons, and 
 his kick is almost, if not quite, equal to that of a 
 horse. Possessing enormous feet, with two toes 
 on each, the horny points of which can cut and rip
 
 54 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 like cold chisels, he rushes at an adversary and 
 kicks, or hits- out, straightforward, like a prize- 
 fighter. No unarmed man on earth could stand 
 long before a furious male ostrich without being 
 killed. But there are one or two weak points 
 about him, which abate somewhat the danger of 
 his attack. In the first place his power lies only 
 in his mighty legs, the thighs of which blue-grey 
 and destitute of feathers are like two shoulders of 
 mutton. With his beak he can do nothing, and 
 his long neck is so weak that if you can only lay 
 hold of it and pull his head to the ground you are 
 comparatively safe, for he cannot kick effectively 
 in that position, and devotes all his energies, when 
 thus caught, to useless attempts to pull his head 
 out of your grasp. But, then, how are you to get 
 hold of that neck the root of which stands nearly 
 as high as your own head in the face of two 
 claws that go like battering-rams wrought by light- 
 ning ? As well might you attempt to lay hold of 
 a prize-fighter's nose while his active fists are 
 darting out at you. 
 
 A powerful, active man has been known, when 
 attacked while unarmed, to spring on the bird, 
 grasp a wing with one arm and the body with the 
 other, and hug it, but there is great danger in
 
 HOW TO MEET ATTACKS. 5 5 
 
 this method, because in the attempt you are 
 pretty sure to receive at least one kick, and that, 
 if it takes effect, will be quite sufficient to put you 
 hors de combat. It also requires much power of 
 endurance, for, hugging a creature that is strong 
 enough to dance about and lift you off your legs 
 in its wild efforts to get rid of you, must be hard 
 work. Supposing that you do succeed, however, 
 in holding on until you work your way along to 
 the neck and get the head into custody, then you 
 can without much difficulty choke the bird, but 
 a male ostrich costs from 100 to 150, and one 
 hesitates to choke 150, even for the sake of 
 one's life, especially when the valuable bird belongs 
 to one's friend. 
 
 Another and perhaps the best plan, if you are 
 caught unarmed, is to lie down. An ostrich can- 
 not kick you when you lie flat on the ground, he 
 can only dance on you, and although that process 
 is unpleasant it is not necessarily fatal. 
 
 The ostrich is easily killed by a blow on the 
 neck with a stout stick, but this is as objectionable 
 as the choking process, on the ground of cost. In 
 short, the only legitimate method of meeting a 
 savage papa, in his own field, is with a strong 
 forked pole eight or nine feet long, with which
 
 56 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 you catch the bird at the root of the neck, and 
 thus keeping him at pole's-length, let him kick 
 and hiss away to his heart's content till he is tired, 
 or until assistance comes to you, or until you 
 work him near a wall, when you may jump over 
 and escape, for an ostrich will not jump. 
 
 Often have I gone, thus armed, with my friend 
 Hobson to feed the nesting ostriches. The risk of 
 attack, I may mention in passing, is not great 
 when two men go together, because the bird seems 
 undecided which foe to attack, and generally ends 
 by condescending to pick at the mealies (Indian 
 corn) which are thrown down to him. 
 
 One morning Hobson and his eldest son Six- 
 foot Johnny and I mounted our steeds and rode 
 away to the field in which one of the male 
 ostriches dwelt with his meek brown wives. The 
 wives are always brown, the husbands are jet 
 black, with the exception of those magnificent 
 and pure white feathers in wings and tail which 
 are so much prized and worn by the fair dames 
 of Europe. Hobson carried a sack of mealies at 
 his saddle-bow. 
 
 There were several male birds on the farm, all 
 of which were distinguished by name. There 
 were " Master," and " David Marais," and " Black
 
 " BEARDING THE LION IN HIS DEN." 57 
 
 Jack," and " Blind-boy " (minus one eye !) and 
 "Gouws," etc. Our visit that morning was to 
 David Marais. David was by far the fiercest of 
 the lot, but he was excessively fond of mealies, 
 and could be attracted though by no means ap- 
 peased by these. 
 
 " Johnny," said Hobson, as we cantered along by 
 the side of the little stream which caused a strip 
 of bright fertility to wind like a green snake over 
 the brown Karroo, and which was, as it were, the 
 lifeblood of the farm, "Johnny, I want you to go 
 to the nest and count the eggs, while I keep 
 David in play." 
 
 "Very well, father." 
 
 The order, and the quiet acceptance of it, did 
 not seem to involve much, yet Johnny had been 
 ordered on . somewhat dangerous service that 
 morning, for David Marais was intensely watchful 
 as well as savage. Several of the other males, 
 although capable of giving way to temper, were 
 so far amiable that my friend and I had frequently 
 gone into their enclosures with our forked sticks 
 and mealies, and had received no worse at their 
 hands than a threatening attitude or a suspicious 
 look, which passed away when the food was 
 thrown down ; but David's temper was such that
 
 58 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 we never ventured into his paddock, contenting 
 ourselves by throwing the mealies over the hedge 
 or wall that bounded the field. This field, or 
 enclosure, by the way, was not a small piece of 
 ground which one could take in at a glance. It 
 was more than a mile in extent, undulating in 
 form, with a stream bisecting it, and mimosa 
 bushes scattered here and there, so that from any 
 one point you could not see the entire field, or 
 ascertain its exact form or size. Sometimes, on 
 going into such a field, one has to look about for 
 the birds also to "look out" for them, as they 
 are prone to sudden assault ! 
 
 But David Marais required no looking for. His 
 large eagle- eye had detected us from afar, and we 
 found him at the nearest extremity of the nearest 
 angle of his grounds ready to give us battle, pacing 
 slowly to and fro, with that peculiar motion of 
 the wings which indicates suppressed wrath. 
 
 We rode along close to his hedge a short dis- 
 tance, and he marched with us, brushing against 
 the hedge and showing an anxious desire to get at 
 us. If there had been a gap in that hedge he 
 would have charged like a thunderbolt, but there 
 was no gap, and it is a strange fact that an 
 ostrich cannot leap at least he will not. The
 
 STEATEGIC MOVEMENTS. 59 
 
 merest trifle of an obstruction a bit of wall or 
 hedge over which he could step with perfect ease 
 is sufficient to check his advance and keep him 
 in ; that is, if he walks up to it, but he is a stupid 
 bird, and if he runs up to such an obstruction he 
 may tumble over it, gather himself up on the other 
 side, and so continue the charge. 
 
 On reaching a part of the hedge which dipped 
 into a hollow, Hobson dismounted and opened 
 the sack with the peace-offering. The bird, after 
 breasting up to the hedge and finding it impass- 
 able, sat down on what may be styled his elbows, 
 scraped his wings on the ground, and rolled his 
 head and neck about in a fashion that is indescrib- 
 able. This, I was told, was his method of rousing 
 himself, or of relieving his feelings. It looked 
 more like making a fool of himself. A handful of 
 mealies seemed to irritate him at first, but by 
 degrees the temptation became too strong. He 
 commenced to pick a few seeds ready, how- 
 ever, on the smallest provocation, to forsake them, 
 charge up to the hedge, and hiss at us. 
 
 " Now, Johnny, I '11 keep him in play," said 
 Hobson senior. "You go round to the nest. 
 Keep well down in the hollows, else he 11 be sure 
 to see you."
 
 60 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Johnny at once rode off. The suspicious David 
 looked after him and showed a tendency to retire 
 in the direction of his nest, but Hobson raised 
 his forked stick over the hedge and made a demon- 
 stration therewith. This was more than enough. 
 
 Inflated with rage David at once accepted the 
 challenge, and rushed back to the hedge, over 
 which another handful of mealies were thrown at 
 him, but mealies had lost much of their power 
 by that time. Thus, with alternate taunt and 
 temptation was the false attack maintained by 
 the father, while the real attack was made by the 
 son, at the other extremity of the fortress. 
 
 I followed the real attack. We did not go 
 direct. The bird would at once have made for 
 its nest had we done so. We rode off in the 
 direction in which we had come until out of sight, 
 and then, making a long circuit at full gallop, 
 came round to the other end of the enclosure, 
 from w r hich point the enemy could not be seen. 
 
 There was a wall to cross, then a deep hollow 
 through which the little stream ran, then a belt 
 of pretty thick bushes, beyond which, on the open 
 plain, the nest was known to lie if I may call 
 that a nest which is a mere hollow in the sand, 
 in which the eggs are laid. Here the female sits
 
 CAUGHT IN THE ACT. 61 
 
 all day while the male marches about en garde. 
 At night the male sits while the female goes about 
 and feeds. They are most attentive parents, and 
 there is a fitness in this arrangement as regards 
 colour, for the brown female squatted on the 
 brown Karroo is almost invisible in daylight, 
 while the black male is equally invisible during 
 the darkness of the night. 
 
 "You mustn't come with me," said Johnny, 
 dismounting ; " it would only increase the chance 
 of my being seen by David." 
 
 I was detailed, therefore, to the inglorious duty 
 of holding the horses, while my young friend 
 made the assault alone. 
 
 He leaped the wall, descended into the bed of 
 the stream, scrambled up the opposite bank, 
 crossed the clump of small wood, and came out 
 into the open. Now a short piece of this open 
 fifty yards or so, perhaps was visible from the 
 lower end of the field, where Hobson and David 
 were still coquetting with each other. Johnny 
 tried to skulk over this open ground. He might 
 as well have sought to evade the eyes of Argus. 
 The long-sighted bird caught the very first glint 
 of his cap. Insult and mealies were alike unavail- 
 ing now. He forsook the sire and made at the
 
 62 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 son with his great compass-like legs, covering the 
 ground in tremendous as well as rapid strides. 
 No race-horse ever cleared the ground like David 
 Marais! Johnny saw that the "game was up." 
 Applying his own long legs to the ground with a 
 will, he rushed at the nest. The female bounced 
 up, ran a few yards, and squatted in helpless 
 stupidity. Johnny counted the eggs, turned, and 
 fled. Not a moment too soon ! Indeed he was 
 too late, for the ostrich was already close up, and 
 Johnny's retreat by the way he had come was cut 
 off ; but he turned at a sharp angle, and made for 
 another clump of bushes, through which he plunged 
 with a wild hilarious laugh, into the safe retreat 
 of the river-bed. David Marais could not follow 
 there, but he doubtless consoled himself with 
 the reflection that he had gallantly defended his 
 wife and little ones, and had beaten the enemy 
 from the field 1 
 
 Nothing of all this had I seen, for the belt of 
 bushes hid the actors from view, but I heard the 
 ringing laugh with rather anxious surprise, and 
 saw Johnny emerge immediately after from the 
 banks of the stream, flushed and panting from 
 his adventure. 
 
 That I do not exaggerate the power and ferocity
 
 AN OSTRICH ATTACK. 63 
 
 of these birds, may be gathered from an incident 
 which occurred to Hobson himself, and which he 
 related on our way home. 
 
 One morning he rode to the enclosure of the 
 bird named " Master," and entered, intending to 
 feed him and his wife with mealies. "Master" 
 must have risen off his wrong side that morning, 
 for, instead of amiably accepting his breakfast, he 
 made a sudden and furious rush at his benefactor. 
 Hobson's horse wheeled round and bolted, no 
 wonder, with the claw of an ostrich acting as a 
 spur on his flank ! The horse was so frightened 
 that he fairly ran away. " Master " ran after him, 
 and, being much fleeter, kept on kicking his legs 
 and flanks, so that they were soon covered with 
 blood, and once he kicked so high as to cut the 
 crupper. The horse became almost mad with 
 terror, and quite ungovernable. It was chased 
 round and round the place, the walls being too 
 high to leap, and the gate having been closed. 
 At last the horse dashed madly into a mimosa 
 bush, and stuck fast. The impetuous " Master " 
 followed, but, before he could back out, Hobson 
 caught him by the throat in his powerful grasp. 
 He held on until Master choked. Not wishing 
 to kill the bird, he then let go, and Master dropt
 
 64 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 like a stone. Hobson then galloped to the river, 
 but Master, who recovered immediately, came 
 rushing on to renew the attack. Hobson, how- 
 ever, had found shelter and safety behind some 
 bushes in the bed of the stream. 
 
 Not long after our visit to David Marais, I 
 went with Six-foot Johnny to the territory which 
 belonged to Blind-boy. That sagacious bird 
 was not so blind but that, with his one eye, he 
 observed us coming, and met us more than half- 
 way. Knowing him to be, comparatively, a peace- 
 able bird, and being mounted, we entered the 
 enclosure and rode towards him. From certain 
 symptoms and rufflings of the feathers and cock- 
 ings of the tail, however, my companion knew 
 that Blind-boy was not as amiable as might have 
 been wished. 
 
 " Take care," said Johnny. 
 
 "Why?" said I. 
 
 " Because he 's angry." 
 
 The signs of wrath did not appear to me very 
 obvious, but I afterwards came to understand 
 that, in an ostrich, a small amount of demonstra- 
 tion means unfathomable depths of ire. 
 
 We rode slowly forward. Blind-boy advanced 
 as slowly, with a dangerous motion of the wings.
 
 INGLORIOUS FLIGHT. 65 
 
 " Keep on this side of the ditch," said Johnny. 
 " Now, then, we 'd better be off." 
 
 Before I well understood that it was advisable 
 to get out of the bird's way, my companion had 
 put spurs to his horse, and was off like an arrow. 
 Or ever I was aware what my horse meant to do, 
 I was almost thrown to the ground. He pirouetted 
 on his hind-legs without orders, and went off 
 like the wind. Nothing but a natural tendency 
 to hold tight with my knees prevented me from 
 being left beside Blindboy. We went at racing 
 speed to the gate, and then found, on looking back, 
 that we might have spared ourselves the rush, for 
 Blindboy was standing as we left him ! The ditch 
 had proved an impassable barrier, and he was 
 gazing after us in apparent wonder at our haste. 
 My own wonder at the smart behaviour of my 
 horse was removed when Johnny told me that it 
 was the identical steed his father had ridden when 
 attacked, as I have described, by Master. 
 
 Johnny himself was once assaulted, trampled 
 on, and severely cut about the head, by one of 
 these same ostriches, and might have been killed 
 if his father had not chanced to be at hand. 
 Johnny was younger at the time, and, in the 
 foolish ardour of youth, attempted to rise when 
 
 E
 
 66 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 knocked down. This gave the ostrich the oppor- 
 tunity of once and again repeating his blows. If 
 the lad had lain still he would have suffered less. 
 I might draw a beautiful moral on submission and 
 humility out of this, but won't. 
 
 Strange to say, the male ostrich loses nearly all 
 his courage when out of his own proper paddock 
 or domain. This was illustrated to me one morn- 
 ing in the case of Gouws. We were walking by 
 the side of his enclosure, and he was advancing 
 to meet us in his own belligerent style, when 
 we observed that the gate was open. Before we 
 could get near to close it Gouws marched through. 
 If we had entered his grounds an attack would 
 have been highly probable, but no sooner did he 
 find himself outside the accustomed wall than the 
 spirit in him changed. He looked confusedly 
 round at the unfamiliar objects, then dropped his 
 defiant tail, and fled. 
 
 It cost us the better part of a forenoon, with 
 temperature at 105 in the shade, before we suc- 
 ceeded in driving that bird back into his own 
 paddock, and all that time he was running away 
 from us, overwhelmed, apparently, with fear !
 
 THE KARROO. 67 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 MORE ABOUT OSTRICHES KARROO GARDENS A RIDE WITH 
 BONNY SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES ANECDOTES AND 
 INCIDENTS. 
 
 AH, these were happy days, when, with a con- 
 genial spirit, I drove and galloped over the South 
 African plains. There was not much in the way 
 of thrilling incidents, to be sure, and nothing 
 whatever of wild adventure, but there was novelty 
 in everything, and possibilities enough to keep 
 the spirit ever on the qui vive. 
 
 We used to ride out sometimes after steen- 
 boks, small harmless brown deer, that made little 
 show when bagged, but then there were huge 
 and horrid vultures to remind one of the sandy 
 desert, and there were pauws gigantic birds 
 that were splendid eating ; and the very thought 
 that I trod on land which little more than quarter 
 of a century back had been marked by the print 
 of the royal lion was in itself sufficient to arouse
 
 68 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 unwonted interest, which was increased by the 
 knowledge of -the fact that the kloofs or glens 
 and gorges, of the blue hills on the horizon were 
 at that time the natural homes of leopards or 
 " Cape-tigers " and huge baboons. 
 
 These animals are, however, extremely wary. 
 The baboons go about in troops, and are wont to 
 leave a trusty old-man baboon on guard, while the 
 rest go down at early morn to rob the settler of 
 his fruits and vegetables. If the old man happens 
 to see or scent danger he gives a signal and the 
 troop flies helter-skelter to the nearest cliffs. They 
 are therefore not easily got at by hunters. As to 
 " tigers," they go about stealthily like cats. I was 
 told there was not a chance of getting a shot at 
 them, unless I went out with dogs and a hunting 
 party for the purpose. As this could not be 
 accomplished at the time, I had to content myself 
 with smaller game. 
 
 Bonny (one of Hobson's younger sons) and I 
 went out one day after breakfast to try for a 
 steenbok before dinner. There were plenty of 
 them in the stretches of bush-land that dotted the 
 Karroo in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 farm-house. 
 
 Stretching out at a gallop with that light-
 
 HREIKIE S OSTRICH-FAMILY. 69 
 
 hearted hilarity which is engendered by bright 
 weather, fresh air, and equestration, we skirted 
 the river where Hreikie nursed her little flock. 
 
 Hreikie was a small Hottentot girl, as lightly 
 clad as was compatible with propriety. Her face 
 was dirty brown, her mouth large, her nose a 
 shapeless elevation with two holes in the front of 
 it. Her head was not covered, but merely 
 sprinkled with tight woolly knobs or curls the 
 size of peas. Each knob grew apart from its 
 neighbour knob, and was surrounded, so to speak, 
 by bald or desert land. This style of hair was 
 not peculiar to Hreikie alone, but to the whole 
 Hottentot race. Hreikie's family consisted of 
 thirty-three young ostriches, which, though only a 
 few weeks of age, stood, I think, upwards of two 
 feet high. Some of them had been brought out 
 by artificial incubation had been heated, as it 
 were, into existence without maternal aid. These 
 birds, Bonny said, had been already purchased for 
 15 sterling apiece, and were deliverable to the 
 purchaser in six months. They were fed and 
 guarded all day and housed each evening with 
 tender solicitude by their Hottentot stepmother, 
 whom the birds evidently regarded as their own 
 natural parent.
 
 70 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 We swept on past the garden, where, on a 
 previous morning, Bonny and I had killed a 
 deadly green-tree snake upwards of five feet long, 
 and where, on many other mornings, he and I, 
 with sometimes other members of the family 
 entered into strong temptation among the magni- 
 ficent fruit. We used to overcome the temptation 
 by giving way to it ! There were plums, peaches, 
 figs, apples, apricots, grapes, nectarines, and other 
 fruits, with which the trees were so laden that 
 some of the branches had given way and their 
 luscious loads were lying on the ground. Cart- 
 loads of these were given away to friends, and to 
 any one, as there was no market for their disposal. 
 
 Many splendid gardens like this exist on what 
 is sometimes styled the barren Karroo ; but the 
 land is anything but barren. All it requires is a 
 copious supply of water, and wherever farmers 
 have taken the trouble to form dams and store the 
 heavy though unfrequent rains, gardens of the 
 most prolific kind have been the result. The 
 Karroo bush itself, which gives name to these 
 plains, is a succulent plant, which thrives in the 
 almost waterless soil, and forms a rich pasturage 
 for sheep and cattle. Hobson's garden copiously 
 watered by streams led^out from his large dams
 
 MEET WITH A TORTOISE. 7l 
 
 was a beautiful shady oasis of green and gold, 
 in the midst of what, to some eyes, might have 
 appeared a desert, but which, if irrigated properly, 
 would become a perfect paradise of fertility. 
 
 We cantered on over the plain, till the garden 
 and the farm looked in the distance like ships at 
 sea, and rode among the bushes that crowned a 
 rising ground. We set up some guinea-fowl and 
 other birds, and startled a hare, but let them go, as 
 our aim was steenboks. The little deer, however, 
 were not on the knoll that day, so away we went 
 again at a gallop until the garden and the farm 
 went down on the horizon. 
 
 Sometimes we kept together and chatted, at 
 other times we diverged and skirted small clumps 
 of underwood on opposite sides. At one time, 
 while separated from Bonny, I saw a large stone 
 lying on the ground. As I looked, the stone began 
 to crawl ! It was a tortoise, fully as large as a 
 soup-tureen. The sight of an animal in its 
 " native wilds," which you have all your life been 
 accustomed to see in zoological gardens, has some- 
 thing peculiar, almost absurd, in it. As it is with 
 animals, so is it with other objects. I remember 
 being impressed with this idea, for the first time, 
 in the south of France, when I beheld a tree
 
 72 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 covered with lemons a fruit which, up to that 
 period, had been indissolubly connected in my 
 mind with grocers' windows and brown sugar ! 
 
 I turned aside and dismounted. The sluggish 
 tortoise stopped, recognised in me an enemy, and 
 drew in its head and feet. After lifting and 
 looking at him I set him down. Then it occurred 
 to me that some one had said a tortoise could 
 carry a man. I stepped upon this one's back 
 forthwith. He lay perfectly still for some time. 
 At last with great caution the head and feet were 
 protruded. Another pause, as if of meditation, then 
 the feet were applied to the ground ; they pushed 
 and strained, until finally the creature advanced 
 about two inches, and then stopped ! This was not 
 much, but it was sufficient to prove his great 
 strength, and to convince me that a large tortoise 
 could easily have walked off with a little boy. 
 
 I found Bonny dismounted and waiting. 
 
 " No steenboks to-day, I fear, " he said. 
 
 " We must have a shot at something, Bonny," 
 said I, dismounting, and sitting down on an ant- 
 hill. Having been a fair average shot in a rifle 
 corps in Scotland I took careful aim at a small 
 bush, bent on doing credit to the British Volun^ 
 teers. The result was a " bull's-eye."
 
 HITTING AND MISSING. 73 
 
 "Capital !" exclaimed Bonny ; " if you shoot like 
 that you'll kill plenty deer." 
 
 Half an hour later I was passing round the left 
 of a knoll, while Bonny took the right. Up leaped 
 a steenbok, which ran a hundred yards or so, and 
 stopped to look at me. I was already off the 
 horse and down in the Hythe position. A careful 
 aim was again taken. The result was "a miss " ! 
 while the small deer vanished like the smoke of 
 my rifle. So great is the difference between 
 target-practice and hunting ! 
 
 It was time now to think of returning for 
 dinner. I was thoroughly lost by that time in 
 the vast plain like a ship at sea without a com- 
 pass. But Bonny was as knowing in Karroo-craft 
 as a Kentucky hunter is in wood-craft. He steered 
 as true a course for "home" as if he had smelt 
 the leg of mutton that was roasting at the fire. 
 Probably he did in imagination ! Soon the two 
 ships reappeared on the horizon ; our fleet nags 
 quickly transformed them into the garden and 
 the farm, and in half an hour we were relating 
 our mild adventure round Hobson's hospitable 
 board. 
 
 "I'm going to visit brother Jonathan after 
 dinner : will you come "? " said my host.
 
 74 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 "Yes, with pleasure," said I, "but first, while 
 you have your siesta, I will go into the opposite 
 field and make that long-talked-of sketch of your 
 house." 
 
 "Very good ; I '11 send for you when the cart is 
 ready. There are some ostriches in the field, but 
 you don't need to mind them, for they are quite 
 young, although full-grown," 
 
 It is a common custom among South Africans 
 to take a nap in the heat of the day during 
 summer. They dine early, and the power of the 
 sun at that part of the day renders work almost 
 impossible. I could not at first fall in with this 
 custom ; therefore, while the family retired, I took 
 my sketch-book and colours and went off to the 
 field. 
 
 There was a mound, whence I could obtain a 
 good view of the house with its surroundings, the 
 cattle-kraal or enclosure, the course of the little 
 stream, with one of the small dams or lakelets, 
 and the garden, the whole backed by the blue 
 mountain range on the horizon. 
 
 The sun was blazing fiercely, but, as before 
 remarked, I delight in heat. Selecting a stone 
 I sat down, opened my book and colour-box, 
 and began. To those who don't know it I may
 
 SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 75 
 
 say that sketching is a most fascinating and en- 
 grossing species of work. I soon forgot where 
 I was, forgot Hobson, forgot time, forgot every- 
 thing in fact except the glowing face of nature, 
 when a sound recalled me. I looked round and 
 observed eight or ten huge ostriches stalking 
 towards me with slow funereal gait. I felt some- 
 what .uneasy, for their youth, of which Hobson 
 had assured me, was in no way indicated by their 
 huge bodies and dreadful legs. However, I had 
 taken the precaution to carry my forked stick, 
 and drawing it nearer continued at my work 
 with an easier mind. If they meant war I knew 
 escape to be hopeless, for the nearest wall was 
 a quarter of a mile off. 
 
 The females halted at a respectful distance, 
 but two of the largest black males came stalking 
 close up to me and stood still, gazing intently, 
 first with one eye, then with the other, at a dis- 
 tance of about six yards. 
 
 Meanwhile some of the females sat down, and 
 one of them put herself in an attitude so absurd 
 that I introduced her into the drawing. Presently 
 the largest male advanced a little nearer, and kept 
 somewhat behind me. This was embarrassing. 
 It occurred to me that, in the art of war, an
 
 76 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 attacking party is supposed to have the advantage 
 of one that is assaulted. I therefore rose, brought 
 my fork to the charge, and went at the bird with 
 a furious roar. It turned and ran a few yards, but 
 stopped when I stopped, and began to return 
 slowly, as before, the moment I had sat down. As 
 it drew nearer I observed that it eyed my colour- 
 box curiously. Stories about the peculiar taste of 
 these giant birds recurred to me. People say they 
 will eat anything. Their digestive powers have 
 passed into a proverb. The day before I had given 
 an ostrich a large apple, which it coolly bolted, and 
 I could trace the progress of the apple by the lump 
 in its throat as it passed rather slowly down. 
 Some one Bonny I rather think had told me 
 he had seen an ostrich accept and swallow a bottle 
 of shoe-blacking ! . Anything bright is sure to 
 attract the eye of an ostrich and be coveted. I 
 trembled for my colour-box, and, seizing my fork, 
 charged again. 
 
 About this time Bonny himself came to say 
 that the cart was ready. We therefore packed up 
 and came away. The ostriches, he said, were too 
 young to think of molesting us, though he ad- 
 mitted that they would probably have swallowed 
 the colour-box if I had allowed them. They
 
 SKETCHING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. PAGE 76.
 
 THIEVING TOTT1ES. 77 
 
 followed us down to the gate, and finally saw us 
 safely off their premises. 
 
 " Father once had an ostrich," said Bonny, as 
 we walked towards the house, "that caught a 
 couple of thieves for him." 
 
 " Indeed ! how was that, Bonny V 
 
 "You are aware that Kafirs are terrible 
 thieves ?" he replied. 
 
 " Yes, I Ve been given to understand that they 
 have propensities that way." 
 
 " Oh ! but you have no idea how clever they are 
 at it, and the Totties are just as bad, if not worse. 
 On one occasion we had a nest of eggs in the 
 field over there, which we had left to be hatched 
 in the natural way by the hen-ostrich. One night 
 it rained very hard so hard that we feared the 
 young ones would be drowned in the nest, so 
 brother Johnny was sent to look after them. He 
 took two Totties with him. It was very dark, but 
 he found the nest with the cock bird sitting on it. 
 You know the cock always sits at night. "Well, 
 Johnny took him by the nose and pulled him off 
 the nest, and gave him to the two Totties to hold. 
 It was hard work, but they kept his head well down, 
 so that he couldn't kick. Johnny soon bagged 
 all the little ones, leaped over the wall, and then
 
 V8 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 called out to let go the cock. It was so dark that 
 he couldn't see very well. He could only hear a 
 scuffle, and then saw the two men bounding over 
 the wall like indiarubber balls while the cock 
 went bang against it like a battering-ram. We 
 got the little ones home all safe, but, would you 
 believe it ? these rascally Totties had managed to 
 pull out all the best wing-feathers while they 
 were holding the cock each feather worth, per- 
 haps, fifteen or twenty shillings and got clear 
 away with 'em to the canteen, where they can 
 always sell stolen goods. 
 
 " But that 's not what I was going to tell you," 
 continued Bonny. " It was about two Kafir 
 thieves who were going round the country steal- 
 ing. They came to our place one evening, and, in 
 the course of their depredations, happened to 
 cross one of the fields where a pair of our ostriches 
 had a nest. The cock had not yet commenced 
 his night duty on the nest. He caught sight 
 of the two Kafirs, and was down on them in- 
 stantly, like lightning. They took refuge in a 
 mimosa-thorn, and there he kept them all 
 night. It was no use their trying to make a bolt 
 for it, because twice or three times their speed 
 could not have saved them from the ostrich.
 
 KARROO FARMING. 79~ 
 
 There they remained, and there father found 'em 
 next morning, when he rode out to feed the 
 birds." 
 
 The sturdy sons of this Karroo farmer had no 
 light duty to perform each day. The farm was 
 twenty miles in length, and of variable breadth. 
 There were no crops raised on it, save the fruit 
 of the splendid garden already mentioned, some 
 grapes, and a few mealies. The sources of gain 
 were ostriches and their feathers, Angora goat hair 
 (mohair), horses, sheep-wool, and cattle, looking 
 after which kept father and sons pretty constantly 
 in the saddle. It was a dashing style of life, 
 requiring robust health and spirits. I have seen 
 one or both of the boys return of an evening 
 after having been up at five or six, and out all 
 day, scarce able to decide whether to eat or 
 sleep ! Counting and guarding the flocks formed 
 a part of the duty. 
 
 One evening the report was brought that a 
 horse and thirteen bucks had disappeared. The 
 Kafir thief had driven them off in the direction 
 of Somerset. There he had been questioned 
 closely as to where he came from, etc. His replies 
 not being satisfactory, the animals were seized 
 and put in the pound, whence they were after-
 
 80 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 wards reclaimed, while the thief escaped being 
 put in the " tronk," or jail, by a sudden dart into 
 the jungle of the Boshberg ! 
 
 My friend and I were soon on ' the road which 
 led to the farm of his brother Jonathan. It stood 
 about two miles distant. On our way we had to 
 pass one corner of the private domain of Black 
 Jack, or David Marais, I forget which I think 
 it was the former. He was there ready for us, 
 and evidently in a rage at the mere possibility of 
 our intrusion, for the wings were going like flails 
 and the tail was up. Hobson pulled up to look 
 at him for a minute. I got down and went to 
 the wall, knowing that it afforded perfect security. 
 Black Jack came up slowly, as if he meant no 
 mischief. I leant over the wall, which was breast- 
 high, and poked fun at him. In an instant, like 
 a flash of light, he came at me. I saw his great 
 claw over my head, and almost before I could 
 jump back, a couple of heavy stones were driven 
 violently off the top of the wall. To bolt and 
 jump into the cart was almost an involuntary and 
 instantaneous impulse on my part, though there 
 was no need for haste, because the furious biped 
 could not leap the wall. 
 
 " Yes," remarked my friend, with a quiet chuckle,
 
 BROTHER JONATHAN'S OSTRICH. 8 1 
 
 as we drove along ; " I expected as much. Black 
 Jack is in a bad humour to-day." 
 
 The farm of Jonathan lay at the side of the 
 stream which watered that of his brother. It was 
 a pretty place. We drove through the stream to 
 get to the house. On entering we found Jonathan 
 standing in his hall, besprinkled with his own 
 blood, and smiling. He was one of those tall, 
 thin, powerful sort of men, with genial good- 
 humour wrinkling the corners of their eyes, who 
 seem to be ready to smile at everything, pleasant 
 or otherwise, that befalls them. 
 
 " Hallo ! what 's wrong, Jonathan ? " asked 
 his brother, with a touch of tenderness in his 
 tone. 
 
 " Nothing particular," replied the other ; " I Ve 
 just had a tussle with one of my birds. He 
 wriggled out of the stick and kicked me." 
 
 On more particular inquiry we found that 
 Jonathan and his son another powerful six-footer 
 had gone that morning to search for eggs, which 
 they felt sure must have been laid somewhere 
 about the enclosed field. To keep the male bird in 
 play while the search was being made, the father 
 took his forked stick, met the cock in single combat, 
 clapped the fork on his neck, and let him kick 
 
 F
 
 82 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 away. All might have gone well, for the father, 
 besides being strong, was accustomed to such work ; 
 but the bird, instead of keeping up a straight- 
 forward assault, as it ought to have done, turned 
 its back to its foe, wriggled its neck, in some 
 inexplicable manner, out of the fork, and before 
 it could be refixed had given Jonathan several 
 tremendous kicks. One of these nearly tore his 
 trousers to pieces, and another cut him across the 
 right wrist in to the bone. This rendered his right 
 arm powerless for the moment, and it might have 
 gone ill with him, had not his son, who was still 
 in sight, observed what had occurred, and run 
 back to the rescue. As it was, the father's wrist 
 was severely, though I hope not permanently, 
 damaged. 
 
 On a certain occasion three friends visited 
 Ebenezer. One of these we shall call him Squib 
 was a sporting character, and anxious to have 
 a shot at the guinea-fowl which abounded on the 
 farm. Hobson, with characteristic amiableness, 
 readily agreed to pilot him and his friends. 
 
 " The ground, however," said Hobson, " is part 
 of the domain which belongs to one of my 
 ostriches, whose temper is uncertain. I don't feel 
 sure of him. Perhaps it would be better "
 
 JONATHAN HUDSON'S FIGHT WITH AN OSTRICH. PAOK 82.
 
 HUNTING UNDER ESCORT. 83 
 
 " Oh ! never mind that," interrupted Squib ; 
 " we 're not afraid of ostriches. Come along." 
 
 " Very well," returned the host, " come along." 
 
 And along they went to the domain of Gouws, 
 who was found pacing solemnly inside the wall of 
 his enclosure. His wings were active, and his tail 
 was cocked. Otherwise he was calm enough to 
 all appearance. Hobson knew that the bird was 
 in a rage, and said so, but his friends, who were 
 young and reckless, insisted on entering the en- 
 closure. 
 
 They did so, and Gouws followed them with 
 a stately air, but did not attack, being no doubt 
 perplexed by numbers. 
 
 They walked in Indian file, Hobson being the 
 last of the line. 
 
 " I could turn him with a bit of a bush," said 
 Squib, glancing at Gouws, who was drawing 
 gradually nearer to the party. "Just cut one 
 for me, Hobson, will you, like a good fellow ? " 
 
 Hobson turned aside and stooped to cut a branch 
 from a mimosa-bush. 
 
 Just k then the ostrich, which had marched 
 ahead of the party, turned sharp round and 
 charged. Poor Squib tripped, by good luck, and 
 fell as the bird passed over him. It kicked down
 
 84 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 the other two, and sprang on the shoulders of the 
 stooping Hobson, who fell and gashed his finger 
 as the bird tumbled over him. 
 
 The whole party rose with marvellous celerity, 
 and the sportsmen rushed towards the boundary 
 wall, while Gouws scrambled on his long legs and 
 ran after them. Had the distance been great, 
 their chance of escape would have been small. 
 As it was, Gouws overtook one of the party 
 just as he reached a part of the wall which had 
 been mended with mimosa-thorn bushes. With 
 one tremendous kick he sent the unfortunate man 
 into the midst of the thorns, where he would 
 certainly have given him further punishment had 
 he not been attracted by a yell of alarm from 
 another of the party. Poor Squib was not fleet 
 of foot or active. He made a clumsy attempt 
 to vault the wall, which his companions had 
 already leaped. Leaving his thorn-pierced vic- 
 tim, Gouws made at Squib, applied his huge foot 
 to his person, with a slap that must have forcibly 
 recalled the days of childhood, and sent him over 
 the wall with undignified haste. It is generally 
 believed that Squib has not gone guinea-fowl 
 shooting among ostriches since that day ! 
 
 The profits on ostrich feathers are very consider-
 
 OSTRICH-FARMING. 85 
 
 able. I do not profess to give statistical informa- 
 tion in these pages, but merely touch lightly on 
 what came under my observation. At one farm 
 which I visited near Capetown I was told that 
 the owner had cleared 2500 in one year. Timid 
 men are sometimes alarmed by depressions in the 
 trade in feathers, and some of them have sold off 
 their birds at heavy loss this year ; but bold and 
 hopeful men continue to persevere and prosper, 
 as such men always will in every trade all the world 
 over. That ostrich-farming has been found worthy 
 of zealous attention is proved by the fact that, 
 while in 1865 there were only between eighty 
 and ninety birds in the colony, in 1875 there were 
 upwards of 22,000. 
 
 Some days afterwards, I pretty well completed 
 my circle of knowledge on this subject by witness- 
 ing the birth of an ostrich ! 
 
 Hobson and I rode that day over to a lovely 
 place named Glenbonny, on the edge of that part 
 of the Karroo where the mountainous lands begin. 
 It was a charming ride of forty miles there and 
 back with a pleasant visit, and a rest between. 
 Here dwelt relatives of my friend a family 
 named Berrington one daughter of which (with 
 wealth of golden hair) had been a shipmate on
 
 86 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 the voyage out. The principal neighbours of this 
 family were tigers and baboons. There was a 
 minor population of deer, hyenas, hares, coneys, 
 monkeys, and moles, but no human beings of any 
 kind. Their dwelling was low and flat-roofed, 
 the walls being coated with mud, so that its 
 aspect outside was not imposing, but inside we 
 found substantial comfort if not luxury, refine- 
 ment, and hospitality. This is not an infrequent 
 combination in the outlying districts of the Cape, 
 where the nature of life and things is such that 
 wealth, education, and refinement are often found 
 robed in a modest homespun garb, and housed in 
 a mere hut. 
 
 Among other objects of interest inside we found 
 ostriches very little ones in divers stages of 
 progression. There was one, the size of an 
 ordinary fowl, which had been in existence 
 after egg-life I mean a few days, and swaggered 
 about the premises with the overbearing impu- 
 dence of precocious childhood. There was an- 
 other baby weak in the understanding, physi- 
 cally as well as mentally which staggered about 
 in a drunken manner, with an insane tendency to 
 use its tail as a support. This creature was kept 
 in existence by having its food forcibly crammed
 
 OSTRICH-BREEDING. 87 
 
 down its throat, the amount given each meal 
 being gauged not by appetite but by the tension 
 of its stomach. Last, and least, there was one 
 which had succeeded in bursting out one end of 
 its native egg that morning. Its already tremen- 
 dous toes protruded, and were engaged in further 
 acts of demolition when we arrived. While we 
 were at dinner that day the creature effected its 
 liberation, and entered on the staggering and 
 stuffing phase of its career. 
 
 All these birds, and many others, had been 
 nursed into life through a hot-air and warm- 
 blanket incubator, by the amiable lady of the 
 house, and were destined to spend a chequered 
 boy and girl-hood under the care of some Hot- 
 tentot stepmother.
 
 88 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTEE VI. 
 
 OVER THE PLAINS LION AND TIGER REMINISCENCES FRONTIER 
 FORCES AND ESCAPED CONVICTS MONKEYS AND PRICKLY 
 PEARS A VETERAN SETTLER'S EXPERIENCES OF KAFIR WAR- 
 FARE STORY OF THE DUTCH FARMERS' RISING IN 1815. 
 
 IT was a sad day that on which I left the Karroo 
 and bade farewell to Ebenezer. 
 
 I had gone there in absolute ignorance of men 
 and things, and had found a hearty welcome in 
 the abode of a warm-hearted Christian family 
 and a romantic region, full, to me, of new ideas, 
 experiences, circumstances, and sensations. 
 
 Hobson drove me in his cart. Our destination 
 was the mountain region of Baviaans, or Baboons, 
 Eiver. 
 
 The first part of our route lay across the Karroo 
 and over the mountain range which separated us 
 from the town of Somerset East. As we sped 
 along, drawn by two powerful horses, over the 
 ocean-like plains, we were silent at first, but
 
 OVER THE PLAINS. 89 
 
 gradually the cheering influence of rapid motion 
 and fine weather began to tell. Our spirits rose, 
 and Hobson related numerous anecdotes, his- 
 torical and adventurous, from the rich stores of 
 a good memory. 
 
 About noon we outspanned beside a, stream 
 and allowed the horses to have a roll. Under the 
 shade of a bush, we lay and chatted while our 
 eyes roamed over the rolling plains to the blue 
 mountain range which formed its northern 
 boundary. 
 
 " There," said my friend, pointing towards the 
 mountains, " is the spot where one of the last lions 
 was seen in this part of the country. There were 
 plenty of them here once, and the last one dis- 
 appeared only thirty-six years ago." 
 
 He then related the incident connected with the 
 lion referred to. The following is the substance 
 of it. 
 
 Early in the year 1840 a runaway soldier was 
 travelling through that part of the country. He 
 was on his way to Graaff-Keinet in search of work. 
 At the present time in that region farm-houses 
 are few and far between. At that time they were 
 still more sparse. The wearied soldier came one 
 evening to the house of a Boer named Smit, not
 
 90 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 many miles from the spot where Hobson and I 
 were reposing. 
 
 Smit was a surly fellow, and refused shelter to 
 the traveller, who was therefore obliged to continue 
 his journey during the night. Next day the un- 
 fortunate man's mangled body was found not far 
 off, a few yards from the foot of a small tree. The 
 traces revealed clearly that he had been killed by 
 a lion, whose footprints had been seen and voice 
 heard for some time in the neighbourhood. On 
 the approach of the lion the man had sought refuge 
 in the small tree just mentioned, but being little 
 better than a large bush, it failed him in the hour 
 of need. Even when perched on the highest 
 branch that would bear him, he was not beyond 
 the spring of the lion. It had caught him, torn 
 him down and devoured his breast and arms, after 
 which it left him. 
 
 This was the last lion in that region that suc- 
 ceeded in taking human life. Six months later 
 the last lion of all made his appearance. He was 
 evidently a less ferocious animal, and made his 
 final exit in a rather humorous manner. In his 
 prowling about he chanced to find an old Dutch- 
 man, and pounced upon him, but the old man had 
 his wits about him. At first sight of his enemy
 
 THE LAST LION. 91 
 
 he let himself go limp as if dead. Lions are par- 
 ticular. They don't like dead meals ; they prefer 
 to kill their own dinners. After pouncing on his 
 prey the lion put his mouth to the old fellow's ear 
 and roared. If he was not deaf for life after that 
 he ought to have been ! At all events he was deaf 
 at the time to the remark, for he paid no attention 
 to it whatever. Then the lion pawed him a little, 
 lay down on him, rolled him about as a cat plays 
 with a mouse, and ultimately couched a few yards 
 off to watch jealously for the slightest sign of life. 
 But the Dutchman was a splendid actor. Even 
 in breathing he managed to remain motionless, 
 and at last the lion sneaked away overwhelmed 
 with disappointment. Then the old man slowly 
 lifted his head, rose, congratulated himself, and 
 returned home in a thankful state of mind. 
 
 Although lions had finally taken themselves off, 
 and retired to safer and more distant retreats, the 
 mountain glens of the neighbourhood were, as I 
 have already said, still inhabited by leopards of 
 large size and dangerous temper. 
 
 " They are powerful and savage fellows," said 
 my friend, as he rose to inspan, "and few men 
 like to face them unless assisted by a party, and 
 with good dogs. One friend of mine, a doctor,
 
 92 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 used to boast that he could stare a leopard out of 
 countenance. At last one was caught in a trap, 
 and the doctor tried the experiment, but only got 
 knocked over and his nose scratched for his pains. 
 There was a curious instance, once, of a Fingo 
 going mad in consequence of being bitten by a 
 leopard. The madness took the form of his feign- 
 ing to be a leopard, and there was no doubt as 
 to his insanity, for he continually growled and 
 scratched and snapped with his teeth, and finished 
 off by jumping through a glass door. Now then, 
 the cart 's ready ; in you go." 
 
 I jumped in, and off we went again over the 
 sweet-scented plain, now on a good bit of road, 
 now on a bad ; often forsaking the track alto- 
 gether, and occasionally plunging into holes that 
 knocked our heads against the hood, and tried 
 our springs to the uttermost, till evening at last 
 found us among the hills, where a rough-and- 
 ready inn afforded us shelter for the night. 
 
 Passing through Somerset we came to a place 
 named Cookhouse Drift, where there is a bridge 
 over the Great Fish Eiver. Near to it stood a 
 public-house of somewhat bad character. Here 
 we found many Kafirs lying about under the 
 shelter of the aloes, sleeping off the effects of
 
 THE NAKED SAVAGE. 93 
 
 their potations of " Cape-smoke " or native 
 brandy. 
 
 We also met here with seven troopers of the 
 frontier, armed and mounted police, as tight and 
 serviceable a set of young fellows as one could wish 
 to see clad in corduroy, thorough-going, rough- 
 and-ready colonial cavalry, and well trained to 
 bush fighting. They were out after seven escaped 
 convicts, and had caught one, a big Kafir, who 
 was handcuffed, and seemed sulky when I looked 
 at him. 
 
 At another place, where the prickly pear was 
 very prolific, and the bush so dense that it formed 
 a pretty safe retreat to escaped convicts, as well as 
 baboons and tigers, we discovered a band of Kafirs 
 celebrating a wedding. Many a time have I read 
 of the debased condition of savages, and something 
 of them I have seen among the " Red men " of 
 North America, but never have I witnessed such 
 regardless indecency as was exhibited on this 
 occasion by these human baboons. 
 
 Hobson stopped the cart and waited while I 
 went to look at them. They paid no attention to 
 me. The men, who were absolutely naked, were 
 engaged in a slow, meaningless dance, which con- 
 sisted chiefly of stamping the feet, in regular time,
 
 94 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 while the women, who were nearly naked, clapped 
 their hands in time and sang. Truly there is 
 great need for the Gospel's purifying influence 
 here ! 
 
 The prickly pears, which were ripe at this 
 time, we found to be very pleasant and refreshing, 
 but we had to handle them circumspectly, as they 
 were covered with prickles so fine that they pierced 
 the skin and broke off the pear with the least 
 touch. The great evil of prickly pear thorns is 
 that it is almost impossible to extract them, and 
 although it can scarcely be said that they cause 
 pain, the irritation they produce is great and pro- 
 longed. The monkeys know this well ! 
 
 I was greatly amused once, while delayed at a 
 road-side inn, by the antics of a monkey with a 
 prickly pear. I had fed him with part of one, of 
 which he seemed passionately fond. Wishing to 
 know whether monkeys as well as men were 
 cautious in handling the fruit, I pulled another by 
 means of a couple of sticks. The usual mode of 
 proceeding is to rub the pear on the ground with 
 a bunch of grass, and thus remove the prickles, 
 when it may be handled with impunity. Without 
 doing this however, I lifted the pear with my 
 sticks and handed it to Jacko. He looked at it
 
 JACKO AND THE PRICKLY PEAR. 95 
 
 earnestly for a few seconds, then at me with a 
 round mouth and reproachful eyes, as though to 
 say, " You don't mean that, do you 1" 
 
 I smiled and nodded. 
 
 Jacko looked again at the pear and put one 
 finger towards it with great caution, but drew 
 back and looked up at me again, as if to say, 
 " Wont you help me ?" 
 
 I smiled again and shook my head, whereupon 
 he went to work with the most gingerly and 
 delicate touches, as if he were handling red-hot 
 iron. At last he managed to tear a hole in the 
 skin, into which he inserted his black nose and 
 greedily devoured the contents. Despite his 
 caution, however, I noticed that Jacko kept 
 scratching his hands pretty steadily for some time 
 afterwards. 
 
 As we advanced into the hills the roads became 
 unimaginably bad. In one place our track had 
 been carried away by a flood, and the boulder- 
 covered bed of the torrent was our only 
 road. 
 
 At last we got up into the mountain region of 
 Glen Lynden, the place to which the Scotch 
 settlers were sent by Government in 1820, under 
 the care of the late Thomas Pringle, the "African
 
 96 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 poet," who, among other pieces, wrote the beautiful 
 poem which begins : 
 
 " Afar in the desert I love to ride, 
 With the silent Bushboy alone by my side." 
 
 The descendants of the 1820 men now occupy 
 these valleys. Both in physique and character 
 they do credit to their sires. 
 
 Here I met one of the few survivors of the 
 original settlers, Mr. Dodds Pringle, and brother 
 to the poet. Although upwards of seventy, and 
 a large, stout man, I saw him mount his horse 
 with the activity of a man of thirty. At his house 
 in Glen Lynedock, where I spent a night, they 
 showed me an assagai, or Kafir spear, which had 
 been bent into the form of a half-moon against 
 his (Mr. Dodds') stomach ! It happened thus : 
 
 He was out fighting with the rest of the farmers 
 in the war of 1851, and one day was attacked by 
 Kafirs, one of whom flung his assagai at him 
 with tremendous force. Mr. Pringle had just 
 fired his rifle, and was reloading when the assagai 
 struck him. It was arrested, however, in its 
 deadly flight by his belt and bullet-pouch. The 
 savage rushed forward, intending to finish his 
 adversary by a thrust from a short spear, but old 
 Dodds guarded the thrust with one hand, while,
 
 PR INGLE'S NARROW ESCAPE. 97 
 
 with the other, he drew a pistol and shot the Kafir 
 through the heart. At that moment another 
 savage ran at him, but a comrade of Pringle sud- 
 denly came on the scene and the savage turned to 
 fly. The comrade took aim at him. 
 
 " Be cool, and take him low," said Pringle, un- 
 doing his belt to examine his wound. 
 
 The comrade fired, and the savage fell. 
 
 "Are you killed ?" he asked with much anxiety, 
 turning to Pringle and glancing at the bent 
 assagai. 
 
 " I don't know," replied the other, with a serious 
 look, as he thrust his hand under his waist-belt, 
 " there 's no hole that I can find anyhow." 
 
 The hand, when withdrawn, was covered with 
 blood, but it was found on examination that the 
 wound was slight, thanks to the providential 
 interposition of the thick bullet-pouch. The 
 old gentleman is now naturally fond of show- 
 ing the weapon which had so nearly proved 
 fatal.* 
 
 Advancing into the Baviaans River District we 
 passed through many places of historic interest, 
 and scenery that must have reminded the Scottish 
 
 * Since the above was written the gallant and hearty old man 
 has passed away, deeply regretted by all who knew him. 
 
 G
 
 98 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 settlers of the rugged glens to which they had 
 bidden farewell for ever. 
 
 Among other places, Hobson pointed out a 
 small cavern, high up on the cliffs, which was the 
 scene of a bloody affray not many years before 
 the arrival of the Scotch settlers in the district. 
 
 As it illustrates the wild frontier life of those 
 times, and bears on the subject of Colonial griev- 
 ances, I shall relate it. 
 
 There was a Dutch boer, or farmer, named 
 Bezuidenhout, who, in the year 1815, dwelt in the 
 lonely and wild recesses of the Baviaans River 
 District. He seems to have been a passionate, 
 headstrong man. The Dutch boers were generally 
 honest, sterling men, though at that time very 
 ignorant, being far removed from the means of 
 instruction. But Dutchmen, not less than others, 
 have wild and foolish men amongst them, who 
 were easily misled by designing and unprincipled 
 adventurers. 
 
 Bezuidenhout seems to have been one of these ; 
 at all events he was savage enough to treat one 
 of his Hottentot servants so ill that he was cited 
 to appear before the Court of his district, and was 
 foolish enough to resist the summons. A messen- 
 ger was therefore sent to arrest him, and as he
 
 A REBEL. 99 
 
 was known to be a daring character, and had 
 threatened to shoot any limb of the law who should 
 dare to approach his residence, twenty men of 
 the Cape Corps, under Lieutenant Rousseau ac- 
 companied the messenger. 
 
 On reaching the mountain home of Bezuidenhout 
 they found him prepared. He and a powerful 
 half-caste in his employment were found sheltered 
 behind the high wall of a cattle enclosure, well 
 armed. The Dutchman called to the soldiers to 
 stop, else he would shoot the first man. Dis- 
 regarding the threat, the lieutenant extended 
 his men in skirmishing order, and attacked. 
 Bezuidenhout fired, happily missed, and retreated 
 into his house, whence he passed by a back-door 
 into the thick jungle in rear. They lost him for 
 a time, but finally traced him to a steep krantz, 
 or precipice, up the almost inaccessible face of 
 which he and his follower had taken refuge in a 
 small cavern. The muzzles of their rifles were 
 seen protruding from the entrance. Lieutenant 
 Rousseau therefore crept up warily, until he 
 reached a ledge above the aperture, from which 
 point he challenged the farmer to surrender, 
 telling him the reason of his being there, and 
 assuring him of personal safety.
 
 100 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 The infatuated man replied he would die rather 
 than submit. The Lieutenant expostulated, and 
 endeavoured to persuade him to surrender, but 
 he was obdurate. Night was approaching. The 
 officer was anxious to get his men out of these 
 dark kloofs in daylight. He therefore ordered 
 them to ascend in two bodies. They did so, 
 reached .the cave, and rushed to the entrance, from 
 which Bezuidenhout fired, but without effect, the 
 muzzle of his rifle having been thrown up. At 
 the same moment one of the soldiers fired into 
 the cavern, and shot the farmer dead on the spot. 
 The servant surrendered, and on entering the 
 place it was found that a large quantity of 
 ammunition had been collected there, evidently 
 with a view to standing a siege. 
 
 After the departure of the military, the relations 
 and friends of the unfortunate and misguided man 
 assembled to bury him, and, over his grave, they 
 vowed to avenge his death. A brother of Bezui- 
 denhout harangued them, and so wrought on their 
 feelings that a great number of the farmers of that 
 and the neighbouring districts ultimately as- 
 sembled under arms, with the avowed intention 
 of ridding themselves altogether of British inter- 
 ference ! They went still further, and took a step
 
 REBELLION OP THE BOERS. 101 
 
 which might have been much more serious. They 
 sent Cornelius Faber, a brother-in-law of the 
 Bezuidenhouts, to the Kafir chief Gaika for the 
 purpose of rousing that savage and his hordes to 
 attack the Colony. 
 
 Of course Government was obliged to frustrate 
 such an attempt with all possible speed. Troops 
 were immediately sent against the rebels, under 
 Colonel Cuyler. One of the rebel leaders, named 
 Prinsloo, was captured at a critical moment, and 
 the main body, amounting to between three and 
 four hundred, was finally met with. But before 
 proceeding to extremities, a field -commandant, 
 William Nel, volunteered to go alone among the 
 rebels, and reason with them. He did so, and 
 was so far successful as to shake the resolution of 
 some, for, although disaffected, many of these 
 men were by no means so foolish as their leaders. 
 Indeed, many of them had been threatened and 
 coerced into rebellion. Seeing the effect of Nel's 
 remonstrances, Faber, Bezuidenhout, and other 
 leaders, assembled their forces at a place called 
 Slachters Nek, and exacted from them an oath to 
 remain faithful to each other until they had 
 expelled the tyrants from the frontier. 
 
 Next morning Colonel Cuyler proceeded to
 
 102 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 attack them. On his approach thirty or more 
 of them threw down their arms in token of sur- 
 render ; the remainder, seeing that resistance would 
 be hopeless, retired into the fastnesses of Baviaans 
 River. There they were followed and surrounded, 
 and an attempt was made to bring them to sub- 
 mission, but during the night most of them man- 
 aged to escape by familiar mountain-passes. 
 
 The principal leaders, rejecting all terms, 
 escaped with their wagons, families, and goods 
 to the Winterberg Mountains, bordering on Kafir- 
 land, where they hoped to be safe ; but, being 
 followed up hotly by a body of troops under 
 Major Fraser, they were eventually overtaken and 
 surrounded in a deep kloof. Here six of them 
 were brought to bay, among whom were Faber, 
 with his wife, his son a lad of fourteen years, 
 and John Bezuidenhout. These, retiring behind 
 the wagons, a skirmish began, which was not 
 concluded until one of the soldiers was killed, 
 another wounded, Bezuidenhout shot, and Faber 
 and his wife and son severely wounded. Then 
 the party were taken prisoners. 
 
 Subsequently fifty or sixty of the other rebels 
 were captured and taken to Capetown. Of these 
 thirty-nine of the most culpable were tried on the
 
 EXECUTION OF RINGLEADERS. 103 
 
 charge of high treason. Six were condemned to 
 death ; the others, after being compelled to wit- 
 ness the execution of their leaders, were to 
 undergo various degrees of punishment, accord- 
 ing to their proved culpability. One of the six 
 afterwards had the capital sentence commuted to 
 transportation for life. 
 
 The execution of the five ringleaders was a 
 terrible affair, which has left an indelible impres- 
 sion on the Colony. The gallows was erected on 
 the place named Slachters Nek, where the leaders 
 had caused their comrades to swear fidelity to 
 each other and their cause. Through some mis- 
 management the erection was not sufficiently 
 strong to bear the weight of five heavy men. It 
 fell to the ground under their struggles. The 
 half-strangled men crawled to the feet of Colonel 
 Cuyler, who, with a body of troops, was there to 
 see the sentence carried out. They begged for 
 mercy amid the shouts and cries of their agonised 
 friends, who could scarcely be restrained by the 
 military, and who regarded the accident as a direct 
 interposition of Providence. But the Colonel 
 turned a deaf ear to them. The gallows was 
 again set up, and the five men finally ended their 
 mortal career. The last request of their sobbing
 
 104 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 friends, that they might obtain their dead bodies, 
 was refused ! 
 
 I am not an apologist for lawless disorder, 
 neither do I think that it is safe to interfere with 
 the course of justice, except under very peculiar 
 circumstances ; but I feel strongly that the friends 
 of these men were right, that God did give to 
 Colonel Cuyler a very good opportunity on that 
 occasion to pause and see whether it might not 
 please his superiors to temper justice with mercy. 
 The majesty of the law had been vindicated, for 
 no one could doubt the thorough earnestness of 
 the intention that these men should be hung, 
 while the mercy of the law-makers might have 
 very appropriately been extended in connection 
 with the accident. 
 
 It would not have been altogether out of place, 
 too, if the Government had taken into considera- 
 tion the fact that these men had to a large 
 extent been driven to rebellion by its own 
 mismanagement. It was not the death of 
 Frederick Bezuidenhout alone which roused them 
 to .frenzy. If it be true that " oppression driveth 
 a wise man mad," what is to be expected of the 
 somewhat unwise and the ignorant ? It was 
 years upon years of misgovernment, misapprehen-
 
 JUSTICE AND MERCY. 105 
 
 sion, injustice, and sometimes pure oppression, that 
 created the bitter feeling of indignation against 
 the British which burned if, indeed, it does not 
 still burn in the Dutch- African breast, and I feel 
 quite sure that we should never have heard of the 
 " rebellion of the frontier boers," the " emigration 
 of the Dutch farmers," the Orange Free State, 
 or the Transvaal Kepublic, if it had not been 
 for the high-handed tyranny and the dense stu- 
 pidity of the Colonial Governments of days gone 
 
 '
 
 106 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 LION-HUNTING, ETC., IN THE EARLY DAYS BDSHMEN AND 
 THEIR TROUBLES. 
 
 IT is deeply interesting to tread in the footsteps 
 of bold adventurous men, and visit the scenes 
 which have been rendered classic by their deeds 
 of heroic daring or of patient endurance. So I 
 found it during my brief sojourn in the regions 
 of Baviaans Eiver, where, upwards of fifty years 
 before, my countrymen had faced, fought, and 
 subdued the savage, the wilderness, and the wild 
 beast. ' 
 
 Their poet-leader has written many a grand and 
 graphic account of episodes of that period. I 
 quote one which, although published, may not 
 be so well known as it deserves. It refers by 
 name to men who have figured in colonial history, 
 and whose descendants still people the mountains 
 and valleys in the neighbourhood of Glen 
 Lynden.
 
 PKINGLE'S POEM. 107 
 
 THE LION HUNT. 
 
 MOUNT, mount for the hunting, with musket and spear ! 
 Call our friends to the field for the Lion is near ! 
 Call Arend and Ekhard and Groepe to the spoor ; * 
 Call Muller and Coetzer and Lucas Van Vurr. 
 
 Side up Eildon Cleugh, and blow loudly the bugle : 
 Call Slinger and Allie and Dikkop and Dugal, 
 And George with the elephant-gun on his shoulder 
 In perilous pinch none is better or bolder. 
 
 In the gorge of the glen lie the bones of my steed, 
 And the hoofs of a heifer of fatherland breed : 
 But mount, my brave boys ! if our rifles prove true, 
 We '11 soon make the spoiler his ravages rue. 
 
 Ho ! the Hottentot lads have discovered the track 
 To his den in the desert we '11 follow him back ; 
 But tighten your girths, and look well to your flints, 
 For heavy and fresh are the villain's footprints. 
 
 Through the rough rocky kloof in the grey Huntley Glen, 
 Past the wild olive clump where the wolf has his den, 
 By the black-eagle's rock at the foot of the fell, 
 We have tracked him at length to the buffalo's well. 
 
 Now mark yonder brake where the bloodhounds are howling, 
 And hark that hoarse sound like the deep thunder growling ; 
 Tis his lair 'tis his voice ! from your saddles alight, 
 He 's at bay in the brushwood preparing for fight. 
 
 * Track or trail.
 
 108 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Leave the horses behind, and be still every man ; 
 Let the Mullers and Kennies advance in the van ; 
 Keep fast in your ranks ; by the yell of yon hound, 
 The savage, I guess, will be out with a bound ! 
 
 
 
 He comes ! the tall jungle before him loud crashing, 
 His mane bristled fiercely, his fiery eyes flashing ; 
 With a roar of disdain he leaps forth in his wrath, 
 To challenge the foe that dare leaguer his path. 
 
 He couches ay, now we '11 see mischief, I dread ; 
 Quick, level your rifles and aim at his head ; 
 Thrust forward the spears and unsheath every knife 
 St. George ! he's upon us ! now, fire, lads, for life ! 
 
 He 's wounded, but yet he '11 draw blood ere he falls. 
 Ha ! under his paw see Bezuidenhout sprawls ; 
 Now, Diederik ! Christian ! right in the brain 
 Plant each man his bullet Hurrah ! he is slain ! 
 
 Bezuidenhout up, man ! 'tis only a scratch 
 (You were always a scamp, and have met with your match !) 
 What a glorious lion ! what sinews what claws 
 And seven feet ten from the rump to the jaws ! 
 
 His hide, with the paws and the bones of his skull, 
 With the spoils of the leopard and buffalo-bull, 
 We'll send to Sir Walter.* Now, boys, let us dine, 
 And talk of our deeds o'er a flask of old wine. 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott
 
 EXTRACT FROM PEINGLE S DIARY. 109 
 
 The foregoing verses convey a graphic idea 
 of what these early settlers of this region had 
 occasionally to encounter. Their every-day life 
 cannot be better illustrated than by a brief quota- 
 tion from the diary of the same gifted writer. 
 
 " October 1st. Arrival of the Somerset wagon 
 with flour, seed-corn, etc. At Mr. Sydserff's 
 request, I discharged his servant Sandy from the 
 party, gave him a pass, countersigned by the 
 Deputy-Landdrost, and sent, him off with the 
 Somerset wagon towards Grahamstown. This 
 lad has turned out to be at once a fool and a 
 blackguard, and utterly irreclaimable. 
 
 " kih. A sharp frost last night blighted all our 
 early potatoes, pumpkins, melons, kidney-beans, 
 etc. It appears we had sown some of our seed 
 too early. 
 
 "8th, Sunday. A troop of about twenty 
 quaggas galloped through the corner of our gar- 
 dens during divine service. 
 
 " 9th. A herd of hartebeests passed close to 
 our huts, pursued by a pack of six wild dogs 
 (Hycena venatica). Fired at the latter, but with- 
 out effect. This day Mr. John Rennie, being out 
 hunting on Hyndhope Fells, fell in with two wild 
 Bushmen, dressed in sheepskins. They ran off on
 
 110 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 his approach, but made no demonstration of 
 hostility. He came upon six hyenas devouring 
 a hartebeest, and brought me its skull and 
 horns. 
 
 " llth. Visited by three boers from the Tarka 
 Jourdan, Erasmus, and De Beer, desirous of 
 exchanging horses and cattle for guns and 
 ammunition. Completed my map of the loca- 
 tion. 
 
 "16th. Surprised by a slight fall of snow; 
 weather chill and cloudy. The laughing hyena 
 heard near the folds last night. The sound truly 
 horrible. 
 
 "21st. Fine weather. Killed a large yellow 
 snake. 
 
 " 23d. Eeceived a visit .from our district 
 clergyman, the Rev. J. Evans of Cradock. He 
 brought a packet from the Landdrost conveying 
 letters from the Colonial Secretary, assuring me 
 of the continued support of Government, and 
 giving us the agreeable intelligence that a party 
 of emigrants from the West of Scotland were 
 speedily expected out, who would be located close 
 beside us. Received also very pleasant letters 
 from Scotland, from Dr. Philip, and from our 
 parted comrade Mr. Elliott Religious service in
 
 EXTRACTS FROM DIARY. Ill 
 
 the evening by Mr. Evans. All much pleased 
 and comforted. 
 
 " 2Ath. Mr. G. Rennie, who at my request had 
 gone with a party of Hottentots to explore the 
 country beyond the mountains towards the 
 Koonap River, returned with a very favourable 
 report of it. Abundance of wood, water, and rich 
 pasturage. He saw a great deal of large game, 
 and the recent traces of elephants. Shot a gnu 
 and hartebeest. 
 
 "Nov. 1st. The weather warm and serene, 
 like the finest summer weather in England. Two 
 snakes and a large scorpion killed. Turtle-doves, 
 touracoos, thrushes, finches, and other birds of 
 beautiful plumage become numerous. 
 
 " 6th. Violent storm of thunder. The peals 
 fearfully loud. Magnificent clouds at sunset. 
 
 "15th. A tiger- wolf (Hycena crocuta] broke 
 into the kraal last night, and killed several 
 sheep. 
 
 "22d. A wolf-trap constructed, with the aid 
 of the Hottentots, of large stones and timber. 
 
 " 29th. A wolf (Hycena) caught in the trap. 
 
 "Dec. 4th. A heavy rain for three days, 
 swells the river to an unfordable size. All the 
 dry beds of torrents filled with furious floods.
 
 112 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 " *Ith. Weather again warm and serene. Mr. 
 G. Kennie kills another wild-boar at Glen 
 Yair. 
 
 " l$th. My brother John finds stone fit for 
 millstones, and with the aid of one of the Hottentots 
 begins to construct a small mill on the model of 
 Wentzel Coetzer's. 
 
 " 29^. My father narrowly escapes being 
 gored by a furious ox. Blight appears in the 
 wheat. 
 
 "'30^. Keceive a large packet of letters and 
 newspapers from Scotland. All deeply interested. 
 This is the first packet of British newspapers that 
 has reached us." 
 
 How all the Robinson-Crusoe blood in one's 
 veins is stirred by such a diary ! Truly I some- 
 times almost regret that I -was not born to be- 
 come a pioneer settler in the African wilds ! 
 
 However, it is some comfort to have the 
 privilege of paying a flying visit to these same 
 wilds, which in many respects are quite as wild 
 now as they were then. The lions, elephants, 
 quaggas, and some others of the large game, 
 it is true, have taken themselves off to re- 
 moter wilds, but the leopards, hyenas, baboons,
 
 MONKEYS AND MEN. 113 
 
 deer, etc., still inhabit these kloofs, while 
 snakes, scorpions, and the like are as plentiful 
 as ever. 
 
 Talking of baboons reminds me that these 
 creatures are said to sleep sometimes on a ledge 
 of rock on the face of a precipice for security 
 against lurking foes. I was assured that some- 
 times a row of them may be seen in such a situa- 
 tion sitting sound asleep, with their faces in their 
 hands, against the precipice, as if saying their 
 prayers, and their tails hanging over the ledge. 
 Of course I do not vouch for the truth of such 
 reports. I am answerable only for what I profess 
 to have seen. 
 
 The highest type of monkey suggests thanks, 
 or, rather, blame to Darwin the lowest type of 
 man in Africa. This is the Bushman, or, as the 
 Dutch have it, Bosjesman. He is a branch of the 
 Hottentot race, and a very miserable, stunted 
 branch, nevertheless he is very far indeed removed 
 from the baboon. He has no tail, for certain ; 
 at least if he has, he conceals it effectually. He 
 wears garments, which no monkey does, and he 
 speaks, which no monkey ever did. 
 
 No thanks to the white man, however, if the 
 poor Bushman is not a baboon with the spirit of 
 
 H
 
 114 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 a tiger, for he has been most shamefully treated 
 in time past. In these very mountains around 
 Glen Lynden, as well as on the Sneewberg range 
 and elsewhere, the Bushman was literally hunted 
 and shot down like a wild beast by the Dutch- 
 African boors of the last century. It is true the 
 Bushmen were arrant thieves, and committed 
 great havoc among the frontier farmers at various 
 times, and it was both natural and right that 
 these farmers should defend their homes and pro- 
 perty. But it was neither right nor natural that 
 " commandoes " should be fitted out to hunt down 
 and exterminate these unfortunate natives, as if 
 they were vermin. 
 
 A Dutch- African colonist related to Mr. Pringle 
 an incident of which he was an eye-witness, and 
 which, the colonist having been a youth at the 
 time, must have happened about the latter part 
 of the last century. 
 
 He had just commenced his burgher service and 
 was out on his first " commando," that is, his first 
 expedition against the Bushmen. The party had 
 surprised and destroyed a considerable Kraal, or 
 village of huts, of these people. When the firing 
 ceased five women were found still living. " The
 
 CRUELTY TO THE NATIVES. 115 
 
 lives of these, after a long discussion," said the 
 colonist, " it was resolved to spare, because one 
 farmer wanted a servant for this purpose, and 
 another for that. The unfortunate wretches were 
 ordered to march in front of the commando ; but 
 it was soon found that they impeded our progress, 
 not being able to proceed fast enough. They 
 were, therefore, ordered to be shot. The scene 
 which ensued often haunts me to the present hour. 
 The helpless victims, perceiving what was in- 
 tended, sprung to us, and clung so firmly to some 
 of the party, that it was for some time impossible 
 to shoot them without hazarding the lives of those 
 they held fast. Four of them were at length de- 
 spatched ; but the fifth could by no means be torn 
 from one of our comrades, whom she grasped in 
 her agony, and his entreaties to be allowed to 
 take the woman home were at last complied with. 
 She went with her preserver, served him long and 
 faithfully, and, I believe, died in the family. 
 May God forgive the land !" 
 
 There are few who will not join this Dutch- 
 African in his prayer ; and, truly, methinks 
 the prayer has been granted, inasmuch as the 
 government of the, whole land has at last been
 
 116 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 transferred to British hands. No doubt there are 
 some Dutch-Africans who regard this transfer 
 unfavourably, nevertheless I think it is a blessing, 
 for although the British are very far from im- 
 maculate, and have much to answer for as regards 
 the past, few will deny that, in the main, their 
 treatment of natives is now at least well intended, 
 which is more than can be said of their Dutch 
 predecessors in power. 
 
 Happily the days of barefaced tyranny and un- 
 challenged cruelty have gone by in South Africa. 
 Her people may indeed yet live to hear the yell 
 of the Kafir and the terrible sounds of war, but 
 never again can they see cold-blooded butchery 
 pass unpunished, or listen to the wail of the slave. 
 Mistakes and bad management are more or less 
 characteristic of all human Governments, but 
 legalised robbery, cruelty, and murder can no 
 longer flourish under the Union Jack at least 
 not in times of peace. 
 
 When the Scotch party settled at Glen Lynden, 
 their troubles with wild-beast pilferers were 
 augmented occasionally by the appearance of 
 Bosj esman-thieves. 
 
 "In the beginning of October," writes Mr. 
 Pringle, " we were somewhat alarmed by the dis-
 
 THE WILD BUSHMEN. 117 
 
 covery of a band of predatory Bushmen, lurking 
 among the rocks and caverns of the wild moun- 
 tains between us and the valley of the Tarka. 
 Lieutenant Pettingal, an officer of engineers, who 
 was then in our valley, engaged in the Government 
 survey of the country, discovered this horde in 
 searching for some of his horses that were missing. 
 Suspecting, from the traces, that they had been 
 carried off by Bushmen, he went out with an 
 armed troop in pursuit, and came upon a party of 
 these wild marauders in one of the most savage 
 recesses of the neighbouring mountains. They 
 were at breakfast, on a grey horse which they had 
 slaughtered, and had steaks roasting on the fire 
 cut out of the flank, with the hide still upon them. 
 Pettingal, enraged by the supposed loss of his 
 best blood-horse, poured in a volley upon them ; 
 but, apparently, without effect, for they all 
 scrambled off with inconceivable agility among 
 the rocks and bushes. He recovered, however, 
 some of his own horses, and eight belonging to 
 our neighbour Wentzel Coetzer, which were tied 
 up under an overhanging cliff near the top of 
 a mountain." 
 
 There were no Bushmen running wild among 
 the beautiful hills and valleys of Glen Lynden
 
 118 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 when Hobson and I entered it, but the region 
 was not free, as I have related, from naked Kafirs, 
 and it is still noted for its population of hairy 
 baboons.
 
 RAIN. 119 
 
 LETTEE VIII. 
 
 RAIN ! EAIN ! RAIN ! BABOONS RIVER SEAHORSE KLOOF WE 
 HUNT THE HILLS ON HORSEBACK IN SPITE OF RAIN FLOODS 
 AND ACCIDENTS PART FROM HOBSON MAIL-CARTS AND 
 DIAMOND DIGGERS. 
 
 EAIN is a blessed refreshment to the thirsty 
 land; it is a life-giving cordial to the thirsty 
 soul; but when rain descends in torrents and 
 without cessation during the greater part of 
 one's brief holiday, or at any other very unsea 
 sonable period, and when one is not thirsty, it 
 becomes depressing, to say the least. 
 
 Thus was I treated by rain during my week 
 in Baviaans River. Hobson and I had at last 
 pushed up into the very heart of that wild moun- 
 tain region, the allotted home of the Scottish 
 settlers of 1820, the scene of many Kafir raids 
 and bloody battles. 
 
 For months before we had lived in perpetual 
 sunshine. Hobson had sighed for a drop of rain.
 
 120 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Sometimes South Africans have to sigh for a 
 twelvemonth before relief is sent. Even while I 
 write, the colony is suffering excessively from 
 drought, and many farmers have been ruined. 
 On the Karroo I had almost come to forget the 
 sensation of being rained upon, and an umbrella 
 there would have appeared as great an impro- 
 priety as a muslin overcoat in Nova Zembla. 
 Nevertheless, no sooner did we arrive at Seahorse 
 Kloof than the windows of heaven were opened, 
 and the rain came down steadily night and day, 
 while the sky presented a universal grey that 
 would have done credit to the Scottish Highlands. 
 It was too bad ! 
 
 My main object in penetrating to these rugged 
 wilds was to visit one of the Pringles, a relative 
 of personal friends on the borders of my own 
 land. Finding that Mr. Pringle was absent from 
 home, we turned aside to visit a cousin of Hobson's, 
 a Mr. John Edwards, who dwelt in what appeared 
 to me the fag-end of the world, a lonely farm- 
 house, at the head of the mountain gorge named 
 Seahorse Kloof. 
 
 " It 's a splendid country," said Hobson, " with 
 lots of game, and Edwards is a noted hunter, 
 besides being a capital fellow."
 
 HUNTING IN HOPE. 121 
 
 What more could man desire 1 We arrived full 
 of hope and spirits, received a hearty welcome, 
 and awoke next day to find the sky grey, as I 
 have said, and the rain descending steadily. 
 
 Of course we hoped against hope, but as day 
 after day came and went, our hopes and spirits 
 sank. Then there came a reaction that is not un- 
 common in the circumstances, we grew desperate, 
 and began to enjoy our misery. We got out our 
 rifles, took up a sheltered position in the shed of 
 an outhouse, and blazed away from dripping morn 
 to pouring eve at empty bottles, amongst which 
 we did tremendous execution. 
 
 Of course, also, we relieved the tedium of en- 
 forced indoor life by song and talk, but these 
 resources could not make up for lost time, and the 
 depth to which I had been sunk was revealed to 
 me by the sudden rebound of joy when, after a 
 week of heavy wet, there was a break in the uni- 
 versal grey and the sun came feebly out. Blessed 
 sun, if thou wert to roast me alive, methinks I 
 would love thee still ! 
 
 Before this happened, however, we had a few 
 brief intervals of modified dripping. During one 
 of these, in which the rain all but ceased for a 
 forenoon, I resolved to go out into one of the
 
 122 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 mountain gorges for a ramble alone. My host 
 lent me his double barrel one barrel being for 
 shot, the other rifled. 
 
 " It is loaded," said he, " the right with shot, 
 the left with ball." 
 
 " Very good," said I ; " expect a tiger when I 
 return." 
 
 My host smiled. Leopards were there, truly, 
 but as he knew, and as I have elsewhere mentioned, 
 they never show themselves except when driven 
 out of their retreats by dogs. To say truth, I only 
 wanted a walk, expected to kill a rabbit or a crow, 
 ind hoped faintly for a deer. None of these 
 things did I see, but I found a small coney, at 
 which I fired the shot barrel. To my surprise 
 there came no report from the gun, merely a 
 feeble spirt. I afterwards learned that one of " the 
 boys " had loaded it the day before with a minia- 
 ture charge for small birds. Hope increased 
 as I pushed further up into the Kloof, and 
 fancy began to play. Although there was no 
 chance of seeing "tigers," it was something to 
 know that such creatures were really there ; 
 that I was actually in the native home of " wild 
 beasts." The floor of my host's parlour was 
 covered with the beautiful spotted skins of animals
 
 TH BOUGH THE KLOOF. 123 
 
 which had been shot or trapped by himself. One 
 of these measured about nine feet, which, allow- 
 ing three for the tail, gives a body of six feet 
 long. 
 
 As the day advanced rain again began to fall, 
 but nothing could damp me now. I had almost 
 worked myself into the belief that I was tiger- 
 hunting ! I advanced with cautious tread, looked 
 earnestly into dark caverns, and passed under the 
 deep shadow of thick and tangled bushes with feel- 
 ings of awe. I even indulged my wayward fancy 
 by thinking of Gordon Gumming and Livingstone ; 
 did my best to mistake gnarled roots for big 
 snakes, and red stones for couching leopards. At 
 last, while in the sombre twilight of a dense mass 
 of underwood, I actually did see a bit of brown 
 hair moving. I threw forward my rifle with a 
 promptitude worthy of Hawkeye himself, but 
 experienced no shock of excitement, for the 
 object was so palpably a small rabbit, or coney, 
 that imagination sternly refused to deceive me. 
 Baboons had been heard barking on the evening 
 of our arrival. I looked out for these, but saw 
 none. In short, none of the inhabitants of wood, 
 glen, or mountain, save myself, were foolish 
 enough to go out in such weather. Nevertheless
 
 124 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 I returned to the house happy and ready for 
 supper. 
 
 On Saturday morning the sunshine, which I 
 have before mentioned, gladdened our eyes and 
 hearts. The weather seemed at last propitious. 
 Edwards at once ordered out horses and rifles, 
 and away we went four of us up the mountains 
 after deer. It was a new experience in regard to 
 riding. Horses, I knew, were capable of travelling 
 over exceedingly rough roads, and trained ones 
 could even ascend staircases, but I now learned 
 that horses can climb precipices. Never saw 
 anything like it before ; never even imagined it ! 
 
 Our prospects were fair, but they were false, 
 for, ere long, the rain began again. However, we 
 were reckless by that time and defied it. Riding 
 up -the kloof that I had traversed on foot, we 
 sighted deer but got no shot. Gaining the top 
 of the kloof we saw more deer out of range. 
 Passed over the shoulder of the mountain into 
 another glen, and skirted the top of a precipice. 
 While descending some slopes at an angle of I 
 know not what, the use of our cruppers became 
 strikingly apparent. I began, for the first time in 
 my life, to feel anxiety as to the strength of a 
 horse's tail. In going up such places the saddle
 
 HILL-HUNTING ON HORSEBACK. 125 
 
 girths were severely tried, but the mane kept one 
 from slipping down one's perpendicular animal. 
 
 Coming to a comparatively level stretch we 
 sank into a silently reflective and forgetful mood, 
 while the rain-drops dribbled down our noses, 
 sopped from our mackintoshes to our saddles, 
 whence they re-ascended, through the capillary 
 influence of garments, to our necks, and soon 
 equalised our humidity. 
 
 "Look out !" shouted Edwards, suddenly. 
 We all obeyed, and saw a brown deer labouring 
 up a slope so steep that running was out of the 
 question. I stuck my heels into my steed and 
 faced him at the slope. He took it. He would 
 have taken the side of a house, I think, if told to. 
 But he gasped with the frantic nature of his 
 efforts. I felt as if he were leaping up the slope, 
 kangaroo fashion, on his hind legs. On reaching 
 the top, the brown deer was observed disappearing 
 in the distance. It was of no use weeping. 
 Kain would have washed the tears away. 
 
 " Look out ! " again shouted our host ; " get 
 off!" 
 
 We all obeyed, cocked our guns, and gazed. 
 A herd of deer were just visible in the mist We 
 all fired, and missed.
 
 12G SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 "Very mysterious," muttered one of our 
 number, I forget which. 
 
 We loaded hastily, but not quickly. Our guns 
 were muzzle-loaders, and rain does not facilitate 
 loading. In trying to force a bullet down, my 
 ramrod slipped, and I cut my knuckles severely. 
 
 " You 've drawn first blood, anyhow," savagely 
 muttered one of us, I forget who. 
 
 We mounted again, and let me tell you that 
 mounting on a steep hillside in a long wet mac- 
 kintosh with a big rifle, bleeding knuckles, and a 
 heavy heart, is difficult as well as disagreeable. 
 
 To increase our enjoyment, Edwards again 
 shouted, " Get off I " We did so with more than 
 military obedience, and I saw a deer standing 
 not more than a hundred yards in front of me. 
 I gave him the rifled barrel. He hopped. Then. 
 the shot barrel. He winced and fled, but presently 
 stopped and lay down. Edwards ran towards 
 him, kneeled, fired, and broke his leg. Amongst 
 us all we managed to kill him, and then turned 
 homewards. 
 
 The only noteworthy incident that occurred on 
 the way back was the starting of a troop of 
 baboons, which went scampering down the cliffs 
 in consternation like balls of brown hair. We
 
 HUNTING THE BAVIAANS RIVER MOUNTAINS. PACK 126.
 
 CONTENTED WITH LITTLE. 127 
 
 also descended some broken ground, so steep that 
 it was almost impossible to keep the saddle. 
 Looking at Edwards, I observed that the ears of his 
 horse appeared between his feet, while its tail 
 waved over his head like a dragoon's plume. At 
 last we were compelled to dismount and lead our 
 animals, our minds being sometimes divided 
 between the danger of missing our footing in 
 front, and being tumbled on by our steeds behind. 
 
 Thus we hunted on the Baviaans River moun- 
 tains in adverse circumstances, and returned home 
 moderately pleased, though not particularly suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 The rains had by that time flooded the whole 
 country, and rendered travelling almost impossible. 
 The river was running wildly past the house, and 
 there was no bridge over it. The nearest church 
 was fifteen miles distant, so that going to it was 
 impracticable. But Christianity is happily not 
 dependent on forms or ceremonies. Remembering 
 that God is not confined to places made with 
 hands, and that wherever "two or three are 
 met together in the Lord's name," He is " in the 
 midst of them," we assembled together and had 
 "church in the house." So, as we are told by 
 Pringle the poet, the " settlers " had worshipped
 
 128 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 God in the same region upwards of fifty years 
 before. 
 
 We held a consultation on Monday as to our 
 departure. The weather was fine at last, but the 
 river flooded. The tortuous nature of its bed 
 necessitated five or six crossings in the course of 
 twelve miles. Were they fordable ? was the ques- 
 tion. " We shall go and try," was. Hobson's final 
 decision. "Try" is the watchword of all true 
 pioneers. We saddled and set forth. Hobson 
 drove the cart, with my portmanteau. The first 
 part of the journey I was to accompany Edwards 
 on horseback. We had a Hottentot servant with 
 us, who rode one horse and led another. 
 
 It was a most enjoyable ride in the bright sun- 
 shine that day. Everything was fresh, green, and 
 glittering after the long-continued rain. Baboons 
 were seen on the way, and shouted at us, whether 
 in defiance, derision, or encouragement, is best 
 known to themselves. All the " drifts " or fords 
 were passed in safety till we came to the last on 
 Baviaans River close to Mr. Dodds Pringle's resi- 
 dence at Lynedock. Here the powerful stream 
 rose to our saddles, and the opposite bank had 
 been so much washed away that it seemed impos- 
 sible to get the cart up.
 
 CROSSING A "DRIFT." PAGE 129.
 
 FAREWELL TO SEAHORSE KLOOF. 129 
 
 " I '11 cross, and get spades at Lynedock," said 
 Edwards, "and we'll cut a slope in the bank." 
 
 In he went, floundered through, and managed 
 to ascend the opposite bank, though not without 
 a severe struggle, for besides being high and steep, 
 it was very wet coated, in fact, with soft mud. 
 
 The Tottie with the led horse followed his 
 master. I followed the Tottie close in his steps, 
 so as to get the benefit of his experience, either by 
 imitating or avoiding his example. We gained 
 the opposite side. I saw the Hottentot's horse 
 rise before me as if mounting a staircase. He 
 slipped, and floundered on his nose and knees. 
 The led horse disconcerted him. Just then my 
 own horse made a bound up the bank, and pawed 
 the mud for a moment. " Slack the reins ! 
 give him his head ! " shouted Edwards. I did so. 
 With a mighty plunge and a groan the sturdy 
 animal bore me to the top of the bank in 
 safety. I turned and saw the Tottie's horse throw 
 up its head and fore-legs, as if imploringly, to 
 the skies, and fall backwards. The Tottie him- 
 self appeared for a moment in the form of a 
 spread-eagle, and then horse and man went back 
 with a sounding splash into the river. 
 
 Hobson, who had been all the time enjoying 
 i
 
 130 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 the spectacle, now crossed with the cart ; but, on 
 taking the bank, despite their utmost efforts, the 
 powerful pair stuck fast on their knees and noses. 
 Meanwhile the Hottentot scrambled out with his 
 animals, none the worse of the plunge. 
 
 As the horses could not move the cart an inch 
 in their semi-perpendicular position, we unhar- 
 nessed them, and the four of us, by slow degrees, 
 working one wheel at a time, zig-zagged the cart 
 upward a few feet, when the horses were once more 
 attached, and the crossing was finally accomplished. 
 Here we bade farewell to our kind host, the pro- 
 prietor of Seahorse Kloof. 
 
 That evening we came to " Smith's farm," one 
 of the places where the Diamond-field coaches stop 
 to change horses. It was beyond the mountains 
 at the commencement of the great rolling plains. 
 Here I had arranged to await the arrival of the 
 mail-cart, and proceed vid Bedford to Grahams- 
 town. 
 
 And here, with deep regret, I bade farewell to 
 my friend Hobson a true-hearted, well-educated 
 Englishman, born in the colony ; the son of one 
 of the "1820 settlers;" a brave, bold, fearless, 
 loving man, who has hunted lions, leopards, ele- 
 phants, zebras, and all the large game of Africa
 
 PAKTIXG AT SMITH S FARM. 131 
 
 in his youth, and was " out " in the last war, a 
 splendid type of those hardy men whose lot it is 
 to subdue the wilderness ; a warm friend, and 
 a sincere follower of our Lord. 
 
 There were several hours to pass before the 
 arrival of the mail-cart. Smith and his people 
 were busy, and, as there were no guests at the 
 time in that lonely road-side inn, I had plenty of 
 leisure to bask in the sunshine, sketch the cactus 
 bushes that abounded there, gaze dreamily over 
 the illimitable Karroo, and meditate sadly on 
 friendships and partings. 
 
 The first thing that struck me on turning from 
 Smith's humble abode to ramble on the plains 
 was the presence of a bad smell a very bad 
 smell! I brought my nose to bear in various 
 directions, but could discover no cause. Having 
 nothing to do I applied myself with diligence to 
 the investigation, all the more earnestly that I 
 found it impossible to get out of the tainted 
 atmosphere. Regarding the heavens steadily, for 
 it was very calm, and making up my mind as to 
 the direction which the little wind that there was 
 came from, I followed my nose, and was led by it 
 to the decaying carcass of an ox which lay 
 not a hundred yards from Smith's door. My
 
 132 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 opinion of Smith was lowered ! When I passed 
 to windward of the carcass, the bad smell 
 ceased. 
 
 1 mention this, not because it is an interesting 
 incident, but because it is a feature of South 
 African travel. Wherever you go on the Karroo, 
 there you will find the rotting remains of poor 
 creatures, which, having "died in harness," are 
 cast loose for the benefit of the vultures. These 
 ill-looking and disgusting birds are most useful 
 scavengers. They scent the quarry from afar so 
 far, indeed, as to be beyond the vision of human 
 eyes. You may gaze round you far and near in 
 the plains, and behold no sign of any bird ; but 
 kill one of your horses and leave it dead on the 
 plain, and straightway, from various quarters of 
 the heavens, you will see little specks which grow 
 and float, and circle and grow, until they assume 
 the ugly form and huge proportions of unclean 
 vultures, which will perch on the carcass, and 
 make away with it in a remarkably short space of 
 time. It was only the skin and bones of the ox 
 which rendered themselves obnoxious at Smith's. 
 Vultures had cleared out of it every morsel of 
 flesh some days before. 
 
 As I have said, there are no roads worthy of
 
 CAPE MAIL-CARTS. 133 
 
 the name in many parts of the Karroo. Those 
 that exist are often in such a dilapidated condi- 
 tion that travellers sometimes find it more pleasant 
 to forsake them and drive over the rugged veldt. 
 This can be easily understood when it is remem- 
 bered that the roads are traversed by the cele- 
 brated "Cape wagons/' which are of enormous 
 size and weight, requiring from sixteen to twenty 
 oxen to draw .them. Such vehicles finding a 
 hollow in a road, soon make it. a deep hole, which 
 finally becomes an impassable cavern. In draw- 
 ing, struggling, and fighting with these wagons, 
 sick and weakly animals constantly succumb, are 
 left to die, and thus vultures are supplied with a 
 continual feast, while carcasses and skulls, and 
 bleaching bones, are familiar objects by the road- 
 sides on the plains. 
 
 At last the mail-cart arrived, and I secured a 
 place. 
 
 Travelling by mail-cart in South Africa is, as 
 you may well imagine, rugged work. It tries 
 ordinary constitutions. It is murder to the deli- 
 cate. Let invalids, meditating a visit to the 
 salubrious " Cape," make a note of this. I would 
 by no means dissuade them from going, but if 
 they do go, let them not travel by mail-cart.
 
 134 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 It is usually a small two-wheeled vehicle drawn 
 by four horses and driven by an ass, who seems 
 to think that every one ought to possess an iron 
 frame as callous as his own. The cart has a 
 species of canvas hood, such as I have described 
 in a former letter, stretched on a movable frame. 
 It serves the purpose of a monstrous parasol. You 
 get into this cart, the team is cleverly started by, 
 it may be, a smart fellow, and driven away with 
 the speed at which mails ought to travel ; or it is 
 wildly started by a braggadocio driver, who sets 
 out with a plunge, and continues his course with 
 a prolonged crash, as though the fate of empires 
 reposed in his mail-bags. You come to a ditch ; 
 you go in with a plunge, and come out with a 
 jerk. Your head hits the back of the hood when 
 you go in, your nose hits the back of the driver 
 when you come out. A rut in the road causes 
 one wheel to descend suddenly about eighteen 
 inches; or an unavoidable lump of that height 
 produces the same effect ; the hood gives you a 
 deliberate punch on the head. Before you have 
 quite recovered, it gives you another. A miniature 
 precipice appears. This was caused by the latest 
 waterspout choosing to cut the road instead of 
 follow it. The mail-cart does not pause. Its
 
 DIAMOND-DIGGING. 135 
 
 springs were made, apparently, to spring. It 
 descends. For one instant you are left in the air, 
 the next you resume your seat with violence. 
 This sort of thing does not last long, however, 
 for you quickly become wise. You acquire the 
 habit of involuntarily stiffening your backbone at 
 the ditches, of yielding to the ruts, and of holding 
 on at the precipices. Still, with all your precau- 
 tions, you suffer severely. I have been seriously 
 informed that, during some of their plunges on 
 what may be called stormy roads, men have been 
 jolted bodily out of mail-carts at the Cape, and I 
 can easily believe it. 
 
 The Diamond-field mail was full, but they 
 kindly made room for me, and plastered my 
 portmanteau, like an excrescence, on the other 
 baggage. 
 
 The drive to Bedford was too short to admit 
 of much familiar intercourse with the diggers, 
 if diggers they were. Subsequently I met with a 
 successful digger, who told me a good deal about 
 the diamond fields. He was a Scot, who had 
 left a lucrative claim to be managed by a partner 
 while he took a trip to the " old country." His 
 account of diamond digging inclined me to think 
 that coal-heaving is a much easier occupation,
 
 136 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 and more remunerative on the whole, except in 
 the case of lucky diggers. This Scot showed me 
 what he called a " big diamond," and allowed me 
 to make a careful drawing of it. He could not 
 guess at its value. If it had been a pure diamond 
 like the " star of South Africa," it would have 
 been worth many thousands of pounds, but it 
 was not pure. According to digger parlance it 
 was " off-colour," and, therefore, not excessively 
 valuable. Still it was a precious gem, and would 
 doubtless fetch several hundreds of pounds. Of 
 course it was unpolished, but even in that state 
 was very beautiful. It weighed seventy-eight 
 carats. The star of South Africa, above referred 
 to, was a pure and magnificent gem. It was 
 found by a Hottentot, named Swartzboy, and 
 sold by him for 400 to Niekirk, who disposed 
 of it the same day to Messrs. Lillienfield for 
 12,000 so, at least, runs one account of the 
 matter. 
 
 Late in the evening we reached Bedford. 
 
 As we started next morning at break of day 
 my personal knowledge of that flourishing town 
 is too limited to warrant expatiation thereon. It 
 may be that the vision of ghostly houses passing 
 our cart in the morning mists suggested to my
 
 BEDFORD. 137 
 
 sleepy imagination the idea of a town, but I can- 
 not remember that it did. Possibly the fact that 
 the population numbered above 1000 may have 
 occurred to my mind, but I think not. It is 
 more probable that the mind, if it operated at all, 
 pictured the population as recumbent and snoring. 
 Indeed, the only thing that memory will recall, 
 when severely taxed, in regard to Bedford, is 
 bed, its first syllable.
 
 138 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTEE IX. 
 
 CROSSING THE GREAT FISH RIVER TRAVELLING AT THE CAPE AS 
 IT IS TO BE GRAHAMSTOWN, HER EARLY STRUGGLES AND 
 PRESENT PROSPERITY. 
 
 TRAVELLING in South Africa is occasionally 
 interrupted by sudden storms of rain which con- 
 vert dry beds of streams into roaring torrents, 
 and perennial rivers into devastating floods. 
 
 At the Great Fish Eiver I came on a specimen 
 of the mighty power of water in the ruins of a 
 splendid bridge. The great floods of the previous 
 year had carried one-half of it away. The other 
 half denuded of its flooring and all its wood- 
 work, and standing out against the sky a mere 
 skeleton of iron girders still connected the left 
 bank of the river with the massive tower of 
 masonry in the' middle. From this tower to the 
 other bank was a gulf impassable to horse or 
 cart. The great river itself flows in a deep 
 channel. It was still somewhat flooded. From
 
 ----, ~^ ^ ;-- 
 
 CROSSING THE GREAT FISH RIVER. PAGE 138.
 
 EFFECTS OF FLOODS. 139 
 
 its high banks we saw it roaring more than forty 
 feet beneath the level of the bridge. It was clear 
 to the most ignorant eye that fording the stream 
 was impossible. I looked inquiringly at the 
 driver. 
 
 " You 11 have to go over on the rope," he said, 
 with a sardonic smile. 
 
 " The rope V said I, with an earnest gaze at 
 the impassable gulf. 
 
 "Yes, the rope. There's a man crossing now." 
 
 I looked again, and observed something like a 
 cobweb on the sky between the central pier and 
 the opposite bank. There was a black spot that 
 resembled a spider moving slowly along the cob- 
 web. It was a fellow-man ! 
 
 " And the mails and luggage 1" I asked. 
 
 " Goes over same way." 
 
 "The cart and horses?" 
 
 "Don't go over at all. Get fresh uns on 
 tother side. There was once a box on the river 
 for hauling 'em over, but it 's bin damaged." 
 
 The process of crossing was begun at once. 
 
 The driver and some workmen shouldered the 
 bags and baggage, while the passengers of whom 
 there were three followed to the central pier. 
 
 To men with heads liable to giddiness the
 
 140 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 passage from the bank to the pier would have 
 been trying, for, the floor having been carried 
 away, we had to walk on the open girders, d la 
 Blondin, looking down past our feet to the 
 torrent as to a miniature Niagara. The dis- 
 tance of forty feet seemed changed to four hun- 
 dred from that position. Fortunately none of us 
 were afflicted with giddy heads. 
 
 The flat space on the tower-top gained, we 
 found two workmen engaged in tying our baggage 
 to a little platform about four feet square, which 
 was suspended by ropes to a couple of little 
 wheels. These wheels travelled on a thick cable, 
 the spider web before referred to. The con- 
 trivance was hauled to and fro by a smaller line 
 after the manner of our rocket apparatus for 
 rescuing life at sea, and, when we passengers 
 afterwards sat down on it with nothing but the 
 tight grip of pur hands on an iron bar to save 
 us from falling into the flood below, we flattered 
 ourselves that we had attained to something 
 resembling the experience of those who have 
 been saved from shipwreck. 
 
 Travelling here may be said to be yet in its 
 infancy. Railroads are few and short, but energy 
 is being roused in regard to this matter, and plans
 
 CROSSING A BROKEN BRIDGE. 141 
 
 have been proposed which, if carried out, 
 revolutionise South Africa to an extent that will 
 surprise its own inhabitants. 
 
 There are enlightened men there who foresee 
 this. There are also men who seem to me 
 prejudiced, and can't believe this. They appear 
 to regard their land as not sufficiently rich in 
 products and in population to justify vigorous 
 railway construction. They seem to hold the 
 erroneous doctrine that travellers and traffic 
 create railways, whereas all experience goes to 
 prove that railways create travellers and traffic. 
 Of course at their first beginnings railways were 
 formed by the few hundreds of travellers who 
 were chiefly traffickers, but no sooner were they 
 called into being than they became creative, 
 they turned thousands of stay-at-homes into 
 travellers ; they rushed between the great centres 
 of industry, sweeping up the people in their train, 
 and, with a grand contempt of littleness in every 
 form, caught up the slow-going carts and coaches 
 of former days in their huge embrace, and whirled 
 them along in company with any number you 
 chose of tons and bales of merchandise; they 
 groaned up the acclivities of Highland hills, and 
 snorted into sequestered glens, alluring, nay, com-
 
 142 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 pelling, the lonely dwellers to come out, and 
 causing hosts of men, with rod and gun and 
 hammer and botanical box, to go in ; they scouted 
 the old highroads, and went, like mighty men of 
 valour, straight to the accomplishment of their 
 ends, leaping over and diving under each other, 
 across everything, through anything, and sticking 
 at nothing, until over lands where, fifty years ago, 
 only carts and coaches used to creep and poor 
 pedestrians were wont to plod, cataracts of tra- 
 vellers now flow almost without intermission night 
 and day the prince rolling in his royal bed- 
 room from palace to palace ; the huntsman flying 
 to the field, with his groom and horse in a box 
 behind him ; the artisan travelling in comfort to 
 his daily toil, with his tools and a mysterious tin 
 of victuals at his feet ; thousands on thousands of 
 busy beings hurrying through the land where one 
 or two crawled before; shoals of foreigners coming 
 in to get rid of prejudices and add " wrinkles to 
 their horns," while everything is cheapened, and, 
 best of all, knowledge is increased by this healthy 
 though, it may be, rather rapid moving about 
 of men and women. 
 
 Thus railways have created travellers and 
 traffic. But they have done much more; they
 
 RAILWAY PROS AND CONS. 143 
 
 have turned roadside inns into "grand hotels;" 
 they have clambered up on the world's heights, 
 and built palatial abodes on the home of the 
 mountain-hare and the eagle, where weak and 
 worn invalids may mount without exertion, and 
 drink in health and happiness with the freshest 
 air of heaven ; they have planted churches in the 
 wilderness, and carried the Gospel of life and 
 light and love to regions where death and dark- 
 ness reigned before. 
 
 "But," says the objector, "you speak of what 
 railways can do in populous lands. Colonial 
 South Africa is not populous. All its inhabitants, 
 white and black put together, are only about two 
 and a quarter millions, which is not much more 
 than half the population of London !" 
 
 That is true, a truth that it is difficult to 
 realise, but that does not touch the principle 
 that the creation of railways between great centres 
 of industry has a direct tendency to stimulate that 
 industry and to create other subsidiary industries 
 with their concomitant travellers on business and 
 travellers for pleasure. If railways ran over the 
 Karroo, adventurous capitalists would come from 
 all ends of the earth to see it ; they would buy 
 land when they found a* convenient mode of
 
 144 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 running their produce to the markets of the 
 large towns and the ports on the coast ; they 
 would start ostrich farms and breed horses, and 
 grow wool, and build mighty dams, and sink 
 artesian wells, as the French have done with 
 some success I believe in Algiers. If railways 
 were run up to the diamond-fields, adventurous 
 diggers would crowd in hundreds to the great pit 
 of Kimberly ; some would succeed ; those who 
 failed would gravitate into the positions for which 
 they were fitted by nature in a land where the 
 want of labourers is a confessedly perplexing evil. 
 The population would not only be increased by 
 much new blood from without, but by. that which 
 results from prosperity and wealth within ; off- 
 shoot, and as yet unimagined, enterprises would 
 probably become numerous ; additional lines 
 would be pushed on into the gold regions ; all 
 sorts of precious gems and minerals, including 
 " black diamonds," are known to be abundant in 
 the Transvaal, and, but why go on ? Those who 
 agree with me understand these matters so well 
 as to require no urging. As for those who don't 
 agree : 
 
 " The man convinced against his will 
 Is of the same opinion still."
 
 RAILWAY PROSPECTS. 145 
 
 What I have written is for the benefit of those 
 who know little or nothing about South Africa. 
 I will only add to it my own conviction that the 
 day is not far distant when a Cape man will 
 breakfast one morning in Capetown, and dine 
 next day at Port Elizabeth (510 miles), run on to 
 Grahamstown (84 miles) to sup with a friend 
 there ; take the early train to Graaff-Reinet (160 
 miles), so as to have time for luncheon and a chat 
 with a reverend cousin of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church, before the starting of the night train for 
 Kimberly (280 miles), where he has to assist at 
 the marriage of a sister with a diamond digger 
 who intends to spend his honeymoon at the Cliff 
 Hotel amid the romantic scenery of the Catberg, 
 and finish off with a week or two at Snowy 
 Retreat, a magnificent hotel (yet to be) on the tip : 
 top of the Compassberg mountain. 
 
 This brings me back to the point at which I 
 diverged the Great Fish River, which takes its 
 rise in the Sneewberg range. 
 
 What tremendous floods are implied in the 
 carrying away of this bridge ! what superabun- 
 dance of water in that so-called land of drought ! 
 What opportunities for engineering skill to catch 
 and conserve the water, and turn the "barren
 
 146 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 laud" into fruitful fields! Don't you see this, 
 Periwinkle ? If not, I will say no more, for, 
 according to the proverb, " a nod is as good as a 
 wink to the blind horse." 
 
 Having crossed the bridge in safety we con- 
 tinued our journey in the new vehicle with fresh 
 horses, and reached Grahamstown at four in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 Between sixty and seventy years is not a great 
 age for a city. Indeed, as cities go, Grahams- 
 town may be called quite infantile. Neverthe- 
 less this youthful city has seen much rough 
 work in its brief career. 
 
 Grahamstown was born in smoke, and cradled 
 in war's alarms. It began life in 1812, at which 
 time the thieving and incorrigible Kafirs were 
 driven across the Great Fish River then the 
 colonial boundary by a strong force of British 
 and Burgher troops under Colonel Graham. Dur- 
 ing these disturbed times it was established as 
 headquarters of the troops which guarded the 
 frontier. 
 
 When the infant was seven years old its 
 courage and capacity were severely put to the 
 proof. In the year 1818-19 just before the 
 arrival of the " British settlers," it was deemed
 
 GRAHAMSTOWN OF OLD. 147 
 
 necessary to interfere in the concerns of contend- 
 ing Kafir chiefs, and to punish certain tribes for 
 their continued depredations on the colony. For 
 these ends, as well as the recovery of stolen cattle, 
 a strong force was sent into Kafirland. While the 
 troops were absent a body of Kafirs assembled in 
 the bush of the Great Fish River, from which they 
 issued to attack Grahamstown. They were led 
 by a remarkable man named Makana. He was 
 also styled the Lynx. 
 
 This Kafir, although not a chief, rose to power 
 by the force of a superior intellect and a strong 
 will. It is said that he was descended from an 
 unfortunate European female who was wrecked 
 on the coast, and fell into the hands of the 
 savages. He was well known in Grahamstown, 
 having been in the habit of paying it frequent 
 visits, on which occasions he evinced great 
 curiosity on all subjects, speculative as well as 
 practical, and used to take special delight in 
 holding converse with the chaplain, Mr. Van der 
 Lingen, on Christianity, puzzling him with subtle 
 objections and metaphysical queries. 
 
 Makana appears to have been an apt scholar, 
 for he soon became quite learned on the fall, the 
 atonement, the resurrection, and other Christian
 
 148 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 doctrines, but instead of embracing the faith 
 about which he inquired so earnestly, he combined 
 what he had learned of Christianity with the 
 superstitions of his race, framed an extrava- 
 gant religion of his own, and boldly announced 
 himself a teacher and prophet inspired of Heaven. 
 He even went so far as to style himself the 
 "brother of Christ." 
 
 Being a man of eloquence as well as originality, 
 he soon acquired ascendency over most of the 
 great chiefs of Kafirland, was almost worshipped 
 by the people, who acknowledged him a war- 
 rior-chief as well as a prophet, and collected 
 around him a large body of retainers. It has been 
 thought by some that Makana was a "noble" 
 savage, and that although he imposed on the 
 credulity of his countrymen, his aim was to raise 
 himself to sovereign power in order to elevate the 
 Kafir race nearer to a level with Europeans. 
 Certain it is that he puzzled the missionaries, who 
 did not feel sure whether this " Lynx " were a sly 
 dog, or a mistaken enthusiast. 
 
 But whatever be the truth on that point, the 
 invasion of Kafirland by the white men gave 
 Makana an opportunity of which he was not slow 
 to avail himself. His followers had suffered, with
 
 THE " LYNX " MAKANA. 149 
 
 others, from the proceedings of the troops, and 
 his soul was fired with a desire to be revenged 
 and "drive the white men into the sea," a 
 favourite fate, in the Kafir mind, reserved for 
 the entire colonial family ! 
 
 Makana was general enough to perceive that 
 nothing effective could be accomplished by the 
 mere marauding habits to which his countrymen 
 were addicted. He had learned, or knew intui- 
 tively, that " union is strength," and, making use of 
 his spirit-rousing power of eloquence, went about 
 endeavouring to concentrate the aims of the 
 savages and to direct their energies. In these 
 efforts he was in some measure successful. He 
 pretended to have received heavenly revelations, 
 and to have been sent by the great spirit to 
 avenge their wrongs ; predicted certain success to 
 the enterprise if his followers only yielded implicit 
 obedience to his commands, and thus managed to 
 persuade most of the various clans to unite their 
 forces for a simultaneous attack on the head- 
 quarters of the British troops. He told them 
 that he had power to call from their graves the 
 spirits of their ancestors to assist them in the war, 
 and confidently affirmed that it was decreed that 
 they were to drive the white men across the
 
 150 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Zwartkops River into the ocean, after which they 
 should " sit down and eat honey ! " 
 
 Early on the morning of the 22d April 1819 
 this singular man led his force of 9000 sable war- 
 riors towards Grahamstown, and the affair had 
 been conducted with so great secrecy that the 
 few troops there were almost taken by surprise. 
 
 Enemies in the camp are always to be more 
 dreaded than open foes. Makana had taken 
 care to provide himself with a spy and informer, 
 in the person of Klaas Nuka, the Government 
 Interpreter to Colonel Wilshire, who was at that 
 time in command of the troops. Three days 
 previous to the attack this villain well aware of 
 Makana's approach informed' the Colonel that 
 Kafirs had been seen in the precisely opposite 
 direction. The unsuspecting Colonel at once fell 
 into the trap. He detached the light company 
 of the 38th regiment to patrol in the direction 
 pointed out. Thus was the garrison of the town, 
 which consisted of 450 European soldiers and a 
 small body of mounted Hottentots, weakened to 
 the extent of 100 men. 
 
 On that same April morning Colonel Wilshire 
 was quietly inspecting a detachment of the 
 mounted Cape Corps, when the Hottentot Captain
 
 THE KAFIRS DISCOVERED. 151 
 
 Boezac, chief of a band of buffalo-hunters, in- 
 formed him that he had just received information 
 of Makana's advance. The Colonel, mounted on 
 a fleet charger, at once rode off with an escort of 
 ten men to reconnoitre. He came unexpectedly on 
 the enemy in a ravine not far from the town. 
 They were taking a rest before rushing to the 
 assault, and so sure were these poor savages of 
 their irresistible power, that thousands of their 
 wives and children followed them with their 
 mats, pots, and cooking-jars ready to take posses- 
 sion of the place ! 
 
 Colonel Wilshire retreated instantly, and there 
 was need for haste. The Kafirs pursued him so 
 closely that he reached his troops only a few 
 minutes before them. 
 
 The small band of defenders more than made 
 up for the difference in numbers, by the deadly 
 precision of their fire. The Kafirs came on in a 
 dense sable mass, led by their various chiefs, and 
 generalled by the Lynx, who had impressed his 
 followers with the belief that the muskets of the 
 foe were charged only with "hot water !" 
 
 The field pieces of the troops were loaded 
 with shrapnel shells, which at the first discharge 
 mowed long lanes in the advancing masses, while
 
 152 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 musketry was discharged with deadly effect. But 
 Kafirs are stern and brave warriors. On they 
 came with wild cries, sending a shower of short 
 spears (assagais) before them, which however fell 
 short. Regardless of the havoc in their ranks, 
 they still came on, and the foremost men were 
 seen to break short their assagais, with the evident 
 intention of using them more effectively as 
 daggers in hand-to-hand conflict. This was de- 
 liberately done by Makana's orders, and showed 
 his wisdom, for, with the great bodily strength, 
 size, and agility of the Kafirs, and their over- 
 whelming numbers, the attack, if promptly and 
 boldly made at close quarters, could not have 
 failed of success. 
 
 But the God of battles had willed it otherwise. 
 At this critical moment the Hottentot Captain 
 Boezac created a diversion. He rushed with his 
 band of a hundred and thirty men to meet the 
 foe. These buffalo-hunters had among them 
 some of the coolest and best marksmen in the 
 country. Singling out the boldest of those who 
 advanced, and were encouraging their followers 
 in the final charge, Boezac and his men laid low 
 many of the bravest chiefs and warriors. This 
 gave the Kafirs a decided check. The troops
 
 DEFEAT OF SAVAGES. 153 
 
 cheered and fired with redoubled speed and 
 energy. Lieutenant Aitcheson of the Artillery 
 plied the foe with a withering fire of grapeshot. 
 Boezac and his hunters, turning their flank, 
 pressed them hotly in rear, and the Hottentot 
 cavalry charged. The Kafirs recoiled, though 
 some of the boldest, scorning to give in, rushed 
 madly among the soldiers, and perished fighting. 
 Then a wild panic and a total rout ensued, and 
 the great host was scattered like chaff, and driven 
 into the ravines. 
 
 Brief though this fight had been, the carnage 
 among the Kafirs was terrible. One who was an 
 eye-witness of the fight* tells us that the bodies 
 of about 2000 Kafir warriors strewed the field of 
 battle, and that many others perished of their 
 wounds in the rivulet leading down to the Cape 
 Corps' barracks. Nuka, the faithless Interpreter, 
 was shot, but Makana escaped. 
 
 A few months afterwards, however, he delivered 
 himself up, and the other chiefs sued for peace. 
 With Makana's surrender the war of 1819 ended. 
 The Lynx himself was sent prisoner to Eobben 
 
 * C. L. Stretch, Esq., of Somerset East, from whose graphic 
 paper, in the May number (1876) of the Cape Monthly Magazine, I 
 have gathered this narrative.
 
 154 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Island. After nearly two years' confinement he 
 attempted to escape in a boat with some other 
 prisoners, but the boat was upset in the surf on 
 Blueberg beach, and Makana was drowned, while 
 his companions escaped. 
 
 As Grahamstown grew in years and size, she 
 bore her part well, both in the suffering and the 
 action which the colony has been called on to 
 endure and undertake, during all the vicissi- 
 tudes of its career in peace and in war. What 
 that part has been would take a volume to 
 tell. 
 
 She is now a large and beautiful town the 
 capital of the Eastern Province situated on the 
 slopes of the Zuurberg range, near the head 
 waters of the Kowie River, 1760 feet above the 
 sea, and 36 miles distant therefrom. She is also 
 the focus where all the roads from the interior 
 converge to enter the only available gap through 
 the mountains Howison's Poort. 
 
 Very pleasant to dwell in is this " City of the 
 Settlers "-alias the "city of gardens," with its 
 agreeable society, fresh breezes, and charming 
 situation ; its " twenty miles " of well-gravelled 
 and tree-lined streets ; its handsome shops and 
 stores, its fine public buildings notably the
 
 GRAHAMSTOWN OF THE PRESENT. 155 
 
 Cathedral, and the Albany Hall -its three great 
 reservoirs, with their "twenty-four million gal- 
 lons" of water, and its "twelve miles" of main 
 pipes, by means of which its ten thousand, more 
 or less; inhabitants are watered. These are also 
 watered, spiritually, by a Bishop and a Dean, 
 and ministers of nearly all the Colonial churches. 
 They are kept in order, physically, by a High 
 Court of Judicature, with its judges, solicitor- 
 general, clerks and practitioners, and they are 
 irrigated intellectually by numerous excellent 
 schools, by a public library and reading-room, 
 with about "seven thousand" volumes, by a 
 good public museum, and last, but not least, by 
 three newspapers the Journal, the Eastern Star, 
 and the Penny Mail, which pour their streams, 
 not only over the town, but over the colony, in 
 crystal purity save when they chance to flow 
 into one another and effervesce ! 
 
 The first of these papers, the Journal, is the 
 oldest, and was started by the " Honourable " 
 Eobert Godlonton, of whom it is justly said that 
 he " has grown grey in the service of the Eastern 
 Frontier inhabitants ; and, from the first day of 
 his appearance as a journalist, has with a per- 
 severance unwearied, though often single-handed,
 
 15G SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 maintained the rights, and urged redress for the 
 wrongs, of his fellow-settlers/' 
 
 But I must not linger in Grahamstown now. 
 When there in the body, I was sorely tempted 
 to do so, too long, by the kindness of friends 
 and the salubrity of the weather. Yet I would 
 not pass away from it without recording my debt 
 of gratitude to the family of the Rev. Mr. Tyson 
 for their kind hospitality, and to Mr. Roberts, 
 on whose fat pony I was privileged to gallop over 
 the beautiful surroundings of the place, far and 
 near. Adieu, Grahamstown ! thou art a green 
 
 7 O 
 
 spot in memory, as well as in reality.
 
 VILLAGE OP SALEM. 157 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 8ALKM A PECULIAR PIC-NICPOLO UVDBR DimCULTlM 
 LECTURING AND SINGING SPORTING AT WIGHT. 
 
 SALEM is, as it should be, a peaceful spot. 1 1. 
 was not always so. There was a time when its 
 inhabitants had to toil, so to speak, with the spade 
 in one hand, and the musket in the other. It lies 
 in a hollow of the great rolling plains, and was 
 founded, like many of the eastern towns, in the 
 memorable "1820," when the "British settlers " 
 came out, and a new era for the colony began, 
 It has not grown much, however, since those days, 
 being still a scattered little village, with its old 
 church in which some of the pilgrim-fathers of 
 South Africa met to worship God, and ite new 
 church, in which, at the time of my visit, the 
 Gospel of peace and good-will was preached elo- 
 quently and faithfully by a personal friend. 
 
 On the phosphorescent ocean in the fleet-steam- 
 ing " Windsor Castle, 9 I made, as already men-
 
 158 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 tioned, the friendship of a broad-shouldered, tall 
 strapping man, who might have been a splendid 
 Guardsman, and who was blessed with a sweet 
 wife and four pretty children, namely, the Rev. 
 William Caldecott, of the Wesleyan Church. It 
 was for the purpose of paying him, and his, a 
 visit that I turned my wandering steps towards 
 the Salem Flats. 
 
 The arrival of the original settlers at Salem is 
 thus described in the Story of my Mission by one 
 who was a noted leader in the first days the 
 Rev. William Shaw : 
 
 " Our Dutch wagon-driver intimating that we 
 had at length reached our proper location, we 
 took our boxes out of the wagon, and placed 
 them on the ground. He bade us goeden dag, or 
 farewell, cracked his long whip, and drove away, 
 leaving us to our reflections. My wife sat down on 
 one box, and I on another. The beautiful blue 
 sky was above u-s, and the green grass beneath 
 our feet. We looked at each other for a few 
 moments, indulged in some reflections, and per- 
 haps exchanged a few sentences ; but it was no 
 time for sentiment, and hence we were soon en- 
 gaged in pitching our tent, and when that was
 
 EARLY SETTLEMENT. 159 
 
 accomplished, we removed into it our trunks and 
 bedding. All the other settlers who arrived with 
 us were similarly engaged, and in a comparatively 
 short time the somewhat extensive valley of that 
 part of the Assagai Bush River, which was to be 
 the site of our future village, presented a lively 
 and picturesque appearance." 
 
 Soon the spade, the plough, and the axe began 
 their subduing work. Some of the beautiful 
 grassy slopes were turned up. Small clearings 
 were made in the bush. Frail huts with doors of 
 matting and windows of calico began to arise. 
 Lime was found, white-wash was applied, and the 
 huts began to " smile." So did the waters of the 
 stream when partially shorn of the bush-mous- 
 tache by which, from time immemorial, they had 
 been partially concealed ; the first crops were sown, 
 and the work of civilisation began. There was 
 a ruinous " wattle and dab" edifice which had been 
 deserted by a Dutch Boer before the arrival of the 
 settlers. This was converted into a church, town- 
 hall, and lying-in hospital. 
 
 The yell of the Kafir and the whizzing assagai 
 afterwards disturbed the peace of Salem, and at 
 that time the settlers proved that, though on 
 peaceful plans intent, they could valorously hold
 
 160 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 their own ; but it was peaceful enough, and beau- 
 tiful, when I first beheld it. 
 
 At the door of a moderately handsome residence 
 which had succeeded the wattle-and-dab style 
 of thing I was heartily welcomed by my friend 
 and his amiable spouse. Here I was introduced 
 to two of the descendants of the 1820 " fathers" 
 two belles of Albany ; some of whom, by the way, 
 are quite on a par in every respect with the belles 
 of Albion, and of whose eyes and smiles I could 
 say much, were it not that I fear to give offence. 
 Here, too, I had the pleasure of enjoying a South 
 African pic-nic. 
 
 A pic-nic is at all times interesting, doubly 
 so when undertaken in peculiar circumstances. 
 One of the peculiarities of this pic-nic was that the 
 invitation to it was publicly given, and embraced 
 the entire population. Another peculiarity was 
 that the population, almost in its entirety, ac- 
 cepted the invitation. But there were still other 
 peculiarities which will appear in the sequel. 
 
 The morning of the day fixed was bright and 
 beautiful. This, indeed, was no peculiarity. 
 Most of the mornings, days, and nights in that 
 splendid region were of much the same stamp at 
 that time. The spot fixed on for the scene of the
 
 A WANDERING BUFFALO. 161 
 
 pic-nic was about six miles from Salem, where a 
 wild buffalo had been killed the week before. 
 
 The killing of this buffalo was an " event," for 
 that wild denizen of the African Bush had long 
 ago retired before the rifle of the settler to safer 
 retreats, and rarely returned to his old haunts. 
 A band of buffaloes, however, had apparently 
 taken a fancy to revisit the home of their child- 
 hood at this time. There was nothing to prevent 
 them, for, although the country is " settled," the 
 original "Bush" is in many places sufficiently 
 extensive and impervious to afford safe shelter to 
 the wildest of animals. At all events, a band of 
 buffaloes did come to the neighbourhood of Salem, 
 and there met with a farmer-Nimrod, who "picked 
 off " one of their number. I turned aside, during 
 one of my rides, to visit the head and horns, which 
 lay near his house. 
 
 The place of rendezvous for those who dwelt 
 in the village was an open space in front of the 
 church. Here, at an early hour, there assembled 
 numerous equestrians, as well as vehicles of varied 
 shape and character. I was mounted on a smart 
 brown pony kindly lent by Mr. Shaw, teacher of 
 the flourishing school of Salem. My friend Calde- 
 cott bestrode a powerful steed suited to his size. 
 
 L
 
 1G2 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 When the gathering had reached considerable 
 proportions, we started like an Eastern caravan. 
 
 Among the cavaliers there were stalwart men 
 and fair damsels also little boys and girls, pranc- 
 ing in anxiety to get away. There were carts, 
 and gigs, and buggies, or things that bore some 
 resemblance to such vehicles, in which were the 
 more sedate ones of the gathering; and there 
 were great " Cape wagons," with fifteen or twenty 
 oxen to each, containing whole families from 
 hale old "grannies" down to grannies' weaknesses 
 in the shape of healthy lumps of live lard clad 
 in amazement and bibs. It was a truly grand 
 procession, as, after toiling up the slope that leads 
 from the valley of Salem, we debouched upon the 
 wide plain, and assumed our relative positions 
 that is, the riders dashed away at speed, the carts 
 and buggies, getting up steam, pushed on, and the 
 oxen trailed along at their unalterable gait, so 
 that, in a few minutes, the dense group spread 
 into a moving mass which gradually drew itself 
 out into an attenuated line, whereof the head 
 ultimately became invisible to the tail. 
 
 My tall host led the way with that same en- 
 thusiastic vigour which he was wont to display 
 in leading our thoughts theologically from the
 
 NATIVE CHURCH. 163 
 
 pulpit. He was a hearty, earnest man, who could 
 turn quickly from the pleasant contemplation of 
 the trivialities of life to the deep and serious con- 
 sideration of the things that bear on the life to 
 come. As far as I could judge, religion was 
 always " in " and never " out of season " with him. 
 
 One Sunday I rode over the plains with him to 
 visit a native church in which it was his duty to 
 conduct worship. The congregation was black 
 and woolly-headed Hottentots chiefly, I believe, 
 though there may have been some Kafirs amongst 
 them. 
 
 There is something very attractive to me in the 
 bright, eager, childlike look of black men and 
 women. The said look may be the genuine expres- 
 sion of feeling it may be, for aught I can tell, the 
 result of contrast between the dazzling whites of 
 eyes and teeth, with liquid-black pupils and swarthy 
 cheeks, but that does not alter the fact that it is 
 pleasant. There was a good deal of sighing and 
 groaning. My friend the pastor did not sigh or 
 groan. He spoke out like a man, with firm lip 
 and strong voice, and earnest eye ; but the people 
 groaned. Why not ? they had fully as much 
 cause to do so as civilised people. I do not up- 
 hold groaning. I never do it myself in public,
 
 164 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 but if I were bound to one of two courses, I 
 would rather groan with the weakest Hottentot 
 in South Africa than sit in frigid and callous pro- 
 priety with self-possessed formalists at home. Of 
 the two the Hottentot has the best of it, for if he 
 is a hypocrite (which we cannot tell) he has 
 ignorance to palliate his hypocritical humility, 
 while the formalists' intelligence and common 
 sense render highly culpable their dignified Sun- 
 day-assertion that they are " miserable sinners." 
 
 Pray observe here that I refer not to Christians, 
 white or black, but to hypocrites, and the two 
 modes by which such are in the habit of express- 
 ing themselves. The groan of the genuine black 
 man and the silence of the true white are, I have 
 no doubt, equally eloquent in the ear of God. 
 
 The Hottentot who translated my friend's dis- 
 course, sentence by sentence, was a fine specimen 
 I won't say of his race, but of humanity. He 
 was full of intelligence and fire; caught the 
 preacher's meaning instantly, riveted with his 
 glittering eye the attention of his audience, and 
 rattled out his words with a vehemence that was 
 most impressive, and with the interspersion of 
 those incomprehensible and indescribable "clicks" 
 with which the native language abounds. What-
 
 PIC-NIC RESUMED. 165 
 
 ever might be said about the non-success of mis- 
 sions, it would be unphilosophical to suppose that 
 the benign influence and wholesome teachings of 
 my friend went for nothing as too many think, 
 and some say ; besides, it is enough for believers 
 that they have the command to go and preach, 
 and the assurance that their " labour shall not be 
 in vain in the Lord." 
 
 After the service we remounted our horses and 
 galloped to a distant farm, where a little child 
 was baptized. Alas ! not many days after, I heard 
 'that the little one had been taken from the poor 
 parents who were so proud of it that day and 
 admitted to the Church above. 
 
 But to return to the pic-nic. 
 
 As we advanced, groups and couples of cavaliers 
 and carts and wagons joined the line of march 
 from outlying farms, so that when we reached the 
 rendezvous we must have formed a body of two 
 hundred strong, or more. 
 
 The spot chosen was the summit of a woody 
 knoll, from which we could survey all the country 
 round, and look down upon the river with its 
 miles and miles of dense bush, in which the 
 buffaloes had vainly fancied themselves free from 
 the danger of human foes.
 
 166 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Was there plenty of food at that pic-nic ? I 
 should think there was. South Africans do not 
 live upon air, by any means though air has a 
 good deal to do with their living. These comely 
 maidens and strapping boys had not been brought 
 up on water-gruel. These powerful men and 
 ruddy matrons, to say nothing of the aged and 
 the juvenile, would not have gone to that knoll 
 on the plain without a prospect of "strong meat " 
 of some sort. There were pies and joints, buns 
 and beef, cakes and coffee, tea and tongues, sugar 
 and sandwiches, hams and hampers, mounds of 
 mealies, oceans of milk, and baskets of bread and 
 butter. I'm not sure whether there were wines 
 or spirits. I culpably forget. Probably there 
 were not, for " Good Templars " are powerful in 
 that region, and so is temperance. 
 
 Did we do justice to the viands ? Didn't we ? 
 My notions of human capacity were enlarged that 
 day. So was my own capacity out of sympathy, 
 coupled with the ride. But we did not linger 
 over our food. Seated in groups near the margin 
 of, and partly in, the bush, we refreshed ourselves 
 in comparative silence. Then we grew noisy over 
 our milk and tea. Some of us even got the length 
 of singing and speech-making, but the younger
 
 POLO UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 167 
 
 portion of the band soon lost their appetites and 
 dispersed some to romp, some to ramble, others 
 to engage in games. 
 
 A few of the more reckless among us extem- 
 porised a game of polo. 
 
 Many people know, though some may not, that 
 this is a game played on horseback with a club 
 and ball a species of equestrian " hockey/' as it 
 is styled in England, " shinty " in Scotland. To 
 be well done it requires good and trained horses, 
 a wide expanse of level country, and expert riders. 
 Our state of preparation for the game may be 
 understood when I say that we had indifferent 
 and untrained horses, that the ground was very 
 uneven and covered with huge ant-hills, while the 
 riders were not expert at least, not at polo. 
 
 We got sticks, however, and went at it. Half 
 a dozen men cut and levelled several ant-hills, and, 
 marking off" a square patch of ground, four of us I 
 won't say who were placed, one at each corner, 
 while the ball, a football, was put in the middle 
 of the square. 
 
 Our innocent horses stood quietly there till the 
 signal was given to start. Then each cavalier 
 essayed to reach the ball first. The sudden 
 urging of the steeds to instant action seemed to
 
 168 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 confuse them. They did not spring, as they 
 should have done like arrows from bows. One 
 rider wildly kicked with his heels and shook his 
 reins. The horse turned round, as if in contempt, 
 from the ball. Another applied his whip with 
 vehemence, but his horse only backed. A third 
 shouted, having neither whip nor spur, and brought 
 his polo-stick savagely down on his animal's 
 flank, but it plunged and reared. The only horse 
 that behaved well was that of a gallant youth 
 who wore spurs. A dig from these sent him into 
 the field. He reached the ball, made a glorious 
 blow at it, and hit the terrestrial ball by mistake. 
 Before the mistake could be rectified three of the 
 other players were up, flourishing their long clubs 
 in reckless eagerness ; the fourth rode into them ; 
 the horses then lost patience and refused obedience 
 to orders no wonder, for one club, aimed at the 
 ball, fell on a horse's shins, while another saluted 
 a horse's ear. Presently the ball spurted out from 
 the midst of us; the horses scattered, and one 
 was seen to rise on its hind legs. Immediately 
 thereafter one of the players I won't say which 
 was on the ground and his horse was careering 
 over the plain ! Eegardless of this the other 
 three charged, met in the shock of conflict ; clubs
 
 VALUE OF SPURS. 169 
 
 met clubs, and ears, and shins but not the ball 
 until finally an accidental kick, from one of 
 the horses I think, sent it towards the boundary 
 at a considerable distance from the players. 
 
 Then it was that the power of spurs became 
 conspicuously apparent. While two of the cham- 
 pions backed and reared, the gallant youth with 
 the armed heels made a vigorous rush at the ball, 
 miraculously hit it, and triumphantly won the 
 game. 
 
 On the whole it was a failure in one sense, but 
 a great success in another, inasmuch as it afforded 
 immense amusement to the spectators, and plea- 
 sant excitement as well as exercise to the per- 
 formers. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the 
 energies of the whole pic-nic were concentrated 
 on polo. The party, as I have said, had broken 
 up into groups, one of which played hide-and- 
 seek among the bushes on the knoll, while another 
 engaged in a game which involved sitting in a 
 circle, changing places, frequent collisions, con- 
 stant mistakes on the part of the ignorant, and 
 shouts of laughter with rectifying advice on the 
 part of the knowing. 
 
 All this time the sun was glowing as only a
 
 170 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 South-African summer sun can glow, in a cloud- 
 less sky, and it was not until that sun had become 
 red in the face, and sunk far down into the west, 
 that the panting, but far from exhausted revellers 
 saddled up and inspanned, and began to quit the 
 scene. 
 
 Then it was, as my friend and I stood on the 
 bush-topped knoll, that the magnificence of our 
 pic-nic fully impressed us, for, as we surveyed 
 the long line of curvetting riders, and trundling 
 carts, and gigs, and curricles, and heavy Cape 
 wagons with their creeping teams winding over 
 the plain, the head of the column was seen almost 
 on the horizon before the rear-guard had left the 
 scene of our festivities. This was altogether one 
 of the pleasantest days I had spent in the colony, 
 the people were so hearty and vigorous, so varied 
 in appearance, character, and age, so full of life 
 and fun and good-will. 
 
 But it is not always in the sunshine that the 
 good people of Salem enjoy themselves. The 
 hunters among them occasionally go out shooting 
 at night with the aid of a dark lantern, and the 
 wretched creature which they pursue on such 
 occasions is called a spring-hare. It seems a 
 mixture of the hare and the kangaroo its size
 
 FAIR SONGSTERS OF SALEM. 171 
 
 and aspect being those of the former animal, while 
 its long hind legs and its action in springing 
 resemble the latter. In running it does not use 
 its fore legs, but bounds like the kangaroo. 
 
 Never having engaged in night-sporting save 
 in dreams I agreed to accompany two Salem 
 Nimrods on a hunt after spring-hares. The night 
 fixed for the hunt was that on which my host 
 had arranged to deliver a lecture in the church on 
 the great revival of religion that had recently 
 occurred in England, and at which 1 had engaged 
 to assist a choir in singing Mr. Sankey's beautiful 
 hymns, but the lecture and the hunt did not 
 clash, as the latter could be commenced at any 
 hour of the night. 
 
 The fair ones of South Africa are gifted with 
 much musical talent, and assuredly those of Salem 
 had specially sweet and true voices. It was 
 quite a treat to hear them sing those vigor- 
 ous and cheery hymns during the intervals of 
 Caldecott's most interesting lecture. Whether 
 the men of Salem cannot or won't sing I know 
 not, but I found myself in the awkward position 
 of being the only male singer in the choir. Bass 
 was demanded of me. What of voice I possess is 
 barytone. Fortunately I also possessed a slight
 
 172 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 cold at the time which greatly improved the depth 
 of my voice, if not its quality. Happily, also, it 
 was drowned by the magnificent altos, sopranos, 
 and contraltos around. 
 
 After the lecture I supped with the Nimrods of 
 the night, and after supper we shouldered our 
 guns and sallied forth into outer darkness. 
 
 We went into the fields. That is all I can 
 vouch for. It happened to be so dark that we 
 might as well have been groping about in a coal- 
 pit. My companions, however, knew the ground, 
 which was fortunate, for walking over a rugged 
 surface in the dark is not only confusing, but 
 trying to the nerves, to say nothing of the 
 temper. I followed faithfully and " close to heel," 
 like a well- trained dog. 
 
 " This way, Sir ; mind the ditch." 
 
 "Where? ah! aXLiiight!" 
 
 The last syllable was shot out of me like a 
 bullet as I plunged into the ditch. 
 
 The Nimrod who carried the lantern opened 
 the slide for a moment, revealed the rugged nature 
 of the ground, and closed it when I had risen. 
 
 " It's better farther on," he said, encouragingly. 
 
 "Is it? Ah, that's well." 
 
 We came to a piece of ground which my feet
 
 SPORTING AT NIGHT. 173 
 
 and legs told me was covered with long rough 
 grass and occasional bushes. Over this we 
 stumbled, and here the rays of the lantern were 
 directed far in advance of us, so as to sweep slowly 
 round, bringing bushes, and grassy tufts, and 
 stumps, and clods, into spectral view for a 
 moment as the focus of light moved on. 
 
 " We never see their bodies/' said the lantern- 
 bearer, slowly, as he peered earnestly in front, 
 "we only see the sparkle of one eye when the 
 light falls on it, and then we fire at there, 
 that 's one ! Look, don't you see his eye ? Fire, 
 Sir, fire !" 
 
 I raised my gun, and looked eagerly with all 
 my eyes, but saw nothing. Never having been 
 in the habit of firing at nothing, I hesitated. 
 
 " Ah, he 's gone !' Never mind, we '11 soon see 
 another." 
 
 We stumbled on, again. The surrounding 
 gloom depressed me, but I revived under the 
 influence of one or two false alarms, and a severe 
 plunge into a deepish hole. 
 
 " There be is again, quite near," whispered my 
 light-bearer. 
 
 " Aim for the eye," whispered the other. 
 
 The whispering, and intense silence that fol-
 
 174 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 lowed, coupled with the gloom, made me feel 
 guilty. I saw nothing, but tried so hard to do 
 so that I persuaded myself that I did, and 
 attempted to aim. 
 
 " The sights of the gun are invisible," I whis- 
 pered somewhat testily. 
 
 Without a word the lantern was raised until 
 the light glittered on the barrels. Then I saw 
 nothing whatever except the gun! In sheer 
 desperation I pulled the trigger. The tremendous 
 appearance in the dark of the sheet of flame that 
 belched forth, and the crash of the report in the 
 silent night, gave me quite new ideas as to fire- 
 arms. 
 
 " You Ve missed," said the light-bearer. 
 
 As I had fired at nothing I felt inclined to 
 reply that I had hit but refrained. 
 
 Again we stumbled on, and I began to grow 
 melancholy, when another "there he goes," 
 brought me to the " ready," with eager eyes. 
 
 I saw it clearly enough this time. A diamond 
 was sparkling in the blackness before me. I aimed 
 and fired. There was a squeal and a rush. 
 Instantly my friends dashed off in wild pursuit 
 and I stood listening, not daring to move for fear 
 of ditches. The sounds of leaping, stumbling,
 
 A SPRING-HARE SHOT. 175 
 
 and crashing, came to me on the night air for a 
 few minutes, then my friends returned with the 
 light, and with a poor little spring-hare's lifeless 
 and long-hind-legged body. 
 
 With this trophy I returned home, resolved 
 never more to go hunting at night. 
 
 Many pleasant excursions, visits, and rides had 
 I while at Salem : space forbids a record of 
 these, yet I would not pass in total silence the 
 beautiful " Ohio." This is a romantic spot near 
 the broad waters of Bushman's River, where Mr. 
 Shaw, a retired Wesley an clergyman, spends the 
 evening of his days in taking charge of and 
 educating a number of boys, and where his 
 amiable wife and fair daughter received us with 
 genuine hospitality. 
 
 The house is the only one in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, and, despite the beauty of the 
 place, I could not help thinking that the Ghio 
 must have been an uncomfortable residence in 
 those early days when the colony was liable to 
 be overrun by Kafir hordes.
 
 176 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTEE XL 
 
 ALGOA BAY KAFIRS ON THE COAST DIFFICULTIES REGARDING 
 SERVANTS, ETC. 
 
 STANDING on the shores of Algoa Bay, with the 
 " Liverpool of South Africa " Port Elizabeth 
 at my back, I attempted to realise what must 
 have been the scene, in the memorable "1820," 
 when the flourishing city was yet unborn, when 
 the whole land was a veritable wilderness, and 
 the sands on which the port now stands were 
 covered with the tents of the " settlers." 
 
 Some of the surroundings, thought I, are pretty 
 much as they were in those days. The shipping 
 at anchor in the offing must resemble the shipping 
 that conveyed the emigrants across the sea 
 except, of course, these two giant steamers of the 
 "Donald Currie" and the " Union" lines. The 
 bright blue sky, too, and the fiery sun are the 
 same, and so are those magnificent "rollers,"
 
 ALGOA BAY. 177 
 
 which, rising, one scarce can tell when or where, 
 out of a dead-calm sea, stand up for a few 
 seconds like liquid walls, and then rush up the 
 beach with a magnificent roar. 
 
 As I gazed, the scene was rendered still more 
 real by the approach from seaward of a great 
 surf-boat, similar to the surf-boats that brought 
 the settlers from their respective ships to the shore. 
 Such boats are still used at the port to land goods 
 and also passengers, when the breakers are 
 too high to admit of their being landed in small 
 boats at the wooden pier. The surf-boats are 
 bulky, broad, and flat, strongly built to stand 
 severe hammering on the sand, and compara- 
 tively shallow at the stern, to admit of their being 
 backed towards the beach, or hauled off to sea 
 through the surf by means of a rope over the bow. 
 
 As the surf-boat neared the shore, I heard voices 
 behind me, and, turning round, beheld a sight 
 which sent me completely back into the 1820 
 days. It was a band of gentlemen in black black 
 from the crowns of their heads to the soles of 
 their feet, with the exception" of their lips and 
 teeth and eyes. Here was the Simon Pure in very 
 truth. They were so-called Ked Kafirs, because 
 of their habit of painting their bodies and blankets 
 
 M
 
 178 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 with red ochre. At this time the paint had been 
 washed off, and the blankets laid aside. They 
 were quite naked, fresh from the lands of their 
 nativity, and apparently fit for anything. 
 
 Shade of Othello ! to say nothing of Apollo 
 what magnificent forms the fellows had, and what 
 indescribably hideous faces ! They were tall, 
 muscular, broad-shouldered, small waisted and 
 ankled, round-muscled, black-polished in a word, 
 elegantly powerful. Many of them might have 
 stood as models for Hercules. Like superfine 
 cloth, they were of various shades ; some were 
 brown-black, some almost blue-black, and many 
 coal-black. 
 
 They were coming down to unload the surf- 
 boat, and seemed full of fun, and sly childlike 
 humour, as they walked, tripped, skipped and 
 sidled into the water. At first I was greatly 
 puzzled to account for the fact that all their heads 
 and throats were wrapped up, or swathed, in dirty 
 cloth. It seemed as if every man of them was 
 under treatment for a bad cold. This I soon 
 found was meant to serve as a protection to their 
 naked skins from the sharp and rugged edges and 
 corners of the casks and cases they had to carry. 
 
 The labour is rather severe, but is well paid, so
 
 KAFIR WANTS. 179 
 
 that hundreds of Kafirs annually come down 
 from their homes in the wilderness to work for a 
 short time. They do not, I believe, make a pro- 
 fession of it. Fresh relays come every year. 
 Each young fellow's object is to make enough 
 money to purchase a gun and cattle, and a wife 
 or wives. As these articles cost little in Africa, a 
 comparatively short attention to business, during 
 one season, enables a man who left home a beggar 
 to return with his fortune made! He marries, 
 sets his wives to hoe the mealies and milk the cows, 
 and thereafter takes life easy, except when he 
 takes a fancy to hunt elephants, or to go to war 
 for pastime. Ever after he is a drone in the 
 world's bee-hive. Having no necessity he need 
 not work, and possessing no principle he will not. 
 
 As the boat came surging in on the foam, these 
 manly children waded out to meet her, throwing 
 water at each other, and skylarking as they went. 
 They treated the whole business in fact as a rather 
 good jest, and although they toiled like heroes, 
 they accompanied their work with such jovial 
 looks, and hummed such lilting, free-and-easy airs 
 the while, that it was difficult to associate their 
 doings with anything like labour. 
 
 Soon the boat grounded, and the Kafirs
 
 180 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 crowded round her, up to their waists sometimes 
 in the water, and sometimes up to the arm-pits, 
 when a bigger wave than usual came roaring in. 
 The boat itself was so large that, as they stood 
 beside it, their heads barely rose to a level with 
 the gunwale. The boatmen at once began to 
 heave and roll the goods over the side. The 
 Kafirs received them on their heads or shoulders, 
 according to the shape or size of each package 
 and they refused nothing. If a bale or a box 
 chanced to be too heavy for one man, a comrade 
 lent assistance ; if it proved still too heavy, a third 
 added his head or shoulder, and the box or bale 
 was borne off. 
 
 One fellow, like a black Hercules, put his 
 wrapper on his head, and his head under a bale, 
 which I thought would crush him down into the 
 surf, but he walked ashore with an easy spring- 
 ing motion, that showed he possessed more than 
 sufficient power. Another man, hitting Hercules 
 a sounding smack as he went by, received 
 a mighty cask on his caput that should have 
 cracked it but it didn't. Then I observed the 
 boatmen place on the gunwale an enormous flat 
 box, which seemed to me about ten feet square. 
 It was corrugated iron, they told me, of, I
 
 UNLOADING SURF-BOATS. 181 
 
 forget how many hundredweight. A crowd of 
 Kafirs got under it, and carried it ashore as 
 easily as if it had been a butterfly. But this was 
 nothing to a box which next made its appearance 
 from the bowels of that capacious boat. It was 
 in the form of a cube, and must have measured 
 nine or ten feet in all directions. Its contents I 
 never ascertained, but the difficulty with which 
 the boatmen got it rested on the side of the boat 
 proved its weight to be worthy of its size. To 
 get it on the shoulders of the Kafirs was the next 
 difficulty. It was done by degrees. As the huge 
 case was pushed over the edge, Kafir after Kafir 
 put his head or shoulder to it, until there were, I 
 think, from fifteen to twenty men beneath the 
 weight ; then, slowly, it left the boat, and began 
 to move towards the shore. 
 
 Assuredly, if four or five of these men had 
 stumbled at the same moment, the others would 
 have been crushed to death, but not a man 
 stumbled. They came ashore with a slow, regular, 
 almost dancing gait, humming a low monotonous 
 chant, as if to enable them to step in time, and 
 making serio-comic motions with arms and hands, 
 until they deposited safely in a cart a weight 
 that might have tested Atlas himself !
 
 182 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 It seemed obvious that these wild men (for 
 such they truly were) had been gifted with all 
 the powers that most white men lay claim to, 
 vigour, muscle, energy, pluck, fun, humour, 
 resolution. Only Christian principle is wanted to 
 make them a respectable and useful portion of 
 the human family. Like all the rest of us they 
 are keenly alive to the influence of kindness and 
 affection. Of course if your kindness, forbearance, 
 or affection, take the form of action which leads 
 them to think that you are afraid of them, they 
 will merely esteem you cunning, and treat you 
 accordingly ; but if you convince a Kafir^ or any 
 other savage, that you have a disinterested regard 
 for him, you are sure to find him grateful, more 
 or less. 
 
 One Christian family with which I dined gave 
 me to understand that this was the result of their 
 own experience. At that very time they had a 
 Kafir girl in training as a housemaid. Servants, 
 let me remark in passing, are a Cape-colonial 
 difficulty. The demand is in excess of the supply, 
 and the supply is not altogether what it should 
 be, besides being dear and uncomfortably in- 
 dependent. I suppose it was because of this 
 difficulty that the family I dined with had pro-
 
 KAFIR SERVANT GIRL. 183 
 
 cured a half- wild Kafir girl, and undertaken her 
 training. 
 
 Her clothes hung upon her in a manner that 
 suggested novelty. It was evident that she 
 would have preferred to serve naked, had that 
 been admissible. She was young, very tall, black 
 as Erebus, lithe as an eel, strong as a horse. She 
 was obviously new to the work, and went about 
 it with the air of one who engages in a frolic. 
 But the free air of the wilderness had taught her 
 a freedom of action and stride, and a fling of body 
 that it was not easy to restrain within the con- 
 fined precincts of a dining-room. She gyrated 
 round the table like a sable panther ready to 
 spring when wanted. She had an open-mouthed 
 smile of amused good-will, and an open-eyed 
 " what-next-only-say-quick-and-Ill-do-it " expres- 
 sion that was impressive. She seized the plates 
 and dishes and bore them off with a giraffe- 
 like, high-stepping action that was quite alarming, 
 but she broke or spilt nothing. To say that she 
 flung about, would be mild. It would not have 
 been incongruous, I thought only a little extra 
 dash in her jubilant method of proceeding 
 if she had gone head-foremost through the 
 dining-room window for the sake of bearing
 
 184 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 the mutton round by a shorter- route to the 
 kitchen. 
 
 The family expected that this girl would be 
 reduced to moderation, and rendered faithful 
 as she certainly was intelligent by force of 
 kindness in a short time. 
 
 Of course in a country thus circumstanced, 
 there are bad servants. The independence of the 
 Totties is most amusing to those who do not 
 suffer from it. I was told that servants out there 
 have turned the tables on their employers, and in- 
 stead of bringing " characters " with them, require 
 to know the characters of master and mistress 
 before they will engage. It is no uncommon 
 thing for a domestic to come to you and say that 
 she is tired and wants a rest, and is going off to 
 see her mother. Indeed it is something to her 
 credit if she takes the trouble to tell you. Some- 
 times she goes off without warning, leaving you 
 to shift for yourself, returning perhaps after some 
 days. If you find fault with her too severely on 
 her return, she will probably leave you alto- 
 gether. 
 
 This naturally tries the temper of high-spirited 
 mistresses as does also the incorrigible careless- 
 ness of some servants.
 
 DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. 185 
 
 A gentle lady said to me quietly, one day, 
 " I never keep a servant after slapping her !" 
 
 "Is it your habit to slap them 1" I asked with 
 a smile. 
 
 "No," she replied with an answering smile, 
 "but occasionally I am driven to it. When a' 
 careless girl, who has been frequently cautioned, 
 singes one's linen and destroys one's best dress, 
 and melts one's teapot by putting it on the red- 
 hot stove, what can flesh and blood do V 
 
 I admitted that the supposed circumstances 
 were trying. 
 
 " The last one. I sent off," continued the lady, 
 " had done all that. When she filled up her cup 
 of iniquity by melting the tea-pot, I just gave her 
 a good hearty slap on the face. I couldn't help 
 it. Of course she left me after that." 
 
 I did not doubt it, for the lady was not only 
 gentle in her manner, and pretty to boot, but was 
 tall and stout, and her fair arm was strong, and 
 must have been heavy.
 
 186 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 PORT ELIZABETH ALGOA BAY DIAMONDS KAFIR NOBILITY. 
 
 PORT ELIZABETH may be described as the first- 
 born city of the Eastern Province of the Cape of 
 Good Hope. It came into being in 1820. It is 
 now a flourishing seaport, full of energetic, busy, 
 money-making men, with a population of above 
 15,000, an export trade (including diamonds) of 
 at least three millions sterling per annum, imports 
 of above two millions, and customs dues of more 
 than a quarter of a million. It is the principal 
 seaport of the Eastern Province, and the nearest 
 point on the coast to the Diamond-fields 420 
 miles from De Beer's New Rush, a distance which 
 is traversed in about six days by Cobb and Co.'s 
 coaches. 
 
 Is it of any use to tell you that this flourishing 
 town is fortunate in the possession of a town-hall, 
 post-office, banks, churches, etc. etc. ? I think 
 not. Every flourishing town has the same tale
 
 PORT ELIZABETH. 187 
 
 to tell ; but it is well worthy of particular note 
 that the town has a capital and extensive free 
 public library, three bi-weekly newspapers, and 
 an excellent 'educational establishment, styled 
 the Grey Institute, where the youth of the town 
 receive a thorough training at extremely moderate 
 rates. 
 
 Besides possessing the largest hall in the colony, 
 which holds upwards of a thousand people, Port 
 Elizabeth has two beautiful and well-managed 
 public parks, full of beautiful shrubs, trees, and 
 flowering plants. In other respects its surround- 
 ings are not picturesque, but it can afford to leave 
 " the beautiful " to other towns, seeing that it is 
 so largely favoured with " the useful." 
 
 Among its other useful enterprises it has the 
 honour of having sent out one pioneer of future 
 commercial prosperity in the Eastern Province, 
 for Port Elizabeth is the starting-point of one 
 branch of that great railway system which is to 
 revolutionise Africa. I do not say South Africa, 
 but advisedly use the title of wider scope. The 
 line of railway as yet has only crept, with the 
 modest uncertainty of youth, some forty or fifty 
 miles out of town, sending a timid but vigorous 
 branch, thirteen miles long, to the town of Uiten-
 
 188 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 hage, but when that line shall have grown to 
 manhood, ramified the Eastern Province, shot out 
 to the north-west, joined and shaken friendly 
 hands with the healthy feelers of its elder brother, 
 the railway system springing from Capetown, 
 crossed the wild Karroo, rushed into the diamond 
 regions of the Orange Eiver, and invaded the 
 gold fields of the Transvaal when it shall have 
 done all this, with missionaries, merchants, me- 
 chanics, and miners in its carriages, and bales, boxes 
 and bibles in its vans, not only South Africa, but 
 the whole continent, from the Mediterranean to 
 the Cape of Storms, shall feel the mighty influence 
 of truth and steam, and British stamina. 
 
 There is only one great eyesore in Port Eliza- 
 beth that I know of, and that is its grand pier. 
 At enormous cost in money, time, and energy, its 
 pier or breakwater was constructed. In a short 
 time the inexorable sea silted up the sand so that 
 the pier is now absolutely useless, and I suppose 
 must ever remain so. This has been a great mis- 
 fortune to the Port. Whether it is also a fault 
 must be decided by those who are competent to 
 form a judgment on the subject, but outsiders and 
 comparatively ignorant persons must be forgiven 
 if they cannot help reflecting that there is nothing
 
 A TUMBLER OF DIAMONDS. 189 
 
 new in the idea of sand silting up ; that ocean 
 currents are known, even by the uninitiated, to act 
 in pretty regular and recognised ways, and that 
 engineers who undertake great works ought to be 
 intimately acquainted with such things. 
 
 It is not every day that one can boast of having 
 handled a tumbler full of diamonds. Being 
 anxious to see a mass of those precious gems in 
 an uncut condition, I appealed to my friend Mr. 
 Mitchel, a banker, w.ho had come out with me in 
 the "Windsor Castle," and who, by inviting me 
 to dine with himself and his kindred at Uitenhage 
 on Christmas Day, saved me from the forlorn 
 fate of dining at a table-d'hdte at a time when 
 men are wont to meet and feast together. 
 
 He introduced me to a broker, who took me 
 into a back office, opened a strong-box, took out 
 a small packet, and, untying it, poured out a 
 tumblerful of diamonds ! They ranged from the 
 size of a pin-head to that of a bean, and were 
 varied in shade, from pure crystal to straw-colour. 
 The broker then opened one or two separate 
 parcels, each of which contained a specially large 
 or fine diamond, varying in size from a pea to a 
 hazel-nut. 
 
 " That one," he said, " may be worth four hun-
 
 190 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 drecl pounds ; and this, perhaps about five or six 
 hundred." 
 
 Looking at them, it was difficult to believe that 
 they were other than paltry pebbles, yet these 
 were the things for which men left home and 
 kindred, pushed into the wilds of a savage land, 
 toiled and jnoiled in the Great Pit at Kimberley, 
 and too often sacrificed health, happiness, and life 
 itself. Judging them from their looks, I would 
 not have given sixpence for the entire lot so 
 true is it that we do wrong in judging uncut 
 gems, as well as unknown men, by the "out- 
 ward appearance." 
 
 A very striking, and rather unfortunate instance 
 of this false style of judgment occurred not many 
 days afterwards in reference to some Kafir princes 
 and chiefs : it was on the occasion of my quitting 
 Port Elizabeth for Capetown. 
 
 We were to have started on a Saturday after- 
 noon, but a gale said " no," and we left on Sunday 
 morning. Even then, although the gale had 
 abated, a surf so magnificent was rolling into 
 Algoa Bay that no ship's boat could approach the 
 jetty. This obliged the passengers to go off to 
 the steamer in a surf-boat. Of course the boat 
 could not approach nearer the dry sand than fifty
 
 THE SUKF-BOAT. 191 
 
 yards or so. There she heaved about in oceans of 
 boiling foam, while naked Kafirs carried us on 
 board one by one. For the males among us this 
 was fun in regard to the females, it was at all 
 events funny. The Kafirs bore the latter in their 
 strong arms as children are carried, and put them 
 over the gunwale tenderly, but the gentlemen 
 were made to sit on their shoulders, as one sits on 
 horseback, and were treated with less ceremony. 
 A giant in ebony carried me off, and trotted as 
 he went, to the delight of some of his comrades ; 
 but I was accustomed to riding, and patted his 
 black head approvingly. 
 
 The boat was full of men, women, and children ; 
 white, black, and brown ; clothed and semi-naked. 
 There were a number of Kafir men (passengers) 
 who would gladly have dispensed with clothing 
 altogether, but the laws of the Colony forbid this 
 in the presence of civilised life except in the case 
 of those who have to work in the surf. The laws, 
 however, were not strictly carried out. One man, 
 being carried on board by a brother-black, stepped 
 down into the bottom of the boat with his trousers 
 over his arm. He had taken them off for coolness 
 as a man throws off his coat ! 
 
 "While standing on a commanding point in the
 
 192 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 stern, a fellow-passenger directed attention to a 
 group of Kafirs who tried to keep apart from the 
 others, and looked dignified. These, he told me, 
 were a party of native princes, chiefs, and coun- 
 cillors, who had been brought fresh from their 
 wilderness 'home with their own consent, of 
 course and were being taken to Capetown for 
 the purpose of being impressed with the wealth, 
 power, grandeur, and vast resources of the white 
 man. The other Kafirs, of whom there was a large 
 gang, were common fellows, who chanced to be 
 going by the same steamer as navvies to work on 
 the Western railways. The difference between 
 the navvies and their nobility was not great. 
 Personally there was scarcely any, and the some- 
 what superior cloth of the robes worn by the 
 latter made no great show. 
 
 The big boat was hauled off by a rope through 
 the surf, the sail set, and we were soon alongside 
 the ocean steamer whose iron sides rose above us 
 like a city wall. There was nothing but an iron 
 ladder, flat against this wall, by which to ascend. 
 The heaving of the surf-boat was great. It 
 approached the ladder and retreated from it in the 
 most irregularly spasmodic manner. Only active 
 men, accustomed to such feats, could get upon it.
 
 HOISTING UP THE NATIVES. 193 
 
 Kafirs, although active as kittens, are not accus- 
 tomed to the sea, or to the motion of ships and 
 boats. For them to ascend was a matter of great 
 difficulty ; for the women and children it was im- 
 possible. 
 
 But the difficulty had been provided for. 
 Presently we saw a great cask like an overgrown 
 hogshead swing over the side and descend into 
 the boat. It was caught by our sailors and 
 placed on the stern-sheets. Several tars from the 
 steamer descended to assist. The cask was large 
 enough to hold three or four women besides a 
 child or two. Amid much giggling and persuad- 
 ing it was filled, a signal given, steam applied, 
 and the party was whirled aloft with a scream, 
 and lowered on the vessel's deck in safety. 
 
 The cask was again sent down. Meanwhile 
 some of us had scrambled up the ladder, and a 
 few of the Kafir navvies followed our example, 
 but the most of them required a good deal of 
 encouragement, and some strong persuasion, while 
 others refused flatly to attempt it. All this time 
 the black aristocrats looked on in grave silence. 
 If I remember rightly there were a young prince, 
 an old councillor, and two or three chiefs. 
 
 When those navvies that could be persuaded, 
 H
 
 194 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 or kicked up the ladder, had been disposed of, 
 the sailors turned upon the timid ones and 
 bundled them into the cask, neck and crop, four 
 and five at a time. There was necessity for speed, 
 and sailors are not wont to be delicate when this 
 is the case. At last the aristocracy were ap- 
 proached. Whether the sailors knew who they 
 were I cannot tell ; it is probable that they did 
 not, but judged by the "outward appearance." 
 They were " niggers," that was enough for Jack. 
 
 " Come along, old boy," said one, grasping the 
 old councillor ; but the councillor held back ; 
 Jack therefore gave him a powerful shove and he 
 went into the cask head-foremost. Another man 
 had seized the young prince at the same moment. 
 That potentate who in his own land possessed 
 the power of life and death turned round with 
 dignity, and 'in doing so afforded an unlocked for 
 opportunity to the sailor, who pushed him gently 
 till he tripped against the cask and went in back- 
 wards, squeezing the old councillor almost flat. 
 
 "That's your sort, Bill, fetch another !" cried 
 Jack, as he packed the prince down. 
 
 One chief was quick-witted enough to submit 
 and stepped in of his own accord. Another half- 
 stepped and was half-thrust in.
 
 ROUGH HANDLING. 195 
 
 " Hoist away ! " shouted Bill. 
 
 At that moment a forgotten navvy caught 
 Bill's eye, he seized him by the neck ; Jack 
 helped ; the man was thrown on the top of all, 
 and went up next moment like a spread-eagle 
 cover to the cask. 
 
 When this " lot " was lowered four or five of 
 the Jack-tars on deck, who greatly enjoyed the 
 fun, turned it suddenly over, and thus it was 
 emptied of its human contents. 
 
 Even at that moment of humiliation the savage 
 chiefs were true to themselves. They rose from 
 the deck in dignified silence, the prince merely 
 saying, sternly, to the gentleman who had charge 
 of the party, "Was this what you brought me 
 here for 1 " 
 
 It is but just to add that the gentleman in 
 charge of these noble visitors did his best to pre- 
 vent the outrage, but it had occurred suddenly, in 
 the exuberance of " Jack's " spirits, was over in a 
 few seconds, and could not be undone. 
 
 These Kafir chiefs were afterwards feasted and 
 feted by the governor and gentry of Capetown, 
 but I have my doubts whether they will ever 
 forget or forgive the treatment received on that 
 occasion in Algoa Bay.
 
 196 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 To correct the false is more difficult than to 
 imbibe the true. Did you ever think of that 
 before ? All my life have I been under the false 
 impression that the Cape of Good Hope was the 
 most southerly point of Africa. It is nothing of 
 the sort. Cape Agulhas, not far distant, is the 
 real extremity of South Africa. We doubled it 
 on the 3d of April. 
 
 Oh ! Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama, 
 what would you say if you- knew that we 
 "doubled the Cape" the "Cape of Storms" 
 the " Cape of Torments " in calm and sunshine, 
 at the rate of thirteen knots or thereabouts, with- 
 out a stitch of canvas, with ladies and gentlemen 
 in every attitude of lazy ease upon our deck, and 
 troops of children romping round them ? How 
 vast the difference between the " doublings " of the 
 15th and the 19th centuries! Then the ships 
 were small wooden tubs ; now they are huge iron 
 kettles. Then, a few bold and sometimes turbu- 
 lent spirits faced the dangers of unknown seas 
 under the leadership of famous and heroic men ; 
 now, hundreds of men and women timid and 
 brave mixed undistinguishably are carried in 
 safety and comfort over the well-known ocean, by 
 respectable captains of whom the world knows
 
 DOUBLING THE CAPE. 197 
 
 little or nothing beyond their names. Once 
 in a lifetime was the daring feat attempted then. 
 Once or twice a week is the trifling trip accom- 
 plished now. 
 
 But enough of moralising. Suffice it to say 
 that we doubled the Cape without sails, without 
 anxiety, without care, and with no triumph what- 
 ever, but not without interest. Calm and sunny 
 though it chanced to be, we could not look upon 
 that barren, mountainous, rocky shore, without 
 reflecting that it still is not less now than in days 
 of old, the Stormy Cape, and that danger as 
 appalling as that of yore may sometimes be 
 encountered, while heroism quite as exalted as 
 that of the ancient Portuguese navigators is some- 
 times displayed by modern Britons. 
 
 There is a point not far from Cape Agulhas 
 between it and the Cape of Good Hope named 
 Point Danger, where courage of the highest kind 
 once calmly faced and fought with Death. On 
 that Point, in February 1852, the Birkenhead was 
 wrecked. It may be truly said that courage con- 
 quered on that occasion, because the end for which 
 it fought was the deliverance of women and 
 children from death, and this end was gained, 
 though above 400 of the gallant men who
 
 198 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 fought the battle perished in the hour of 
 victory. 
 
 The Birkenhead, a large iron steamer, was 
 engaged in the transport of troops to the frontier, 
 where war with the Kafirs raged at the time. 
 These troops were detachments from several 
 regiments under command of Colonel Seton of 
 the 74th Highlanders. About two o'clock in the 
 morning the vessel struck upon a rock near the 
 well-named Point Danger, and so tremendous was 
 the shock that her iron plates were driven in as 
 if made of egg-shell. The cabin was immediately 
 flooded, and it was evident that in a few minutes 
 the vessel would be engulfed among the breakers. 
 
 None but those who have witnessed similar 
 scenes can imagine the horrors of the situation. 
 It was dark ; the breakers roared around ; the 
 rugged and almost inaccessible shores of the Cape 
 of Storms were on the one hand, the ocean on the 
 other; men, women, and children were rushing 
 about the decks in wild terror; sharks were 
 known to be in these waters, and only two of the 
 ship's boats were available for service. In this 
 moment of extremity God put it into the hearts 
 of both officers and men to act with unexampled 
 courage and wisdom.
 
 WRECK OF THE " BIRKENHEAD." 199 
 
 To save all was manifestly out of the question. 
 When people are in such circumstances it is too' 
 often "every man for himself;" the strong push 
 aside the weak, fight for the boats, overcrowd and 
 swamp them, and thus few, if any, are left to tell 
 the tale. But it was not so with the heroes of 
 the Birkenhead. At the word of command from 
 Colonel Seton, the soldiers drew up on the reeling 
 deck as if on parade, and obeyed his orders with 
 steady, calm, unflinching bravery. If there were 
 any selfish spirits on board they were overawed 
 by the heroism of the soldiers. The Colonel 
 directed that the women and children and the 
 sick should be put into the boats. This was 
 quickly done, and these were all saved without a 
 single exception to the number of two hundred 
 souls. 
 
 But while this was being accomplished the 
 vessel was breaking up, and the fact that the men 
 would be soon left to struggle in the waves was 
 apparent to all ; yet the noble officer continued to 
 give his orders, and the not less noble men con- 
 tinued to obey, and saw the boats depart without 
 a murmur. They were young soldiers too, who 
 had never been under fire, and this " action " was 
 the first and last that they and their leader were
 
 200 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 destined to fight. The vessel suddenly parted 
 amidships, and though a few saved themselves 
 by swimming and on floating pieces of wreck, the 
 greater number perished no fewer than 357 
 officers and soldiers- among whom was the 
 Colonel and sixty seamen,' going down with 
 the ship. It was a sad but splendid specimen 
 of cool self-sacrificing courage, and of the power 
 of discipline in moments of tremendous trial.
 
 THE SOUTH-EASTER. 201 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 THE " CAPE DOCTOR " THE CAPETOWN MINE MJJLES, LITERATURE, 
 AND CUSTOMS OFFICIALS. 
 
 IT is pretty generally known that there is a 
 "table-cloth" at Capetown. Its proper resting- 
 place is Table Mountain. When the flat top of 
 that celebrated hill is clear (I write of the summer 
 season) the thirty thousand inhabitants of Cape- 
 town may go forth in comfort if . they can stand 
 the blazing sunshine, but as surely as that pure 
 white cloud the table-cloth rests on the summit 
 of Table Mountain, so surely does the gale known 
 as the " south-easter" come down like a wolf on 
 the fold. 
 
 The south-easter is a sneezer, and a frequent 
 visitor at the Cape in summer. Where it comes 
 from no one can tell : where it goes to is best 
 known to itself : what it does in passing is pain- 
 fully obvious to all. Fresh from the Antarctic 
 seas it swoops down on the southern shores of
 
 202 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 Africa, and sweeps over the land as if in search of 
 a worthy foe. It apparently finds one in Table 
 Mountain, which, being 3582 feet high, craggy and 
 precipitous, meets the enemy with frowning front, 
 and hurls him back discomfited but not defeated. 
 
 Kallying on the instant the south-easter rushes 
 up over its cloud-capped head and round its 
 rugged sides, and down its dizzy slopes, and falls 
 with a shriek of fiendish fury on the doomed city. 
 Oceans of sand and dust are caught up by it, 
 whirled round as if in mad ecstasy, and dashed 
 against the faces of the inhabitants who tightly 
 shut their thirty thousand mouths, and sixty 
 thousand eyes as they stoop to resist the onset. 
 Then the south-easter yells while it sweeps dust, 
 small stones, twigs, leaves, and stray miscellanies, 
 right over Signal Hill into the South Atlantic. 
 
 This is bad enough, but it is a mere skirmish 
 only the advance guard of the enemy. Suppos- 
 ing this attack to have been commenced in the 
 morning, the remainder of the day is marked by 
 a series of violent assaults with brief intervals of 
 repose. In rapid succession the south-easter 
 brings up its battalions and hurls them on the 
 mountain. It leaps over the moat and ramparts 
 of the " castle " with hilarious furor, roars down
 
 THE SOUTH- EASTEE. 203 
 
 the cannons' throats, shrieks out at the touch- 
 holes, and lashes about the town right and left, 
 assaulting and violating, for the south-easter 
 respects neither person nor place. It rattles roofs 
 and windows, and all but overturns steeples and 
 chimneys ; it well-nigh blows the shops inside 
 out, and fills them with dust ; it storms the bar- 
 racks and maltreats the soldiers ; it compels the 
 shutting up of sun-umbrellas, or reverses and 
 blows them to ribbons ; it removes hats and 
 bonnets by the score, and sweeps up small pebbles 
 in its mad career, so that one feels as if being 
 painfully pelted with buck-shot; it causes the 
 shipping to strain fearfully at its cables, and 
 churns the waters of Table Bay into a seething 
 mass of snow and indigo. 
 
 All this time the sun shines intensely in a 
 cloudless sky, and beautifies the " cloth " which 
 floats on Table Mountain, undulating on its sur- 
 face, or pouring over its edge like a Niagara of 
 wool, to be warmed into invisibility before tumb- 
 ling half-way down the mighty precipice that 
 backs the town. 
 
 Although I have compared the south-easter to 
 an enemy, he is in reality a friend. The inhabit- 
 ants call him the " Cape doctor," because in the
 
 204 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 general clearance he sweeps away bad smells, the 
 natural result of bad drainage. 
 
 But the south-easter was not blowing when I 
 arrived at the ancient capital of South Africa. 
 The " cloth " was drawn ; the crags of the moun- 
 tain, the white buildings and green groves of the 
 town and suburbs, were unsullied by mist or dust 
 as we steamed into the Bay, and the rugged out- 
 lines of the hills of the interior were distinctly 
 visible through the warm haze. 
 
 The suburbs of the city are exceedingly beauti- 
 ful, and here many of the principal inhabitants 
 have built elegant mansions, to which they retire 
 after the business of each day to escape the heat, 
 dust, and smells of the town. A short line of 
 railroad runs to these verdant spots at one side, 
 while -a tramway extends on the other. In 
 another direction the railway runs by Stellenbosch 
 and the Paarl to Wellington and "Worcester the 
 beginning, it is to be hoped, of that great' system 
 which is one day to embrace all the land south of 
 the equator ! 
 
 It may surprise some people to be told that there 
 is a mine a rich and prolific mine at Capetown. 
 Nevertheless, such is undoubtedly the case. 
 
 This mine is more extensive and valuable than
 
 A GRAND MINE. 205 
 
 any of the diamond or gold mines of the Orange 
 Eiver or the Transvaal. Indeed it is one of the 
 most extensive mines in the world. It is, as 
 already said, exceedingly prolific, and is marked 
 by one grand peculiarity, namely, that among 
 those who devote themselves to the working of 
 it there are no disappointed or unsuccessful 
 diggers. Another peculiarity is, that very little 
 capital is required to work it. The digger is 
 not obliged to purchase "claims," for it is almost 
 if not altogether "Free." 
 
 The only capital that must be sunk in it is Time, 
 and of that even one hour a day will suffice to 
 bring up vast stores of wealth from its unfathom- 
 able depths, while the labour bestowed tends to 
 rest rather than to weary the body, at the same time 
 that it enlarges the mind and invigorates the soul. 
 
 Still another peculiarity of this mine is, that its 
 products are various and innumerable. You must 
 go to Australia or to California for gold, to Golconda 
 or Kimberley for diamonds, to Mexico or Spain for 
 silver, to Cornwall for copper, tin, and lead, and to 
 Sweden for iron ; but in this mine you will find the 
 various metals and gems in neighbouring "pockets" 
 and nuggets, and seams and beds. Here you may 
 gather the golden opinions of the ancients in close
 
 200 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 proximity to those of the moderns. Here you will 
 find pearls of thought, sparkling gems of imagery, 
 broad seams of satire, and silvery streams of senti- 
 ment, with wealth of wisdom and of wit. Hard iron- 
 fisted facts also, and funny mercurial fancies are 
 to be found here in abundance, and there are tons 
 of tin in the form of rubbish, which is usually 
 left at a pit's mouth, and brings little or no " tin " 
 to those who brought it to light, while there are 
 voluminous layers of literary lead, whose weight 
 and dulness render the working of them tedious ; 
 but this need not, and does not, dishearten the 
 digger, for in all mines the poor and worthless 
 material is ever in excess of that which is valuable, 
 and miserable indeed must be the spirit of him 
 who should refuse to manipulate the " dirt " be- 
 cause the large nuggets and gems are few and far 
 between. Throughout all the cuttings flow 
 glittering brooks of knowledge, and also many 
 crystal rivulets drawn from the pure waters of 
 the River of Life. 
 
 The mine of which I write is the Public Library 
 of Capetown. 
 
 And let it not be supposed that I exaggerate or 
 over-estimate this mine. It is not to be spoken 
 of merely as the best of the colonial libraries. It
 
 CAPETOWN ADVANTAGES. 207 
 
 unquestionably takes rank as one of the noted 
 libraries of the world, and South Africa has 
 reason to be proud of, and grateful to, the men 
 who, by their enlightened schemes and liberality, 
 were the means of creating what is at once a 
 mine and a monument to the colony. 
 
 But Capetown boasts of many other institutions 
 which are well worthy of notice. It is and has 
 been since its foundation by Van Riebeek in 1652 
 the seat of Governments ; an honour which has 
 occasionally been converted into a dishonour by 
 reason of the character of its governors both 
 ancient and modern. It is also the seat of the 
 Supreme Court and of the University of the Cape 
 of Good Hope. It possesses a first-rate " South 
 African museum," two cathedrals, many churches, 
 a castle, fort, barracks, and other buildings too 
 numerous to mention. Also a splendid break- 
 water, patent slip, and docks. 
 
 From the sublime to the ridiculous is well 
 known to be but a step. From mines of know- 
 ledge to matter-of-fact mules may seem a rather 
 long step. If it is, the blame of my taking it 
 must rest on the force of association. From the 
 library you can walk in a few minutes to the 
 docks, and docks has brought me to mules.. I
 
 208 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 saw a ship-load of mules there, and it was a 
 sight not to be forgotten. 
 
 Have you ever seen a fair stand-up fight 
 between men and mules 1 It is not easy to say 
 which of the two combatants is the more mulish. 
 I went one day to the docks and chanced to 
 witness a conflict. They were discharging the 
 mules the men were from the hold of the 
 small vessel which had brought them over sea 
 from South America. "Victory or death" was 
 undoubtedly the motto of each. Of course 
 man prevailed because of superior power, not 
 obstinacy. 
 
 Many days, ay Weeks, had these mules spent 
 on the heaving deep ; no doubt they had all been 
 sea-sick, certainly they had been half killed, but 
 when I went down into the hold of that ship, 
 where there must have been at least fifty animals, 
 the hundred ears of all of them lay quite flat, 
 pinned to their necks as a desperate pirate might 
 nail his colours to the mast, while deep unutter- 
 able hate and dogged resolution gleamed from 
 every eye. 
 
 They were ranged along the sides of the ship 
 in two rows. The rows had been full all the 
 voyage, but when I saw them half the animals
 
 MULES VERSUS MEN. 209 
 
 had been got on shore, so that there was plenty 
 of room for the remnant to career about and 
 kick defiance at their human persecutors. What 
 charmed me most was not the triumph of intel- 
 ligence over brute force, but the application of 
 brute force on both sides, with just sufficient 
 mechanical addition on the part of the men to 
 render their power irresistible. 
 
 When I entered the hold, the stench of which 
 was almost overpowering, I could see nothing in 
 the dim light, but I could hear the wild clattering 
 of hoofs on wooden floors, the little shrieks of 
 irrepressible fury, and the deep firmly uttered 
 commands such as "Now, then, Dick, look out !" 
 " Grab 'im !" " Dig into 'im !" " Twist 'is tail !" 
 "That 'sit!" "Hup!" 
 
 My eyes soon becoming accustomed to the 
 dim light, I saw a trembling mule in the embrace 
 of three men. It trembled with passion only. 
 One had passed a stout sheet under it. Next 
 moment there was an order to " hoist away," and 
 the mule went past me, with rigid limbs, high 
 into the air, whence it was lowered I could not 
 see whither, and disappeared. 
 
 Meanwhile the three men went viciously at 
 another animal. They were unusually strong 
 
 o
 
 210 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 men, with immense chests, and brawny arms bared 
 to the shoulders. They panted and perspired 
 freely, and had been severely dishevelled by their 
 recent struggles. 
 
 I saw the dim outline of a mule, in the dark re- 
 cesses of the hold to which he had retired, crushing 
 his companions against the bulk-heads of the ship. 
 He evidently knew that his hour was come. 
 
 To this demon Dick advanced with a short 
 rope in his hand. The mule eyed him with a 
 gleam of malignity. Its ears became if possible 
 flatter. Dick made a loop on the rope, and 
 leaning over the breast-high barricade between 
 him and his adversary made a cast after the 
 manner of South Americans, but the mule jerked 
 his head aside, and the lasso missed him. While 
 Dick was preparing for another cast, Tom came 
 up behind him with a sly motion. The mule 
 observed Tom, let fly both heels with a tremen- 
 dous crash on the barrier, and bolted to the other 
 end of the ship. There Harry met him with a 
 stick, and turned him back whence he came. 
 
 Again Dick advanced, made a successful cast, 
 and drew the noose tight. For a few moments a 
 perfect shower of kicks was delivered at the 
 barrier and on the sides of the ship, but the three
 
 GREEK MEETS GREEK. 211 
 
 men did not wait till the creature was exhausted : 
 they had no time for that. Two of them hauled 
 the mule's head by main force to the edge of the 
 barrier, the third leaning far over caught its tail, 
 and instantly drew it broadside on. It was still 
 some distance from the spot under the hatchway 
 where the band and tackle were to be attached. 
 Towards this Tom and Dick dragged the beast by 
 the head, while Harry assisted with the tail. No 
 power on earth could have made that mule walk ! 
 With its ears back and all its legs planted stiffly 
 forward, it was made to slide in the required 
 direction by main force. The place of execution 
 reached, Dick jammed its head against the barrier, 
 Tom hauled its tail taut over the same and 
 made fast. There was no intentional cruelty in 
 their actions, but difficult work had to be quickly 
 done, and they could not afford to be squeamish. 
 Obstinate violence had to be overcome by resolute 
 vigour. The mule was now helplessly fixed, with 
 its tongue hanging out and its eyes protruding. 
 Nevertheless, in that condition it continued, 
 without ceasing, to struggle and try to kick, and 
 flatten its ears. It was a magnificent exhibition 
 of determination to resist to the very death ! a 
 glorious quality when exercised in a good cause,
 
 212 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 thought I, my mind reverting to patriots and 
 martyrs. 
 
 Meanwhile Harry had passed the broad band 
 under the mule, drawn it over its back, and 
 attached the big hook to it. The signal was 
 given to the men who managed the tackle on 
 deck, and the animal bounded into empty space. 
 
 It was at that moment I made the discovery 
 that a mule's spirit resides in its legs. Its last 
 act on earth, before leaving, was to deliver a 
 concentrated double-kick at the barrier, but the 
 instant it found itself in air its flattened ears 
 sprung up with an air of horrified astonishment, 
 and all its legs hung straight and rigid, the four 
 hoofs coming together as if in abject supplication 
 to any one, or anything, that could deliver. Not 
 the smallest effort did it make ; not a trace of 
 self-will did it display, while it shot upwards 
 through the hatchway nearly to the yard-arm, 
 whence it obtained its first bird's-eye view of 
 Capetown docks. For one moment it hung, while 
 it was being swung over the quay, whither it was 
 lowered, and its feet once more came in contact 
 with mother-earth. Then, but not till then, did 
 the cataleptic affection of its limbs depart, and the 
 spirit of its ears and heels return. With a bound
 
 CAPETOWN NEWSPAPERS. 213 
 
 it sprang into the air, but, before it had time to 
 think, a human enemy caught its rope, and drew 
 its head tight to an iron post. Another such 
 enemy cast off the broad band and tackle, and 
 the creature was suddenly let go free. Its final 
 act was to flourish its heels in the air, and utter 
 a squeal of rage as it trotted into the midst of a 
 group of its kindred which had already been 
 treated in the same way. 
 
 Truly the exhibition of trenchant power and 
 passion is a piquant spectacle ! 
 
 Returning from the consideration of body to 
 soul and mind, I have to remark that there is 
 a daily attendance of 5000 children at the 
 schools of Capetown if not more ; and there are 
 eight newspapers, besides other periodical litera- 
 ture, for the benefit of the children of larger 
 growth: Altogether the means of intellectual 
 culture is very considerable. Half a century ago 
 it was very much the reverse. 
 
 The first newspaper in the colony except the 
 Government Gazette was published here in 1824 
 by the enterprising and spirited Mr. Greig of 
 Capetown. The able and accomplished John 
 Fairbairn, with the gifted poet Thomas Pringle, 
 became its joint editors. But these were troublous
 
 214 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 times. The "liberty of the press" had not 
 been established, and was not recognised. That 
 tyrannical Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, was 
 then in power, and communication with the 
 mother country was unfrequent and slow, so that 
 wrongs and grievances were not easily understood, 
 and still less easily redressed. The infant news- 
 paper, named the South African Commercial 
 Advertiser, had a stormy beginning. It was a 
 " weekly," and was published in both the English 
 and Dutch languages. About the same time the 
 first number of a two-monthly magazine, named 
 the South African Journal, was issued. It was 
 conducted by the same editors, also a periodical 
 in Dutch, named the Zuid Afrikaansche Tijd- 
 schrift, which was edited by the Eev. Mr. Faure. 
 Such a spirited literary commencement, under 
 men of great ability and high principle, bade fair 
 to inaugurate an era of progress that might have 
 quickly led the colony to a far greater height of 
 moral, mental, and, by consequence, physical 
 prosperity than it has ever yet attained, but the 
 publishers and editors were men of liberal senti- 
 ments, and Lord Charles Somerset was pre- 
 eminently il-liberal. He established a censorship 
 of the Advertiser. Messrs. Fairbairn and Pringle
 
 TYRANNY. 215 
 
 refused to act under a censorship, and Mr. Greig 
 announced that the publication would be discon- 
 tinued until the decision of His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment on the subject should be ascertained. 
 
 Men who, in virtue of some imaginary superi- 
 ority, assume the paternal guidance and guardian- 
 ship of their weak and erring fellow -mortals 
 generally lose their tempers when resisted. The 
 Governor became so enraged by this appeal to a 
 higher power, that he issued a warrant directing 
 that the press should be sealed up, and ordering 
 Mr. Greig to leave the colony within a month. 
 A few days later and the South African Journal 
 was discontinued in like manner. 
 
 It is ever thus. Since the days of feudalism, 
 those who would lord it over their fellows with a 
 high hand find it impossible to attain their ends 
 without shutting these "fellows'" mouths, and 
 having an army to back them ! When a man 
 begins a demoralising course, one never knows 
 where he will stop, or to what lengths he will go. 
 Having " shut up " the press and banished the 
 press-man, Lord Charles next issued a decree that 
 men should not dare to hold public meetings on 
 pain of I forget exactly what, but he enforced 
 his laws rigorously, and sent men I 'm not sure
 
 216 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 about women to prison, like Saul of Tarsus. 
 Having attained to a state of peace, after the 
 manner of a Turkish Sultan or Nebuchadnezzar, 
 the Governor soon found out that he had been 
 born a few centuries too late, and had to eat 
 humble pie. 
 
 He was under the necessity of revoking the 
 order for Mr. Greig's banishment, and, sending 
 for Mr. Pringle, endeavoured to persuade him to 
 continue the Journal. This Mr. Pringle refused 
 to do unless the press were placed under legal 
 protection, whereupon the tyrant was roused again 
 to fury and to new acts of high-handed oppression. 
 He forbade the establishment of literary and 
 scientific societies ; threatened to put in force the 
 illegal laws against so-called illegal meetings, and 
 finally compelled Mr. Pringle, who was a gentle- 
 man as well as a scholar, to give up the contest 
 and retire from the colony. 
 
 Mr. Fairbairn, however, was made of sterner 
 stuff. He stuck to his colours till, in 1825, 
 authority was received from England to resume 
 the publication of the Commercial Advertiser. 
 Things went well for a time, but unfortunately 
 the London Times had the amazing audacity to 
 write an article in which it presumed to reflect
 
 FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 217 
 
 somewhat on Lord Charles Somerset, and Mr. 
 Fairbairn was guilty of the unpardonable sin of 
 copying it. The injured governor became frantic, 
 as usual, and Mr. Fairbairn went to England to 
 plead his own cause. He succeeded in obtaining 
 for the colony the inestimable boon of a free press, 
 and returned in 1828 to resume the editorship of 
 the Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 The sparkling streams thus set free have flowed 
 and waxed in volume ever since, and, despite the 
 little rivulets of mud which will occasionally flow 
 into such channels, and somewhat cloud the sur- 
 face, their waters are wholesomely mingled and 
 clarified when they get into the great ocean of 
 public opinion. 
 
 There is a custom-house at Capetown, It is 
 not because of being one of the noteworthy build- 
 ings of the port that I mention it, but because of 
 its having been to me a personal nuisance on the 
 occasion of my arrival in the colony. A fellow- 
 passenger had informed me whether rightly or 
 wrongly I knew not and cared not that watches, 
 jewellery, and guns, were among the taxable 
 articles. Knowing that my portmanteau con- 
 tained no such articles, except a brass watch-guard, 
 I presented myself to the official with an air of
 
 218 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 conscious innocence. I had hoped that, like 
 many such officials in France and elsewhere, he 
 would have been content with an assurance that 
 I had " nothing to declare " and the offer of my 
 keys, but I was mistaken. This particular official 
 was perhaps a "new broom." It may be that he 
 had caught some smugglers not long before, and 
 the excitement had not yet worn off. At all 
 events, instead of allowing me to pass he ordered 
 me to open my portmanteau. 
 
 While I was engaged in doing so he opened my 
 shoulder-bag and eyed its contents curiously. 
 They were not numerous. He found nothing 
 contraband, and appearing somewhat disappointed, 
 applied his nose to it. 
 
 " It has a queer smell," he remarked. 
 
 As the bag had frequently done duty at pic-nics 
 and been loaded with flasks and sandwiches, I was 
 not surprised. Besides, it occurred to me that no 
 tax was levied on " queer smells," though such a 
 tax might have been, with advantage, levied on 
 the town itself. It would certainly have pro- 
 duced an immense revenue. I smiled, however, 
 in a propitiatory manner and said nothing. 
 
 Having shut the bag this official opened the 
 portmanteau, and began to examine each article
 
 JACK-IN-OFFICE. 219 
 
 in a way that would have rendered it probable 
 he might have finished sometime within the next 
 twenty-four hours. He slowly turned over my 
 shirts and flannels as if he expected to find mines 
 of jewellery in the folds thereof. Suddenly he 
 came on the brass chain and his eye glittered, 
 which was more than the chain did. It had to 
 be re-deposited with a sigh. I began to -grow 
 despairing. Presently he took up my Bible and 
 opened it. "Was he going to refresh himself with 
 a chapter \ His turning over the leaves very 
 slowly gave reason for the suspicion ; or did the 
 obtuse creature expect to find watches and gun- 
 barrels between the leaves ? I hoped that he 
 might chance upon the passage, "Let all things 
 be done decently and in order," but he missed it. 
 At last he shut the Bible, and, laying it down, 
 proceeded to exhume a morning coat. 
 
 At this point one of his superiors told him that 
 that was enough, to my immense relief, and the 
 too-conscientious official allowed me to re-pack 
 and lock-up my violated property. 
 
 Is mankind still in a " middle age " period of 
 the world's history, that governments cannot find 
 means of laying restraint on smugglers without 
 wearisome, childish, and absolutely useless ex-
 
 220 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 animation of the traps of respectable travellers ? 
 I say " useless " advisedly, because the universal 
 custom of customs-officials all over the world is to 
 go through an irritating ceremony of imperfect, 
 or merely nominal inspection, which, while it 
 causes great trouble, delay, and worry to the 
 innocent, never by any chance detects the guilty, 
 and only gives to insolent jacks-in-office power 
 to extract bribes and to insult and annoy those 
 unfortunates whose honest indignation becomes 
 too strong for their powers of repression.
 
 A GKEAT MISSION. 221 
 
 LETTEE XIV. 
 
 STELLENBOSCH, ETC. 
 
 AN agreeable surprise is not only interesting to 
 the recipient, but sometimes to his friends. I 
 received one at Capetown, which is worthy of 
 record on several grounds. 
 
 For the proper elucidation of that surprise I 
 must turn aside for a little to touch on a subject 
 which bears on the future well-being of the whole 
 of this continent I refer to the romantic, short- 
 lived, disastrous, and yet, I hold, successful ex- 
 pedition styled "The Universities' Mission to 
 Central Africa." The account of it, by one of the 
 survivors, is, next to that of south-sea Williams, 
 the most interesting volume on missionary enter- 
 prise I ever read. 
 
 This mission started in the year 1860 for 
 the Zambesi, where it was met and for a time 
 joined by the great Dr. Livingstone. Its leader, 
 Bishop Mackenzie, who laid down his life in the
 
 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 cause, was a man as well as a missionary. By 
 that I mean that he was manly, a quality which 
 is not sufficiently appreciated, in some quarters, as 
 being a most important element in the missionary 
 character. 
 
 While on his way up to the selected sphere of 
 labour in Central Africa, the Bishop and his party, 
 with Dr. Livingstone, got into the region of the 
 accursed slave-trade, and one day came unex- 
 pectedly on a band of slaves. They were chiefly 
 women and children, bound together with sticks 
 and chains, and herded by a few armed slave- 
 dealers, who, having murdered their male defen- 
 ders and burned their villages, were driving them 
 to the coast for shipment to eastern lands 
 largely, it is said, to the land of the amiable Turk, 
 about the integrity of whose Empire so much has 
 been said of late. 
 
 With characteristic zeal and energy Dr. Living- 
 stone advanced with a few men to set these poor 
 wretches free. The slave-catchers did not await 
 the onset : they bravely fired a shot or two and 
 fled. To set the slaves free was naturally a most 
 congenial work for the good Bishop who had gone 
 there to free the black man from the slavery of 
 sin. The sticks were cut, the bonds were unloosed,
 
 SLAVERY IN AFRICA. 223 
 
 and the people were told that they were free to 
 go back to their homes. Homes ! Their homes 
 were in ashes, and the brave hearts and stout 
 arms that might have reared new homes were 
 cold and powerless in death, while armed Arab 
 and Portuguese bands were prowling about the 
 land gathering together more victims. To send 
 these unfortunates away would have been to insure 
 their death or re-capture. There was no alterna- 
 tive left but to keep and guard them. 
 
 Thus the Bishop suddenly found himself in 
 possession of a small flock with which to begin 
 his mission. 
 
 He accepted the charge, conducted them to the 
 region where the mission was to be established, 
 and finally settled down with them there. 
 
 Some time after this there came a rumour that 
 a large and powerful band of slavers was approach- 
 ing the settlement with many slaves in possession, 
 and with the intention of attacking the tribe 
 among whom the missionaries were located. What 
 was now to be done ? To have remained inactive 
 until the slavers marched up to their huts would 
 have been equivalent to suicide. It would have 
 been worse, for it would have insured the putting
 
 224 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 to flight of the few men of the tribe who it seems 
 were not celebrated for courage and the result 
 would have been the overthrow of the mission and 
 the recapture of the women and children who had 
 already been delivered. 
 
 In these trying circumstances Bishop Macken- 
 zie and his people betook themselves to prayer 
 and consultation. Dr. Livingstone had left them 
 by that time. They came to the conclusion that 
 self-defence called for vigorous action, and, with 
 musket and rifle, sallied forth to meet the men- 
 stealers, with the Bishop at their head. 
 
 On reaching the position of the enemy they 
 paused at a distance of above six hundred yards. 
 A group of Arab slavers were standing on a hill 
 together. One of the mission party kneeled, and 
 with an Enfield rifle sent a bullet over their 
 heads. The effect was powerful ! The slavers, 
 accustomed to the smooth-bore musket, had 
 thought themselves quite safe at such a distance. 
 They were panic-stricken : perhaps tKe unex- 
 pected sight of white men aided the effect. At 
 all events, when another bullet was dropped into 
 the midst of them, they took to flight. The 
 missionaries, like good generals, seized their 
 opportunity, charged home, and chased the
 
 LITTLE DAUMA. 225 
 
 scoundrels into the woods. Thus, with little 
 fighting, they gained an important victory, and 
 became possessed of a second large band of slaves 
 chiefly women and children who had been 
 forsaken by their terrified captors. 
 
 These the Bishop resolved to add to his settle- 
 ment. Indeed, as in the previous case, he had 
 no alternative. They were at once liberated and 
 conducted to the station, and one of the poor 
 black children a little girl named Dauma was 
 carried home by Mackenzie on his own shoulders. 
 
 Soon afterwards the mission failed in that 
 quarter. Among other contretemps disease at- 
 tacked and carried off several of the chief Euro- 
 peans of the party. The earnest enthusiastic Bishop 
 himself died there in his Master's cause, and left 
 his bones in the swamps of the Shire River. 
 The attempt to kindle the gospel light in that 
 direction was abandoned, and the head-quarters 
 of the mission to Central Africa was removed 
 to the island of Zanzibar. 
 
 All this, and a great deal more, had I read 
 with profound interest, many years before my 
 visit to the Cape, and the whole subject had made 
 a deep impression on my memory especially the 
 figure of the gallant Bishop returning from his
 
 226 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 raid on the men-stealers with the little wearied 
 Dauma on his shoulders ! 
 
 Well, one day I went to visit the "Saint George's 
 Orphanage for Girls," in Capetown ; one of those 
 modest establishments which, created by the liber- 
 ality of those Christians who sympathise with the 
 weak and the pitiful, continue to pour forth per- 
 ennial and sparkling streams into the ever-increas- 
 ing ocean of " good works." Under the fostering 
 direction of Miss Arthur, this institution supports 
 forty-three orphans at the amazingly small sum of 
 8, 10s. a head per annum. It is maintained by 
 voluntary contributions, and, although I do not 
 now write to plead its cause, there can be no harm 
 in remarking that it well deserves support. 
 
 Over the dormitories and schools, etc., was I 
 conducted, and at last came to a class-room in 
 which were assembled some hundred or so of 
 black orphans infants almost, most of them, and 
 irresistibly comic in their little looks and actions. 
 
 It was here that I received the agreeable sur- 
 prise before referred to. The teacher of this class 
 was as black as her pupils. 
 
 "She is herself an orphan, one of the best 
 girls in our school," said Miss Arthur, referring 
 to her, " and a most sincere Christian. She was
 
 A PLEASANT SURPRISE. 227 
 
 saved from the slavers in Central Africa many 
 years ago." 
 
 "What!" I exclaimed, "the little girl who was 
 saved by the missionaries of the Shire Eiver ?" 
 
 "The same." 
 
 "And who was carried home on the shoulders 
 of Bishop Mackenzie ?" 
 
 " Yes ; her name is Dauma." 
 
 I shook hands with Dauma immediately, and 
 claimed old acquaintance on the spot ! 
 
 There is something very gratifying in thus 
 having one's faith strengthened. I cannot say 
 that I ever doubted the existence of Dauma, or the 
 facts connected with her history, yet there was 
 something quite new in the feelings with which I 
 thought of that Central African Mission when I 
 thus beheld the actual fruit of it standing before 
 me. We may indeed say of it that the expedition 
 was in some respects disastrous, but I mentally 
 scouted the idea of calling it " unsuccessful " as I 
 looked on the earnest face of this black girl while 
 she guided the fair spirits of the hundred little 
 black creatures who sat there grinning, and gazing, 
 and evidently doting upon her. 
 
 But much more shall doubtless yet be told of the 
 success of that Mission, for there must have been
 
 228 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 many a man and woman converted through it who 
 was not sent to Capetown, like Dauma, to illustrate 
 the fact and encourage those who are apt to grow 
 disheartened by what appear small results. It 
 has already been said, I believe, that the present 
 missions to Central Africa are finding their way 
 made a little more easy than might otherwise 
 have been the case, in consequence of the blessed 
 Christian influence exercised on the natives during 
 that short but brilliant campaign of the Univer- 
 sities' Mission in the year 1860. 
 
 Chief among the many interesting visits which 
 I paid while at Capetown was one to the beautiful 
 towns of Stellenbosch and Wellington. Both are 
 but a short distance from the capital, and connected 
 with it by rail. The former is one of the oldest 
 towns of the colony. Many of the French re- 
 fugees settled there in 1685. 
 
 When, in 1684, Governor Van der Stell founded 
 the lovely town of Stellenbosch, and led out the 
 sparkling waters of its river to irrigate trees which 
 afterwards became very giants of the forest, little 
 did he, or his oppressive and tyrannical son and 
 successor, imagine that they had sown the seed of 
 that which was destined to become an academic 
 grove, in the pleasant retirement of which lads
 
 STELLENBOSCH. 229 
 
 and men should study the universal laws of matter 
 and of mind, and learn those blessed precepts of 
 God which cut at the roots of all oppression and 
 tyranny, and set the body, soul, and spirit free. 
 Yet so it was. Stellenbosch began to grow, in a 
 century and in an atmosphere of grossest tyranny, 
 injustice, and cruelty. At the present day it is 
 a centre of education, spiritual and secular, with 
 a College, and schools of the Dutch Eeformed 
 Church ; with professors and teachers of proved 
 ability, who go about their work it seemed to 
 me not only in a philosophical, but in an em- 
 phatically Christian spirit. 
 
 During my brief but delightful sojourn there I 
 enjoyed the hospitality, and the kindness, of Pro- 
 fessor Hoffmeyer, and met with Professor Murray, 
 the Kev. Mr. Neetling, and other men of learning 
 and genial spirit. 
 
 At a supper given by the Young Men's Christian 
 Association I had the pleasure of listening to the 
 eloquence of the Kev. A. Murray of Wellington, 
 and also to that of the pupils of the Theological 
 Seminary of Stellenbosch, some of whom, it struck 
 me, bid fair to tread in the footsteps of their 
 teachers if not to surpass them both as to good- 
 ness and eloquence !
 
 230 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 That, however, which made the deepest impres- 
 sion on me during this visit was the manner in 
 which the work of training the young is conducted. 
 Everything seemed to be done with an amount of 
 wisdom and vigour which cannot fail to tell most 
 beneficially and extensively on future gene- 
 rations. 
 
 Well do I remember in days gone by, how, 
 with my juvenile mind addled and my juvenile 
 fingers tingling after an application of the "tawse," 
 I have stared at my arithmetic book in despair- 
 hopelessly ignorant of the meaning of words and 
 terms, utterly incapable of comprehending explana- 
 tory "rules," passionately averse to learning in 
 every form, and longingly anxious for the period 
 of emancipation to arrive, when I should be old and 
 big enough to thrash my master ! No such feelings, 
 sentiments, or difficulties can ever find a place in 
 the breasts of those fortunate pupils whose happy 
 lot has been cast in the Seminaries of Stellenbosch 
 and Wellington. The Cape Colony sets the world 
 an example which it would do well to follow- 
 perhaps I should have said that such example is 
 set by the system of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
 of which the Rev. Andrew Murray is there, I 
 believe, the soul and centre.
 
 SCHOOLS. 231 
 
 The girls' classes of the schools engrossed my 
 attention, and filled me with admiration, because 
 these are taught by American ladies on a splendid 
 American system, which is probably well known 
 to many people, though it was quite new to me. 
 "Honour to whom honour is due." Truly our 
 cousin Jonathan is wise in the matter of educa- 
 tion ! He thwarts the tendency that pupils have 
 to glance at their neighbours' slates, and save 
 themselves trouble, by having a huge black band, 
 three or four feet deep, painted round the entire 
 schoolroom, which band, with chalk, forms the 
 general giant-slate of the establishment. Small 
 slates are dispensed with, and cribbing is rendered 
 impossible. He puts questions in such a manner 
 that the pupil cannot fail to understand the sub- 
 ject of study. He will not pass over a hard word 
 without ascertaining that the exact meaning there- 
 of is understood. He not only teaches rules, but 
 goes into the reason of the rules, and, above all, 
 he constantly demands to know the "why and 
 wherefore " of all that is said and done. 
 
 Miss Gilson, the very intelligent lady who had 
 charge of the class when I entered one of the 
 Stellenbosch schools, put the "young ladies" 
 through some of their paces. She set three or
 
 232 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 four of them at different parts of the walls, and 
 gave to each a complex sum in arithmetic. 
 
 While these were engaged working out their 
 sums, the teacher put a series of questions on 
 arithmetic to the rest of the class, which were 
 calculated to draw out the minds of the girls, and 
 give them an intelligent idea of the ground-work 
 or principles on which arithmetical processes are 
 founded. 
 
 After a little skirmishing of this sort, the 
 teacher observed that one of the young ladies at 
 the wall had finished her sum, and thereupon 
 called on her to explain it. Memory intrudes 
 herself here, I faintly recall the glance of my old 
 master at my slate, and the "Yes, it's right," or 
 the "No, it's wrong, go back to your seat and 
 correct it," which was the end of every juvenile 
 effort on my part. How different the process at 
 Stellenbosch ! The pupil, in a very modest and 
 weak voice, gave a neat little lecture on her 
 sum, in which the word "because" was of very 
 frequent occurrence. She commenced with a 
 clear statement of the question to be wrought 
 out, and went on to explain that she had stated 
 it thus, because of such and such reasons, and had 
 multiplied by so and so, because of laws which
 
 WELLINGTON. 233 
 
 she proved herself capable of expounding, and 
 thereafter had divided by this or subtracted from 
 that, because of rules whose rectitude she showed 
 to be altogether unquestionable, and thus step by 
 step she reasoned out her process, until she 
 pointed triumphantly to the desired result in the 
 last line. 
 
 One of the sum- workers had made a mistake in 
 her calculations, and this gave the teacher an 
 opportunity to ask the whole class to point it out. 
 Thereupon a brisk fire of remark began, in 
 which several of the girls showed a tendency 
 to make random shots at the error, and 
 were mildly snubbed by being called on to give 
 a reason for their belief! At last the error was 
 detected, and the fallacy which caused it was 
 exposed. 
 
 At Wellington about two hours by rail 
 further on the same admirable system prevails. 
 Here stands the Huguenot Seminary, founded by 
 the Eev. Andrew Murray, already referred to, 
 brother of the professor at Stellenbosch. It is so 
 named because of being situated in a district of 
 South Africa which was originally peopled by 
 French refugees. Although there is, I understand, 
 to be a theological department ere long for the
 
 234 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 training of young men for the ministry, this 
 seminary is at present chiefly devoted to girls. 
 
 The design of the seminary is "to give to its 
 pupils a sound education, and at the same time 
 so to mould and form the character that the 
 young ladies may go out with an earnest purpose 
 in life, and thus be the better fitted for any 
 sphere to which God in his providence may call 
 them." So says the prospectus of 18*75. It also 
 sets forth that " another design is to train teachers 
 who may go out, in some measure, to meet the 
 pressing wants of the country." Assuredly these 
 pressing wants will be met, and that speedily, 
 for common sense is the prevailing characteristic 
 in the management, and " faith that worketh by 
 love " seemed to me to be the prevailing power 
 among teachers and pupils. There is much talk 
 in Great Britain just now about the higher edu- 
 cation of women. Let those who talk come out 
 to South Africa, and they shall see their pet 
 schemes carried out and in full swing in Welling- 
 ton. It chanced to be examination day the last 
 day of the session when I arrived, so that I had 
 a good opportunity of seeing and hearing the 
 results of the year's course. The teachers nearly 
 all of them American ladies, brought over, as I
 
 AMERICAN SYSTEM. 235 
 
 understood it, expressly to apply their system 
 were seated in a row in front of the class. Order 
 and method prevailed everywhere ; teachers and 
 pupils knew their duty thoroughly. There was 
 no "ordering," no loud or authoritative "com- 
 manding." It was not necessary. A nod from 
 Miss Ferguson, the principal of the seminary, or 
 a quiet remark, was sufficient to set the machinery 
 in motion. The pupils acted with the quietness 
 and precision of soldiers, but without their stiff- 
 ness. Let it not be supposed that the " system " 
 involved rigidity. The girls were as graceful, 
 natural, and unconstrained as one could wish 
 them to be. I cannot go into the minutiae of 
 that examination. Suffice it to say, that I recog- 
 nised the same wise, common-sense elements at 
 Wellington that had aroused my admiration at 
 Stellenbosch ; but there was more to be seen and 
 heard at Wellington, because there, as I have 
 said, was the training of teachers, and the 
 examination to which they were subjected was 
 very severe. They were not only questioned 
 closely on, it appeared to me, almost the entire 
 circle of human knowledge including, in their 
 course, algebra, geography, history, botany, 
 rhetoric, natural philosophy, astronomy, geology,
 
 236 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 mental philosophy, analysis, composition, French, 
 Latin, German, moral philosophy, essays, and the 
 study of the Bible but were also made to explain 
 how they would proceed to teach children com- 
 mitted to their care, and to give their reasons for 
 the methods adopted. But the beauty of this 
 system became more apparent to me when I was 
 told that these same girls (of whom there are above 
 ninety in two establishments) had to cook their own 
 dinners, and make their own beds, and, in short, 
 perform all the domestic duties of the households 
 except the "dirty work," for which latter only 
 one indoor servant was retained for each house, 
 and yet these girls' hands were soft, white, and 
 lady-like, and their fingers taper, and with these 
 same fingers, too, some of them paint beautifully, 
 and many play the piano with considerable taste 
 and power. 
 
 I saw these girls afterwards out in their garden 
 chatting and laughing heartily under the apricot 
 trees, eating the golden fruit (think of that, apri- 
 cots in December !), and afterwards I saw them at 
 their tea-table eating bread and not butter no, 
 the heat, or something else, rendered that com- 
 modity scarce at the time in the Huguenot Semi- 
 nary eating bread and sheep's-tail fat ! I tried
 
 HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. 237 
 
 it myself, and can pronounce it good and whole- 
 some I'm not sure that I found it palatable. 
 After tea I saw them quietly collecting and 
 washing the cups and saucers, and as I looked at 
 their busy hands, and pretty faces, and healthy, 
 graceful figures, and reflected that they had been 
 assembled there from every district in the country, 
 and would, in process of time, be scattered back 
 to the regions whence they came, to become loving 
 and learned centres of Christian influence, I fell 
 into a meditative mood. I thought of Lord 
 Carnarvon and Mr. Froude, and the Molteno 
 Government and the Paterson opposition. I 
 pondered the fierce battle of the " Outs" and "Ins," 
 with their incomprehensible differences and 
 divergencies of opinion and sentiment. Then I 
 reflected that with all their differences these 
 various men and bodies seemed to be united and 
 agreed in at least one opinion and on one point 
 namely, that there is a great and grand future 
 in store for South Africa. Awaking from my 
 reverie, I said to myself "Yes, you are right, 
 and here, methinks, in this seminary, you have 
 the seed being planted and watered, which shall 
 one day cover this land with ripe and rich fruit, 
 and which will tend powerfully to bring about
 
 238 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 that great future ; . for these girls will one day 
 guide your sons to the loftiest heights of physical, 
 mental, and moral philosophy, and your daughters 
 into the widest spheres of woman's vocation, and 
 your servants to the profoundest depths of 
 domestic economy, and that not merely because 
 knowledge is pleasant in itself, and profitable 
 alike to individuals and communities, but because 
 of their love for the dear Saviour who has 
 redeemed them from the power of ignorance as 
 well as of sin, and whose blessed teachings form 
 the ground-work of whatever superstructure 
 may be raised at the Huguenot Seminary of 
 Wellington."
 
 GATHERING UP THE THREADS. 239 
 
 LETTEE XV. 
 
 THE LAST. 
 
 AND now, Periwinkle, my good friend, it is 
 time to draw these erratic letters to a close. Your 
 patience has been severely tried, no doubt, but 
 if you rise from the perusal of them a sadder man, 
 it is to be hoped you will also be a wiser. 
 
 Yet I would not lay down the pen until I have 
 made a slight effort to draw together these trail- 
 ing and knotless threads, so as to bind the letters, 
 after a fashion, into a harmonious bundle. 
 
 Do not imagine, however, that I am about 
 to moralise very seriously. As my previous 
 letters have been outliney, and the reverse of 
 exhaustive, my concluding epistle shall be 
 sketchy. I remember your fondness for desul- 
 tory talk, light confabulation, what may be 
 termed hazy intercourse. Here is something that 
 may perchance tickle your fancy, and will not 
 task your reasoning powers.
 
 240 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 What, then, are we to think of the hopes and 
 prospects and the present condition of South 
 Africa ? 
 
 In the past we find a rich and beautiful land 
 taken possession of, misused, misunderstood, and 
 mismanaged by the Dutch, with a few streaks of 
 light crossing the dark picture, where a naturally 
 sagacious and well-disposed Governor held the 
 reins for a longer or shorter period. Two false 
 principles conduced to the blackness of these 
 dark-ages of the Cape. One was the holding of 
 the land for the exclusive benefit of a commercial 
 company ; the other was the upholding and 
 practice of Slavery. 
 
 In the more recent past we find the same land 
 taken possession of, misunderstood, and mis- 
 managed by the British. But the latter picture 
 is decidedly lighter in tone, in fact a compara- 
 tively bright one, with, however, many deep 
 shadows and numerous dark streaks disfiguring it 
 where a naturally stupid and tyrannical governor 
 held the reins for a longer or shorter time. The 
 two great principles which conduced to the 
 lightening of these happier times were, I need 
 hardly say, the well-known British policy of 
 governing with a view to the weal of all classes,
 
 MISTAKEN NOTIONS. 241 
 
 and the upholding of personal freedom. The 
 introduction on the latter principle of the 
 varied forms of Missionary enterprise, has put 
 into the picture a number of effective high-lights 
 which are very pleasant to look at, despite the 
 fact that they are marred here and there with a 
 few blots and a little bad drawing, such as, of 
 course, may be expected in all things human. 
 
 Now these references to the past, to personal 
 freedom and so forth, bring me to a point which 
 requires clearing up. 
 
 It is this some people say that the land origi- 
 nally belonged to the natives. I fear, Periwinkle, 
 that you are yourself smitten with this erroneous 
 view, which is no wonder, because many better 
 and wiser men than yourself, excuse me, are 
 similarly misled. 
 
 The argument runs thus : The natives were 
 found in South Africa in possession, therefore we 
 are bound to regard them as the rightful owners. 
 Are we indeed ? 
 
 A band of robbers come to my country-house 
 (would that I knew where it is !) at a time when 
 my kith and kin to the earliest and latest genera- 
 tion are assembled there. The robbers murder us 
 all, and bury us, root and branch, in the kitchen 
 
 Q
 
 242 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 garden. The police chance to pass that way 
 too late and find them in possession. There 
 is not a living soul to object to their presence, 
 not a voice left to question their right. Are 
 these robbers therefore the rightful owners ? 
 
 What ! you don't think so, and you never said 
 so, and the cases are not parallel, because in the 
 supposed case it would have been well known 
 that the country-house (which you hope 1 11 dis- 
 cover some day ! ) belonged to me, and never did 
 belong to the robbers even although they were 
 found in possession and no one had seen them 
 drive me and mine out and murder us all ? 
 
 Oh ! Periwinkle, how can you deceive yourself 
 by such sophistries ? In reading the accounts of 
 Kafirs and Kafirdom we are told that little is 
 known as to where they came from though 
 Egypt is suggested but no uncertainty hangs 
 over the fact that they pushed their way south- 
 ward with fire and sword and horrid cruelty, 
 drove back or exterminated the then " owners of 
 the land," and remained in possession. No doubt 
 their predecessors did the same to somebody else, 
 and they to some other somebody, so that they 
 were all robbers and murderers together. 
 
 What ! The same may be said of every land
 
 A SUPPOSED CASE. 243 
 
 on the face of the earth even of England and 
 therefore there is and can be no such thing 
 as a rightful owner according to that view ? 
 
 Quite true, Periwinkle, according to that view, 
 and therefore I hold that mere so-called " posses- 
 sion " of a land, with no one to come forward and 
 show a better title than your own, does not 
 constitute ownership. Presence in a land does 
 not constitute possession of it. What would you 
 think and say of the following supposed case ? 
 
 A big stupid and savage fellow was once 
 wrecked on a large and splendid island, full of 
 everything desirable for human use, with rich 
 productive soil, minerals and metals in abundance, 
 and great capabilities of improvement. Stupid 
 Savage hunts over a small portion of this isle, 
 gathers as much wild fruit as he requires, 
 scratches up a very small garden, plants a 
 potato or two, and lives content. 
 
 Ere long a ship is wrecked on the same island. 
 It is a large emigrant vessel. The people are 
 saved with all their belongings. There are 
 several hundreds of them. They proceed at once 
 to make the most of circumstances ; find the 
 island desirable; resolve to settle on it; take 
 possession, and begin work.
 
 244 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 But Stupid Savage steps forward and objects. 
 "The island is mine," he says. "/ found it. I 
 am now in possession of it. Pay me a magni- 
 ficent price for it, and then do your will." 
 
 These shipwrecked ones are not like the old 
 Dutch at the Cape. They have a respect for 
 "right." Some of their missionaries have im- 
 pressed them with the unselfish truths of Chris- 
 tianity. They hold a grand council at which 
 Stupid is invited to state his case. This he 
 does with much energy, being strong for his 
 own rights, though not very solicitous about 
 the rights of others. 
 
 One Siftwell rises to reply. "Mr. Stupid 
 Savage " (you see he is polite as well as just), "we 
 have listened to your case and your arguments 
 with profound attention, and I purpose now to 
 point out one or two fallacies in your reasoning, 
 and show what it is that induces my few hundred 
 friends here and myself to object to your premises, 
 differ from you in your mode of conducting the 
 argument, and demur to your conclusions." 
 ("Hear! hear!" from the few hundred friends.) 
 "In the first place, then, you err in supposing that 
 you possess this island. You only inhabit it, and 
 being the first comer the one whom we found in
 
 ORATION OF STFTWELL. 245 
 
 occupation we consider you entitled to as much 
 of the island as you can make good use of. If, when 
 we arrived, we had found you cultivating all its 
 soil, working all its mines, fencing in its fields, cut- 
 ting down its timber in other words, utilising the 
 island, we would have at once recognised your 
 ownership and offered to purchase, or would have 
 left to search for unoccupied lands elsewhere, 
 and wished you success in your noble, not to say 
 arduous undertakings." (Hear ! hear ! from the 
 few hundred.) "But," continued Mr. Siftwell, 
 turning his bright eyes full on Stupid, " we do not 
 find this to be the case. We find you living in 
 comparative idleness, and totally neglectful of 
 the beauties and riches which Providence has 
 scattered round you in such profusion. You have 
 scratched up a small garden which w r ould not do 
 credit to a horticultural monkey. You have left 
 untouched the stupendous quarries at your very 
 elbow, and have built yourself a hut of mud and 
 sticks, of which a beaver with the slightest claim 
 to self-respect would be ashamed. In your most 
 vigorous hunting excursion you cannot cover a 
 hundredth part of the ground on which your lot 
 has been cast, or make the smallest impression on 
 the game with which it abounds. You lead an
 
 246 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 extremely discreditable life, and you have 
 violently resented the few gentle efforts that we 
 have made to improve you since we arrived. In 
 these circumstances we find that you have no 
 claim whatever to this unused, neglected, unim- 
 proved, unpossessed land, and that your only 
 right is the possession of as much as you can use, 
 or can show a probability of your using. But 
 this right we heartily admit." (Hear ! hear !) 
 "Moreover, considering that you were the first 
 comer, we admit your right to the pick and choice 
 of the land and its contents ; and to prove to you 
 how thoroughly we recognise your rights, we have 
 resolved to err, if err we must, on the right side, 
 by according to you a very liberal allowance of 
 land, a good deal more indeed than it is possible 
 for you fully to occupy." 
 
 Now, Periwinkle, I put it to you is there not 
 parallelity here ? Are not the two millions or so of 
 natives in Colonial Africa a mere drop in that great 
 ocean of mankind which has a perfect right to 
 the hitherto unused, unoccupied, acres of Africa ? 
 ay, and to the acres of every other place that is 
 unused and unoccupied. Are the civilised nations 
 of the earth to be cooped up in cities and con- 
 demned to herd in close-packed unhealthy
 
 THE " RIGETS " OF " RED MEN." 247 
 
 communities because half a dozen " Eed Indians " 
 (I speak comparatively) and half a dozen " Red 
 Kafirs" are supposed to have a right to their 
 hunting grounds ? These " Red " men have no 
 such right. If they utilised the said hunting 
 grounds, even as hunting grounds, in any degree 
 approaching to the thoroughness with which 
 English sportsmen utilise a Scotch moor, they 
 might have a shadowy- a slight plea for the con- 
 sideration of their claims, but this they do not. 
 They just shoot enough or compel their wives 
 to graze and milk and plant enough to keep 
 them in comfortable idleness, and, for the rest, 
 they live like pigs, and care for nothing under 
 the sun but themselves. 
 
 Rights these men certainly have, as I have 
 elsewhere told you, but the broad and fertile acres 
 on which they stand are not a part of their rights, 
 except in that degree in which they have a right 
 to claim share with the rest of mankind and 
 that with all due respect to the priority of their 
 position. 
 
 One great authority has fallen into this error 
 with regard to savages. He has written in refer- 
 ence to South Africa : " The land clearly belongs 
 to the inhabitants of it, by as good a title as
 
 248 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 England belongs to the English, and Holland to 
 the Dutch." Such a statement induces me to 
 believe that as strength has been ordained in 
 some instances to issue from the lips of babes and 
 sucklings, so nonsense has been in a few cases 
 permitted to proceed from the pens of philo- 
 sophers. How stands the case ? 
 
 I have already tried to show you that mere 
 residence in a land does not constitute a righteous 
 claim, and that in this respect the Kafir, the 
 Englishman, and all the world beside, has no 
 proper right. As, however, the original owners 
 and their descendants cannot now be found or 
 traced, it follows that we must fall back on some 
 other claim of right, and to my mind that right is, 
 possession without known fraud, and, utilisation. 
 Of course I speak in a wide sense nationally. 
 If you complicate the question with irrelevant 
 objections as to the conduct and position of 
 eccentric or wicked individuals, you will never 
 come at the truth. 
 
 Well, then, unfraudulent possession. The 
 men our forefathers drove out we do not know, 
 we have not the pleasure of being acquainted 
 with their descendants. Eestoration cannot be 
 made. Our possession is righteous, just as
 
 COMMENTS ON OWNERSHIP. 249 
 
 the descendant of a long-forgotten highwayman 
 righteously possesses his ill-gotten gains. Thus 
 far the Kafir and Englishman stand on the same 
 level. But now as to utilisation. Every acre of 
 land in Great Britain has been bought and paid 
 for by its present possessor. This is not so with 
 the natives of South Africa. Again, every acre of 
 British soil is fenced in and cultivated, or utilised 
 in some way or other, more or less wisely and well. 
 Not so in the lands where savages dwell. In 
 England there is not a foot of the soil that has 
 not an owner who can show his title-deeds for the 
 same, who can tell you what he did with it last 
 year, and how he means to treat it in this year 
 and the next. No such ownership exists in South 
 Africa. Indeed, many of the acres now possessed 
 by some tribes of Kafirs were violently wrested 
 from other tribes not many years ago and yet, 
 in the face of these facts, it is said that the claim 
 of the Kafir to the whole of the land in which lie 
 dwells is equal to that of the Englishman and 
 Dutchman ! 
 
 A very shallow thinker may easily and logically 
 come to the conclusion that no savage tribe has 
 an inherent right to the possession of the whole 
 of the land in which he has been born ; but it
 
 250 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 requires a body of deep thinkers, and much 
 discussion, to settle the question of how much of 
 a land the natives are entitled to. 
 
 But enough if I have not convinced you now, 
 Periwinkle, I cannot convince you at all, and it 
 only remains for me to admit that perhaps I am 
 wrong. If this admission tends to elate you 
 unduly, you may counteract it by the considera- 
 tion that perhaps you are not right. 
 
 Turn now to another great error that exists in 
 the colony. I refer to the franchise. The quali-. 
 fication for an elector at the Cape is so low that 
 the suffrage is ail but "universal." The great 
 absurdity is that the natives (subject to the Queen) 
 possess the elective franchise. Any man, black 
 or white, within the colony who can prove that 
 he earns 25 a year and his diet, or who owns 
 house or land worth 50, may be registered. 
 Fortunately for the colony the great mass of 
 natives don't understand or care for their privi- 
 leges, but in a land where the blacks are num- 
 bered by millions, and the whites only by 
 thousands, you can easily understand what 
 amazing results might flow from such a state of 
 things if the natives chose, or were induced, to 
 exercise their rights.
 
 THE FRANCHISE. 251 
 
 Are you one of those who will insist on the 
 black man having his " rights," although you can- 
 not see your way out of this difficulty ? for 
 difficulty it may become any day, though it 
 is not one just now. Then, let me suggest 
 to you the idea of plurality of votes, by which 
 I mean the giving of more votes to one man 
 than to another. 
 
 What ! Utopian, ridiculous, unworkable, impos- 
 sible ? Ah ! Periwinkle, the same was said of the 
 steam-engine, the telegraph, the locomotive, 
 everything in short that man has proposed, 
 attempted, and carried into effect. There are 
 difficulties in the way, no doubt, but they are not 
 insurmountable. Much of the plan might be 
 carried out with ease. For instance, the learned 
 professions could be easily dealt with. Why not 
 heap votes on the heads of doctors, and stuff them 
 into the pockets and bags of lawyers, and shower 
 them upon clergymen and schoolmasters ? A 
 doctor with a hundred votes would thus equal a 
 hundred Kafirs who had only one. It would be 
 more difficult, but not impossible, to rate the 
 merchant classes and others, but it could be done. 
 Income might secure so many votes, property 
 might secure so many. There is great lack of
 
 252 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 population at the Cape : well, give men a family 
 qualification ; so many sons, so many votes if 
 daughters, a good many more. Then you might 
 disfranchise bachelors, and transfer their votes to 
 spinsters over a certain age. Thus you would 
 punish the one class, and comfort the other by 
 securing to them a small amount of so-called 
 11 woman's rights/' Plurality of wives might also 
 be made a disqualification by which you would 
 cut off an immense proportion of Kafirs from their 
 electoral privileges. But why go further ? You 
 can easily see how this method would admit the 
 institution of universal suffrage without encoun- 
 tering the risk of a multitude of geese being 
 enabled to swamp the ability, wealth, vigour, 
 sense, and learning of the land by sheer force of 
 numbers. In conclusion, I may say, that the 
 veriest radical could not object to this plan, as 
 it would permit of his fixing his own position on 
 the sliding-scale of electors. Does he wish for 
 more votes ? let him work himself up to a higher 
 position in the social scale. Does he find it 
 impossible to do so ? then let him rest content, 
 for he has no one to thank or blame but 
 himself. 
 
 Now, as to Native Policy. This is a subject
 
 WHOM TO TRUST. 253 
 
 which has set many people by the ears in times 
 past, and will doubtless do so in years to come. 
 To go into details would only weary you. But 
 there is one great principle, which, if more 
 generally recognised, would, I think, clear up 
 men's minds not a little. It is this : trust none 
 but the trustworthy. From the first years of the 
 colony down to the present time the savages have, 
 on the whole, proved themselves to be unworthy 
 of trust. Christianity can save them it may 
 save them but, in the mass, it has not saved 
 them yet. There are bright exceptions, but these 
 are few, and not until the improvement becomes 
 national will it be wise to trust the Kafirs. One 
 evil resulting from the trustful policy is that 
 rifles and ammunition have already been suffered 
 to go amongst them. This in case of war will 
 result in a heavier death-roll among our troops and 
 colonists than that of former years. Then, these 
 Kafirs are lazy fellows, and won't work if they 
 can help it. How they are to be made to work, 
 or induced to do it, is one of the difficult Cape 
 problems which I will not even attempt to solve. 
 Some enlightened legislators have even resolved 
 to import John Chinaman for a term of years, 
 and export him home again at the end thereof,
 
 254 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 but the condition of America on this question 
 does not seem to hold out an encouraging pro- 
 spect. We shall see, Periwinkle, you and I, if we 
 live. Meanwhile we must wait and hope for the 
 best. 
 
 There is another vexed, and vexing, question 
 which exercises the Cape mind continually. It is 
 confederation. At present the " East and West " 
 are divided by distance and diverse interests, to 
 say nothing of jealousies. Then the Diamond- 
 fields, and the Transvaal, and Natal, etc., are 
 divided from the Cape proper, more or less, and 
 from each other, by still greater distances and 
 still more diverse interests. How these are to be 
 all bound together and welded into a homo- 
 geneous and harmonious whole is a question 
 that can be answered only by one who is inti- 
 mately acquainted with Cape history, manners, 
 customs, and capacities past, present, and I 
 had almost said future. Therefore I won't 
 attempt it, my boy, but leave it to your imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 As to the resources of the Cape. Her array of 
 products is imposing. She does not manufacture 
 much, it is true, but she is powerful in the raw 
 material. There was a time, not many years ago,
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 255 
 
 when the colony was retrograding. It had 
 reached a very low ebb indeed, when the tide 
 suddenly turned, and began to flow in a flood of 
 prosperity which has continued ever since. This 
 happy turning of the tide was caused by the 
 discovery of diamonds. Immediately diggers 
 flowed up to Kimberley in shoals from all parts of 
 the world, and, as a matter of course, the neces- 
 saries of life followed them. Gold was also found 
 in the Transvaal, and ostrich-farming began to 
 grow into an important branch of industry, while 
 the great staple of the country, sheep-wool, did 
 not diminish. 
 
 Now I know you hate statistics. So do I, and 
 so does every right-minded individual. Of what 
 use is it, then, to pester you with such information 
 as that in the year 1875 there were nearly ten 
 million woolled sheep in the colony ? Why charge 
 your memory with what it cannot retain, such as, 
 that in the same year the total value of ostrich 
 feathers exported was above 300,000? Those 
 who take special interest in such matters will 
 find suitable food in blue-books. Enough for you 
 and me to know that the Cape colony is a glori- 
 ous field for enterprise ; that, according to 
 universal opinion, a great future lies before it,
 
 256 SIX MONTHS AT THE CAPE. 
 
 and that the energy of the human race in 
 the nineteenth century is quite equal, if not 
 superior, to that of former epochs of the world's 
 history. 
 
 Periwinkle, my friend, farewell. 
 
 EDIJTBUROH : T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN, 
 AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.
 
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