exceeding thirty. With that number he made his appearance, each man being armed with an assagai.

He conducted himself with great firmness, said the ground on which he then stood was his own by inheritance; that, however, being desirous of remaining in friendship with the English, he would remove to the eastward in three days, but that it was impossible for him to cross the Great Fish River, as "there was blood between Gaika and himself," and that Gaika was then much too strong for him. The decided tone in which he spoke, at the head of his small party, when surrounded by British troops, his prepossessing countenance, and tall muscular figure, could not fail to excite a strong interest in his favour. Though extremely goodhumoured, benevolent, and hospitable, the Kaffirs are neither so pliant nor so passive as the Hottentots. The consent of Congo to withdraw from the banks of the Sunday River was not given without apparent reluctance.

The forces being collected, and on their return to Algoa Bay, and finding that Congo had made no preparations for departing, it was thought advisable to renew a message to him, but the messenger returned without being able to see the chief. Whatever reluctance he had shown to quit the colony, it never entered into our calculation that he would be rash enough to commence an attack upon a large body of regular troops. Such, however, was the step he chose to take; instigated, as we afterwards found, by the rebel boors. Kaffirs now began to appear on all the heights, with a view to attack us; numbers were observed close upon us, lurking in the bushes; our force being in a narrow defile, nearly choked with brushwood and surrounded

by Kaffirs, two or three rounds of grape were discharged from two field-pieces in order to clear the thickets.

The persecuted Hottentots were everywhere flying from the cruel treatment of their masters; to get them down to the plains near Algoa Bay was deemed most advisable and, therefore, accompanied by a few dragoons, I took charge of the Hottentots and their cattle on our journey to the southward; whilst the General marched back into the Zuure Veldt, to pick up a party of infantry employed in cutting off the retreat of the boors into the Kaffir country.

I proceeded to a plain contiguous to Algoa Bay, where, to my great astonishment, I found the whole of the boors and their families assembled, who had been plundered by the Hottentots, with their waggons and cattle, and the remains of their property, awaiting our arrival, in order, they said, to claim protection against the heathen. To be thus placed between two parties—each claiming protection, and each vowing vengeance-was by no means a pleasant situation. My whole strength was about a dozen dragoons; the Hottentots, great and small, were upwards of five hundred; and the boors and their families about one hundred and fifty. Fortunately, the 'Rattlesnake' was still in the bay, and I obtained from Captain Gooch twenty armed seamen; and caused a swivel gun to be mounted on a post immediately between the boors and the Hottentots.

After some days of anxiety, I received a letter from General Vandeleur, informing me that the Kaffirs, instigated by the rebel boors, had been led to the bold measure of attacking his camp near Bosjesman's River, for the sake, he supposed, of obtaining a supply of gunpowder; that the latter had kept up a pretty brisk fire

from behind the bushes; but that the Kaffirs, finding their assagais useless against musketry, rushed forward upon the open plain with the iron part only of the assagai in their hands; that, however, after several rounds of grape and volleys from the infantry, by which numbers were killed, they retreated into the thickets.

The same letter gave the account of an unfortunate affair that happened to Lieut. Chumney and twenty men of the 81st Regiment. Returning from the seacoast to the camp at Bosjesman's River, his party were surprised among the thickets by a large body of Kaffirs, who attacked them hand to hand with the iron part of their assagais, the wooden shaft having been previously broken off. This young officer bravely defended himself till sixteen of his party were killed; the remaining four got into the waggon, and arrived safe at the camp. Poor Chumney was on horseback, with three assagais sticking in his body; he made a sign for the waggon to set off, and, finding himself mortally wounded, he turned his horse in a contrary direction to that of the waggon, and was pursued by the whole body of Kaffirs; affording thus an opportunity for the small remains of his party to save their lives by flight.

However desirable it might have been to apprehend and punish the rebel boors, who had shown themselves a disgrace to humanity, yet it was not deemed advisable, in order to obtain that point, to wage, in impenetrable thickets, an unequal war with savages, whose destruction would have added little lustre to the British arms, and been advantageous only to the rebels who had urged them on. General Vandeleur, therefore, very prudently withdrew his forces, and marched them down to Algoa Bay, where part were

embarked on board the 'Rattlesnake,' and the rest were to proceed to the Cape by easy marches. Subsequent events, however, delayed their departure, and rendered the presence of troops necessary at Algoa Bay until the evacuation of the colony.

Having delivered over the remaining part of the Hottentots, on the return of the General, and finding I could be of no further use, I set out for the Cape; where, after a journey of sixteen days, performed with two horses, I arrived on the 8th of June, 1799.

SECTION VIII.

Two new Governors; one Dutch and one English— The Cape surrendered to the former and evacuated.

My exploring journeys thus finished by this less agreeable military mission, and having given satisfaction to my superiors, I resolved now to relinquish the goodnatured plan of volunteering for further active service, and to sit down quietly to audit with diligence and regularity the public accounts, which was an important part of my duty; to marry a wife, and, that being accomplished, to look out for a small comfortable house near the town, and to become a country gentleman of South Africa. Accordingly, at Stellenbosch, by the Rector Mr. Borchards, related to the family, in August, 1799, I was united in marriage to Miss Anna Maria Trüter, the only daughter of Peter-John Trüter, Esq., Member of the Court of Justice, and the cousin of Sir John Trüter, the Chief Justice of that Court; a lady whose acquaintance I had made the first week of our

pur

arrival at the Cape. In the early part of 1800 I chased a house, with a paddock, garden, and vineyard attached, named the Liesbeck Cottage, from the river of that name which flowed past the foot of the grounds. My house looked on the west side of the Table Mountain, which sloped down almost close to the gate, and presented a picturesque mass of varied rock and native plants, among which the ericas and proteas were conspicuous; and of the latter the argentea, or silver-tree, prevailed. My family consisted of myself, my wife and child, an old nurse, and four other servants.

My stud was limited to two stout carriage horses for drawing a curricle, and two saddle horses: the one a most lively, playful, and intelligent creature as I ever met with. If I mentioned but his name, Trim was with me in an instant; if he saw me, it was not easy to prevent his bounding up to me; and how was this brought about? By kind treatment, by showing him and convincing him that he was my pet, by giving him part of my food, bread, biscuit, grapes, and other fruit; and in this way I have always found that the most surly and wild animals may be tamed. My other horse was a grey Spanish pony, a very lively creature, but not so docile as Trim. I had an Indian groom and a helper.

Speaking of food: a scarcity of bread-corn was at this time felt, owing partly to a bad harvest, partly to the supplies necessary to be sent to the eastern frontier for the use of the troops, the number of which the rebellious boors, united with the Kaffirs, made it necessary to increase. General Dundas, in this emergency, consulted the Burgher Senate as to what, in their opinion, was best to be done to prevent a famine among the large popula