the erythrina coralladendron; the Scotia speciosa, or African lignum vita; the zamia cycadis, or Kaffir's bread-tree; the tamus elephantopus, its stump resembling the foot of an elephant. Among the herbaceous plants, common to the colony, were the xeranthemum and gnaphalium, to the flowers of which the Dutch have given the name of seben-yaars'-bloom-seven years' flowers, a duration which in England we have extended to everlastings.

We crossed the Great Fish River into the Kaffir country, passed the deserted villages of the chiefs Malloo and Tooley, and arrived at the River Keiskamma. Between the two great rivers villages and huts abounded, yet not a human being appeared in the two days we had travelled in this part of Kaffirland, till we were met at the close of the second day by one of our interpreters with a Kaffir chief, who had been despatched by King Gaika to invite and to conduct us to his place of residence.

The Keiskamma was here found not fordable by waggons, and the country on the opposite side so mountainous and woody that wheel-carriages were out of the question. I was not sorry for the boors, who had smuggled themselves into the country, and were obliged to remain behind with their waggons; and our Hemraaden were pretty much in the same plight. Indeed, before we came to this river, I gave notice that not a single musket should cross it, and that the landrost and myself, and whoever accompanied us to the King, should go entirely unarmed. By this determination we got rid of the whole party, Hemraaden and all, except Rensberg and the interpreter.

We were four hours in riding fifteen miles. On our

arrival at the residence of the King, his majesty, not having expected us till the following day, had gone to his grazing-village, ten or twelve miles to the northward; a messenger was immediately despatched after him. In the meantime, the King's mother and his queen, a pretty Kaffir girl about fifteen, with their female attendants, to the number of fifty or sixty, formed a circle round us on the ground, and did their best to entertain us with their good-humoured and lively conversation, which would have been more agreeable if directly conveyed, instead of through the medium of a Hottentot interpreter.

While thus pleasantly chatting, Gaika made his appearance riding on an ox in full gallop, attended by five or six of his people similarly mounted. He invited us into his kraal, where the cattle are shut up at night, and received us under the shade of a spreading mimosa. From thence we proceeded to a clear place of grass, on which he requested us to sit down with him, that, as he said, we might the more conveniently hear what each party had to say. He was evidently pleased with our visit, of the nature of which he was fully aware; assured us that none of those Kaffirs who had passed the boundary were his subjects; that they were chiefs entirely independent of him; that he was only a chief himself, but his ancestors had always held the first rank in the country, and were so considered both by Kaffirs and colonists; that he regarded none of his countrymen, who wished to be independent of him, in the light of enemies. In short, he solemnly assured us, that Malloo and Tooley particularly had committed great depredations on the cattle of his people, and that when he sent them a civil message, to inquire if these had strayed into their territories, to his surprise he was informed they had

quitted the country; that he had frequently since sent them proffers of friendship, but they detained his messengers; that to give them no pretext for quarrelling with him, he had forbidden any of his people to molest the habitations they had left behindthe truth of this we witnessed, the villages of Malloo and Tooley remaining unmolested when we passed them.

It was impossible not to be satisfied with the candour that marked his whole conversation with us; and he readily agreed to send a messenger of peace to the Kaffir chiefs in the Zuure-Veldt to invite their return; that none of his subjects should pass the boundary to give them any disturbance; and that he should keep up a friendly intercourse with the landrost, by sending annually one of his captains to Graaff Reynet, bearing a brass gorget, with the arms of His Britannic Majesty engraven upon it.

We were surprised to find so much good sense and prudence in so young a man, and a Kaffir. He was

at this time under twenty years of age, of an elegant form and a graceful and manly deportment; his height about five feet ten inches; his countenance open, but marked with the habit of reflection; and he possessed, in a superior degree, a solid understanding and a clear head. To every question, he gave, without embarrassment or reserve, direct and unequivocal answers. His disposition appeared to be amiable. He seemed, indeed, to be adored by his subjects; the name of Gaika was in every mouth, and was seldom pronounced without symptoms of pleasure. He had one wife only, very young and very pretty, by whom he had a little girl called Jasa.

The ceremony of the circumcision of male children.

is universally practised among these people, but from whom they had it, is not easy to imagine. That they have descended from the Arabs is most probable: that tribe known by the name of Bedouins are and have long been wanderers over a great part of Africa. Their pastoral habits and manners, their kind and friendly reception of strangers, their tent-shaped houses, and, above all, that grand feature of Islamism to which I have alluded, strongly impressed on my mind, when among them, their Arabian descent.

Notwithstanding the friendly disposition of the Kaffir King towards the emigrant chiefs, we had scarcely reached Graaff Reynet, when it was reported to the landrost that those foolish people had positively refused to return beyond the Fish River, instigated no doubt by the rebel outlaws, lurking in the neighbourhood of that river and in various parts of the Zuure-Veld, and encouraged probably by a set of adventurers, whom we fell in with on our return, chiefly soldiers or sailors, who had either deserted or been discharged from the Dutch army and the Company's shipping.

We arrived at the Drosdy on the 30th of September, having made our long circuitous journey in less than two months.

SECTION IV.

Expedition over the Sneuwberg to the Orange River and through the Country of the Bosjesmans.

THREE weeks had scarcely elapsed when we were ready for another expedition. My very general instructions directed me to visit the boundaries of the

colony. The journey therefore was now to be taken to the northward and to return by the eastward; in short, to explore the country, which is mostly in possession of a singular people, known by the name of Bosjesman, from their living and concealing themselves among the bushes or thickets. I may here at once describe them. At the house of one Krüger, at an early part of the journey, I saw one of these wild men, with his two wives and a little child, who had just been captured or stolen. The man measured four feet five inches, one of the women four feet two, the other four feet three. Physically speaking, they are evidently of the same class of beings with the Hottentot, whose ugly features in this diminutive race are greatly exaggerated, even to disgust. We afterwards surrounded a kraal, or village of huts, the population of which was estimated at about a hundred and fifty persons. I had several, both men and women, measured, and the tallest of the former was four feet nine inches, and the tallest woman four feet four inches; one of these, who had borne several children, measured only three feet nine inches. These unfortunate beings are in every respect, I should suppose, the ugliest of all human creatures the flat nose, high cheek-bones, prominent chin and concave visage, partake much of the apish character, which their keen eye, always in motion, does not tend to diminish. The upper lid of this organ, as in that of the Chinese and the Hottentot, is rounded into the lower on the side next the nose. They are known in the colony, from this circumstance probably, by the name of Chinese Hottentots.

The activity of this diminutive race is incredibly great. It is said that the klip-springing antelope can