He was a strange being, and possessed more talent than any Kaffer I ever saw, his words coming from him very slowly and innocently, while there was a slight twinkle in his small sunken eye that belied his lips. I saw a white Kaffer among Enno's tribe, a hideous being daubed with red clay; and, on inquiry, found that it was the son of the Chief; and heard that on Enno's being teased about his colour, and hints thrown out of unfair play on the part of his wife, he laughed it off, and asked if they had never known a black cow have a white calf. One more anecdote, and I have done with him. He was at the Landdrost's house, and in order to see its effect upon him, a lady was seated at the piano playing a simple air, (and seldom has it been my chance to hear any one who played so sweetly,) when the old man, who was listening intently, suddenly stopped her, saying, "That is enough, it reminds me of the loss of my child, and it tells me I should go home and cry." The child to whom he alluded, and to whose death Enno often re

curs, was shot on some occasion by the Cape Corps.

Nothing can be in stronger contrast than the wondering savage that is sometimes seen in our towns, surrounded by all that is strange, by a thousand things that speak to him of his hopeless inferiority, and the same being in his own beautiful country, where his energies and his knowledge are fully equal to every circumstance that can occur.

Some years since, I remember seeing two of a wild and distant tribe of Kaffers, or Bechuanas, that had been brought by the missionaries to Cape Town. They were the first I had seen, and their strange costume and savage ornaments struck me, and I followed them as they were led to see the firing of the evening gun. The mingled awe and curiosity with which they approached it, each shrinking behind his companion-for they appeared to know that something dreadful was about to happen, -the anxiety with which they watched the movement of the gunners; and when the explosion

took place, the dread and horror with which they seemed overpowered; the wild glare of their rolling eyes, when they turned to each other; and the timid pace with which they stole away, not daring again to look at the object of their terror, were all highly effective.

I was told too of a chief who had been taken prisoner in some attack on Kafferland, and sent down to Cape Town, being recognized by an officer who had seen him on the frontier, and who recollected that he was famed among his tribe for his courage in the chase, and for his skill in throwing the assegai; one was given to him, and he was told to throw it, but it fell from his hand, as he replied-" that he could not, for his heart was broken!"

It did not strike me that the savage tribes are improved by the intercourse with us that has been opened by the fair that is held at Fort Wiltshire, the frontier post. I attended one of them, and was amused with the strange scene of barter,buttons and beads for hides and ivory. Gaika, the neighbouring chief, dressed

in an old regimental jacket, was in the Fort with his retinue of twenty-five wives; and it was not without interest that I looked on one of whom Barrow had prognosticated so highly. He was then nineteen, he is now fifty, and melancholy has been the change that has taken place in the interval: the English have given him their protection, and with it their vices; and he is a sunk and degraded being, ready to exclaim with Caliban

"I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject,
For the liquor is not earthly,"

-a wretched savage, despised and suspected by his tribe, continually intoxicated, and ever ready to sell his wives for brandy.

Such are the fruits of our protection! such have ever been the effects on the savage of the kindness of the civilized! If we find them simple and trusting, we leave them treacherous; if we find them temperate, we leave them drunkards; and in after-years, a plea for their destruction is founded on the very vices they have learned from us.

LETTER V.

An Excursion. Travelling Equipments.-The Great Fish River.The Caves.-Wild Scenery.-The Tiger's Haunt.—Hottentot Soldiers.-The Patrol.-Characters.-The Bushmen.-The Boors.The Kaffers.-Anecdotes.-A Portrait.-A polite Valet.-Contrasts of Character.-Cape Scenery.-Strange Adventure.-Singular Plants.-A Dialogue.-Eventful History.-Savage and civilized Life.-The Mad Poet.-A Fashionable couple.

I HAVE been wandering, as is my custom, when I find myself fit company only for my horse and my Hottentot. Would that you could see our travelling equipage, which is of an order to startle English feelings of propriety-our horses which scarcely ever knew a stable, and never a curry-comb-our bits and stirrup-irons so embrowned by rust-our sheepskins for saddle-cloths-our saddle bags for every thing else. Then my Hottentot has two led horses in hand, and I one; and we canter on, with the most perfect disregard of