rrowly escaped--Old De
Beers--Life at the Diamond Fields--Scarcity of water--First case of
diamond stealing--I nearly discover Kimberley Mine--The rush to Colesberg
Kopje--My first diamond--Its loss and my humiliation--Kimberley claims
dear at 10--Camp-life in early days--I. D. B.--Canteen burning.

It was in the June holidays of 1869 that I undertook my first real
adventure. I then accompanied Mr. Samuel and two of my schoolfellows on
an expedition to the Transkei, which at that time was still practically
independent Kaffirland. The Fingoes were in a sense under British
protection, and Mr. Fynn was resident with Sariii (usually known as
"Kreli"), the celebrated Goaleka chief.

The Kei River was the colonial boundary. Traveling on horseback we
crossed the river by a drift some distance below the site of the
present Komgha Bridge. One of my companions was Tom Irvine, now a
partner in the firm of Dyer and Dyer, of East London. The other was
Alfred Longden, whose father was Wesleyan missionary near the site on
which the town of Butterworth now stands, Richard Irvine had a trading
station at the Incu Drift. The old building still exists. When we
arrived there the tobacco crop had just been harvested, and the trader
was kept busy from early morning until late at night buying tobacco at
the rate of a penny per pound, the price being taken in the form of
trade goods.

We moved on to Tutura, the mission station of that remarkable man Tiyo
Soga. Mrs. Soga and her sister, Miss Burnside, received us with the
best hospitality. Their dwelling consisted of a row of huts which were
connected with each other by means of wattled passages. The huts had
doors and ordinary windows.

The Sogas were just on the point of starting for the seaside on their
annual holiday when we joined them. Their destination was the mouth of
the Kobonqaba River. We decided to join the party. I rode most of the
way, some forty miles, at Mr. Soga's side. He beguiled the time by
reciting Wordsworth's poetry, which at that time I had never heard of.
As each fresh aspect of the magnificent scenery unfolded itself he
would pause and declaim some appropriate quotation from "The
Excursion."

I have seldom been so impressed by any one as by this Kaffir, who, born
in absolute barbarism, had acquired culture both deep and wide, and
then returned to try and civilize his people. At the time I met him Mr.
Soga was hard at work translating, for the benefit of the Nativ