back to us, and enjoy life?" said Tembile;--"you,
who could follow the tracks of a buck without a mistake, who could
assagy a running buck, and hit with your knob-kerrie a bird on the wing.
Here you could have plenty of cows, plenty of corn, several wives, and,
as you are a chief, you could do all you wanted. What can there be in
your country to compare with what we have here?"

As I listened to Tembile, and reflected on what he said, and then
thought of the life I had led in my uncle's office, I really began to
think that civilisation was a mistake. What prince or duke in England
could go out from his house, and within a few miles get a shot at a wild
elephant or buffalo, or walk through as magnificent a forest as that
near our kraal, and shoot antelope, or rare and beautiful birds? The
freedom, too, of the life here was one of its greatest charms. Although
the advantages of civilisation are great, yet the price we pay for these
is enormous. Should I return to England and become a sort of slave to
society, or should I remain in Africa? was really a question which I
thought over frequently. The attraction at Wynberg, however, turned the
scale.

Soon after my arrival at my old kraal, I had made inquiries about the
white women who had been my fellow-passengers from India, but I found
there was a disinclination on the part of the Caffres to give me any
information about them. I afterwards spoke to Tembile about them,
because I knew I could trust him to tell me the truth. He said that the
Caffres were afraid, now that I had been so long among white men, that I
might endeavour to take away the white women; so they had been
concealed, and I was not to know where they lived.

I assured Tembile that I had no intentions of that sort, and I believed
it would be better for the white women, to now remain with their
husbands and children, than for them to return with me.

Having made various inquiries, I heard that there were more than a dozen
elephants' tusks in the kraal near, some of them very heavy, but the
Caffres had no wish to dispose of their ostrich-feathers. These
feathers they used as head-dresses when great dances took place, and
were very proud of them. I told the Caffres that I wanted as many tusks
as I could procure, and, as I had now some very strong guns, I should
like to find elephants and shoot them.

I had been five days at the kraal of my old friends, when news was
brought that the elephants, acco