G OF NATIVES ABOUT THE CAMP.

I was accompanied by Corporal Coles and a fine-looking young man about
twenty years of age, from the Cape of Good Hope, leaving three men at the
camp. Soon after my departure these men heard the voices of natives in
the woods, and presently they appeared themselves in numbers which
rapidly increased until there were collected together about two hundred
men, women, and children. The party at the tents instantly got under
arms, and posted themselves on the brow of the hill on which our tents
stood; whilst at some distance from its base, and on the opposite side of
the stream, the natives were assembled.

The advance of a large armed body from the woods seemed now to indicate
that a hostile movement was about to be made; one of my party therefore
shouted out to them in a threatening tone, motioning to them at the same
time to go away. The natives immediately answered the shout, then halted,
and, after apparently consulting together for some time, retired a
little. The party at the tents simultaneously took counsel together and,
agreeing that it would be imprudent in their small number to hold
intercourse, under the existing circumstances, with so large a body of
natives, it was resolved not to allow them to approach beyond a certain
point, and, in the event of any armed portion passing the stream towards
the tents in disregard of their signals, then to fire on them one by one.

PROCEEDINGS AT THE CAMP.

In the meantime the women and little children moved round the hill,
examining everything with the most intense delight: a pony which was in
front of the camp more particularly excited their attention; the little
children laughed loudly at it, and appeared also to laugh at the party
themselves, regarding them much the same way that little boys do a
stranger in foreign costume when he appears in the streets of a country
village in England. The native men regarded the pony more seriously; they
walked round and round, examining it carefully, and when the little
stallion, becoming playful from these marks of attention, neighed, put
down his head, and prepared to fight and kick vigorously, they all beat a
precipitate retreat.

The party at the tents overlooked all their movements and heard every
word that was uttered. They describe the language this people spoke as
clear, distinct, and agreeable to the ear; the men they observed to be a
fine race, tall and athletic: two were remarked in particula