s literary affairs were prosperous, Pringle had entered into the
married state, but his present emoluments were wholly unequal to the
comfortable maintenance of his family. He formed the resolution of
emigrating to South Africa, then a favourite colony, and a number of his
wife's relatives and his own consented to accompany him. In February
1820 he embarked for the Cape, along with his father and other
relatives, in all numbering twenty-four persons. The emigrants landed on
the 5th of June, and forthwith took possession of the territory assigned
them by the home government, extending to 20,000 acres, situate in the
upper part of the valley of Baaviars river, a tributary of the Great
Fish river. In this place, which the colonists designated Glen-lynden,
Pringle remained about two years, till his friends were comfortably
settled. He thereafter proceeded to Cape Town, in quest of literary
employment. He was appointed keeper of the Government library, with a
salary of L75, and soon after found himself at the head of a flourishing
educational establishment. He now established a periodical, which he
designated the _South African Commercial Advertiser_, and became editor
of a weekly newspaper, originated by an enterprising printer. But
misfortune continued to attend his literary adventures: in consequence
of certain interferences of the local government, he was compelled to
abandon both his periodical and newspaper, while the opposition of the
administrative officials led to his seminary being deserted. Leaving the
colony for Britain, he arrived in London in July 1826; and failing to
obtain from the home government a reparation of his losses in the
colony, he was necessitated anew to seek a precarious subsistence from
literature. An article which he had written on slavery, in the _New
Monthly Magazine_, led to his appointment as secretary to the
Anti-slavery Society. This situation, so admirably suited to his talents
and predilections, he continued to hold till the office became
unnecessary, by the legislative abolition of slavery on the 27th of June
1834. He now became desirous of returning to the Cape, but was meanwhile
seized with a pulmonary affection, which proved fatal on the 5th
December 1834, in his forty-sixth year. His remains were interred in
Bunhill-field Cemetery, where a tombstone, with an inscription by his
poetical friend William Kennedy, has been erected to his memory.

As a poet, Pringle is chiefly remarkable