to details, my parents took the decisive step and--my father
having commuted his pension--sailed for South Africa, of course taking
me with them. This event occurred early in the year 1818. Arbuckle
returned to South Africa in the ship which took us out; and at his
urgent invitation we became his guests for a short time upon our arrival
at the Cape. But the warm-hearted Scotchman's kindness did not end
there; he instituted enquiries, and eventually learned that a certain
small farm, known as Rooikop, in the Albany district, was for sale, the
Dutchman who owned it being averse to the British rule and intending to
move up-country beyond the borders of the colony. This farm Arbuckle
and my father visited together, with the result that, upon the urgent
advice of his friend, the ex-colonel purchased it, just as it stood,
house, stock, and implements, all complete. But he did not buy the
furniture, having brought out from England all that he required; also
the Dutchman needed it to take up-country with him to the spot where he
might ultimately establish his new home: thus both parties were equally
satisfied.

The first thing that my father did after entering into possession was to
change the name of the farm from Rooikop to Bella Vista, on account of
the magnificent prospect obtainable from the stoep of the house, which
faced due south, and consequently was in grateful shadow all day. The
building stood on a kopje or hill rising out of one of the lower spurs
of the Great Winter Berg range of mountains, the bald summits of which
towered into the rich blue of the South African sky some seven miles in
the rear of the house, their rugged slopes bush-clad for two-thirds of
their height. On the left, or toward the east, other spurs of the range
gradually lost themselves in a wide expanse of gently rolling, bush-clad
plateau extending beyond the blue distance to the sea, one hundred and
eighty miles away, where the Great Kei River discharges itself into the
Indian Ocean. A similar prospect stretched in front of the house, the
ground growing more rugged toward the right as the spectator's gaze
swept westward, until, looking due west from the house, one perceived,
in the immediate foreground, a moderately steep declivity running down
to a spruit or small stream, having its rise high up toward the summit
of the mountains and discharging into the Great Fish River, some seven
miles distant. On the far side of the spruit the count