pendence of the Totties is most amusing--to those who do not suffer
from it. I was told that servants out there have turned the tables on
their employers, and instead of bringing "characters" with them, require
to know the characters of master and mistress before they will engage.
It is no uncommon thing for a domestic to come to you and say that she
is tired and wants a rest, and is going off to see her mother. Indeed
it is something to her credit if she takes the trouble to tell you.
Sometimes she goes off without warning, leaving you to shift for
yourself, returning perhaps after some days. If you find fault with her
too severely on her return, she will probably leave you altogether.

This naturally tries the temper of high-spirited mistresses--as does
also the incorrigible carelessness of some servants.

A gentle lady said to me quietly, one day, "I never keep a servant after
slapping her!"

"Is it your habit to slap them?" I asked with a smile.

"No," she replied with an answering smile, "but occasionally I am driven
to it. When a careless girl, who has been frequently cautioned, singes
one's linen and destroys one's best dress, and melts one's tea-pot by
putting it on the red-hot stove, what _can_ flesh and blood do?"

I admitted that the supposed circumstances were trying.

"The last one I sent off," continued the lady, "had done all that. When
she filled up her cup of iniquity by melting the tea-pot, I just gave
her a good hearty slap on the face. I couldn't help it. Of course she
left me after that."

I did not doubt it, for the lady was not only gentle in her manner, and
pretty to boot, but was tall and stout, and her fair arm was strong, and
must have been heavy.

LETTER TWELVE.

PORT ELIZABETH--ALGOA BAY--DIAMONDS--KAFIR NOBILITY.

Port Elizabeth may be described as the first-born city of the Eastern
Province of the Cape of Good Hope. It came into being in 1820. It is
now a flourishing seaport, full of energetic, busy, money-making men.
It is the principal seaport of the Eastern Province, and the nearest
point on the coast to the Diamond-fields--420 miles from De Beer's New
Rush, a distance which was traversed in about six days by coaches.

Among its more useful enterprises it has the honour of having sent out
one pioneer of future commercial prosperity in the Eastern Province, for
Port Elizabeth is the starting-point of one branch of that great railway
system which is to revolution