inder for the
benefit of my host.

A curious incident here happened, which struck me at the time as very
ridiculous.

A French emigrant was stopping at this house with my host, and being
unable to speak a word of English, he had great difficulty in making his
wants known. It happened that on leaving England I was a tolerable
French scholar, and could manage to converse; but a year of disuse, and
also the study of the Hottentot-Dutch and Zulu-Kaffir languages, had
driven all my French away, and upon being thus suddenly called upon, I
could scarce think of a word. This Frenchman had fortunately studied
the Zulu language, by books during his voyage out, and by practice since
his residence in Africa: we therefore carried on an interesting
conversation in this language. It seemed curious that two white men,
whose native countries so nearly joined, should be thus compelled to
communicate in a tongue so little known in the native land of either;
the Kaffirs themselves thought we were doing it merely for their
amusement, and sat grinning first at us and then at one another.

On the following day I shot a reitbok, a duiker, and three corans.

Several days of good sport were yielded me in this neighbourhood. I
found, however, that the bush close to Natal was teeming with buck, and
a buffalo was sometimes seen there. Several unsuccessful journeys after
the former taught me that more skill was required in shooting them than
I at that time possessed. By patience, perseverance, and the
instruction obtained from the Kaffirs, I at length acquired the art of
moving with silence and watchfulness through the mazes of the forest,
and was then rewarded by first-rate sport, and found this amusement one
of the most fascinating in this country.

I have known many men who were good shots and able sportsmen, fail
completely in the bush, from a deficiency in the qualities of patience
and caution; several of whom have gone day after day, and returned, not
only empty-handed, but without having seen a single head of game. Yet
two or three Kaffirs or Hottentots that I could name would make certain
of bagging a fine fat buck each day they devoted to the purpose, and
over the very same ground that had been drawn a blank by the other
sportsmen. It may be concluded, therefore, that some skill and
experience is requisite in the bush-hunter of Africa. So plentiful was
the game in the Natal district during my residence there in 1847, 1848,
an