may require explanation. One only of these weapons is used in the
colony and this single spur is buckled on the left heel, as, in
dismounting and mounting so frequently as is here necessary, the right
spur becomes inconvenient, and may scratch the horse's back in throwing
the leg over. The reason given is, that it _is_ inconvenient, and also
that if one side of the horse is made to go, most probably the other
will go also.

While staying at this kraal, I was visited by a Kaffir who had all the
features of a European; he told me that his mother was as his
forefinger, and then, pointing to his little finger, said that mother
was a white woman, that she came out of the sea, and had been the wife
of a chief. I was much interested in all this, as the white woman of
whom he spoke, was without doubt one of those unfortunates who were
saved from the wrecks of the _Grosvenor_ and another ship, who had seen
all their male relatives and ship-friends murdered, and were then forced
to become the wives of the Kaffir chiefs or principal men. The
descendants of these mixed people can even now be traced in some of the
light-coloured Kaffirs of the Amaponda, the Umzimvubu, and Umzimculu;
and it is not improbable that a small rivulet of the blood of the
Howards may be even now flowing in oblivion under the dark hide of a
naked assagy-throwing, snuff-taking heathen of Africa. Some things that
this Kaffir told me were strange and curious. Memory here serves as a
library. It is a book of reference much in use, and one that is
therefore nearer perfection than can be conceived by those whose ivory
tablets or ledgers daily record events.

South Africa is an excellent country in which to obtain a knowledge of
ourselves; solitude being so common and unavoidable a contingency that
we soon become perfectly reconciled to our own society, and learn to
argue and reason as though with another person. If we are worsted in
this encounter, we have the same satisfaction that Dr Johnson had,
knowing that we supply our adversary's arguments as well as our own. An
excellent and good understanding here exists between our outer and inner
selves, and each individual knows his own respective worth.

It is a land in which one's value as a man is decided, in the unerring
scale of trial, to an ounce. It is pleasant to know one's true
position, if only for a short time, and even if much lower than we have
been accustomed to consider our due. It prevent