d move the ship. As we were within a few yards of the shore,
we soon received visits from several residents, who came to the vessel
for the latest news.

I was so ill when I landed, on account of the confinement on board and
our bad provisions, that I was obliged to remain in bed for several days
at the miserable "hotel" of the village: I was kindly attended by the
resident surgeon of the troops, under whose skilful hands I soon
recovered.

Having regained health and strength, I began to look out for a horse,
but had great difficulty in getting all that I required; at length an
animal was offered me at a reasonable price, and he became my property.
He merely served for riding about in the deep sandy roads near, or for
saving me from the persecution of a little animal called a "tick," whose
armies were quartered upon every blade of grass and leaf of tree. On
the first opportunity these little creatures transferred their adhesive
qualities, with great delight, to the most retired situations of a
newly-arrived victim; there they would bury themselves under the skin,
and before their invasion could be discovered, produced an irritation
and a sore that enlarged with great rapidity and became a serious evil.

A thorough inspection and frequent bathing were the two best antidotes;
the leaf of the Kaffir gooseberry I also found very effective; it should
be bruised, laid over the part bitten, and held on by wrappers of linen.

Each ride that I took brought more beauties before me; the sterile
appearance of the frontier was here exchanged for the most luxuriant and
fragrant vegetation. Forests appeared, hung with creepers and scented
blossoms; undulating grassy slopes, with detached and park-like clumps
of trees. Here and there the calm silvery water of the bay was seen in
the distance through openings in the forest, or under the flat
horizontal foliage of the umbrella-acacia, whose graceful shape,
combined with the palm, the gigantic euphorbias, and the brilliant
Kaffir-boom, formed the characteristics of this bush. Let the admirers
of architectural art talk of their edifices and public buildings, they
are not equal to a single tree. Bricks and mortar, stones, plaster,
chimneys, etc., are heaps of rubbish when compared to a natural forest,
every leaf and flower of which is a witness and an evidence of that
mighty Power who creates with as much ease the endless worlds about us
as the minutest details of vegetable and ani