50 Report 8. A. A. Advaxckmknt of Science. 



ever, was so tossed about in the Channel that his fatlier lan<]e<l with 

 his family at Deal, and forfeited his passage money, wliich in tliose 

 days amounted to £200 for each person. The Atherstones then settled 

 in Stowey in Somersetshire, glad to escape from the sea, for the Uiten- 

 ha(je Packet was lost on her voyage ; but in 1819 Dr. Atherstone's uncle, 

 John Damant, Commissary-General at the Cape, came home with such 

 glowing accounts of the climate and resources of the country that Dr. 

 Atherstone's father was once again induced to venture on the voyage, 

 shipping as surgeon to the good ship Ocean in 1820. The voyage lasted 

 six months, on account of the two ships " outspanning " at sundown 

 and laying to lest they should miss each other in the morning ; it was 

 enli\ened b}' certain adventures which were duly recorded by the 

 future patriarch of Grahanistown, such as the "Battle of the Axe'' in 

 the Channel, when the rigging of the Ocean became entangled in that 

 of the companion ship, the Xorfhamplon, and had to be cut adrift by the 

 sailors in a terrific gale. The next event was a cannon ball fired 

 through the Atherstones' cabin from the Portuguese battery at Porto 

 Praya, in St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verde Islands, the captain <jf 

 the Ocean having forgotten to salute the fort, and the Portuguese thus 

 having gently to remind him of this want of courtesy.* The Oceatts 

 party eventually landed at Algoa Bay, where there was then not a 

 house standing. The Atherstones went first tu the Kowie, then back 

 to Cradock's place, about 4i miles from Port Elizabeth, where Mr. 

 Korsten and John Damant were living. For a time Atherstone's 

 father practised at Ilitenhage, but later, in 1824, he procee<led to 

 Capetown by way of Grahamstown, past the Iron Pot, Mill River and 

 Cypherfontein. 



William Guybon Atherstone was by now ten years old, and (juite 

 able to appreciate the lion and Bengal tiger in the Company's garden, 

 the menagerie being where the South African College now stands ; Imt 

 the event that produced the most lasting impression on the boy's mind, 

 which ever afterwards vuiderlay all his conscious life, was attending a 

 whole course of lectures on Natural History gi\en by Dr Andrew 

 Smith, the famous naturalist. This remarkable man came to the Cape 

 in 1820, and was stationed at Grahamstown for some time as ainiy 

 juedical officer. He returned home in 1837, and was subseciuently 

 appointed director-general of the Army Medical Department, and was 

 in that capacity charged with all the l>lame of the Crimean liospital 

 scandals. We shall have occasion to refer to Dr. Smith again. 



In 1828 Atherstone's father accepted the post of district surgeon 

 at (jlrahamstown, replacing Dr. Cowie, who had been Ijitten with the 

 mania of exploi-i)ig, which about this time seized upon the Albany 

 traders. We shall see later that A. G. Bain's first journey into the 

 interior was made about this date. Dr. Cowie tlie<l on the banks of 



* J^'ioiii otlier (Ie.>(;rii)ti<)iis ii aitjioars, liowo\er, that a hoat was seen aj>- 

 proaching tlie shore without peniiission, ami tlie (•oiimiainler of tlie fort th(tii.i:lit 

 it beloii<i,e<l to the Orcmi : it turned <jiU to })e from an Kast ln<Haman lying 

 outsiflo. 



