Caffre Prisoners. 209 



Holland, had already obtained good situations, and greeted 

 their little compatriots most heartily. Being asked if they 

 wished to return to Holland, they replied, without the slightest 

 hesitation, in the negative, declaring that they felt very happy 

 where they were, — an announcement of course peculiarly agree- 

 able to the new-comers. 



An interesting opportunity was afforded to us of seeing a 

 large number of Caffres, of both sexes, who had been brought 

 in as prisoners in consequence of having made predatory in- 

 cursions into the British territory. They all arrived in a state 

 of nudity, and in most wretched plight, but were immediately 

 provided with European clothes — blue striped shirts, sheep- 

 skin trousers, shoes, a Scotch cap, and a blanket which served 

 during the day as a cloak, and at night as a covering. Their 

 food was tolerably good, but their abode during night, in the 

 damp casemates of the fort, seemed not to agree with them, 

 and many were visibly in a diseased state of health. Nearly 

 all were muscular, and some were really specimens of manly 

 beauty. Not one of them knew his age. Their only mode of 

 calculating is by certain important events, as by the death 

 of a chieftain, or the various wars with the English. The 

 superintendent, Mr. Walsh, a very obliging Irishman, had the 

 kindness to cause them to perform some of their national 

 dances, wild exercises which served the purpose of exciting 

 their warlike spirit. The first dance they performed they 

 called " Ukutenga." Six handsomely-built dancers advanced, 

 whilst about thirty men closed in a circle around them, and, by 



p 



