( ^x ) 



bosch, near Cape Town, who was present at the lecture, told 

 Professor Poulton that a former pupil of his, named Burchell) 

 had brought to school a diary written l)y an ancestor in St, 

 Helena. Through Mr, INIason's kind help Professor Poulton was 

 put into communication with Mr. Francis A, Burchell, a grand- 

 nephew of the great explorer, who has most kindly lent the 

 deeply interesting note-book now exhibited to the Society. At 

 the place where Burchell's second volume comes to an end, the 

 woi'ds " end of the 2nd volume " are written in pencil in the 

 margin. Beyond this point one month of the lost records are 

 here restored to us, from August 3 to September 2, 1812. 

 Furthermore even in the period covered by the published work 

 there are many statements of the deepest interest to us which 

 Burchell withheld. For the first time we are made acquainted 

 Avith the day and month of his birth. It is believed — but there 

 is no certainty — that he was born in the year 1782. July 

 23, 1812, was a day of great anxiety and trouble. Among his 

 attendants was a man named Cornells, of Hottentot and 

 Dutch parentage. Cornelis had been unsatisfactory and 

 useless from the day of bis engagement when he presented 

 himself " in a state of complete intoxication," and now in the 

 midst of the Bachapin capital, Litakuu, then visited for the 

 first time by a European, he broke out into open rebellion, and 

 Bu]-chell was compelled, buckling on his pistols and cutlass, 

 personally to enforce obedience. The published account ends 

 with the words : — " Thus ended one of the most turbulent days 

 which I had exjieinenced since the commencement of my 

 journey," ("Travels," vol. ii, London, 1824, p. 462.) The 

 manuscript journal, however, concludes the day with the 

 following personal details omitted from* the second volume : — 

 " I continued in the waggon all the evening, and to divert my 

 mind from the past, I spent the remaining time with my flute." 

 " It thus has unfortunately happened that I have been pre- 

 vented joining my family in their remembrances of me on this 

 day : and that my birthday should be marked as one of the 

 most turbulent days I have passed since landing on Africa, 

 From the little dependance I can place on my own people my 

 situation now begins to grow^ critical, and calls for the most 

 resolute but prudent measures," 



