SERVANTS. 79 



which we were engaged, I should remark, people can not be 

 too particular in the selection of their attendants ; for, to say 

 no'^^hing of the success of the undertaking, one's personal 

 comfort mainly depends on their good behavior. 



First in order was a youth named Gabriel, a native of 

 the Cape. He had been engaged by Galton chiefly for his 

 smiling face and winning looks, but he proved himself to be 

 the most troublesome of the whole lot. In our journey up 

 the country he had already exhibited a vindictive temper 

 and quarrelsome disposition, which at length broke forth 

 with increased violence. On two separate occasions he at- 

 tempted, if I was rightly informed, the lives of his fellow- 

 servants. Upon this atrocity, I spoke to him with earnest 

 reprobation, and trusted that I had produced some effect ; 

 when, to my astonishment and mortification, the very next 

 day he was guilty of the same o.utrage. After a dispute 

 with one of his companions, he rushed upon him with a 

 hatchet, and would undoubtedly have cleft his skull had it 

 not been for a Hottentot, who warded off the blow. So lit- 

 tle did the young villain think of the crime he had intended 

 to perpetrate, that upon receiving punishment he had the 

 impudence to remonstrate, and to ask why he was flogged ! 



Next in order came Abraham Wenzel (a native also, I 

 believe, of Cape-Town), a wheelwright by trade, and by habit 

 a thief. Even before leaving Scheppmansdorf I received 

 information that he had purloined divers articles from the 

 stores, for which crime he received his due punishment. 



Another of our servants was named John Waggoner. 

 This man teased us continually by his sulkiness and reluct- 

 ance to work, assigning as a reason that he had been seized 

 with home-sickness, and that he wished to return imme- 

 diately to the Cape. Some little time afterward he was 

 gratified in his wish; and, as will subsequently be seen, he 

 proved himself the worst scamp of the set. But John per- 

 formed his fraudulent tricks with so much cleverness, inge- 



