SERVANTS. 81 



time before he could reconcile himself to make a beef-steak 

 a la fagon sauvage. 



John had a famous way of telling stories, and, like his 

 own dishes, they were very savory and well- spiced: a tale 

 never degenerated in his hands; and when, in his happier 

 moments, he condescended to open his mind, he never failed 

 to keep his audience in a roar of laughter. He had, more- 

 over, great ambition, and could never bear that any one 

 should interfere with his cooking establishment. The arrival 

 of a batch of natives at his fire was the signal for a general 

 burst of eloquent abuse ; and if this did not suffice, he had a 

 provoking way of scattering the hot coals and ashes over the 

 naked legs of the poor unsuspecting savages, which, of course, 

 never failed to have the desired effect. I often trembled for 

 John, for his mind was clearly too republican to make any 

 difference between chief and subject, and I was surprised 

 that he never got into a scrape. I suppose, however, the 

 comical manner in which his dangerous experiments were 

 always carried on served rather to amuse than irritate or 

 provoke. 



John lived to return to the Cape, where he became an- 

 other Gulliver, embellishing his adventures among the sav- 

 ages with marvels which would have done honor to the in- 

 vention even of Dean Swift. 



I now come to the last, but certainly not the least inter- 

 esting of the servants. This man's name was Timbo. He 

 was a native of Mazapa, a country far in the interior, lying 

 to the west of the Portuguese settlements on the east coast 

 of Africa. 



When jQi a child, Timbo's country was invaded by a. 

 ferocious and powerful tribe of Caffres, who carried off the 

 cattle, and slew many of the inhabitants. Among the latter 

 were his parents ; he himself escaped to a neighboring tribe. 

 As this, however, soon after shared a similar fate to his own, 

 he was, for a long time, a "stranger on the face of the 



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