140 CHANGE OP SERVANTS LARV^. 



His first act on arriving at the Cape was to engage himself 

 to a trader, who imprudently advanced him a considerable 

 sum of money, which he coolly pocketed and then decamped. 



Our lad, Gabriel, also marked his road to the colony with 

 many traits of violence and insolence, but he had neither the 

 cunning nor the impudence of his associate. 



Abraham Wenzel, the thief, had again behaved improper- 

 ly, and Mr. Galton found it necessary to give him his dis- 

 missal. 



We had thus, in a short time, lost the services of three 

 men; but, fortunately, through the kindness of our friend 

 Zwartbooi, we were able to replace them by two others. The 

 first of these was his own henchman, Onesimus, who was a 

 Damara by birth, but had been captured as a child and 

 brought up among the Namaquas. He spoke the language 

 of these two nations most fluently, and ^understood, more- 

 over, a few words of Dutch. What with his capacity as an 

 interpreter, his even temper and general good behavior, he 

 became one of the most useful men of our party. 



The other man, Phillippus, was also a Damara by birth, 

 but had forgotten his native tongue. He spoke, however, 

 the Namaqua and the Dutch fluently. He was appointed a 

 wagon-driver. 



One morning, to our surprise, we found the whole ground 

 about our encampment covered with larvae of a dark-green 

 color. Whence, or how they came there, was to us quite a 

 mystery. We at length conjectured that at some previous 

 period a swarm of locusts, in passing the place, had deposit- 

 ed their ova in the sand, and, now that the green grass be- 

 gan to spring up (which provided them with suitable food), 

 their progeny emerged in the shape of worms. 



At the same time many thousand storks appeared, and ev- 

 idently much relished the rich and abundant repast. 



Mr. Galton's successful remonstrances with Jonker had 

 pacified the excited minds of our Damaras. It had inspired 



