cH. II] BOER SETTLERS 37 



sense, for they were many miles apart. The Hills — 

 Clifford and Harold — were Africanders ; they knew the 

 country, and were working hard and doing well ; and in 

 the midst of their work they spared the time to do their 

 full part in insuring a successful hunt to me, an entire 

 stranger. All the settlers I met treated me with the 

 same large and thoughtful courtesy — and what fine 

 fellows they were ! and their wives even finer. At 

 Bondini was Percival, a tall sinewy man, a fine rider 

 and shot ; like so many other men whom I met, he 

 wore merely a helmet, a fiannel shirt, short breeches or 

 trunks, and puttees and boots, leaving the knee entirely 

 bare. I shall not soon forget seeing him one day, as he 

 walked beside his twelve-ox team, cracking his long 

 whip, while in the big waggon sat pretty Mrs. Percival 

 with a puppy and a little cheetah cub, which we had 

 found and presented to her, and which slie was taming. 

 They all — Sir Alfred, the Hills, everyone — behaved as 

 if each was my host and felt it peculiarly incumbent on 

 him to give me a good time ; and among these hosts 

 one who did very much for me was Captain Arthur 

 Slatter. I was his guest at Kilimakiu, where lie was 

 running an ostrich-farm ; he had lost his right hand, yet 

 he was an exceedingly good game shot, both with his 

 light and his heavy rifles. 



At Kitanga, Sir Alfred's place, two Boers were 

 working, Messrs. Prinsloo and Klopper. We fore- 

 gathered, of course, as I, too, was of Dutch ancestry. 

 They were strong, upstanding men, good mechanics, 

 good masons, and Prinsloo spoke English well. I 

 afterward stopped at the farm of Klopper's father, and 

 at the farm of another Boer named Loijs ; and I met 

 other Boers while out hunting — Erasmus, Botha, 

 Joubert, Meyer. They were descendants of the Voor 



