PREFACE. 



SOME few years ago many circumstances com- 

 bined to make me determine to revisit the 

 benighted region of Delagoa Bay. My affairs 

 here were certainly not in a flourishing condi- 

 tion. My pretty " Butterfly Cottage," built for 

 me in happier times by my dear husband, was 

 untenanted, save by white ants, and sadly 

 required the supervision of its mistress, and I 

 confess I was longing to resume my old occupa- 

 tion of collecting insects. 



*_^ 



Before starting, my friends made me promise 

 to tell them all I could about the place and my 

 doings. "You must write a book," they said. 

 So I promised to try what I could do, and the 

 following medley of "everything in general and 

 nothing in particular" is the outcome of that 

 promise, originally written in the form of letters 

 to my home friends, but since then gathered 

 together into its present shape, with many 



