28 SOUTH AFRICA. 



to practise all other possible economies in other 

 directions. 



And now I am sure the time has fully come to 

 offer my best apologies to the reader for very 

 numerous and disorderly digressions, past, present, 

 and to come, which I trust will be accepted on the 

 plea that I have no claim to belong even to 

 the rank and file of the disciplined corps of 

 litterateurs, and that they flow from my pen 

 without premeditation, and guiltless of malice 

 prepense. 



The period between this first trip and 1848 

 was spent in a succession of journeys both in 

 and outside the Cape Colony, during which, as 

 an amateur, I saw a little of the operations of the 

 great Kaffir war in the East Province, and in self- 

 defence had to kill two of the native warriors, who, 

 if they had not been vile shots, ought to have 

 settled my affairs in this world. My custom there 

 was, when in thick bush, to carry a double 12-bore 

 gun, one barrel loaded with ball and the other 

 with a charge of S.S.G. shot, and the latter charge 

 proved most effective up to about sixty yards. 



I had visited the Limpopo, killed a number of 

 elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, and other big game 



