70 A.DVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



od of gaining his good will, and he always replied that 

 the Scotch were the best people in the world.- 



It is a strange thing that Boers are rather partial to 

 Scotchmen, although they detest the sight of an En- 

 glishman. They have an idea that the Scotch, like 

 themselves, were a nation conquered by the English, 

 and that, consequently, we trek in the same yoke as 

 themselves ; and, further, a number of their ministers 

 are Scotchmen. Hendric Strydom was a tall, sun- 

 burned, wild-looking creature, with light sandy hair, 

 and a long, shaggy red beard. He was a keen hunter, 

 and himself and household subsisted, in a great meas- 

 ure, by the proceeds of his long single-barreled "roer." 

 His frau was rather a nice little woman, with a fresh 

 color, and fine dark eyes and eyebrows, and displayed 

 her good taste by taking a fancy to me ; but perhaps 

 the tea and coffee which she found I bestowed with a 

 liberal hand might account for her partiality. These 

 were Boers of the poorer order, and possessed but little 

 of this world's goods. Their abode was in keeping with 

 their means. It was a small mud cottage, with a roof 

 which afforded scanty protection from the heavy period- 

 ical rains. The fire burned on the hearthstone, and a 

 hole in the roof served at once for a window and chim- 

 ney. The rafters and bare mud walls were adorned 

 with a profusion of skins of wild animals, and endless 

 festoons of " biltongue" or sun-dried flesh of game. 

 Green fields or gardens there were none whatever ; the 

 wild Karroo plain stretched away from the house on all 

 sides ; and during the night the springboks and wilde- 

 beests pastured before the door. 



The servants consisted of one old Bushman and his 

 wife, and the whole of their worldly possessions were 

 an old wagon, a span of oxen, a few milch cows, and a 



