Chap. XXXVIL] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 333 



Graaff Reinet acquaintance, who had marched some 

 time before to invade the Matabili territories and 

 crush the despot. I must add also, that the cir- 

 cumstance of our having been well received by his 

 Majesty, and suffered to escape with our lives — while 

 it elicited every one's astonishment, appeared also to 

 create a general feeling of jealousy and dissatisfac- 

 tion. 



Again there was a drenching rain all night, and 

 two more of our finest oxen being completely 

 powerless from their wounds, we presented them to 

 young Breck, in part acknowledgment for his 

 father's assistance, and pursued our journey on the 

 morning of the 1 1th. Even to the colonial boundary, 

 we had still a weary distance before us, and grass 

 was represented to be extremely scarce ; but we 

 now travelled with fresh oxen along a beaten waggon 

 road, an accommodation to which we had been 

 stangers for several months. In the course of the 

 forenoon, we were met by a farmer from Beaufort, 

 on the Karroo, with a Hottentot achter ryder, or 

 footman, going to kek, as he called it, or in other 

 words, to see how the emigrants were likely to thrive, 

 before selling his own farm. On learning that we 

 were from Sillekat's land, his first question was, 

 " How the Kafirs had happened to let us come out 

 in a sound skin ?" And this, in fact, wherever w'e 

 went, was the theme of wonder and astonishment — 

 few being able to understand the difference between 

 conciliating a savage with presents, and entering his 

 territories uninvited. 



