Chap. XXXVIII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 343 



that beset the wanderer in the African desert, he is 

 nevertheless, from his locomotive habits, and expe- 

 rience in oriental travelling, far more capable of 

 overcoming them than the lethargic and home- 

 loving natives of the colony, or those less skilled in 

 the art. Nearly all my sketches were made under 

 a bush in the open air, and completed on my knees 

 in the waggon amid rain and wind — the zoological 

 specimens, which I had in the first instance realized 

 and brought home myself, being subsequently 

 prepared with my own hand. Nothing could ex- 

 ceed the annoyance given by the Hottentots, whose 

 indolence and indifference throughout the journey, 

 obliged us frequently to rise during the night — the 

 rain, which pursued us whithersoever we went, 

 heiffhteninor in no small decrree the discomforts we 

 experienced. Nor shall I deny that we sometimes 

 sighed for the luxuries to which we had been accus- 

 tomed ; bread and meat, with simple tea or coffee, 

 forming for many months our monotonous diet. 

 But in spite of all these hardships and privations, 

 toilsome and tedious as our journey frequently was, 

 across deserts of utterly hopeless sterility, we were 

 more than amply repaid by the unparalleled mag- 

 nificence of the sport that we enjoyed ; and I can 

 safely aver, that some of the happiest days of my ex- 

 istence have been passed in the wilds of Africa. 

 They form a passage in my life which time can never 

 efface from the tablet of my recollection — a green 

 spot in memory's waste, to which, in after years, I 

 shall revert with intense and unabating pleasure. 



