266 



of tbe 1Rofc, IRffle, anb (Bun 



and in the jungles of Hindostan. I had also 3 stout 

 double-barrelled guns, for rough work when hard riding 

 and quick loading is required ; several lead-ladles of 

 various sizes, a whole host of bullet-moulds, loading- 

 rods, shot-belts, powder-flasks, and shooting-belts ; 

 3 cwt. of lead, 50 Ibs. of pewter for hardening the balls 

 to be used in destroying the larger game ; 10,000 pre- 

 pared leaden bullets, bags of shot of all sizes ; 100 Ibs. 

 of fine sporting gunpowder, 300 Ibs. of coarse gunpowder ; 

 about 50,000 percussion caps ; 2,000 gun flints, greased 

 patches, and cloth to be converted into the same. I 

 carried also several spare yokes, yoke-skeys, whip-sticks, 

 rheims, and straps, two sets of spare linch-pins, all of 

 which last articles belong to the waggon. With the 

 above and 2ooL in cash which I carried with me, I 

 considered myself prepared to undertake a journey of 

 at least twelve months amongst Boers or Bechuanas, 

 independent of either." 



With the Boer settlers he came into frequent contact, 

 and found them almost uniformly hospitable and friendly, 

 a fact which he thus curiously explains : " It is a 

 strange thing that Boers are rather partial to Scotchmen, 

 although they detest the sight of an Englishman. 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." So, fifty years 

 ago the race-hatred was as strong and bitter as it is 

 now. Many of the poorer Boers subsisted entirely by 

 hunting ; but Gordon Gumming thought very little of 

 their skill as marksmen, and tells how four officers 

 of the 9 ist Regiment, then quartered at Colesberg, 



