TKHillfam Cotton swell 341 



to South Africa, say I ! I gained strength by the voyage, 

 and shortly after reaching Capetown, hearing that a 

 Mr. Murray, of Lintrose, near Cupar Angus, had come 

 from Scotland for the purpose of making a shooting 

 expedition to the interior, I determined to join him. 

 The resolve was carried out early in the spring of 1844 

 (the beginning of the Cape winter) ; we started out from 

 Grahamstown to Colesberg, buying on the way horses, 

 oxen, dogs, waggons, and stores, crossed the Orange 

 River, and set our faces northwards. We were all bitten 

 in those days by Captain, afterwards Sir, Cornwallis 

 Harris, whose book, published about 1837, was the first 

 to give any notion of the capabilities of South Africa for 

 big game shooting, and, Harris excepted, c we were the 

 first that ever burst into that " sunny " sea ' as sportsmen. 

 Murray was an excellent, kind-hearted gentleman, rather 

 too old, perhaps, for an expedition of this kind, as he felt 

 the alternations of climate very much ; and no wonder, 

 for I have known the thermometer to register 92 in 

 the shade at 2 p.m. and 30 at 8 p.m. I was younger 

 and though still weak from the effects of fever, the dry 

 air of the uplands daily gave me vigour, and the absolute 

 freedom of the life was delightful to me." 



Oswell and Murray were, no doubt, unaware at the 

 time that Gordon Cumming had started on a similar 

 expedition from Capetown almost simultaneously with 

 themselves, and was, in fact, in the big game country 

 before them. But it is odd that Oswell, who did not 

 write the record of his hunting experiences in South 

 Africa till 1892, when he was persuaded to publish them 

 in the form of a contribution to the volume on " Big 



