DURBAN HOSPITALITY. 48 



brought us to our hotel in Durban proper. Here ter- 

 minated our sea-voyage truly a most enjoyable one 

 and here our most adventurous land one commenced. 

 Leaving out the convivialities of that evening, I will 

 enumerate what business had to be performed on the 

 morrow, for all who follow in our wake will have to do 

 likewise. 



An invoice of your baggage is handed to the custom- 

 house authorities, a permit obtained to land your guns, 

 which being granted, also goes to the customs, 

 where each barrel is stamped and a pound duty paid on 

 it ; there is an import-duty also charged on wagons. 



First it was intended to purchase oxen and horses 

 here, but the prices were so exorbitant that we resolved 

 to hire a team of bullocks, yoke them to our own 

 wagon, and thus get our traps to Pieter-Maritzburg. 

 At length, after repeated failures, I secured the services 

 of a Boer to accomplish the task for ten pounds sterling 

 about half what all others had demanded. Still, we 

 were paying too much ; but necessity knows no law. 

 Before leaving Durban, I would say it is a very pretty 

 town, essentially tropical in all its characteristics. To 

 many of its merchants we were indebted for great kind- 

 ness in fact, their hospitality is proverbial. If, on arrival, 

 we had called upon any of them, and requested their 

 services, they would have at once stopped the numerous 

 extortions attempted alas ! several times successfully. 

 But, having referred to the honourable men who compose 

 the upper class, save me from falling into the hands of 

 such Philistines as make up the middle grade ! 



Mr. Robinson, delegate for the colony, and editor 

 and proprietor of the leading journal in Durban, whose 

 acquaintance I had the pleasure of making, would, I am 



