40 Recollections of Adventures 



now Kokstad near Natal. These Griquas did not 

 deserve to have farms ; they were never sober and 

 would sell their coats, as well as their farms, for 

 drink. They will die out as the Bosjesmans and 

 Hottentots have done. They are a drunken, filthy, 

 immoral lot, and will never become really a civilised 

 and useful community. It is well that they 

 squandered their farms. 



I did fairly well out of this trip to the Colony, 

 notwithstanding the losses of oxen from drought, 

 but my two companions were less fortunate. 

 Devereux turned back and some of his oxen died, 

 and old Hendrick Vermuelen used to fight with his 

 two Kaffir boys every day until at last, when I 

 parted from him, they could not stand it and ran 

 away. He then hired a Hottentot, who one day, 

 when he was at a Boer house, broke open the wagon 

 chest and stole 370. The " Totty " was eventually 

 caught, but with law expenses and what the 

 Hottentot had given away, he recovered very little. 



