Preface. v 



I have changed nothmg of what I originally wi'ote, 

 Avith the two following exceptions. Attempts at 



liuiuuiir. ur whar is called " chatt'." when taken 

 serioiish" are fa i hires so disastr^jii- tliat they cannot 

 be too (piickly suppressed. Under this category 

 come niv allusions to the cook on board the Grau- 

 tuUij Cadle and my hazardous specidation on the 

 oriirin of the female sex. This latter speculation, 



o J. 



lightly turned off in a sentence, more for the \mv- 

 pose of an elegant termination to a letter than for 

 the purpose of arousing controversy, was received 

 so solemnly by grave and serious joiu'uals such as 

 The Si^edator and Tin' Speaher, that they actually 

 compared my ideas (unfavourably for me, I admit) 

 ^^■ith those of the illustrious Darwin. By the 

 erasure of the guilty sentence alhulod to from the 

 text of these pages, I have done my utmost to 

 withdraw from a competition so dangerous to m\'- 

 seh". 



1 Would add that the opinions M'hich I expressed 

 on the Dutch })opidation of tlie Transvaal were 

 intended by me to be exclusively conhned to that 

 population. Some imagined that those opinions 

 were intended to apply generally to the Dutch in 

 Sotith Africa. But such Avide and indiscriminate 

 censure was far from m\' mind. The Dutch 

 settlers in Cape Toliau' ww as worth\- nC praise as 

 the'ir rrlatiws, the Transxaal Boors, are ol' blame. 

 The f »rmer. loval. thrifty, industrious, hos[)ital»le. 

 lilieral. ai"e and will, T trust, ever remain the back- 



