BARROW. 213 



»"r\ tho limits of decorum. Their persons were somewhat 

 short and stunted, and the skin of a dark glossy brown ; 

 but the features were almost European, and their dark 

 sparkling eyes bespoke A^vacity and intelligence. The 

 men, again, were the finest figures that the traveller had 

 ever seen, considerably above the middle size, robust, and 

 muscular, yet marked with the most elegant symmetry. 

 Their deportment was easy, and their expression frank, 

 generous, and fearless. In reply to the complaints which 

 were made of their encroachments upon the territory of the 

 colony, they asserted, and seemed to prove, that much 

 greater encroachments had been made by the colonists 

 themselves, and expressed their readiness to accede to any 

 arrangement which might obviate future dissension, — stat- 

 ing, however, that nothing could be done but through Gaika, 

 the great king of the CaflTres. The umpires immediately 

 proceeded towards his residence, through a beautiful, but 

 uncultivated, and somewhat entangled country. He was 

 absent at the moment, employed in pursuing a band of 

 wolves ; but his wife and mother, with fifty or sixty at- 

 tendants, sat round the strangers, and conversed, through 

 an interpreter, in the most agreeable manner. At length 

 the monarch was seen approaching at full gallop, mounted 

 on a handsome ox. Alighting from this singular charger, 

 he graciously welcomed the strangers, and seating himself 

 and his attendants under the shade of a mimosa, imme • 

 diately entered upon business. He showed himself ex- 

 tremely reasonable in every respect, declaring, that what- 

 ever inroads had taken place on the frontier were without 

 his knowledge or sanction, and he agreed at once to a code 

 of regulations which might put an end to future aggression. 

 It seems probable, indeed, that had the wise and conciliatory 

 measures which Mr. Barrow suggested been steadily ad- 

 hered to, all collision might have been avoided with this 

 manly and warlike race. 



The Caffres are perhaps the most completely pastoral 

 people in existence. Their agriculture is very limited, 

 owing to their roaming mode of life. Game is scarce, and 

 they make no use of their extensive line of seacoast for 

 fishing ; but the management of cattle is thoroughly un- 

 derstood, being carried on by the men, who not only tend 

 but milk the cows, and who, by a particular modulation of 



