INTRODUCTION. XV 



At the period of my arrival at the Cape of Good Hope^ pubhc 

 attention was much excited by an event which has probably no 

 parallel in om' Colonial History. I allude to the emigration of a 

 large body of Dutch farmers^ who voluntarily forsook the British 

 protection and territory^ to effect an establishment in the wilderness, 

 where it was believed — as indeed the result fully proved — they 

 would encounter the severest hardship ; and it was no small 

 additional spur to my spirit of enterprise, that I might trace the 

 steps of these wanderers, and, without mingling in politics, investi- 

 gate, on the spot, the origin of so remarkable an expatriation. 

 The map that accompanies this volume, for the outlines of which 

 I am indebted to Arrowsmith's Atlas, published in 1834, is princi- 

 pally illustrative of the history of this singular event. Many 

 interesting geographical chasms, however, have also been filled up, 

 numerous additions made either from personal observations, or 

 from materials obligingly furnished by missionaries and intelligent 

 traders, upon whose correctness I could rely. Notliing has been 

 inserted upon vague report ; and although it will be remarked 

 that my inconvenient mode of travelling would not admit of my 

 making a strictly scientific survey, I trust that I have been enabled 

 to embody information of interest and importance, in a manner 

 sufficiently accurate to answer the object in vicAv. 



My passion for venerie had long afforded me opportunities of 

 discovering that the delineations given in popular books of Natural 

 History, of many of the larger quadrupeds, were far from being- 

 correct ; and I had, during my service in India, devoted a portion 

 of my leisure to making more accurate portraits of them with 

 appropriate scenery. A wide field for the gratification of this taste 

 lay before me in Africa, of which I did not fail to avail myself, 

 and the result of my labours in this department are now in the 

 course of publication. 



These pages were originally written for the perusal of some of 

 my brother officers in India, with whom I have often stalked the 

 forest and scoured the plain ; and it is to them chiefly that I still 

 present them, trusting that in the scenes depicted and described, 

 they will recognize their friend and brother huntsman, and 

 participate with him in the emotions which the overpowering 



