SOUTHERN AFRICA. 9 



miles of Graham's Town^ which we reached on the seventh 

 day^ the bag-g-ag-e-wag-o-on was accidentally upset in a deep 

 hole by the road-side^ and the upper works completely 

 broken^ although little injury occurred to the contents, 

 beyond the destruction of our chairs and crockery. 



Graham's Town is situated at the source of the Cowie 

 Biverj at a distance of six hundred and fifty miles from Cape 

 Town, and thirty from the nearest point of the coast. It 

 is well built, and contains nearly seven hundred houses, 

 with about three thousand inhabitants, principally Eng-lish. 

 Here we made further purchases, and with difficulty obtained 

 two additional horses, residing* four days at Parke's excellent 

 hotel. We also made a valuable friend in the person of 

 Captain Stanford, of the 27th Foot, who introduced us to 

 two intelhg"ent men, David Hume and Robert Scoon, both of 

 whom had performed several journej's into the interior, for 

 the purpose of trading" in ivory, and who afforded us much 

 valuable information. Hume provided us with a new driver, 

 a pensioned private of the Cape Rifle Corps, minus a rig-ht 

 eye and a fore-fin g'er, j^roud of his ancestry as a Hottentot, 

 and g-lorying- in the name of Andries Africander. This 

 hig-hly-favoured individual had already made no less than 

 five trips with Hume and others into Moselekatse's country, 

 and besides being- well acquainted with that Chief, possessed 

 a fan* smatterino- of the Eng-lish and Sichuana lang-uao-es. 



Bo O O 



He was, moreover, according* to his own account, a crack 

 shot, an intrepid elephant hunter, and a finished wag'g'on- 

 driver , thus professing- to combine, beneath a mutilated and 

 unprepossessing- exterior, every qualification that could be 

 required in a servant by men in our situation. Had but the 

 virtues of this man kept pace with the accomplishments 

 to which he laid claim, he would indeed have been a valu- 

 able acquisition ; but unfortunately the result proved that 

 he had not a siug-le redeeming- quality, that we could dis- 



