254 LIGHT COLOURED KAFFIRS. 



male relatives and ship-friends murdered, and were then 

 forced to become the wives of the Kaffir chiefs or principal 

 men. The descendants of these mixed people can even 

 now be traced in some of the light coloured Kaffirs of 

 the Amaponda, the Umzimvubu, and Umzimculu ; and it 

 is not improbable that a small rivulet of the blood of 

 the Howards may be even now flowing in oblivion under 

 the dark hide of a naked assagy-throwing, snuff-taking 

 heathen of Africa. Some things that this Kaffir told me 

 were strange and curious. Memory here serves as a 

 library. It is a book of reference much in use, and one 

 that is therefore nearer perfection than can be conceived 

 by those whose ivory tablets or ledgers daily record 

 events. 



South Africa is an excellent country in which to obtain 

 a knowledge of ourselves ; solitude being so common and 

 unavoidable a contingency that we soon become perfectly 

 reconciled to our own society, and learn to argue and 

 reason as though with another person. If we are 

 worsted in this encounter, we have the same satisfaction 

 that Dr. Johnson had, knowing that we supply our adver- 

 sary's arguments as well as our own. An excellent 

 and good understanding here exists between our outer 

 and inner selves, and each individual knows his own 

 respective worth. 



It is a land in which one's value as a man is decided, 

 in the unerring scale of trial, to an ounce. It is pleasant 

 to know one's true position, if only for a short time, and 

 even if much lower than we have been accustomed to con- 

 sider our due. It prevents us from making many mistakes, 



