THE BAR AT NATAL. 309 



I should ever agaiii meet in civilized hands as much honesty, 

 truth, and disinterested friendship amongst the unculti- 

 vated and ignorant ; or whether I should again live for two 

 years amongst a nation, who, although nearly ignorant of 

 Christianity, and the direction towards the right that is 

 given by a knowledge of its simple beauties, still possessed 

 many of those good qualities that are rarely met in the 

 most vaunted Christian countries. I embarked at Natal 

 Bay in a little brigantine; an esteemed brother sports- 

 man being also a passenger. A sulky impudent Dutch- 

 man, with his wife and a child, were also sharers of the 

 tiny cabin. 



The bar at Natal is not disposed to be always favour- 

 able for ingress and egress. Sometimes nine and ten feet 

 of water were found on it, and the next day but seven. So 

 it happened when we were leaving ; for on the day before our 

 attempted departure, we were told there were quite nine 

 feet, but on our getting near it we struck. Fortunately 

 there was but a little swell on, but still the ship bumped 

 very heavily, and seemed to bend under us like a wicker- 

 work basket. The Dutchman, who was on deck; looked 

 very white ; he dived down below, and soon returned 

 buttoning up his pockets. He looked at us and the skipper, 

 then at the shore, distant about 200 yards, with an inter- 

 mediate glance of horror at two or three large dorsal fins 

 that were sticking up out of the water, indicative of ten 

 feet long sharks which would not have objected to our 

 attempting a swim. By the aid of the port-boat sent out 

 a-head we managed to get pulled off the bar, and got 

 through another passage, only just then known or practised, 



