240 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR chap. ix. 



which English was taught, and with the general proficiency of 

 the scholars. We then held a meeting with the people, and 

 afterwards visited some of the Christian families at their own 

 habitations. In the course of the afternoon, after taking 

 leave of our hospitable friends, we returned to King William's 

 To\vn ; and here bidding farewell to Mrs. Brownlee and her 

 family, we crossed the Buffalo river, and commenced our 

 homeward course. 



Should peace remain unbroken, and the enlightened policy 

 of the governor, its surest guarantee, be continued, there 

 would seem to be a happier future in prospect for the Caffre 

 nation. If they have the means of sound practical education, 

 comprising a knowledge of the useful arts, together with 

 faithful religious teaching, there is no sufficient reason to 

 doubt the advancement of this interesting people in all that 

 belongs to the well-being of men in the present life and their 

 hopes of that which is to come. 



On the 4th we crossed the Keiskamma at Line Drift. The 

 bottom of the stream was rocky and the waters turbid, but 

 we crossed in safety, though the governor's party, in crossing 

 at the same place a few weeks before, lost one of their waggons 

 and a team of mules, all being swept do^vn the stream. Con- 

 tinuing our way, we passed Fort Peddie, and crossed the Fish 

 Eiver at Trumpeter's Drift, where another of the governor's 

 wao-ofons had been carried down the stream, and the mules 

 only saved by being cut loose and swimming to the shore. 

 The waggon was lying among the bushes at some distance 

 down the river at the time we passed. The owner of an 

 accommodation house on the bank of the river told us that 

 accidents were frequent with the natives, who remained in 

 the waggons shouting to the oxen ; but that white men gene- 

 rally had persons in the stream to keep the oxen up. Pursu- 

 ing our journey, and passing the night, which was wet and 

 cold, on the high ground beyond Driver's Hill, we reached 



