CHAP. I.] ARRIVAL AT CAPE TOWN. 6 



divided themselves into cliques, and how high and 

 mighty the party that sat under the left corner of 

 the i)oop were, and how they looked down on those 

 who sat elsewhere. Anyhow we had a pleasant 

 sail, though some eighty days had passed before we 

 were in Table Bay, and among the white stone and 

 green-shuttered houses of Cape Town. 



I intended to make a stay here of a few weeks, 

 and then to sail on to Algoa Bay, whence my land 

 journey was to have been commenced. I therefore 

 took the earliest opportunity of presenting my letters 

 of introduction, and I hoped that chance would soon 

 throw much information, valuable to me, within my 

 reach. I cannot sufficiently express how much kind- 

 ness I received diu'ing my stay in Cape Town from all 

 my acquaintance there. Everybody that I was thrown 

 with seemed to take the greatest interest in my 

 excursion, and I was referred and introduced to all 

 those whose experience or information might be of 

 any use to me. 



I had not, however, arrived many days, when news 

 came that materially affected my plans, and in the 

 end gave them a somewhat different direction. The 

 emigrant Boers — those Dutch colonists who had 

 rebelled and run away from us — had broken out into 

 open revolt. They invested the whole breadth of the 

 habitable country, north of the Orange River, through 

 which the direct way to Lake Ngami lies ; and 

 information was received that they had resolutely 

 refused the passage of any stranger from the colony 

 through their country ; that they had already turned 



