18 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



hard-working, and determined young men as might be 

 met with throughout the colony. 



As, in the course of the following pages, I may have 

 occasion to allude to these traders, and others of a 

 similar avocation, it will, perhaps, be as well to give 

 the reader a sketch of the manner in which their oc- 

 cupation is conducted. Each trader is supposed to be 

 the proprietor of one or two ox- wagons. These they 

 " load up," from the large stores of the merchants in 

 Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, with every species 

 of merchandise which the far-dwelling isolated Dutch 

 Boers are likely to require. So supplied, they set out 

 on their long journey, which usually occupies from six 

 to eight months ; at the end of which they return to 

 the colony, enriched with immense droves of sleek oxen 

 and fat wethers, selected from the numerous herds and 

 flocks of the pastoral dwellers in the interior. The 

 wagons of a trader generally contain every requisite 

 for a farmer's establishment : groceries, hardware, bales 

 of cloth and canvas, haberdashery, saddlery, crockery 

 — ^in short, every thing, from an awl for the Boer to 

 mend his "feldt schoens" or country shoes, to a roll 

 of cherry-colored or sky-blue ribbon to tie up the bonny 

 brown locks of his fair daughters, whose beauty, like 

 that of Skye terriers, I fear, in many cases, consists in 

 their ugliness. They, however, sadly lack the " dega- 

 g6e" appearance of the Skye terrier, as their general 

 air and gait might be more aptly likened to a yard of 

 pump- water. 



As the trader advances up the country and effects 

 exchanges, he leaves the cattle or sheep which he has 

 bartered in charge of their former master, picking them 

 up on his return southward. When all his goods are 

 disposed of, he generally winds up his barter by ex- 



