JOURNEYS AND RESEARCHES 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Peksonal Sketch. — Voyage to the Cape and Algoa Bay. 



My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible 

 about myself ; but several friends have suggested that, as the 

 reader likes to know something about an author, a short 

 account of my origin and early life would lend additional 

 interest to this book. Such is my excuse for the following 

 egotism. 



My great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, righting 

 for the old line of kings ; and my grandfather was a small 

 farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. It is one of that 

 cluster of the Hebrides thus alluded to by Walter Scott : — 



" And Ulva dark, and Colonsay, 

 And all the group of islets gay 

 That guard famed Staffa round.'* 



My grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the 

 legends which that great writer has since made use oi 

 in the ' Tales of a Grandfather' and other works. As a boy I 

 remember listening to him with delight. Many of his never- 

 ending stock of stories were wonderfully like those I have 

 since heard while sitting by the African fires. My grand- 

 mother used to sing Gaelic songs, some of which, as she 

 believed, had been composed by captive islanders languishing 

 hopelessly among the Turks. 



* Lord of the Isles, canto iy. 



