174 APPENDIX. 
because they were the depositaries of a knowledge of the 
route from the Cape to the Portuguese settlement: a circum- 
stance not altogether unlikely, from the known jealousy of 
the Portuguese, of the existence of which feeling, I believe I 
can give no better proof than that of the suppression of the 
papers of Commodore Owen, employed by the British 
government to survey the eastern coast, and which were pre- 
pared for the press, but have been held back in consequence, 
itis said, of the strong protest of the Portuguese ambassador. 
A very interesting document has just been placed in my 
hands for publication, by Mr. H. Fynn, to whom I have 
already alluded, of ‘A Ten Years’ Residence in Port 
Natal,’ in which I find the curious circumstance mentioned 
of the arrival in the neighbourhood of that place of a Hu- 
ropean on horseback, who was endeavouring to reach the sea. 
This took place previous to the reign of the late celebrated 
Chieftain of the Zulo nation, Chaka, about the year 1810, 
and upon whose success in regaining his country and au- 
thority, the appearance of this strange visitant had a marked 
influence. «He came, say the natives, who treasure up 
the memory of this apparition, ‘from the westward, having 
passed through numerous tribes, inspiring much terror from 
his extraordinary figure, his hat was conceived to be part of 
his head, which he had the faculty of removing at pleasure, 
from his shoes covering his toes, and his footsteps leaving 
no impression of them, he was supposed to be devoid of 
these appendages; the singular weapon with which he was 
armed (a gun) vomiting out fire, smoke, and thunder, and 
the creature on which he was mounted (a horse), an animal 
never before seen, caused an additional dread. And he was 
generally shunned by the natives as a being not of this earth. 
Some kraals killed cattle on his approach as a peace-offer- 
