42 



Gogga Brown 



because a caricature, even if somewhat malicious, 

 is not without its value for the way in which it 

 exaggerates characteristics good and bad, consider 

 this contemporary picture of Brown. It appeared 

 in the Aliwal Pioneer in 1861, under the heading 

 " Sketches of men, institutions and manners," 

 and purporting to have been written by Brown 

 himself, proceeds as follows : 



M The first in order is myself, Horatio, my 

 height is about five ells from the soles to the top 

 of my wide-awake. My hair is brown, my clothes 

 are brown, my face, nose and hands appear as if 

 I had been done brown somewhere and by some- 

 thing. My gait is quick and business-like, and 

 my eyes are ever in the heavens, unless a flying 

 Dutchman or fossil extraordinary trips on my 

 path. 



" When spoken to, my eyes (green as they ever 

 are) are directed to my Chinese hookers, and I 

 make it a rule to coincide in all that is said, let 

 it be good, bad or indifferent. Although devoted 

 in my calling as Secretary of the League, curiosity 

 invariably leads me into many dangers. Some- 

 times I stand chin-high in the Orange River, then 

 ford it by climbing those fearful precipices ; then 

 angling for reptiles, then hewing rocks for fossil 

 remains of Bushmen, toads and lizards, and after 

 this dreaming horrible and nasty dreams. I use 



