104 
had is certainly very good ; but beyond this I do not see 
much in the country, either looking at its resources or its 
appearance, to tempt people to settle in it, especially if 
much is like the district we have been travelling through : 
barren, unhealthy for man, and fatal to any beast-^of 
burden, being infested with the Tsetse fly" in all 
directions. All this mortality amongst domestic animals 
is attributed to the bites of this fly, which is not much 
larger, though a little longer than the house fly, and of 
the same colour. It seems to me extraordinary that this 
fly, which bit us most energetically and the Caffres too, 
should be able to kill a horse, or ox, or donkey; and, 
further, we see the bufl'alo, eland, zebra, gnu, and other 
kinds of game, akin to the domestic animals, flourishing 
in the midst of the ^'fly country." I believe some 
travellers have been of late rather shaken in the hitherto 
general belief in the destructiveness of this fly, and have 
inclined to think, which seems more reasonable, that 
domestic animals cannot live in the country where the 
fly abounds, owing to the climate, or a malaria, which is 
indeed suitable to the fly, but of an unhealthy nature for 
animals unacclimatized to it, though not so for the wild 
animals living under different conditions, and thoroughly 
inured to the climate. 
The Caffres also, even in the more civilized portions of 
Natal and the Transvaal, seem incapable of much im- 
provement. The farmers experience great di£S.culty in 
getting hands to till their farms; and a Caffre labourer 
requires the most constant supervision, as, if left to him- 
self, he is sure to choose the wrong, if there be two ways 
of doing a job. These Caffres are a very odd mixture, 
both in disposition, morality, and physical powers. Those, 
for instance, who went with us possessed the quality of 
honesty, in my opinion, to a great degree; they had 
endless chances of pilfering small things, but nothing was 
