146 TRAVELS IN 
more agreeable, had it been conveyed direct!} , instead of 
through the medium of a Hottentot interpreter. It was not 
long before Gaika, the king, made his appearance riding 
on an ox in full gallop, attended by five or six of his people. 
Our business commenced with little ceremony under the 
shade of a spreading mimosa. He requested that we might 
all be seated in a circle on the ground, not as any mark 
of civility on his part, but that it might the more dis- 
tinctly be heard what each party had to say. The manner, 
however, in which he received us sufficiently marked the 
pleasure he derived from the visit : of the nature of this he 
was already aware, and entered immediately upon the subject, 
by expressing the satisfaction he felt in having an opportunity 
of explaining to us that none of the KafFers who had passed 
the boundary established between the two nations were to be 
considered as his subjects : he said they were chiefs as well 
as himself, and entirely independent of him ; but that his 
ancestors had always held the first rank in the country, 
and their supremacy had been acknowledged on all occa- 
sions by the colonists : that all those Kaffers and their 
chiefs, who had at any time been desirous to enter under the 
protection of his family, had been kindly received; and 
that those who chose rather to remain independent had 
been permitted to do so, without being considered in the 
light of enemies. He then informed us, that his father died, 
and left him, when very young, under the guardianship of 
Zambie, one of his first chiefs and own brother, who had 
acted as regent during his minority ; but that having refused 
to resign to him his right on coming at years of discretion, 
his fathers friends had shewed themselves in his favor, and 
2 
