SOUTHERN AFRICA. 397 
in one situation for such a length of time, that they appeared 
to be sunk into the leg, the niuscie being tumefied both above 
and below the rings. The poor creature was so benumbed and 
oppressed with the weight, that, being unable to walk with ease, 
lie crawled on the ground. It appeared, on inquiry, that they 
had been rivetted to his legs more than ten months ago. What 
was to be done in a case of such wanton and deliberate cru- 
elty ? It was scarcely in human nature to behold an innocent 
boy for ever maimed in so barbarous a manner ; and at the 
same time to look upon the cold blooded perpetrator without 
feeling a sentiment of horror mingled with exasperation, — a 
sentiment that seemed to say it would serve the cause of hu- 
manity to rid the world of such a monster. The fellow shrunk 
from the inquiries of the indignant General ; he had nothing to 
allege against him but that he had always been a worthless 
boy ; he had lost him so many sheep ; he had slept when he 
ought to watch the cattle, and such like frivolous charges of 
a negative kind, the amount of which, if true, only proved that 
his own interest had sometimes been neglected by this child. 
Determined to make an example of the author of such un- 
paralleled brutality, the General ordered him instantly to yoke 
his oxen to his waggon, and, placing the boy by his side, to 
drive directly to head-quarters. Here he gave orders to the 
farrier of the 8th regiment of Light Dragoons to strike off the 
irons from the boy, an operation that required great nicety and 
attention, and to clench them as tight as he could on the legs 
of his master, who roared and bellowed in a most violent man- 
ner, to the inexpressible satisfaction of the by-standers, and, 
above all, to that of the little sufferer just relieved from tor- 
