BOER SETTLERS 
37 
CH. Il] 
sense, for they were many miles apart. The Hills— 
Clifford and Harold—were Africanders ; they knew the 
country, and were working hard and doing well; and in 
the midst of their work they spared the time to do their 
full part in insuring a successful hunt to me, an entire 
stranger. All the settlers I met treated me with the 
same large and thoughtful courtesy—and what fine 
fellows they were ! and their wives even finer. At 
Bondini was Percival, a tall sinewy man, a fine rider 
and shot; like so many other men whom I met, he 
wore merely a helmet, a flannel shirt, short breeches or 
trunks, and puttees and boots, leaving the knee entirely 
bare. I shall not soon forget seeing him one day, as he 
walked beside his twelve-ox team, cracking his long 
whip, while in the big waggon sat pretty Mrs. Percival 
with a puppy and a little cheetah cub, which we had 
found and presented to her, and which she was taming. 
They all—Sir Alfred, the Hills, everyone—behaved as 
if each was my host and felt it peculiarly incumbent on 
him to give me a good time ; and among these hosts 
one who did very much for me was Captain Arthur 
Slatter. I was his guest at Kilimakiu, where he was 
running an ostrich-farm ; he had lost his right hand, yet 
he was an exceedingly good game shot, both with his 
light and his heavy rifles. 
At Kitanga, Sir Alfred’s place, two Boers were 
working, Messrs. Prinsloo and Klopper. We fore¬ 
gathered, of course, as I, too, was of Dutch ancestry. 
They were strong, upstanding men, good mechanics, 
good masons, and Prinsloo spoke English well. I 
afterward stopped at the farm of Klopper’s father, and 
at the farm of another Boer named Loijs; and I met 
other Boers while out hunting — Erasmus, Botha, 
Joubert, Meyer. They were descendants of the Voor- 
