CROSS THE TUGELA. 
31 
turpentine and oil, their infallible remedy for bruises. 
Their beautifully formed, delicate, diminutive hands, 
ancles, wrists, and feet, a marked feature in all 
Hottentots, presented a singular contrast to their 
repulsive monkey-like faces. 
216^.—We got as far as the Umvoti, where we 
joined Gassiot’s wagon, which had been waiting our 
arrival for three weeks; treked on some six miles, 
with four wagons and a host of Kaffirs^ Hottentots, 
men, women, and children of all sorts, colours, and 
sizes, who, having got possession of a case of gin 
that Gibson had in his wagon, spent the most noisy, 
quarrelsome, abusive night I ever witnessed. 
On the 22nd we crossed the Tugela, the boun¬ 
dary of the colony, half a mile wide, without 
accident, the river being very low, and treked on 
about four miles, where we met Mr. Clifton of 
Lytham, a lieutenant in the Bifie Brigade, who was 
also on a hunting trip, and had been waiting our 
arrival some days. He was at a low ebb ; a friend 
of his, Mr. Fletcher, having just been killed by a 
cow-elephant, which they were about to shoot, 
when it charged and killed Mr. Fletcher before a 
shot had been fired. This was the first they had 
seen; rather an unfortunate beginning. Mr. Fletcher 
had only been a few days in the colony. 
On the 23rd we crossed the Matakoola, and out- 
spanned four miles beyond. The following morning 
White, Gibson, Steele, and myself mounted at sun¬ 
rise, in quest of elands. We fell in with a herd of 
