148 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
the neck of a bottle, a few lucifers and a heap of 
tobacco, and, amid all this wretchedness, this poor 
fellow (a thorough Irishman) trying to seem happy, 
and he said he often laughed to himself to think, in 
case of a fire, what a small sufferer he would be. 
He almost exists on tobacco, and assures me that he 
often does not eat for several days together — yet 
he talks of his father’s (the Hon.-) rent-roll, 
12,546/. 9s. 3 d. per annum ; but I think he is slightly 
deranged. That is the second instance only of abject 
poverty that I have met with in this colony. 
Treked on to a Dutchman of the name of Yessell 
Bartness last night, through a beautiful country of 
dense thornwood, quite a relief to the eye after the 
endless plains we have come through. This is truly 
a sweet spot, a lovely stream meandering through 
thorn covered with water-cresses, a magnificent 
orchard, and the oranges and lemon trees covered 
now, in the middle of winter, with delicious fruit, 
but I thought to-day I had come nearly to the end 
of civilisation when I was offered half a farm, 3,000 
acres, in exchange for a plough. Joubert shot two 
springbucks yesterday with one bullet. 
14:th [Sunday ).— One of the finest days I ever 
beheld. This is certainly the finest climate in the 
world, at this season of the year. We have now had 
six or seven weeks of uninterrupted lovely weather, 
and every prospect of a long continuance; I took a 
stroll to-day, and had a beautiful view, and thought 
of home and friends, and the chances of my ever 
