“CHARLEY,” 
A HALF-CASTE KAFIR BOY AT NATAL. 
“ In the pool of guanas the herd-boy is gazing.” 
Pringle. 
In all parts of the world, but more especially in British colonies, wherever an aboriginal race is found in contact 
with Europeans, we meet with a half-caste race, which is very frequently an improvement upon the original stock, and 
often exhibits considerable personal beauty. Amongst the Natal Kafirs I have seen many half-castes between Dutch and 
English and Kafir women; and in one instance I met with an entire family of nine or ten children, the offspring of 
one of the earliest settlers by his marriage with a Zulu woman, a relative of the king; they reminded me of the New 
Zealanders, both in colour and personal appearance. 
The boy “ Charley,” whose portrait is here given on the accompanying Plate, is an orphan, son of one of the English 
sailors who came to Natal some years back with Lieut. Farewell. His parents being both dead, he was brought up by 
his relations in one of the kraals on the coast, and shortly before my sketch was made, the Rev. Mr. Lindley (one of 
the excellent American missionaries who are labouring amongst the Zulus) took him under his care at Inanda, with a 
view of educating him. The poor little fellow was as ignorant and wild as the goats he drove out to their daily pastures, 
but with a sweet and amiable disposition, that only required education to mould it at will. 
The flowers introduced into the sketch are the Natal lily ( amaryllis ) and the blue lotus, which is so great an 
ornament to the African rivers. Beyond are those tall sedgy reeds that constantly occur on the margin of the water, 
with a euphorbium tree in the distance, shewing its candelabra-shaped branches. 
