name?" inquired Swinton.

"Bess," replied the chief.

"This is very confirmatory," said Alexander; "my aunt's name was
Elizabeth; she must have called her child after herself."

"Whom did your mother marry?"

"She first married my uncle, and had no children; and then she married
my father; both were chiefs, and I am a chief; she had five children by
my father."

[Illustration: THE CAFFRE CHIEF. P. 195.]

A long conversation took place after this, the substance of which we may
as well communicate to our reader in few words. From the children of
Kuma, supposed to be Elizabeth, the aunt of Alexander, were produced
a numerous race of the European blood, who were celebrated in
the Caffre land for their courage; they were continually engaged in war,
as their alliance was eagerly sought, and in consequence had nearly all
perished. Daaka himself was renowned for warlike exploits, but he was
now a very old man. In the evening the chief took his leave, and went to
his own hut.

As soon as they were alone, Alexander said to Swinton, "I have now so
far fulfilled my promise to my worthy relation that I have seen this
descendant of his child; but what am I to do? An old man like him is not
very likely to consent to go to England, and as for his sister Bess, he
states that she is equally infirm; the progeny of the rest of the family
are scattered about, and he himself knows nothing about them; to collect
them would be impossible, and if collected, equally impossible to remove
them, for they would not leave. My old relative fancies, in his mind's
eye, his daughter weeping over her captivity, and longing to be restored
to her country and her relations; still retaining European feelings and
sympathies, and miserable in her position; her children brought up by
her with the same ideas, and some day looking forward to their
emancipation from this savage state of existence: I think if he were
here, and saw old Daaka, he would soon divest himself of all these
romantic ideas."

"I think so too; but there is one thing which has struck me very
forcibly, Alexander, which is, if this Daaka is the son of your aunt how
comes it that he is so old? When was the _Grosvenor_ lost?"

"In the year 1782."

"And we are now in 1829. Your aunt you stated to have been ten or twelve
years old at the time of the wreck. Allowing her to marry at the
earliest age, Daaka could not well be more than forty-eight years old;
and surely he is more than that.