ds of four months for an answer to a Cape
letter to England to be received, and about the same time for a letter
sent to India to be answered and received at the Cape. I did not
remember my uncle's address in England, so that it would be impossible
to communicate with him; nor did I know in what part of India my father
was, but as he was well-known at Delhi, I believed that a letter sent
there would be forwarded to him.

On the following day the captain decided to leave Natal and start for
the Cape. The wind was in our favour, and we sailed westward, our
course carrying us about twenty miles from the coast. I remained on
deck watching the old familiar localities and pointing out to the
captain the various rivers and headlands. Just before dark we were
opposite the rocks where I was wrecked, and the captain took some
observations and marked on his map the exact spot.

During the next two or three days I passed an hour or so each day,
giving the captain an account of the wreck, and of what occurred
afterwards; he wrote down what I told him, and, having made a sort of
history of this, he then read it over to me, asking me if it were all
correct.

He said, the loss of the ship had caused great excitement in England, he
remembered, at the time; but when no news came, and a ship sent from the
Cape to search could gain no intelligence, it was concluded that she had
gone down in the storm, between the Mauritius and the Cape, and of
course it was expected every one had been drowned.

We had a fair wind all the way down to Simon's Bay, and accomplished the
voyage in six days. As soon as we had anchored, the captain went on
shore to visit the admiral, and I was left on the ship. In about an
hour one of the officers came to me and said a signal had been sent from
the admiral to say that I was to go on shore to the admiral's house. A
boat was provided, and I was soon pulled on shore.

Although I had led the life of a savage since my shipwreck, and had
gained no experience of what is called polite society, yet the dangers
through which I had passed had given me self-dependence; and the calm,
dignified behaviour of the chiefs, both among the Zulus and the
Umzimvubus, had given me an insight into the proper way of conducting
myself. When, then, I was taken by the captain before the admiral I was
not flurried as some youngsters might have been, but very cool and calm.
The admiral examined me critically, and then said--

"