se of the warlike operations against the Zulus.

[Illustration: "POOR CAVAGNARI."]

There are many Hindoos engaged on the Natal sugar plantations, and in
that particularly one-horse Colony, every native of India is known
indiscriminately by the term of "coolie." John, it is true, was a native
of India, but he was no "coolie"; he could read, write, and speak
English, and was altogether a superior person. I would not take him up
country to be bullied and demeaned as a "coolie," and I made for him an
arrangement with the proprietor of my hotel that during my absence John
should help to wait in his restaurant. During the Zulu campaign I was
abominably served by a lazy Africander and a lazier St. Helena boy. When
Ulundi was fought, and Cetewayo's kraal was burned, I was glad to return
to Durban, and take passage for India. John, I found, had during my
absence become one of the prominent inhabitants of Durban. He had now
the full charge of the hotel restaurant--he was the centurion of the
dinner-table, with men under him, to whom he said "do this," and they
did it. His skill in dishes new to Natal, especially in curries, had
crowded the restaurant, and the landlord had taken the opportunity of
raising his tariff. He came to me privily, and said frankly that John
was making his fortune for him, that he was willing to give him a share
in his business in a year's time if he would but stay, and meantime was
ready to pay him a stipend of twenty dollars a week. The wages at which
John served me, and I had been told I was paying him extravagantly, was
eleven dollars a month. I told the landlord that I should not think of
standing in the way of my man's prosperity, but would rather influence
him in favour of an opportunity so promising. Then I sent for John,
explained to him the hotel-keeper's proposal, and suggested that he
should take time to think the matter over. John wept. "I no stay here,
master, not if it was hundred rupees a day! I go with master; I no stop
in Durban!" Nothing would shake his resolve, and so John and I came to
England together.

[Illustration: "JOHN BEHAVED MAGNIFICENTLY."]

The only thing John did not like in England was that the street boys
insisted on regarding him as a Zulu, and treating him contumeliously
accordingly. His great delight was when I went on a round of visits to
country houses, and took him with me as valet. Then he was the hero of
the servants' hall. I will not say that he lied, but from