rusoe blood in one's veins is stirred by such a
diary! Truly I sometimes almost regret that I was not born to become a
pioneer settler in the African wilds!

However, it is some comfort to have the privilege of paying a flying
visit to these same wilds, which in many respects are quite as wild now
as they were then. The lions, elephants, quaggas, and some others of
the large game, it is true, have taken themselves off to remoter wilds,
but the leopards, hyenas, baboons, antelopes, still inhabit these
kloofs, while snakes, scorpions, and the like are as plentiful as ever.

Talking of baboons reminds me that these creatures are said to sleep
sometimes on a ledge of rock on the face of a precipice for security
against lurking foes. I was assured that sometimes a row of them may be
seen in such a situation sitting sound asleep, with their faces in their
hands, against the precipice, and their tails hanging over the ledge.
Of course I do not vouch for the truth of such reports. I am answerable
only for what I profess to have seen.

The highest type of monkey suggests the lowest type of man in Africa.
This is the Bushman, or, as the Dutch have it, Bosjesman. He is a
branch of the Hottentot race, and a very miserable, stunted branch;
nevertheless he is very far indeed removed from the baboon. He has no
tail, for certain; at least if he has, he conceals it effectually. He
wears garments, which no monkey does, and he speaks, which no monkey
ever did.

No thanks to the white man, however, if the poor Bushman is not a baboon
with the spirit of a tiger, for he has been most shamefully treated in
time past. It is true the Bushmen were arrant thieves, and committed
great havoc among the frontier farmers at various times, and it was both
natural and right that these farmers should defend their homes and
property. But it was neither right nor natural that these unfortunate
natives should have been so cruelly dealt with.

When the Scotch party settled at Glen Lynden, their troubles with
wild-beast pilferers were augmented occasionally by the appearance of
Bosjesman-thieves.

"In the beginning of October," writes Mr Pringle, "we were somewhat
alarmed by the discovery of a band of predatory Bushmen, lurking among
the rocks and caverns of the wild mountains between us and the valley of
the Tarka. Lieutenant Pettingal, an officer of engineers, who was then
in our valley, engaged in the Government survey of the country,
disc