icles of varied shape and character.
I was mounted on a smart brown pony kindly lent by Mr Shaw, teacher of
the flourishing school of Salem. My friend Caldecott bestrode a
powerful steed suited to his size. When the gathering had reached
considerable proportions, we started like an Eastern caravan.

Among the cavaliers there were stalwart men and fair damsels--also
little boys and girls, prancing in anxiety to get away. There were
carts, and gigs, and buggies, or things that bore some resemblance to
such vehicles, in which were the more sedate ones of the gathering; and
there were great "Cape wagons," with fifteen or twenty oxen to each,
containing whole families--from hale old "grannies" down to grannies'
weaknesses in the shape of healthy lumps of live lard clad in amazement
and bibs. It was a truly grand procession, as, after toiling up the
slope that leads from the valley of Salem, we debouched upon the wide
plain, and assumed our relative positions--that is, the riders dashed
away at speed, the carts and buggies, getting up steam, pushed on, and
the oxen trailed along at their unalterable gait, so that, in a few
minutes, the dense group spread into a moving mass which gradually drew
itself out into an attenuated line, whereof the head ultimately became
invisible to the tail.

My tall host led the way with enthusiastic vigour. He was a hearty,
earnest man, who could turn quickly from the pleasant contemplation of
the trivialities of life to the deep and serious consideration of the
things that bear on the life to come.

One Sunday I rode over the plains with him to visit a native church in
which it was his duty to conduct worship. The congregation was black
and woolly-headed--Hottentots chiefly, I believe, though there may have
been some Kafirs amongst them.

There is something very attractive to me in the bright, eager, childlike
look of black men and women. The said look may be the genuine
expression of feeling--it may be, for aught I can tell, the result of
contrast between the dazzling whites of eyes and teeth, with
liquid-black pupils and swarthy cheeks,--but that does not alter the
fact that it is pleasant.

The Hottentot who translated my friend's discourse, sentence by
sentence, was a fine specimen--I won't say of his race, but of humanity.
He was full of intelligence and fire; caught the preacher's meaning
instantly, riveted with his glittering eye the attention of his
audience, and rattled out