ise Africa. I do not say _South_ Africa,
but advisedly use the title of wider scope.

It is not every day that one can boast of having handled a tumbler full
of diamonds. Being anxious to see a mass of those precious gems in an
uncut condition, I appealed to a friend who had come out with me in the
"Windsor Castle."

He introduced me to a broker, who took me into a back office, opened a
strong-box, took out a small packet, and, untying it, poured out a
tumblerful of diamonds! They ranged from the size of a pin-head to that
of a bean, and were varied in shade, from pure crystal to straw-colour.
The broker then opened one or two separate parcels, each of which
contained a specially large or fine diamond, varying in size from a pea
to a hazelnut.

"That one," he said, "may be worth four hundred pounds, and this,
perhaps about five or six hundred."

Looking at them, it was difficult to believe that they were other than
paltry pebbles; yet these were the things for which men left home and
kindred, pushed into the wilds of a savage land, toiled and moiled in
the Great Pit at Kimberley, and too often sacrificed health, happiness,
and life itself. Judging them from their looks, I would not have given
sixpence for the entire lot--so true is it that we do wrong in judging
uncut gems, as well as unknown men, by the "outward appearance."

A very striking, and rather unfortunate instance of this false style of
judgment occurred not many days afterwards in reference to some Kafir
princes and chiefs: it was on the occasion of my quitting Port Elizabeth
for Capetown.

We were to have started on a Saturday afternoon, but a gale said "no,"
and we left on Sunday morning. Even then, although the gale had abated,
a surf so magnificent was rolling into Algoa Bay that no ship's boat
could approach the jetty. This obliged the passengers to go off to the
steamer in a surf-boat. Of course the boat could not approach nearer
the dry sand than fifty yards or so. There she heaved about in oceans
of boiling foam, while Kafirs carried us on board one by one. The
Kafirs bore the women in their strong arms as children are carried, and
put them over the gunwale tenderly, but the men were made to sit on
their shoulders, as one sits on horseback, and were treated with less
ceremony. A giant in ebony carried me off, and trotted as he went, to
the delight of some of his comrades; but I was accustomed to riding, and
patted his black head appr