SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

TEAMS,

Life in the Wilderness ; or Wanderings in South Africa. By Henry H. Methuen.

DIPLOMATIC COMMON'S:BST, Bentley. The Conquest of Scinde ; a Commentary. Part II. By Lieut.-Col. Outran', C.B., Resident at Sattarah Blackwood,. Ficnow, The Life of a Beauty ; a Novel. By the Author of "The Jilt," "The Breach of Pro- mise," Az. &c. In three volumes NeteOp. MISCELLANEOUS LITEEATURE,

Original Familiar Correspondence between Residents in India, including Sketches of

Java, &c Blackwood,.

MR. METHUEN'S WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Is a real book of travels. The traveller does not, indeed, like Mungo Park, explore unknown regions, exposed to robbery, slavery, continual peril, and imminent death ; or, like some distinguished men of science, traverse little-known countries, in order to enlarge the bounds of human knowledge. He was exposed to no greater peril than the accidents of frontier and Xafir travel; he did not penetrate so far as several other travellers have done towards the mysterious centre of Afr-ica; and the scientific knowledge of himself and his companions was very slender, reaching no further than the elements of natural history. Still, in com- parison with a shoal of tours in the other three quarters of the globe, Mr. Methnen's sporting excursion into the wilderness beyond the Eastern frontier of the Cape colony is a welcome volume. There is interest in the locomotion which depends upon your own good waggon and oxen, or the subsistence which is owing to natural pasture, water, and game. There is freshness and variety in the landscapes—now of mountain wild- ness' now, of desert waste and vastness, now of luxuriant vegetation ; each scene, too, animated by its own animal denizens in a state of nature, to see any one of which is a sight in Europe. The commonest incidents of the journey are scarcely trite, when the silence of the night is con- tinually broken by the roar of the lion, the laugh of the hytena, or the howl of the jackall ; and the greater occurrences involve interviews with men and monarchs quite an naturel, or the chaos of the giraffe, the hip- popotamus, "the lion, and the unicorn," not to mention inferior crea- tures,—which, however, include the croCodile, the buffalo, and some of the noblest or most beautiful animals of the deer and equine races. The traces of the elephant were followed ; but only a very young one re• warded the toils of Mr. Methuen or his friends ; neither was a hippo- potamus secured," though several were hit, and mortally in the opinion of "followers."

The main attraction of the book depends upon its subjects and their freshness. The composition of Mr. Methuen is, however, entitled to a share of the praise. His style is clear, agreeable, and moderately ani- mated. He has not the artistical skill, which, dropping all that is com- mon, and bringing the more striking objects closer together, produces a greater effect than >every-day Nature herself, without unnatural exag- geration. At the same time, some of his greater incidents often occur in a well-chosen locality; so that the description of the scenery and of the action are appropriate to each other, like the figures and landscape of a picture. It is a still greater merit that he has no verbosity, and little of _mere opinion in the gum of reflection; above all, there is no book-making, .or even undue expansion. He is silent as to his voyages, save in the case of a: striking incident, and says but little either of the Cape or of the Border district of which Graham's Town is the capital, though what he does say is to the purpose. This may be judgment, or experience; probably the latter ; for Mr. Methuen has made several voyages to the Cape, with a view to his health, which improving there, failed him on his return. The object of his last voyage was a permanent settlement ; but, after fixing his head-quarters at Graham's Town, and examining the district, he abandoned the plan of purchasing a farm. Before returning to England, he and three other Mends determined, in imitation of Major Harris, to make a sporting tour beyond the frontier. The narrative of their trip is contained in the pre- sent volume ; which contains little else, as the introductory matter is very brief. And though the journey did not extend so far as that of Harris, or involve so much of new tribes and wild exploit, we perhaps feel surer of Mr. Methuen's narrative—he has less of the writer about him. The trip occupied about eight months—from May to December 1844; the exact distance to which the party penetrated we do not know, for none of them could take an observation. " Their last camping-ground was near the juncture of the ALsriqua and Limpopo rivers; and Mr. Methuen thinks that he and a friend rode so far towards the North as to pass the 24th iegree of South latitude.

The changes of every day in life upon the march, in a new country, give much variety of subject to the narrative; which can only be felt by a perusal. Some of the larger topics may be exhibited by quotations.

NATIVE HUNTING AND GAME-TRAPS.

We had ridden within smile of the mountains, which, clad in wood at their bases., and intersected by dark ravines, formed with their rugged summits a most striking object, when we encountered some Bakatlas, armed with shields and as- segais. They talked very fast, and made many signs; from which we concluded that they knew where game was, and were desirous to lead us to it. Parties of men, however, shouting with stentorian lungs, issued from the bushes on all sides; a giraffe was seen striding rapidly away; presently a herd of quaggas, pallahs, gnoos, and ostriches, showed themselves. I shot a pallah and a quagga, right and left; but only obtained the horns of the former, the Natives having skinned the head. Fresh bodies of men, running and hallooing, burst in view, tin we were completely mystified on the subject. The quaggas turned back, and I rcde after

them; and then, by the hedges on each side of me . first discovered the object of the Natives and that I had entered within the limit of their game-traps Two

wattle hedges, of perhaps a mile in width at the entrance, contracted to a long narrow lane, about six feet in breadth, at their termination, where were two covered pit-falls, with a number of loose poles placed in parallel lines above each other, at either extremity of the pits, to prevent any creature escaping or pawing down the Boil. Noises thickened around me, and men rushed past, their skin-cloaks stream- ing in the wind; till, from their black naked figures and wild gestures it needed no Martin to imagine a pandemonium. I pressed hard upon the flying animals, and, galloping down the lane, savrthe pits choke-fait; while several of the-quaggas, noticing their danger, turned upon me, ears back and teeth showing, • compelling me to retreat with equal celerity from them. Some Natities standing hi the lane made the fugitives run the gauntlet with their assegais: as each quagga made a dash at them, they pressed their backs into the hedge, and held their broad ox- hide shields in his face' hurling their spears into his sides as he passed onward. One managed to burst through the hedge and escape; -the rest fell pierced with assegais, like so many porcupines. Men are often killed on these hunts when buffaloes turn back in a similar way. It was some little time before Bain and I could find a gap in the hedge, and get round to the pits; but we at length found one, and then a scene exhibited itself which baffles description. So full were the pits, that many animals had run over the bodies of their comrades, and got free. Never.can I forget that bloody, murderous spectacle; a moving, wriggling mass of quaggas, huddled and iatnmed together in the most inextricable confusion: some were on their backs, with their heels tip and others lying across them;' some had' taken a dive and only displayed their tails; all lay interlocked like a bucket full of eels. The sayages, frantic with excitement, yelled round them, thrusting their assegais with smiles of satisfaction into the upper ones, and leaving them to suffocate those beneath; evidently rejoicing lathe agony of their victims. Mose- leli, their chief, was there in person; and after the lapse of half an hour, the poles at the entrance of the pits being removed, the dead bodies, in all the con- tortions and stiffness of death, were drawn out by hooked stakes.secured through the main sinew ofthe neck; a rude song, with extemporary words, being chanted the while.

Vultures hovered over-head in anxious expectation of a feast; and Moseleli, who received us civilly and shook hands with us, sat in his leopard-skin- caress upon a dead qhigga recerang the congratulationanf his courtiers, for this flesh is a very favourite food with them. His appearance was mild, but undignified. We were in great luck to witness this sight, since it had been a royal hunt, such as the Highlanders practised of yore for the amusement of their chieftains. A large extent of country is encircled by men-on these occasions, who, narrowing to a centre, drive all the game enclosed within their ranks to the desired point. I counted twenty quaggas as they were being extracted from one pit, not more than

ten feet square and six feet deep. , - - -

- This is slaughter upon a large scale : yet the hunting of savages, how- ever destructive, does not seem to diminish the game or scare it from its haunts, still less to extinguish races. The European frontier Settler- never destroys upon this scale. Yet the axe, the plough, and the rifle, drive away the herds of wild animals, or the race perishes when its retreat is cut off. Is it merely the mere deadly arms which alarm as well as de- stroy ? or is it that the principle of wildness cannot Coexist with that of civilization ?

- The following gives an idea of the ,sufferings of. animals in that parched country from want of water; and of men too, if they do not adopt . the precaution of carrying it with them.

" Eight hours' journeying through deep-sand, on a. dead level, knocked up the oxen, without our finding water: they refused to eat, and only tired themselves by wandering.about ; so we fastened. thlftn. up to the waggons, and of necessity waited

the night. On the next morning, crawling: immense along with the wearied teams, we came to some round deep holes; containing an quantity of mud, but very little water. These are situated 'in a grassy hollow encircled by bush, and formed the site of a Bawangketsi • • " Numerous. trees, cut down and hacked about, and some old pit-falls, were the only vestiges of the village except the wells. -

" A trench was dug; thp oxen and horses crowding about us from the smell Of the water, which they were go terribly in want of, but could not reach; and, baring with some tin buckets, we gave each enough to keep them alive; driving. them up two at a time. Their eyeshact glazed look from anguish; and it waadistressmg to ration the poor creatures, though at the same time wholly indispensable. ' "Knowing that these wells must once have supplied water to numbers of men and cattle, we set all the Bechuanas .present to work with ropes, spades, and buckets, to clear out the mud, promising them a reward of beads; by which means an abundant supply of pure water, very slightly impregnated with sulphut, rose to a depth of four feet and upwards, a quantity more than adequate to satisfy all our wants."

THE WOUNDED BUFFALO.

Frolic left us seated by the fire, and-climbed the-hill-side; whence he espied a small herd of buffaloes in the thorns below him, and, quickly descending, informed us of the fact. Under his guidance, we proceeded cautiously to leeward, and found about twenty buffaloes lazily eating towards the water: their bodies were plastered with the mud in which they had been rolling—some looking half-red, others yel- low and others grey, according to the different natures of the soil where their baths had been. We were within eighty yards, but having little shelter were obliged to wait for better ground. At last we fired a volley from the dry banks of a periodical stream, and wounded our game; but they dived into some bushes, and, according to a maxim well known to sportsmen here, "never follow a wounded buffalo," we left them, and pursued the main body from which they had separated." There were no trees of any size which we could climb, excepting a few small wait-a-bit thorn trees, which tore our clothes in shreds. Balanced on the low boughs of one of these, I struck another ball; which ran towards the re port, his ears outstretched, his eyes moving in all directions, and his nose carried in a right line with the head, evidently bent upon revenge be passed within thirty yards of me, and was lost in the bush. Descending from my frail perch, Frolic again discovered this buffalo standing among some small thick bushes, which nearly hid him from view- his head was lowered; nuts muscle of his body moved, and he was, without doubt, listening intently. We crept noiselessly: to a bush, and, some twigs. intervening between his shoulder and the line of mm, I fired through them, and again had the satisfaction Of hearing the ball tell. The huge brute ran forwards up the wind, fortunately not in our direction, and stood stilt again. No good skreen being near, and his nose facing our way, prudence bade us wait patiently for a change in the state of affairs. Presently he lay gently down•' and, knowing that buffaloes are exceedingly cunning, and will adopt this plan merely to escape notice and entrap their persecutors, we drew near with great caution. I again fired through his shoUlder•' and; concluding from his not attempting to rise that he was helpless, we walked close up to him, and never can the scene which followed be erased from my memory. Turning his ponderous head round, his eye caught our figures: I fired the second bnrrel of my nfle behind his horns, but it did not reach the brain. Ilk wounds gave him some difficulty in getting up; which just affordel Monypenny and myself time to ensconce our- selves behind the slender shrubs that grew round the spot, while Frolic unwisely took to his heels. The buffalo saw him; and, uttering a continued unearthly noise, between a grunt and a bellow, advanced at a pace at which these unwieldy cres- t ices are rarely seen to run, unless stirred by revenge. Crashing through the low bushes, as if they were stubble, he passed me, but charged quite over Monypenny's lurking-place; who aimed at him at he came nit, and lodged the ball in the rocky mass of horn above his head. The buffalo was so near at the time of his firing, that the horns struck the gun-barrels at the next instant; but, whether the noise and smoke confused the animal, or he was partially stunned by the bullet, be missed my friend, and continued his pursuit of Frolic. It is impossible to describe what were our sensations at this time: though all the incidents here related occupied but a very little while, there was sufficient timeto reflect on and realize the greatness of our danger.

Frolic dodged- the enraged and terrific-looking brute round the bushes; but through these slight obstacles he dashed with ease, and gained ground rapidly. Speechless we watched the chase; and in the awful moment, regardless of conceal- ment, stood up, and saw the buffalo overtake his victim and knock him down. At this crisis, my friend fired his second barrel into the beast; which gave Frolic one or two blows with his fore-feet, and pushing his nose under endeavoured to toss him; but the Hottentot, aware of this, lay with much presence of mind perfectly still.

Monypenny now shouted to me, "The buffalo is coming!" and, in darting round a bush, I stumbled on my rifle, cutting my knee very badlj. This proved a false alarm, and directly after the buffalo fell dead by Frolic; who then rose and limped towards us. He was mach hurt, and a powder-flask which lay in his game- bag was stamped flat. The buffalo was too weak to use his full strength upon him,_ having probably exhausted all his remaining energy in the chase; otherwise the Hottentot would undoubtedly have been killed • since a man is safer even un- der the paws of a wounded lion than under the hea:d of an infuriated buffalo.

A HOTTENTOT FIGHT.

A great uproar, at the time when the oxen were being secured to the waggons for their night's rest, drew us frem the tent where we were seated; and there, to our surprise, we beheld a furious encounter between the two drivers, Piet and Lewis. There had long been a feeling of resentment and jealousy smouldering in their breasts, originating in Piet's being a sort of head-man, and receiving slightly higher wages. This being a fair illustration of the Hottentot combats which not unfrequently disgrace the streets of Graham's Town may be worth de- scribing. Grasping hold of each other's shoulders, they butted with their heads, endeavouring by superior quickness to Ming the grown of the head against their antagonist's nose; kicking violently, yelling, -separating for a few moments, and titillating each other's pencrania with yoke-keys, sticks, or anything they could lay hands on, then closing with redoubled ferocity:, as if death alone should part them.

Their shirts fell from their persons in strips, and blood flowed copiously. At length Piet was stunned by a blow, and fell; when Lewis commenced an oration over him. All this occupied but a few minutes; and our efforts to stop the fight at once were ineffectual; for, exasperated by mutual reproaches, with passions that never knew restraint and had now full scope given them, they were as frantic as madmen, and, by every angry gesture and word, testified their unmitigated hatred of each other; their mouths foaming with rage. Piet, recovering from his stupor, rushed to the waggons, and, taking a loaded gun, was going to settle the ques- tion in a very summary way; upon which we wrested it from his hands and dis- charged it in the air: in the next place we lashed him and Lewis to the waggon- wheel., till their senses returned, where for half-an-hour they fought with abusive words. Two days had barely elapsed before these men were seemingly as good friends as they ever were.

"THE NOBLE SAVAGE." AT HOME.

The tent was soon crowded to suffocation, many creeping under the waggons to get a peep at us. They readily comprehended pictures, and talked vehemently about them, especially one of a Matabili warrior, in Major Harris's work: they were also very eager and clamorous to see the portrait of the redotibted Mosele- katze their dreaded foe. Many of this tyrant's warriors, knowing that death awaited them on their return from an unsuccessful engagement, have deserted their chief, and been enlisted into other tribes: one of these men now acted as our interpreter, speaking to us through Biveit, who was conversant with the Matabili language. Sichele [the chief] overhauled all our guns, and, selecting Bain's monster of four to the pound, desired to purchase it. In yam was he told that the piece was on the percussion principle, while aunt gun of the rudest construction was the only kind he had ever before seen or used. He insisted on trying it; and the gun was purposely over-loaded, that he might relinquish his attempts to buy it. Sitting down, he took a deliberate shot at an ant-hill, and hit it; a token of skill which his tribe greeted with loud acclathation. His stoulder had received a severe blow; but, imputing this to the strengthuf the gun, he Was the more eager to obtain it and departed very sulky at its being_denW-him. * * * Another royal visit—at the termination of which we were congratulating our- selves, when the whole seraglio, consisting -of five queens, entered our tent, oc:- cupied every, chair, and, .with the most unbecoming effrontery, began begging. We made their highnesses many presents, and received in exchange from them some soiled bead bracelets. One of the queens, the favourite, and therefore the most incommoded with bangles, beads, and finery, was a Mantatee, and probably stolen property. Another of them was Sobiqua's the Bawangketsi chief s queen, and was forcibly abstracted by Sichele while she was on a journey: she, however, looked very happy.

shirts, stockings, trousers, and coats, have been given to Sichele, to rid our- selves of his importunity; which he will wear merely from vanity, to his own great discomfort, and to the detraction of his really fine appearance in native costume.

Bain and myself having been politely requested to visit his Majesty in his royal residence, we proceeded thither, and found him seated on the ground in his coda, or public court, with a queen reclining near him on an ox-hide. Aware that we were not accustomed to this mode of sitting, they with great courtesy handed to me an inverted bowl, and a wooden pillow to Bam.

Many wood-cuts are inserted in the page—portraits of game, with a few sketches of wild men ; and if these are the work of Mr. Methuen, they show that he can handle the pencil as well as the pen, or better. The horns and heads of the animals are full of character : the two drunken Hottentots, at pp. 24-25, have life and action as well, especially the Black bacchante with her pipe.