ascertain if they were willing to be hired. They answered without
hesitation that they would gladly engage themselves. On this,
I went to the landdrost and requested that I might be allowed to
have these men, instead of the five whom I had seen at his house;
and at the same time intimated that I had been informed by persons
who knew the characters of all of them, that the first set were not
such as I ought to trust myself with. His reply was, that he must
refer the matter to the heemraaden : which he would do on the following
Monday; that being the regular council-day. But in the mean
time, he assured me, that the men he had already given, were all
trustworthy people, and that, on the contrary, those whom I now
wished to hire, were some of the greatest scoundrels in the district.
One of these last Hottentots deserves to be particularly noticed.
He had been waggon-driver to Landdrost Stockenstrom, and since
his death, had continued to work at the drostdy. I ascertained that
his services were no longer required by that family, who spoke
favorably of his character, and that he was resolved if possible to add
himself to the number of my party. His name was Mli, a man of
whose good and invaluable qualities I was not at this time aware,
but who, during the three years and four months that he was constantly
with me, continued always to gain on my good opinion, and
prove by his fidelity, how fortunate I was in taking him into my
service. I shall not, in this place, say all that could be said in his
favor: as.I became gradually acquainted with his value, so shall his
character be gradually unfolded in the course of my journal. The
accompanying plate * presents both a portrait of his person, and a
correct likeness of his features; and I hope that the physiognomist
will not suffer himself to be misled by the want of European beauty
or proportions in a Hottentot face, to suppose that in Juli’s counte
« Plate 8. This portrait was drawn in August 1815; only a few days before,I
spiled from the .Caper hut'he still continued in my pay nearly two years longer; after
which he returned with his wife and child to Graaffreynet. He is here exhibited in his
usual dress; a blue cloth jacket, leathern trowsers, a cotton handkerchief round his head,
and another about his neck. It was by his own desire that he is represented holding
his musket; and the position is that in which he used to carry it when approaching any
wild animal.