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 daughter of a datoo well then, I am certain that she had no claim to such imperfection; and yet I saw her fall into the water in a shipwreck just like another. I, a man, had to help her to land.”

“But ought she to have flown like a sea-mew?”

“Certainly or, no she ought not to have had a body. Would you have me tell you how I became acquainted with her? It was in ’42, I was Controller at Natal. Have you been there, Verbrugge?”

“Yes.”

“Now then, then you know that pepper is cultivated at Natal. The pepper-grounds are situated at Taloh-Baleh, north of Natal, near the coast. I had to inspect them, and having no knowledge of pepper, I took with me in the pirogue (prakoe) a datoo—some one who knew more about it than I. His daughter, then a child of thirteen years, went with us. We sailed along the coast and found it very wearisome.”

“And then you were shipwrecked?”

“No, it was fine weather the shipwreck happened many years afterwards; otherwise I should not have been weary. We sailed along the coast, and it was fearfully hot. Such a pirogue gives little occasion for relaxation, and, moreover, I was then in a very bad humour, to which