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Updated: June 18, 2025
"Yes," replied Daaka, "her skin was white as yours; her hair was just like yours, long and dark; but before she died it was quite white." "What was your mother's name?" "Kuma," replied the chief. "Had you any brothers and sisters?" "Yes, I had; I have one sister alive now." "What is her name?" inquired Swinton. "Bess," replied the chief.
Having obtained these satisfactory documents, they made a handsome present to Daaka and the other Caffres, and immediately set out upon their return to the waggons.
Allowing her to marry at the earliest age, Daaka could not well be more than forty-eight years old; and surely he is more than that." "He looks much older, certainly; but who can tell the age of a savage, who has been living a life of constant privation, and who has been so often wounded as his scars show that he has been? Wounds and hardship will soon make a man look old."
My old relative fancies, in his mind's eye, his daughter weeping over her captivity, and longing to be restored to her country and her relations; still retaining European feelings and sympathies, and miserable in her position; her children brought up by her with the same ideas, and some day looking forward to their emancipation from this savage state of existence: I think if he were here, and saw old Daaka, he would soon divest himself of all these romantic ideas."
"I think so too; but there is one thing which has struck me very forcibly, Alexander, which is, if this Daaka is the son of your aunt how comes it that he is so old? When was the Grosvenor lost?" "In the year 1752." "And we are now in 1829. Your aunt you stated to have been ten or twelve years old at the time of the wreck.
"But here come some of the oxen; I hope we shall be able to start early on Monday. The native Caffres say that the wagons can not proceed much further." "No, not further than to the banks of the Umtata River: but you will then be not a great way from your destination. Daaka is the chief's name, is it not?" "Yes, that is his name; and if he is as supposed to be, he is my first cousin.
The chief entered the hut soon afterwards, and took his seat; the interpreter was sent for, and the conversation was begun by Daaka, who, like most of the Caffre chiefs, with the hope of obtaining presents, stated himself to be very poor, his cattle to be all dying, and his children without milk.
How much more fortunate those who never gained the shore." "Yes, indeed," replied Swinton; "except the eight who reached the Cape, and the five that Daaka asserts were saved, all the rest must have perished in that dreadful manner." Alexander remained for some time in painful thought; at last he turned to Daaka and said, as he pointed to the remains of the wreck, "And this then is your mother?"
Our readers may imagine the impatience of Alexander while the questions of Swinton were being answered, and by which it appears that Daaka's mother was lost at the mouth of the Lauwanbaz, a small river some miles to the eastward of the Zemsooboo. An old Caffre, who had come down with Daaka, now gave a particular account of the wreck of the Grosvenor, corroborating all Daaka's assertions.
The bellowing of the cattle and noise of the calves soon directed them to the spot, and they entered a kraal consisting of several very wretched huts. On inquiring for Daaka, a woman pointed out a hut at a little distance, and, as they dismounted and walked up, he came out to meet them.
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