creature came in a pair of blue spectacles and riding on a mule, for he
dared not trust himself to a horse. Afterwards, when the child woke up
from his long sleep, and had been fed and dressed, the tutor spoke with
him in that ugly English tongue of which I could never even bear the
sound, and this was the story that he drew from him.

It seems that the boy, who gave his name as Ralph Kenzie, though I
believe that really it was Ralph Mackenzie, was travelling with his
father and mother and many others from a country called India, which is
one of those places that the English have stolen in different parts
of the world, as they stole the Cape and Natal and all the rest. They
travelled for a long while in a big ship, for India is a long way off,
till, when they were near this coast, a storm sprang up, and after the
wind had blown for two days they were driven on rocks a hundred miles or
more away from our stead. So fierce was the sea and so quickly did the
ship break to pieces that only one boat was got out, which, except for
a crew of six men, was filled with women and children. In this boat
the boy Ralph and his mother were given a place, but his father did
not come, although the captain begged him, for he was a man of some
importance, whose life was of more value than those of common people.
But he refused, for he said that he would stop and share the fate of
the other men, which shows that this English lord, for I think he was
a lord, had a high spirit. So he kissed his wife and child and blessed
them, and the boat was lowered to the sea, but before another could be
got ready the great ship slipped back from the rock upon which she hung
and sank (for this we heard afterwards from some Kaffirs who saw it),
and all aboard of her were drowned. May God have mercy upon them!

When it was near to the shore the boat was overturned, and some of those
in it were drowned, but Ralph and his mother were cast safely on the