The emancipation law, passed by the British Government, extended not only to the Negroes of the West India Islands, but also to the Hottentots of the Cape; and the result of it was that the servants of Mynheer Von Bloom had deserted him.

His cattle, no longer properly cared for, had strayed off.

Some of them fell a prey to wild beasts--some died of the _murrain_.

His horses, too, were decimated by that mysterious disease of Southern Africa, the "horse-sickness;" while his sheep and goats were continually being attacked and diminished in numbers by the earth-wolf, the wild hound, and the hyena.

A series of losses had he suffered until his horses, oxen, sheep, and goats, scarce counted altogether an hundred head.