“Is not that the vessel which your mother was lost in?” said Swinton, through the interpreter.
“No,” replied Daaka; “my mother came on shore in a vessel up the little river out there; I was a boy when this large ship was wrecked; and got some iron from her to make assaguays.”
“Merciful heaven! what joy I feel; I trust it is true what he says.”
“I have no doubt of it, Wilmot; I told you he was too old a man,” replied Swinton; “but let me question him further.”
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.
“Were there none of the Grosvenor’s people left in the country?” inquired Swinton.
“None,” replied the old man; “they all went to the southward.”
“Did you hear what became of them?”
“Some lay down and died, some fought the natives and were killed; the wolves ate the rest; not one left alive; they all perished.”
“Were none of the women and children saved and kept as slaves?”