… and was sent for a period of two years to the Cape Colony to recover from recurring fevers. Also aboard the three-masted Indiaman Buckinghamshire to Africa was another shikari, lawyer and reputed foxhunter William Richardson of the Bombay Civil Service. By the end of the 11-week voyage, the two had agreed to set out together, with the “intention of penetrating as far into the interior of Africa as my limited leave would permit,” wrote Harris.
When they started out from Cape Town on July 2, sailing east in a small schooner 425 miles to Port Elizabeth, people shook their heads at “the impossibility of two poor ‘Indian gentlemen,’ who had been only three weeks in the colony, achieving alone and unassisted amongst savage nations in South Africa, a long and perilous journey...” Their safari, which counted 11 mostly unruly “Hottentots,” 69 oft-dying oxen, a dozen overextended horses, and a diminishing flock of sheep, lasted until May 31, 1837.
Harris’s game bag consisted of “two perfect crania of every species of game quadruped to be found in Southern
