CHARACTER OF THE OVERLANDERS.

The Overlanders are nearly all men in the prime of youth, whose occupation it is to convey large herds of stock from market to market and from colony to colony.  Urged on by the hope of profit, they have overcome difficulties of no ordinary kind, which have made the more timid and weak-hearted quail, and relinquish the enterprises in which they were engaged; whilst the resolute and undaunted have persevered, and the reward they have obtained is wealth, self-confidence in difficulties and dangers, and a fund of accurate information on many interesting points.  Hence almost every Overlander you meet is a remarkable man.

The Overlanders are generally descended from good families, have received a liberal education (Etonians and Oxonians are to be found amongst them) and even at their first start in the colonies were possessed of what is considered an independence.  Their grandfathers and fathers have been men distinguished in the land and sea service of their country; and these worthy scions of the ancient stock, finding no outlet for their enterprise and love of adventure at home, have sought it in a distant land; amongst them therefore is to be found a degree of polish and frankness rarely to be looked for in such a mode of life, and in the distant desert you unexpectedly stumble on a finished gentleman.

THEIR ADVENTUROUS MODE OF LIFE.

The life of an Overlander in the bush is one of great excitement which constantly calls every energy into action, is full of romantic and novel situations, and habituates the mind to self-possession and command.  The large and stately herd of cattle is at least a fine if not even an imposing sight.  The fierce and deadly contests which at times take place with the natives, when two or three hardy Europeans stand opposed to an apparently overwhelming majority of blacks, call for a large share of personal courage and decision; whilst the savage yells and diabolic whoops of the barbarians in their onsets, their fantastically painted forms, their quivering spears, their contortions, and shifting of their bodies, and their wild leaps, attach a species of romance to these encounters which affords plentiful matter for after-meditation.  As the love of war, of gaming, or of any other species of violent excitement, grows upon the mind from indulgence, so does the love of roving grow upon the Overlanders, and few or none of them ever talk of leading a settled life.

SUDDEN ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH.

And it is not to be wondered at that the young and ardent eagerly embrace a line of life so replete with exciting events and incidents, and which at once enriches the successful speculator, and fills with plenty and prosperity the region which he enters.  The first individual who opens a market, which no other Overlander has yet visited, rides into the district an ill clothed way-worn traveller; the residents do not at first deign to cast a glance upon him till presently it is