In the nautical business I had the assistance of two practical seamen:
my brother, William Barrington Reade, and Commander Charles Edward
Reade, R.N.
In the South African business I gleaned from Mr. Day's recent handbooks;
the old handbooks; Galton's "Vacation Tourist;" "Philip Mavor; or, Life
among the Caffres;" "Fossor;" "Notes on the Cape of Good Hope," 1821;
"Scenes and Occurrences in Albany and Caffre-land," 1827; Bowler's
"South African Sketches;" "A Campaign in South Africa," Lucas; "Five
Years in Caffre-land," Mrs. Ward; etc., etc., etc. But my principal
obligation on this head is to Mr. Boyle, the author of some admirable
letters to the Daily telegraph, which he afterwards reprinted in a
delightful volume. Mr. Boyle has a painter's eye, and a writer's pen,
and if the African scenes in "A Simpleton" please my readers, I hope
they will go to the fountain-head, where they will find many more.
As to the plot and characters, they are invented.
The title, "A Simpleton," is not quite new. There is a French
play called La Niaise. But La Niaise is in reality a woman of rare
intelligence, who is taken for a simpleton by a lot of conceited fools,
and the play runs on their blunders, and her unpretending wisdom.
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