374 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 27, 1859. 



tides by the sea. The fort is only calculated for protection against the natives, 

 and the village contains about 20 houses, inhabited by Portuguese Arabs and 

 Creoles from Goa. 



We were well received, and the 4th of April being the birthday of Her Portu- 

 guese Majesty, were invited by the Governor to the fete and review. The 

 troops were all black natives of Delagoa, commanded by two European officers : 

 they were in uniform, but seemed to have little notion of military movements. 



At the Governor's housa I saw a map showing the three rivers flowing from 

 the Drakensberg, then joining and forming the Manice, navigable for 40 

 miles from its mouth, being marked from 2 to 5 fathoms. 



I tried to obtain permission to go up it in a boat ; but the Governor seemed 

 to be unfavourable to my doing so, and sickness breaking out among us, 1 was 

 obliged to give it up. An Englishman, a very skeleton of a man, came to the 

 waggons : he was a deserter, who with five more like himself had left Orig- 

 stadt for Delagoa, where they were obliged to give up their guns to the Govern- 

 ment. His companions had all died of the fever, and he was slowly recovering. 

 Eations were allowed him by the Governor. 



On the 7th of April we started on our homeward journey, taking the shorter 

 and more usual road to the eastward of our former route. One of our oxen had 

 already died from the sting of the fly and the effect of the climate. In seven 

 days we reached the Kamati River, having lost half our oxen on the road, and 

 the remaining twelve were too weak to draw the waggons across. The next 

 day three of our number were sick, and the oxen unable to rise. We pitched 

 our tent by the river and sent forward one of our own Kafirs and some natives 

 with a letter to Origstadt for assistance. In two days all the party, Kafirs as 

 well as whites, were sick, except myself ; in six days one of the Kafirs died, 

 and was buried. In nine days, when w» were expecting help, our letter was 

 brought back by the natives, who said our Kafir had died on the road. Our 

 situation was now truly deplorable : our interpreter was dead, and I was obliged 

 to tend the whole of my helpless companions. The carcases of our oxen (all 

 being now dead) lay round the waggons, emitting an intolerable stench, while 

 wolves howled round us by night and thousands of vultures hovered over us by 

 day, or sat gorged upon our tent after their loathsome banquet — the wolves 

 coming out in open day to join their feast, undisturbed by our feeble efforts to 

 drive them off. We despaired now of ever receiving assistance : yet another 

 Kafir was despatched with the letter, and I did my best to cheer my sinking 

 comrades. In a few days Cobus Snyman died, and I became ill ; but as the 

 fever was only violent at night, I was still able, though daily growing weaker, 

 to tend my companions by day. In another week I found Van Helsingden 

 sitting upright in his waggon a corpse, his son sleeping beside him unconscious 

 of his death. Poor fellow ! he only survived him one day, and both were 

 buried together. 



My father-in-law (Van Breda) and I were now the only survivors. My 

 strength was rapidly failing. The natives could not understand our wants, 

 and were too apathetic to tend us in cur sufferings. Our tent had fallen down 

 and we were not able to raise it again, and despairing of other help, I succeeded 

 in hiring about twenty Kafirs to carry us, lying each upon a kadel or waggon- 

 cot frame. 



We were carried about four hours when the Kafirs set us down and made 

 a fire for themselves. Scarcely was it kindled when it was extinguished by a 

 flood of rain. Our blankets were drenched, and the water streamed around and 

 beneath us during the wliole of this dreadful night. Mr. Preda never s]ioke 

 afterward. The Kafirs carried us next day about an hour, when they set us 

 down in an open flat with a few stunted bushes, and, though ten pieces of linen 

 and ten of check had been distributed among them, refused to carry us faitlier. 

 With difficulty they were at length persuaded to resume their burden, and in 



