I MR. CROSSLEY 3 



from the waggon, and no endeavours to trace it were 

 of any avail. My armoury was now reduced to a 

 double ten muzzle-loading rifle by Vaughan, a very 

 interior weapon, as it threw its bullets across one 

 another, and a little double gun that shot well with 

 both shot and bullet. 



On the market next morning I bought a horse for 

 £S, and rode over to Pniel. Here 1 met a fellow- 

 passenger, Mr. Arthur Laing, who had left the ship 

 at Cape Town and gone up to the Fields direct by 

 passenger cart. He told me that he was tired of 

 digging, and was thinking of making a trading trip 

 through Griqualand, and down the Orange river, 

 taking with him as guide and interpreter a man 

 named Crossley, who knew the country and the 

 people, and who, indeed, had been private secretary 

 to Aciam Kok, the Griqua chief, and once held a 

 very good position, from which a passionate devotion 

 to the flowing bowl had dragged him down step by 

 step, till he now did not own so much as the shoes 

 he stood in. He was, however, in his sober moments, 

 which, when within ten miles of a canteen, were both 

 short and infrequent, an intelligent and well-informed 

 man. My friend was very anxious that I should join 

 him, aiid as I had found that the commencement of 

 winter, viz. April or May, was the best season to 

 start for the far interior, I soon made up my mind to 

 do so, thinking the trip would just about occupy the 

 intervening time. Our arrangements were soon 

 made, anci on October 31st we loaded up a small 

 wooden -axled waggon which we had bought for 

 _^8o, and managed to make a start that same 

 evening. 



We at first followed the course of the Vaal river, 

 and on the evening of November 2nd, were out- 



