420 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



see my old friend Mr. H, C. CoUison ride up. 

 This gentleman I had met previously, first on the 

 Diamond Fields, and later on in the Zambesi country, 

 where he was hunting for several months during 

 1877. ^ ^-^^ heard, too, that he had returned to the 

 colony, and was going to make a second hunting trip 

 into the interior, in company with my old friends 

 Messrs. Clarkson and French ; but having heard 

 nothing further of their plans prior to leaving 

 Bamangwato, I thought that they had either given 

 up the idea or else gone to the Mashuna country. 

 I now found that Messrs. Collison and French (of 

 Mr. Clarkson 1 will speak later on) had reached 

 Bamangwato about a fortnight after our departure, 

 and had been doing their best to catch us up ever 

 since. Having started from Sode-Garra a few days 

 previously, they had got on without water to just 

 this side of Scio. Their oxen were then quite done 

 up, so Mr. Collison had brought them on with the 

 horses to the water, having reached the shallow pan 

 where we had first found some, late the preceding 

 night. All the drivers and Kafirs belonging to the 

 waggons had also come on, Mr. French having alone 

 remained in charge of everything, having with him a 

 supply of water sufficient to last him, with economy, 

 ten days. Several of my friends' oxen (ten, I think) 

 had died of thirst before reaching the pan, and the 

 survivors were in a cireadful state from the effects of 

 the hardships they had endured. My oxen, however, 

 which were all young animals, had by this time pretty 

 well recovered from their hardships, so that same 

 evening I sent them off under charge of my own 

 drivers, who rode on horseback, and four Kafirs, all 

 carrying water, to bring in my friends' waggons. 

 It took them over thirty hours' continuous travelling 



