CH. VII] COLONIAL WAGGON-DRIV^EUS 147 



Colonial EMglishnian named Ulyate, whose great- 

 grandfather had come to South Airica in 1820, as part 

 of the most important English emigration tliat-ever 

 went thither. His father and sisters had lunched with 

 us at the missionaries' the day before ; his wife's baby 

 was too young for her to come. It was the best kind 

 of pioneer family ; all the members, with some of their 

 fellow colonials, had spent much of the preceding three 

 years in adventurous exploration of the country in their 

 ox-waggons, the wives and daughters as valiant as the 

 men ; one of the two daughters I met had driven one 

 of the ox-waggons on the hardest and most dangerous 

 trip they made, while her younger sister led the oxen. 

 It was on this trip that they had pioneered the way 

 across the waterless route 1 was to take. For those 

 who, like ourselves, followed the path they had thus 

 blazed, there was no danger to the men, and merely dis- 

 comfort to the oxen ; but the first trip was a real feat, 

 for no one could tell what lay ahead, or what exact 

 route would be practicable. The family had now settled 

 on a big farm, but also carried on the business of 

 " transport riding," as freighting with waggons is called 

 in Africa ; and they did it admirably. 



>Vith Ulyate were three other white waggon-drivers, 

 all colonials ; two of them English, the third Dutch, or 

 Boer. There was also a Cape boy, a Kaffir waggon- 

 driver, utterly different from any of the East African 

 natives, and dressed in ordinary clothes. In addition, 

 there were various natives — primitive savages in dress 

 and habit, but coming from the cattle-owning tribes. 

 iEach ox-team was guided by one of these savages, 

 I who led the first yoke by a leathern thong ; while the 

 1 waggon-driver, with his long whip, stalked to and fro 

 \ beside the line of oxen, or rode in the waggon. The 



