A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 



After many inquiries we at length encountered at 

 dinner at the hotel a young Afrikander * who was 

 returning to GraafT Reinet, where he lived. We 

 soon learned that he had a good Cape cart and 

 pair of horses of his own, and that he had further 

 bought from some hard-up colonist a buggy and 

 another pair of horses ; and after some little bar- 

 gaining for I am bound to say that the average 

 Afrikander is an exceedingly keen hand at a deal 

 he agreed to take us to Graaff Reinet for 5 a-piece, 

 this sum not to include such food and lodging as 

 we should require on the four days' journey that 

 lay before us. Our bargain struck, we lost no time, 

 but arranged to start the next day, and in the 

 meantime we were fully occupied in separating our 

 light baggage from the heavy. The space allotted 

 permitted each one of us to take a light portman- 

 teau, a rug and mackintosh, as well as a rifle, shot 

 gun, and ammunition. In addition to this we carried 

 a long coaching-horn and a banjo, and it is due to 

 these instruments to state that they conduced in no 

 slight degree towards the success of our trip. With 

 the posting-horn, until in an evil hour it perished 

 miserably, we awoke the echoes of many a bushy 

 kloof, many a rocky krantz, and many a stern 

 mountain as we passed by. Merrily it trumpeted 

 our advent to the accommodation-houses where we 

 outspanned at night, and as blithely heralded our 

 departure. With the banjo we charmed the inmates 

 of many a lonely farmhouse in our wanderings, and 

 even the stolid Boers unbent before the unwonted 

 strains of this humble but ever-welcome instrument. 



* An Afrikander is a person born in South Africa, of European parents. 



