OUTFIT. 27 



the extent and nature of my establishment and camp 

 equipage. My first object was, of course, to secure a 

 traveling wagon, and I had the good fortune to obtain 

 an excellent new cap-tent one, complete with all its 

 gear ready for inspanning, from JMr. Ogilvie, of Gra- 

 hamstown, for the sum of £60, which, as it eventually 

 proved to be a right good one, was decidedly a bargain. 

 I very soon, however, found out, as I extensively col- 

 ected specimens of natural history, that one wagon was 

 insufficient; and not long after, in the town of Coles- 

 berg, on the frontiers of the colony, I purchased a sec- 

 ond, also a cap-tent wagon, with its necessary accom- 

 paniment, a span of oxen ; and at a later period, as the 

 reader will subsequently learn, I found it necessary to 

 purchase a third, and became the proprietor of consid- 

 erably more than a hundred draught oxen. 



yrom an English farmer in the vicinity of Grahams- 

 town I obtained a span of twelve excellent, well-trained, 

 black, zuur-veldt oxen, which I judged suited for my 

 work, they having been in the habit, with their late 

 master, of bringing in very heavy loads of wood to the 

 Grahamstown market. Their price was £o each ; and 

 as it is not unusual to see an ox, in the best of spans, 

 knock up on long marches, by Murphy's advice I pur- 

 chased two spare oxen of Mr. Thompson. 



My stud of horses as yet consisted of but two, which 

 had been my chargers in the regiment. These were 

 " Sinon," a stallion which I had bought of Major Good- 

 man of the 27th, and "The Cow," an excellent dark- 

 brown gelding which I had obtained from Colonel Som- 

 erset of " Ours." I did not think it wise to lay out 

 more money in horse-flesh in Grahamstown, as I should 

 ohortly have to pass through the Hantam, where most 

 of the Boers breed horses extensively, which are famed 



