44 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



" au fait" in the mysteries connected with the driving 

 of oxen, and learned to inspan and drive my own wag- 

 ons with nearly the same expedition as before the de- 

 sertion of the Hottentots. 



The vley of Bootlonamy being firm and hard, we rat- 

 tled along it at our wonted pace ; but in the evening, 

 as we cleared the vley and entered on the sandy tracts 

 beyond, the oxen, having discovered that their new dri- 

 vers could not wield the whips with the rapidity and ex- 

 ecution of the old, declined to move along the heavy 

 sand beyond the pace they fancied, often halting of their 

 own accord. Eventually, in ascending a sandy ridge, 

 the Bushman's wagon stuck fast in the deep sand, and 

 in trying to drag it out the oxen broke the " dissel-boom," 

 or pole. Finding that the labors we had undertaken 

 were greater than I had calculated upon, I resolved to 

 ride on the morrow in pursuit of the runaways ; and ac- 

 cordingly, at daybreak on the following day, leaving the 

 wagons and their valuable contents at the mercy of the 

 savages, I started with the Bushman and a spare horse 

 to endeavor to overtake them. There was no water 

 where the wagons stood, so I instructed Mollyeon to 

 proceed with the cattle in quest of that essential requi- 

 site. I held along my old wagon-track, where we traced 

 the footsteps of the Hottentots; and having ridden some 

 miles, we reached the spot where they had slept, and 

 where the ashes of their fire still were smoldering. I 

 followed up their spoor till mid-day, when I accidentally 

 took up the spoor of a party of Bakalahari, which we 

 followed in a westerly direction, imaginingthatthe Hot- 

 tentots were with them. This spoor we eventually lost 

 in stony ground, and then we rode back to where we 

 had lost the right spoor, which after some search we 

 found, and once more held on. Our steeds were now 



