18 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. III. 



the same time, the path skirting the very brink of 

 yawning chasms several hundred feet in perpen- 

 dicular depth, over some of which the clumsiness of 

 Andries, more than once, nearly precipitated us. 



It was pitch-dark before we had cleared this 

 moimtain barrier, and the oxen being greatly in 

 want of water, I groped my way in advance, direct- 

 ed by a light, to the dirty cottage of a neighbour- 

 ing boor, and with some difficulty obtained unwill- 

 ing permission from the owner, who gloried in the 

 virtuous appellation of Erasmus, to unyoke on his 

 farm. Here a trial of temper awaited us, that im- 

 measurably eclipsed all that we had been destined 

 hitherto to experience. A strong disagreeable wind 

 was blowing, w^hich, added to the impossibility of 

 obtaining on the spot more than barely sufficient 

 fire-wood to boil the water in the kettle, caused 

 every one to retire early to bed ; and the oxen having 

 literally tasted nothing since leaving De Clerck's, 

 were left at liberty to graze upon the farm during 

 the night, instead of being secured, as usual, to the 

 wheels of the waggon. On our awakening the next 

 morning they were nowhere to be found, and the 

 stony character of the country, in every part clothed 

 with a high thicket of speck-boom, added to the 

 violent wind that had blown during^ the night, and 

 effaced the trail, rendered utterly fruitless our dili- 

 gent search for them during the whole day. 



A combination of circumstances led us to suspect 

 that Erasmus was concerned in the abstraction of 

 oiu- cattle, with the design of extorting a reward for 



