Chap. III.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 19 



their restitution. He had been seen lurking about 

 the waggon with some of his associates the preceding 

 evening, and now, far from rendering us any assist- 

 ance towards their recovery, turned a deaf ear to 

 our application, and studiously absented himself 

 from the house. The sequel proved that our sus- 

 picions of his dishonesty were not unfounded. The 

 promise of a reward induced him, on the 3rd August, 

 to return four of the oxen, but as these were insuf- 

 ficient to draw the waggon, we proposed that he 

 should furnish us on hire with a team of his own. 

 To this he at first consented, but altered his mind 

 upon some frivolous pretext, even before the ope- 

 ration of yoking was completed. Our own pro- 

 visions, on which we entirely depended, were by this 

 time exhausted, and I considered mj'self fortunate 

 in killing two spring-bucks. 



On the third day, the accidental and opportune 

 arrival of a field cornet named Cornelius, a centurion 

 having soldiers under him, gave a favourable turn 

 to our affairs, at the very moment that I had re- 

 solved to ride on to Graaff Reinet for magiste»al 

 assistance. We stated our case to this worthy indi- 

 vidual, who forthwith accompanied us to the nest of 

 thieves amongst whom we had fallen, and having 

 threatened them with legal retribution, sent to our 

 aid two of his own servants, who succeeded on the 

 following day in recovering the twelfth ox, the other 

 seven having been in the mean time cunningly re- 

 stored by Erasmus, whose finished villany we could 

 not help admiring, however much we had suffered 



