24 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. IV. 



fixed for our departure, we despatched a cart to 

 Somerset with instructions to Mr. Butler to forward 

 the articles under his charge ; and were not a little 

 mortified to find that during our short absence they 

 had been devoured, as he asserted, by the rats and 

 other vermin, and were consequently not forthcoming. 

 So that in the end we were not only saddled with 

 the extra charge for the cart, but also obliged to 

 make further disbursements for a fresh supply. 



The agent we employed here was Mr. John Bur- 

 net Biddulph, a trader who had some years before 

 visited Sobiqua, king of the Wangkets, and whose 

 name, in conjunction with that of Mr. Bain, will be 

 found referred to in Arrowsmith's map of South 

 Africa. Knowing exactly what we required, he suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining for us from one Naude, a capital 

 waggon with thirty draught oxen ; and we had in 

 the mean time completed ovir stud of horses to twelve 

 of all sorts and sizes, conceiving that these would 

 suffice, though in this supposition we were greatly 

 mistaken. 



Our waggon, fitted up with water-casks, tar- 

 buckets, side-chests, beds, pockets, and other ap- 

 purtenances for the long journey before us, during 

 which it was to be our only abode, might now not 

 inaptly be compared to a ship proceeding to sea. 

 Besides ourselves and our pei-sonal conveniences, it 

 contained, with the addition of a barrel of gunpow- 

 der and the commodities for barter already enume- 

 ]-ated, six sacks of flour, two bags of rice, and two 

 of sugar, with chests of tea and bales of coflfce. 



