Chap. XXXIII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 297 



across the plain, and in the course of another hour 

 was within sight of the waggons. Jaded and way- 

 worn, it was with profound gratitude to a protecting 

 Providence, that I thus found myself restored to the 

 cafila, after three days of anxious wandering over 

 an luiexplored and inhospitable wilderness. 



Great was the anxiety, and many were the dismal 

 forebodings to which my mysterious absence had 

 given birth. A general gloom had pervaded the 

 camp, and it was conjectured that I had reached 

 " that bourne whence no traveller returns." There 

 being no fuel with which to kindle a beacon fire, 

 whips had been cracked, and muskets discharged at 

 intervals, both during the day and night ; and my 

 horse's spoor having been completely effaced by the 

 rain, three separate parties had gone out in search 

 of me, in different directions. Those only who 

 have experienced the warm cordiality which grows 

 up between partners in so wild and adventurous an 

 expedition as that in which my companion and my- 

 self had embarked, are capable of fully under- 

 standing the nature of the welcome I received — the 

 sensations created by my safe and unhoped-for re- 

 turn even extending themselves to the disaffected of 

 our followers. On comparing notes with my fellow- 

 traveller, I was concerned to find that in some res- 

 pects he had scarcely fared better than myself; the 

 knuckle-bone of a tainted ham having supplied the 

 place of a smoking sirloin and richly-dotted plum- 

 pudding — and, with a cupful of dirty water, 

 constituted, alas ! his Christmas dinner. 



05 



