XXXVIII.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 337 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



RETURN TO CIVILIZATION, AND ARRIVAL IN THE 

 CAPE COLONY. 



On the afternoon of the 14th, having advanced 

 some sixteen miles through a dreadful storm of 

 dust, which literally darkened the atmosphere, the 

 rushing of mighty waters suddenly announced our 

 approach to the Great River. Hastening to the 

 bank, our mortification may be imagined at per- 

 ceiving, from the agitated and muddy tide, and the 

 drift-wood which was borne past by the impe- 

 tuosity of the current, that it had only just become 

 swollen. A farmer had brought over his light 

 horse waggon with some difficulty a quarter of an 

 hour before, but to cross now was impossible. Two 

 tedious days were passed in watching the willowed 

 banks — the troubled waters now subsiding suffici- 

 ently to tantalize us with the prospect of being 

 shortly able to pass over, and again receiving a 

 fresh accession of the turbid element. Andries, 

 who was in the bosom of his family, bore the cala- 

 mity without a murmur, until certain misdeeds, 

 committed when sent from Bok's Fontein in pursuit 

 of the truant horses, accidentally transpiring — even 

 he was unable longer to bear the detention, and he 

 then obligingly informed us of the existence of a 



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