50 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



but asked such exorbitant prices that I was obliged to 

 defer obtaining mounts till our arrival here. As luck 

 would have it we found the string of nags had been 

 removed up here, and were to be sold by auction to 

 the highest bidder ; thus I obtained two for the price 

 I had offered for one. These animals had been bred 

 north of the Vaal river, and were supposed to be saultedi, 

 hence my anxiety to procure them. From another 

 person I bought a large, well-made chestnut, warranted, 

 saulted and an experienced game killer ; twenty-five 

 pounds was the price paid for this beast, and a greater 

 brute never looked through a bridle. I had also picked 

 up from one person and another about a dozen dogs, 

 several of which were half-bred greyhounds, the rest, 

 of the pack were arrant mongrels. Neither had Morris 

 been idle; he had taken in hand the commissariat 

 department, and hours of each day he spent inde- 

 fatigably selecting stores and seeing them packed. 



While here we had formed numerous friendships,, so 

 numerous in fact that our rooms were never empty. 

 Some were persons I had met before or heard of, but all 

 were unquestionably a most gentlemanly lot of young, 

 men ; a little lax possibly, a little dissipated certainly, . 

 Everything having been procured, the wagon packed^ 

 the oxen bought, and the horses and dogs standing at, 

 the stable of the hotel, one Sunday evening, at dusk ? 

 I determined to ride eighteen miles on our road, to, the 

 hotel of Howick, and there wait for my companions, 

 for at daylight the cattle were to be yoked, and under 

 ordinary circumstances we should all dine together at', 

 three or four o'clock in the afternoon of Monday. 



As a matter of course I had never been to Howick 



; 'i* 100 



before, and just as it got dark I started from Heter- 



