Difficulties of the Eoad 35 



were much distressed at being obliged to turn back ; 

 so I made a raft of some casks and planks, and swam 

 a rope across, and in two or three journeys got them 

 over. They were grateful, but I never saw them 

 again. 



Being weary of waiting, Alex, and I decided to 

 ride on and let the wagons follow ; we had to swim 

 every river to Pretoria and the wagons did not arrive 

 until three weeks later. Before leaving the wagons 

 I swam over the Wilge River to Mrs. van Reenen's, 

 and bought a fat cow for slaughter for the men, and 

 in getting her over I nearly got drowned, owing to 

 my horse being a bad swimmer and hurting me in 

 the rushing water. He got washed on to an island 

 and I could hardly get him off. The horses we took 

 on at Pretoria were good, and gave me no trouble, 

 but the trip was severe on Alex, who was not used 

 to such exposure and fatigue. I have some sketches 

 he made of places en route ; he was a natural artist 

 and a dear, brave, lovable fellow as ever lived. He 

 was great at private theatricals, and afforded much 

 amusement to the quiet, little English coterie in Pre- 

 toria, where we were then like one large family, but 

 nearly all are gone over to the " Majority." Once 

 on our way home at Sea Cow River on New Year's 

 night we came upon a big dancing party. The 

 friendly old Dutchman invited us to join and we made 

 a night of it, dancing with the Boer girls till daylight 

 with intervals for refreshments. That trip seems a 

 hundred years ago, but it is really only about fifty. 

 From 1857 to 1870 I was constantly on the road 

 between Pretoria and Durban during the summer 

 from September to April. 



In the early days, when I had to go so much up 

 and down the road to Natal, there were certain inns 

 where one was sure to meet some good fellows, and 



