CHAPTER VII. 

 TREKKING TO CAPE COLONY 



In 1857-8 I started with two wagons loaded 

 with tanned game hides, hippo sjamboks, kameel 

 (giraffe) whips, buffalo soles, etc., for the Free State 

 and Cape Colony, to sell for cash, and exchange for 

 sheep. My brother Edward accompanied me, and 

 Lewis Devereux also had one load, and Hendrick 

 Vermuelen one. Devereux's oxen developed " lung 

 sickness," before we reached Kroonstad, and he 

 decided to return to Pretoria, so I took over his load, 

 and rather overweighted my two wagons. Ver- 

 muelen and I continued together to Riet River 

 where he got among relations, and I continued on to 

 Murraysburg in the Cape Colony. Here I stayed for 

 10 days with Mr. Jacob Burgers of " Vlei Plaats," 

 a splendid specimen of the best class of South 

 African farmer. He was shearing sheep and reaping 

 wheat and oats, and I gave him my men to assist 

 him in exchange for his giving me the run of his 

 grass vlei to feed up my oxen, who were dying of 

 hunger, as they would not eat the aromatic Karroo 

 bushes, and the average Colonial Boer gave nothing 

 but the worst veld he had for " outspanning." One 

 day Burgers, Albertus Meiring and I, went to shoot 

 springbok to feed such a lot of working hands, and 

 we shot over 70 in the two days we were out. The 

 bucks were migrating north, and were in hundreds 

 of thousands. In those days the districts of Murrays- 

 burg, Middelburg and Hanover were very wealthy, 

 but of late years the farmers are poorer, partly 

 owing to the deterioration of the veld due to over- 



