84 Eecollections of Adventures 



without any knee grip, instead of rolling under the 

 pony as he would have done, if he were riding tight, 

 simply ran away on his feet again ! When I 

 expressed surprise at this he said, " Oh you soon get 

 used to a horse falling in the veld, the only thing to 

 do is not to stick to him." Whether he could manage 

 quite so easily on a big horse going a greater pace I 

 doubt. On this trip, my trap horses being lost as 

 mentioned, I went on to my father's old Field Cornet 

 Martinus Koekemoor, near Cornelius River, and 

 bought his old shooting horse to ride on to Durban, 

 as I had to see my sister Fanny Proes and her little 

 boy off to Europe. 



It had been raining for some time, and all the 

 rivers were full ; when I got to Cornelius River I 

 found it had overflowed its banks. I put the horse 

 in, but as he was not a good swimmer, he went 

 far down stream and got into a hole filled with 

 floating reeds and grass ; I nearly got drowned 

 in trying to get him out, which I did at last. After 

 a rest, I had to swim back for my clothes, and, half 

 perished with cold, had to ride to Mill River, which 

 I also had to swim, as Koekemoor's house was on 

 the south side. Beyond Harrismith, I had the same 

 performance at the Wilge River, but from there to 

 Maritzburg there were boats behind which the horse 

 could swim. I got to Durban two days before the 

 ship sailed and saw Fan comfortably settled for the 

 voyage. 



