Alex. Struben's Trip 89 



longing to explore the interior. He returned to 

 Natal, and in 1864 sent in his resignation. The 

 Secretary of State for the Colonies allowed him a 

 retiring pension. After again spending some time 

 in Pretoria (where our father then lived), he started 

 on the 27th June 1864, from Zoutpansberg with 

 natives and animals I had supplied, but he only got 

 as far as the Limpopo, when his carriers refused to 

 go further, as the " Knobnoses " or Shangaans were 

 raiding the country and so he had to return. 



I tried to dissuade him from attempting to 

 traverse the unhealthy country north of Zoutpans- 

 berg ; but he had listened to the stories of the old 

 elephant hunters, and go he would, so the next best 

 thing for me to do was to fit him out as well as I 

 could. On the 10th April, 1865, he made a second 

 start from Pretoria. When he reached Zoutpansberg, 

 another local war between Boers and natives was on, 

 so he left his ammunition at Rhenosterpoort, and 

 went on with one wagon to Albasini's in the Spelonk. 

 I had a number of natives living on a farm of mine 

 near the Livubu river ; and these natives I gave him 

 for carriers, and here he had a hut built and stayed 

 while the war continued, until he could proceed into 

 the interior. 



In June 1864 he received the goods sent to him 

 in Zoutpansberg, guns, ammunition, medicines, tools 

 for gun repairs, drawing materials, presents for the 

 native chiefs, thermometer, field glasses, air mat- 

 tress, tent, etc., but this trip never came to anything 

 on account of the war with the kaffirs. The hunters 

 could not go in for two years and the elephants came 

 near to Zoutpansberg. The kaffirs had driven the 

 Boers out wholesale, and hunting and trading were 

 impossible. 



