178 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



The trek across "the thirst," as any waterless country 

 is apt to be called by an Africander, is about sixty miles, 

 by the road. On our horses we could have ridden it in a 

 night; but on a serious trip of any kind loads must be 

 carried, and laden porters cannot go fast, and must rest at 

 intervals. We had rather more than our porters could 

 carry, and needed additional transportation for the water 

 for the safari; and we had hired four ox wagons. They 

 were under the lead of a fine young colonial Englishman 

 named Ulyate, whose great-grandfather had come to South 

 Africa in 1820, as part of the most important English emi- 

 gration that ever went thither. His father and sisters had 

 lunched with us at the missionaries' the day before; his wife's 

 baby was too young for her to come. It was the best kind 

 of pioneer family; all the members, with some of their fel- 

 low-colonials, had spent much of the preceding three years 

 in adventurous exploration of the country in their ox wagons, 

 the wives and daughters as valiant as the men; one of the 

 two daughters I met had driven one of the ox wagons on 

 the hardest and most dangerous trip they made, while her 

 younger sister led the oxen. It was on this trip that they 

 had pioneered the way across the waterless route I was to 

 take. For those who, like ourselves, followed the path they 

 had thus blazed, there was no danger to the men, and 

 merely discomfort to the oxen; but the first trip was a real 

 feat, for no one could tell what lay ahead, or what exact 

 route would be practicable. The family had now settled 

 on a big farm, but also carried on the business of "trans- 

 port riding," as freighting with wagons is called in Africa; 

 and they did it admirably. 



With Ulyate were three other white wagon-drivers, all 

 colonials ; two of them English, the third Dutch, or Boer. 

 There was also a Cape boy, a Kaffir wagon-driver; utterly 

 different from any of the East African natives, and dressed 

 in ordinary clothes. In addition there were various 

 natives primitive savages in dress and habit, but coming 

 from the cattle-owning tribes. Each ox-team was guided 



