326 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP. 



a bond of brotherhood existed such as cannot 

 endure under more civilised conditions. Any white 

 man in distress was sure of the warmest sympathy 

 and most generous assistance on the part of all 

 the few others of the same colour scattered here 

 and there over a vast country. But now the times 

 are changed. What was once the " far interior " 

 has been opened up to the civilisation of Western 

 Europe, and the old-time traders and hunters, with 

 their indifferent morals, unbusiness-like habits, but 

 hearts of gold, have passed away from South Africa 

 for ever. 



By ten o'clock Fred Drake had got together 

 four spans of good oxen, all lent by the few white 

 men on the station, and had also got a cart and 

 eight oxen to carry some water-casks and pro- 

 visions. I had gone fast asleep on Truscott's bed 

 as soon as I had had something to eat, and they 

 let me sleep on till midday. Then I had another 

 meal, and at about i P.M. started back for my 

 waggons with Fred Drake. We travelled very 

 quickly with the light cart and fresh oxen, even 

 during the heat of the afternoon, and keeping at 

 it all through the night and the next day, were 

 nearing the wells of Klabala on the afternoon 

 of December 29 when we heard a waggon whip 

 crack close ahead of us, and presently saw the fine 

 cloud of dust rising above the low trees which 

 we knew portended the arrival of a waggon. I 

 thought it must be Tinkarn's waggons. We pulled 

 up, and Drake and I jumped off the cart and 

 walked on ahead. As soon as we saw the front 

 oxen I knew them for the leaders of my own fine 

 Damara span, and very soon we were shaking 

 hands with Collison, Miller, and Sell. 



The explanation was simple. Our oxen, when 

 they wandered away from the resting-place on 

 the ni^ht of December 25, had found their way 



