ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 95 



another hour had elapsed that our black driver appeared 

 upon the scene, when to the repeated and somewhat 

 energetic remonstrances of the coach proprietor he 

 merely returned the soft answer : " No, Baas, it cannot 

 be six o'clock, I am sure." 



The horse-sickness was now prevalent ; a few days 

 previously, when travelling to Johannesburg, we had to 

 unharness a horse and leave it on the veld ; on this 

 occasion we soon had to dispose of one of our mules in the 

 same manner. The number of animals lost by the coach 

 proprietors owing to this epidemic was something enor- 

 mous. Within the few weeks previous to my journey, 

 the small regiment of State artillery had lost twenty-five 

 " salted " horses, and the detachment of ten men which 

 escorted the President to Natal were deprived of four 

 animals between Pretoria and the Transvaal border. At 

 present there is little or no cure known for this disease, 

 which is a serious matter for the welfare of the Republic. 



The journey through Waterberg has already been 

 described in the previous chapter, and soon after leaving 

 Eyting's " hotel " the country once more resumes its 

 treeless and uninteresting appearance. We reached 

 Pietersburg about 10 P.M., on the second day after 

 leaving Pretoria, calling at Smitsdorp and Mara- 

 bastad on our way. Pietersburg is a township now in 

 course of development; it is planned out with sites 

 reserved for Market and Church Squares, as in Pretoria 

 and the other Transvaal towns. Already three churches 

 were either quite or nearly completed ; it also possesses a 

 Landdrost,has an exceedingly healthy and open situation, 

 is the market town of Zoutpansberg, and as Mashona- 

 land prospers, Pietersburg must grow, for it is the last 

 Mart on one of the principal roads to Rhodes' eldorado. 

 Its principal inhabitants are Germans, its stores trust 

 to a Boer trade ; and though the first prosperity of 

 Pietersburg had received a check at the time of my 

 visit, the township has a future. Erven, or plots, that 

 could have been purchased a few years since for 14, 

 are now worth from 200 to 300. We stayed a day 

 here waiting for our wagon, and time passed very 



