SOUTHERN AFRICA. 7 



couple of hourS; joyous fires sent forth their cheering- 

 influence in various parts of our g'ipsy camp • and when 

 suppHes were to be had^ sundry cooks were presently dis- 

 charging- the important functions of their ofiice. Pots, 

 kettles, and gridirons, were in universal demand, and after 

 washing" down a meal comprising* nothing- beyond plain 

 baked, fried, or boiled, with libations of tea or coffee — the 

 second edition of which became the acknowledged perquisite 

 of the followers — every one betook himself to sleep as best 

 he might, either in, below, or about the waggons; the 

 scramble for places usually involving a severe husthng and 

 kicking- match, if it did not end, as w*as too frequently the 

 case, in a battle-royal. 



In the course of the journey few other incidents occurred 

 worth mentioning. With the assistance of Butler^s team, 

 making in all tAventy-four oxen, we ascended the Zwartcop 

 Mountain by a steep and difiicult acclivity during the first 

 night, and encamped near an extensive grove of aloe-trees 

 in full blossom. Thence, a rugged and circuitous track of 

 about one hundred miles in length constituted the road, the 

 scenery comprising a mixture of barren, unprofitable valleys, 

 and stony, uninteresting hills, varied occasionally by de- 

 serted farms, where depopulation had stayed the hand of the 

 husbandman, and the blackened walls of roofless cottages, 

 which had been sacked by the Kafirs during their late 

 irruption. 



Throughout this miserable country, which had been de- 

 scribed to us as abounding with game of every description, 

 our diligent researches were once repaid by a ghmpse, on 

 the distant horizon, of three ostriches, and about a score of 

 spring-bucks. This event occm-red at a place called Quag- 

 ga's Flat, where we halted a day, and were treated with 

 hospitality by thi*ee EngUsh settlers, brothers, named PuUen. 

 Occasionally, too, the light and graceful rhee-buck was to be 



