280 EXPEDITION INTO 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



RETURN TO CIVILIZATION^ AND ARRIVAL IN THE CAPE 



COLONY. 



On the afternoon of the 14th^ having* advanced some sixteen 

 miles throug'h a dreadful storm of dust^ which literally dar- 

 kened the atmosphere, the rushing* of mig-hty waters sud- 

 denly announced our approach to the Great River. Hasten- 

 ing* to the bank, our mortification may be imagined at 

 perceiving-, from the agitated and muddy tide, and the 

 drift-wood which was borne past by the impetuosity of the 

 current, that it had only just become swollen. A farmer 

 had broug-ht over his light horse wag'g-on with some difficulty 

 a quarter of an hour before, but to cross now was impossible. 

 Two tedious days were j^assed in watching" the willowed 

 banks — the troubled waters now subsiding- sufficiently to 

 tant-alize us with the prospect of being- shortly able to pass 

 over, and ag-ain receiving- a fresh accession of the turbid 

 element. Andries, who was in the bosom of his family, bore 

 the calamity without a murmur, until certain misdeeds, com- 

 mitted when sent from Bok's Fontein in pursuit of the 

 truant horses, accidentally transpiring- — even he was unable 

 longer to bear the detention, and he then obligingiy informed 

 us of the existence of a raft, a few miles higiier up the river, 

 of which he had hitherto carefully kept us in ig-norance. 

 Proceeding- thither, we found the stream straitened, between 

 rocky sides, to one-third of its usual breadtli ; and after we 

 had bribed a man to swim across in order to summon the 

 projirietor of ihejloat, which house was some miles distant, 



