142 CONFLICTING OPINIONS. 



ride to reach the road. After some discussion, we dis- 

 covered the real cause of our failure, and therefore rode 

 more to the right than we had before done. At length, 

 we crossed a road, and my companion at once said we 

 were all right, and proposed cantering on. I was not 

 quite so certain about being right, but was almost over- 

 ruled ; so I dismounted, and, kneeling clown on the ground, 

 examined for spoor. Knowing that a gun and waggon 

 horsed, with about half a dozen other waggons with 

 each a span of oxen, could not pass without leaving sign, 

 I crawled along for some distance, but could not trace more 

 than two fresh waggon-wheels. I therefore determined 

 that this was the wrong road, and that we must ride yet 

 farther to hit the one that our people had followed. I was 



very nearly giving in, as G argued very powerfully; 



but he at last consented to go on a mile or two, and if we 

 did not come to any other road, to return to the present 

 one. We rode about four miles, when another beaten track, 

 which they here compliment with the title of a road, was 

 crossed; on dismounting,! found that waggons, oxen, horses, 

 and nailed boots, had all passed on that day. We followed 

 this road, and in about two hours reached the Mooi river, 

 on the opposite side of which our camp for the night had 

 been formed. It was about 1^ A.M. when w r e reached the 

 waggons, hungry and tired, our horses, however, being 

 wonderfully fresh, although we had been nearly fourteen 

 hours in the saddle. The road that we first crossed would 

 have taken us twenty-five miles before we could have seen 

 a house, and we should have reached the river fifteen miles 

 from our camp. 



