A ROUGH JOURNEY 155 



jammed in, the shins being in painful contact with the sharp 

 edge of the bench in front. Add the constant jolting over 

 terrible roads, over stones and boulders, up and down hill, the 

 floundering through mud and rivers, and it is easy to understand 

 that the journey is a thing to dread. It is no doubt trying 

 enough when the cart arrives at Kimberley in the time named 

 in the paper, but greatly worse was our case, when, owing to 

 roads rendered deeper than ever by almost incessant rain, and 

 the loss from horse-sickness of more than half the road teams, 

 we had to struggle on for eight nights and eight days with 

 horses and mules badly fed and worn to a shadow. The loss 

 of horseflesh had not been made good the Company had just 

 passed into different management, and the wretched animals 

 had to be flogged on when hardly able to move. 



All the mules being dead at Palatswie, we left that town at 

 6.30 a.m. with a team of six trotting oxen, frequently changed 

 for another, until we got mules at the Crocodile River 

 (36 hours). The stations were about two hours apart, given 

 good roads, but, of course, we took much longer before we got 

 a fresh team, or at least what should have been one, for scarcity 

 of horses and mules sadly interfered with all arrangements, and 

 obliged the drivers frequently to take on the same team after 

 but a short rest ; or if not the entire team at all events several 

 units of it ! This happened all the way down to Kimberley ; 

 some horses had to do three stages and were only outspanned 

 then to take the return coach back. It was truly a terrible 

 time for horses. 



During these halts halts just long enough to stretch our 

 sore and stiffened limbs we had our meals, at first hastily 

 prepared in the veld, afterwards ready for us in traders' houses 

 or roadside hotels, and very grateful these refreshing pauses 

 were. After a time we became more resigned to the cramped 

 position and perpetual jolting, we learnt to save our shins from 

 the sharp edge of the seat in front by interposing a rug, and to 

 make a pillow by winding a coat round the iron support of the 

 roof; by holding on we dozed off every now and then, until 

 sharply awoke by a blow on the head, which important part 

 had probably got into some curiously abnormal position and 

 thereby into smart contact with either another head or with one 

 of the many sharp angles of the cart. It rained almost 



