JOHN LEE'S FARM. 47 
little rain. Started at 7 a.m., and trekked six miles. 
The country where we stopped had been much 
burnt, and looked very desolate, with bare ground 
and bare trees, but there was a fine cool wind and a 
cloudy sky. I could fancy it a sea breeze. They 
say at the king's place you get the sea breeze. 
Started again at 12.30 p.m. Here one enters on a 
bit of really fine rugged country. Out of the level, 
scantily covered with dry brown grass and with a 
thick growth of leafless trees (small for the most 
part), rise huge boulders, so piled on one another, 
with here and there a huge stone so nicely balanced 
on the top, that one wonders how they ever got 
there. We are in a populous country, strings of 
people carrying things on the road. Outspanned 
at 2.30 P.M. Here the Dutchman, Smith, had 
been located, as there is a straw house, and water, 
the road crossing a spruit. Here, too, is John Lee's 
first kraal. People come round the waggon to beg 
meat. One is a warrior, handsomely adorned with 
black ostrich feathers and white ox-tails. Went on 
again at 5 p.m., the ground rising a little. Then as 
we descend a range of kopjes appears in front. In 
about an hour a pretty white farm is seen to the 
right, towards which the road winds, and the wild 
view makes the farm seem to welcome one. 
" Lee came to meet me, and asked me in. He 
is a fat, red-faced man ; his wife very young. His 
house had an air of comfort, and some luxury about 
it, owing to some handsome leopard karosses on 
couch and chairs. There was a picture, too, by 
