158 MATABELE LAND. 
not likely. I am sparing no pains to get a good 
outfit. I have now twenty-six oxen, and am deter- 
mined to be as well provided in every way as 
possible for the journey." 
After writing the above Frank Oates rode out, 
as he intended, to his waggon, and by 3 a.m. on the 
5th of May was once more upon the road. Again 
all went favourably for something like three hours 
after starting, and a further distance of five or six 
miles had been accomplished when, to the traveller's 
unspeakable vexation, a fresh catastrophe of a like 
kind occurred, this time the tire of the same wheel 
breaking, and necessitating another halt. He now 
rode back into Bamangwato to see what could be 
done, the upshot of which was that he there bought 
two new waggons, and yet more oxen, so as to divide 
his load and lessen the risk of future accidents of this 
vexatious kind. He also secured the services of a 
Dutchman named Van Roozen, and his son, the 
former of whom would act as driver to one of the 
waggons, and make himself generally useful. 
Whilst still completing these arrangements he 
added a short supplementary letter to the last, from 
which the following are extracts : — 
"■May ^th, 1874. 
" Since writing the letter of May 4th, which will 
reach you at the same time this does, I have broken 
down again. After finishing my letter to you I rode 
out to the waggon, inspanned, and trekked. I had 
gone perhaps five or six miles, when the wheel 
came to grief again, the tire breaking, and I had to 
