FIRST MAKALAKA KRAAL. 211 
been received from the king, I was all ready to con- 
tinue my journey towards the Zambesi, which I 
fondly hoped to see in a few weeks. On the loth 
of August I was again eii rotite, and on the i8th I 
reached the first Makalaka kraal, travelling slowly. 
This was the same point I reached before, when I 
started with the Boer and his boy. Here we decided 
to stay, to lay in our store of corn, — enough to keep 
our Kafirs when game could not be got, our dogs, 
and, above all, our horses. At the place where the 
waggons stand where they are left by people going 
to the Zambesi, the journey having to be completed 
on foot, no corn is to be bought, nor any on the 
road, as there are no corn-growing people between 
these Makalakas and the Zambesi. Therefore 
enough must be taken at this point to last till one is 
amongst the Makalakas again on one's way back. 
"Here my companion was laid up with a bad finger. 
He had run the head of a needle into it whilst sewing, 
and not feeling much at the time had taken very little 
notice of it till it began to give him pain, and then 
he suffered terribly. The end of the finger appeared 
dead, and I was so much afraid of mortification 
setting in that I advised him to lose no time in try- 
ing to reach Thomson, the missionary, in order that 
he might have the first joint of the finger amputated 
if necessary. I should have gone back with him, 
but he begged me not to do so, assuring me that I 
should be of no use to him, which indeed seemed 
likely to be the case. I therefore determined to 
push on. 
