INHOSPITABLE QUARTERS. 213 
me, and he dared not go against his orders. He 
left me in dudgeon, and I was glad to be rid of him. 
I had a very slight attack of fever at the time, and 
his noise and insolence were very annoying/ 
" After this I sent off my driver with a span of 
oxen, to take the broken wheel on a sledge of boughs 
to Tati, and wrote to Brown asking him to send me 
a waggon, if possible, to bring me out, and a spare 
wheel also for my own waggon ; or, if not, to get the 
wheel I sent him mended for me. The oxen that I 
still had left had to go many miles for water every 
day. The mare and the goats had nothing but filthy 
water to drink from holes dug in the ground. For 
my own use I got water from the pits, where the 
people dig for it, for I was in the midst of the Maka- 
lakas. I myself was a prisoner in my own kraal, for 
I dared not leave the waggon. I had with me three 
of my Matabele slave-boys and one Bushman. We 
got on pretty well for a few days, but soon the people 
began to drive my boys from the water, which they 
claimed the right to, having made the pits. This 
was the water for my own use, and it appeared also 
that the water at which their own goats drank was 
denied to mine, and they and my mare driven away 
from it. I sent for the induna, an old Makalaka, 
with whom I had hitherto refused to speak in conse- 
quence of his having stopped me the first time I 
tried to go through. I gave him a present of ammu- 
nition on condition of his allowing my boys to get 
water ; and, after promising to see that all was right, 
he asked for more presents, which I refused, and the 
