LOST IN THE VELDT. 217 
chance and on she went. The sun set, and she still 
kept on as before, the stars now showing me the 
direction. I began to suspect something wrong, but 
decided to see what she really would do, as I knew I 
must sleep in the veldt. At last we came to a broad 
river without water in it, and, without pausing to look 
for any, she crossed it, and kept on as before. I 
thought it must be the Ramaqueban, which is near 
where I started from, and therefore, after going on 
some time longer, I turned her and went back to the 
river, hoping to find water by scraping a hole in the 
sand, in which I failed. I then tied the mare to a 
tree, and, making a big fire, had a good night. Next 
day I was moving at sunrise, and kept down the 
river, still thinking it the Ramaqueban, when, to my 
surprise, I suddenly came on the drift where the 
waggon-road crosses it, and found it to be the Im- 
pakwe, the next river that you cross beyond the 
Ramaqueban in going to the King's. It was now 
nine or ten o'clock in the morning, and getting very 
hot. My waggon was thirty miles away, and the 
mare and myself tired and hungry. I let her feed 
and drink, for there was plenty of good water. By 
the time I had gone ten miles towards the waggon 
she wanted another rest, being much too small for 
my weight. I therefore gave her a good rest on 
reaching the Ramaqueban, and it was late in the 
afternoon when I started off again. By good for- 
tune I met some Boers returning from hunting in 
the Zambesi direction, and came in for some meat 
which a Kafir was cooking in the ashes. I never 
