A WISH IN ADVERSITY. 225 
once more. When you wrote of coming out to me I 
was both pleased and sorry — sorry, because I thought 
it would be best for me to return home when I 
reached the coast, and yet, if you had actually met 
me there, I could not have resisted the temptation 
of setting off again with you. 
" I have often wished I had you with me, and 
remember, when I got to Mungwato last April, to 
outfit, as I drove up to Gray's store, I thought if I 
could have a wish it would be to see your waggon 
coming in from the opposite direction. I did not 
even know that you were yourself thinking the same 
thing about the same time. The same idea occurred 
to me the last time my waggon broke down on the 
Zambesi road, and I was left to the mercy of the 
natives of that part of the country. I thought, if 
your waggon suddenly appeared, how I could turn 
the tables on my persecutors, and how we could go 
on together to the Zambesi. Of course, I felt cer- 
tain such a thing would not occur, but somehow it 
got into my head. . . . 
" You will be glad to hear that I endorse your 
theory that trying to trade, when on a sporting tour 
or exploring, is an utter failure, and that, had we 
brought up light waggons, we should have been 
wiser — knowing all I know now. I have been 
allied with Dutch Boers since parting from you, 
and the more I see of them, the more I see through 
them. I have still some of my old Maritzburg 
bullocks left, a rare good sort, but from time to 
time upon the journey have bought and broken 
Q 
