SEKHOMI. 37 



son has left the place, and nearly the whole of 

 Mungwato went with him. The chief himself, 

 Sekhomi, is still here, and often comes down to the 

 waggons begging. He got quite drunk the other 

 night and tumbled under my waggon. We had to 

 see him home. He thinks his son means to kill 

 him. He himself killed two or three of his own 

 brothers when he came to be chief, but his two 

 eldest sons are both Christians, and Mackenzie 

 thinks Sekhomi is in no danger from them. . . . 

 There are some nice flowers of the lily sort sprung 

 up since the rain began, but very few flowers of 

 other kinds yet. The rains, however, have only 

 just commenced, and we shall have all the summer 

 heat going down." 



Again, from Pretoria, he writes on December 

 5 th:— 



" I got here on the 2d instant, and great was my 

 delight on receiving letters from home — the first I 

 have had since leaving Pietermaritzburg. ... It 

 seems quite strange to be in a civilized place again. 

 It is very pretty here now, just the height of sum- 

 mer. We are indulging in fruit and vegetables, 

 eggs and milk, to all of which we have long been 

 strangers. The peaches are hardly ripe yet, but 

 apricots are to be bought for a shilling a hundred. 

 ... In coming from Mungwato we had to stop a 

 week at the Meriko, as the river was very high with 

 the rains and we couldn't cross. I had some thoughts 

 of taking my waggon in pieces and floating the 

 things across on rafts, but the water kept subsiding, 



