WHITE MEN AT THE FALLS. 157 



Lake Ngami with two traders, both looking dread- 

 fully ill from the effects of fever ; indeed they seemed 

 to have had a very narrow escape. They had buried 

 one man, and reported the death of another at the 

 Lake, — Henry Gray, the trader who, the year before, 

 had accompanied Frank and William Oates a good 

 part of the way up country when they first left 

 Pietermaritzburg. 



Before resuming his journey Frank Oates wrote 

 home a few lines to his brother William as follows : — 



" Bamangwato, May 4th, 1874. 



" I wrote to Charley a few days ago, telling him 

 I was just setting off for the Zambesi. As bad luck 

 would have it, one of my hind wheels came to grief 

 in jolting over that vile piece of road you must 

 remember, about ten miles from here ; and there I 

 was, laid on my back. However, I put the wheel 

 on a sledge of branches, and brought it with six 

 oxen to be mended here, and once again am off. I 

 am going to ride to the waggon to-night by moon- 

 light, and hope to be at the Mahalapsi River before 

 the sun is very high. . . . 



" We have reckoned up about thirty waggons 

 going Zambesi way this year ; some are hunters, 

 some traders, and some tourists. I expect most of 

 them will stand at the same place, beyond Daka, and 

 one must walk from there to the Falls. I suppose 

 twelve white men at least will be at the Falls this 

 year, so I shall not be alone, and one will be in the 

 way of help in case of emergency arising, which is 



