158 MA TABELE LAND. 



not likely. I am sparing no pains to get a good 

 outfit. I have now twenty-six oxen, and am deter- 

 mined to be as well provided in every way as pos- 

 sible for the journey." 



After writing the above, Frank Oates rode out, 

 as he intended, to his waggon, and by 3 a.m. on the 

 5th of May was once more upon the road. Again 

 all went favourably for something like three hours 

 after starting, and a further distance of five or six 

 miles had been accomplished when, to the traveller's 

 unspeakable vexation, a fresh catastrophe of a like 

 kind occurred, this time the tire of the same wheel 

 breaking and necessitating another halt. He now 

 rode back into Bamangwato to see what could be 

 done, the upshot of which was that he there bought 

 two new waggons, and yet more oxen, so as to divide, 

 his load and lessen the risk of future accidents of this 

 vexatious kind. He also secured the services of a 

 Dutchman named Van Rooyen and his son, the 

 former of whom would act as driver to one of the 

 waggons and make himself generally useful. 



Whilst still completing these arrangements he 

 added a short supplementary letter to the last, from 

 which the following are extracts : — 



"May gt/i, 1874. 



" Since writing the letter of May 4th, which will 

 reach you at the same time this does, I have broken 

 down again. After finishing my letter to you I rode 

 out to the waggon, inspanned and trekked. I had 

 gone perhaps five or six miles, when the wheel 

 came to grief again, the tire breaking, and I had to 



