198 MATABELE LAND. 



but on the eve of a fresh misfortune. " We passed 

 a kraal," he writes in his Journal, "on the left side 

 of the road, perhaps two miles from where we 

 started, and had gone perhaps one mile more, when, 

 in crossing a small 'sloot,' 1 one of the wheels gave 

 way and came down, broken to pieces. So much," 

 he concludes, " for the new waggon, and for my 

 hopes and expectations!" 



The day after this catastrophe, which appeared 

 in its results fatal to all hope of his reaching the 

 Zambesi that season, late as it had now become, he 

 arranged to send his driver — a Kaffir named Klaas, 

 whom he had engaged from a Mr. Horn upon the 

 Ramakwebani — and three boys, with the broken 

 wheel to Tati, and also with a note to Mr. Brown, 

 asking for assistance. The annoyances he suffered, 

 during their absence of about a fortnight, from the 

 natives of the neighbouring kraals are described at 

 length in some of his letters, largely quoted from 

 below. It is therefore sufficient here to say that 

 he was wilfully subjected by them to every possible 

 inconvenience, was in constant peril of being robbed, 

 and at one time even appeared to be in some danger 

 of his life. The whole of this time he could not 

 leave his waggon, lest he should return to find it 

 plundered, and even his own boys were not all to 

 be depended on. 



At last, on the 8th of September, the needful 

 help arrived, and he was released from his state of 

 bondage. He had just had a most threatening visit 



1 Ditch. 



