INHOSPITABLE QUARTERS. 213 



me, and he dared not go against his orders, He 

 left me in dudgeon, and I was glad to be rid of him, 

 I had a very slight attack of fever at the time, and 

 his noise and insolence were very annoying, 



"After this I sent off my driver with a span of 

 oxen, to take the broken wheel on a sledge of boughs 

 to Tati, and wrote to Brown asking him to send me 

 a waggon, if possible, to bring me out, and a spare 

 wheel also for my own waggon ; or, if not, to get the 

 wheel I sent him mended for me. The oxen that I 

 still had left had to go many miles for water every 

 day. The mare and the goats had nothing but filthy 

 water to drink from holes dug in the ground. For 

 my own use I got water from the pits, where the 

 people dig for it, for I was in the midst of the Maka- 

 lakas. I myself was a prisoner in my own kraal, for 

 I dared not leave the waggon. I had with me three 

 of my Matabele slave-boys and one Bushman. We 

 got on pretty well for a few days, but soon the people 

 began to drive my boys from the water, which they 

 claimed the right to, having made the pits. This 

 was the water for my own use, and it appeared also 

 that the water at which their own goats drank was 

 denied to mine, and they and my mare driven away 

 from it. I sent for the induna, an old Makalaka, 

 with whom I had hitherto refused to speak, in conse- 

 quence of his having stopped me the first time I 

 tried to go through. I gave him a present of ammu- 

 nition on condition of his allowing my boys to get 

 water ; and, after promising to see that all was right, 

 he asked for more presents, which I refused, and the 



