A WISH IN ADVERSITY. 225 



once more. When you wrote of coming out to me I 

 was both pleased and sorry — sorry, because I thought 

 it would be best for me to return home when I 

 reached the coast, and yet, if you had actually met 

 me there, I could not have resisted the temptation 

 of setting off again with you. 



" I have often wished I had you with me, and 

 remember, when I got to Mungwato last April to 

 outfit, as I drove up to Gray's store, I thought if I 

 could have a wish it would be to see your waggon 

 coming in from the opposite direction. I little 

 imagined that you were yourself thinking the same 

 thing about the same time. The same idea occurred 

 to me the last time my waggon broke down on the 

 Zambesi road, and I was left to the mercy of the 

 natives of that part of the country. I thought, if 

 your waggon suddenly appeared, how I could turn 

 the tables on my persecutors, and how we could go 

 on together to the Zambesi. Of course I felt cer- 

 tain such a thing would not occur, but somehow it 

 got into my head. . . . 



"You will be glad to hear that I endorse your 

 theory that trying to trade, when on a sporting tour 

 or exploring, is an utter failure, and that had we 

 brought up light waggons we should have been 

 wiser — knowing all I know now. I have been 

 allied with Dutch Boers since parting from you, 

 and the more I see ^7/" them, the more I see through 

 them. I have still some of my old Maritzburg 

 bullocks left, a rare good sort, but from time to 

 time upon the journey have bought and broken 



Q 



