CHANGE OF PLANS. 227 



the season is so far advanced. I am principally 

 afraid for my boys, who are far more likely to suffer 

 than a white man is, who has a snug dry bed to lie 

 on, and other comforts ; and I distrust my old waggon, 

 which has played me false once already." On further 

 discussing the subject with Stoffel and his companion, 

 he found, moreover, that he had somewhat mis- 

 understood their plan, which was only to be travelling 

 towards the Zambesi now, and wait about upon the 

 road till April or May, when they would go forward 

 to the river. It was too late, they considered, to 

 attempt to reach the Zambesi the present season. 

 Though strongly tempted on some accounts to fall 

 in with their proposal and accompany them, upon 

 reflection he decided not to do so. It was the result, 

 however, of what had passed with them upon the 

 subject that led him to abandon, as intimated above, 

 his projected trip to the Shashani, and accompany 

 the trading party instead, as far upon the road 

 towards the Zambesi as they meant to travel before 

 coming to a stand. This would give him an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing an entirely fresh part of the country 

 beyond the Makalakas, and he could return when 

 it suited him. It is probable, too, that he still — if 

 hardly acknowledging it to himself — may have enter- 

 tained an ill-defined hope that by travelling in the 

 direction of the Zambesi he might even yet, through 

 some unlooked-for turn of circumstances, find himself 

 enabled to reach that river before the commencement 

 of another year. That hope, assuming its existence, 

 was one destined to be realized, little likely as it 



