MR. GILCHRIST'S JOURNEY. 269 



such comfort as he might be able, his friend Mr. 

 Gilchrist, in no common spirit of self-sacrifice, him- 

 self insisted on taking the sad journey alone into 

 the interior — to bring down thence and convey to 

 England all the deceased's effects ; to learn such 

 particulars as he could of his death, for the satis- 

 faction of his friends at home ; and if possible — a 

 service attended with especial difficulties — to visit 

 the grave, and place over it, to mark the spot, a 

 stone prepared for this purpose in Pietermaritzburg. 

 Gratefully availing himself of this generous offer, 

 William Oates sailed for England on April 2 2d, 

 having first seen Mr. Gilchrist leave Pietermaritz- 

 burg with two waggons, on his way up country ; 

 a sort of departure very different from that which 

 either of them had anticipated. The journey 

 undertaken by Mr. Gilchrist — under any circum- 

 stances a laborious and trying one enough — was 

 rendered doubly so by the sad object with which 

 he started ; nor did he return till every purpose 

 of the journey had been fulfilled. For not only 

 did he bring safely to the coast — and subsequently 

 to England — the large collections of natural history 

 specimens and curiosities, and the notes and journals 

 of his travels which Frank Oates had made, as well 

 as his two pointers, " Rail " and " Rock," but, in 

 spite of the obstacles opposed to his progress at the 

 Tati, he even proceeded to the spot where the 

 traveller's remains had been laid, and on his way 

 back succeeded in obtaining an interview on the 

 Ramakwebani River with Dr. Bradshaw, from whom 



