53 
to travel comfortably by means of wheels entirely dispelled. 
Scrambled up the pass again and thought over our next 
move. Sent back a Caffre with the four oxen to the wagons ; 
saving the bullocks from certain death, being my only 
consolation under our failure. Then it was settled that I 
should go down the Berg to search for Dubois. So the 
next morning early I started off with Christian, who was 
the only one amongst us able to talk Caffre and English. 
I also took one of the ponies to see whether it could get 
down the pass, and two or three men to carry my blankets 
and some food. Woodroffe went back to the wagons, as 
he wished to send off some letters to Natal, having almost 
decided to leave us at this place, as, owing to our numerous 
delays, the holiday he had allowed himself from his farm 
work was nearly run out. I reached the Oliphant river in 
about two hours and a half, which I waded across, and, 
from information received from some Caffres, we struck 
into a footpath which brought us to some kraals, where we 
were told we should hear of Dubois, and sure enough, by 
great good luck, I found him late in the afternoon 
surrounded by natives who were telling him the story 
of our attempt to get the cart down the hill, much 
to his and their own astonishment; but fortunately his 
bad knee was all a myth as he was all right, only rather 
tired from hard walking and short commons for the last 
four or five days. I found that he had sent off the two 
men he took with him to some still more distant kraals to 
seek for bearers, and not. being able to persuade any other 
man to face the pass he was unable to communicate with 
us. I was much relieved to find him well, but equally 
disgusted to find also that he had not been able to get a 
single bearer, the fact being that the diamond fields were 
the attraction to any Caffres that cared to work, as they 
not only could get very high wages there, but could 
also manage to pick up a good deal in other ways. I 
