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drenclied. Some of the Caffres went off early to look 
again for any dead hippo's, but found none. They liad 
scarcely a bite for breakfast yesterday ; nothing last night 
or this morning, so, as the rain ceased about mid-day, we 
hunted for meat, but both Dubois and myself were 
unsuccessful (the Caffre hunters never seem to kill 
anything), and again the men went supperless to bed. 
The fact was we were in a district unfrequented by game. 
Next morning the Caffres had no breakfast, and had now 
been more than forty-eight hours without food ; but we 
thought it better to push on in the hope of coming amongst 
game again. It rained a little in the early morning, but 
cleared up to allow us to start about eight o'clock. "We 
passed two or three temporary huts which some Caffres 
had rigged up to live in while they were engaged in 
smelting ironstone, and forging their picks or hoes. The 
furnace was rather ingeniously contrived, made of clay 
baked in the sun, and the whole place was covered with 
heaps of charcoal which they had collected from a 
considerable distance. I saw lots of the ironstone which 
seems abundant hereabouts, and there seemed to be a very 
large per centage of ore in it. On the march I killed two 
waterbucks and Swartboy a third, so there was plenty of 
meat ; but the men, after having a meal, declined to carry 
any for their supper. I had now become rather callous 
about their running out of meat, as they had so often left 
it behind rather than carry any on for the next meal ; but 
in the afternoon I killed another waterbuck, so in this 
instance they didn't suffer for their laziness. A new 
Caffre turned up as a bearer, and two or three others were 
willing to go on with us a few days for the sake of some 
food, so we are well off for hands just now. The time 
these fellows go without food and make no complaint is 
astonishing ; and I really believe I was far more anxious 
about the matter than they were. Our chance of reaching 
