42 
not pull it out, so we had to unload and set to work with 
the spade to dig away the earth round the wheels, and at 
last the two spans managed to pull the wagon through. 
The next had to come, and laying down some large stones 
in the worst place, and keeping both spans going at a good 
pace, with an extra amount of yelling and whipping, we 
got it over without sinking in. E.'s cart parted from the 
wagon it is tied to during the operation, and had to be 
bound up with reims before it could travel farther. At 
least ten degrees of frost again this morning, and the 
whole country round as white as a sheet ; but the sun is 
soon up and warms us again. The weather in the day- 
time is perfection. We are often passing and repassing a 
caravan of four Dutch wagons bound for the gold fields, 
containing whole families, and we wonder how they 
manage to stow away, for their wagons are much smaller 
than ours, and we have none too much room. E. thinks 
they look very untidy and must pig it considerably. We 
thought the roads in Natal bad enough, but, oh ! those in 
the Transvaal are awful, really almost impassable at some 
points. The Dutchmen are a lazy race, and without any 
energy of body or mind ; they have no means of loco- 
motion but by wagons, and their country is fuU of mud 
holes and bogs, and yet they will rather stick fast and 
have to dig out a wagon, than spend a few hours in making 
a solid bottom for the road, though there is any quantity 
of material lying round the place. They are content to 
live in a miserable mud house, with not a sign of clean- 
liness or comfort about them, and what they eat was often 
a puzzle to us. Schnaps is their drink, and, with bad 
tobacco, their only comfort. I thought how different it 
would all have been if the Yankees had got the country. 
Saw several grass fires in our night trek, and very pretty 
they look, covering the country with regular lines of 
flame. Found some Caffres burning the grass round the 
