24 
lieard anything more of my bond. All ready for a start 
to-morrow. 
May %th. Kemp and Dubois very busy all the morning 
packing the wagons, an operation which lasted till 
luncheon, after which our oxen were to be inspanned. 
And now our troubles began. The five Caffres who had 
agreed to go with us suddenly changed their minds and 
said they wouldn 't come. But I determined to make a 
start, and got two or three Caffres just to help us out of 
the town to the first outspan place. The oxen arrived, 
and, to our horror, one of the spans Dubois had bought 
at a sale turned out unbroken, and were as wild as hawks, 
and I thought our men never would get the brutes into 
the yokes. However, with patience and perseverance, and 
with much assistance, we succeeded in getting enough 
into each wagon to make a start, though a most 
unsatisfactory one. Some of the oxen had got away, and 
two of them which had been tied together by the horns 
managed to get their reims round a lamp post, and tugged 
away, first one side and then the other, till I cut them 
loose, fearing they would pull it down ; off they set at full 
gallop. Gates and I started off after one on our ponies, 
and a precious dance he led us in and out of gardens, 
paddocks, &c., until at last I was pounded in the cemetery, 
and saw the bullock and Gates disappearing out into the 
plains beyond the town ; but the latter turned him at last, 
and ultimately brought him back. We camped for the 
night about a mile outside the town, and though not a 
very brilliant one, I felt it was a start. The following is 
a list of the principal items of our outfit: — 2 ^^buck" 
wagons, 30 oxen, 5 ponies, 5 donkeys; a table and 2 
little chairs and camp stools, a large and small tent, 2 
large cases of beads, a lot of brass wire, a bale of 
salempore, 30 blue and 25 pairs of cotton blankets (the 
goods were for payment of Caffres), a heap of pots and 
