90 
by diving, but in vain ; and I was getting rather alarmed 
lest lie should have got jammed amongst the rocks in some 
way, when he reappeared, and we pulled him out on a 
shelving bank of sand: just at this moment old ^^Slangey" 
and the hunter appeared upon the scene. We were glad 
to find the old fellow had kept his word and returned to us 
again. He brought a few mealie cobs as a present, and 
two men as bearers, being all he could get at his kraal in 
the way of eatables or men, the king having, shortly 
before his arrival, sent down for bearers to carry his ivory, 
and the messenger had levied black mail upon all the 
people round. We asked Slangey" after the missus," 
and he told us she was well, but very ugly, and had given 
him no ^'juala," or beer, which he had been looking 
forward to ; and he also found an addition to the family 
had arrived in his absence. He brought me a letter from 
Erskine, who had gone into the interior from Delagoa Bay, 
and finding some Caffres coming into this district, sent a 
letter to me on the chance of their seeing us; the men 
happened to arrive at ^^Slangey's" kraal while he was 
there, and passed the letter on by him, concluding rightly 
we must be the white men it was intended for. It seemed 
odd to receive a letter in such a place, and, of course, it 
was the merest chance I ever got it. It was an odd 
coincidence, but I have no reason to doubt the fact, as the 
Caffres believe in witchcraft and spiritualism, that the 
soothsayer at Klangilan's kraal told him he would catch us 
up, and arrive at the death of an elephant or hippopotamus. 
The chief sent his thanks for the blanket, and expressed 
his regret at being unable to send us more men. The 
quarrelling and row over cutting up the hippo amongst 
the Caffres for the best morsels was tremendous, so I 
retired from the scene, not without a shiver at seeing the 
alligators puUing under some of the entrails the Caffres 
happened to throw into the river, and unpleasantly near 
