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found the oxen and brought them back to us — a piece of 
great good luck. In the afternoon I went for a stroll up 
the river to see if I could get a duck or other game, but 
failed to bag anything eatable, though I shot an enormous 
owl, which I carried back to camp and carefully skinned. 
I have in vain tried to get a shot at the Caffre cranes, that 
we see occasionally stalking over the plains. It was cold 
all day, and a great contrast to the weather we had had a 
fortnight before. 
Septemher 21th. Inspanned early and crossed the Vaal 
river, and outspanned for breakfast near a Dutchman's 
shanty, the first inhabited dwelling we had seen for some 
days. Before moving on again, we asked the farmer to 
let us leave two of the poorest oxen on his farm, as I felt 
sure they would not go much farther with the wagons, 
and were almost too far gone to recover under any 
circumstances. In our next trek we caught up three 
wagons that had left Leydenburg three days before us, 
and these were the first travellers we had seen on the road. 
One of the drivers, Jacob by name, was very aggravating 
on the trek to-day, so I seized him by the shoulders and 
shook him, till he nearly came out of his clothes, which 
were not over strong and rather ragged, so he threw down 
his whip and declined to drive, declaring he was nearly 
killed, when there was the usual jabberation, after 
which we went on again as before. We find we are 
getting over the ground much more rapidly than on the 
previous journey, though we have no more in the wagons 
than before, but the oxen are all good and work well 
together. 
September 2Sth. Sundae/, The three wagons arrived 
after dusk last evening and camped about 300 yards off, 
like ourselves remaining quiet during to-day. One of the 
proprietors came over to our camp, and shewed us some 
diamonds he had picked up at the fields, but I thought 
H 
