AT THE SAND-HILLS. 
317 
hole in one of the staves (by what means I could 
not discover), and though, as yet, every thing was 
safe and uninjured inside, I have no doubt, that, 
had we been one day later in coming, they wmuld 
have enlarged the opening in the cask, and scattered 
or destroyed the contents, and we should have then 
had the unpleasant and laborious task of returning 
to that we had buried at Fowler’s Bay for a fresh 
supply. A bucket, which we had also left buried, 
was broken to pieces, a tw 7 o gallon keg carried off, 
and a twenty-five gallon cask full of water had been 
dug up, and the water drank or emptied, so that 
we w r ere very fortunate in arriving when we did to 
prevent further loss. 
The black boys, who had gone a-head with the 
sheep, returned soon after our arrival, tired and 
hungry, having only had one meal since they left 
us on the 25th. They had been over the sand- 
hills to fetch water, and were now coming to try 
and find the flour which they knew we had left 
buried at these plains. After dark, accompanied by 
the overseer, I took the horses down to the water, 
but the sand had slipped in, and we could not get 
them watered to-night. 
February 27. — Sending the overseer and two 
boys down with the horses to the w r ell this morning, 
I and the other boy set to work, and dug out the 
cask with the flour, which we then weighed out, 
and subdivided into packages of fifty pounds each, 
for the convenience of carrying. The native I had 
