ch. vnj COLONIAL WAGGON-DRIVERS 147 
Colonial Englishman named Ulyate, whose great¬ 
grandfather had come to South Africa in 1820, as part 
of the most important English emigration that ever 
went thither. His father and sisters had lunched with 
us at the missionaries’ the day before; his wife’s baby 
was too young for her to come. It was the best kind 
of pioneer family ; all the members, with some of their 
fellow colonials, had spent much of the preceding three 
years in adventurous exploration of the country in their 
ox-waggons, the wives and daughters as valiant as the 
men ; i one of the two daughters I met had driven one 
of the ox-waggons on the hardest and most dangerous 
trip they made, while her younger sister led the oxen. 
It was on this trip that they had pioneered the way 
across the waterless route I was to take. For those 
who, like ourselves, followed the path they had thus 
blazed, there was no danger to the men, and merely dis¬ 
comfort to the oxen ; but the first trip was a real feat, 
for no one could tell what lay ahead, or what exact 
route would be practicable. The family had now settled 
on a big farm, but also carried on the business of 
“ transport riding,” as freighting with waggons is called 
in Africa ; and they did it admirably. 
With Ulyate were three other white waggon-drivers, 
all colonials ; two of them English, the third Dutch, or 
Boer. There was also a Cape boy, a Kaffir waggon- 
driver, utterly different from any of the East African 
natives, and dressed in ordinary clothes. In addition, 
there were various natives—primitive savages in dress 
and habit, but coming from the cattle-owning tribes. 
Each ox-team was guided by one of these savages, 
who led the first yoke by a leathern thong ; while the 
waggon-driver, with his long whip, stalked to and fro 
beside the line of oxen, or rode in the waggon. The 
