BLOEMFONTEIN. 
231 
CHAPTEE VII. 
1858 . 
MACHIN-I AM DESERTED-FIRST VISIT TO LAKE NGAMI 
.—• LECHULATEBE SECHELE’S DAUGHTER THE BUSH ON 
FIRE-MERICO. 
I sold all my oxen well in Bloemfontein (flower 
fountain), and invested the proceeds in a wagon, 
stores, horses, and dogs, and, with great difficulty, 
powder, lead, tin, caps, and flints, having found two 
friends to stand security for me that I would not 
barter any part of these latter articles to Kaffirs. I 
eventually got a permit from the President, BoshofF, 
to convey it from the Government stores into the 
interior, and this had the effect of satisfying field-cor¬ 
nets and other officers until I crossed the Yaal Eiver, 
the boundary between Orange Eiver Free State and 
the Transvaal Eepublic. These states were, unfor¬ 
tunately, at war with each other. I had not left the 
boundary far behind me when I was asked by a 
field-cornet what I had in my wagon, and where my 
permit was. I showed him Boshoff’s with the most 
perfect confidence and innocence in the world, but it 
availed me little, for, as soon as the field-cornet had 
made it out, he spat upon it, trampled it under foot, 
