296 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
messengers to the Masaras three days previously, to 
open and clean out the pits. He came to me, saying 
he was as ignorant as a stone what to do about the 
wagon, that I must repair it for him, and prove if I 
was really his friend. It was no use my telling him 
I could not, for the Kaffirs believe all white men can 
do anything. I therefore made the best of it, cut 
down a branch of a camel thorn-tree; and having 
a saw, axe, adze, and augurs, put a bold face on the 
matter, and put in a false axle, which will run to the 
State at all events. A man never knows what he 
can do till he is tried. When I left England, if a 
man had brought me a broken-down wagon to put 
a new axletree in, I should as soon have thought of 
flying as making the attempt. Sechele looked on 
the whole time, and proposed the most ridiculous 
plans of making the axle secure. Amongst others, 
he hit upon what he and his people were unanimous 
in considering an excellent one, and they were highly 
displeased I would not act upon their suggestion: 
this was, to screw the augur through the false 
axle deep into the old one, and there let it remain. 
We have just had a very narrow escape of being 
burnt up; our road lay through thick mapani 
trees, with tall white grass, thick and dry as a deal 
board, on each side. Some one had set the grass on 
fire in fifty places behind us and below the wind. 
A stiff breeze was bringing it to us at a tremendous 
pace, and we were enveloped in dense smoke. I 
saw at length, some distance away, the red flames 
