HALF MAD FROM THIRST. 
343 
when our difficulties will be in a great measure over; 
a week more to Sechele’s, where the fresh oxen I left 
behind -— thirteen of which, I hear, are still there all 
right—will be of immense assistance to us in getting 
to Mooi Eiver Dorp. The roads here are frightfully 
heavy ; fourteen good oxen, pulling all together ad¬ 
mirably, can only just move on at the rate of barely 
two miles an hour. 
16th. — Cahalla .—Weary work : forty-eight hours 
without one drop of water, and the heaviest sand it 
is possible to conceive. The oxen fell in the yoke 
from sheer exhaustion, but all contrived eventually to 
get here, with the exception of two ; one is dead, and 
the other has just now made his appearance. The 
oxen were half mad from thirst, and there is not a 
drop of water here. I had to outspan them and 
send them on to Letloche, a fountain twelve or fifteen 
miles ahead, and, after drinking their fill, they must 
come back again to trek the wagons. I never saw 
such a sight as this place; there are twelve or fifteen 
holes here, and by every one sit several Maccalacas 
Kaffirs, watching and ladling out with tortoise-shells 
the last drop of sand and water, as soon as ever it 
rises half an inch. I reached here with the horses 
late last night, and they got abundance of water; the 
worst part of our journey is now over, and I think, 
by resting a few days at Letloche, we may reach 
Sechele’s, without help. We overtook, at Nkowani, 
four wagons belonging to Boers, the far-famed old 
hunters, John Viljoen and Pet Jacobs ; they had had 
