ENVIABLE PLIGHT. 
423 
to stir, and the moon is just seven days past the full; 
therefore, I must now wait fourteen days, so as to 
have the full benefit of it, and then, if I hear nothing 
previously, start myself in search, a good 250 miles, 
without other meat or drink of any sort than what 
my rifle will provide me with—which is precarious, 
to say the least of it—and then back again another 
250 miles. It has rained about forty or fifty miles 
ahead at the Qualeba, and I hear that the young 
grass is fast springing up, and that there is plenty of 
water. As the residue of my oxen are wretched in 
appearance, and keep on dying, I shall start to¬ 
morrow on the oxen’s account, and see if I can come 
there, but I have great misgivings, as the wagon is 
very heavy and I am but a poor driver ; however, I 
cannot stay longer here. We have been most pro¬ 
videntially sustained with a good supply of meat all 
along; two more rhinoceros, an eland, springbuck, 
quagga, tsessebe, roan antelope, pallah, and blue 
wildebeest having succumbed, and weeks ago I 
thought the last head had taken itself off to other 
quarters. 
Now for an adventure with a lion, which I have 
reserved for the last. On Friday the old Masara 
captain paid me a visit; he had seen a lion on the 
path, and left a lot of Masaras to watch him. I 
had been working hard all day in the hot sun with 
an adze, making a dissel-boom for the wagon, and 
was tired, lame, and shaky in the arms, and did 
not feel at all up to the mark for rifle-shooting; 
