114 
Great was the anxiety, and many were the dismal forebodings to which my mysterious absence had given birth. A 
general gloom had pervaded the camp. There being no fuel with which to kindle a beacon-fire, whips had been cracked, and 
muskets discharged at intervals, both during the day and night; and my horse’s spoor having been completely effaced by the 
rain, three separate parties had gone out in search of me, in different directions, but in vain. Those only who have expe- 
rienced the warm cordiality which grows up between sree in so wild and adventurous an expedition as that in which my 
companion and myself had embarked, are capable of fully understanding the nature of the welcome I received —the sensa- 
tions created by my safe and unhoped-for return, even extending themselves to the disaffected of our followers. On 
comparing notes with my fellow-traveller, I was concerned to find that in many respects he had scarcely fared better than 
myself; the knuckle-bone of a tainted ham having supplied the place of a smoking sirloin and richly-dotted plum-pudding, — 
and, with a cupful of dirty water, constituted, alas! his Christmas dinner. 
Lead of the Liesbok as preserved by Capt, Pars. 
