an improvement on any of our own to need
discussion, and with the earliest dawn we
hopefully recommenced our journey.

For two days we travelled in the proposed
direction, but on the third there appeared
before us, faintly traced against the bright
blue sky, a range of mountainous hills, whose
nobly varied outline struck out into bold
spurs, or shot up into lofty peaks with pale
rocky summits, which, polished by the storms
of ages, shone in the African sunshine almost
like snow. The admiration with which we
gazed on them was, however, considerably
diminished by Hans's announcement that he
feared our path would lie across them, for
that they evidently extended too far east
and west for us to travel round. On
the succeeding day, when we encamped at
noon, he went forward to seek among these
hills for any practicable track for the
wagon.

In the evening he returned, with a
tolerably favourable report, and the following
morning we began the ascent. Long
and toilsome it proved. The road was
rugged beyond all previous experience, full
of rocks and deep gullies, with now and then
a chasm which the oxen had to leap. I had
followed the wagon up on foot, and when I
saw the sloping hill-sides, slippery
watercourses, and boulder-strewn defiles, along
which it was pitching and tossing like an
unwieldy ship in a heavy sea, I became
alarmed for the safety of its passengers, and
took them out.

At length we reached the highest point of
the ascent, which was also its most difficult
part, as the only path it afforded swept
round a precipitous ledge, jutting out from a
spur of the mountain. With much cracking
of Hans's brobdingnagian whip, and many
loud cries of warning and encouragement,
the timid oxen were persuaded to follow
their leader along the slippery narrow shelf,
which afforded them an uncertain footing,
and granted hardly six inches grace to the
wagon wheels.

But, the oxen struggled bravely with their
difficulties, terrified though they evidently
were by a huge beetling cliff which overhung
the path, and was so lightly poised, that it
seemed as if a crack of our driver's whip
might send it hurtling down upon us. It
held its ground, however, glooming darker,
heavier, and closer upon us as we proceeded,
until at the farther end it hung down like a
portcullis, but a few feet above us—fewer
than we had imagined, for when our wagon
essayed to pass beneath, it struck its tent
violently against the rock. The shock
caused it to swerve a few inches on the
slippery ledge, but those inches were
all-important. With scarcely a jerk it slid over
the edge, hung for a moment in the air, the
fore-wheel quickly followed, and then
the wagon rolled heavily over the precipice,
dragging rapidly down in its train, two by
two, the unfortunate and struggling oxen,
which none had power to save.

It was a horrible sight, the vain efforts of
the poor animals to retain their footing, as
they were swept resistlessly down, and their
wild, despairing eyes, as they felt themselves
hurried to destruction. Then our ears were
filled with the din of splintering branches
and crashing timber, as the heavy mass
crushed down trees, and struck against rocks,
in its swift descent. Then the echoes caught
up the sounds, throwing them back from
peak to peak with tenfold force, until at
length they passed away in low, faint moans,
like the last suffering utterances of our poor
oxen. When all was again silent, we knelt
and looked over the ledge; and there, dimly
visible at the bottom of a deep chasm, intermingled
with branches and stones, lay a
shattered heap which had once been our
wagon and oxen.

The magnitude of this fresh misfortune
almost overwhelmed us. Alone in the midst
of a vast wilderness, without conveyance,
without food, without arms to kill the wild
animals or goods to barter with the Kafirs
in exchange for cattle; without clothing or
shelter, without any of the requirements of
civilised beings. This presented an appalling
prospect, especially with young and feeble
charges such as mine were. Remembering
my sister's distress when we lost our way, I
expected that she would be quite overpowered
by this new calamity with its long train
of certain evils. But, if there was a spark of
heroism among us, it certainly glowed in her
bosom, in that hour of extreme trial. Hers
were the first words of thanksgiving for our
preserved lives, hers the first words of hope
to cheer us, and hers the first and best
advice—that we should travel on, on foot in the
direction we were going, trusting that, before
our strength was exhausted, we should reach
some Kafir kraal, where we might obtain
assistance, or else that we might recover the
road, and be overtaken by some traveller or
trader. And, when we again resumed our
journey, a forlorn party of foot travellers, my
sister walked bravely on after Hans, clasping
the hand of her precious Birdie, who travelled
in my arms, while Jan (the cow), and the
Africander girl brought up the rear; the
latter with such heavy sighings and groanings,
that I think the echoes must have
helped her.

Just as we started, the leader gave a shout
of joy. We looked round in surprise, to
learn that he had discovered among the
bushes a little iron pot, which had fallen
from the front of the wagon. It seemed to
me, then, a small matter for congratulation;
but many a time afterwards had we cause to
prize it; for, during the remainder of our
journey, it was our sole culinary utensil, as
well as our milk-pail and water-can.

It was hard work, scrambling down steep
rocky descents, through tangled jungles, and