Howick-Asecond Waggon-Castle Hotel-Waterfalls-Troubles with the Boys-And the Waggon-Repacking-Sunday Picnics-Our Start-Our first Outspan-No Game-Mooi River.

THE waggon-maker was not up to his time with the waggon; and as all our preparations were finished, and we could do no good staying in Pieter Maritzburg, where the heat, which had increased daily, made residence unpleasant, A. and myself determined on riding out to Howick, a small village fourteen miles from the town, on the main road to Pretoria, and at an elevation of a thousand feet higher, where we were assured we should be able to spend a few days enjoyably with the benefit of a cooler atmosphere; and there we intended staying until F. should bring the waggon out, and let us commence our journey.

Before leaving Maritzburg we were introduced to a traveller with waggon and oxen, etc., all ready for the road, who wished to join our party, at all events as far as Pretoria; and as his object, like our own, was to go in for any sport possible to procure on the way, and not be too hurried, we agreed to travel together till anything turned up to part us; as it is always an important advantage to have at one's call a second span of bullocks and extra heads and

in any

hands to fall back upon any emergency, such as an unusually stiff bit of country, a stick in a mudhole, a breakdown, or any other of the many obstacles we had to encounter and overcome before we could reach our destination. P.'s waggon was already on the top of the town-hill, as the ascent of a very formidable mountain just out of Maritzburg is called, and which in bad weather has often delayed a heavily laden waggon for a fortnight before it has reached the summit. As ours would be able to join him in three days' time he determined to stay where he was, and come on with F. to pick us up at Howick. A. and myself started off at three o'clock, with the few articles we required for two or three days' stay in our saddle-bags. From the side of the hill we had a very fine view of the town and low-lying country for many miles round; but when fairly on the top, ups and downs of sparsely covered sand gave us an uninteresting ride for a couple of hours before we came in sight of the lights of the village, for the sun had gone down and darkness was upon us before we arrived at the Castle Hotel, kept by Mr. Pruffer and his wife. Pruffer himself is a German, and has had a most adventurous life. He was in the first rush at Ballarat, and passed many years wandering about Australia before trying his luck at the diamond fields of South Africa: from there he migrated to Maritzburg, where he built, and for some time kept the Royal Hotel. Things not going well, he took the Castle, at Howick, which he and Mrs. Pruffer now do their best, to make like a real

home to all their visitors. It is worth a long journey to sit on the balcony of the little house after an excellent dinner and listen to Pruffer's yarns and very quaint and shrewd remarks on the men and manners he has come across in his travels, from a blue-eyed, broken-nosed Hottentot to Prince Bismarck.

At Howick the great objects of interest are two waterfalls, the first where the river falls, when full, a clear 360 feet into a broad gorge, down which it takes its course till it forms part of the Umgeni river. About two miles above this fall is a place to me connected with a very pleasant party, where the river broadens out and forms a beautiful series of small waterfalls across the whole breadth of the channel of the stream; and on every dry ridge, and from every deep crevice of the rocks in the centre of the water, grow brilliant flowers and tall grasses, making a lovely contrast in colour with the mosses and water-weeds on the spray-splashed rocks.

F. did not get away with the waggon till Wednesday evening, but managed to reach the summit of the town hill before he outspanned for the night. While there the forelouper proved obstreperous, so F. dismissed him on the spot, and sent him at once right away from the waggon. Next day, after they had inspanned and were on the road, a sheriff's officer appeared, who insisted on taking Francis the black cook away with him, as the stupid fellow had got into a mess with some fascinating creature of the same colour, who on his departure had sued him for breach of promise, and

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obtained a verdict with damages at 157., which with costs amounted to 20/

F. came on without him, and picking up P. on the road, the two waggons arrived in the evening just after dark, and outspanned on the top of Howick Hill, at the back of the hotel.

As a boy like Francis was almost a necessity to us at our first start off, F. next day rode into Pieter Maritzburg, to see what he could do towards releasing him from "trunk;" and as on inquiring he heard that the boy was well worth his hire, he determined to pay the fine for him, and let him work it off in the wages we had agreed to. As the authorities made no difficulties, F. paid the fine at once, and started Francis off in the post-cart to join the waggons.

The rough road from Maritzburg was of service in showing up any weak point there might still be about the waggon, while at a convenient place to have it put to rights. We discovered that one of the tires needed tightening, which delayed us another two days, as the Howick blacksmith had such a press of business on that he could not give us his time at once; and it would not have been of any avail to hurry him, or we should have been told to take our waggon elsewhere. The delay also allowed us to make good such things as we had either overlooked or forgotten in town, and also to turn out all the stores and blankets, etc., and pack them in again, so as to give us a little more breathing and moving room. Our waggon was eighteen feet from end to end, and four feet six inches broad, fitted

fore and aft with a large box running across the entire breadth. The front box formed the fore seat, with a foot-board in front. From the end of the front box to the end of the waggon ran a treble canvas tent supported with strong circular ribs, and this was our only home and shelter for many months. In the front box we kept the smaller cooking apparatus (which was in constant use), our knives, plates, spoons, salt, pepper and various condiments, and whatever meat, bread, etc., we might be eating at the time; also our carpenter's tools, cleaning rods for the guns, cartridges, matches and tobacco; in fact, it formed a receptacle for anything which had not a fixed place of its own. The back box we filled with small stores of candles, jams, pickles, coffee, sugar, and rusks, so as not to be obliged to apply oftener than necessary to the large packages in the interior, which necessitated a partial unpacking of the whole waggon. Along the outsides we hung on hooks, or fastened, the spades, saws, and pick-axe, the poles of our tent, and a table—or rather the board which, supported by two brackets, formed a table our frying-pan and gridiron, and the triangle sticks to hang the kettle from. Underneath the waggon, hung our kettle, cooking-pots and lantern, tins of anti-friction grease for the axles, and anything which either from its dirty nature or size, was unfit for the inside.

A waggon before it is properly packed is "chaos" in perfection, and takes a very long time to put shipshape. At first it looked as if there would be no possibility of packing our various goods in it, so that there might be left sufficient space between