Finding the first vley dried up, we had a twelve miles' march before breakfast. Two or three Dutch Boers, probably belonging to the lonely dwelling in the distance, made their appearance on horseback, with their vrouws or daughters behind them, riding astride like the Kaffir and Fingo women, and jogged along with us for some distance, ignorant of the amusement they afforded the men. The conversation turned chiefly on the disturbed and dangerous state of their country, and they told us that all their native servants had gone off two nights before. Another heavy thunder storm suddenly burst on us, accompanied with such torrents of rain that we were soon wet through; the sluits running like rivers, and the plain so flooded, in less than an hour, as to resemble a lake; the men constantly plunging into the deep gullies. Though disagreeable enough, with our clothing soaked through and clinging to our bodies, it was much less so than the steaming condition we were thrown into when the sun broke out again. The Governor-General, with the Cavalry Division and Second Brigade, we found already encamped on the opposite side of the Caledon River at the Commissie Drift, which we reached in the afternoon, their tents stretching for a great distance along the edge of the high steep bank. We waded through the rapid stream, which is confined between high wooded banks like the Orange River, and marching through the camp, pitched our tents in Brigade on the extreme left. For the next three days that we remained here in standing camp, we had constant heavy showers that completely flooded the lower ground within and round the camp, though the weather was warm and the heat of the sun between the storms very great. Our reduced commissariat was replenished from the neighbouring and very appropriately named station of Smithfield, where a large magazine had been previously formed, guarded till our arrival by the Burgher force of the Field-Cornetcy. The fishing here was better than at the Orange River, and the banks were soon lined with anglers, many of whom were very successful. Some of us caught from 40 lbs. to 50 lbs. weight of mullet and barga, with worms or locusts, the latter lying in thousands along the banks. Many agates and cornelians were picked up, and one or two pieces of onyx; sardine, opal and chalcedony are often found; but we saw none. The hippopotamus formerly abounded in this stream, but has entirely disappeared. Among the other luxuries of these rivers ought to be included that of firewood, a valued boon to the men, and a great improvement to our beef and meal scons, which had a rather peculiar flavour when done over a cow-dung fire. On Sunday morning the whole Division paraded at 6 A.M. for divine service, forming in "contiguous column of brigades," on the left of the camp; a missionary of the English Church from Smithfield read the prayers.