After this welcome rest we resumed our march next morning, but before many miles were accomplished, the waggons in front came to a stand-still at the foot of a steep short hill. Judging from its apparently moderate height we thought the stoppage would only be brief, but to our surprise, soon observed the more knowing drivers in rear of the train begin to make deliberate preparation for breakfast, those nearer the front contenting themselves with a biscuit. Fires were made, coffee pounded, dirty bags rummaged, and lumps of raw meat drawn out, studded with copper caps and bits of broken pipe, and plentifully dusted with crumbs and powdered biscuit; and they were soon at work, tooth and nail. As for the troops, no orders having been given for breakfast, from the uncertainty of our movements, we went without. The last forelouper had finished his scanty pickings and wiped the greasy clasped-knife on his woolly pate, the drivers had smoked out a digestive pipe, and were fast asleep under their waggons, before the "fall in" sounded, and we moved forward. We had wondered at the long delay, but were more astonished, when we came to the ascent, that it had ever been accomplished with such heavily laden waggons. This achieved, the road was tolerably level, and we jogged on at a good pace to a ruined and deserted missionary settlement, where we were again brought to a stand by the breaking down of a waggon in the middle of a drift. There was nothing for it but to unload and carry everything to the opposite bank, when officers and men set to and spoked it out, inch by inch; the driver, meanwhile, manufacturing a new "dissel-boom" or pole out of a young tree. On approaching Fort Hare, we were met by a large mounted party of officers who had come out to welcome us, and shortly the place came in sight, which appeared, from the hill, of considerable size, consisting of white wooden houses, and dark Fingoe huts, widely scattered round the fort. Though covering a large extent of ground, the works hardly deserve the name, being in reality nothing more than a small village of thatched mud cottages, enclosed by picketting and low walls mounting a few guns and old musquetoons. Our arrival was greeted with lively demonstrations of joy by the coloured population, who headed the band, yelling and dancing in a state of complete nudity. Our camp, with two others consisting of Europeans and Fingoe Levies, was on a green level plain, between the fort and the River Chumie, beyond which rose a fine range of lofty mountains. Anything more miserable in the shape of barrack accommodation than the officers' quarters in the fort can hardly be conceived; uneven floors of dried cow-dung, bending walls of "wattle and daub," smoke-blackened rafters and thatch, crazy doors, and ill-fitting windows, which exclude the light and admit in turn, wind, rain, and clouds of sand, are the characteristics of the best.