The Daka River was reached upon the 21st, and the day after, some miles further on, two other small streams were reached and crossed, and then a third into which apparently the first two flowed. This last was a small river called the Pantamatenka, just beyond which is the place where waggons stand for travellers going to the Zambesi. These streams, it was evident, must all be very small, except during the rains. They were small indeed even now, though overflowing their banks and running quickly. Almost immediately after crossing the last-named, Frank Oates’s waggon stuck in a very soft muddy place, but Mr. Blockley, who was in charge of the trading-station here, came with a span of oxen to help him out, and the following morning his waggon was taken up to where the store was built, on a little stony kopje above the watery flats. Mr. Blockley was here in the capacity of agent for another trader, then absent--Mr. Westbeach--and with him was a Dr. Bradshaw, who had been some time in the country. On the succeeding day, December 24th, the waggons of two other traders, Messrs. Trescott and Wilmore, arrived from the Zambesi, the former of whom had lately been ill with fever, and was still very deaf and weak, and scarcely able to eat anything. He described their recent sufferings from fatigue, hunger, sickness, and the impossibility of keeping dry, as something truly wretched. Christmas Day was celebrated at the store by the cooking and eating of a large plum-pudding worthy of the occasion, and the day following Frank Oates busied himself with preparing for his walk to the Falls. This he intended to accomplish in company with Dr. Bradshaw, who had been there before, and volunteered to go with him. The 27th was the day fixed for the start, and before leaving he wrote home in high spirits the following letter to his mother, which Messrs. Trescott and Wilmore were to take with them when they returned to Tati. It was the last he wrote:-- “PANTAMATENKA, _December 27th, 1874_. “I am just about to set off, to walk to the Victoria Falls, which are only three days from here. This place is somewhere about fifteen miles to the north-westward of Daka, a place you will probably see in any recent map. Neither place is a town of any sort, but each is merely a river flowing to the Zambesi. At both rivers waggons stand, as they are both out of ‘the fly.’ The place where I now am is quite civilized, as it is a trading-station, and the man in charge here has a snug little house, well thatched, to keep out the rain. He has lived here three years, and is in the employ of Westbeach, who is at present at the residence of Sepopo, the Zambesi chief, some distance up the river. His man, Blockley, undertakes the charge of my effects whilst I proceed to the Falls.