“_September 1st._--Mild, cloudy morning.... I had been much discouraged by the oxen being so tired last night, and this morning was pleased to find ourselves arrive at the Ramaqueban River at least an hour sooner than I had hoped. Petersen’s waggon was on the opposite side.[15] However, we stuck in the drift. Poor ‘Weiman,’ with his blind eye, was in front, and proved awkward, and little ‘Vinal’ lay down. Petersen, however, sent his driver and two good oxen, and we came out easily and had breakfast. Here some Dutchmen squatted last season to hunt, and took the fever--men, women, and children. Petersen says about half-a-dozen of them died. He thinks it was in January. The trees along the river’s bed show a faint budding of green, as I have now seen for some time. The girl who came with us to Tati was travelling on with Petersen, and her brother had come on with us last night to join her. The cool breeze to-day was very pleasant. Petersen’s boys had dug for water. Petersen went on, as he usually makes one short trek during the day. I followed in the evening, and shortly after midnight crossed the drift of the Impakwe and outspanned. There seems plenty of water in the river. Barking of dogs; encampment of Dutch hunters. Petersen had turned in. Part of this trek was through a somewhat sandy country, but on the whole we are on a much firmer road than we were before reaching Tati. Pitched into marmalade; it is wonderful how much one enjoys such things here, where the coffee is without milk, the bread without butter, and the meat dry as chips. “_September 2d._--Pleasant breeze. Petersen called me. I find I am likely to have great luck. Here lives the Dutchman whose family suffered so much from fever on the Ramaqueban. He has built a straw hut, cool, roomy, and snug, with a higher entrance than the Kafir huts, but shaped like them. His wife and family are with him, his eldest married daughter, and members of the next generation. He has cattle and goats, does his own blacksmith’s work, and hunts. They go as soon as the unhealthy season begins to John Lee’s. They intend, in four years I think, to return to their farm on the Meriko. Petersen acted as interpreter, and it is arranged that I wait for the Dutchman, who intends going to-morrow in my direction to get wood and hunt. He will lend me some oxen. I believe it is nothing but the brackish water, especially the Seruli water, that has made such a mess of my oxen. The Dutchman says there is plenty of game along the road.... Noticed when out in the afternoon, and we crossed the river-bed, how easily the water rose, when one of the boys scooped out a hole with his hands; very different from the dry river-beds the other side Tati.