Three days later they started for Johannesburg, by way of Delagoa Bay and Pretoria, Grosvenor being very anxious to get a glimpse of life on the Rand and to gain some knowledge of diamonds and diamond mining before he finally bade farewell to civilisation. Since Johannesburg lay on the direct line of their route, and the knowledge sought might possibly prove useful in the future, Dick raised no objection to the proposal, especially as they went armed with letters of introduction from Mitchell to some of the most influential of the Rand magnates and others whose advice and assistance would be exceedingly helpful. A busy three weeks spent in the city and at Witwatersrand enriched them with much very valuable information, both particular and general, and also enabled them to acquire four excellent horses and an Indian coolie groom named Ramoo Samee, who not only bore a most admirable character, but also raised no objection when informed of the nature and scope of the adventure upon which his employers were bound. Here, too, and also at Pretoria, the partners endeavoured to secure the services of a hunter as guide and general superintendent, but were unable to meet with one who conformed in all respects to their requirements; they therefore ultimately decided to defer their further quest until their arrival in Bulawayo, which was to be the point from which they would finally bid farewell to civilisation. But upon their arrival at Bulawayo, although they met with no difficulty in providing themselves with a brand-new wagon and a team of twenty "salted" oxen, together with a Hottentot driver named Jantje, and a Kafir boy named 'Nkuku as voorlouper, no suitable candidate for the post of guide offered himself or could be found; and finally, after devoting a full week to fruitless search and enquiry, Dick and Grosvenor agreed to start without one, and trust to luck and their own good sense. Everybody, with one solitary exception, declared that it was a most risky thing to do; but the solitary exception, in the shape of an old Boer farmer named Van Zyl, applauded their pluck, and declared that they were far more likely to succeed by learning the lesson of the wild for themselves, and depending upon their own courage and adaptiveness, than if they set out under the guidance of another, and remained more or less in leading strings throughout the journey. "What I would advise," he said, "is that you should look out for a good `nigger'; he will be far more helpful to you than any white man, and will be content to be a good servant to you--if you are careful to keep him in his proper place--instead of trying to be your master." This sounded like good, sensible advice, coming as it did from a man who had been born, brought up, and had spent a long life on the borderline separating civilisation from savagedom, and it finally confirmed them in the determination, to which they had already practically come, to do without a white guide.