d on their trip. The men were all
Boers and Kaffirs, except the engineer; all strong, good-natured men, but
the least bit suspicious of their employers. They had come in an English
ship, wore English clothing, and if their English accent was not quite up
to the standard the natives could not make the distinction.

They examined Jordan's saddle with a great deal of curiosity, as it was,
with the rest of the luggage, put upon the wagon. One of them, in broken
English, asked about it; where in England he found it.

He laughingly answered that they could not make any such saddle in
England; that it was a Mexican saddle. Then the Boer wanted to know if he
were a Mexican.

"Not by a blamed sight," said Jordan. "Do I look like er greaser?"

The Boer looked at him helplessly.

"Did you never har of ther United States?" asked Jordan.

The Boer shook his head. "Never har of America and Americans?" Jordan
asked.

The Boer smiled. He had heard of Americans, and asked eagerly if Jordan
and his friend came from America.

"Yo' may bet yo'r everlastin' broken Dutch diaphram that we did," said
Jordan, at which the Boer hurried to tell his companions that the two
strangers were not English, notwithstanding their clothing.

The first eight days of the journey, the travelers found excellent roads,
and averaged twenty-seven miles a day. They did not go by the capital,
but turned off to the left.

The first day the road lay mostly over the coast mountains. Toward night
they entered upon the table-lands of Natal, which were generally level,
except where, here and there, a low mountain spur had to be crossed. It
was a grassy country, sparsely dotted with palms, with here and there
timber in sight up ravines that ran down from the hills, and occasionally
they ran upon clusters of heath-flowers. Indeed, the whole country was
covered with flowers of rare beauty, but mostly odorless. It was all new
and strange, and was noted with keen interest by the two Americans. It
was the rainy season, and the road was soft in places, and some of the
streams were pretty high. But they got along without serious trouble. One
had been in Nevada, the other in Arizona, and both in Texas.

The first night they camped by a little stream, ate their supper, and
spread their beds by some willows on the grass. It was a perfectly calm
night, and in that clear air the stars shone magnificently.

As they were smoking their pipes after supper Sedgwick pointed ou