ptile had attacked him as he was walking through the bush close to
the town.

I knew two men at D'Urban. One was Mr. Jack Ellis, at present of the
firm of Dyer and Dyer, East London. The other was a man named Sims, who
had been known on the diamond-fields as "The Fighting Blacksmith." He
was of small stature, but possessed great strength, and was skilled in
the use of his fists. Mr. Ellis was in those days not by any means the
prosperous merchant he is today. Nevertheless he gave me what
assistance he could, and thus earned a claim on my gratitude which I
shall not forget.

Sims was working at his trade, but was not making more than a bare
living. I walked from one end of D'Urban to the other looking for work,
but times were bad and employment correspondingly scarce. Besides, I
knew no trade but mining, and was utterly without such education as
would have fitted me for office employment.

Three dolorous weeks I spent at D'Urban. Once I got a job with a
roustabout gang ballasting a ship, but the wages were only two
shillings a day; besides, the job did not last. The problem for me to
solve was, how to get away to East London. Once there I would be with
my family. Every morning I would go to Sims's shop to see if he had
succeeded in getting me anything to do.

At length tidings of joy Sims thought he had secured for me a suitable
billet. Could I drive four horses in a cart, he asked? Well, I had
certainly driven a pair of mules in a Scotch cart with fair success and
I could, in a way, handle a team of oxen. But when Sims explained the
situation further, my heart sank. An eccentric old gentleman, lately
from England, had purchased a cart and four and wanted some one to
drive him to King William's Town. This meant traversing the Native
Territories, where, at that period, the present fine highways were not
in existence. In fact, the only roads were, as I happened to know, a
series of criss-cross tracks leading from one trading station to
another over an extremely mountainous country. And I had never driven
two much less four horses in my life.

However, beggars cannot be choosers; moreover, Sims appeared to
consider that I was unduly conscientious. He thought I should be able
to learn how to handle my team before starting. Besides, the practice I
would get in driving over the high-roads of Natal before reaching the
more difficult country ought to make me an efficient whip. There was
something in this idea, and if Sims