bamboo whip like a salmon fishing-rod with a lash of thirty
feet or more. A slave, Hottentot or Bushman, led the two front oxen of
each span.

Like pistol-shots the formidable whips went off; the oxen pulled, tossed
their unwieldy horns, and bellowed; the Dutchmen growled and shouted;
the half-naked "Totties" and Bushmen flung their arms and legs about,
glared and gasped like demons; the monstrous waggons moved; "Settlers'
Town" was slowly left behind, and our adventurers, heading for the
thorny jungles of the Zwartkops River, began their toilsome journey into
the land of hope and promise.

"It's a queer beginning!" remarked Sandy Black, as he trudged between
Hans Marais and Charlie Considine.

"I hope it will have a good ending," said Considine.

Whether that hope was fulfilled the reader shall find out in the sequel.

Meanwhile some of the English parties took their departure by the same
route, and journeyed in company till points of divergence were reached,
where many temporary friendships were brought to a close, though some
there were which, although very recently formed, withstood firmly the
damaging effects of time, trial, sorrow, and separation.

CHAPTER FIVE.

ADVENTURES AND INCIDENTS OF THE FIRST NIGHT IN THE "BUSH".

A Night-Bivouac under the mimosa-bushes of the Zwartkops River. The
Cape-waggons are drawn up in various comfortable nooks; the oxen are
turned loose to graze; camp-fires are kindled. Round these men and
women group themselves very much as they do in ordinary society.
Classes keep by themselves, not because one class wishes to exclude the
other, but because habits, sympathies, interests, and circumstances draw
like to like. The ruddy glare of the camp-fires contrasts pleasantly
with the cold light of the moon, which casts into deepest shadow the
wild recesses of bush and brake, inducing many a furtive glance from the
more timid of the settlers, who see an elephant, a buffalo, or a Cape
"tiger" in every bank and stump and stone. Their suspicions are not so
wild as one might suppose, for the neighbouring jungle, called the Addo
Bush, swarms with these and other wild animals.

The distance travelled on this first day was not great; the travellers
were not much fatigued, but were greatly excited by novelty, which
rendered them wakeful. If one had gone round to the numerous fires and
played eavesdropper, what eager discussion on the new land he would have
heard; what anxious specul