ces 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.

According to Mitchell, their route from Bulawayo lay generally in a
north-easterly direction, and accordingly, after transacting all their
business, making every possible preparation for the long journey before
them, and writing their final letters home, announcing the fact that
they were about to plunge into the wilderness, and that, therefore, no
further news must be expected of them for an indefinite period, they set
out about ten o'clock on a certain glorious morning, boldly striking
straight out across the veldt, and directing their course by compass.
Their wagon was already f