Part 12 (2/2)

But we never found so old in those claims; we had struck the one little ”patch” they contained We hiredtrenches in every direction, orked late and early often carrying the bags of wash down the scarped footpath ourselves, long after the boys had knocked off But all was in vain Our pound of gold melted like an icicle in the sun We were, in local parlance, ”bust”

CHAPTER X

Prospectors start for Swaziland--Rumors as to their fate--MacLean and I decide to follow theainst lions--The Crocodile River--The Boer and the pessi the river--MacLean nearly drowned in the rapids--I go on alone First sight of De Kaap--A labyrinth of dongas--I reach Swaziland--Baboons On the trail of the prospectors--The mystery solved--'Ntshi+ndeen's Kraal Swazi hospitality--How I becauns Character of the Swazis--Conte My welcoerous crisis--Return to the Crocodile River The rhinoceros--Our bearers decaoods--Attacked by fever--Terror of partridges--Arrival at Mac Mac

In the early part of 1875 a large party of Australian prospectors started froold on the north-eastern borders of Swaziland They took with theon which could easily be taken to pieces and a span of oxen They were accouides At that time little was known of the country beyond the boundaries of the Transvaal on its eastern side Swaziland was, in fact, an unknown region But ruold in the tracts lying to the east and south-east of Lydenburg There were, needless to say, no maps of the country in question But under such circureater its fascination

So passed without news of the party, the camp seethed ild report as to its fortune Some maintained that the Swazis, ere believed to be averse to the opening up of their country, had wiped out the intruders More or less circumstantial details of the supposed massacre were current, but critical examination proved such to be quite without foundation Then came wafts of rumor to the effect that the prospectors had ”struck it rich,” but were deterination inclined to the latter view I had a friend who knew the Swazis well, and he held it to be unlikely in the last degree that a party of peaceful prospectors would be et on the trail of the adventurers and stick to it until I found them

My ”mate” at the time was a man whom I will call MacLean That was not his naed to an old Scottish faht a suit before the House of Lords in which he claireat estates andunable to prove the e of one of his ancestors We had old on one of the terraces of the Blyde River, but this was soon worked out, and we spenta vanished ”lead” After soreed to accompany me

Our unitedThis we invested in flour, tea, strong boots, and other indispensables We possessed an old gun a double-barreled fowling-piece that had once been a flint-lock The spring driving one hae a percussion cap, that of the other was just strong enough to cause detonation on an average twice out of three atte of an unusual caliber so we used to chop off chunks of lead and roll therees of size and rotundity had been attained By using stones with the surface slightly roughened we could always reduce the size of the bullet, but the work of doing so was laborious in the extreoods One was naet the naave endless trouble by loitering On weighing our ”swags” at Mac Mac the day we started, Maclean's and mine tipped the scale at fifty-six pounds each Those of the boys weighed, respectively, about fifteen pounds less

We descended the e at Spitzkop The trail was easily found After entering the Low Country we halted each night at a ca, and built our fire on the cold ashes of their one-time hearth Occasionally we reached soon could possibly have been drawn, and where there were evidences that these practical explorers had taken the vehicle to pieces and carried it over Gaun was not of the kind to do much execution As we approached the Crocodile River Valley lions began to ht MacLean was nervous; I fear it was my habit to trade on this It was he who used to collect an iht, and I felt I could turn in and sleep soundly fortified with the knowledge that the watch-fire would not be left untended

At the Crocodile River we met with a serious check There was no drift, and the stream was still swollen from the summer rains Drawn up on the opposite bank was a raft, by means of this the prospectors had crossed

We camped and considered the situation

We found two on was an old Boer na District, but spent ame Niekerk's cos, one of the s I have ever met He was small, hatchet faced, and foxy in appearance His face was h both jaws received, so he said, in a skirested a possible descent fros were a strangely assorted couple They could not quarrel, for the reason that Niekerk had no English and Rawlings no Dutch Niekerk held stoutly to the theory that all Englishmen were mad, more or less, and excused his cos tras was not particular as to locality, having inverted the theory of Dr Pangloss, and settled to his own satisfaction that this was the worst of all possible worlds, he held all places to be ru to the Low Country, and had been wasting his pessimism on the desert air of the Crocodile River Valley for several weeks before our arrival

Game was here more plentiful I borrowed Niekerk's rifle and shot a waterbuck and several klipspringers Our caranite, and eachthe suers The bearers wereaskoek We also found quantities of honey Honey-birds were nu out a bees' nest The scenery, was very beautiful To the north-west towered soranite domes around us were almost hemispherical in shape They arose out of swaetation was very rich

The problem as to hoere to cross the river now beca indeed We could not afford to waste any time, as our food supply was extremely lie to dry any s had to be done: we had to cross the river within a very few days or else turn back And turning back was a thing I had always hated doing

The river was indeed a for, for thunderstore In the vicinity where the raft lay the channel was about a hundred yards wide and was very deep The current here was sluggish, but just above was a long and dangerous rapid withfrom the water On these rocks crocodiles of various sizes used to bask with half opened jaws Around the head of each saurian several little birds would flutter and hop, occasionally entering the toothed death-trap without the least apparent fear These birds were useful in picking parasites fro the river bank above the rapids in search of a drift, I walked along the edge of the water immediately at the foot of a steep sand-dune about fifteen feet in height The top of this, but I was unaware of the fact, was occupied by a large nued froth

These took alar themselves into the water, both in front and behindI carry the mark of the cut to this day

To return to the proble, light, hes down steep and difficult places This, with infinite labor ound, separating the strands and joining thethwise The result was still too short for our purpose, so we sought in the forest forand partly drying the fibers, isted the latter into a strong, light cable

When we judged that our cable, plus the line a was long enough to reach the other side, we attempted to carry one end of the latter across the river for the purpose of towing back the raft Over and over again one of the bearers and I ot about three parts of the way across, the slow, steady pressure of the current would fill the bend of the line and sweep us down strea at crocodiles on the rocks in the rapid, for the purpose of driving thehborhood We had wounded several On the day of our attempt not a saurian was to be seen Nevertheless, I felt extremely nervous The carcass of one monster we had wounded afterwards washed up; it measured upwards of sixteen feet

After our repeated failures to carry the line across, nothing re at the rapids This we succeeded in doing, but the attempt nearly cost MacLean his life He was an indifferent swiarding every one's advice, insisted on swi in his shi+rt We had to creep slowly fro water, with an occasional short swih a deeper channel The river was here much wider than at the scene of our former attempt

When ere about half-way across MacLean stu the time down-stream, the current filled his shi+rt from behind and carried it over his head Then he rolled helplessly down the rapid towards the deep reach I floundered after, and succeeded in overtaking hireat difficulty that I succeeded in getting him to the bank, fortunately to that side on which the raft lay

After a short rest we launched the raft, or, as it turned out to be, a sort of square, flat bottomed boat, with sides only a few inches deep, and built of planks But it was shrunken and gaping from the heat, and at once filled ater It was sufficiently buoyant to float when eain; caulking was out of the question, so we collected dry reeds and tied therass ropes made on the spot We fastened these bundles to the bottoalley once more This time we propelled her triu was coh wooden paddles

I had, by this time, been exposed stark naked to the sun for over five hours I felt and no doubt looked like a raw beefsteak Maclean's foot had got severely hurt in the course of his adventure, and he was ly it was decided that I should go on with Indogozan and his co MacLean behind

So next afternoon the Pessimist and MacLean ferried the two bearers and ested that I should leave any mementos for my friends behind, with instructions as to their disposal To comfort him I wrote the names and addresses of my nearest relations on a leaf torn out of ave him the latter He was absolutely certain that the prospectors had met their doom under the Swazi spears, and that a like fate would be mine