w man
may take on the job a man with strict ideas. Clear out while you can."

"Oh, I don't think there's any danger," replied Cooper, but he looked
uneasy.

"Was it a white man or a black man that you shot?"

"It was a white man, right enough."

"Then clear out while there is still time," said I.

Some months afterwards I met a Pretoria man named Brodrick at Pilgrim's
Rest. I inquired about Cooper. What Brodrick told me proved the
soundness of my advice. The Executive Council had suddenly awakened to
a sense of its duty, and decided to allow the law to take its course.
Fortunately Brodrick and some others got wind of this, so they managed
to get the culprit out of gaol. Mounted on one horse and leading
another, Cooper rode for his life westward towards Bechuanaland,
pursued by the Transvaal police. However, he escaped. I have never
heard of him since.

Game was plentiful at certain places along the road. I remember a
locality called "Leeuw Dooms" where blesbuck, wildebeeste, and quagga
were in almost incredible abundance. As far as the eye could reach the
veld was dappled with herds of these and other animals. So far as I can
remember, this place was about three days' wagon journey beyond
Pretoria.

Before reaching Pretoria we outspanned near the winkel of a man named
Jacobi, a former resident of Cradock. This was within a few miles of
where Johannesburg stands today. I remember Jacobi telling me that a
nugget of gold had been found in the drift of a river close to his
house. Here I had an adventure.

I took my rifle and strolled down the riverbank after some reedbuck,
which I had been told were to be found there. I wounded a buck; it
hobbled away with difficulty. I ran after it, but the grass was long,
and I had a difficulty in keeping the animal in sight. In my course
stood an ant-hill about four feet high. Endeavoring to get within view
of the buck, I sprang to the top of the ant-hill, but it was hollow,
and the crust collapsed under me. I looked down and found that several
snakes were crawling and writhing about my feet. I had some difficulty
in getting out, for as soon as I got foothold on the edge it broke
under my weight. The weather was cold, and the snakes had taken refuge
in the cavity.

I reached the town of Nazareth (now called Middelburg ) early one
morning. The houses numbered, I should say, from thirty to forty, and
stood somewhat wide apart from each other. In making my way to a shop
which s