Hottentot driver, with strict injunctions that he was to take the
utmost care of the captives, and treat them with the greatest kindness,
Piet and I set out at daybreak--the former mounted upon Punch, while I
rode Prince as usual--taking with us the elephant gun and my rifle, with
a sufficiency of ammunition for each, and provisions for four days. The
dogs Thunder and Juno accompanied us as a matter of course. We were on
the right or southern bank of the mighty stream, and this we followed
closely, mile after mile, anxiously scrutinising every foot of the
turbid flood for signs indicative of a sand bar extensive enough to
enable us to transport the wagon to the opposite bank; but although we
found no less than four shoals in the course of our first day's search,
three of them extended less than halfway across the river, while the
fourth proved to be a quicksand in which we narrowly escaped losing both
our horses, saving them at last only by the skin of our teeth and after
nearly an hour's hard and strenuous labour. This occurred about three
o'clock in the afternoon, and when at length we were all once more safe
on solid ground we were, horses as well as men, so utterly fagged out
that there was nothing for it but to off-saddle for the remainder of the
day in order to recover. A good night's rest, however, completely
restored us all, and enabled us to resume our search on the following
morning.

Our experiences on the morning of this day were simply a repetition of
those of the previous day, except that, profiting by experience, we took
care not to allow ourselves to be trapped in any more quicksands; and I
began to fear that our search was going to be a much more protracted one
than I had anticipated. But shortly after midday we arrived at a spot
where, on the opposite side of the river, another river, about a hundred
yards wide, discharged into the main stream. At this point also the
Limpopo widened out until it was fully a quarter of a mile in width, the
combined effect of these two circumstances being the formation of
numerous eddies and so much slack water that the soil held in suspension
by the two streams was here afforded an opportunity to settle and form a
shoal extending right across the main river, with a maximum depth of
water over it of barely four feet. This shoal we thoroughly tested both
on foot and on horseback, with the result that we found it to be an
ideal crossing place.

Having satisfied mys