clumsy, and heavily laden,--one of them, besides other things,
carrying a small boat--and that it occasionally required the powers of
twenty oxen to drag one wagon up some of the bad hills they encountered
on the journey to the Zulu country.

The four sportsmen, who were named respectively Pearson, Ogilvie, Anson,
and Brand, were overjoyed at the addition to the party of Tom Brown and
his companions, the more so that Tom was a doctor, for the constitutions
of two of them, Ogilvie and Anson, had proved to be scarcely capable of
withstanding the evil effects of the climate. Tom prescribed for them
so successfully that they soon regained their strength; a result which
he believed, however, was fully as much due to the cheering effects of
the addition to their social circle as to medicine.

Having rested at the kraal a few days, partly to recruit the travellers,
and partly to give the lions an opportunity of returning and being shot,
the whole band set forth on their journey to the Umveloose river, having
previously rendered the king of the kraal and his subjects happy by a
liberal present of beads, brass wire, blue calico, and blankets.

At the kraal they had procured a large quantity of provisions for the
journey--amobella meal for porridge, mealies, rice, beans, potatoes, and
water-melons; and, while there, they had enjoyed the luxury of as much
milk as they could drink; so that all the party were in pretty good
condition and excellent spirits when they left. But this did not last
very long, for the weather suddenly changed, and rain fell in immense
quantities. The long rank grass of those regions became so saturated
that it was impossible to keep one's-self dry; and, to add to their
discomforts, mosquitoes increased in numbers to such an extent that some
of the European travellers could scarcely obtain a wink of sleep.

"Oh dear!" groaned poor Wilkins, one night as he lay between the major
and Tom Brown on the wet grass under the shelter of a bullock-wagon
covered with a wet blanket; "how I wish that the first mosquito had
never been born!"

"If the world could get on without rain," growled the major, "my
felicity would be complete. There is a particular stream which courses
down the underside of the right shaft of the wagon, and meets with some
obstruction just at the point which causes it to pour continuously down
my neck. I've shifted my position twice, but it appears to follow me,
and I have had sensations