agree with that cheat's
sneering words; and yet Jan was right, and not I, for of the truth the
Lord did guide and protect us. Has anything more wonderful happened in
the world than this journey of a few farmers, cumbered with women and
children, and armed only with old-fashioned muzzle-loading guns, into a
vast, unknown land, peopled by savages and wild beasts? Yet, look what
they did. They conquered Moselikatse; they broke the strength of Dingaan
and all his Zulu impis; they peopled the Free State, the Transvaal, and
Natal. That was the work of those few farmers, and I say that of their
own strength they could never have done it; the strength was given to
them from above; the Sword of God was in their hand, and He guided that
hand and blessed it.

Our first outspan was at the spot where Van Vooren had tried to murder
Ralph and carried off Suzanne upon her wedding-day. We did not stop
there long, for the place was bad for Ralph, who sat upon the box of the
waggon staring moodily at some blackened stones, which, as one of the
drivers told me--the same man who accompanied them upon their wedding
journey--had been brought from the kloof and used by Suzanne to set the
kettle on when they took their meal together. Led by this same driver
I walked to the edge of the cliff--for I had never visited the place
before--and looked at the deep sea-pool, forty feet below me, into which
Swart Piet had thrown Ralph after he had shot him. Also I went down to
the edge of the pool and climbed up again by the path along which Zinti
and Sihamba had staggered with his senseless body. Afterwards I returned
to the waggons with a heart full of thankfulness and wonder that he
should still be alive among us to-day, although alas, there was much for
which I could not feel thankful, at least not then.

Now it is of little use that I should set down the history of this
trek of ours day by day, for if I did my story would have no end. It
is enough to tell that in company with other emigrants we crossed the
Orange River, heading for Thaba Nchu, which had been the chief town
of Maroko before Moselikatse drove him out of the Marico country. Here
several bands of emigrants were to meet, and here they did meet, but not
until a year or more had passed since we left the colony and wandered
out into the veldt.

Ah! I tell you, my child, the veldt in those days was different indeed
from what it is now. The land itself remains the same except where whit