th and north-east of Cape Colony and in
the Transvaal, as well as in Matabililand, horses are very little used
either for riding or for driving, owing to the prevalence of a disease
called horse-sickness, which attacks nearly every animal, and from which
only about a quarter recover. This is one reason why so little
exploration has been done on horseback; and it is a point to be noted by
those who desire to travel in the country, and who naturally think of
the mode by which people used to make journeys in Europe, and by which
they make journeys still in large parts of South and of North America,
as well as in Western Asia.

I have spoken of the "tracks" used by waggons and coaches; the reader
must not suppose that these tracks are roads. There are few made roads
in South Africa, except in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, Durban,
Maritzburg, Graham's Town, and one or two other towns. Those in Natal
are among the best. Neither are there (except as aforesaid) any bridges,
save here and there rude ones of logs thrown across a stream bed.
Elsewhere the track is merely a line across the veldt (prairie), marked
and sometimes cut deep by the wheels of many waggons, where all that man
has done has been to remove the trees or bushes. Here and there the
edges of the steep stream banks have been cut down so as to allow a
vehicle to descend more easily to the bottom, where during the rains the
stream flows, and where during the rest of the year the ground is sandy
or muddy. After heavy rain a stream is sometimes impassable for days
together, and the waggons have to wait on the bank till the torrent
subsides. At all times these water channels are troublesome, for the
oxen or mules are apt to jib or get out of hand in descending the steep
slope, and it is no easy matter to get them urged up the steep slope on
the other side. Accidents often occur, and altogether it may be said
that the _dongas_--this is the name given to these hollow stream
channels--form the most exciting feature of South African travel (in
places where wild beasts and natives are no longer dangerous) and afford
the greatest scope for the skill of the South African driver.

Skilful he must be, for he never drives less than six span of oxen, and
seldom less than three pairs of horses or mules (the Bulawayo coach had,
in 1895, five pairs). It takes two men to drive. One wields an immensely
long whip, while the other holds the reins. Both incessantly
apostrophise the an