to £ 3 per month for the others), but have also to be
supplied with daily rations of wheat, flour, coffee, and
sugar, and with meat twice a week. Considering that
such luxuries are not to be found in the veldt, and that
in such places as Palapshwe and Mashonaland flour costs
from 6d. to iod. per lb., sugar iod. to is., salt 6d., and
everything else in proportion, enormous quantities have
to be carried. The question of provisions is therefore
a most serious one, and, for a year’s journey, tons of
them have to be bought; although most people—myself
included — take a great deal too many. I purchased
sufficient tinned provisions for six months; but here I
made a mistake, as I have since found that it is better
to take a herd of sheep and goats and some fowls in
coops. In this way you always have fresh meat, which
is both more wholesome and more economical than consuming
tinned provisions. The sheep and goats travel
well; they find their own food, and as they walk behind
your waggon you are able to save a lot of weight. In this
connection I should like to say what a boon it would
be to travellers and explorers in the interior if an African
Society could be formed with branches at Cape Town,
Zanzibar, Aden, &c., having an information office and
library where any traveller might be able to consult books
and maps, and get from some competent official all information
as to the district he wished to visit, and learn at
the same time what trade goods, outfit, and provisions
he was likely to require for his journey, and where he
could best get them ; where also he would be informed
where he would be able to replenish his stores, and be
put in communication with competent persons. The
Society might also publish a monthly journal dealing
especially with Africa, and get its members and those
possessing information to furnish particulars about their
routes, discoveries-, and other interesting facts; for Africa
is of such importance now that even the Royal Geographical
Society, with its very extended sphere of
T H E S T A R T
action, cannot cope with the continent to the extent it
deserves.
But to return to my own arrangements. After having
purchased ponies and donkeys for the journey, I found
myself ready to start.
The railway from Cape Town to Vryburg was then
completed, and the road between the two places being
very bad, I was advised to send everything on by train.
With very pleasant anticipations I took up my quarters
in one of the best hotels of the place. My first step
MY WAGGONS.
towards beginning my journey was to try the oxen in
the waggons and superintend their loading up. My
dismay can be imagined when I discovered that, despite
my large expenditure, an enormous quantity of accessories
had still to be procured before I should be in a position
to start, I obtained all these at Vryburg, and on the
25th June I was ready to start in earnest.
The waggons, one drawn by eighteen and the other
by sixteen oxen, proceeded very slowly. A “ leader”
marches at the head of each team, guiding the two front
beasts by means of a strap of raw. hide (reim) attached
to their horns. The “ driver,” armed with an immense
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