VI.
The route chosen for the journey to Mafeking by road lay through ISO miles of some of the most fertile districts of the Transvaal and included nights spent at the small towns of Rustenburg, Zeerust and Ottoshoop. Two stage coaches, each capable of carrying eighteen passengers with baggage, and a large ambulance wagon were provided for the accommodation of the party which, with guides and leaders, numbered thirty. These coaches have of course been gradually supplanted by railroads where there was sufficient traffic to justify a regular service, but they are still in use in Rhodesia. As the illustration
shows, they are of the Concord type and indeed those which actually conveyed us were built in the United States. Six pairs of mules were harnessed to each coach. We were accompanied throughout by Messrs. H. H. Hewson, W. D. Sievwright and G. W. Herdman of Pretoria, and it was mainly owing to their care and thoughtfulness for our welfare that no serious mishap occurred during the six days' trek. The magistrate of each urban district through which we passed also joined the party, while it traveled through his territory, and much was learnt of the land and its people from these gentlemen and from residents whom we met along the route from time to time. The limits set to this article forbid more than a brief account of the general impressions gained. It must suffice to mention that the first night we camped
