Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/230

 as being in every way the most reliable of them all; and now to be told that just at the critical moment when most of all I required a trustworthy associate he was going to forsake me, was a thing that seemed incredible; but on referring to Theunissen himself, I ascertained that the report was only too true.

To add to my difficulties Pit had begun to behave himself in various ways so badly that I had been obliged to get rid of him. Thus it was that on the very eve of what promised to be the fulfilment of my long-cherished plan, my hopes appeared suddenly dashed to the ground. I was utterly at a loss to know where I could apply for bearers; alone and friendless as I was, I was not even in a position to go and search for them in any of the native villages in the woods to the east. My condition was altogether disheartening.

In my dilemma Westbeech and Francis most considerately came to my assistance. Under the condition that I should first accompany them to “the splendid falls,” they guaranteed to find me bearers enough amongst the Manansas or Batokas that we should fall in with on our way. I felt that I had no alternative but to accept their offer. Before starting I engaged a man as my servant in the place of Pit; he was a Masupia, who had come from the Zambesi to seek employment. I gave him the name of “Elephant.”

As the Victoria Falls were fifty miles to the right of the route which I had proposed taking, it was not part of my original scheme to visit them at all; it was only the circumstances in which I found