It looked all right and we were getting across finely, when suddenly one of the wheels sank in an unsuspected hole and there we stuck.

Indeed, I believe the waggon, or bits of it, would have remained in the neighbourhood of that ford to this day, had I not managed to borrow some extra oxen belonging to a Christian Kaffir, and with their help to drag it back to the bank whence we had started.
As it happened I was only just in time, since a new storm which had burst further up the river, brought it down in flood again, a very heavy flood.
In this country, England, where I write, there are bridges everywhere and no one seems to appreciate them.

If they think of them at all it is to grumble about the cost of their upkeep.

I wish they could have experienced what a lack of them means in a wild country during times of excessive rain, and the same remark applied to roads.

You should think more of your blessings, my friends, as the old woman said to her complaining daughter who had twins two years running, adding that they might have been triplets.
To return--after this I confessed myself beaten and gave up until such time as it should please Providence to turn off the water-tap.