Here good fortune befriended me.

Don Jose, when sober, was a trader with the natives, and a year before had acquired from them two good buck wagons.

Probably they were stolen from some wandering Boers or found derelict after their murder or death by fever.
These wagons he was only too glad to sell for a song.

I think I gave him twenty pounds English for the two, and thirty more for twelve oxen that he had bought at the same time as the wagons.

They were fine beasts of the Afrikander breed, that after a long rest had grown quite fat and strong.
Of course twelve oxen were not enough to draw two wagons, or even one.
Therefore, hearing that there were natives on the mainland who possessed plenty of cattle, I at once gave out that I was ready to buy, and pay well in blankets, cloth, beads and so forth.