"Though seeing the matter in this light, yet we dare not remonstrate, for if we did not klip, the wagons, as likely as not, would go over the ledge, and halt—in fragments.
"Grade after grade the hill increased in steepness, and often the oxen were compelled to stop every twenty or thirty yards. The drivers certainly did their work, and did not spare themselves; and the heavy breathing of the cattle showed that their task was no easy one. Although our stoppages were most numerous, still we crawled on,—truly, step by step,—still forward; so if we met nothing more formidable, in time we should reach the top. We were in luck, too, as far as the weather was concerned, for a more lovely night could not have been made to order....
"We have come to a terrible grip; the gun-like reports of the whips, crack! crack! crack! incessantly, like the irregular fire of a company skirmishing; and I had just remarked, 'That's hot, Morris!' when that most objectionable—nay, abominated—shout of 'Klip!' struck on our ears. I did my best to be quick, and in consequence got a finger pinched.
"That last pull was a near thing, but the driving and the energy of Hendrick saved us, or at least the wagon, from trying to discover the sea level.
"That, doubtless, was the worst trial we had; for, although it was only in the middle of the incline, halts afterwards became less frequent and less prolonged. At this time it was fearfully cold, and there was no wind; still our progress was so slow that the blood chilled in our veins....
"Again we are off; the whips crack, the drivers scold and shout the names of lagging oxen, while the poor beasts groan and wheeze with their exertions and the effects of the rarefied atmosphere. From the abyss on our left rises an immense riven rock. Here we are informed that a wagon, at no long distant time back, had gone over, but we pass the dangerous place in safety, and—hurrah! hurrah! we are descending, having passed the summit."
The Drachenberg Mountains were the scene of fierce encounters between the English and the Boers, or settlers, during the late Transvaal war. Two most disastrous battles were fought, in which the English were overpowered and defeated by the Boers, who, though valiant and brave in many respects, did not hesitate to resort to treachery and deceit in their dealings with the English, while they displayed not only cruelty but heartlessness and greed in the victories which they won. They spared neither women nor children in their blind fury and ruthless slaughter, and were indifferent to the cries of the wounded as they searched them for plunder.