HOW THE PRESIDENT PASSED HIS TIME
On Sunday, 29th September 1901, I held services in the house of Mr.
Gerrit Aveling at Wagenmakers Vlei, after having, during the past week,
addressed the burghers in different parts of the district of Vrede. It
was my intention now to visit my own congregation, and I had already
written to Commandant Meyer to arrange for the holding of services for
his men. But this could not take place. The English had already marched
out of Harrismith, and on Monday we heard that they had arrived in the
neighbourhood of Sandhurst, the farm of Mr. Hermanus Wessels. The people
living in the vicinity of where I was immediately took to flight, and I
temporarily joined the company of Mr. Jan Adendorf.
On Tuesday the English came as far as the farm of Mr. Adendorf,
Christina, and from there a small number of them went to Natal, while
the rest were sent about seizing cattle everywhere and otherwise
conducting themselves after their wont. They did not, however, burn down
houses now, but where they found property that the owners had carried
out of their houses and hidden, they consigned this to the flames.
My son was now taken prisoner by the English, along with Assistant
Field-Cornet Gert van Deventer, and the Burgher Thys Uys. He had
remained behind to fight. One evening it appeared that the English were
retiring from Ottershoek to Brakfontein, and Field-Cornet van Deventer
thought it was safe enough to sleep in a house. He with the two others
therefore went to the homestead of Mrs. Swart. But there was a Kaffir
there who saw them, and when it got dark he went and informed the
English. The consequence was that at daylight the following morning
these three, together with the two little sons of Mrs. Swart, were taken
prisoners. The news was brought me when I was not far from Woodside. It
may be imagined that after my son and I had been chums for so long I
felt very lonely. But I was more anxious about him than about myself,
because I knew that he would be uneasy about me. It was some
consolation, however, that he had been captured and not killed.
Meanwhile I had almost without noticing got into a women's laager.
During the flight the company in which one finds oneself keeps
increasing in numbers--_vires acquirit eundo_. And now I thought that it
was not advisable to remain in a women's laager; for I did not wish to
expose myself to the chance of being captured again in the same manner
as on the 6th of June at Graspan. Therefore, on the day after the news
reached me of my son's capture, I took leave of the good friends with
whom I had spent some days, and went to General Wessels. I arrived there
the following day, having spent the night at the farm of Mr. Kootje
Muller.
Others of the English had meanwhile come from Standerton and reached
Woodside; and before I was well aware of it I was again one of a number
of fugitives. Separating myself from them, when I learnt that the
English had retired from Woodside, I soon found myself, now for the
third time, again in a laager of women. This laager was a Harrismith
one, under Ex-Commandant Truter and Mr. James Howell. I now thought
that I should be able to accompany this laager to the district of
Harrismith, and thus realise my wish to visit my own congregation. But
in this I was again disappointed, for on Tuesday, the 15th of October,
we nearly drove into the English, who were at Newmarket. I therefore
left them, and for the present gave up the idea of visiting the
Harrismith people. An incorrect report, stating that the English were
advancing from Frankfort up the Wilge River, prevented my crossing that
river, as I had intended to do, and I remained the fellow-fugitive of
Mr. Piet de Jager for a week. From his farm I then went to his
brother's, Michal de Jager, and when I had been there two days I heard
from the President. He wrote me a letter wherein he informed me where I
should find him. I started immediately, and on the 24th of October I
arrived in his laager, and resolved, at his friendly request, to remain
with him.
Life was now again the old commando life that I had not known since
January. We knew of no roof but that which spreads over all the earth.
On the grass we spent our time, sitting by our carts or saddles, or
lying down where we happened to be. We ate, drank, and slept under the
open sky. It did sometimes happen that the housewives invited their
President to their tables, and that such invitations were not declined;
but he never went to sleep in a house unless rainy weather forced him to
do so. And even this was not done whenever the enemy was in the
vicinity.
Commandant van Niekerk constantly received reports from his outposts,
which were placed at a certain distance from the laager. They always
kept him informed as to the movements of the enemy, and he made the
little laager shift every evening according to circumstances. We very
seldom slept at the same place on two consecutive nights, and thus, in
spite of ourselves, had to undergo the penalty of wandering. To be
always ready for what might happen, the horses were brought from the
veld every morning at two o'clock and held until the patrols brought a
report later in the morning that all was safe.
The President's horse stood ready saddled from that hour. The President
never took off his boots at night, and was therefore ready every moment
to mount his horse. I always took off my boots at night, unless the
enemy was very near. But I was more circumspect with regard to the
safety of my MS. I never let it off my person. I made a little bag of
old linen, placed my MS. in it, and wore it under my waistcoat, whenever
the English were approaching. If anything should happen there would be a
chance, provided the enemy did not "shake me out," that my book would
not be lost for the second time as at Graspan.
The distance which we "trekked" every night depended upon how far we
were away from the English. If they were far away, we only travelled
three or four miles; if they came nearer, we were sometimes obliged to
push on during the whole night in order to pass through between them or
to get round them.
So I again led the old commando life. But though we were exposed to much
discomfort, the time passed rapidly, especially as we had something to
read in the laager. Newspapers, picked up where the English had camped,
reached us from all sides. And before the carts were done away with, we
carried on them a small library. Here is an incomplete catalogue of our
books: _Krieg und Frieden_, a German translation of Tolstoi's _War and
Peace_, _Anna Karenina_, some books of poetry, a book on physics, a
history of the American War, some theological works, a little book
containing extracts from Seneca in English, a biography of Savonarola.
My pastime was writing. I was incessantly sitting cramped at the seat of
my cart writing my notes.
Yes, the time passed rapidly! Before we were aware of it a week was
gone, and Sunday with its divine service had come. This consoled me, for
the thought constantly occurred to me that we were not crawling but
flying towards the end.