Bethulie Concentration Camp, August, 1901.
Wednesday, August 21.--Arrived station 8.30 a.m. (from Bloemfontein);
tedious delay; no pass to village obtainable, official in village for
breakfast; number of refugees in same train, among them a sick girl,
with fever: "Pappie, Pappie, ach mij ou Pappie!" ("Daddy, daddy! O my
dear daddy!" Thus she cried whenever she was touched, as they carried
her out of the train, and lifted her on to the wagon. She was
fever-stricken and terribly emaciated. (Reference is made later to
this same girl.) Alas! Arrival village; visit parsonage (Becker's);
dinner; things forwarded per wagon; arrival camp (mile out); meet
superintendent; given a tent; dust; misery; the Van As's offer me a
home; kind; bitter cold night; leakage; bad draught; bad cold; feel
lonesome; orphanish; pipe to rescue; great consolation.
* * * * *
Thursday, August 22.--My tent untenable position; in the
thoroughfare; speak Superintendent; obtain new site; private; buy 150
bricks 1s. 6d., hire three boys, barrow 1s. 3d.; with miershoop
(antheap, excellent for making floor) make brick kraal; hard work;
Mr. Van As[1] and Fourie grand; fine floor.
First visits: Young girl, orphan, bad; Weinanda, little girl, "Ja
Oom, ik is nou bij mij Mamie" ("Yes, Uncle, now I am with my
mother"); mind wanders. Third tent: Two babies wrestling with death;
mothers raadeloos (in despair); 486[2], wife, babe at breast,
measles; daughter, 14, convalescent; behind screen three children
sick, measles; condition pitiable; husband prisoner Ladismith; great
dirt; unbearable; the pity of it!
Pitch tent; wet floor; inside dire confusion.
Meeting Church-square thirty-nine elders[3]; each a block; prayer;
introduction Rev. Becker; kind words and cheer.
Early bed; restless night; hospital close by; commotion; groans;
fifteen buried to-day; service for Mr. Van As.
* * * * *
Friday, August 23.--Early bird; wash spruit[4]; first shave (tears);
Van As coffee; pathetic sight; old man leading old wife back to tent
from hospital; Hugo; son just died.
Visit Hugo's; dinner Van As; outspan (rest); cigar grand.
Unpack; three Red Cross boxes (gift of the chemist); order out of
chaos; spirits revive; visits 2.5 p.m.
Dying child; mother broken-hearted.
Dying mother; clear doorway; deathbed grim attraction for our people;
prayer; understands.
Widow; husband found dead outside in night; heart disease.
Sick child (since dead); sick child; sweet face; Louw.
Visit sick child of yesterday, also Weinanda.
Stray; hear cough; enter; father invalid (wife dead); three sick
children; youngest very bad.
Comfort mother of dead child.