Muizenberg, and went to spend the night again at Kenilworth, with some
friends who were making up a "mountain party."
We were up early, and left in Cape carts--a party of eight--at 5 A.M.,
and drove round to Hout's Bay Neck. Most unfortunately it was a cloudy
morning, and the mountain is said to be dangerous in a fog; but we kept
hoping it would clear, and we began the climb at 6.45 A.M.
It was fairly steep, but never really a difficult climb. When we got to
the ranger's cottage, we found he had just killed a horrid cobra snake
that measured 5 feet 6 inches long. He did not hold out any hope of the
weather clearing; but as we had gone so far, we thought we might as well
go on. So we clambered to the top, where we arrived at 11 A.M., and were
greatly disappointed not to get any view. The only compensations were
the flowers we found, which were simply lovely--huge white heather, and
many-coloured everlastings, and many flowers which I had never seen
before.
Coming down in the afternoon, it was blowing and cold, and at one place
we missed the path, and for about a mile had to force our way through
some thick and very wet undergrowth, and then it began to rain. So we
were rather a draggled-looking party when we reached the carts, and the
drive home in our wet garments was not exactly comfortable.
This may not sound as though we had a very enjoyable expedition, and
yet I really did enjoy the day very much. The people were all so jolly,
and made fun of all the discomforts.
Major ----, the Governor's secretary, was one of the party, and he had
provided himself with pins, needles, bandages, sticking plaster, and all
sorts of other things, most of which came in useful in the course of the
day. I heard afterwards that he told the Governor that he had never done
such a hard day's work before, as we made him walk for eleven and a half
hours, and only let him sit down for half an hour!
The time has gone so quickly down here, as there has been so much going
on, and every one has been so kind. We have had about twice as many
invitations as we could accept.
Now we are packing up to return to Kimberley, and as they have had some
good rains up there, I hope we shall find it a little cooled down. If
only we could take some of this lovely greenery with us! You have no
idea how grateful you ought to be in England that you can always find a
green field if you go to look for it, instead of perpetual greyness and
brownness and glare.
Soon after we get back P. will have to start off on circuit in the
colony, and I am hoping to go part of the way with him, and then to
start off on an expedition to visit some friends up country in Natal;
they are fifty miles from a railway. I am looking forward to this
tremendously. And then soon after it will be time for me to make tracks
for home, as I have now nearly reached the venerable age of
twenty-three, and am therefore eligible for beginning my training in an
adult hospital. And though this sort of life is very jolly for a time,
I should not like it for always; it is not so satisfying as useful work.
I am quite sad at saying good-bye to all my friends. I believe one makes
real friends more easily out here than one does in England. It must be
something in the air.
X
GREYTOWN, NATAL,
_April 1893_.
After my last letter to you we journeyed back, over the seven hundred
odd miles to Kimberley, and found life up there a little flat after the
gay time we had been having at the Cape; but I had some good tennis and
riding, and then we had to prepare for the circuit.
At each place that the judge visits he has to do a little entertaining,
so he has to take a cook and a butler with him; and as some of the
places where courts are held are quite villages, he has to take a
certain amount of groceries along too--and, of course, wine.
The Government provide a saloon carriage with a small kitchen on board,
so that is used as the judge's headquarters when near the railway lines;
but many of the places visited entail long drives in Cape carts.
The first place we went to was Colesberg, and we arrived there at 6 A.M.
We were quite a large party with the barristers, the clerk and
registrar, the interpreter, and the servants.
We were met by the magistrate and the sheriff, with a smart escort of
Cape Mounted Police, and a party of convicts to take the baggage up.
We found a nice little house ready for us, the owner having turned out
to make room; and, after a wash and breakfast, the men all went off to
the court, and I stayed to unpack and get things straight.
There were three coloured girls left to do the housework, &c. None of
them could speak English, and they had several babies scattered about. I
knew we had to give a dinner party before we left, and felt rather
hopeless about how it would go with the material to hand. However,
everything went off very well in the end. Lots of people called on me,
and I had some good tennis at the club, and also some nice rides on a
horse that was lent to me, the first one I have tried since I came to
this country that had a good mouth; most of them are ruined with the
bits they use.
The surrounding country was rather pretty, and good for corn and cattle.
We stayed four days at Colesberg, and then moved on to Craddock, ten
hours on the railway. There was a lot of court work there, and it had to
be fitted into five days; so the men were in court nearly all the
time--one night up to 11 P.M.--and I found it a little slow. But I had
some nice drives, one day going out to see some curious sulphur baths,
and another day to a farm about eight miles off, where every imaginable
kind of fruit seemed to grow.
After this we parted company, my brother going on to Middleburg, and I
for another run of ten hours in the train to Port Elizabeth, where I
joined the _Drummond Castle_ for Durban.
Various people seemed to have asked the captain to take care of me, so I
sat next to him at table, and he was most kind. When he found that I
meant to put up at a hotel in Durban, he told me that he wouldn't let me
do that, as he had lots of friends there, and I should have a much
better time if I went to stay with them.
We got to East London next day. The sea was rather rough, and there was
a lot of cargo to get on board, so we were there some time; but I didn't
go ashore. When we had again got under way, the captain came up to me
and said, "I have wired to some people in Durban to ask them to meet you
when we get there." Was it not kind of him?
When we reached Durban I waited till the captain was ready to go ashore;
and then we got into a kind of huge clothes-basket, and were swung over
the side and into the tender, as these big steamers can't get into the
harbour. And when we had come alongside the wharf, we found two ladies
waiting for us, with a sweet pair of cream-coloured ponies.
They assured me it was quite all right, and that they really had lots of
room, and the captain was to come up to lunch. So off we drove to such a
nice house up on the Berea, with a lovely view right over the harbour.
They were very pleasant Scotch people, and they _were_ so kind to me,
driving me about to see the town, &c.
I stayed the night with them, and all the next day, as there was no
train till 6 P.M.; and then they saw me off, and made me promise to
visit them on my way back.
I got to Pietermaritzburg at 10.30 P.M. (I believe it is very fine
scenery on the way up, but it was too dark to see it), and stayed a
night at a hotel, where I found that my kind Durban friends had wired to
the proprietress to look after me; so everything was very comfortable.
I was up early the next morning to have a look round Maritzburg, and
made friends with the driver of the post-cart, who promised me the
box-seat. "John" was quite a character, and he entertained me well for
all the forty-five miles we drove that day.
We got away at 10.30 A.M. with six tough little horses and the funniest
old Noah's Ark of a coach you ever saw. The road was very rough, and
there were very steep bits down to rivers (or "spruits," as they are
called here), and then a hard pull up the other side. We changed horses
several times, and some of the teams were very raw and wild; and the
leaders were sometimes inclined to turn round and come to see how the
shaft-horses were getting on. So John had to use his huge whip at times,
and I had to cling on, and I got so bumped about that I was stiff for
days afterwards.
John had many interesting stories to tell, having been a despatch-rider
for us in the Zulu War.
My friends met me a mile or two outside Greytown with a mule-cart, in
which we drove up to their farm--such a delightful old house. It really
belongs to Mrs. ----'s father, but he is in England now, where they have
some children at school; so they have come up from their smaller house
in Greytown to take care of the farm.
I have been here a fortnight now, and have enjoyed every minute of it.
For one thing, the climate is delightful. It is pretty hot, but not the
damp heat you find near the coast, nor the dusty heat of Kimberley. So I
am feeling very fit, and the people _are_ so nice I should like to stay
for months. It is a very free-and-easy life, and we are waited upon by a
man in a shirt and an apron of cats' tails!
It is very pretty country, and I am having delightful rides on a good
horse. One day we rode out to see some people who live fifteen miles
away from here, and they insisted upon our staying the night. Of course
they don't get many visitors out there. The next morning we rode on to
a place where we got a splendid view over what they call the Thorne
country, right into Zululand. We could see the Mooi River valley, and
they pointed out to me where the "defence of Rorke's Drift" saved Natal.
I had never been inside a Kaffir hut, so we went one day to explore; and
I was taken to call upon "Sixpence," a Zulu who works here. We had to
crawl into the wattle and straw hut on our hands and knees, and at first
I could not see anything and could hardly breathe, as the only escape
for the smoke from their fire is through the doorway; but we squatted
down on the floor--which looked clean and polished with much sitting
upon--and soon I made out Mrs. Sixpence (Sixpence can only afford one
wife), with a blanket draped around her, and four children. The baby was
absolutely naked, and the other children were chiefly clad in beads. And
then there was Sixpence's mother, a poor old thing who is over a
hundred, and can remember Chaka, the great Zulu chief.
I have collected many curios while staying here, and the other day I was
given the skin of a huge python 18 feet long, which had been shot near
to the house not long before. I can't bear snakes and creeping beasts,
and there are a great many of them up here. There is more grass than
there is in Cape Colony, and so better cover for the beasts. The other
day, when I was out riding, my horse gave a great jump aside, and after
I had remonstrated with him I looked back, and saw a horrid snake
sitting up and hissing at us; so I had to explain to my gee how sorry I
was that I had spoken!
The doctor with whom I am staying has to take very long journeys on
horseback to see his patients. He seems very popular, and often has to
go to Kaffir kraals a long way off, though many of the natives still
stick to their faith in the witch-doctors and their weird remedies. Very
often they have no money, so he is paid in kind; and sometimes he
returns from a visit to a chief with one or two cows, which he has to
drive home before him.
Several people have asked me to stay with them; and if I was not in such
a hurry to get back to work, I am sure I could put in several months up
here with much enjoyment, the Natal people are quite delightful, and so
hospitable. But John has promised me the box-seat on his Noah's ark
again on Tuesday, and I must once more make tracks for Kimberley.
XI
KIMBERLEY, SOUTH AFRICA,
_June 1893_.
I managed my journey back from Natal very comfortably, and made several
new friends on the way.
The drive on the post-cart from Greytown to Maritzburg was somewhat
perilous, as there had been a great deal of horse-sickness about, so
that good horses were scarce; and several of our teams were very raw,
and there was much bucking and kicking before each start; and several
times the harness broke down, and John had to descend to make repairs. I
am sure the passengers in the body of the ark were terrified lest the
horses should take it into their heads to start off while the reins were
entrusted to me; and though I am pretty good at managing a horse, I
should be shy of trying to drive six of these bucking creatures.
However, we got safely down to Maritzburg in the course of the day, and
again I had to spend a night there, taking the train the next morning
for Durban.
The railway between these two towns is a wonderful piece of engineering
work, crawling up one side of a mountain and scuttling down the other;
very fine scenery, with sub-tropical vegetation, all the way down.
My good Durban friends again met me, and were most kind, putting me up
for the night, and then seeing me off on the _Courland Castle_, rather a
tub of a coasting vessel, that gave us such a pitching about that even
I succumbed and was sea-sick. This greatly annoyed me, as I had come all
the way out to the Cape without a qualm!
I had meant to do a jaunt up from East London to visit some people at
Grahamstown and at King William's Town, but I was so happy at Greytown
that I stayed on longer than I intended, and had to give up the other
visits.
We anchored off East London for some hours, and the captain took me
ashore to lunch with some friends of his; and they took us for a nice
drive round the town and out to a place called Cambridge, where we
picked oranges and lots of flowers. The scenery at the mouth of the
Buffalo River is very pretty.
Then we went on to Port Elizabeth, and the captain again took me out to
lunch; and we had a pleasant day exploring the town with some of his
friends, and in the evening they saw me off by train for Kimberley. The
train was rather full, but I was so tired that I slept all night, and
woke up only just in time to get some breakfast at Craddock. I am
getting quite experienced in making good use of the twenty minutes they
allow you to get meals at these wayside stopping-places.
All that day we were strolling along in the train--dinner at De Aar
Junction in the evening--and at 4 A.M. the next morning I reached
Kimberley. No one to meet me, and no cabs; so I left my baggage with a
porter, and walked down to our house. Peter, the cat, was holding an "at
home" in the garden, and Carlo, the retriever, was on the stoep to
welcome me, and assisted me to find the key under the doormat; and I was
glad to find my bed ready to tumble into, after a much-needed wash.
It is winter here now, and the people seem rather more energetic than
usual. I have been to two dances since I got back, and there are some
dinner parties in prospect.
The other day I went down a diamond mine--a thing visitors don't often
do, though, of course, a good many see all the workings above ground. I
had to dress up in a canvas overall suit and sou'wester, and then, in a
very rough cage, we were lowered to the 1800-feet level. I hear they
will soon be working at 2000 feet below the surface, but 1800 feet is
the depth they are working just now.
It was all very interesting--swarms of natives (with very little on!),
and the fussy little trucks rushing about with their loads of the
blue-stone, in which the diamonds are found--but I was rather glad to
get back to the daylight again.
Then on Sunday afternoon I was invited to go and see a war-dance by the
Zulus in the mine compound. It was really very fine. Only one tribe is
allowed to dance at a time, or there would soon be fighting; and the men
of the other tribes kept away at the far end of the compound, and would
not look on. There were about forty Zulus dancing. They were dressed in
little aprons of cats' tails and a few beads, and wore feathers on their
heads, and were waving skin shields and knobkerries (sticks with
weighted knobs). They all stood in a row, and stamped, and clapped, and
danced, and sang in very good time; and then single ones stalked out in
front of the others, and, throwing themselves into extraordinary
attitudes, with much stuttering and stammering, they recounted the great
deeds they had done in war, and the others all chimed in with great
"Hoos" and "Hoofs" of approval, stamping on the ground like angry
bulls. Some of these men fought against us in the Zulu War. After the
dance was over, one very line fellow was introduced to us as the man who
had carried a lot of Englishmen out of the mine when it was on fire a
year or two ago.
I think it is a wonderful system by which all these tribes--that have
hated each other for generations--can be made to live together in one
compound, working side by side, and earning very good wages. They have
separate huts and messes, but they buy at the same store, and share the
same chapel, hospital, and swimming-bath.
There are about 2000 men in the compound, and they all seemed very
happy. No beer or spirits are allowed. Any man who likes can learn to
read and write while he is in the compound; and many of them were
sitting round the fires, where they were boiling their mealy meal,
reading to their mates.
We went into the hospital, which was very clean and trim. Natives in
white suits, acting as attendants, showed us with pride their
neatly-kept charts. There were one or two minor accidents in, and some
bad cases of pneumonia, but they all appeared well cared for and
comfortable.
The lady who lent me her horse has now returned to Kimberley, so I have
not had so much riding lately; but the other night we had a glorious
scamper out to Alexanderfontein by moonlight. About ten of us went, and
we had supper out there. We had rather a mixed lot of horses and
saddlery, and on the way back first one saddle came to grief, and then
another. I distributed my gear by degrees--a girth to a gentleman who
was riding with only one girth and it gave way, and I had two; a
stirrup to a lady who dropped hers, and came off in consequence; and one
of my reins to another lady, whose horse was too excited by the crowd of
us, and required to be led. The others chaffed me, and begged for the
bridle, and then for the saddle!
Now I am busy packing up for home, and trying to arrange things for my
brother, who, when I go, intends to move into a smaller house just
opposite to the club. There is also a good deal of tennis on just now,
and between whiles I am struggling to pay my farewell calls. I was
rather surprised to find there were about forty people I ought to call
on; and as Kimberley does not wake up from its siesta until 4 P.M., and
it is dark by 6 P.M. now, it is difficult to get through things, and
George will have to take some P.P.C. cards round for me.
R.M.S. "SCOT," BAY OF BISCAY,
_July 1893_.
I am sorry I neglected to post this yarn from Kimberley; but I believe I
will still post it when I land, as I may not see you yet awhile, and it
will bring the history of my travels up to date.
I was more sorry to leave Kimberley than I expected to be; but I suppose
one can't live in a place for a year without making some friends whom
you are sorry to leave.
I journeyed down to the Cape all alone; but some Cape Town friends came
to see me off, and it was quite home-like to be on the _Scot_ once more.
The chief officer invited me to sit at his table, and we have had a
delightful voyage, good weather, and pleasant people.
We had a few hours ashore at Madeira, and I think the flowers seem more
beautiful every time I go there. Some day I should like to stay some
weeks in the island.
We were all shocked to hear of the wreck of the _Victoria_ off Tripoli,
and the loss of 420 lives; it does seem terrible.
We find that, if all goes well, we should land on the day of the wedding
of the Duke of York and Princess May.
The Bay of Biscay is behaving like a lamb. This is the fourth time I
have been through it, and only once has it kicked up its heels and been
really disagreeable.
I am going to spend a few days in town before I go home, so as to be
interviewed by two or three matrons of the big hospitals. I think I know
which hospital I would like best to get into, but whether I can persuade
that particular matron that she really will have a vacancy in the autumn
(I must spend a little time at home first), and that I really am the
most suitable candidate for that particular vacancy, remains to be
proved.
I am rather thin in consequence of the heat, but I am as brown as a
berry; so I am sure they ought to think I look tough enough for the
work.
XII
GENERAL HOSPITAL, LONDON,
_May 1894_.
It is a long time since I last wrote to you, but there has not been much
of interest to write about.
I tried very hard to get into some London hospital last autumn, but
could not find a vacancy in any really good one, so I made up my mind it
was better to wait for a vacancy here--where I had always wanted to
train--than to slip in anywhere, where I did not _know_ that the
training was good. So I have just stayed at home, and in the summer
played tennis and cricket, and learnt to make butter and jam, &c., and
in the winter had a little hunting (on rather a stupid horse that was
always doing something foolish, and one day distinguished himself by
lying down at the meet!), and helped to teach in the night-school, where
big lads and men, who had been cutting turnips for the sheep all day,
came in the evenings to learn arithmetic, geography, &c., with much
perseverance.
I went to help at the N. General Hospital for a month in the autumn, as
they had a lot of nurses ill. It was rather funny, as I was sent to a
men's ward (35 beds) as staff nurse; and of course I had had to do only
with children before, so I had to pretend to know rather more than I
did.
I had been there only a few days when the Sister of my ward went off
duty with influenza, and there did not seem to be any one to come in her
place; so we had to muddle along without a Sister. But everything went
on all right, and the patients did well.
The Matron asked me to stay on permanently; but I thought a London
certificate would be more valuable afterwards, so I only stayed until
their sick nurses were able to return to duty.
I rather enjoyed my time there. The rough cleaning work that we had had
to do at the Children's Hospital was all done by ward-maids, so we were
able to give all our attention to the actual nursing; also our food was
better, and more plentiful. But in spite of these things, there seemed
to be a great deal of grumbling amongst the nurses. I was not accustomed
to this, and I was not there long enough to learn whether they really
had any good cause for their complaints.
The work was certainly hard, but that was partly because so many sisters
and nurses were off duty ill; and when the doctors found that I was
doing the Sister's work as well as my own, they were most considerate in
trying to save me trouble.
I had been promised a vacancy here "in the summer" as an ordinary
probationer for three years' training. Then, one day early in February,
I had a wire from the Matron asking me whether I would like to enter as
a lady pupil "if my fees were arranged for," and if so, I was to go up
to see her the next day. I could not understand a bit what it meant, but
thought I had better investigate. So up I trotted to town, and the
Matron explained to me that they have a system here of working in two
ranks, officers and privates. The officers are the sisters, and they are
recruited from the lady pupils; the privates are the probationers, who
might rise to be staff nurses, but beyond that there is no promotion
from the ranks. Therefore, if I entered as a probationer, as I had
arranged, I could never rise to be a sister.
Then she told me that it was probable there would be two or three
vacancies for sisters in about a year, and a lady who was interested in
the hospital had offered to pay the fees for some lady pupil, who would
otherwise have entered as a probationer, so that she might have the
advantage of the chance of promotion; and the Matron had decided to give
me the offer, partly on account of my having had previous training. Of
course there is no _promise_ of promotion, as that must depend on one's
work; but there is the chance of it. Did you ever hear of such good
luck?
Of course I was only too glad to accept, and they wanted me at once; so
I had to get my kit ready in a hurry, and began work here in February.
This is a huge place, quite a little town in itself, and I am very happy
here.