The construction of the fish-pond proceeded rapidly, and on the third
day it was nearly complete. As soon as all the walls were finished,
Ready threw out sand and shingle, so as to make the part next to the
beach nearly as deep as the other; so that there might be sufficient
water to prevent the gulls and man-of-war birds from darting down, and
striking the fish. While Ready was thus employed, Mr. Seagrave and
William collected more rocks, so as to divide the pond into four parts,
at the same time allowing a communication between each part. These
inside walls, as well as the outside, were made of sufficient width to
walk upon; by which means they would have all the fish within reach of
the spear, in case they wished to take them out. The day after the pond
was completed the weather changed. The rain poured down with great
force, but it was not accompanied with such terrific thunder and
lightning, nor were the storms of so long continuance, as at the
commencement of the rainy season. In the intervals of fine weather they
caught a great many fish, which they put into the pond, so that it was
well stocked. But a circumstance occurred, which was the occasion of
great alarm to them all; which was, that one evening William was taken
with a shivering, and complained very much of a pain in his head. Ready
had promised to continue his narrative on that evening, but William was
too ill to sit up. He was put into bed, and the next morning he was in
a violent fever. Mr. Seagrave was much alarmed, as the symptoms were
worse every hour; and Ready, who had sat up with him during the night,
called Mr. Seagrave out of the house, and said, "This is a bad case,
sir: William was working yesterday with his hat off, and I fear that he
has been struck by the sun."
The poor boy was for many days in great danger; and the cheerful house
was now one of gloom and silence. How fervent were now the morning and
evening prayers; how often during the day did his parents offer up a
petition to heaven for their dear boy's recovery. The weather became
finer every day, and it was almost impossible to keep Tommy quiet: Juno
went out with him and Albert every morning, and kept them with her
while she cooked; and, fortunately, Vixen had some young ones, and when
Juno could no longer amuse them, she brought them two of the puppies to
play with. As for the quiet, meek little Caroline, she would remain
during the whole day holding her mother's hand, and watching her
brother, or working with her needle by the side of his bed.
Ready, who could not be idle, had taken the hammer and cold chisel to
make the salt-pan, at which he worked during those portions of the day
in which his services were not required indoors; and as he sat chipping
away the rock, his thoughts were ever upon William, for he dearly loved
the boy for his amiable disposition and his cleverness; and many a time
during the day would he stop his work, and the tears would run down his
cheeks as he offered up his petition to the Almighty that the boy might
be spared to his afflicted parents. And those prayers were heard, for
on the ninth day William was pronounced by Ready and Mr. Seagrave to
have much less fever, and shortly afterwards it left him altogether;
but he was so weak that he could not raise himself in his bed for two
or three days; and it was not till more than a fortnight after the
fever had left him that he could go out of the house. The joy that was
expressed by them all when the change took place may be imagined: nor
were the thanksgivings less fervent than had been the prayers.
During his convalescence, as there was nothing else to do, Mr. Seagrave
and Ready, who now went gladly to their work, determined, as the
salt-pan was finished, that they would make a bathing-place. Juno came
to their assistance, and was very useful in assisting to drag the
wheels which brought the rocks and stones; and Tommy was also brought
down, that he might be out of the way while Mrs. Seagrave and Caroline
watched the invalid. By the time that William was able to go out of the
house, the bathing-place was finished, and there was no longer any fear
of the sharks. William came down to the beach with his mother, and
looked at the work which had been done; he was much pleased with it,
and said, "Now, Ready, we have finished everything at home for the
present; all we have to do is to explore the island, and to go to the
cove and examine our collection from the wreck."
"Very true, William; and the weather has been so fine, that I think we
may venture upon one or the other in a few days more; but not till you
are stronger."
"I shall soon be strong again, Ready."
"I have no doubt of it, William; and we have good reason to thank God,
for we could ill spare you."
"It's a long while since you have gone on with your story, Ready," said
William, after they had taken their supper; "I wish you would do so
now, as I am sure I shall not be tired."
"With pleasure, William," replied Ready; "but can you remember where I
left off, for my memory is none of the best?"
"Oh, yes; if you recollect, you had just arrived at a Dutch farmer's
house, in company with the savages, at a place called Graaff Reinet, I
think."
"Well then, the Dutch farmer came out when he saw us coming, and asked
us who we were. We told him that we were English prisoners, and that we
wished to give ourselves up to the authorities. He took away our arms
and ammunition, and said that he was the authority in that part, which
was true enough; and then he said, `You'll not run away without arms
and ammunition, that's certain. As for sending you to the Cape, that I
may not be able to do for months; so if you wish to be fed well, you
must work well while you're here.' We replied, that we should be very
glad to make ourselves useful, and then he sent us some dinner by a
Hottentot girl. But we soon found out that we had to deal with an
ill-tempered, brutal fellow; and that he gave us plenty of hard work,
but by no means plenty of food. He would not trust us with guns, so the
Hottentots went out with the cattle, but he gave us plenty of work to
do about the house; and at last he treated us very cruelly. When he was
short of provisions for the Hottentots and other slaves, of whom he bad
a good many, he would go out with the other farmers who lived near him,
and shoot quaggas for them to eat. Nobody but a Hottentot could live
upon such flesh."
"What is quagga?"
"A wild ass, partly covered with stripes, but not so much as the zebra;
a pretty animal to look at, but the flesh is very bad. At last he would
give us nothing to eat but quaggas, the same as the Hottentots, while
he and his family - for he had a wife and five children - lived upon
mutton and the flesh of the antelope, which is very excellent eating.
We asked him to allow us a gun to procure better food, and he kicked
Romer so unmercifully, that he could not work for two days afterwards.
Our lives became quite a burden to us; we were employed all day on the
farm, and every day he was more brutal towards us. At last we agreed
that we would stand it no longer, and one evening Hastings told him so.
This put him into a great rage, and he called two of the slaves, and
ordered them to tie him to the waggon wheel, swearing that he would cut
every bit of skin off his body, and he went into his house to get his
whip. The slaves had hold of Hastings, and were tying him up, for they
dared not disobey their master, when he said to us, `If I am flogged
this way, it will be all over with us. Now's your time; run back behind
the house, and when he comes out with the whip, do you go in and seize
the muskets, which are always ready loaded. Hold him at bay till I get
clear, and then we will get away somehow or other. You must do it, for
I am sure he will flog me till I am dead, and he will shoot you, as
runaway prisoners, as he did his two Hottentots the other day.' As
Romer and I thought this very probable, we did as Hastings told us; and
when the Dutchman had gone towards him where he was tied up, about
fifty yards from the house, we went in. The farmer's wife was in bed,
having just had an addition to her family, and the children we cared
not for. We seized two muskets and a large knife, and came out just as
the Dutchman had struck the first blow with the rhinoceros whip, which
was so severe, that it took away poor Hastings' breath. We went up; he
turned round and saw us: we levelled our muskets at him, and he
stopped. `Another blow, and we'll shoot you,' cried Romer. `Yes,' cried
I; `we are only boys, but you've Englishmen to deal with.' When we came
up, Romer kept his piece levelled at the Dutchman, while I passed him,
and with the knife cut the thongs which bound Hastings. The Dutchman
turned pale and did not speak, he was so frightened, and the slaves ran
away. As soon as Hastings was free, he seized a large wooden mallet,
used for driving in stakes, and struck the Dutchman down to the earth,
crying out, `That for flogging an Englishman, you rascal!'
"While the man lay senseless or dead - I didn't know which at the time
- we tied him to the waggon wheels, and returning to the house, seized
some ammunition and other articles which might be useful. We then went
to the stables, and took the three best horses which the Dutchman had,
put some corn in a sack for each of them, took some cord for halters,
mounted, and rode away as fast as we could. As we knew that we should
be pursued, we first galloped away as if we were going eastward to the
Cape; and then, as soon as we were on ground which would not show the
tracks of our horses' hoofs, we turned round to the northward, in the
direction of the Bushman country. It was dark soon after we had altered
our course; but we travelled all night, and although we heard the
roaring of the lions at a distance, we met with no accident. At
daylight we rested our horses, and gave them some corn, and then sat
down to eat some of the provision we had brought with us."
"How long were you with the farmer at Graaff Reinet?"
"Nearly eight months, sir; and during that time we could not only speak
Dutch, but we could make ourselves understood by the Hottentots and
other natives. While we were eating we held a consultation how we
should proceed. We were aware that the Dutchmen would shoot us if they
came up with us, and that they would come out in strong force against
us; and we were afraid that we had killed the man, and if so, they
would hang us as soon as we got to the Cape; so we were at a great loss
to know how to act. At last we decided that we would cross the country
of the Bushmen, and get to the sea-side, to the northward of the Cape.
We determined that it would be better to travel at night, as there
would be less fear of the wild beasts, or of being seen; so we went
fast asleep for many hours. Towards the evening, we found water for the
horses, and then we fed them again, and proceeded on our journey. I
won't tell what passed every day for a fortnight, by which time we had
pretty well killed our horses, and we were compelled to stop among a
tribe of Gorraguas, a very mild, inoffensive people, who supplied us
with milk, and treated us very kindly. We had some adventures,
nevertheless. One day as we were passing by a tuft of small trees, a
rhinoceros charged upon my horse, which very narrowly escaped by
wheeling short round and getting behind him; the beast then made off
without meddling with us any more. Every day we used to shoot some
animal or other, for provision: sometimes it was a gnu, something
between an antelope and a bull; at other times it was one of the
antelope kind.
"Well, we stayed for three weeks with these people, and gave our horses
time to refresh themselves; and then we set off again, keeping more
towards the coast as we went southward, for the Gorraguas told us that
there was a fierce native tribe, called Kaffers, to the northward, who
would certainly kill us if we went there. The fact is, we did not know
what to do. We had left the Cape without any exact idea where we should
go to, like foolish boys as we were, and we became more entangled with
difficulties every day. At last we decided that it would be better to
find our way back to the Cape, and deliver ourselves up as prisoners,
for we were tired out with fatigue and constant danger. All that we
were afraid of was that we had killed the Dutch farmer at Graaff
Reinet, who had treated us so brutally; but Hastings said he did not
care; that was his business, and he would take his chance: so when we
bade adieu to the Gorraguas, we turned our horses' heads to the
south-east, so as to make the sea and go to the southward at the same
time.
"I have now to mention a most melancholy event which occurred. Two days
after we had recommenced our travels, in passing through some high
grass, we stumbled on a lion, which was devouring a gnu. Romer, who
happened to be some ten yards foremost of the three, was so alarmed
that he fired at the animal, which we had agreed never to do, as it was
folly to enrage so powerful a beast, when our party was so small. The
lion was slightly wounded; he gave a roar that might have been heard
for a mile, sprang upon Romer, and with one blow of his paw knocked him
off the saddle into the bushes. Our horses, which were frightened,
wheeled round and fled, for the animal was evidently about to attack
us. As it was, he did make one bound in our direction; we could not
pull up until we had gone half a mile; and when we did, we saw the lion
had torn down the horse which Romer had ridden, and was dragging away
the carcass to the right at a sort of a canter, without any apparent
effort on his part. We waited till he was well off, and then rode back
to the spot where Romer had fallen: we soon found him, but he was quite
dead; the blow with the lion's paw had fractured his skull.
"I ought to have said that the Gorraguas told us not to travel by
night, but by day; and we had done so in consequence of their advice. I
believe it was very good advice, notwithstanding this unfortunate
accident, for we found that when we had travelled all night the lions
had more than once followed us the whole time; and indeed I have often
thought since that we were altogether indebted to his mercy who
ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth, that we escaped so well
as we did. Three days after poor Romer's death we first saw the wide
ocean again. We kept near the coast, but we soon found that we could
not obtain the supply of game, or fuel for our fires at night, so well
as we could in the interior, and we agreed to get away from the coast
again. We had a dreary plain to pass over, and we were quite faint for
want of food - for we had been without any for nearly two days - when
we came upon an ostrich. Hastings put his horse to his speed, but it
was of no use - the ostrich ran much faster than the horse could. I
remained behind, and, to my great joy, discovered his nest, with
thirteen large eggs in it. Hastings soon came back, with his horse
panting and out of wind. We sat down, lighted a fire, and roasted two
of the eggs: we made a good dinner of them, and having put four more on
our saddle-bows, we continued our journey. At last, one forenoon, we
saw the Table Mountain, and were as glad to see it as if we had seen
the white cliffs of Old England. We pushed on our horses with the hopes
of being once more comfortably in prison before night; when, as we
neared the bay, we noticed that English colours were flying on board of
the vessels in the road. This surprised us very much; but soon after
that we met an English soldier, who told us that the Cape had been
taken by our forces more than six months ago. This was a joyful
surprise, as you may suppose. We rode into the town, and reported
ourselves to the main guard; the governor sent for us, heard our story,
and sent us to the admiral, who took us on board of his own ship."