The dawn was only just beginning to dapple the skies, when the voice of
Henryk Vander Heyden was heard rousing his Hottentots and superintending
the inspanning of the oxen and the saddling of the horses. The sun was
hardly above the horizon before the party had set out, Vander Heyden and
Hardy riding two or three hundred yards in advance with their guns and
revolvers loaded, keeping a keen lookout as they advanced, and two of
the Hottentot servants following in the same manner in the rear. In
this manner they advanced for three hours or so, through a country
resembling in character that which they had passed yesterday, with the
difference that the ground was harder and drier, so that the progress of
the waggons was less interrupted. About nine o'clock they halted for
the first meal of the day on the edge of a dense mass of shrubs and
underwood, through which nothing but the woodman's axe or a herd of
elephants could have forced their way. Here occurred an incident which
was remembered by one of the party, at all events, long afterwards.
Redgy Margetts had alighted, and was about to take his place at the
breakfast table, if the rough boards taken from the cart, on which the
viands were spread, could be so designated, when he saw what he took to
be the end of a long green plantain among the stems of the cacti. They
are very delicious eating; and, thinking to add to the attractions of
the meal, he took hold of one end to draw it out. To his surprise and
alarm, he felt it move and writhe in his grasp, and the next moment a
hideous green head made its appearance from the bushes, and would have
sprung on him, if Matamo, who was calling out to Margetts to warn him,
had not dexterously flung the large knife which he was holding in his
hand, wounding the snake in the neck and disconcerting its aim. It
missed Redgy's face, at which it had darted, and fell on the ground
close to him, and Haxo, who had caught up an axe, struck its head off.
"A lucky escape, Mr Margetts," said Matamo. "A big mamba, that; he is
seven or eight feet long. I never saw a bigger."
"The brute?" exclaimed Redgy. "I took him for a big cucumber, or
something of that kind. Is he poisonous, Matamo?"
"Yes, Mr Redgy, very poisonous. A man, if he was bit by him, would die
in an hour, perhaps in less. I've known one die in three-quarters of an
hour."
"You must be careful, Mr Margetts," said Annchen, who had witnessed
what had passed with a shudder of horror. "I have been learning a good
deal about the African snakes. They are the worst things in the
country. We newcomers cannot be too careful."
"You are right, miss," said Matamo. "Some of them look like sticks or
green stalks or stems of trees lying on the ground. Strangers sometimes
don't find out that they are snakes, till they are bitten."
"But, as a rule, they won't harm you unless you provoke them," said
Vander Heyden. "They have the cobra in India as well as here. In which
country do you think it is the most venomous, Hardy?"
"It is bad enough anywhere," answered Hardy; "but I think it is worst in
India. Its venom is very rapid in its action there. I remember Captain
Winter's Hindoo cook being bitten by one. She used to keep her money in
a hen's nest near the kitchen door. One night she heard a noise in the
nest, and thought some one was stealing her money. She crept down in
the dark and put her hand into the nest to feel if the money was safe.
The noise had been caused by a cobra which had crept in to eat the
chickens. It bit her, and she was dead in less than half an hour."
"Yes, no doubt it was in a state of great irritation, and the bite
unusually venomous," observed Vander Heyden; "but I consider both the
puff-adder and the cerastes to be quite as dangerous as the cobra, and
the mamba yonder is almost as bad as any. But with proper care there is
not much danger. If they do bite you, as a rule, the only thing to be
done is to cut or burn the flesh out."
The meal was now eaten, and the waggons were soon once more in motion,
the same precautions being observed during the remainder of the day. No
enemies, however, were sighted, or, indeed, any living creatures at all,
except some koodoos, which Haxo and George pursued and were fortunate
enough to overtake, killing one and bringing the prime parts home for
supper.
About five o'clock they reached Elandsberg; which had never been more
than a tolerable-sized village, and had been sacked and burned by the
Zulus some months before in one of their incursions. It was now
deserted; and it was fortunate that the koodoo had been killed, or the
party might have had but a slender supper to partake of. But as it was,
they soon made themselves comfortable. All the cottages had been
wrecked, and the furniture broken to pieces or carried off; but the
walls of some were still standing, and one of the largest--a farmhouse
apparently--had suffered less than the others. The roof, of corrugated
iron, over two of the rooms was still almost whole, and even the windows
of one, the principal bedroom, had escaped. This room was got ready for
Annchen and her Hottentot. Her bed and box were brought in, and a rug
spread on the floor for the servant. In the other room, which had been
the kitchen, the men of the party took up their quarters. A fire was
lighted on the hearth, at which the koodoo's flesh was roasted; a half
shattered table was rescued from the debris outside and propped up with
boxes, and the party presently sat down to an appetising supper. Two of
the servants were left to keep guard outside, their places being taken
by others at midnight. Then the rest of the company wrapped themselves
in their rugs and lay down round the fire.
The night was undisturbed, and the route resumed with the first glimmer
of daylight, Vander Heyden being particularly anxious to reach
Standerton that night; where, he believed, his anxieties would be at an
end. It was a most delicious day, and everything went smoothly until
after the halt for the mid-day meal. Then it was arranged that Margetts
and Haxo should form the advanced guard, while Matamo and Hardy followed
in the rear.
Redgy rode on, thoroughly enjoying the delicious afternoon. The sky was
beautifully blue, and for a long time not flecked by a single cloud.
"How lovely the afternoon is!" he exclaimed half to himself, as they
paced leisurely along. "I wish our halting-place was farther off. I
shall be quite sorry when this comes to an end."
"It is quite far enough off, sir," replied Haxo, to whom this remark
appeared to be addressed. "It is about half a mile on, and I wish it
wasn't a quarter."
"Why do you wish that, Haxo?" asked Redgy, turning in surprise to his
companion, whose presence he had almost forgotten.
"Because the river is between us and Dolly's Kop, sir," answered Haxo;
"and I am not sure whether the waggon will get across."
"Get across! Why not? I suppose it is like the other rivers we have
passed to-day,--so I understand at least. We have had no difficulty
about crossing them."
"Just so, Mr Margetts. The rivers about here are nearly all sand, with
just a little water. But after an hour's rain they look different."
"Rain! Yes, but we've had no rain."
"We are going to have it, though, and that pretty soon. Do you see
those clouds?" He pointed as he spoke to a thick bank of black vapour
which was creeping over the sky. "See, they're hurrying on the oxen as
fast as they can. They may get across, but I don't think it."
They turned round and rode up to the waggon, where, indeed, the
giraffe-hide whips were in full requisition, and the waggons proceeded
at a pace which would soon have brought them up to the river-side had it
continued. But they were presently obliged to moderate their pace, and
before long it became difficult to proceed. The sky grew so dark as
almost to obscure the track--indeed, but for the lightning, which
repeatedly burst forth with a vividness which illuminated the whole
scene, they would not have been able to distinguish their way at all.
Then there came a cold, biting rush of wind, and suddenly the rain burst
forth in torrents, which soon drenched every one to the skin, while the
animals became almost unmanageable. It was well they had experienced
drivers, or some serious disaster must have ensued.
At length, after a fierce struggle with the elements, the banks of the
river were reached. But it became evident at a glance that all hope of
crossing it must for a long time to come be abandoned. The narrow
streamlet had risen to a roaring torrent, not only filling its sandy
bed, but expanding into wide lagoons on either side, and filling up
hollows which in some places were fifteen or twenty feet deep.
Fortunately for the belated wanderers, the ground at the point which
they had reached was high and rocky; and they were glad to avail
themselves of Matamo's local knowledge, who ordered the oxen to be
turned aside from the track, and presently drew the waggons into a
cavern, running far enough back into the rock to afford a shelter from
both wind and rain. The horses were now stabled in an adjoining cavern,
and the oxen turned out to find what food they could. The condition of
the party was in some degree improved. But they were sufficiently
miserable nevertheless. The deluge of rain had not only soaked the men
to the skin, but had forced its way into the waggons, and Annchen and
her maid, and the beds and wraps and every other article inside, except
the solid chests, were as completely drenched as though they had been
plunged into the river. Some wood, with which the floor of the cave had
been strewn, was heaped together and a fire lighted, but it would
evidently be hours before anything like warmth or comfort could be
restored. Our travellers were greatly relieved when they saw a
horseman, wearing a heavily flapped hat and leggings and boots of
untanned leather, together with a thick cloak wrapped round his person,
suddenly draw up at the mouth of the cave and ask in intelligible
English who they were, and whether they required any help.
"We are mostly English travellers," replied George. "We have been
caught in the storm, and are almost wet to the skin. The lady who is
with us, in particular, may suffer from the effects of the exposure. We
should be thankful to you to show us any place where we can obtain
warmth and food and shelter."
"English!" repeated the stranger; "my countrymen. I do not often come
across them in these regions, and shall be pleased to offer them such
hospitality as I can. You have horses, I think; you had better mount
and ride with me. My house lies at the distance of about a mile from
here, though the wood lies between it and us."
All complied without hesitation; even Vander Heyden, though unwilling to
be indebted for any services to an Englishman, felt that, for his
sister's sake, it would be impossible for him to refuse. The servants
were left behind under Matamo's and Haxo's charge, there being plenty of
food for their wants, as well as accommodation quite as good as they
were used to.
The party rode off, following a path evidently well known to their
conductor, though indistinguishable by them. The rain had now entirely
ceased, though the sky was still clouded. After a quarter of an hour's
ride they reached the house; which stood, as well as they could discern,
on the edge of a wide, deep hollow, which the floods had converted for
the time into an inland lake. There was light enough to distinguish
clearly the outlines of the building. It was externally like the houses
of the Dutch; but the internal arrangements were different. The kitchen
was at one end, and there was a sitting-room adjoining it, and two or
three separate bedrooms at the other end. The furniture, too, was
different, the articles being less massive and solid than is usually the
case with the Boers. There was even a bookcase in the parlour,
containing it might be thirty or forty books, articles rarely to be seen
in the houses of the Dutch.
Annchen was immediately shown to one of the spare bedrooms, and some
clothes brought her by one of the Hottentot women, while her own were
taken out to be dried. The males of the party were similarly
accommodated, and in an hour's time all the travellers were assembled
round the stranger's board, with the exception of Vander Heyden, who,
having seen his sister made comfortable, took a courteous farewell of
his host, and expressed his intention of returning to the cavern, not
considering it safe, he said, to leave the waggons and cattle entirely
in charge of the natives.
"You may be right, sir," said the Englishman. "Natives, unless you have
had long experience of them, cannot safely be left in charge of valuable
property. More particularly is that the case at the present time."
"Indeed!" said Vander Heyden, delaying his departure as he heard his
host's words. "To what do you more particularly refer?"
"The whole country has been for a long time past overrun with ruffians
and outlaws of every description," was the answer. "Zulus and Kaffirs,
whom the recent war has driven out of their own country; Hottentots, who
will not work, and live by pillage and pilfering; rogues from the
diamond fields, who have been expelled for their knavish tricks, as well
as convicts, who have broken loose from their confinement, have for
years past formed a sort of banditti, against which one has perpetually
to be on one's guard. After the annexation, our Government almost
entirely put them down; but the events of the last half-year have
renewed the mischief almost as bad as ever. I have no doubt, however,
that now that the struggle has come to an end, quiet and security of
life and property will be reestablished. But you need not be afraid, I
think, for your waggons. You do not seem to be aware that a bridge over
the river has been recently made, and there is a good road from it all
the way to Standerton. I shall be pleased to show it to you to-morrow.
It is one of the boons for which we have to thank the English
Government."
Vander Heyden made no reply, but once more bowed and took his leave.
Rivers and Hardy looked at one another and smiled.
"What a pity it is that he dislikes the English so!" said the latter.
"He really is a fine fellow--brave and generous and honest, and full of
kindness to every one, except an Englishman."
"We ought to feel it all the more a compliment that he is so civil to
us. I suppose there must have been some very great wrong done to his
father by our countrymen," said George.
"To his grandfather first, and then to his father," said Hardy. "His
grandfather was one of those who rebelled when they found that the
country had been permanently handed over to the English after the fall
of Napoleon. He was taken prisoner with arms in his hands, and was
hanged like any highwayman. His son migrated to Natal, and was again
driven out by the English, when they annexed the colony. Proceedings
were taken against him which were extremely harsh, and he died, as I
have heard, of a broken heart. His son, our friend Henryk, got together
all he could of his father's property, and withdrew into the Transvaal;
where he bought a farm, but left it in charge of an agent, while he
himself served in the Dutch army for several years. The annexation of
the country by the English, three or four years ago, was the last drop
in the cup of his indignation. He had returned to the Transvaal, having
become wealthy again, partly by his deputy's successful farming, partly
through money left him by his uncle, Van Courtlandt. He went again to
Europe, to try if he could not procure the repeal of the Act of
Annexation. He has come back now, bitterly disappointed at his failure.
It is no wonder, I must say, that he cannot endure the English."
The host now informed them that supper was ready, and they took their
places at the table. After the meal Annchen withdrew for the night, and
the rest of the party, gathering round the hearth, for the rain and wind
had made the air chilly, smoked their pipes and drank their host's
Schiedam at their ease.
"If you would excuse my curiosity, sir," said Hardy after a while, "I
should like to know what brought you into these parts. You are, I think
you said, an Englishman. But--"
"But I don't look as though I had lived in England,--that is what you
mean, I think? Well, I'll tell you my history. It illustrates what we
were talking of at dinner,--as to what is the truth respecting the
treatment of the natives by the Boers. My father and mother were
English. They came out to the Cape Colony somewhere about 1830, and
they settled on a farm in Namaqualand. It didn't pay. Their cattle
were continually driven off by the bushmen, and their fruit plundered
and their guns and hoes and the like stolen by the Hottentots. Nothing
they could do would prevent it. The native servants were often as not
in league with the thieves. Every now and then they would run off and
take anything of value with them."
"As for the cattle-stealing," remarked George, "that is an old story. A
man must be a good deal wiser than I am who can say how it is to be
prevented. But I wonder, I must say, if you treated the Hottentots
well, as I have no doubt you did, that they didn't stay with you."
"Perhaps they might," said Prestcott, which they afterwards found to be
their host's name,--"perhaps they might, if they had been left to
themselves. But there were always a lot of Hottentots going loose about
the country; and they threatened our servants with their vengeance if
they didn't give them food and drink. They didn't dare refuse, and then
they expected to be severely punished, and ran off. Anyhow, they
couldn't keep any servants, and their property was continually pillaged.
They must have left the country if they had lived. But one day my
father was speared by a party of bushmen, whom he had caught driving off
a bull. My mother, who had seen the transaction, ran screaming out, and
they speared her too. They then entered and pillaged the house. I was
a child of eight years old, and they no doubt would have killed me along
with my parents, if it hadn't occurred to them that old Potgieter, a
Boer farmer a few miles off, would give them something handsome for me.
They took me to him, and he did buy me."
"You don't mean that he bought you of them, knowing how they had come by
you?" exclaimed Redgy, horror-stricken.
"No, sir. They were too clever to tell him that, and he was too clever
to ask. They merely said they had found me, and they believed my father
and mother were dead."
"And they had excellent reasons for believing so," remarked Redgy.
"True, sir. Well, old Herman Potgieter took pity on me, as he was
pleased to express it. He took me over to the field-cornet's house, and
apprenticed me, after their fashion, to himself, until I should be
one-and-twenty years old."
"Ay, I have heard of that before I left England," remarked Margetts.
"But I thought the age was five-and-twenty, and it was further remarked
that it was astonishing how long these apprentices are in reaching their
five-and-twentieth year."
"Just so, sir. The natives seldom know how old they are; indeed, they
are seldom able to keep any account of time; and they are obliged to
prove that they are five-and-twenty before they can claim their freedom.
I have known a native kept in service until he was nearly forty. But
though I was not nine years old before I was taken before the
field-cornet, I knew something of their ways, having heard my father
talk about it. I produced a Prayer-Book he had given me on my eighth
birthday, insisting upon it that in a little more than twelve years'
time I should be free. I suppose when they found out I was really an
English boy, on my father's side at all events, they were a little
frightened, and thought it best to be cautious."
"I have no doubt of it," assented Hardy. "I suppose you took good care
of your Prayer-Book?"
"Old Potgieter contrived to get hold of that," said Prestcott; "but I
was not to be beaten. The house where my father had lived stood only a
few miles off, or rather had once stood, for no one had lived there
since it had been wrecked by the Hottentots, and it was a mere ruin.
But I knew my father had buried a box under the stone paving in one
corner of the room, and that it contained among other articles my
baptismal certificate. One day, when I wanted but a few weeks of
becoming one-and-twenty, I took a pick-axe with me, went over to my old
home, and dug up the box. There was my baptismal certificate, sure
enough, and a good bit of money besides, as well as shares in an English
company at Cape Town. I put these back into the box, which I buried
again, but I took the certificate with me, and on my twenty-first
birthday went over to the field-cornet's again. Old Potgieter thought
he had destroyed the evidence of my age, and was dumb-foundered when he
saw the signatures to the papers, and durst say no more.
"I repossessed myself of my money and shares, and sold the latter at
Cape Town, where they fetched a good price. Then I bought this land
here and built this house, where I have lived ever since. I married,
but never had any children. A few years ago my wife died, and I have
never cared to marry again."
"What became of old Potgieter, the old wretch?" inquired Redgy.
"Poor old Potgieter!" said Prestcott. "He wasn't unkind to me after
all; and when I heard how barbarously he had been murdered, I was as hot
as any one to punish his slayers."
"How was he murdered?" inquired Hardy.
"He was making a journey somewhere, I forget where. It was only for
trading purposes, but I suppose the Kaffir chief, near whose kraal he
halted for the night, thought otherwise. And it can't be denied that
there was some reason for his thinking so. Old Potgieter had been on a
great many commandos, and had killed more natives than he would find
easy to reckon up. Makapan, as the chief was called, attacked the camp
by night and killed them all. I have been told that they flayed him
alive, and the story was generally believed, though I have great doubts
whether it was true. The Dutch, when they heard of it, ordered a
general commando, which was joined by a large party of Potgieter's
relatives and friends, and I, as I told you, went with them. We were
several hundreds in number, with waggons containing military stores, and
a cannon or two. Makapan and his tribe were quite unable to resist.
They retired into the broken country adjoining the kraal, and there
assailed us with arrows and assegays from behind their rocky fastnesses.
But we continually forced them back; and at last they retired into a
cavern, which was some hundred yards in depth, and so dark that it was
impossible to see anything, except close at hand."
"It wouldn't have done to have followed them there," said George. "You
would have been an easy mark for their poisoned arrows."
"No doubt, and we might have fired as many rounds of ammunition as we
pleased and hit nothing but the rocks. Praetorius and the others knew
better than to try that."
"What did they do?" asked George.
"They first tried to blast the rocks, but that had no effect but that of
wasting powder. Then a sort of blockade was established. Guards were
set at every opening, and nothing allowed to come out or go in. But
either the Kaffirs had collected large stores of food, or they had some
way of going out and getting in which we could not detect. At last the
Dutchmen came to the conclusion that the only thing to be done was to
build them in."
"Build them in! What, build a wall in front of the cave, do you mean?"
"Build up the mouth of the cave itself. They had pretty clearly
determined that there was but one mouth,--the fact that the cave ran
deeper and deeper into the hillside seemed to prove that,--and if so,
there could be no way out."
"Why, that is very much what I remember reading in my history of
Scotland," said Margetts, "that a very barbarous Highland tribe did to
another. It was in prehistoric times, so that there was only a legend
about it."
"As for barbarity, Redgy," observed George, "I don't fancy the Boers of
the nineteenth century are much behind the McLeods of whom that story is
told. And the French performed nearly the same feat in Algeria forty
years or so ago. Only they, I believe, smoked the Arabs like bees in a
hive."
"That would have been much more merciful," observed Prestcott. "These
Kaffirs died of hunger, the most dreadful of all deaths, and no quarter
was given them. Whenever any of them made their appearance at the mouth
of the cave, they were shot down. More than a thousand were killed in
that way. The blockade was maintained for nearly a month. After that
no Kaffirs appeared, and there came so dreadful a stench from the cave
that the Dutch could endure it no longer, and made their way in. I had
gone away some time before that, not being able to endure the horror of
it. But I am told that they found no living thing. The whole tribe had
been destroyed."
"Then, I suppose, they went home and celebrated their victory," said
George.
"Yes, and boast that peace has been maintained in that district ever
since," replied Mr Prestcott.
"Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant," said George, who had not
forgotten his classics. "I did not know the Boers were as bad as that!"