E-text prepared by Charles Klingman
REMINISCENCES OF A SOUTH AFRICAN PIONEER
(1st Series Wanderjahre)
by
WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY
Author of
"By Veldt and Kopje," "Kafir Stories," "The Ridge of the White Waters,"
"Between Sun and Sand," Etc., Etc.
With 16 Illustrations
T. Fisher Unwin
London: Adelphi Terrace
Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20
First published in 1913.
(All rights reserved.)
"Ignoranti quern portum petat, nullus suus ventus est."
SENECA.
To
ELAINE, GERALD, ERNEST, MIRIAM, LILLA, AND BETTY,
THIS RECORD OF
THEIR FATHER'S EARLY WANDERINGS OVER THE
YET-UNVEILED FACE OF SOUTH AFRICA
IS INSCRIBED
FOREWORD
The reminiscences set down in this volume have been published serially
in The State of South Africa, in a more or less abridged form, under
the title of "Unconventional Reminiscences." They are mainly
autobiographical. This has been inevitable; in any narrative based upon
personal experience, an attempt to efface oneself would tend to weaken
vitality.
Having lived for upwards of forty-five years in South Africa usually in
parts remote from those settled areas which have attained a measure of
civilization and having been a wide wanderer in my early days, it has
been my fortune to witness many interesting events and to be brought
into contact with many strong men. Occasionally, as in the case of the
earlier discoveries of gold and diamonds, I have drifted, a pipkin
among pots, close to the centre around which the immediate interests of
the country seemed to revolve.
The period mainly dealt with is that magical one when South Africa
unnoted and obscure was startled from the simplicity of her bucolic
life by the discovery of gold and diamonds. This was, of course, some
years before the fountains of her boundless potential wealth had become
fully unsealed. I was one of that band of light-hearted, haphazard
pioneers who, rejoicing in youthful energy and careless of their own
interests, unwittingly laid the foundation upon which so many great
fortunes have been built.
An ancient myth relates how the god Dionysus decreed that everything
touched by Midas, the Phrygian king, should turn into gold, but the
effect was so disastrous that Midas begged for a reversal of the
decree. The prayer was granted, conditionally upon the afflicted king
bathing in the River Pactolus.
South Africa may, in a sense, be paralleled with Midas both as regards
the bane of gold and the antidote of bathing but her Pactolus has been
one of blood.
Midas again got into trouble by, refusing to adjudge in the matter of
musical merit between Pan and Apollo, and this time was punished by
having his ears changed into those of an ass.
Our choice lies before us; may we avoid the ass's ears by boldly making
a decision. May we evade a worse thing by unhesitatingly giving our
award in favor of Apollo.
With this apologia I submit my humble gleanings from fields on which no
more the sun will shine, to the indulgent sympathy of readers.
W. C. S.
PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA, January, 1913.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Foreword--My father's family--"Old Body"--Dualla--A cruel experiment--"Old
Body"--and the goose--Cook and kitchen-maid--Scull and monkey--My mother's
family--Abbey view--The Bock of Cashel--Captain Meagher and early chess
Sir Dominic Corrigan--"Old Mary" and the sugar--Naval ambitions--Harper
Twelvetree and the burial agency