Part 13 (1/2)
”MY DEAR ALLAN,--I do not knohether the other letters I have written to you have ever come to your hands, or indeed if this one will Still, I send it on chance by a wandering Portuguese half-breed who is going to Delagoa Bay, about fifty miles, I believe, from the place where I norite, near the Crocodile River My father has named it Maraisfontein, after our old home If those letters reached you, you will have learned of the terrible things ent through on our journey; the attacks by the Kaffirs in the Zoutpansberg region, who destroyed one of our parties altogether, and so forth If not, all that storyto tell now, and, indeed, I have but little paper, and not h to say, therefore, that to the number of thirty-five white people,of the surow, fro district--an awful journey over h flooded rivers After , we reached this place, about eight weeks ago, for I write to you at the beginning of June, if we have kept correct account of the time, of which I am not certain
”It is a beautiful place to look at, a flat country of rich veld, with big trees growing on it, and about two reat river that is called the Crocodile Here, finding good water, s, deterh sooa Bay There was a great quarrel about it, but in the end my father, or rather Hernan, had his will, as the oxen orn out and many had already died from the bites of a poisonous fly which is called the tsetse So we lotted out the land, of which there is enough for hundreds, and began to build rude houses
”Then trouble cah they have not dared to attack us, and except two belonging to Hernan, the rest died of the sickness, the last of them but yesterday
The oxen, too, have all died of the tsetse bites or other illnesses But the worst is that although this country looks so healthy, it is poisoned with fever, which comes up, I think, in the mists from the river
Already out of the thirty-five of us, ten are dead, two men, three women, and five children, while more are sick As yet my father and I and my cousin Pereira have, by God's , how long this will continue I cannot tell Fortunately we have plenty of aa can kill all the food ant, even shooting on foot, and o flesh and drying it in the sun So we shall not actually starve for a long while, even if the gaoes away
”But, dear Allan, unless help comes to us I think that we shall die every one, for God alone knows the hts of sickness and death that are around us At thisof fever
”Oh, Allan, if you can help us, do so! Because of our sick it is ioa Bay, and if we did we have nothere, for all that we had with us was lost in a wagon in a flooded river It was a great suht froold Nor can we move anywhere else, for we have no cattle or horses We have sent to Delagoa Bay, where we hear these are to be had, to try to buy them on credit; but my cousin Hernan's relations, of whoone away, and no one will trust us With the neighbouring Kaffirs, too, who have plenty of cattle, we have quarrelled since, unfortunately, my cousin and some of the other Boers tried to take certain beasts of theirs without payment So we are quite helpless, and can only wait for death
”Allan, my father says that he asked your father to collect so to him If it were possible for you or other friends to cooa in a shi+p with that h for a feagons Then perhaps we ht trek back and fall in with a party of Boers e believe, have crossed the Quathlaet to the Bay and find a shi+p to take us anywhere frouide you to where we are
”But it is too much to hope that you will come, or that if you do come you will find us still alive
”Allan, h I must say it shortly, for the paper is nearly finished I do not know, supposing that you are alive and well, whether you still care for o--it seems years and years--but _my_ heart is where it was, and where I pro Of course, Hernan has pressed me to marry him, and my father has wished it But I have always said no, and now, in our wretchedness, there is nothat has happened to e, if I live Still I dare say you no longer think of e with me, who, perhaps, are already married to someone else, especially as now I and all of us are no better than wandering beggars Yet I have thought it right to tell you these things, which you may like to know
”Oh, why did God ever put it into my father's heart to leave the Cape Colony just because he hated the British Government and Hernan Pereira and others persuaded hih now It is pitiful to see hi ; also the sick child is dying and I must attend to her Will this letter ever co with it the little lish If not, there is an end If it does, and you cannot coht and think of you by day, for how much I love you I cannot tell
”In life or death I am
”Your MARIE”
Such was this awful letter I still have it; it lies before ed sheets of paper covered with faint pencil-writing that is blotted here and there with tear marks, some of them the tears of Marie rote, some of them the tears of me who read I wonder if there exists a s of the trek-Boers, and especially of such of theoa, as did this Marais expedition and those under the command of Triechard Better, like many of their people, to have perished at once by the spears of U tortures of fever and starvation
As I finished reading this lettersome of his Mission Kaffirs, entered the house, and I went into the sitting-room to meet him
”Why, Allan, what is theave him the letter, for I could not speak, and with difficulty he deciphered it
”Merciful God, what dreadful news!” he said when he had finished ”Those poor people! those poor, uided people! What can be done for the that can be done, father, or at any rate can be attempted I can try to reach them”
”Are you et to Delagoa Bay, buy cattle, and rescue these folk, who probably are now all dead?”
”The first two things are possible enough, father Some shi+p will take me to the Bay You have Marais's money, and I have that five hundred pounds which land leftto my absence on commando, it still lies untouched in the bank at Port Elizabeth That is about eight hundred pounds in all, which would buy a great s As for the third, it is not in our hands, is it? It may be that they cannot be rescued, it o to see”
”But, Allan, Allan, you are o it is probable that I shall never see you ers lately, father, and am still alive and well Moreover, if Marie is dead”--I paused, then went on passionately--”Do not try to stop me, for I tell you, father, I will not be stopped Think of the words in that letter and what a shameless hound I should be if I sat here quiet while Marie is dying yonder Would you have done so if Marie had been entleman, ”I should not Go, and God be with you, Allan, and ain” And he turned his head aside for a while