Part 14 (1/2)
On the third reat relief, for I was terrified lest we should be delayed, the Seven Stars sailed with a favouring wind Three days later we entered the harbour of Delagoa, a sheet of waterits shallow entrance, it is the best natural port in Southeastern Africa, but now, alas! lost to the English
Six hours later we anchored opposite a sandbank on which stood a dilapidated fort and a dirty settleuese kept a few soldiers, most of them coloured I pass over my troubles with the Customs, if such they could be called Suffice it to say that ultioods, on which the duty chargeable was apparently enorns aovernor and ending with a drunken black sho sat in a kind of sentry box on the quay
Early next ain, because of some quarrel with the officials, who threatened to seize her--I forget why Her destination was the East African ports and, I think, Madagascar, where a profitable trade was to be done in carrying cattle and slaves Captain Richardson said he ht be back at Lorenzo Marquez in two or three ht not As a matter of fact the latter supposition proved correct, for the Seven Stars was lost on a sandbank so to Moreat hardshi+ps
Well, she had served my turn, for I heard afterwards that no other shi+p put into the Bay for a whole year froht her at Port Elizabeth I could not have come at all, except, of course, overland This at best must have taken many months, and was moreover a journey that no ain
There was no inn at Lorenzo Marquez Through the kindness of one of his native or half-breed wives, who could talk a little Dutch, Iin a tu to a dissolute person who called himself Don Jose Xiood fortune befriended me Don Jose, when sober, was a trader with the natives, and a year before had acquired froons Probably they were stolen fro Boers or found derelict after their lad to sell for a song I think I gave hilish for the two, and thirty ht at the saons They were fine beasts of the Afrikander breed, that after a long rest had grown quite fat and strong
Of course twelve oxen were not enough to draagons, or even one
Therefore, hearing that there were natives on the ave out that I was ready to buy, and pay well in blankets, cloth, beads and so forth The result was that within two days I had forty or fifty to choose from, small animals of the Zulu character and, I should add, unbroken Still they were sturdy and used to that veld and its diseases Here it was thatsix of theon, two as fore- and two as after-oxen, and two in the et the other ten necessary to make up a team of sixteen under so the week or so which went by before it was possible forthe wagons, buying and breaking in the wild oxen, purchasing provisions, hiring native servants--of whoed to one of the Zulu tribes and desired to get back to their own country, whence they had wandered with some Boers, I do not think that we slept more than two or three hours out of the twenty-four
But, it may be asked, as my aim, whither went I, what inquiries had I made? To answer the last question first, I had made every possible inquiry, but with little or no result Marie's letter had said that they were encamped on the bank of the Crocodile River, about fiftythe Portuguese--who, after all, were not rant Boers But these Portuguese appeared to have heard nothing, except --he could not remember what
The fact was at this time the few people who lived at Lorenzo Marquez were too sodden with liquor and other vices to take any interest in outside news that did not ied and oppressed if they were their servants, or fought with if they were not, told the that was true, for between the two races there was an hereditary hate stretching back for generations So froained no information
Then I turned to the Kaffirs, especially to those froht the cattle _They_ had heard that soo--how many they could not tell But that country, they said, was under the rule of a chief as hostile to them, and killed any of their people who ventured thither Therefore they knew nothing for certain Still, one of theht as a slave, and who had passed through the district in question a feeeks before, told him that someone had told her that these Boers were all dead of sickness She added that she had seen their wagon caps froons were still alive”
I asked to see this woreat deal of talk, however, he offered to sell her to ained with the reed for her purchase for three pounds of copper wire and eight yards of blue cloth Next e, flat nose, who caathered, been taken captive by Arabs and sold from hand to hand Her nareat difficulty in establishi+ng communication with her, but ultimately found that one of uage Even then it was hard to ht I had bought her for some dreadful purpose or other However, when she found that she was kindly treated, she opened her lips and told me the same story that her late master had repeated, neither uide ons”
She answered: ”Oh, yes,” as she had travelled ot any of them
This, of course, was all I wanted froood deal of trouble The poor creature seeratitude for the little I showed her was so intense that it beca to do e way, and even attempted to seize my food and chew it before I put it into my own mouth--to save me the trouble, I suppose Ultiainst her will, I fear, to one of the hired Kaffirs, who h when he was dismissed from my service she wanted to leave hiuidance of this woman, Jeel, we o, a distance that on a fair road any good horse would cover in eight hours, or less But we had no horses, and there was no road--nothing but swamps and bush and rocky hills With our untrained cattle it took us three days to travel the first twelve s went somewhat better
It may be asked, why did I not send on? But whom could I send when no one knew the way, except the woman, Jeel, whom I feared to part with lest I should see her no ers could take no help? If everyone at the camp was dead, as rumour told us--well, they were dead And if they lived, the hope was that they er Meanwhile, I dared not part with o on with her alone If I did so, I knew that I should never see the owned by a white uese prevented the natives fro them
It was a truly awful journey My first idea had been to follow the banks of the Crocodile River, which is what I should have attempted had I not chanced on the woman, Jeel Lucky was it that I did not do so, since I found afterwards that this river wound about a great deal and was joined by impassable tributaries Also it was bordered by forests Jeel's track, on the contrary, followed an old slave road that, bad as it was, avoided the swa country, and those native tribes which the experience of generations of the traders in this iniquitous traffic showed to be one by We had careat rocks, ed to roll out of the path by ons The oxen had to lie in their yokes all night, since we dared not let the lest they should stray; also lions were roaring in the distance, although, ga plentiful, these did not coht we let out the tearew about, and meanwhile cooked and ate some food
Presently the sun rose, and I saw that beneath us was a great stretch of plain covered with ht, several denser billows of mist that rees thisabove it, till at length it thinned into vapour that vanished away as the sun rose
As I watched it idly, the woman, Jeel, crept up to me in her furtive fashi+on, touched roup of trees
Looking closely at these trees, I saeen them what at first I took for soested to on tilts Just then the Zulu who understood Jeel's talk came up I asked hie of his tongue was very imperfect, what she wished to say He questioned her, and answered that she desired to tellhouses of the Amaboona (the Boer people), just where she had seen thes my heart seemed to stand still, so that for ons at last, but--oh! who and what should I find in them? I called Hans and bade hi to him that yonder was Marais's camp
”Why not let the oxen fill themselves first, baas?” he answered ”There is no hurry, for though the wagons are there, no doubt all the people are dead long ago”