Part 3 (1/2)

Poor Larry O'Toole! We -camp

He ventured into the Low Country beyond the Murchison Range at the wrong season, and contracted fever In the delirium which supervened he blew his brains out Larry had a brother, Edmund, who had been a sailor, and who joined Butler's Horse in the Zulu War He gained the Victoria Cross the day before Ulundi Together with the late Lord William Beresford (”Bill,” as he liked to be called, alliteratively ) he saved a wounded man from the spears of the enemy For this exploit the cross was offered to Lord William, but he refused to accept it unless a similar distinction were conferred on O'Toole

The latter had a varied career I once hailed a cab in Cape Town and found he was the driver He told e froood He, like so ion that never was listed”

ho since closed his earthly account

One occurrence I heard of a the seaside camps merits relation It should be mentioned that the extraordinary, story reached me at second-hand The incident is said to have taken place one season when I did not visit the coast

At the end of the sixties no zoological garden contained a specimen of the South African anteater I do not knohether any such institution contains one noever, a very liberal price was offered for a live specimen This extraordinary creature is almost strictly nocturnal in its habits, and is consequently extremely difficult to capture One day a h the veld a few e ant-eater

Mindful of the reward offered, he sprang fros

The ant-eater has hardly anyused solely for digging But its strength and its digging powers are almost beyond belief In sandy soil one will bury itself in a few seconds In this instance the captor had to exert all his strength round He was, in fact, only able to do this byhis position, a process involving constant and exhausting effort He bethought hireat difficulty he loosened this, and tied it in a noose around the ant-bear's loins But orously than ever

At length he realized that it was iht One expedient re and bushy tail He doubled the end of this, and securely fastened the rein to it Then he hastened to his ca people to assist hie spectacle round, erect, after the s were extended horizontally, its fore-legs aving impotently up and down' The ant-bear had carved its way deep into the bowels of the earth, gradually but relentlessly dragging the hapless pony down until its posterior parts hermetically sealed up the burrow It was, in fact, only the s completely buried Eventually, however, the rein snapped, and the pony was thus released from a durance probably unique in equine experience But I wish toin connection with the foregoing remarkable tale, except that I have related it as it was told tofroreen boskage that clothed their curves with beauty, and the veil of orange tinted ion where sea and sky awaited, breathless, the advent of day I suppose the placid lagoons still eants of cloudland, while the purple kingfishers flit fro in the air, before they, plunge into the crystal water

I ian-tones of the Indian Ocean surf toll all the darkling glades I wonder do the green, flah the aisles of greenery, and the bushbucks bark their angry challenges froled hollows I wonder do thefro their daily drink in the coolest depths of the kloof, and do the great Nys of ochre and pearl, flit a the tree tops!

But so e way seems to have acquired an individuality, of its oells, and will for ever dwell, a these scenes And I shall never be so ill-advised as to seek it, for the wraith, like adryad, would flit from tree to tree, as beautiful and as elusive as the rainbow

While living at Sunny Slope I paid ricultural show I accoon through the loveliest iinable country

Our course lay etation was then much richer than it is today The little town of East London was confined to the west bank of the Buffalo River mouth

Where the to stands, on the east bank, there was not a single house in 1868 So far as I can recollect, Tapson's Hotel was the only building between Ca was still in existence a few years ago The Buffalo River had to be crossed by h dense jungle Judging by the spoors crossing the road this jungle e picnic was held in the forest at the well-known Second Creek The guests were conveyed to the spot by a paddle tug, the Buffalo This vessel now lies, a ed, at the mouth of the Kowie River

At the picnic I sustained a severe moral shock A certain doctor hom I was acquainted an elderly andWilliam's Town looked upon the hen it was red, and became violently uproarious My ethical orientation becaot confused I had seen this nity; he had beenthe e amusement of a lot of yokels

I knew that disreputable Europeans and natives occasionally became intoxicated, but here wassuch a lapse The shock was so painful that my enjoyment was completely spoilt I crept to a thicket, froentle a long speech, interspersed with snatches of song This only came to an end when some of his friends seized the tails of his frock-coat and hauled hi

It soon beca could not prove a success, so Sunny Slope was given up, and we returned to King William's Town Here my father, with the remainder of his capital, purchased a property in the Alexandra Road, close to the present railway-station

Sheep had fallen heavily in value; our flock could not be realized without incurring a ruinous loss, so it was kept for a tie Eventually, it was handed over to a native chief named Toise, who lived on the other side of the Buffalo River, about five ra more than half a year This, itI ever had Mr John Samuel, who afterwards became a school inspector, was the head master Dr Theal, the historian (then Mr

Theal), was in charge of the second division, or, as it was called, the lower school

It was my duty to ride out every Saturday to Toise's kraal for the purpose of counting the sheep So far as I can renificance considering that the whole country, almost as far as the eye could reach in every direction, was densely populated by ”raw” natives But the unhappy animals suffered from scab and various other diseases

Toise, albeit addicted to strong drink, was a gentlenified, and remarkably handsome man; his hospitality and courtesy could not be surpassed A calabash of delicious amaas (koumis) was always ready for me on my arrival, and a feed of mealies provided for the pony I believe that subsequently Toise becah the drink habit

He was only another of the countless victims of ”Cape Smoke”

In the days I write of, the climate of the Eastern Province was totally different from what it is today From October to March thunderstorms, accompanied by torrential rain, were of frequent occurrence Early in the afternoon clouds would appear over the mountains to the north-west; between three and four o'clock these clouds, now for masses of cu out torrents of rain on their course Between five and six o'clock all these ical alaruain clear, and the sun again shi+ning hotly, on the drenched earth