Part 3 (2/2)

Hailstorms occasionally happened I recall a very re Williae” in, I think, the summer of 1869 The hailstones, which were of immense size, did not fall very thickly Moreover, the area of the town over which the storm passed contained no houses but thatched ones

Great luan to rain out of the sky The shape was that of a full-blown rose; it suggested that each had been formed in a tiny vortex-an, at the Grey Hospital, secured one hed a pound and three-quarters

The throbbing roar heralding the approaching hail cataract was a thing never to be forgotten I heard of no fatalities as, but a flock of sheep iped out at a spot where the storh, abrupt hill about twenty miles away

In those days streams such as the Kat, the Koonap, the Buffalo, and the Keiskahty brown torrents As there were no bridges, except the occasional military, ones, post carts would often be delayed for days at a time, and one's letters would sometimes arrive more or less in a state of pulp The whole country was covered with rank vegetation up to June, when nearly all the grass would be burnt off It is to the cessation of this i the south-east coast that I attribute the enormous increase of the tick pest

One of my favorite diversions, when the Buffalo was in flood, was to ride to a spot near the upper end of the town and there strip I would tie my clothes into a bundle and entrust them, with my pony, to another boy Then I would jump into the river and allow myself to be carried down by the torrent All one had to do was to keep well in the middle of the stream and avoid contact with occasional uprooted trees

Once or twice I found , unpleasantly close to puff-adders and other snakes which had been washed by the flood out of their hiding-places in the holes piercing the river-banks But such reptiles were always tooany injury

Meanwhile the boy, withforyards to the south-east of the town I should not now care to venture on such an excursion

CHAPTER IV

Trip to the Transkei--Tiyo Soga and his fas--Start as a sheep farmer--My camp burnt out--First commercial adventure--Chief Sandile--Discovery of diahter narrowly escaped--Old De Beers--Life at the Dia--I nearly discover Ki Kopje--My first diamond--Its loss and my humiliation--Kimberley claims dear at 10--Ca

It was in the June holidays of 1869 that I undertook my first real adventure I then accompanied Mr Samuel and two of my schoolfellows on an expedition to the Transkei, which at that tioes were in a sense under British protection, and Mr Fynn was resident with Sariii (usually known as ”Kreli”), the celebrated Goaleka chief

The Kei River was the colonial boundary Traveling on horseback we crossed the river by a drift soe One of my companions was Tom Irvine, now a partner in the firden, whose father was Wesleyan missionary near the site on which the town of butterworth now stands, Richard Irvine had a trading station at the Incu Drift The old building still exists When we arrived there the tobacco crop had just been harvested, and the trader was kept busy fro tobacco at the rate of a penny per pound, the price being taken in the foroods

We moved on to Tutura, the a and her sister, Miss Burnside, received us with the best hospitality Their dwelling consisted of a row of huts which were connected with each other by es The huts had doors and ordinary s

The Sogas were just on the point of starting for the seaside on their annual holiday e joined them Their destination was the mouth of the Kobonqaba River We decided to join the party I rode uiled the ti Wordsworth's poetry, which at that tinificent scenery unfolded itself he would pause and declaim some appropriate quotation from ”The Excursion”

I have seldom been so impressed by any one as by this Kaffir, who, born in absolute barbarism, had acquired culture both deep and wide, and then returned to try and civilize his people At the ti, for the benefit of the Natives, the Bible and ”Pilgrie is euists will tell you that a's version than in English His rendering of ”Pilgria was a tall ure

Even at the tiave evidence of the consumption which some years later caused his death He was not alone a deeply cultivated scholar, but a Christian gentleman in the fullest sense of the term

We passed Kreli's kraal, but the chief was in retirement under the hands of a witch-doctor, so we did not see hi the watershed between the Kei and the Kobonqaba is wonderfully beautiful

The weather was caled with snow The populous villages of the Natives stood on every ledge; sleek cattle grazed in every valley The people looked prosperous and contented We met civility everywhere; milk was offered us at every kraal I visited the sao and sojourned for a feeeks near the site of the old Soga camp, but the season was summer, and both ticks and snakes were in evidence to a er were they so civil or so hospitable Revisiting the scenes of one's youth is usually an unsatisfactory experience

We spent a ith the Sogas, and then went to the camp of the Fynns, a few miles away Here, also, ere hospitably entertained There were three Fynn brothers, and their aggregate height was nineteen feet

Late one afternoon, when returning fro a deep, bushy kloof by a bridle-path I reached an open space Here I saw five large, s on their haunches, the others were standing I passed within about twenty-five yards of them They made no hostile demonstration, neither did they attempt to run away When I related my experience at the cas, a pack of which had for so in the vicinity

I returned to King Williaht My companion for I had left Mr Sans in a holster We off-saddled at several kraals, and on each occasion the gold jingled audibly, yet we never felt the slightest uneasiness In those days it was a coe sums of money by native runners frole instance of such a trust having been betrayed

When I reached King William's Town it was quite evident that our sheep were not flourishi+ng They were, in fact, dwindling daily So had to be done, so my father hired a farm about ten miles away, in the direction of Kabousie I volunteered ratification this offer was accepted The fariven an old bell-tent, purchased at a e sale, to live in

My assistant was a Kaffir lad nareen, so far as I aes strung across his face literally froed farmer An old sheep kraal was put into a state of repair Toby and I built a wattle hut, and a shelter for the pony The hut was so small that Toby, had to lie curled up in it; if he stretched himself, either head or heels had to be out in the cold

After the novelty had worn off, the hbors ho country was uninteresting to a degree Far away, just peeping over the rim of the horizon, were the peaks of the Aions of enchantment, cliff-crowned and forest-clothed towards which ht this chapter of ic close One very, windy day I went out with the sheep, leaving Toby at the ca that it was ihting one in the tent, and to this I unwisely consented, warning hi should catch alight