Part 9 (1/2)
Ka the Blyde River Valley, in which he and his mother had hidden the his tribe fro country This cave could only be entered by cli on to a ledge froht the hiding-place during the night, but histhat their tracks would be followed, escaped with her children to another refuge during the darkness It was fortunate that they did this, for the spoilers found the tracks leading to the cavern and massacred every soul it contained Probably today it still conceals the gruesome pile of bones principally of women and children which I saw in it in 1874
Kameel was a character in his way He had spent his life a law unto hie where the kraal he inhabited stood Being, in spite of his years, a strong activethose who, likeon their trips He accoer expeditions which I undertook
Through listening to the conversation of his ee was apt to be ”painful and frequent and free” on slight provocation, Kameel had picked up so I cannot, unfortunately, bowdlerize the best of these without spoiling theive a few examples of the less forceful
If, for instance, Kareatness as an attribute of anything whatever fro to a hippopota that terust, he would exclaim ”Toodamaach,” and shake his head emphatically The first ti, painful, and really clever stalk against a heavy wind, I missed a splendid koodoo bull at a distance of about ten yards
The e fired from an unspeakable rifle, but Kaly
It was a quaint little cosold seekers in one form or another whose tents rily unconventional in most respects, but the essential decencies of life were observed a us as well as they were in any other community of which I have been a ht their fairls whose dwellings were so many shrines for respectful worshi+p A disrespectful word towards a woman would have entailed serious consequences to the user One lady, a Miss Russell, worked a claim very successfully She eventuallyhers, a Mr Carim's Rest in the Transvaal Volksraad There were no franchise troubles in those days
As athered become very real and very hus, ri thehich held crowbar and pick to be s, are dust; those feet which scaled, untired, the highest and steepest ranges are at rest for ever Yet h it were yesterday, and not five and thirty years ago when I saw them last
The head of the community was the Gold Commissioner, Major Macdonald
He was at once fountain of justice, dispenser of such patronage as existed, and collector of taxes ”Mac” was an Aht in the War of Secession on the Confederate side He was not an ideal administrator, but his hands were clean, and he would always do one a good turn if it lay in his power A tall, thin lets showing under the briested the conventional Yankee of the period of Saame of poker, and was never, so far as I know, seen without a cigar in his e, where he held the railway cartage contract
There were several ion on the creek, but it is nevertheless to be feared that ere a rather irreligious lot All old Pilgrims will remember the Rev G B, whose church stood in the lower left-hand corner of the Market Square Mr B belonged to the Church of England, and was, for those cohtened days, an advanced ritualist He furnished his church with those syood Protestants with horror, but to which they have recently become more or less accustomed In the matter of vestments and altar observances he flew absolutely in the face of the Court of Arches
Mr B was a gentleood fellow, but was sadly weak in the eneral amusement, in fact, it rather tended to increase the parson's popularity with the diggers Whenever he went up the creek on pastoral visitation bent, every one would be on the qui uive, and as he returned men would lie in wait for him with proffers of alcoholic refreshment By the time he reached home Mr B would be more or less intoxicated, and several of the perpetrators of this sorry conspiracy would assist him to bed
However, I ue of abnormal huh the now shadowy thickets of a vivid and virile past, following a payableexperience as we may pick up on the way For the period I write of has passed, leaving scarcely a recognizable sign The individual digger, the hardy, hearty, independent ht of his own arone for ever, and the soulless corporation, the boomster, and the politician have taken his place I, for one, think that South Africa is poorer for the change
Pilgris” Here and there, especially on the terraces or beds of wash lying above the water flow, lay a few claims which were comparatively easy to work But most of the alluvium in and about the bed of the creek ran deep, often from ten to twenty feet The most serious difficulties were presented by the boulders, which were thickly distributed through the wash It would, indeed, be more correct to say that the as sparsely distributed between the boulders
Any stone which could not be lifted out by two men without tackle came within the definition of a boulder Thirty, or even forty, tons was no very unusual weight for these blocks of smooth, water worn quartzite
Every one, nothat whatever gold there was lay on the bedrock, and thus beneath all the wash The bedrock was granite, but was so deco it out like sorid of aa pit in the bedrock, sending the stuff dug out away through the sluice-box, and then rolling the erous work; the pit had to be sunk close to the boulder one wanted to bury, and the latter was apt to break down the soft edge and roll in, s the workers into jelly Some terrible accidents of this kind took place
The lack of a surgeon occasioned the loss of ood life and limb, for accidents were frequent There was an unqualified practitioner in the Lower Canboard, eon, Barber, and Tentmaker”
Despite his quaint advertisees, A was no quack He was, I think, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and had undergone a certain a He saved h my bout of fever But several of his serious operations rong This may have been due to lack of proper appliances, and to our rough but by noI reot horribly crushed at Waterfall Creek and had to be amputated Mortification set in and he died
One ofCharlie”
was the name he was usually known by He was a most active and occasionally a successful prospector It was he, I fancy, who years afterwards discovered the Pigg's Peak Mine in Swaziland Charlie's weakness was drink He and I ate thethe Blyde River terraces for a couple of h to pay for the salt which seasoned our insipid repasts
CHAPTER VIII
Work on ”the Reef”--Shaft-sinking in a swa--Huantuan breakfast--His peculiar habits--His end--The rush to ”the Reef”
Cunningham's lead--My bad luck--Peter and his appetite--”Mr Williaroom--Knox and his revolver practice--A senseless toast and its sequel--A terrible accident Alick Dempster and the Police News