Part 8 (2/2)

On the way, the party to which Edwin Brook belonged pa.s.sed the ground already occupied by the large band of settlers known as ”Chapman's party,” which had left Algoa Bay a few weeks before them in an imposing procession of ninety-six waggons. They had been accompanied to their future home by a small detachment of the Cape Corps, the officer in command of which gave them the suggestive advice, on bidding them goodbye, never to leave their guns behind them when they went out to plough! Although so short a time located, this party had produced a marvellous change in the appearance of the wilderness, and gave the settlers who pa.s.sed farther eastward, an idea of what lay before themselves. Fields had already been marked out; the virgin soil broken up; timber cut, and bush cleared; while fragile cottages and huts were springing up here and there to supplant the tents which had given the first encampments a somewhat military aspect. Grotesque dwellings these, many of them, with mats and rugs for doors, and white calico or empty s.p.a.ce for windows. It was interesting, in these first locations, to mark the development of character among the settlers. Those who were practical examined the ”lie” of the land and the nature of the soil, with a view to their future residence. Timid souls chose their sites with reference to defence. Men of sentiment had regard to the picturesque, and careless fellows ”squatted” in the first convenient spot that presented itself. Of course errors of judgment had to be corrected afterwards on all hands, but the power to choose and change was happily great at first, as well as easy.

As Brook's party advanced, portions of it dropped off or turned aside, until at last Edwin found himself reduced to one family besides his own.

Even this he parted from on a ridge of land which overlooked his own ”location,” and about noon of the same day his waggons came to a halt on a gra.s.sy mound, which was just sufficiently elevated to command a magnificent view of the surrounding country.

”Your location,” said his Dutch waggon-driver, with a curious smile, as though he should say, ”I wonder what you'll do with yourselves.”

But the Dutchman made no further remark. He was one of the taciturn specimens of his cla.s.s, and began at once to unload the waggon. With the able a.s.sistance of Brook and his men, and the feeble aid of the ”Tottie,” or Hottentot leader of the ”span” of oxen, the boxes, ploughs, barrels, bags, cases, etcetera, which const.i.tuted the worldly wealth of the settlers, were soon placed on the green sward. Then the Dutchman said ”goeden-dag,” or farewell, shook hands all round, cracked his long whip, and went off into the unknown wilderness, leaving the Brook family to its reflections.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE ”LOCATION.”

In the midst of the confused heap of their property, Edwin Brook sat down on a large chest beside his wife and daughter, and gazed for some time in silence on his new estate and home.

To say truth, it was in many respects a pleasant prospect. A bright blue sky overhead, a verdant earth around. Gra.s.sy hills and undulations of rich pasture-land swept away from their feet like a green sea, until stopped in the far distance by the great blue sea itself. These were dotted everywhere with copses of the yellow-flowered mimosa-bush, through openings in which the glitter of a stream could be seen, while to the left and behind lay the dark ma.s.ses of a dense jungle filled with arboreous and succulent plants, acacias and evergreens, wild-looking aloes, tall euphorbias, quaint cactuses, and a great variety of flowering shrubs--filled also, as was very soon discovered, with antelopes, snakes, jackals, hyenas, leopards, and other wild creatures.

The only familiar objects which broke the wild beauty of the scene were the distant white specks which they knew to be the tents just put up by those settlers who chanced to be their ”next neighbours.”

”May G.o.d protect and bless us in our new home!” said Edwin Brook, breaking the silence, and reverently taking off his cap.

A heartfelt ”Amen” was murmured by Mrs Brook and Gertie, but a strange, though not unpleasant, feeling of loneliness had crept over their spirits, inducing them to relapse into silence, for they could not avoid realising strongly that at last they were fairly left alone to fight the great battle of life. Edwin Brook in particular, on seeing the long team of the Dutch driver disappear over a distant ridge, was for the first time deeply impressed with, as it were, the forsaken condition of himself and his family. It was plain that he must take root there and grow--or die. There was no neighbouring town or village from which help could be obtained in any case of emergency; no cart or other means of conveyance to remove their goods from the spot on which they had been left; no doctor in case of sickness; no minister in cases either of joy or sorrow--except indeed (and it was a blessed exception) Him who came to our world ”not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”

Strong in the comfort that this a.s.surance gave, Edwin Brook shook off the lethargy that had been stealing over him, and set about the duties of the present hour. The tent had to be pitched, the trunks and boxes conveyed into it, a fire kindled, the kettle boiled, the goods and chattels piled and secured from the weather, firewood cut to prepare for the night-bivouac, etcetera.

Much of this work was already in progress, for George Dally,--with that ready resource and quiet capacity of adaptation to circ.u.mstances which he had displayed on the voyage out and on the journey to the location,-- had already kindled a fire, sent Scholtz to cut firewood, and was busy erecting the tent when Brook joined him.

”That's right, George,” he said, seizing a tent-peg and mallet; ”we have plenty to do here, and no time to waste.”

”Very true, sir,” replied George, touching his cap, for George was an innately respectful man--respectful to _all_, though with a strong tendency to humorous impudence; ”very true, sir; that's just what I thought when I see you a-meditatin', so I went to work at once without wastin' any time.”

”Is zat enough?” asked Scholtz, staggering up at the moment with a heavy load of firewood, which he threw on the ground.

The question was put to George, for whom the big German had a special regard, and whose orders he consequently obeyed with unquestioning alacrity, although George had no special right to command.

”Enough!” exclaimed George, with a look of surprise, ”why, _zat_ is not enough to scare a weasel with, much less a elephant or a--a platzic.u.mroggijoo.”

George was ignorant of South African zoology, and possessed inventive powers.

”Bring ten times as much,” he added; ”we shall have to keep a blazin'

bonfire agoin' all night.”

Scholtz re-shouldered his axe, and went off to the jungle with a broad grin on his broader countenance.

He was a man who did not spare himself, yet of a temperament that kicked at useless labour, and of a size that forbade the idea of compulsion, but George Dally could have led him with a packthread to do anything.

Before he had reached the jungle, and while the smile was yet on his visage, his blood was curdled and his face elongated by a most appalling yell! It was not exactly a war-whoop, nor was it a cry of pain, though it partook of both, and filled the entire family with horror as they rushed to the tent on the mound from which the cry had issued.

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