Wilson - South African Memories

Lady Sarah Wilson

Everything of interest that has happened to me in life chances to have been in connection with South Africa. In that land, where some of my happiest days have been spent, I have also experienced long periods of intense excitement and anxiety; there I have made acquaintance with all the charm of the veldt, in the vast country north of the great Zambesi River, hearing the roar of the lions at night, and following their "spoor" by day; and last, but not least, I have there made some very good friends. Only a few years ago, when peacefully spending a few weeks at Assouan in Egypt, I was nearly drowned by the capsizing of a boat in the Nile; again the spirit of the vast continent (on this occasion far away to the north) seemed to watch over me. For all these reasons I venture to claim the indulgence of the public and the kindness of my friends, for these recollections of days in South Africa, in which shade and sunshine have been strangely mingled, and which to me have never been dull. To sum up, I have always found that life is what you make it, and have often proved the truth of the saying, "Adventures to the adventurous."

I am indebted to Colonel Vyvyan for statistics respecting the Mafeking Relief Fund; and to Miss A. Fielding, secretary to the late Countess Howe, for a rsum of the work of the Yeomanry Hospital during the Boer War.

S.I.W.
THE STUD HOUSE,
HAMPTON COURT.
September, 1909.

FIRST VOYAGE TO SOUTH AFRICACAPE TOWN
KIMBERLEY AND THE JAMESON RAID
THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE RAIDTHE RAIDERS THEMSELVES
JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA IN 1896
THREE YEARS AFTERLORD MILNER AT CAPE TOWN BEFORE THE WARMR.
CECIL RHODES AT GROOT SCHUURROTHER INTERESTING PERSONAGES
PREPARATIONS FOR WARMAFEKING, AND DEPARTURE THEREFROM
IN A REBELLIOUS COLONYVISIT TO VRYBURG DURING THE
BOER OCCUPATIONI PASS OFF AS A DUTCHMAN'S SISTER
BETRAYED BY A PIGEONTHE BOERS COME AT LAST
HOW I WAS MADE A PRISONERIN A BOER LAAGER
EXCHANGED FOR A HORSE-THIEFBACK TO MAFEKING
AFTER TWO MONTHS' WANDERINGS
LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN
LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN (continued)
ELOFF'S DETERMINED ATTACK ON
MAFEKING, AND THE RELIEF OF THE TOWN
ACROSS THE TRANSVAAL TO PRETORIA DURING THE WAR
PRETORIA AND JOHANNESBURG UNDER LORD ROBERTS AND MILITARY LAW
MY RETURN TO CIVILIZATION ONCE MORETHE
MAFEKING FUNDLETTERS FROM THE KING AND QUEEN
THE WORK OF LADY GEORGIANA CURZON, LADY CHESHAM, AND THE
YEOMANRY HOSPITAL, DURING THE WARTHIRD VOYAGE TO THE CAPE, 1902
FOURTH VOYAGE TO THE CAPETHE VICTORIA
FALLS AND SIX WEEKS NORTH OF THE ZAMBESI
MAFEKING RELIEF FUND
IMPERIAL YEOMANRY HOSPITALS, 1900-1902

THE LAST COACHES TO LEAVE MAFEKING FOR
THE TRANSVAAL BEFORE THE WAR
THE ENGLISH TROOPS TAKING POSSESSION OF
KRUGER'S HOUSE AT PRETORIA, JUNE 5, 1900

FIRST VOYAGE TO SOUTH AFRICACAPE TOWN.

"Oh that mine adversary had written a book!"JOB xxxi. 35.

The above words, written by one of the greatest philosophers of olden time, have often impressed me, and I have frequently quoted them when asked why I did not write an account of the interesting travels and adventures I have had in my life. It has therefore required a great deal of courage to take up my pen and record a few recollections of South Africa. I felt that, were they ever to be written at all, it must be before the rapidly passing years diminish the interest in that land, which in the past has been the object of such engrossing attention; and that at the present time, when the impending Federation of South Africa has at length crowned the hopes of those patriots who have laboured patiently and hopefully to bring about this great result, it might be appropriate to recall those days when Englishmen, who had made South Africa their home, had much to contend with, even before the fierce struggle to keep "the flag flying" in the years of 1899-1902.

During that period, which commenced after the disaster at Majuba Hill, "equal rights" were a golden dream which only the most optimistic ever hoped to see realized. From then onwards, as old colonists have so often told me, the Boers brought up the younger generation in the belief that the "Roinek" was a coward, and in consequence their arrogance in the country districts became wellnigh intolerable, while at the Cape the Bond party grew so strong it bid fair to elbow out the English altogether. Now, while the country is still young, the fair prospect opens out of Briton and Boer living in amity and peace together, and mutually supplying, in the government of their vast inheritance, such elements as are wanting in the character of each.

My first visit to South Africa was a short one, and took place at the end of 1895. During the foregoing summer everyone's attention had been directed to the Transvaal, and more especially towards the Rand, by reason of the unprecedented and, as it turned out, totally unwarranted rise in the gold-mining shares of that district; in this boom, people both at home and in Johannesburg madly gambled, and large fortunes were quickly made by those who had foresight enough not to hold on too long. For already the political horizon was darkening, and the wrongs of the "Uitlanders," real and apparent as they were, became a parrot-cry, which waxed and waned, but never died away, till the ultimatum of President Kruger, in October, 1899, brought matters to a climax.

We sailed from Southampton in December, 1895, in the Tantallon Castle, then one of the most modern and up-to-date of the Castle liners. The ship was crowded to its utmost capacity, and among the passengers, as I afterwards learned, were many deeply concerned in the plotting which was known to be going on at Johannesburg, either to extort concessions from President Kruger, or, failing this, to remove him altogether. I knew very little about all this then, but before I had been many days on board it was not difficult to discover that much mystery filled the air, and I was greatly excited at arriving in South Africa in such stirring times. There is no such place for getting to know people well as on a sea-voyage of eighteen days. Somehow the sea inspires confidence, and one knows that information imparted cannot, anyway, be posted off by the same day's mail. So those who were helping to pull the strings of this ill-fated rebellion talked pretty freely of their hopes and fears during the long, dark tropical evenings.

I became familiar with their grievancestheir unfair taxation; no education for their children except in Dutch; no representation in Parliamentand this in a population in which, at that time, the English and Afrikanders at Johannesburg and in the surrounding districts outnumbered the Dutch in the proportion of about 6 to 1. They laid stress on the fact that neither the Boers nor their children were, or desired to become, miners, and, further, that for the enormous sums spent on developing and working the mines no proper security existed. I must admit it was the fiery-headed followers who talked the loudestthose who had nothing to lose and much to gain. The financiers, while directing and encouraging their zeal, seemed almost with the same hand to wish to put on the brake and damp their martial ardour. In any case, all were so eloquent that by the time our voyage was ended I felt as great a rebel against "Oom Paul" and his Government as any one of them.