speed without a single sign of hesitation on the part of
the boy who held the reins.
As the train sped along, and for thirty miles before
we reached Newcastle, we constantly disturbed s m a l l
flocks of the South-African Kestrel (Cerchneis rupicolct).
These birds were usually found two or three together
and often on the ant-hills which bordered the line,
taking flight as the train approached; but I saw very
few birds during this journey, and a fine pair of Paauw
(Otis kori), walking on the open veld near the Ingogo
heights, were the most interesting of our ornithological
observations.
At Newcastle I once more joined the coach for Volks-
rust, the first stage in Transvaal territory, and found
as a travelling companion an Englishman who had been
through the Boer war, and one of whose duties was now
to see that the graves on the summit of Majuba were
properly preserved. Again I listened to a truthful
account by an eye-witness of the disaster—for I had
previously travelled with the war-correspondent of a
London daily paper, and also of a carrier of despatches
during the war,—and again was the problem intensified
as to the cause of all our disasters. He told me he had
guided many travelling British oflicers up the mountain
since the war and they always returned dispirited and
perplexed. The disaster of Majuba has yet received
no rational explanation, and it is said of General
Joubert, that when the subject is mentioned he usually
raises his hat and says the God of Battles fought for
the Boers on that day. I have been on the spot three
times, I have conversed on the subject with three eyewitnesses,
I have heard a score of different theories about
the fight from men of different nationalities whom I
have met in the Transvaal, and I confess I do not
understand it, and thought I knew more about it before
I left England.
Twelve days’ heavy and continuous rain is sufficient
to incommode the inner communications of any country ;
but in a land like the Transvaal, where the rivers have
few or no bridges and the roads are self-worn by
coaches and wagons across an endless veld, the way
becomes stopped and communication almost ceases.
On reaching Volksrust in the rain and dark after a
terrible journey across the flooded heights, we found
no coach had been able to pass for three days, and the
passengers had thus accumulated in the small wayside
rest that passes by the name of hotel. The cause of
the delay was the swollen and impassable condition of
the spruit we had to cross a short distance further on,
which had been daily approached but never attempted.
We retired to rest—four beds in the room,—the latch
of the door out of order and the rain pouring outside,
and rose again at 3 a.m. to once more try and force the
passage of the stream. When we reached it daylight
had well broken, but there were ominous murmurs that
the water was as “ high as ever.” A Kafir was sent
across as a preliminary plummet: the stream reached his
shoulders at the deepest part and carried him off his
feet where the current ran strongest. It was, however,
decided to risk the passage, by unharnessing the
horses and letting the coach be pulled through by our
Kafir friends, who now mustered somewhat strongly.
Several of the passengers undressed and preferred
swimming the stream to the danger of being overturned
and washed away in the coach ; but I chose the latter
alternative with a prospect of being able to keep
warm and comfortable; nor was I mistaken, for the
coach, after threatening for about sixty seconds in the
rush of the stream to end its present career of usefulness,
eventually passed soberly through and gained
the other side. Our passengers now again dressed, the
horses were swam through, and after having chased a
runaway, that broke loose and enjoyed his liberty for
half an hour, we resumed our journey.
The Waterfal river was reached about sunset, and
in place of the small and fordable stream we had
crossed without difficulty some twelve days previously,
there now flowed a wide and, in the centre, deep
current not to be ventured by coach or horse. We
crossed in a punt, and leaving our coach, transferred
K