“Your father is alive and is now a colonel,” said the captain, “but is no doubt under the impression that you were drowned, as nothing was heard of the ship you were in after she was seen at the Mauritius.”
I was delighted to hear this news, and a great longing now came over me to see my father and to again join civilisation. I told the captain what my wishes were, but that I had no money and did not know how I was to get to India, or to England; nor did I know whether my uncle was alive, and whether I ought now to go to England. I was quite able to take care of myself if alone in the African bush, or on the plains, though enemies of various kinds might be around me; but I felt I should be powerless among white men, whom, from my experience of the sailors in the former ship, I had found very stupid and suspicious.
The captain told me he would take me to Simon’s Town at the Cape, and see what could be done about communicating with my friends.
It took, in those days, upwards of four months for an answer to a Cape letter to England to be received, and about the same time for a letter sent to India to be answered and received at the Cape. I did not remember my uncle’s address in England, so that it would be impossible to communicate with him; nor did I know in what part of India my father was, but as he was well-known at Delhi, I believed that a letter sent there would be forwarded to him.
On the following day the captain decided to leave Natal and start for the Cape. The wind was in our favour, and we sailed westward, our course carrying us about twenty miles from the coast. I remained on deck watching the old familiar localities and pointing out to the captain the various rivers and headlands. Just before dark we were opposite the rocks where I was wrecked, and the captain took some observations and marked on his map the exact spot.
During the next two or three days I passed an hour or so each day, giving the captain an account of the wreck, and of what occurred afterwards; he wrote down what I told him, and, having made a sort of history of this, he then read it over to me, asking me if it were all correct.
He said, the loss of the ship had caused great excitement in England, he remembered, at the time; but when no news came, and a ship sent from the Cape to search could gain no intelligence, it was concluded that she had gone down in the storm, between the Mauritius and the Cape, and of course it was expected every one had been drowned.
We had a fair wind all the way down to Simon’s Bay, and accomplished the voyage in six days. As soon as we had anchored, the captain went on shore to visit the admiral, and I was left on the ship. In about an hour one of the officers came to me and said a signal had been sent from the admiral to say that I was to go on shore to the admiral’s house. A boat was provided, and I was soon pulled on shore.
Although I had led the life of a savage since my shipwreck, and had gained no experience of what is called polite society, yet the dangers through which I had passed had given me self-dependence; and the calm, dignified behaviour of the chiefs, both among the Zulus and the Umzimvubus, had given me an insight into the proper way of conducting myself. When, then, I was taken by the captain before the admiral I was not flurried as some youngsters might have been, but very cool and calm. The admiral examined me critically, and then said—
“You have had some strange adventures up the country.”