Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa

by Andrew A. Anderson

Forty miles to the east is Pretoria, the capital of the republic and seat of Government. It is pleasantly situated between low ranges of metamorphic hills that run east and west, and is south of the Magalisberg mountains seven miles. The city is built on an open plain, that gradually slopes towards the north, supplied with beautiful fountains that rise a few miles on the south of the town, the water falling into the Apes river. An isolated hill, about three miles on the east of the town, is a conspicuous object in the landscape. The streets run parallel; the market-square is open, with the Dutch church in the centre; there are several good hotels and a cathedral; Bishop Bousefield lives in a snug house, with very fine blue gum trees in front. Many large stores were erected during the British occupation; but at the retrocession the greater number were deserted, and a general exodus of the English took place, for it was impossible to live under the new state of affairs. The town in 1875 was not one-fourth the size it was when the Transvaal was returned to the Boers in 1881. Mr Burgers was then president, and he laboured hard to improve the country; but the people were not to be moved, and no advance in civilising them could be made. There was no money in the country, except a little English gold, everything was by barter until 1865, when paper money was issued, called bluebacks, to the extent of 10,000 pounds, and from time to time fresh issues were made to meet the expenses of the State. They varied in value, viz. in 2 shillings 6 pence, and 1 pound 5 shillings notes, but commercially the 1 pound 5 shilling notes were only worth two to three shillings. I had many of them, which I took at that price, and disposed of them for the same; but if you had to pay the Government tax the full price was allowed, for they could not refuse their own notes.

The country is open and free from any extensive wood, and the climate is suitable to produce every kind of vegetation. In the spring of the year the thick rose-hedges which divide the gardens give a very pleasing appearance to the town, when they are in full bloom. The extensive barracks and fortifications erected by the British Government on the south of the town, at a cost of over 100,000 pounds, have been made a present to the Boer Government for their disloyalty to British rule.

The Roman Catholics have a convent with several nuns, which at the outbreak of the rebellion was taken possession of and strongly fortified. The nuns and lady superior were placed in a corner of one of the buildings. All the rest of the establishment was taken, and converted into a kind of barrack for the volunteers of Pretoria, formed into four companies, of which I unfortunately belonged to Number 4, where we had to do sentry night and day. Our bed was a waterproof sheet on the bare stone floors, and as the convent swarmed with fleas of all sizes, from the heavy dragoon down to the light infantry, there was no fear of a sentry sleeping on his post. Every second night my company was ordered to occupy the interior of the convent during the night; each volunteer was assigned his particular post in the various compartments and passages, placing a sentry at different points, the rest to sleep—if the fleas would let them—fully armed, ready at a moment’s notice to defend our position. My post was generally at the entrance-passage to the priests’ quarters, which had been vacated by them, and on the bare stone floor I spread my waterproof sheet to get a little sleep; but the fleas, not one but millions, came down upon me in every quarter—poor things, they missed the nuns and the priests, for they were ravenous. Finding I should be sucked dry in a very short time, I took my rifle and sixty rounds of ball cartridge, made for the entrance, and passed the night on the door-sill, in about as happy a state of mind as a poor devil could be who had been marching up and down all day between the convent and the garrison. For fourteen days, from the 19th of December, 1880, to the 2nd of January, 1881, I had to put up with this sort of work, until I suffered so much from the excessive fatigue and want of sleep that I obtained three days’ leave of absence, as I felt unequal to the work and required rest; but at the expiration of that time I became dangerously ill from the overstrain on my system, and got a medical certificate which relieved me of any further military duty in Number 4 Company, and from that date to the end of the rebellion I lived in my waggon.

At the commencement of December, when we expected the Boers would make an attack on the town, all the males in the four wards of the city volunteered to protect the women and children in each ward, and as my waggon was outspanned in Number 4, I joined with the rest; but when the news came into Pretoria that the Boers, to the number of 1000, had been in ambush at Bronkhurst spruit for two days, waiting for the advance of a portion of the 94th Regiment from Lydenburg, which had been murdered by the Boers, a council was held, and on the 20th of December martial law was proclaimed, and all those who had formed themselves into volunteers to protect women and children were marched up to the barracks as regular volunteers. My waggon was drawn up to camp, and placed under the charge of the authorities during my soldiering.

The history of this rebellion has been so ably and graphically described by others, it will be useless for me to go more into the subject. I can merely state the first news of the British surrender that reached camp, of the war being concluded, and the retrocession of the Transvaal to the Boers, arrived on the 28th of March, 1881.

The principal portion of the Transvaal, north of Pretoria in the Zoutpansberg and Waterberg districts, is called the bush veldt, where most of the farmers living on the high veldt, between Potchefstroom and Pretoria, trek at the close of the autumn with all their family and stock, and remain the winter, where the cattle and sheep find warm shelter in the thorn forests; and return to their farms when the spring grass is sufficiently high for the stock to feed. The Boers make this trek a kind of picnic, and it is the only kind of life they enjoy.

This high land is also called Witwater rand; the elevation above sea-level is 5800 feet. Extensive seams of coal have been discovered about forty miles to the east-south-east of Pretoria. Roads in every direction traverse the country. The distances from Pretoria to the following places are: to the west, Rustenberg, 40 miles; north to Marabastadt, 160 miles; east to Middleberg, 100 miles; and to Lydenburg, 165 miles; south to Heidelburg, 55 miles; Standerton, 120 miles; and Newcastle, 190 miles; south-west to Potchefstroom, 110 miles; and to Kimberley diamond-fields, 334 miles. Middleberg is a small village on the road from Pretoria to Lydenburg, and the gold-field is in this district; a cobalt-mine has been discovered. Lydenburg is situated in the open country, on a branch of the Spekboom river. The country round is very hilly, some of them attain a height of 8000 feet above sea-level. The average height of the gold-diggings is 4200 feet.

The detachment of the 94th that was murdered at Bronkhurst spruit, for some months held possession of a small fort here, before they marched for Pretoria South of this town, some seventy miles, is a district called New Scotland, on the eastern boundary of the republic, which was in 1864 brought under the notice of a Mr McCorkindale for the purpose of forming a Scotch colony, but it fell to the ground. Klip Staple, already described, and the source of the Vaal river, spring from this locality. Wakkerstroom and Utrick have also been mentioned in the first chapter. The only portion requiring explanation in the district of Derby and Lunenburg, with its little colony of Germans who suffered great losses during the Zulu war.

Heidelburg is pleasantly situated on the south side of the watershed, containing many well-built houses. It was during the rebellion the headquarters of the rebels, and from which Captain Elliot was released and shot by the Boers when crossing the Vaal river. The road from Pretoria to Natal passes through this town, and also Standerton, another small town on the Vaal, and on to Newcastle. Standerton was also held by the British troops during the rebellion.

To the west of Heidelburg, seventy miles, is the town of Potchefstroom, the first town laid out by the Boers in taking possession of the country, situated on the Moi river; nearly half of the inhabitants were English, Germans, French, and other nationalities. It is 4007 feet above sea-level; there are some interesting limestone caves on the river, in which are imbedded many bones. The town is well laid out with fine fruit-gardens. Tobacco is extensively cultivated in the vicinity and all over the republic, and is well known for its fine quality.