The men then fell in again in Field Street, and marched off to the Point, the Durban Light Infantry Band playing "Just a little bit off the Top" as a march.
The Philomel and the hospital ship Orcana had been dressed for the occasion, and a number of their comrades assembled at the Passenger Jetty and cheered them on arrival. They were afterwards conveyed to the cruisers.
Among the Navals who returned from the front this morning is a little canine hero, "Jack" the terrier, which has shared their fortunes throughout the war. When they left Durban ten months ago a little fox terrier followed them. While at the front he never left them, although he was not particular with whom he fed or what kind of weather prevailed. The firing of a 4.7 gun did not discourage him, and through the booming of big guns and the rattle of musketry he stuck by his adopters. Through every engagement he went, and has come back bearing an honourable scar on the head—shot by a Mauser bullet. The men, needless to say, idolise the little hero, whose neck is decorated with a large blue ribbon from which is suspended a Transvaal Commemoration Medal.
After inserting this account, there is, perhaps, nothing more to be recorded except to say how grateful we all felt to the Mayor and people of Durban for the kind and indeed magnificent reception they gave us; and we could not but add our thanks to Commander Dundas of the Philomel, to whose energy and good will, as senior Naval Officer, the success of the reception was greatly due.
Tuesday, 30th October.—After saying good-bye to many old friends of the Philomel, and others, and undergoing lunches and dinners (of which the most amusing and lively one was with Captain Bearcroft of the Philomel who led the Naval Brigade under Lord Roberts and whom I was glad to have met before sailing) I got on board the Tantallon Castle, finding Commander Dundas on board and coming home in the same mail. We left Durban on a beautiful day, and I was glad to find myself in possession of a large cabin. And so I must end this long and rambling Journal on seeing the last of Natal, merely adding that we had rather a rough passage, after touching at Port Elizabeth, up to Mossel Bay, a most picturesque place on account of the towering peaks and ranges of hills running close to the coast-line. We reached Capetown on the 5th November, and I found Table Mountain and the general view much more striking than I had previously thought. We had to wait here till the 8th November, when we finally bid farewell to South Africa which with every beat of the screw gradually faded from view into the dim shadows of an interesting past.
While the revolving wheel of life bears one on to other scenes and toils, with dear old England looming once more on the horizon, we leave South Africa behind with the problem of the war still unsettled, and with desultory but fierce fighting still going on. But let us hope that the shadows will lift, and that the glory of a rising sun will eventually dim and absorb the sea of blood which has submerged that wonderful and hitherto unfortunate land. The lines from the "Light of Asia"—
"Om Mani padme Hun, The sunrise comes,
The dew-drop slips into the shining sea"—
express, I think, the hope of every British heart for South Africa, as they do that of my own.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER IX
Gunnery Results: The 12-pounder Q.-F. Naval gun—Its mounting, sighting, and methods of firing—The Creusot 3" gun and its improvements—Shrapnel fire and the poor results obtained by the Boers—Use of the Clinometer and Mekometer—How to emplace a Q.-F. gun, etc., etc.