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Our black drivers exerted themselves to the uttermost. They shouted, they flogged, they pulled; but quite in vain; the oxen were utterly unable to stir, and distressed by the strength of the current, they began to be restive and to pull at their yokes and bridles. This caused the foremost pair to sink deeper and deeper, and it seemed only too certain that they must be drowned. Prompt action was necessary. I had hurt my hand, and was incapacitated from rendering much help; but I sprang from the waggon, followed by one of the rest; and although we could do nothing to rescue the vehicle from its situation, we succeeded in unharnessing the oxen, who struggled to the opposite side with the greatest difficulty. By the most arduous exertions, we went backwards and forwards, carrying the most valuable part of my collection ashore; but the waggon itself we were obliged to leave, with a large portion of its contents, in the bed of the river, until further assistance could be procured. Our labour entailed such fatigue that before darkness came on we were all ready to drop.
The uncertainty about our waggon and property made us pass an anxious night, and it was a great relief in the early morning to hear a distant cracking of whips, announcing that aid was at hand. Four Koranna waggons, drawn by six or eight pairs of oxen, soon appeared, and made their way quickly to our side of the river. A bargain was concluded, by which our waggon was to be brought to land for the sum of ten shillings, and the manœuvre was accomplished without difficulty or further accident.
On the third day after this exciting adventure I re-entered Dutoitspan. I had been away for two months; but, in spite of having exercised the strictest economy, my journey had cost me 400l.; in fact, rather more. As matter of course, my absence had involved the loss of half my patients; many families had chosen another medical man, and many more, particularly the Dutch farmers, had left the diamond-fields and gone to the Free State. My attendance, however, was very soon called in to some severe cases of sickness, and I began at once to recover my position; and it was not long before I repaid the loan advanced to me for the cooking apparatus by my friend, who very shortly afterwards left Dutoitspan to settle in the colony.
The great object of my journey I conceived to be happily accomplished. I had wanted to gain experience as to the best mode of travelling, and to get some insight into the character of the country, and into the domestic habits both of the natives and of the settlers. I was anxious to acclimatize myself for future journeyings, and the ungenial damp and stormy season had put my constitution to a very fair test. The heavy rains had involved the loss of a good many objects of interest, but I had nevertheless succeeded in bringing back thirty skeletons, about 1500 dried plants, one chest of skins of mammalia, two chests of birds’ skins, more than 200 reptiles, several fish, 3000 insects, some fossils, and 300 specimens of minerals, not to mention a number of geological duplicates, which I procured chiefly from the river-diggings to present to several museums and schools in Europe.
It is almost needless to add that on this trial trip I gained many useful hints. In the first place, I learnt that a saddle-horse was indispensable for any future and more prolonged excursion. Continual occasions were ever arising when its services would be most acceptable, either in driving back the draught-oxen that had strayed away, or in exploring points of interest at a distance without bringing the waggon to a standstill, or in getting readily within reach of game. And another thing my experience taught me—I must have much more efficient weapons for my use.
Before setting out, I had made arrangements to retain my little tent-house in Dutoitspan, opposite the court of justice, and thither I now returned. The waggon was pushed up against the back of the house, and the oxen were sold. They brought in enough to discharge my two months’ rent, which amounted to 10l., to pay 3l. for my servants’ wages, and to leave me a little money in hand for my immediate personal necessities.
For the next six months I settled down hard to my practice; and it was a busy time for me. There are very few places in the world where a doctor does not, more or less, become the intimate friend of his patients, and thus finds continual opportunities for an interesting study of character; but in such a sphere of work as the diamond-fields, in their early days, these opportunities were unusually many. Where invalids were often confined to the most limited space—families of tolerable means frequently all living in a single tent—a medical man, whether he would or no, was brought face to face with the details of domestic life, not only in its brighter, but in its more trying aspect; and in such cases he would ever and again have to become an adviser, an advocate, and sometimes an arbitrator. At times it seemed almost easier to face a wild beast than to speak the proper word of counsel or caution to some self-willed grey-headed man. Prague, with its hundred towers, and the richest practice it could offer, would have failed to give me in years a fraction of the experience that I gained in this brief interval.
Of the thousands of black men who at that time acted as servants in the diamond-fields, the majority belonged to the Basuto, Zulu, and Transvaal Bechuana tribes. They earned from 7s. 6d. to 10s. a week, and rarely stayed more than six months at the diggings; for as soon as they had saved enough to buy a gun—which would seldom cost more than 4l.—and about 5 lbs. of powder at 3s. per lb., a few bullets and caps, a woollen garment or two, and perhaps a hat, they considered themselves quite in a position to return to their own homes and buy themselves a wife. A servant had to be bound to his master by a certificate drawn up by a proper official, and this had to be renewed at every change of situation, a penalty being imposed when the document was not forthcoming. Whenever a servant wished to complete his engagement, and to return home, the employer, if the man’s conduct had been satisfactory, would give him a certificate to the local authorities, that he might be permitted to buy a gun. The certificate was practically equivalent, therefore, to a gun licence; and thus it had been brought about that many hundreds of natives, both in the colony and in their own independent states, were in possession of fire-arms, with liberty to use them.
