FINGO BOY.
When now for the fourth time I reached the diamond fields I was perfectly insolvent. It was impossible to conceal from myself the difficulty I should find in re-establishing my medical practice, as an absence of a year and nine months had made me little better than a stranger in the place; and yet it was upon my practice alone that I had to rely for obtaining the means of discharging my obligations. Reluctant as I was to leave my designs unaccomplished, I could not resist the desire that came over me to return home and recruit my broken health. The question of means, however, had to be entertained, and the idea occurred to me that perhaps a public exhibition of my collection of natural and ethnographical curiosities might yield me some profit, which I could apply to the expense of a homeward passage. My friend Herr Werner came to see me as soon as he heard of my arrival, and voluntarily advanced me money enough to make my exhibition scheme feasible.
My next step was to take my waggon off to Bultfontein, as I could live for a time in greater retirement there than in Kimberley. I hired a small house close to my friend, who, although he was no longer rich, showed me every kindness during my illness. My residence was modest enough; it contained only one apartment, consisting of four bare clay walls; the floor was of the same material; but worst of all, the roof was of zinc, which made it insupportably hot in the summer. Such as it was, however, I made it serve as the temporary store of all my collections, and took up my quarters there with Eberwald, who remained in the place, acting as my assistant in preparing medicines for my patients, the number of which increased so rapidly that I could not fail to be cheered and encouraged to look forward to the future with something like equanimity.
In front of what I called my “house,” and not far from it, stood an old erection, now roofless, and there I placed the great lion-cage that Eberwald and I had made, and all round I arranged a number of other cages of many kinds and sizes, containing the rest of the animals and birds that I had brought with me. Strangers coming to the diamond-fields from the Colony, the Free State, or the Transvaal, rarely failed to come and make an inspection of my pets, nearly all of which were perfectly tame; and some of the visitors afterwards sent me several rare zoological specimens as additions to my stock.
MY HOUSE IN BULTFONTEIN.
So large did my professional practice grow in the course of the following year, that all Eberwald’s time was occupied in dispensing my medicines, so that he had no opportunity of attending to my menagerie; the consequence was that the charge of it had to be entrusted to two negroes, who neglected their duty abominably, and failed to keep the animals either clean or properly fed. I had taken pains to have all the cages made as roomy as possible, but they rotted through exposure to the weather, and some few of the animals escaped and were killed, being probably eaten by the neighbouring blacks; but these were nothing in comparison with the number of those that died from negligence and mismanagement. By the time I left the place, more than two-thirds of the whole had disappeared. Round the cages that contained the smaller birds I planted ivy and several kinds of creepers, beneath which the little prisoners hopped about and twittered, well protected by a bower of natural foliage from the scorching sun.
I have no space in which to enter upon a detailed account of all the habits of the occupants of the various cages. It was a great pleasure to me to observe them for the best part of two years. My surviving lion was especially attached to me, and would always extend his paws to caress me whenever I approached his cage, and it was only out of regard to the nervousness of others that I did not venture occasionally to allow him his liberty. I refused an offer of 100l. for him when he was five months old, but by the time I lost him he had cost me double that sum. I had occasion to go to the Free State for a fortnight’s visit, and during my absence his cage was allowed to remain so dirty, that when I returned the poor beast was suffering from an illness too far advanced to be arrested. Throughout its last days I always went to see it as often as I returned from my rounds, and it never failed to start to its feet with an alacrity that startled any visitor who was standing by, and even when it grew too weak to stand it would drag itself towards the front bars of its den the instant it heard my voice. Though amongst my pets I had tame jackals that were constantly running away and coming back again, and affectionate little jumping-hares that allowed themselves to be fondled like babies, none of them could ever console me for the loss of “Prince,” my young lion, the pride of my whole collection.
Besides what I have mentioned, my menagerie contained apes and baboons, hedgehogs, reed-rats, a caracal, a mangusta, black and white striped weasels, hyæna-wolves, mountain-hares, ground-squirrels, striped mice, blind mice, pangolins, several steinbocks, duykerbocks, springbocks, and a rock-rabbit; and amongst the birds I may enumerate three brown South African eagles, a crested eagle, two species of kites, red falcons, various kinds of sparrow-hawks, secretary-birds, brown and black vultures (Gyps socialis), two kinds of owls, parrots, black and white crows, grosbeaks and insectivorous song-birds, a hornbill, a pelican, a darter, and several varieties of wild geese and herons.