Then I thought to myself that I must now undergo that about which I had heard so much from others. To think that poor women must see their things taken away from them and burnt.
I was very angry, and I thought, “Do what you like, I shall say what I think and what is right.”
I told them again then who I was, and said that I was not going to let them burn my waggon.
For eighteen months long, ever since Lord Methuen sent me out of Lichtenburg, I had wandered round with my children. If they wanted to burn my things they would have to get an order from a superior officer. I was not going to let them do it themselves.
The soldiers kept pressing closer. They had quite surrounded me. I thought, “Who knows how cruel they are going to be?”
But here again I remembered that only as far as the Lord would let them could they go and no further, and I did not lose faith.
Then suddenly the one with whom I had been talking drew his pocket-book out and wrote an order that the waggon, the tent and the cows which I had kept should not be touched and that no harm should be done on the place. And this was just when, a little way off, in a dwelling-house, they had completely taken and destroyed everything. They had taken away from there all the blankets and more or less everything that the women had had by them. They used to let this be done by the Kaffirs, who took great pride in being able to act in such a manner to white women-folks.
And now the officer’s bad temper was quite cured. No one might come near my waggon and tent now. The soldiers were ordered back; a guard was stationed near us so that we might not be annoyed by the passers-by.
I was delivered from them the next day.
I was longing now to hear what had become of the people who had taken the cattle with them.