Chapter 16
`We spend our years as a tale that is told,' said King David. These words recurred to me again and again as I reviewed ten years, of which the story lay chronicled in the pages of my journal.
Year followed year; chapter succeeded chapter; steadily, imperceptibly, time was passing away.
The shade of sadness cast on my mind by retrospect of this kind, was dispelled by thoughts full of gratitude to God, for the welfare and happiness of my beloved family during so long a period. I had cause especially to rejoice in seeing our sons advance to manhood strengthened by early training for lives of usefulness and activity wherever their lot might fall.
And my great wish is that young people who read this record of our lives and adventures, should learn from it how admirably suited is the peaceful, industrious and pious life of a cheerful and united family, to the formation of strong, pure and manly character.
None take a better place in the great national family, none are happier or more beloved than those who go forth from such homes to fulfil new duties, and to gather fresh interests around them.
Having given a detailed account of several years' residence in New Switzerland, as we liked to call our dominion, it is needless for me to continue what would exhaust the patience of the most long-suffering, by repeating monotonous narratives of exploring parties and hunting expeditions, wearisome descriptions of awkward inventions and clumsy machines, with an endless record of discoveries, more fit for the pages of an encyclopaedia, than a book of family history.
Yet before winding up with the concluding events, I may mention some interesting facts illustrative of our exact position at the time these took place.
Rockburg and Falconhurst continued to be our winter and summer headquarters, and improvements were added which made them more and more convenient as well as attractive in appearance.
The fountains, trellised verandahs and plantations round Rockburg, completely changed the character of the residence which on account of the heat and want of vegetation had in former days been so distasteful to my wife. Flowering creepers overhung the balconies and pillars; while shrubs and trees, both native and European, grew luxuriantly in groves of our planting.