A woman's wanderings and trials during the Anglo-Boer WarDe la Rey, Jacoba Elizabeth
History
A woman's wanderings and trials during the Anglo-Boer War
De la Rey, Jacoba Elizabeth
De La Rey, Jacoba Elizabeth, 1856-1923; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Personal narratives
I told them that they could not go on any longer driving the oxen like
that. We should have to give in. But still the brave Jacobus kept on,
and said, “No, aunt, your oxen are getting on very well. Don’t you
worry about them.”
I could not understand myself how it was that my waggons were not
taken. There was not one commando there to keep the “khakis” back.
I told myself that when the Lord is working His will, then the greatest
wonders can happen.
We came up to some steep ground when one of the yokes broke.
“Now they will be able to see us well,” I said; for we had to stand
still, which was very dangerous. But I kept calm and told myself, “My
Redeemer is here, and wherever I may go with Jesus it will always be
well.” And I clung fast to the hope that we should come away safely.
When we had at last got away from these dangerous heights, it seemed at
once as if the fighting were quieting down. However, we could not tell
whether they might not fall upon us from in front, as in that direction
lay a woody and uneven country.
Very soon we heard that they had not come any nearer. But still we
went on, to get as far away as possible. Then we heard that nearly all
the people who had been that night in Schweizer-Renecke had been taken
prisoners, and that the very same landdrost who had told me towards
sunset that he would be sure to know when the “khakis” were coming had
had no time that very night to put on his clothes and escape before
they appeared. I thought how sorry I was that I had not followed my own
wish; had I done so, we should not have found ourselves in such danger.
However, it looked again as if we were going to escape, now that the
fighting was slackening.
After the Almighty I owed my freedom to brave little Jacobus De la Rey
and Louis De la Rey, who also did his best to get us away safely. When
the troops were so near that they could have shot at my waggons, so
that I wanted to stop, they paid no heed, but continued to drive the
oxen on at full speed.
I had so many children with me and dreaded so much to see them shot
dead before my eyes that at one moment I thought it would be better to
give in.
Fortunately, it was not necessary; the danger was now over. It was very
late before we could make a halt. I had nothing ready in the waggons
to give the children to eat; but none of them gave me any trouble, not
even my little Janne, who was only six years old. It was so clever of
him to understand that when there was nothing to give him he would have
to wait.
After a short rest we had to go on again. At three o’clock in the
afternoon we stopped. We had no wood, and my boy, who was thoroughly
dead beat, did not know how he was going to make a fire. However, by
the time the evening had come our food was ready.
Now I had no more cows, so that we had to do without the precious
milk. If my little Janne could get nothing else, he used always to be
contented with milk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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