A woman's wanderings and trials during the Anglo-Boer War — John Shaqi
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 did not know how to pacify my children; they wept bitterly, and
could not find words for their indignation. And yet it was peace all
the same. I said to them, “Let us keep silence; later on we shall
understand it all.”
I stayed there till Monday morning. As Liebenberg had come to take me
to Klerksdorp, and as from there I should be able to go on to Pretoria,
I soon thought to myself, “What a joy it will be when I can meet my
children again, after having been separated from them for nearly two
years.”
But this peace was so distasteful that I could not get over the thought
of it.
When everything was packed we made ready to start. While I was driving
I took my day-book. The text for that morning was Gen. xxii. 7: “And
Abraham said God will provide....”
Now we went on quickly. I met on that road none but sorrowing women and
children. I said sometimes, “Where can the poor burghers be that we do
not meet them?”
After having travelled for a couple of days we came to Mr D. van der
Merwe’s place. There I met several burghers. Van der Merwe was a good
and clever man and I was glad to be able to talk with him. He told me
that, however incomprehensible it might all seem, he was sure that the
officers after having struggled so long and so bitterly would now also
do their best.
As they had first gone to the Zwartruggens and Marico to see that the
arms were all given up, I had not seen any of them yet.
We were now in the Lichtenburg district. I waited at Mr van der Merwe’s
place. It was bitterly cold. It snowed for three days, and during all
my wanderings this was the worst cold I had experienced. And there was
no house to shelter us. There were plenty of buildings there, but all
were more or less in ruins. It was dreadful to see them. Now came the
time when the burghers in this neighbourhood also had to give up their
arms.
On the 12th of June the last gun had been given up in the Lichtenburg
district. That evening my people came for the first time to my tent. I
thought how bitter it was to meet them in this way. My husband came to
me and my son, little Coos. Little Coos cried, “Mamma, I have still got
my gun.”
It was very hard for him; he could stand the war better than the peace.
I did not want to speak about it with his father. The terrible shedding
of blood was at end. We had offered up our property and our blood for
Freedom and Justice.... Where was this freedom? where was this justice?
Jesus was betrayed by Judas. He had to die the cruel death on the
cross. His death brought us everlasting life; yet Judas killed himself.
We have been betrayed by many of our burghers. We have lost our right
for a time. Yet they who struggled to the end, and who resolved
that right must go first without thinking of might, have kept their
fortitude. However the end may have shaped itself, they are glad not to
have been Judases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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