Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South AfricaMatthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
History
Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa
Matthews, J. W. (Josiah Wright)
Diamond mines and mining -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
horror, he got on the rope before any one could stop him, and struck
out for the doctor, whom he very quickly reached, when, speaking a few
encouraging words, he so far revived him by voice and gesture as to
get about a yard nearer the shore; but the struggle was so fierce, the
water so merciless, and the doctor so exhausted, that they could do no
more, and the manager also found his strength and nerve fail him. Our
feelings were now doubly intensified; for, instead of one man’s life
trembling in the balance, there were two. For a short time both seemed
lost, as, owing to the additional weight and strain upon the rope,
they were more under water than above, each wave completely covering
them. Suddenly, without a cry or a kick, the manager threw his hands
up, and was in a moment carried like a log yards down the stream. Then
indeed broke out cries and shrieks and yells from men, women, and even
children, of ‘Save the master! Save the master!’ some in English, some
in Hindostanee, and some in Kafir; and poor Melville was speechless.
“A little lower down the stream was a wide open space, which was
called the drift, and through which the main road passed when the
water was low. A general rush now took place there, as the only
possible chance of picking up the floating body was at this spot. Two
or three Kafirs of the Basuto tribe waded boldly half-way into this
boiling torrent, joined hands, and the outside one, by a dextrous leap
at the right moment, caught the upraised arm of the drowning man
within a few feet of a mass of rocks and boulders, which must have
caused instant death, and, amidst the cheers and shouts of all, landed
him safe. Meanwhile, the doctor still continued clinging with a
death-like grasp to the rope, it being in fact difficult to judge if
life remained at all. But now, whether the example set by the manager
stimulated others, or whether perhaps they felt some little shame,
several men, headed by the engineer (who could not swim a stroke),
succeeded in reaching him, and by dint of united efforts they brought
him to land, also alive, but considerably more like drowned than the
other. Both men, with the help of brandy and water, lots of rubbing,
and the other usual remedies, after a time recovered; and in about two
hours’ time Dr. H. felt able, accompanied by Melville, to go on his
road to Lime Hill, which they reached only in time to find his patient
rapidly sinking, and to receive his few last words, for he died that
same evening before they left the house.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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