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
“‘From Hull, Hell and Halifax, “Good Lord deliver us,”’ the thieves in
the good old days used to devoutly pray. If they could have had my
experience their litany would have been ‘From all sailing ships,
coolie ships and Scotch ships, “Spare us good Lord.”’ The captain of
this ship is a Scotchman, his mate is Scotch too. The former seems
impressed with the idea that every one he comes in contact with has a
design upon him, and he is also morbidly impressed with the pleasing
delusion that all government officers are his servants, paid to wait
on him. I can here see and learn to my cost how to save money. The
flour we are using is quite sour, but still the cask must be finished
before another is opened; the potatoes are old and unfit to eat; the
salt beef is salt indeed, and the tongues are positively rotten—so
that to eat them is an impossibility—but when drowned in vinegar and
encased in mustard it is wonderful what an active imagination might
not fancy them to be. The butter is rancid; the tin soups splendid
emetics; the biscuit so hard that my poor teeth refuse to do duty; the
water so putrid that I find it advisable to hold my nose and gulp it
down. This style of living has considerably reduced me, but I don’t
grumble, as I see it would be useless, I rather chuckle internally.
The mate is a young, pig-headed, uncouth block of humanity, that wants
licking into shape with a cat-o’-nine tails, his principal delight
consists in calling those under him very pet names indeed. The second
mate is a decent fellow, young, a colonial, born in Tobago.
“We found we should have to remain three days before permission would
be given us to go on shore, so we got some water off under quarantine
regulations, having an officer in a boat sailing round and round us
continually at a distance of 200 yards, to see that no one had any
communication with us. With a glass we could see into portions of Port
Louis. This town lies at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills, and
seems quietly nestled under their protecting wings. On the one side of
the town lies the fort, with earthworks for defence, on the other is
the quarter inhabited by the black population, thousands of whose
little shanties we could see, built on the slope of the hill, and
surrounded with trees. Further on we had pointed out to us the railway
company’s works and the railway, with a fine viaduct crossing a deep
ravine. The Pieter Botte mountain, though not the highest in the
island, is very conspicuous. We weighed anchor at 10:30 P. M., and got
at last fair away for India. One event has occurred to break the
monotony of our journey, viz., the death of an old coolie woman. Her
body was committed to the deep without any religious ceremony the
morning after her decease, so that now, instead of
“‘Shaking on her restless pillow,
Her head heaves with the heaving billow;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account