Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 099, March, 1876Various
Science
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 17, No. 099, March, 1876
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
Only a few warehouses, or rather sheds of warehouses, are to be
seen, and a rude sort of railway-station, which appears to afford
indiscriminate shelter to boats as well as to engines. There are
leisurely trains which saunter into the town of D'Urban, a mile and a
half away, every half hour or so, but one of these "crawlers" had just
started. The sun was very hot, and we voyagers were all sadly
weary and headachy. But the best of the colonies is the prompt,
self-sacrificing kindness of old-comers to new-comers. A gentleman had
driven down in his own nice, comfortable pony-carriage, and without a
moment's hesitation he insisted on our all getting into it and making
the best of our way to our hotel. It is too good an offer to be
refused, for the sun is hot and the babies are tired to death; so we
start, slowly enough, to plough our way through heavy sand up to the
axles. If the tide had been out we could have driven quickly along the
hard, dry sand; but we comfort ourselves by remembering that there
had been water enough on the bar, and make the best of our way through
clouds of impalpable dust to a better road, of which a couple of
hundred yards land us at our hotel. It looks bare and unfurnished
enough, in all conscience, but it is a new place, and must be
furnished by degrees. At all events, it is tolerably clean and quiet,
and we can wash our sunburned faces and hands, and, as nurse says,
"turn ourselves round."
Coolies swarm in every direction, picturesque fish- and fruit-sellers
throng the verandah of the kitchen a little way off, and everything
looks bright and green and fresh, having been well washed by the
recent rains. There are still, however, several feet of dust in the
streets, for they are _made_ of dust; and my own private impression
is, that all the water in the harbor would not suffice to lay the dust
of D'Urban for more than half an hour. With the restlessness of people
who have been cooped up on board ship for a month, we insist, the
moment it is cool enough, on being taken out for a walk. Fortunately,
the public gardens are close at hand, and we amuse ourselves very well
in them for an hour or two, but we are all thoroughly tired and worn
out, and glad to get to bed, even in gaunt, narrow rooms on hard
pallets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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