SOUTH AFRICAN MEMORIES SOCIAL, WARLIKE & SPORTING FROM DIARIES WRITTEN AT THE TIME BY LADY SARAH WILSON LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1909 DEDICATION TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SISTER, GEORGIANA, COUNTESS HOWE, TO WHOSE EFFORTS AND UNCEASING LABOURS IN CONNECTION WITH THE YEOMANRY HOSPITALS, DURING THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA, THE EARLY BREAKDOWN OF HER HEALTH, AND SUBSEQUENT DEATH, WERE UNDOUBTEDLY DUE, THIS BOOK, CONTAINING RECOLLECTIONS OF THAT GREAT AND MYSTERIOUS LAND, THE GRAVE OF SO MANY BRAVE ENGLISHMEN, IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED PREFACE Everything of interest that has happened to me in life chances to have been in connection with South Africa. In that land, where some of my happiest days have been spent, I have also experienced long periods of intense excitement and anxiety; there I have made acquaintance with all the charm of the veldt, in the vast country north of the great Zambesi River, hearing the roar of the lions at night, and following their "spoor" by day; and last, but not least, I have there made some very good friends. Only a few years ago, when peacefully spending a few weeks at Assouan in Egypt, I was nearly drowned by the capsizing of a boat in the Nile; again the spirit of the vast continent (on this occasion far away to the north) seemed to watch over me. For all these reasons I venture to claim the indulgence of the public and the kindness of my friends, for these recollections of days in South Africa, in which shade and sunshine have been strangely mingled, and which to me have never been dull. To sum up, I have always found that life is what you make it, and have often proved the truth of the saying, "Adventures to the adventurous." I am indebted to Colonel Vyvyan for statistics respecting the Mafeking Relief Fund; and to Miss A. Fielding, secretary to the late Countess Howe, for a résumé of the work of the Yeomanry Hospital during the Boer War. S.I.W. THE STUD HOUSE, HAMPTON COURT. _September, 1909_. CONTENTS I. FIRST VOYAGE TO SOUTH AFRICA--CAPE TOWN II. KIMBERLEY AND THE JAMESON RAID III. THE IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE RAID--THE RAIDERS THEMSELVES IV. JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA IN 1896 V. THREE YEARS AFTER--LORD MILNER AT CAPE TOWN BEFORE THE WAR--MR. CECIL RHODES AT GROOT SCHUURR--OTHER INTERESTING PERSONAGES VI. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--MAFEKING, AND DEPARTURE THEREFROM VII. IN A REBELLIOUS COLONY--VISIT TO VRYBURG DURING THE BOER OCCUPATION--I PASS OFF AS A DUTCHMAN'S SISTER VIII. BETRAYED BY A PIGEON--THE BOERS COME AT LAST IX. HOW I WAS MADE A PRISONER--IN A BOER LAAGER X. EXCHANGED FOR A HORSE-THIEF--BACK TO MAFEKING AFTER TWO MONTHS' WANDERINGS XI. LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN XII. LIFE IN A BESIEGED TOWN _(continued)_ XIII. ELOFF'S DETERMINED ATTACK ON MAFEKING, AND THE RELIEF OF THE TOWN