South African Memories: Social, Warlike & Sporting from Diaries Written at the TimeWilson, Sarah Isabella Augusta, Lady
History
South African Memories: Social, Warlike & Sporting from Diaries Written at the Time
Wilson, Sarah Isabella Augusta, Lady
South Africa -- Description and travel; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Personal narratives
With these gentlemen we continued our journey to Beira, stopping at a
few places of interest on the way. The country between Salisbury and
Beira is flat and marshy, and was, till the advent of the railway, a
veritable Zoological Garden as regards game of all sorts. The climate is
deadly for man and beast, and mortality was high during the construction
of the Beira Railway, which connected Rhodesia with an eastern outlet on
the sea. Among uninteresting towns, I think Beira should be placed high
on the list; the streets are so deep in sand that carriages are out of
the question, and the only means of transport is by small trucks on
narrow rails. As may be imagined, we did not linger there, but went at
once on board the German steamer, which duly landed us at Lorenzo
Marques forty-eight hours later, after an exceedingly rough voyage.
The following day was Sunday, and having been told there was a service
at the English Church at 9.30 a.m., we duly went there at that hour,
only to find the church apparently deserted, and not a movement or sound
emanating therefrom. However, on peeping in at one of the windows, we
discovered a clergyman most gorgeously apparelled in green and gold,
preparing to discourse to a congregation of two persons! Evidently the
residents found the climate too oppressively hot for church that Sunday
morning.
In the afternoon we were able to see some portions of that wonderful
harbour, of worldwide reputation. Literally translated, the local name
for the same means the "English River," and it is virtually an arm of
the sea, stretching inland like a deep bay, in which three separate
good-sized streams find an outlet. Some few miles up these rivers, we
were told, grand shooting was still to be had, the game including
hippopotami, rhinoceroses, and buffalo, which roam through
fever-stricken swamps of tropical vegetation. The glories of the vast
harbour of Delagoa Bay can better be imagined than described. In the
words of a resident, "It would hold the navies of the world," and some
years back it might have been purchased for £12,000. With the war just
over, people were beginning to realize how trade and development would
be facilitated if this great seaport belonged to the British Empire. A
"United Africa" was already looming in the distance, and it required but
little imagination on the part of the traveller, calling to mind the
short rail journey connecting it with the mining centres of the
Transvaal, to determine what a thriving, busy place Lorenzo Marques
would then become. During the day the temperature was tropical, but by
evening the atmosphere freshened, and was almost invigorating as the
fierce sun sank to rest and its place was taken by a full moon. From our
hotel, standing high on the cliff above the bay, the view was then like
fairyland: an ugly old coal-hulk, a somewhat antiquated Portuguese
gunboat, and even the diminutive and unpleasant German steamer which had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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