The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in KaffirlandWard, Mrs.
History
The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in Kaffirland
Ward, Mrs.
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878
On the 25th of February, the Grenadiers of the 91st Regiment having been
detained many days on the eastern side of the Fish River, in consequence
of its being impassable from its swollen state, the soldiers adopted a
peculiar mode of getting the baggage-waggons across this gulf of dark
and sluggish waters. Availing themselves of a short period when the
drift became navigable, these patient and experienced soldiers took the
waggons to pieces, and embarked them piecemeal with their cargoes in the
clumsy craft which forms the sole means of conveyance.
The first two years of our sojourn here, the locusts devastated the
land. The prophet Joel describes this dreadful visitation as "Like the
noise of chariots on the tops of mountains," "Like the noise of flame of
fire that devoureth the stubble," as a "strong people set in battle
array;" and any one who has ridden through a cloud of locusts, must
admit the description to be as true as it is sublime. On one occasion,
at Fort Peddie, the cloud, flickering between us and the missionary
station, half a mile distant, dazzled our eyes, and veiled the buildings
from our sight; at last it rose, presenting its effects in some acres of
barren stubble, which the sun had lit up in all the beauty of bright
green a few hours before. Verily, "the heavens" seemed "to tremble,"
and the sky was darkened by this "great army," which passed on "every
one on his ways," neither "breaking their ranks" nor "thrusting one
another." So they swept on, occupying a certain space between the
heavens and the earth, and neither swerving from their path, extending
the mighty phalanx, or pausing in the course: the noise of their wings
realising the idea of a "flaming blast," and their whole appearance
typifying God's terrible threat of a "besom of destruction."
"They shall walk every one in his path!" Nothing turns them from it.
And, if the traveller endeavour to force his way through them with
unwonted rapidity, he is sure to suffer. I have ridden for miles at a
sharp gallop through these legions, endeavouring to beat them off with
my whip, but all to no purpose! nothing turns them aside, and the poor
horses bend down their heads as against an advancing storm, and make
their way as best they can, snorting and writhing under the infliction
of several sharp blows on the face and eyes, which their riders
endeavour to evade with as little success. One draws a long breath
after escaping from a charge of locusts, and looking round you, you
exclaim with the prophet, "The land is as the garden of Eden before
them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall
escape them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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