CHAPTER FIVE.
ADVENTURES AND INCIDENTS OF THE FIRST NIGHT IN THE "BUSH".
A Night-Bivouac under the mimosa-bushes of the Zwartkops River. TheCape-waggons are drawn up in various comfortable nooks; the oxen areturned loose to graze; camp-fires are kindled. Round these men andwomen group themselves very much as they do in ordinary society.Classes keep by themselves, not because one class wishes to exclude theother, but because habits, sympathies, interests, and circumstances drawlike to like. The ruddy glare of the camp-fires contrasts pleasantlywith the cold light of the moon, which casts into deepest shadow thewild recesses of bush and brake, inducing many a furtive glance from themore timid of the settlers, who see an elephant, a buffalo, or a Cape"tiger" in every bank and stump and stone. Their suspicions are not sowild as one might suppose, for the neighbouring jungle, called the AddoBush, swarms with these and other wild animals.
The distance travelled on this first day was not great; the travellerswere not much fatigued, but were greatly excited by novelty, whichrendered them wakeful. If one had gone round to the numerous fires andplayed eavesdropper, what eager discussion on the new land he would haveheard; what anxious speculations; what sanguine hopes; what noble plans;what ridiculous ideas; what mad anticipations--for all were hopeful andenthusiastic.
Round one of these fires was assembled the family and retainers of ourHighland farmer, Kenneth McTavish, among whom were Sandy Black and JerryGoldboy. They had been joined by Charlie Considine, who felt drawnsomewhat to Sandy. Quite close to these, round another fire, weregrouped the three bachelor brothers Skyd, with their friend Dobson. Atanother, within earshot of these, were Edwin Brook and his wife, hisdaughter Gertrude, Scholtz and his wife, Junkie, George Dally, andStephen Orpin, with bluff Hans Marais, who had somehow got acquaintedwith the Brook family, and seemed to prefer their society to that of anyother.
Down in a hollow under a thick spreading mimosa bush was the noisiestfire of all, for there were assembled some of the natives belonging tothe waggons of Hans and Jan Smit. These carried on an uproariousdiscussion of some sort, appealing frequently to our friend Ruyter theHottentot, who appeared to be regarded by them as an umpire or anoracle. The Hottentot race is a very inferior one, both mentally andphysically, but there are among them individuals who rise much above theordinary level. Ruyter was one of these. He had indeed the sallowvisage, high cheek-bones, and dots of curly wool scattered thinly overhis head, peculiar to his race, but his countenance was unusuallyintelligent, his frame well made and very powerful, and his expressiongood. He entered heartily into the fun of attempting to teach theHottentot klick to some of the younger men among the emigrants, who wereattracted to his fire by the shouts of laughter in which the swarthyslaves and others indulged. Abdul Jemalee, the Malay slave, was there;also Booby the Bushman--the former grave and silent, almost sad; thelatter conducting himself like a monkey--to which animal he seemedclosely related--and evoking shouts of laughter from a few youths, forwhose special benefit he kept in the background and mimicked every oneelse.
"What a noisy set they are over there!" observed Edwin Brook, who hadfor some time been quietly contemplating the energetic George Dally, ashe performed the duties of cook and waiter to his party.
"They are, sir," replied Dally, "like niggers in general, fond ofshowing their white teeth."
"Come, Gertie, your mother can spare you now; let's go over and listento them."
Gertie complied with alacrity, and took her father's arm.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, with a little scream, as a thorn full five incheslong gave her a wicked probe on the left shoulder.
Hans Marais sprang up and gallantly raised the branch which had touchedher.
"It is only Kafirs who can run against mimosa thorns with impunity,"said the handsome young Dutchman.
Gertie laughed, remarked that mimosa thorns, like South Africangentlemen, were unusually long and sharp, and passed on.
Hans sat down on the ground, filled his large pipe, and gazed dreamilyinto the fire, with something of the sensation of a hunter when he makesa bad shot.
"Now then, Goliath," said the ever busy George Dally; "move your longlegs out o' that. Don't you see the pot's about to bile over?"
Hans quietly obeyed.
"If I chanced to be alongside o' that Tottie over there just now,"continued George, "I'd be inclined to stop his noise with a rap on hisspotted pate."
"You'd have to make it a heavy rap, then, to produce any effect," saidHans, taking a long draw at his pipe, "for he belongs to a hard-headedrace."
The truth of the young farmer's words was verified just then in a waythat was alarming as well as unexpected.
One of the heavy waggons, which had been delayed behind the others bysome trifling accident, came lumbering up just as Hans spoke. There wasa softish sandy spot in advance of it, into which one of the frontwheels plunged. The tilt caught on part of the waggon to which Ruyterbelonged. To prevent damage the active Hottentot sprang forward. Indoing so he tripped and fell. At the same instant a tremendous crack ofthe whip and a shout produced a wrench at the waggon, the hind wheel ofwhich went over Ruyter's head and crushed it into the ground!
A roar of consternation followed, and several eager hands carefully dugout the poor man's head. To the surprise of all, the five-ton waggonhad _not_ flattened it! The sand was so soft that it had not beensqueezed at all--at least to any damaging extent,--a round stone havingopportunely taken much of the pressure on itself, so that the Hottentotsoon revived, and, beyond a headache, was little the worse of theaccident. He returned to his place at the fire, but did not resume hispart in the discussions, which were continued as noisily as before.
In strong contrast with the other groups were those of the Dutch-Africanboers who had brought the waggons to the Bay. Most of them were men ofcolossal stature. They sat apart, smoking their huge pipes in silentcomplacency and comfort, amused a little at the scenes going on aroundthem, but apparently disinclined to trouble themselves about anything inparticular.
Supper produced a lull in the general hum of conversation, but whenpipes were lit the storm revived and continued far into the night. Atlast symptoms of weariness appeared, and people began to makearrangements for going to rest.
These arrangements were as varied as the characters of the emigrants.
Charlie Considine and Hans Marais, now become inseparable comrades,cleared and levelled the ground under a mimosa-bush, and, spreadingtheir kaross thereon, lay down to sleep. George Dally, being anadaptable man, looked at the old campaigners for a few minutes, and thenimitated their example. Little Jerry Goldboy, being naturally a nervouscreature, and having his imagination filled with snakes, scorpions,tarantulas, etcetera, would fain have slept in one of the waggons abovethe baggage--as did many of the women and children--if he had not beenlaughed out of his desire by Dally, and induced to spread his couchmanfully on the bare ground.
It must not be supposed, however, that Jerry, although timid, wascowardly. On the contrary, he was bold as a lion. He could not controlhis sensitively-strung nervous system, but instead of running away, likethe coward, he was prone to rush furiously at whatever startled him, andgrapple with it.
Some families pitched their tents, others, deeming curtains a needlessluxury in such magnificent weather, contented themselves with theshelter of the bushes.
Meanwhile the Hottentot attendants replenished the fires, while theboers unslung their huge guns and placed them so as to be handy; for,although elephants and lions were not nearly so numerous as they oncehad been in that particular locality, there was still sufficientpossibility of their presence, as well as of other nocturnal wanderersin the African wilds, to render such precaution necessary. The wholescene was most romantic, especially in the eyes of those who thusbivouacked for the first time in the wilderness. To them the greatwaggons; the gigantic Cape-oxen--which appeared to have been createdexpressly to match the waggons as well as to carry their own ponderoushorns; the w
ild-looking Hottentots and Bushmen; the big phlegmaticDutchmen; the bristling thorns of the mimosas, cropping out ofcomparative darkness; the varied groups of emigrants; the weird forms ofthe clumps of cactus, aloes, euphorbias, and other strange plants, litup by the fitful glare of the camp-fires, and canopied by thestar-spangled depths of a southern sky--all seemed to them theunbelievable creations of a wild vision.
Poor Jerry Goldboy, however, had sufficient faith in the reality of thevision to increase his nervous condition considerably, and he resolvedto lie down with his "arms handy." These arms consisted of a flint-lockblunderbuss, an heirloom in his father's family, and a bowie-knife,which had been presented to him by an American cousin on his leavingEngland. Twice during that day's march had the blunderbuss explodedowing to its owner's inexperience in fire-arms. Fortunately no harm hadbeen done, the muzzle on each occasion having been pointed to the sky,but the ire of the Dutch driver in front of Jerry had been aroused, andhe was forbidden to reload the piece. Now, however, observing thepreparations above referred to, he felt it to be his duty to prepare forthe worst, and quietly loaded his bell-mouthed weapon with a heavycharge of buckshot.
"What's that you're after, boy?" asked George Dally, who was making somefinal arrangements at the fire, before lying down for the night.
"Oh, nothing," replied Jerry, with a start, for he had thought himselfunobserved, "only seein' to my gun before turnin' in."
"That's right," said George. "Double-load it. Nothin' like bein' readyfor whatever may turn up in a wild country like this. Why, I once knewa man named Snip who said he had been attacked one night in SouthAmerica by a sarpint full forty feet long, and who saved his life bymeans of a blunderbuss, though he didn't fire at the reptile at all."
"Indeed, how was that?" asked Jerry.
"Why, just because his weapon was bell-mouthed an' loaded a'most to themuzzle. You see, the poor fellow was awoke out of a deep sleep andcouldn't well see, so that instead o' firin' at the brute, he fired hisblunderbuss about ten yards to one side of it, but the shot scattered sopowerfully that one o' the outside bullets hit a stone, glanced off, andcaught the sarpint in the eye, and though it failed to kill the brute onthe spot, the wound gave it such pain that it stood up on its tail andwriggled in agony for full five minutes, sending broken twigs and dryleaves flying about like a whirlwind, so Snip he jumped up, dropped hisweapon, an' bolted. He never returned to the encampment, and never sawthe big snake or his blunderbuss again."
"What a pity! then he lost it?" said Jerry, looking with some anxiety ata decayed branch, to which the flickering flame gave apparent motion.
"Yes, he lost the blunderbuss, but he saved his life," replied Dally, ashe lay down near his little friend and drew his blanket over him."You'd better put the gun between us, my boy, to be handy to both--an'if _anything_ comes, the one of us that wakes first can lay hold of itand fire."
There was, we need scarcely observe, a strong spice of wickedness inGeorge. If he had suggested a lion, or even an elephant, there wouldhave been something definite for poor Jerry's anxious mind to lay holdof and try to reason down and defy, but that dreadful "_anything_" thatmight come, gave him nothing to hold by. It threw the whole zoologicalferocities of South Africa open to his unanchored imagination, and for along time banished sleep from his eyes.
He allowed the blunderbuss to remain as his friend had placed it, andhugged the naked bowie-knife to his breast. In addition to theseweapons he had provided himself with a heavy piece of wood, somethinglike the exaggerated truncheon of a policeman, for the purpose ofkilling snakes, should any such venture near his couch.
The wild shrieks of laughter at the neighbouring Hottentot fire helpedto increase Jerry's wakefulness, and when this at last lulled, theirritation was kept up by the squalling of Master Junkie, whose tent wasabout three feet distant from Jerry's pillow, and who kept up a viciouspiping just in proportion to the earnestness of Mrs Scholtz's attemptsto calm him.
At last, however, the child's lamentations ceased, and there broke uponthe night air a sweet sound which stilled the merriment of the natives.It was the mellow voice of Stephen Orpin singing a hymn of praise, witha number of like-minded emigrants, before retiring to rest. Doubtlesssome of those who had already retired, and lay, perchance, watching thestars and thinking dreamily of home, were led naturally by the sweethymn to think of the home in the "better land," which might possibly benearer to some of them than the old home they had left for ever--ay,even than the new "locations" to which they were bound.
But, whatever the thoughts suggested, the whole camp soon afterwardssank into repose. Tent-doors were drawn and curtains of waggon-tiltslet down. The boers, sticking their big pipes in their hatbands,wrapped themselves in greatcoats, and, regardless of snake or scorpion,stretched their limbs on the bare ground, while Hottentots, negroes, andBushmen, rolling themselves in sheepskin karosses, lay coiled up likeballs with their feet to the fire. Only once was the camp a littledisturbed, during the early part of the night, by the mournful howl of adistant hyena. It was the first that the newcomers had heard, and mostof those who were awake raised themselves on their elbows eagerly tolisten.
Jerry was just dropping into slumber at the time. He sat bolt uprighton hearing the cry, and when it was repeated he made a wild grasp at theblunderbuss, but Dally was beforehand. He caught up the weapon, andthis probably saved an explosion.
"Come, lie down, you imp!" he said, somewhat sternly.
Jerry obeyed, and his nose soon told that he had reached the land ofdreams.
Dally then quietly drew the charge of shot, but left the powder and laidthe piece in its former position. Turning over with the sigh of onewhose active duties for the day have been completed, he then went tosleep.
Gradually the fires burned low, and gave out such flickering uncertainlight, when an occasional flame leaped up ever and anon, that tounaccustomed eyes it might have seemed as though snakes were crawlingeverywhere, and Jerry Goldboy, had he been awake, would have beheld acomplete menagerie in imagination. But Jerry was now in blessedoblivion.
When things were in this condition, that incomprehensible subtlety, thebrain of Junkie Brook--or something else--so acted as to cause theurchin to give vent to a stentorian yell. Strong though it was, it didnot penetrate far through the canvas tent, but being, as we have said,within a few feet of Jerry's ear, it sounded to that unhappy man likethe united, and as yet unknown, shriek of all the elephants andbuffaloes in Kafirland.
Starting up with a sharp cry he stretched out his hand towards theblunderbuss, but drew it back with a thrill of horror. A huge blacksnake lay in its place!
To seize his truncheon was the act of a moment. The next, down it camewith stunning violence on the snake. The reptile instantly explodedwith a bellowing roar of smoke and flame, which roused the whole camp.
"Blockhead! what d'you mean by _that_?" growled George Dally, turninground sleepily, but without rising, for he was well aware of the causeof the confusion.
Jerry shrank within himself like a guilty thing caught in the act, andglanced uneasily round to ascertain how much of death and destructionhad been dealt out. Relieved somewhat to see no one writhing in blood,he arose, and, in much confusion, replied to the numerous eager queriesas to what he had fired at. When the true state of affairs becamemanifest, most of the Dutchmen, who had been active enough when arousedby supposed danger, sauntered back to their couches with a good-naturedchuckle; the settlers who had "turned out" growled or chaffed, accordingto temperament, as they followed suit, and the natives spent half anhour in uproarious merriment over Booby's dramatic representation of thewhole incident, which he performed with graphic power and muchembellishment.
Thereafter the camp sank once more into repose, and rested in peace tillmorning.