General Chat

Ten years at Amsterdam .............................................................................................................. Mrs. Cameron set out with Rod, who was then twelve years old, on horseback for Amsterdam to find out if there were any possibilities there for her to earn a livelihood. From Fair View they first went to Barberton and then on to Moodies, which, about six years previously, had been the principal centre of the De Kaap Gold Fields. Here they spent the night with some old friends, the Turtons. The roads were mere treks [tracks] and in parts practically impassable. From Moodies to the Komati River they did not pass a single house along the way. At the Komati they off-saddled to rest the horses a while, and, after having had some refreshment at a store owned by two men, they crossed the river on a punt which was worked by eight kaffirs, while the horses were driven across the stream a little distance higher up where the water was shallower. In the afternoon, a few miles beyond the Komati, they met some people who had come from Steynsdorp, and, as this was the destination of the riders for the night, Mrs. Cameron made enquiries as to the state of the road. These people strongly advised her to turn back and stay at the store until the following morning. They told her it was too late to go on as before she reached Steynsdorp she would have to cross a huge donga, and in the dark it would be utterly impossible to find the way through this gulley even if she knew the place, which she did not. However, she was very anxious to continue her journey so she decided to push on in spite of the warning. After riding through bush country for some time, she and Rod came to a steep ridge on the summit of which all the grass had been burnt. By this time it was quite dark. It was here that they had to cross the donga. They went to the edge but the horses refused to go down and persisted in turning back. Three times they tried to enter the gulley, but in vain, as their mounts resisted every attempt in spite of the whip being freely used. As it was too dark to see why the animals refused so stubbornly to proceed, they gave up trying to force them and went back to the top of the ridge. Here they sat down holding their horses while they waited for someone to pass who would be able to help them. They waited and waited but nobody came. Rod, tired after the long ride, fell asleep so his mother held his reins too. After a while the dead quiet and dense darkness got on her nerves and she felt that she simply could not stand it any longer, so she shouted and shouted in the hopes that someone would hear her and come to her assistance. There was no response. The silence grew unbearable. The atmosphere was close and depressing. Suddenly the black silence was broken by crash upon crash of thunder. A storm was upon them. What a night they had! After a slight shower the thunder grew less and less loud as the storm died away in the distance. The weary travellers were damp and in truly miserable plight. At dawn the far-distant crowing of a cock sounded like the sweetest music to their ears for it told them that there were other human beings somewhere in that vast, wild country. As soon as it was light they saddled their horses and went down to the edge of the donga. There they found a sheer drop of five feet for the bank had given way, hence the reason why their mounts had refused to proceed the previous evening. Near this place was a tree with branches spreading out over the gulley. Rod climbed this and scrambled along one of the branches which bent down under his weight as he neared the tip. He was then able to let himself down easily into the donga. His mother threw down the one end of a long leading riem, the other end of which she had attached to the head-stall of one of the horses, and he tugged at it while she tried to drive the animal on with her whip. The horse was still hesitating to take the plunge when the bank on which it was standing suddenly gave way, and down it went pell-mell almost on top of Rod who just managed to scramble out of the way in time. The animal was unhurt, and the falling of the soil made the slope of the bank gradual so Mrs. Cameron chased the other horse down quite easily and was able to follow it on foot! Mounting again they proceeded on their way and would soon have been hopelessly lost in the mazes of the donga, had it not been for the tracks made by the people from Steynsdorp the previous day. Luckily the little rain there had been overnight had not obliterated these spoors. They went up one small rise, down another, then round another, until after a while they lost all sense of direction, the way through the huge gulley was so bewildering. They dismounted and led their horses so as to be able to follow the tracks more easily! After what seemed to them an eternity they eventually reached the other side of the donga. Here they scrambled up the steep bank and in the near distance to their delight saw a building. They hurried forward with thoughts of warm, refreshing coffee running through their minds. Imagine their disappointment when on closer approach the supposed building turned out to be a mass of rock! A little later on, weary and hungry, they reached Steynsdorp. Here they had a late breakfast, after which they went to bed and slept for several hours! The horses had a splendid feed and rest too. Some of the Steynsdorp people, when chatting to the riders, informed them that they had been exceedingly lucky to pass the night in safety on the ridge, as only the week before two donkeys had been torn to pieces at that spot by leopards. In the afternoon the pair set out for Darkton, which was the usual wayside-hotel and store, and which had been named after the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Dark. They spent the night there and resumed their journey next morning after breakfast! When they had gone some distance they lost themselves, but were fortunate to meet a couple of Boers who directed them to the right road. At dusk they reached another store owned by two well-educated men. Their house, which was attached to the shop, was in spick and span order although there was no woman at the place. These two bachelors cooked excellently and gave the travellers fresh buttered scones among other things for padkos. The riders crossed the Usutu River and went on to Dingley where they rested awhile before starting on the last lap of their journey. At nine o'clock in the evening they reached Amsterdam where they stayed at a boarding-house for a few days while Mrs. Cameron looked round to see what possibilities there were for making a living. She found there was a good opening for a school in this small village so she decided to settle there. Before leaving to fetch her other children, she was able to hire a house and also a building which had once been a government school. Having arranged matters to her satisfaction, she and Rod returned to Barberton by the same route along which they had come, but they took good care to reach the donga in broad day-light. When they arrived at the Komati, they did not cross in the punt again but rode through the drift. The water was so deep that it reached up to the saddle-flaps and Mrs. Cameron expected to see Rod fall off any minute as she feared the rushing stream would make him giddy. However, they both gained the other side in safety. They went back to Fair View where the other children had been left in the charge of Mrs. Wray. Later the Wrays with their only child were all three drowned when the Drummond Castle went down off Ushant. Mrs. Cameron sold her house but took her furniture with by wagon. On their journey they outspanned at a wayside-hotel owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Dunn who had two daughters. Two or three years later, when a malarial epidemic was raging, a traveller passing this hotel touched in at the store to buy some fresh supplies. When he walk

More thanks from me Lindy. Norah x