E-text prepared by Charles Klingman
(1st Series Wanderjahre)
by
Author of
"By Veldt and Kopje," "Kafir Stories," "The Ridge of the White Waters,"
"Between Sun and Sand," Etc., Etc.
With 16 Illustrations
T. Fisher Unwin
London: Adelphi Terrace
Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20
First published in 1913.
(All rights reserved.)
"Ignoranti quern portum petat, nullus suus ventus est."
To
The reminiscences set down in this volume have been published seriallyin The State of South Africa, in a more or less abridged form, underthe title of "Unconventional Reminiscences." They are mainlyautobiographical. This has been inevitable; in any narrative based uponpersonal experience, an attempt to efface oneself would tend to weakenvitality.
Having lived for upwards of forty-five years in South Africa usually inparts remote from those settled areas which have attained a measure ofcivilization and having been a wide wanderer in my early days, it hasbeen my fortune to witness many interesting events and to be broughtinto contact with many strong men. Occasionally, as in the case of theearlier discoveries of gold and diamonds, I have drifted, a pipkinamong pots, close to the centre around which the immediate interests ofthe country seemed to revolve.
The period mainly dealt with is that magical one when South Africaunnoted and obscure was startled from the simplicity of her bucoliclife by the discovery of gold and diamonds. This was, of course, someyears before the fountains of her boundless potential wealth had becomefully unsealed. I was one of that band of light-hearted, haphazardpioneers who, rejoicing in youthful energy and careless of their owninterests, unwittingly laid the foundation upon which so many greatfortunes have been built.
An ancient myth relates how the god Dionysus decreed that everythingtouched by Midas, the Phrygian king, should turn into gold, but theeffect was so disastrous that Midas begged for a reversal of thedecree. The prayer was granted, conditionally upon the afflicted kingbathing in the River Pactolus.
South Africa may, in a sense, be paralleled with Midas both as regardsthe bane of gold and the antidote of bathing but her Pactolus has beenone of blood.
Midas again got into trouble by, refusing to adjudge in the matter ofmusical merit between Pan and Apollo, and this time was punished byhaving his ears changed into those of an ass.
Our choice lies before us; may we avoid the ass's ears by boldly makinga decision. May we evade a worse thing by unhesitatingly giving ouraward in favor of Apollo.
With this apologia I submit my humble gleanings from fields on which nomore the sun will shine, to the indulgent sympathy of readers.
PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA, January, 1913.
Foreword—My father's family—"Old