Page:The Bromsgrovian, 1883-06-08, New Series, Volume 2, Number 5.pdf/8

 and three days in England, saying good-bye to friends and seeing a few of the theatres with Arthur; and then I made even a more foolish choice than in the election of the army in '77. I said to myself and my father: Natal is certainly not good for much, and as everybody speaks so well of the prospects and life of South Africa, I'll make sure of getting into the best part, so out I started for the Cape Colony, and I find Natal was paradise compared with this purgatory. Cape Colony's prospects I can say nothing about. Nobody I have met out here prophecies about so unknown a thing. If the productions of a country in any way indicate its prospects, you may judge for yourself: South Africa produces chiefly—and that plentifully—"Kaffirs, loafers, and empty tin pots."

Well, to proceed with my report of myself: On arriving at Cape Town, I called on that cousin I before mentioned, in the 91st, he being stationed there. His advice was, Go in for "swash buckling," that is, join the Colonial Volunteers. One draws pay for volunteering here. Well, I did not quite see this, after leaving the 17th, and I did not think my father would care for it either, in time of peace. Moreover, your private in a dragoon corps at home is at least as respectable a member ex officio as your South African colonial officer. I didn't know this then though. Any how, I determined to try my letters of introduction first; so on I went to Port Elizabeth. This I heard at home was South Africa's Liverpool. Trade was then pretty good, and berths were open, owing to many young fellows not having then returned from the front. I called on a Mr. Savage, to whom I had letters, and finally was sent by him to his store in Graaff Rimet. After about a week, I found that buying and selling was not a more interesting pursuit in Africa than it is in England, and I found myself gradually rising or falling (a matter of opinion) from the status of a despised dragoon to that of a wholesale draper's counter-jumper. After seven months of this most hum-drum work I met a Mr. Maling, a telegraph engineer. He had been for some time in Australia and New Zealand, and amongst other things had earned the New Zealand Victoria Cross. We made friends, and I "turned up" drapery and started for the "tented field" again. Our work is surveying new land, before the line is put up, in order to find its ultimate direction;