Captain Struben and the Natal Magistracy 13 



poisoned arrows all that would not travel fast enough 

 when on the retreat. There was a military post at 

 Bushman's River (now Estcourt) and some pleasant 

 officers were there, commanding mostly Cape Corps 

 (Hottentots), they were splendid riders and rifle shots 

 and most interesting chases after these Bushmen 

 raiders took place. How long ago it all seems ! 



One night my father's horse came home alone, 

 saddled, so, knowing which road he had gone I took 

 Berry, our white man-servant, some brandy, and 

 some Kaffirs with a stretcher and lanterns to look 

 for him. I found him near Elandslaagte (the scene 

 of the fight in the last Boer War) about midnight. 

 He was lying on the hard road with his hip injured, 

 the horse, a wild brute named " Bushman " having 

 shied and thrown him in the dark. We carried him 

 home ; but he was laid up for some time, as the 

 same hip had been hurt once before when he was 

 shipwrecked in the North Sea. 



The Boers had a great admiration for my 

 father's courage, energy and determination, and as he 

 could do more with them than anyone in Natal, Sir 

 Benjamin Pine trusted him implicitly. When in 

 1853 the Government wanted a census taken he had 

 great difficulty in overcoming the fears of the Boers, 

 who got an idea that they would be enrolled as 

 soldiers, and also that ill luck would come to them, 

 as it did to the Israelites when numbered in Canaan. 

 Shortly afterwards a " trek " was organized to go to 

 the "Land of Goschen,"and he dissuaded many 

 from joining by showing them maps and explaining 

 where Egypt and Goschen really were ; but some went 

 to the Transvaal, where they settled, as they found 

 the Limpopo district and Matabeleland impossible. 

 In those days the Boers thought that the " Mahala- 

 quena " River was the source of the Nile, as it flowed 



