Boyhood Days in Natal 21 



them into the river. Once on the way up to Lady- 

 smith while outspanned at Moord Spruit, ( where so 

 many Boers were killed by Dingaan's Zulus,) we were 

 caught in a terrific hailstorm. The oxen bolted, one 

 had his eye knocked out, the Hottentot driver, 

 Christian, made a Zulu boy go out to turn them, 

 he was knocked down and stunned before he got a 

 hundred yards, Christian had to drag him under the 

 wagon, and when we did go on, the Blaauwkrantz 

 River nearly washed us away. 



In the winter Alex, and I used to hunt quagga, 

 wildebeest, hartebeest, blesbok (gnu), that came down 

 the Berg for the winter pasturage. The flats 

 towards Spion Kop were full of them, a few buffaloes 

 were still on the Tugela, and numbers of eland in 

 the Drakensberg. The game used to invade Natal 

 during cold weather in thousands, and two Scotch- 

 men started a factory on the Buffalo River near 

 where Newcastle is now, to boil down their fat for 

 lard; thousands were killed, especially quaggas to 

 supply the demand. Quaggas are n w extinct. This 

 district was subsequently given out under occupation 

 grants, and is now inhabited by Boers, English and 

 Kaffirs. 



Some years later Mr. MacKenzie was repairing 

 the Tugela Drift with a party of Zulus. The river 

 was strong and a Makkatee boy of mine who was 

 driving oxen missed the crossing, and was nearly 

 drowned. I swam to save him, he clutched me round 

 the neck, we both would have been drowned had not 

 MacKenzie sent some Zulus to our rescue. These 

 Zulus were angry with the boy for clutching me, and 

 kept on ducking him when they got to a sand bank 

 so that the poor wretch was nearly dead. Old 

 MacKenzie gave me a scolding for risking my life 

 for a Makkatee when his Kaffirs could have done 



