A Word about the Family 5 



arrived in Maritzburg minus some cuticle though 

 proud and happy ! The old Boer road over the 

 mountains, overlooking the Inanda location, 

 afforded lovely views, now the railway follows 

 closely the same route but one sees much less when 

 rushing along ! In those early days of the Colony 

 everyone was full of hope and energy and belief 

 in the future of the country. The whole tone 

 of the upper class whites was superior to what 

 it is now, and the natives were happier, less 

 impertinent, in a sense less civilised, but in every 

 way more agreeable and self-respecting ; while more 

 respectful to those in authority than they are now, 

 since their intimacy with low class whites, and 

 their having attained to a certain degree of educa- 

 tion, and a change from the simple native life and 

 customs. 



Maritzburg was then a straggling village, mostly 

 built by the Dutch, before the Colony was taken 

 over by the British in 1842. We had a house close 

 to Government House, and next to Zeederberg's Mill, 

 which was worked by an overshot water wheel on 

 the main water furrow. Open water courses traver- 

 sed the streets and irrigated the gardens. 



Sir Benjamin Pine, the Governor, and Mr. 

 Theophilus Shepstone (afterwards Sir Theophilus), 

 Secretary for Native A if airs ; Judge and Mrs. Cloete, 

 Dr. Stanger, Surveyor-General ; Mr. Donald Moodie, 

 Secretary to Government, Dean Green (then Military 

 Chaplain), the Rev. and Mrs. Campbell, Mr. and 

 Mrs. Bird, Colonel Boyd and the officers of the old 

 45th Regiment, and many others I recall with 

 affectionate and vivid remembrance. For a time, 

 my elder brother Alex and I went to a private 

 school kept by a Mr. Walker (near old Colonel 

 Boyd's), the other pupils were Henrique, Willie and 



