Return to South Africa 169 



sariat, and, as we could not get at the spring, boiled 

 snow for the horses to drink, and so saved their lives. 

 As soon as I could get to the hotel, I went to see 

 how the poor little parson and his wife were faring. 

 They were miserable, and, as the weather showed 

 signs of clearing, had decided to go on to Standerton 

 with a Commissariat wagon which was leaving, as the 

 hotel keeper was treating them so badly. They had 

 only got to an iron stable, a few miles further on, 

 when the snow storm broke again, and there I found 

 them three days later. They reached Standerton in 

 time, but the poor little man died soon after arrival. 

 Preller's cattle were buried in the kraal several feet 

 deep, and when the snow melted, there was not one 

 of the seventy-six alive. His sheep had run down 

 the wind, and he and I tried to find them, but the 

 snow blizzard drove us back home. The running 

 saved their lives. After the storm he found them on 

 a farm of mine, " Haartebeesthoek " on the Vaal 

 River. All the way to Pretoria (via Heidelberg) I 

 saw thousands of dead animals, cattle, sheep and 

 goats, etc., and again from Pretoria to Kimberley, 

 where I went some time afterwards. The country 

 was denuded of livestock, the loss all through the 

 Free State and the Transvaal High -veld was 

 immense as the Boers seldom provided shelter for 

 their livestock. In Pretoria I had no pleasant task. 

 The Boers had taken part of my property from "The 

 Willows" and the British my cattle and farm 

 produce for the troops. The Boers had made " The 

 Willows" the headquarters of one of their com- 

 mandoes, staying on the homestead during the day, 

 and sleeping all about the rocky bush -covered hill at 

 night. Nothing was left in the house except the oil 

 paintings and portraits of my parents and grand- 

 parents, which I afterwards learned were spared 

 owing to the influence of Karl Erasmus, who was 



