14 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



lands that lay beyond? What was in store for 

 each one of us in that vast continent of which only 

 the sole lay bared to our emigrant eyes ? What 

 should we find there — fortune and favour and 

 an abiding home ? or ill luck, the dormitories of 

 sickness, and perhaps a grave amidst the silence 

 of the unknown ? Who could tell ? Who, could 

 they know, would wish that the story of their 

 future should be spelled out in the cold, cruel 

 letters of Fate before their eyes? Some of us 

 who stood that morning on the decks of the liner 

 have found fame and riches in Africa. Some 

 have dug deep graves and tumbled their reputa- 

 tions into them for hurried burial. And for some, 

 other hands have delved that the pits might be 

 deep enough. Some have remained, others have 

 gone away harbouring deep wounds of regret, 

 and then have returned. 



What strange, all-powerful influence is there 

 in Africa that draws men and women back to her ? 



For what do they return ? Is it to regain 

 the waking remnants of a dream once so sweet and 

 seemingly so real? Do they go back to snatch 

 from the fickle goddesses of Mammon and Life 

 lost riches or health that has blown away like 

 eider on a tempest ? 



I cannot tell. Maybe it is the great brooding 

 stillness of the veld that has called them to the. 

 farm and lonely trading store. Others have been 

 summoned by the far-away vastness of the 

 interior, and the summons has brooked no refusal. 

 To see the first blushes of the dawn steal over 

 plain and forest and river ; to watch the splendour 

 of the young day flood mountain ranges and broad 

 lakes with glory ; to see the sun exultant in the 

 cruelty of his mid-day strength hug the earth 

 in an embrace of fire, or to rest one's eyes on 



