[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]
PRETORIA TO NATAL.
After reaching Pretoria, I stayed only two days there, engaged in
bidding farewell to my numerous friends, and making preparations for my
next long journey into Natal. I left Pretoria for Johannesburg by coach,
on the 1st of August, and started from the latter town at five o'clock
in the morning of the 3rd, in very cold weather and pitch dark, by the
post cart. This most uncomfortable vehicle is a kind of wagonette, with
somewhat dilapidated canvas curtains, through which the wind whistled
most unpleasantly, being utterly insufficient to keep out the cold. It
is drawn by eight horses, and has cramped seats for eight or ten
passengers. On this occasion there were seven others besides myself. In
addition the mail bags were crammed inconveniently under the seats. In
this post cart I travelled for three days and two nights by way of
Richmond, Heidelburg, Standerton,--where cattle rearing and horse
breeding is successfully carried on,--and Newcastle, which will be
remembered as having been the base of operations during the Boer war,
and also as the place where the final treaty of Peace was drawn up and
signed by the joint Commission, to Eland's Laagte, the present terminus
of the Natal railway, thirteen miles beyond Ladysmith.
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