The Township of Leydenburg.

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CHAPTER XXII.

Leydenburg and its Inhabitants-Ominous Tidings-Mail-cart missing-Horse-sickness-Guarantees-Salted Horses-Vets. -Diseases of Animals.

A COMPANY of the 13th were quartered at Leydenburg for the protection of the town. Both trade and society had naturally received a great stimulus from the presence of the military and the money they brought into circulation there; so it was a very favourable time for a stranger to pay it a visit. The town itself consists of a market-square and two long straggling streets running parallel to each other on each side of it. Inside the square are the prison, the Dutch church, and the English church and school-room combined; built round it are the principal stores and places of business, the Standard Bank, the inn, the post-office and Landroost's office. Leydenburg boasts two banks, two billiard-rooms, two canteens, and a hotel which will compare favourably with most others in the Transvaal; there are three large stores where every description of goods is sold, from a plough to a bottle of Florida water, or a fiddle and a pair of babies' boots; besides several smaller ones, which keep a more limited stock in trade. The town itself is very prettily planted with magnificent poplars and blue gums.

All the hedges are of sweet-briar, and there are many very well-stocked gardens. Altogether it is a pretty little town, and strikes a traveller as very homely and cheerful after the miles of wild solitude. he has passed through to reach it. Its inhabitants are all kindly and hospitable, and we were not long in feeling quite at home, and enjoying our enforced idleness, strolling about from store to store and hearing many things both strange and interesting from those who were themselves spending, and had spent, much of their lives cheerfully amidst hardships and dangers in this far-off country, all for the sake of returning home to the old country, in comfort and competence to finish their lives.

Mr. White arrived on the 4th, but he brought most ominous news with him, which we at first feared might put an obstacle in the way of our further advance. The troops were said to be all moving towards the Zulu border, and it was rumoured that an attack was in contemplation at the end of the month. If this happened, all the small tribes in the country would be on the look-out for plunder, knowing that any depredations or murders they might commit would pass unavenged on them, and be put down to the general account to be settled with the Zulus.

Next day Captains Clarke and Carrington rode in from Fort Weeber. They had left the fort with a strong patrol to look after a band of Secocoeni's Kaffirs, who had attacked a party of commisariat waggons returning to the town. The waggons had been under fire for seven hours, but not a man or

bullock had been wounded, which did not say much for the Kaffirs' aim. The patrol were unsuccessful in coming across the enemy, so were sent back to the fort, but the commanders rude on into the town to make arrangements for reinforcements and commissariat stores.

From them we learnt that things were in a very bad way at the front. Horses dying, men sick, want of stores, and general inability from want of strength to do anything effective. Medical comforts for the sick and wounded volunteers were most urgently needed. The ladies of Leydenburg at once took this matter up, and by means of subscription lists, concerts, and donations from the store-keepers, soon collected a sufficient stock of all the articles most necessary for the poor fellows, who had fallen fighting in the defence of the neighbourhood.

We were very anxiously awaiting the arrival of the weekly mail from Pretoria, which would bring the latest news from the South respecting the Zulus. It was due at mid-day on Monday, but as hour after hour passed away men's faces grew longer, and the chances of its having been captured by Kaffirs began to be freely discussed. However, just as evening came on, and hopes of its safety were growing fainter, to every one's relief the cart was seen slowly coming up the road. Its arrival had been delayed by the bad state of the roads, but not a sign of a Kaffir had been seen by the driver or either of his two passengers, which removed the anxiety of those who were nervous as to the safety of the town itself. The news from below was all reassuring, so by the

advice of Mr. White, who now took command of our party, we determined to make a start as soon as possible.

The waggon was promised by Tuesday night, which only left us one day to complete all arrangements, which we had left open till the arrival of the mail. There were horses to be bought, new boys to be hired, rusks to be baked, and a fresh supply laid in of spirits, vegetables, and fresh meat, as we might not see game for many days. Our great difficulty was to obtain boys who would go with us in the direction we purposed taking. Any number were willing and eager to go the other way, in any capacity, and at almost nominal wages; but at the sound of Sabie, or Pretorius Kop, they drew back, and neither promises of high wages nor ridicule of their cowardice could induce them to join our service. They were one and all afraid of being killed, and made no bones about stating their reasons; so much so, indeed, that we began to fear that the boys we already had, and who were themselves anything but delighted with their prospects, would desert us in the night, as the foreloupers had done before. Mr. White brought with him an addition to our party in a friend of his, who was the very man for the work. Woodward had spent the last three years in travelling about from one place to another amongst the Kaffirs themselves. He could speak Kaffir fairly well, and had a thorough knowledge of their ways and customs. He was a very keen sportsman, strong as a horse, careless of danger, and perfectly incapable of being turned back from

any enterprise he set out on. And, what was almost as important, was a most cheering companion and unfailing friend throughout the time we spent together.

He had his own waggon and boys, ready to start at a moment's notice; and we made up our minds, rather than wait for boys to join us, to set off shorthanded as we were, and trust to getting as many as we wanted from the small tribes, who would come to us, for no more payment than to be allowed to eat the surplus meat we shot.

Horses were not easy to come by, and those there were had very high prices put on them. A salted horse was valued at from 60l. to 100l., and an unsalted one from 20l. to 40/. These high prices for the unsalted horses were, no doubt, greatly due to the extra demand, caused by the way the Government was buying them up all over the country. A "salted" horse, however, always commands a price, which to a person uninitiated with the full meaning of the word, appears simply ludicrous in comparison with the price paid for one not so designated. A salted horse is one which has had an attack of horse-sick, and recovered from it; and when it is sold as such, the seller gives a written guarantee that, if the horse dies from horse-sick, he will refund the money to the buyer. Of course the guarantee is very often not worth the paper it is written on; for, even if the giver is not a man of straw, yet by the time the horse falls ill, he may be at the other end of South Africa, and when out of the colony the guarantee is given in, there would be