Starting up with a sharp cry he stretched out his hand towards the blunderbuss, but drew it back with a thrill of horror. A huge black snake lay in its place!
To seize his truncheon was the act of a moment. The next, down it came with stunning violence on the snake. The reptile instantly exploded with a bellowing roar of smoke and flame, which roused the whole camp.
Blockhead! what dyou mean by that? growled George Dally, turning round sleepily, but without rising, for he was well aware of the cause of the confusion.
Jerry shrank within himself like a guilty thing caught in the act, and glanced uneasily round to ascertain how much of death and destruction had been dealt out. Relieved somewhat to see no one writhing in blood, he arose, and, in much confusion, replied to the numerous eager queries as to what he had fired at. When the true state of affairs became manifest, most of the Dutchmen, who had been active enough when aroused by supposed danger, sauntered back to their couches with a good-natured chuckle; the settlers who had turned out growled or chaffed, according to temperament, as they followed suit, and the natives spent half an hour in uproarious merriment over Boobys dramatic representation of the whole incident, which he performed with graphic power and much embellishment.
Thereafter the camp sank once more into repose, and rested in peace till morning.
Chapter Six.
Spreading over the Land
With the dawn next morning the emigrants were up and away. The interest of the journey increased with every novel experience and each new discovery, while preconceived notions and depressions were dissipated by the improved appearance of the country.
About the same time that the Scotch party left the Bay, several of the other parties set out, some large and some small, each under its appointed leader, to colonise the undulating plains of the Zuurveld.
Soon the pilgrims became accustomed to the nightly serenade of hyena and jackalalso to breakneck steeps, and crashing jolts, and ugly tumbles. But they were all hopeful, and most of them were young, and all, or nearly all, were disposed to make light of difficulties.
The country they were about to colonise had been recently overrun by Kafir hordes. These had been cleared out, and driven across the Great Fish River by British and Colonial troops, leaving the land a wilderness, with none to dispute possession save the wild beasts. It extended fifty miles along the coast from the Bushmans River to the Great Fish River, and was backed by an irregular line of mountains at an average distance of sixty miles from the sea.
Leaving the Zwartkops River, not only the Scottish party, but all the other parties, filed successively away in long trains across the Sundays River, over the Addo Hill and the Quagga Flats and the Bushmans River heights, until the various points of divergence were reached, when the column broke into divisions, which turned off to their several locations and overspread the land.
There was Baillies party, which crossed Lower Albany to the mouth of the Great Fish River, and on the way were charmed with the aspect of the country, which was at that time enriched and rendered verdant by recent rains, and enlivened by the presence of hartebeests, quaggas, springboks, and an occasional ostrich. There was, however, a wash of shadow laid on part of the pleasant picture, to counteract the idea that the Elysian plains had been reached, in the shape of two or three blackened and ruined farms of the old Dutch colonistssad remains of the recent Kafir warsolemn reminders of the uncertainties and possibilities of the future.
Then there was the Nottingham party. They took possession of a lovely vale, which they named Clumber, in honour of the Duke of Newcastle, their patron. Seftons party settled on the Assegai Bush River and founded the village of Salem, afterwards noted as the headquarters of the Reverend William Shaw, a Wesleyan, and one of the most able and useful of South Africas missionary pioneers. Wilsons party settled between the Waay-plaats and the Kowie Bush, across the path of the elephants, which creatures some of the party, it is said, attempted to shoot with fowling-pieces. Of the smaller parties, those of Cock, Thornhill, Smith (what series of adventurous parties ever went forth without a Smiths party?), Osler, and Richardson, located themselves behind the thicket-clad sand hills of the Kowie and Green Fountain. But space forbids us referring, even in brief detail, to the parties of James and Hyman and Dyson, and Holder, Mouncey, Hayhurst, Bradshaw, Southey; and of Scott, with the Irish party, and that of Mahony, which at the Clay Pits, had afterwards to meet the first shock of every Kafir invasion of Lower Albany. Among these and other parties there were men of power, who left a lasting mark on the colony, and many of them left numerous descendants to perpetuate their namessuch as Dobson, Bowker, Campbell, Ayliffe, Phillips, Piggott, Greathead, Roberts, Stanley, and others too numerous to mention.
But with all these we have nothing to do just now. Our present duty is to follow those sections of the great immigrant band with the fortunes of which our tale has more particularly to do.
At the points of separation, where the long column broke up, a halt was made, while many farewells and good wishes were said.
So youre gaun to settle thereawa? said Sandy Black to John Skyd and his brothers as they stood on an eminence commanding a magnificent view of the rich plains and woodlands of the Zuurveld.
Even so, friend Black, replied John, and sorry am I that our lot is not to be cast together. However, lets hope that we may meet again ere long somewhere or other in our new land.
It is quite romantic, observed James Skyd, to look over this vast region and call it our own,at least, with the right to pick and choose where we feel inclined. Isnt it, Bob?
To this Bob replied that it was, and that he felt quite like the children of Israel when they first came in sight of the promised land.
I hope we wont have to fight as hard for it as they did, remarked Frank Dobson.
Its my opeenion, said Sandy Black, that if we haena to fight for it, well hae to fight a bit to keep it.
Perhaps we may, returned John Skyd, and if so, fighting will be more to my taste than farmingnot that Im constitutionally pugnacious, but I fear that my brothers and I shall turn out to be rather ignorant cultivators of the soil.
Honest Sandy Black admitted that he held the same opinion.
Well, we shall try our best, said the elder Skyd, with a laugh; Ive a great belief in that word try.Goodbye, Sandy. He held out his hand.
The Scot shook it warmly, and the free-and-easy brothers, after bidding adieu to the rest of the Scotch party, who overtook them there, diverged to the right with their friend Frank Dobson, and walked smartly after their waggons, which had gone on in advance.
Stoot chields they are, an pleesant, muttered Sandy, leaning both hands on a thick cudgel which he had cut for himself out of the bush, but wofu ignorant o farmin.
Theyll make their mark on the colony for all that, said a quiet voice at Sandys elbow.
Turning and looking up, as well as round, he encountered the hazel eyes and open countenance of Hans Marais.
Nae doot, nae doot, theyll mak their mark, but itll no be wi the pleugh, or Im sair mistaen. Wull mair o the settlers be pairtin frae us here?