Incwadi Yami; or, Twenty years' personal experience in South Africa

Front matter

HONJ.W. MATTHEWS M.D. M.L.C VICE PRESIDENT HON.G.BOTTOMLEYM.LC- KIMBERLEY. 1 HON JOHN PAODON M.L.C. SARKLY. HON.'HENRY GREEN M.L.C. HAY hon: f. j. villiers. acting collect HON: JAMES ROSE-INNES. C.M.G PRESIDENT. HON! LEIGH HOSKYNS. ATTORNEY GEN1^ HONIH. B.WRIGHT TREASURER GEN^ m ADVOCATE LANGE. CLERK. INCWADI YAMI OR TWENTY YEARS' PERSONAL EXPERIENCE tn SOUTH AFRICA HY J. W. MATTHEWS^jM.D. X.ATE Vice-President of the Legislative Council of South Africa, and late Senior Member for Kimberley in the Cape House of Assembly LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON ST. dunstan's house FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E. C. 1887 [all rights rbskrvrd] AT To MY FELLOW COLONISTS OF SOUTH AFRICA AND ESPECIALLY TO MY FRIENDS ON THE DIAMOND FIELDS AVHO HAA'E ON TAVO SEPARATE OCCASIONS RETURNED ME THE HEAD OF THE POLL TO REPRESENT THEM IN THE COUNCILS OF THEIR COUNTRY, I RESPECTFULLY DEDICATE THE FOLLOWING NOTES FROM AN EXPERIENCE GAINED DURING TWENTY YEARS OF, I HOPE, A NOT ALTOGETHER USELESS LIFE AMONG THEM, > CONTENTS.

Chapter I

Leave England, 1864 — Surgeon Superintendent of the Tugela — Capt. Kncwles of the Northfleet — First sight of land— Mouth of the Umzimvubu — (rates of St. John's River — Land in Natal — GoA'ernor Maclean—Ap pointed District Surgeon of Victoria Co.— Settle at Verulam. Pages 9-14

Chapter II

Prevailing diseases in Natal — Incident at Mr. Tom Milner's, Redcliffe —Interesting medico-legal case - Coffee Planting — Marriage — Rev. D. Lindley, D. D. —His early work — Diamond fever, outbreak of— Sail for India. ......... 15-32

Chapter III

Zulu Customs — Ukulobola — Umkosi - Inteyezi — Insomyama — Kafir Doctors— Fate of the Witch Doctor, Kongota, and his victims — Bishop Callo way and Zulu " Folk-Lore." ..... 35-51

Chapter IV

Trip' to Tugela — Maritzburg — Bishop Colenso — Umgeni Falls—Est court -Lidgetton — Curious absence of fish in Mooi River — Capt. Allison's Border Residency— Usidinane's Cannibal Caves — Mont aux Sources — Umbundi's Pass -Return journey. ..... 52-69

Chapter V

Taking a holiday — Life on board the Red Riding Hood — Mauritius- Madras— Calcutta. ....... 70-84

Chapter VI

Trip to Benares — Cawnpore — Homeward voyage in S. S. Vixen— Distress — Perilous tramp — Aden at last — Suez Canal— England — Africa once more. ........ 85-93

Chapter VII

Leave Natal — First impression of the Diamond Fields — Sickness at the Dry Diggings — Father Hidien — Hospital arrangements — Quacks Medica1 registration in South Africa — Curious decision of Capetown Med ical Board — A " Mends 3ious " practitioner — Sanitary condition, 1878 Threatened small-pox, 1882— so-called small-pox, 1883-84 — Madmen and their treatment — Climate of Griqualand West. . . 94-115

Chapter VIII

Gambling at the Diamond Fields— Mr. Dodd's advice on gambling- Speculative value of diggings— The Fields in the early dayc— Gambling hells in 1872 — Mr. Jones "at home" — Governor Southey's proclamation — Exodus to the Free State — Rondo en colo— Collapse. . 116-125

Chapter IX

O'Reilly's account of Niekerk— Dr. Athers ,one and the first diamond —The river diggings— Influx of population— The dry diggings— Discovery of the Kimberley Mine — Early discomforts of the diggers— Present con dition of Kimberley. ••.... 126-135 V

Chapter X

Geology of the mine and surroundings— Section of reef-strata—Sur face soil— Calcareous tufa — Light colored shales — Black carboniferous shale- Limonite— Landslips — Burning reef — Sulphur vapors — Natives afraid to work — Coal plants - Fire and choke damp — Igneous rocks — Con traction and expansion of mine -Strata of mine itself — Red sand, tufa, yellow ground— Blue ground— Rich and poor claims — Remarkable boulders — Greasy slips— Maskelyne and Plight's observations. . 136-150

Chapter XI

Source of diamondiferous soil — Extracts from Messrs. Bain, Ure. Dana, and Osbornes geological theses — Various theories advanced- None en tirely satisfactory or conclusive — The origin of the precious stone vailed in mystery. . . . ... 151-171

Chapter XII

The process of diamond mining from start to date — The " Long Tom" — The "cradle" and the " baby "—The sorting table and scrapers — Van Doussa's invention— The scene in the Kimberley mine — The road;-. "stages," "whims," and "whips" — The rotary washing machine -The cylinders and the elevators — Singular mistakes — Statistics of labor em ployed — Steam power — Fuel— The Kimberley waterworks. . 172-lt(4

Chapter XIII

Population of the Diamond Fields — Kafir eating houses as decoy places — Rumors of tribute in diamonds by the natives to their chiefs- Ingenuity .if native thieves— Celebrated case Queen vs. Vogel "Happy child of Hun'' — Grades through which a stolen Diamond passes — Spurious notes a ill glass diamonds— Case before thelateJudge Dwyer at Beaufort West — High-handed conduct of Detective Department — Two Bishops and a Senator searched — Freetown and Oliphansfontein — A startling exposure — Trial of notorious Highwaymen — Social grades of I. D. B.s or Illicit Diamond Buyers. ....... 185-206

Chapter XIV

Diamond legislation — Resume of Sir Henry Barkly's Proclamations — Epitomeof the ordinances of the Legislative Council of Griqualand West — Review of the Acts passed by the Cape Assembly— Description of Trap ping system -Adoption of "onus probandi '' clause by < Grange Five State —Searching Department — The Compound system. . . 207-22."i

Chapter XV

Description of the I. D. B — Public morals— The Music Halls and their songs— M. L. A.s and M. L. C s in league with thieves and re cci vers. • ....••

Chapter XVI

I. D. B.- Tales from real life— "The mystic three letters"— The Biter bitten— An ungrateful hound— A plucky woman- Nemesis— Too clever by half — The early bird catches the worm— An unexpected recovery— A death-bed scene. ....... 231-242

Chapter XVII

Description of the company and share mania in 1881— Events of the "Bubble Year "-Causes which brought the mania about— Why com panies were first formed -The Barnato Co. -The Central Co.— The Frankfort mine— The Cosmopolitan Co. -Wonderful investments—Slow return of confidence. ...... 243--50 VI

Chapter XVIII

The earlv history of the Diamond Fields -Adam Kok, Cornelius Kok, "Dam Kok,"" Andreas and Nicholas Waterboer -The Diamond Fields and their Governments -The Hoisting of the British Flag -The Keate aAvard Rush from the river to the dry diggings-Pniel deserted The commencement of diamond stealing -Judge Lynch puts in an appearance -Discovery of the new Rush Kopje (Kimberley mine) - British jule proclaimed— Free State courts closed. . • ■ 257-274

Chapter XIX

Sir Henry Barkly pays the Fields a second visit — Promises that the Fields shall he a Crown colony with a Legislature of its own -Letters Patent proclaiming Griqualand West a crown colony— Hon. Richard Southey first Lieutenant Governor— An incipient revolution TheCourt- House surrounded by an armed band— The Black Flag hoisted— The revolt Colonel Crossman— Changes in the Legislative Council Recall of the Lieutenant Governor. . .... 275-289

Chapter XX

Mr. Justice Barry Acting Administrator — Arrival of Major Lanyon — Principal events of his administration —Annexation bill passed Cape House of Assembly — Criminal prosecution of Editor of "Independent" Attorney General Shippard's argument and oratory- Acquittal of accused — Great rejoicing — Action against " Independent " — Apology. . 290-299

Chapter XXI

The Gaika and Gealeka war — Col. Warren and " our boys ' — Warren's brilliant coup — The rape of the Gaika matrons — Signal victory at Debe Nek - Col. Lanyon and Gasibone -Bloodless victory at Phokwane — Return of Volunteers— The Griqualand West war — Engagements at Wittehuis, Langeberg, and Taikoon -Cruel apprenticeship of women and children — Close of the Griqualand West rebellion — Korannas at the Salt Pan — Hermanus Lynx and his untimely death — Liquor Bill of Mr. G. Bottomley. 300-311

Chapter XXII

Col. Warren and Mr. Justice de Wet put their hands to the plough- Visit of Messrs. Sprigg and Upington — Pie Crust promises — My protest in the Legislative Council against annexation— Departure of Mr. Rose Innes C. M. G., last acting administrator — Election for Cape House of As sembly. ........ 312-319

Chapter XXIII

Natal again — Coolie immigration — Bishop Colenso — Laing's Nek — Ingogo Majuba— Interesting interview with Generals Joubert and Smit — Grave-yard at Mount Prospect — Lady Florence Dixie— First session in Cape House of Assembly. ..... 320-342

Chapter XXIV

Trip to Robben Island -Dean Newman's description thereof in 1855— Old Somerset Hospital— Lunatics and Lepers -Horrible sights — Lep rosy among animals— Dr. Wynne's opinion— Mournful case in the Sand wich Islands — Dr. Keith Guild's theory of leprosy untenable — Annual cost of lept-rs — S gregation act passed by the Cape House of Assembly in 1884— Dr Ross's last report 1886— Visit to Cetywayo and Langibalele at Oude Molen— My wife's intervieAV with CetyAvayo in London. . 343-368

Chapter XXV

Visit to Basutoland— Pitso at Maseru — Pitso at Leribe — Roma —Interview with Masupha— General Gordon's appointment^-The Roman Cath olic and Protestant Missions— Mafeting- East London - Sir David Wed derburn—Arrival in Cape town— Cape Assembly - Resignation. . 369-392

Chapter XXVI

Description of the religious bodies on the Diamond Fields—Educa tional efforts— The Church of England-Roman Catholic Church- Dutch Reformed Church— Doppers— Wesleyans— Presbyterians— German Lutherans — JeAvs— Mahometans- Hindoos— " Bishop " Mellet — Natives- Neglected Opportunities— Advent of Salvation Army— Sundry Visitors - Birds of Passage. ....... 393-413

Chapter XXVII

Liw and lawyers on the Fields -Law in the early davs — Absence of crime at that epoch — The Mutual Hall- -Magisterial jurisdiction— The Attorney-generalship — Attorneys and Law Agents — A sudden death- Curious nomenclature of Kafirs -The fate of "Brandy and Soda." 414-423

Chapter XXVIII

A serious accident — Felstead's —Dr. L. S. Jameson Trip to the Trans vaal—Mons. Grandier— Umbelini and Cetywayo— Christiana - Potchefs troom Pretoria — The Erste Fabrieken- Burgers — Shepstone and Lanyon — Mapoch and Mampoer- Battlefield of Bronkhorst Spruit — Start for Natal. ...... . 424-454

Chapter XXIX

Leave Pretoria— A trying situation — Heidelberg - Standerton—Mich ael son's- Boer Camp at Laing's Nek -Majuba once more— Newcastle - Maritzburg — Plough Hotel— D'Urban— Voyage to the Cape -Curious mental phenomenon — Return to Kimberley. . . . 455 40-'

Chapter XXX

Visit to the Kaap Gold Field— Caves at Wonderfontein — The Duivel s Kantoor " The Valley of the Shadow of Death"— Barberton and its (level opment— Course of gold discoveries. . . . 463-481

Chapter XXXI

Moodie's syndicate— Their exorbitant demands and the result Bar ber Bros and the Umvoti Reef - Mad speculations— Future of the Gold Fields. 482-493

Chapter XXXII

Leave Barberton — Steynsdorp -Komati River— King Umbandini's Kraal -Swazi Land— The drink curse and its result -Interview of Dr. Clark, M. P. Transvaal Consul-General in England, with Umbandini - National yearly dance of Swazis— The Tembi— Delagoa Bay. . 494-510 PTER XXXIII. Lourenco Marques— The changes it has seen— Harbor— Climate — Railway plant imported by the late President Burgers Advantage of the Delagoa Bay route to the Gold Fields. . 511514

Appendix

. Zulu ultimatum— Table of Diamond exports— Dr. Schenk's report of geological formation at Barberton— Burgers' protest against the annex ation of the Transvaal—Clause 11 of Gov. Southey's dispatch, April 11th, 1874, to Sir Henry Barkly- John Dunn's letter to the Aborigines Protec tion Society. 519-542 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Legislative Council Griqualand West, 1885 Frontispiece The Mouth of the TJmzimvubu 8 Port Natal and Town of D'Urban 9 In a "Parlous" State 19 Falls of the Umzinyati 24 Inanda. • ■ 25 Scene in Natal, Family Group of Zulus 34 Diagram of Kraal 38 A Kafir Dance 4J TJmjaba's Kraal 53 Zulu " Mashers " Falls of the Umgeni 61 Falls of the Tugela 67 Umbundi's Pass - ... 73 Pieter Botte Mountain . 79 First Home on the Diamond Fields 95 Kimberley Mine — First Stage 97 do do —Middle Stage 115 do do — Present Stage 127 Drying Floor for Blue Ground 133 Kimberley Mine— Transverse [Section 143 do do —Plate I 153 do do —Plate II . 159 do do —Plate III 163 do do — Plate IV 169 Diamond Washing Machine \ 173 Spurious Bank Note • • 196 Free Town .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. 212 The Waterboer Medal ' 9^0 The Vaal River Drift | 282 Annexation-Melancholy End of Griqualand [West ..'.'.'..'.'.'.'. 292 Cartoon, "He'd Be Floored" 298 TaikoonPass . \ ' „,.„ Grave-yard at Mount Prospect ..'.'.' 307 Leper Department, Robben Island 349 Cetywayo, with Autograph !!!!!! 360 Cetywayo's Wagon .'.'.'..'. 366 Maseru, Basutoland . ' ' or,, Molappo's House, Basutoland S76 Roma Misson (R. C), Basutoland . .' ! 384 A " Dopper " Boer 402 Bronkborst Spruit ... '. 409 Court House at Potchefstroom after the siege (1880) '. 433 Execution of Mampoer, Nov. '83 443 Monument (Boer's) . ! ' 457 do (British) . . 459 Cave at Wonderfontein \ ' 4g5 Barberton, Transvaal '.'.'. 470 do First Gaol and Hospital !

" ! ! 477 Sheba Reef, Barberton ' j87 Kafir Hut . . . '.'.'..".' 497 Falls between Barberton and the King's Kraal, Swaziland ...... THE MOUTH OF THE UMZIMVUBU — "GATES" OF ST. JOHN'S EIVEE, NATAL.

Chapter I Leave England

L864, AS SURGEON SUPERINTENDENT OF THE " TUGELA. '— CAPTAIN ENOWLE8 OF THE " NORTHFLEET. "— FIRST SIGHT OF LAND. — MOUTH OF THE 1'MZIMVUBU. — LAND IN NATAL. — GOVERNOR MACLEAN. — RECEIVE APPOINTMENT AS DISTRICT BURGEON OF VICTORIA COUNTY. — SETTLE AT * VERULAM. AFTER finishing my studies in Scotland I visited London at the end of the autumn of 1804 for the purpose of appearing hefore the examining hoard of t lit Apothecaries' Hall, when I found myself the guest of a brother-in-law. a popular non-conformist preacher in one of the populous suburbs of that city. During my stay with him I happened to hear one evening that an emigrant ship appointed to sail next day to Port Natal would most probably be detained by the sudden illness of the surgeon superintendent who had governmental charge. The vacancy was offered to me on condition that I should at once pass the official examination re quired of every medical man before he can be legally entrusted with the care of government emigrants.

Early next morn ing, therefore, I appeared before Mr. Le Gros Clark, the appointed examiner, and successfully passing this extra examination joined on the same afternoon the good ship Tugela, Captain Stewart, bound with emigrants to Port Natal, South Africa. Sailing at once, I had for the first time an opportunity to look round at my fellow voyagers, who were chiefly composed of honest English yeomen with their families seeking to better their fortunes. The officers as time went on I found to be good men and true, the chief especially, whose sterling qualities, of which but a few years after he gave signal proof, I soon learned to appreciate. His memory is now all that remains; yet many of my readers and especially of my fellow passengers will have recognized in the noble hero of the Northfleet, the same Knowles of the Tugela, who on the fatal night of January 22d, 1873, when his ship lay at anchor between Folkestone and Dungeness, with 400 men, women and children on board, bound for Tasmania, was run into and sunk by a foreign steamer.

I remember reading how chivalrously he endeavored to rescue the women and children, and how with his revolver he shot down those who in a cowardly manner tried to seize the boats. As said at the time, " he died at his post, sinking with his ship, having acted with a calmness, promptitude and decision that will cover his memory with honor." The position of medical superintendent on board an emigrant ship I soon found was in one sense no sinecure, but I quickly learned the art of adjusting opposing social elements, and lulling the brewing storms, which, as there was neither sickness nor accident during our voyage, were the only cases (?) about which I was consulted. Time dragged slowly on. Since bidding "good-bye" to old England on December 3d, 1864, the eighty -four days we spent together on board the Tugela passed monotonously yet pleasantly enough, our enforced idleness being broken only by alternate storms and calms, the distant view of pass- FIRST SIGHT OF LAND. 11 ing ships, and the comparatively uninteresting episodes of emigrant life, until on Sunday morning, February 5th. 1865, the " golden shores " of the Promised Land to which we were bound, burst upon our view.

Running before a fair wind in sight of land, we feasted our eyes for a few hours, as we sailed along at a distance of one or two miles, on the lofty cliffs with their grass-clad, table-topped summits, which com mand the mouth of the Umzimvubu, the " Gates " of St. John"s River, and excited were the discussions we indulged in about the reported resources and fertility of the land to which we were destined. We were a long time, however, in coasting to Natal, and it can well be imagined how our desire and curiosity increased. At last the early morn of February 25th found us laying at anchor outside the bar of the harbor of Natal. Words cannot depict the intentness with which we surveyed the bluff, standing like a sentinel on guard at the south entrance of the bay, and admired the tropical vegetation with which it was clothed from base to summit ; neither can I put into words the interest we felt as we gazed at the rolling breakers, and the eager anxiety with which we watched the sluggish approach of the lighter destined to land us on the shores of a new country.

As all the emigrants under my charge landed in good health after the long voyage, the grati fication that I felt was very great. I will not attempt to de scribe the hearty greetings of friends long separated, the tender embraces of husband and wife, of parent and child, again united, nor the shy, coy, loving looks of some, which threw out a suggestion of an anticipated happy future. Passing my luggage through the custom-house, I rode up to D'Urban from the point along a deep, sandy bush path, skirted on both sides by a tangled mass of tropical vegetation, forming a dense undergrowth to fine forest trees, and went to the '"Royal," kept at that time by a good fellow named .1- -up. who years afterward " played the part of a Boniface," as the saying is, at the diamond fields. Having a few days to wait here until the next mail steamer sailed to England, I happened in conversation casually to hear of a vacancy in the Natal government medical service, caused by the sudden death of a district surgeon in Victoria County, the most enterprising and rising portion of the whole colony.

The following morning, while taking breakfast, two gentlemen. whom I afterward knew as large sugar planters on the coast, joined the table and began talking over the events of the week. " So he's dead at last," said one. " Yes, and who'll take his place, I wonder ? " said the other. After some fur ther conversation, I gathered that the report I had heard of the sudden death of a doctor was correct, and that it was about him they were conversing. The chief speaker continued : "He made £700 a year, but could have made double if he'd liked" Hearing all this, I introduced myself and told them who I was, when, with colonial frankness, they both strongly urged me to apply at once to the government for the appointment. I did not require to think twice over the matter, visions of £1,000 a year at two-and-twenty floated temptingly before me, so deciding at once, I determined to go to the capital, Pieter maritzburg, and see Colonel Maclean, who was acting gov ernor at the time.

This I did next day, and the colonel gave me the acting appointment. Being anxious as quickly as possible to see the district and people among whom, for at least a time, I had thrown my lot, immediately on my return to D'Urban I lost no time in visiting Verulam, the chief town of Victoria County, which was founded, I was told, in 1850 by a party of Wesleyan pioneers. Riding four miles through terrible sand, I crossed the Umgeni by a beautiful iron-girder bridge, afterward washed away by a sudden rising of the river in August, 1868, passed Jackson's coffee estate and some extensive bush clearings, and then a few miles more brought me to Lovatt's well-known roadside inn. All the way to Verulam, the place of my future resi dence, the landscape was studded near and far with thick for ests, interspersed with sugar and coffee plantations, forming lovely little views ; here and there, too, I could see smoke curling up from the fires where the planters were burning the timber in the forest, and many a time I halted my horse to watch around the blazing logs the groups of lithe, active, happy natives, laughing, singing and working by turn — a novel sight, indeed, to one accustomed to English coldness and stolidity.

Leaving behind Lister's pretty coffee trees and banana groves, Smerdon's mill and extensive sugar fields, I crossed the Umhlanga River, so named by the Kafirs from the reeds SETTLE AT VERULUM. on its banks, which nearly hide it from view, and ascending a steep cutting along the side of a hill named Kaht's Kop, caught sight at last, at a turn of the road, of the village of Verulam, lying snugly ensconced in a hollow among the hills on the banks of the Umhloti River. Another mile brought me to my journey's end. Turning the sharp corner of a neglected graveyard, a pretty church on one side of the road, and on the other a sweet little thatched cottage, literally smothered with honeysuckles, and which I soon learned was the parsonage, greeted my view. Putting up my horse at the inn, I called and paid my respects to the resident magistrate.

Dr. Blaine, a member of my own profession. After lunching with him, we walked round the village, and he introduced me to the principal inhabitants, not omitting the worthy vicar, the Rev. W. A. Elder, and his wife, who were kind enough to invite me to take up my residence with them. A few more days saw me settled down, and I commenced regular practice in the county on April 3d, 1865. Sugar was at that time paying handsomely and coffee promising well, and consequently good wages were given to native laborers ; yet the planters, although surrounded by a large Kafir population, were never able to rely on obtaining a regular supply of labor, as the native was too independent, the young men merely working until they were able to save enough money to buy cattle sufficient to pay for a wife. The consequence was that the planters, although surrounded by hundreds of thousands of natives, had been compelled, about six years before my arrival, to organize a system of coolie im migration from India.

One of the agreements they were obliged to enter into with the Indian government was that regular medical supervision should be provided for all immi grants ; and to defray this cost, the planter was authorized to make a deduction of one shilling a month from the wages of each coolie. I soon became acquainted with all the planters in my divi sion of the county, and found that a regular visit once a month to each estate, combined with the exigencies of a private prac tice, kept me busy, " week in, week out, from morn till night." The planter of those days I found an excellent type of colonist. He was generally a man of means, well educated, "a good fellow," young, and drawn from the English upper middle class. In some few individual cases there might be a want of ballast, but colonial experience, soon gained, supplied the deficiency.

My range of practice extended from the cotton company"s plantation at the Umhlali to Kennedy's sugar estate on the Umgeni River, a district forty-five miles long, and ex tending inland, as a rule, about seven miles. Within this area I attended, as nearly as I can remember, twenty-five estates, employing on an average 1,600 indentured coolies. When, after a long absence, I visited Verulam this year, I found matters greatly altered. Hospitals had been built there and at Avoca, a village some twelve miles distant, to which any important cases from the surrounding estates were sent. My old district had been divided into three medical circles, with three doctors to do the work which I used to do single-handed.

Chapter II. Prevailing Diseases In Natal

— INCIDENT AT MR. TOM MILNER's, REDCLIFFE. — INTERESTING MEDICO-LEGAL CASE. — COFFEE PLANTING. — MARRIAGE. — REV. D. LINDLEY, D.D. — HIS EARLY WORK. — BISHOP COLENSO AND THE REV. W. A. ELDER. — OUT BREAK OF THE DIAMOND FEVER. — SAIL FOR INDIA. THE climate of Natal I found extremely healthy, the average death-rate being only 16 per 1000 among the white population, while among the natives, judging from all inquiries, I do not think it amounted to half that number. though this is more or less surmise, as unfortunately among the latter no official returns were kept. During my practice in Victoria County, extending over six years, I do not think there were twenty deaths among the white population, and as for the coolies, the change from India seemed to give them a new lease of life. Inflammation of the lungs, bronchitis and other chest com plaints were rare, and when they did occur were seldom fatal, the principal diseases of importance being dysentery, low malarial fever (bilio-remittent) and a peculiar form of hœma turia, due to a parasite named the Distoma hœmatobium. in troduced into the system by the drinking of impure water.

I must not forget also to mention that an outbreak of diphtheria took place before my arrival in 1859, which was the first time (IS] this disease was known in Natal, and also that every now and then a severe form of chicken-pox broke out among the Kafirs, which more than once gave occasion for alarm, the malady having been mistaken for small-pox. Asiatic cholera and hydrophobia have never been known. Although not dangerous to life, yet as peculiar to this colony, I ought to mention the Natal sore, a species of in flammatory boil, of a low congestive nature, with which new arrivals were almost always troubled. These sores were often produced by the irritating bite of an insect known under the name of the tick (ixodes), of which there are different species, and also by the bite of the mosquito.

Specimens of the larger species of tick having fastened upon animals in such places as the ear, mane, etc., where they could not be rubbed off, become gorged with blood to the size of haricot beans. Those which attack men are much smaller. Ticks have no wings, no eyes, no mouth, merely legs, a pair of sharp, delicate lancets, and a pipe or rostrum covered over externally with small reflexed teeth, which they plunge into the skin, and then suck away, holding on by their barbs. Dr. Mann, formerly superintendent of education in Natal, writes: " this much, however, must be said even for these blind, blood thirsty insects, their reality is not so bad as their reputation ;" so that again we have an instance of an enemy of man not being so black as he is painted. In 1869 I treated many cases of malarial fever in Victoria County, most of them, however, occurring close to lagoons on the coast, and though I met with other scattered cases of it in the country, this was the only outbreak which could be entitled absolutely epidemic.

I recollect in May of that year I had 120 cases among the whites and coolies on a sugar estate, which was situated on the sea-coast, near the mouth of the Umgeni River ; but the fever was confined to this estate and Verulam, where I had four cases, the total mortality, to the best of my recollection, numbering nine. The cases of dysentery, on the other hand, were often per fectly intractable, and would sometimes yield to no mode of treatment, and this was especially the caes at the end of summer, when the experience of a sudden chill would almost certainly induce the disease. Sickness was most prevalent, REDCLIFFE. 17 if care were not taken, at the change of the seasons, and when rains of an exceptional character took place, cases both of fever and dysentery of a severe type were always expected.

After the disastrous flood of August, 1868, these expectations were realized to an unusual extent. This great flood lasted from August 28th to the 31st, inclusive, the downfall of rain being greater than the oldest inhabitants could recollect, 15.60 inches falling in 48 hours, and 17.11 inches during the four days that the storm continued. I had a very narrow escape at the time, when going to visit the manager of Fenton Vacy, a sugar estate about four miles from Verulam. This gentleman had been under my care for some days, suffering from a most acute attack of dysentery, from which. I regret to say, he eventually died. A tremendous rain, which at the time I allude to had con tinued two days, had caused the rivers along the coast to rise from twenty to thirty feet, washing away both the cane from the fields and the coffee trees from the hillsides.

In addition, it carved out impassable gullies in the roads, and choking up the rivers themselves with the carcases of dead oxen, broken reeds and trunks of trees, flooded the surrounding lands, and brought everything to a stand-still. Notwithstanding the terrible driving storm, I did not like the poor fellow to die all alone, without a last effort to save him, so mounting one of my best horses, I rode as far on the way as Mr. Tom Milner's, one of Natal's oldest sugar planters, at Redcliffe, where I had to cross a stream at a drift close in front of his mill. When I arrived there, the water was running like a mill-race, but as Fenton Vacy lay on the other side, I determined to make an attempt to get through. In the Field, some time after, I read a full and accurate account of my adventure, names only being altered, written by a visitor who was stopping for a few days at Redcliffe, and as the article contains an accurate description of the class of rain storms to which Natal is occa sionally liable, I shall take the liberty of reproducing it.