The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-11-09

ran into each other, crossed each otner,
and stirred up such a restless turmoil
that the very surface Of the ground
seemed alive And In their thousands
too, were great rhinoceroses, SHINING
ostriches and Sinking lions Thus the
pilgrims were SO far in clover. Iney
leisurely crossed the Vaal River with
their focks and their herds, and con-
graduated themselves upon having ex-
changed the restrictions of the country
of their birth for the freedom. OF this
favored land, where there was food
enough for all the peoples of the earth,
and apparently no ignoble black men
to interfere with their enjoyment OF It,
Still the promised land lay further to
the north; SO on they must go. Soon
they entered country Of different
character. Low ranges of broken hills,
alternating with confused and irregular
valleys, took the place of the undulat-
ing plains; the grass gave way to thick
and flower spangled bush; the temporal
ture perceptibly rose; the black wilde
beestes, blesbuck and springbuck dis
appeared, and in their stead were seen
great herds of unwieldy elephants,
lofty, long-necked giraffes, savage buff
faloes, striped blue wildebeestes, glori-
GUS black and white harrisbucks, huge
roam antelopes and impalas Was this
the promised land? And this river rum
ming to the north is surely the Nile!
MUSHROOM it shall be for all time!
But the discovery of the Promised
Land did not complete their work. They
must make themselves acquainted with
its extent and find out all it's choice To-
calities. So they continued their way
to the north. Soon they fell in with
natives of a race hitherto unknown to
them. Travelling was now much harder
work, for the road had to be cut
through the dense bush, and the hills
were rugged and the valleys heavy with
sand. Thensthey twisted about among
enormous masses of archaic rocks a
hundred feet in hight, whose bare sur
faces were rounded and polished by the
rains and suns of countless aeons of
time, and which lay scattered in their
thousands like the playthings of Thor
and Odin. And at last, in May, 1886,
they were confronted by a towering
wall of rock, at the foot of which lay
glistening pan of salt. Zoutpansberg
was reached. Then the weary pilgrims
outspanned their worn out oxen and
made a camp for long rest.
Trichard and his party rested a few
months until the summer set in with
its inevitable fevers,- and then with
the fatality of ignorance, bethought
him that he would take a little trip to
the east and find out how he was sit
uated with regard to Delagoa Bay. So
in their turn his party inspanned their
fifteen wagons and trekked to their
doom. They crossed the park-like do
main where in after years Alba SIM es-
tablfshed that secluded paradise known
to so few, and then, following the Par
furi River descended the first slopes
Of the Berg. Lower down they came
upon the larger and more dangerous
ELEPHANTS River, and with much diff
Guilty got their wagons across There
they were attacked by an impi which
has always been considered to have
been Manakusi, but which, as they were
on the south side of the Limpopo. is
just as likely to have been Swat or
Bapedi. Owing to their possession of
firearms they had no difficulty in beat
ing off the marauders. It is not be-
lieved that they met with any casual
ties in this affair, beyond the loss of
two children, with the Kaffir nurse who
had charge Of them, and who thirty
years afterward were delivered up to
the TransvaaI authorities by Sitonga,
the then chief Of the Swazies. who had
kept them in hiding.
In sorry plight, therefore, were these
hapless pilgrims cattle melting
away like denizens Of an eastern city
hQfnfn of
themselves sick, weak, racked with
pain, rambling in their minds, scarcely
able to help each other; treacherous ma
tives probably watching them from the
bushes around: rhinoceroses charging
into their midst, and herds of elephants
crossing their line of march, lions
hyneas and leopards prowling in scores
around them at night, and their wives
unequal to cooking food for them
theirs was a truly pitiable state This
the Promised Land! This the deliy-
cry from bondage! Verify the bond
service of the Englishmen were pre-
ferable. And thus the stricken band
burdened with adversely passed from
the Promised Land to the Valley of the
| Shadow of Death
And by the time the porte through
| the Bombos was passed the last OK was
dead, the last wagon left melancholy
wreck by the side of a reed-fringed
| lagoon, and the miserable remnant of
the party, assisted by a few local KAT
firs. hired as porters, tramped through
this reeking hotbed Of rotting vegeta-
ton and tottered more dead than alive
in among the mud huts and the moral
quagmires of Lourenzo MARQUEE. When
year or two later, the survivors were
taken by sea to Natal, where other
voertrekkers were now settled, they
comprised three women, three lads and
nineteen young children. A young man,
richards eldest son, had gone to Mo-
zambique in Portuguese vessel. and
he. too, afterward returned to Natal.
Thus of the original ninety-eight voer-
trekkers only twenty-eight survived.
All the adult men. all their wives but
three, and forty Of the children had
persisted. They had found the Prom
ised Land, but it was not the one they
had sought for.-South Africa.
A Cuckoo Caught in the Act.