The Project Gutenberg eBook, Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer, by
W. C. Scully

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Title: Reminiscences of a South African Pioneer

Author: W. C. Scully

Release Date: November 26, 2007 [eBook #23638]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REMINISCENCES OF A SOUTH AFRICAN
PIONEER***

E-text prepared by Charles Klingman

REMINISCENCES OF A SOUTH AFRICAN PIONEER

(1st Series Wanderjahre)

by

WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY

Author of
"By Veldt and Kopje," "Kafir Stories," "The Ridge of the White Waters,"
"Between Sun and Sand," Etc., Etc.

With 16 Illustrations

T. Fisher Unwin
London: Adelphi Terrace
Leipsic: Inselstrasse 20

First published in 1913.
(All rights reserved.)

"Ignoranti quern portum petat, nullus suus ventus est."

SENECA.

To

ELAINE, GERALD, ERNEST, MIRIAM, LILLA, AND BETTY,

THIS RECORD OF

THEIR FATHER'S EARLY WANDERINGS OVER THE

YET-UNVEILED FACE OF SOUTH AFRICA

IS INSCRIBED

FOREWORD

The reminiscences set down in this volume have been published serially
in The State of South Africa, in a more or less abridged form, under
the title of "Unconventional Reminiscences." They are mainly
autobiographical. This has been inevitable; in any narrative based upon
personal experience, an attempt to efface oneself would tend to weaken
vitality.

Having lived for upwards of forty-five years in South Africa usually in
parts remote from those settled areas which have attained a measure of
civilization and having been a wide wanderer in my early days, it has
been my fortune to witness many interesting events and to be brought
into contact with many strong men. Occasionally, as in the case of the
earlier discoveries of gold and diamonds, I have drifted, a pipkin
among pots, close to the centre around which the immediate interests of
the country seemed to revolve.

The period mainly dealt with is that magical one when South Africa
unnoted and obscure was startled from the simplicity of her bucolic
life by the discovery of gold and diamonds. This was, of course, some
years before the fountains of her boundless poten