N 1912

CHURCH STREET, PRETORIA, IN 1873

THE LOWER CAMP, PILGRIM'S REST

THE CHEEK, PILGRIM'S REST

PILGRIM'S REST IN 1897

SITE OF CAMP ON CROCODILE RIVER IN 1875

FALLS OF THE UMGENI, NATAL

The views of Kimberley are published by the kind permission of the De
Beers Company, who courteously supplied them.

REMINISCENCES OF A SOUTH AFRICAN PIONEER

Foreword--My father's family--"Old Body"--Dualla--A cruel experiment--"Old
Body"--and the goose--Cook and kitchen-maid--Scull and monkey--My mother's
family--Abbey view--The Bock of Cashel--Captain Meagher and early chess
Sir Dominic Corrigan--"Old Mary" and the sugar--Naval ambitions--Harper
Twelvetree and the burial agency

I was born on the 29th of October, 1855; at least I have been told so,
but the register of my baptism cannot be traced. This circumstance
placed me in a somewhat awkward position a few years since, when
proof of my age was urgently required. The place of my birth is a
house in Upper Gardiner Street, Dublin then the home of my maternal
uncle-by-marriage, Richard Scott. Evil days have since fallen upon
that part of Ireland's metropolis; the locality is now inhabited by a
class of people to whom we should in this country apply the term "poor
whites." When I recently visited the spot I found that the house had,
like most of those in the vicinity, been divided into tenements. The
upper portion of what had once been a frosted-glass partition was
still in the hall, and on this my uncle's crest was visible. The
premises were in a filthy condition, and the inhabitants looked more
than ordinarily villainous. On the steps a red-faced crone sat pulling
at a clay pipe, and a reek of stale porter came through the hall
doorway.

My father's family, I am told, have been located in the County
Tipperary for many generations. I believe they made a great deal of
money as contractors to the army of King William in the campaign of
which the Battle of the Boyne was the decisive event, but the greater
part of this they dissipated about a century ago in lawsuits. I have
heard that the costs in one case they lost amounted to over 100,000.
The little I know of the family, has been told me by dear old Sir
William Butler, with whom I became very intimate when he was in South
Africa. He always said we were related that we were "Irish cousins" but
we never were quite able to define what the relationship was. Sir
William and Ray, father had been gre