t supplies and hire bearers, leaving the sick man alone in a small
tent, with a limited supply of food and water. The mate got drunk and
remained so whilst the money he had with him lasted, a period of about
ten days. Then first he bethought him of Gray. Assistance was sent, but
it arrived too late; Gray was dead of thirst and starvation. I found
his grave the following year. Some pitiful Christian had made a rough
cross by tying two boughs together, and had stuck it into the sand at
the head. What made Gray's case sadder, if possible, was the
circumstance that letters were even then awaiting him at Lourenco
Marques with the news that he had inherited a fortune.

There can be no doubt that the heavy mortality among those who returned
to camp ill with fever was due to the fact that no medical man was
available that is, in the early days and that we knew nothing whatever
of the principles of nursing. One instance I recall illustrates this
very forcibly. A man had been ill with fever for upwards of two months.
The case was a bad one, but at length the patient appeared to rally.
One night he sat up in bed and announced that he had completely
recovered and was extremely hungry. On being asked what he would like
to eat he begged for bread and sardines. These were immediately
provided, the bread being coarse and brown. He ate with avidity, and
every one present felt the greatest satisfaction. Within a few hours he
was dead.

One weird circumstance connected with these fatalities was this; in
some instances the temperature of the bodies would rise after death and
continue to rise for several hours. This, I have been told, was due to
the fever ferment in the blood and tissues developing unchecked, and
its products setting up strong chemical action. It was hard, in these
instances, to believe that death had actually taken place, so attempts
at resuscitation used to be resorted to. I was afterwards told by a
medical man from Barberton that a similar phenomenon was noticed there
in fever cases the temperature sometimes rising after death to 110
degrees Fahrenheit.

Pilgrim's Rest, during the first few years after gold had been
discovered there, was an interesting and delightful place. Those whose
experience of mining camps is limited to ones in which the syndicate or
the company holds sway, can form no idea of the life of a community
where the individual digger is dominant. I am prepared to maintain that
life was healthier, sane