ship the ss. _Bremen_. And so began my seventh journey across the
world.

Our passage in the _Bremen_ was as usual a fair weather one, but it was
fraught with much anxiety as regarded the progress of the war. The ports
of call of our ship were Genoa, Port Said and Aden, Colombo, and then
Western Australia. As we arrived at each of these ports the news from
South Africa became graver and graver. Siege of Ladysmith, siege of
Mafeking, siege of Kimberley. Rebellion in Cape Colony. Then Colenso and
Spion Kop. We felt somewhat relieved on arrival at Freemantle, where the
news met us that General Buller was to be superseded in the command by
Lord Roberts. On reaching Adelaide I saw Kingston, my friendly Premier,
and told him that it was my intention, if he approved, to take my family
on to my wife's relations in Melbourne, return at once to Adelaide, raise
the first mounted contingent, and sail with it for South Africa. Once
again Kingston fell in with my views. I took the family to Melbourne and
returned to Adelaide.

The excitement throughout the Australian colonies at that time, the
middle of December, 1899, was intense. Just previous to leaving England
by the _Bremen_ I had been informed by the War Office, and by the
Australian Governments I then represented, that they had offered
contingents for service in South Africa to the Home Government. I had
called at the War Office and had been told that the offer had been
accepted, but that it had been decided to accept infantry and not mounted
units. I pointed out to those in authority at the time that they had
quite failed to appreciate the temper of the offer of the Australian
colonies. The men who wished to volunteer were not in the least anxious,
in fact, they really had the strongest objection, to walk about South
Africa; they and their horses were one, and even if they couldn't shoot
or be drilled in time to fulfil the conditions of a trained cavalryman,
at any rate they could ride like hell and shoot straight.

The War Office people thought I was rather romancing. I tried to disabuse
them of this idea and ventured a step farther. I said that I almost
believed that the refusal of the War Office to accept mounted troops
might be taken absolutely as an insult. I was told that they valued my
opinions and wished they had heard them before their final decision had
been cabled out, but it could not be altered. The War Office had its way.
The first contingent, therefore, rais