Woman"s Endurance.
by A.D.L.
PREFACE.
DEAR READER,-
A perusal of the following "Introduction" by the Author, and of his true and touching "Diary," will a.s.suredly carry the conviction into your own soul, if you still require conviction, that our South African women were the heroines of the late deplorable war.
May this pathetic relation bring us all nearer to one another in sympathy and love; and serve to awaken in every woman"s breast the desire to emulate and perpetuate the pure faith and n.o.ble devotion which these Sisters of ours have handed down to us and to all posterity as their priceless legacy.
In undertaking the responsibility for the publication of this "Diary," I may simply state that the proceeds will be given towards the support of the Orphanage at Bethulie.
Yours, etc., D. DE VILLIERS, Secretary, Boer Relief Committee.
CAPE TOWN.
INTRODUCTION.
This Journal was written in the Bethulie Concentration Camp just two years ago.
A few days after my return from Europe (whither I had gone for six months on the completion of a Theological course at Stellenbosch), a telegram came from the Deputy Administrator of the Orange River Colony, through the Rev. Wm. Robertson, inviting me to work as Chaplain in one of the Concentration Camps.
The Rev. Mr. Pienaar, who had received a similar invitation, and I therefore journeyed down to Bloemfontein a few days later. We received great courtesy at the hands of Sir Hamilton Gould-Adams, the Deputy Administrator, and every kindness from Mr. Robertson.
In a few days it was finally decided that Mr. Pienaar should go to Irene, in the Transvaal, and I to the Concentration Camp at Bethulie. Thither I forthwith travelled, arriving at my destination on the 21st August.
The thought suggested itself the very first day that I might desire, in after years, to recall my experiences in Camp, and so I decided to keep a diary. This thought, and this alone, prompted me in the matter. Of an evening, therefore, just before retiring, I noted down the doings of the day, consulting at such times always my pocket note-book.
What was written was done hurriedly, on the impulse of the moment-in fact, simply scribbled down without, of course, any regard to style, language, or form. Stress of circ.u.mstances must be held responsible for the many undignified expressions in which the Diary abounds. It should not be forgotten, moreover, that I was usually tired out after the day"s work, when these entries were made.
For almost a year the Diary lay in my desk before I could summon courage to re-read it. After it had been hidden again for another year, I rashly promised a sick friend to send it for her to read. Fearing, however, that she would not be able to follow all the contractions, I decided to copy it over, and it was while thus engaged that it became clear to me that it should be published. Cui bono? is of course, the question which must be faced. The only answer I wish to plead is that this work is a tribute to Woman"s Endurance, and that it presents in the story of that endurance, and the fort.i.tude of the Dutch women and children, one of the n.o.bler aspects of the late war. And is not this plea enough? Cannot we sometimes forget the inevitable political aspect of things and see beyond into the human?
In conclusion, this: A diary is simply a confidential talk to one"s self of one"s self-such is its prerogative. While, then, sending forth into publicity this Journal in its entirety, so as not to mar its integrity, need it be suggested how hard it is occasionally to lay bare the naked soul within?
Durbanville, Cape Colony, September, 1903.
NOTE.
As reproduced here, the Diary is substantially the same as the original, except for:-
1. Contractions, which are written out.
2. Slang, for which, where it could be done, inoffensive words are subst.i.tuted.
In form it is given absolutely unchanged.
I have found it necessary to add a number of notes, and to translate all the Dutch.
DIARY.
CHAP. I.
Bethulie Concentration Camp, August, 1901.
Wednesday, August 21.-Arrived station 8.30 a.m. (from Bloemfontein); tedious delay; no pa.s.s to village obtainable, official in village for breakfast; number of refugees in same train, among them a sick girl, with fever: "Pappie, Pappie, ach mij ou Pappie!" ("Daddy, daddy! O my dear daddy!" Thus she cried whenever she was touched, as they carried her out of the train, and lifted her on to the wagon. She was fever-stricken and terribly emaciated. (Reference is made later to this same girl.) Alas! Arrival village; visit parsonage (Becker"s); dinner; things forwarded per wagon; arrival camp (mile out); meet superintendent; given a tent; dust; misery; the Van As"s offer me a home; kind; bitter cold night; leakage; bad draught; bad cold; feel lonesome; orphanish; pipe to rescue; great consolation.
Thursday, August 22.-My tent untenable position; in the thoroughfare; speak Superintendent; obtain new site; private; buy 150 bricks 1s. 6d., hire three boys, barrow 1s. 3d.; with miershoop (antheap, excellent for making floor) make brick kraal; hard work; Mr. Van As[1] and Fourie grand; fine floor.
First visits: Young girl, orphan, bad; Weinanda, little girl, "Ja Oom, ik is nou bij mij Mamie" ("Yes, Uncle, now I am with my mother"); mind wanders. Third tent: Two babies wrestling with death; mothers raadeloos (in despair); 486[2], wife, babe at breast, measles; daughter, 14, convalescent; behind screen three children sick, measles; condition pitiable; husband prisoner Ladismith; great dirt; unbearable; the pity of it!
Pitch tent; wet floor; inside dire confusion.
Meeting Church-square thirty-nine elders[3]; each a block; prayer; introduction Rev. Becker; kind words and cheer.
Early bed; restless night; hospital close by; commotion; groans; fifteen buried to-day; service for Mr. Van As.
Friday, August 23.-Early bird; wash spruit[4]; first shave (tears); Van As coffee; pathetic sight; old man leading old wife back to tent from hospital; Hugo; son just died.
Visit Hugo"s; dinner Van As; outspan (rest); cigar grand.
Unpack; three Red Cross boxes (gift of the chemist); order out of chaos; spirits revive; visits 2.5 p.m.
Dying child; mother broken-hearted.
Dying mother; clear doorway; deathbed grim attraction for our people; prayer; understands.
Widow; husband found dead outside in night; heart disease.
Sick child (since dead); sick child; sweet face; Louw.
Visit sick child of yesterday, also Weinanda.
Stray; hear cough; enter; father invalid (wife dead); three sick children; youngest very bad.
Comfort mother of dead child.
Funerals (seven), Mr. Becker: "I was dumb and opened not my mouth."
Burial ground; about 120 graves; weeping mothers; visit dying child; fool of myself, broke down in prayer; the helplessness in presence of Death!
Throat hoa.r.s.e; dead off; return tent; meditate; convinced this work the very hardest in whole world.
Avoid taking guide next time (handicapped).
Neglected to visit 486 and mothers of yesterday"s dying children.