Our little Mantatee 'Kleenboy'has again,like Jeshurun,'waxed fat and kicked',as soon as he had eaten enough to be once more plump and shiny.After his hungry period,he took to squatting on the stoep,just in front of the hall-door,and altogether declining to do anything;so he is superseded by an equally ugly little red-headed Englishman.The Irish housemaid has married the German baker (a fine match for her!),and a dour little Scotch Presbyterian has come up from Capetown in her place.Such are the vicissitudes of colonial house-keeping!The only 'permanency'is the old soldier of Captain D-'s regiment,who is barman in the canteen,and not likely to leave 'his honour',and the coloured girl,who improves on acquaintance.She wants to ingratiate herself with me,and get taken to England.Her father is an Englishman,and of course the brown mother and her large family always live in the fear of his 'going home'and ignoring their existence;a MARRIAGE with the mother of his children would be too much degradation for him to submit to.Few of the coloured people are ever married,but they don't separate oftener than REALLYmarried folks.Bill,the handsome West Indian black,married my pretty washerwoman Rosalind,and was thought rather assuming because he was asked in church and lawfully married;and she wore a handsome lilac silk gown and a white wreath and veil,and very well she looked in them.She had a child of two years old,which did not at all disconcert Bill;but he continues to be dignified,and won't let her go and wash clothes in the river,because the hot sun makes her ill,and it is not fit work for women.
Sunday,9th.-Last night a dance took place in a house next door to this,and a party of boers attempted to go in,but were repulsed by a sortie of the young men within.Some of the more peaceable boers came in here and wanted ale,which was refused,as they were already very VINOUS;so they imbibed ginger-beer,whereof one drank thirty-four bottles to his own share!Inspired by this drink,they began to quarrel,and were summarily turned out.They spent the whole night,till five this morning,scuffling and vociferating in the street.The constables discreetly stayed in bed,displaying the true Dogberry spirit,which leads them to take up Hottentots,drunk or sober,to show their zeal,but carefully to avoid meddling with stalwart boers,from six to six and a half feet high and strong in proportion.The jabbering of Dutch brings to mind Demosthenes trying to outroar a stormy sea with his mouth full of pebbles.The hardest blows are those given with the tongue,though much pulling of hair and scuffling takes place.'Verdomde Schmeerlap!'-'Donder and Bliksem!am I a verdomde Schmeerlap?'-'Ja,u is,'&c.,&c.I could not help laughing heartily as I lay in bed,at hearing the gambols of these Titan cubs;for this is a boer's notion of enjoying himself.This morning,I hear,the street was strewn with the hair they had pulled out of each other's heads.All who come here make love to S-;not by describing their tender feelings,but by enumerating the oxen,sheep,horses,land,money,&c.,of which they are possessed,and whereof,by the law of this colony,she would become half-owner on marriage.There is a fine handsome Van Steen,who is very persevering;but S-does not seem to fancy becoming Mevrouw at all.The demand for English girls as wives is wonderful here.The nasty cross little ugly Scotch maid has had three offers already,in one fortnight!
February 18th.-I expect to receive the letters by the English mail to-morrow morning,and to go to Worcester on Thursday.On Saturday the young doctor -good-humoured,jolly,big,young Dutchman -drove me,with his pretty little greys,over to two farms;at one I ate half a huge melon,and at the other,uncounted grapes.We poor Europeans don't know what fruit CAN BE,I must admit.The melon was a foretaste of paradise,and the grapes made one's fingers as sticky as honey,and had a muscat fragrance quite inconceivable.They looked like amber eggs.The best of it is,too,that in this climate stomach-aches are not.We all eat grapes,peaches,and figs,all day long.Old Klein sends me,for my own daily consumption,about thirty peaches,three pounds of grapes,and apples,pears,and figs besides -'just a little taste of fruits';only here they will pick it all unripe.
February 19th.-The post came in late last night,and old Klein kindly sent me my letters at near midnight.The post goes out this evening,and the hot wind is blowing,so I can only write to you,and a line to my mother.I feel really better now.I think the constant eating of grapes has done me much good.
The Dutch cart-owner was so extortionate,that I am going to wait a few days,and write to my dear Malay to come up and drive me back.
It is better than having to fight the Dutch monopolist in every village,and getting drunken drivers and bad carts after all.Ishall go round all the same.The weather has been beautiful;to-day there is a wind,which comes about two or three times in the year:it is not depressing,but hot,and a bore,because one must shut every window or be stifled with dust.
The people are burning the veld all about,and the lurid smoke by day and flaming hill-sides by night are very striking.The ashes of the Bosh serve as manure for the young grass,which will sprout in the autumn rains.Such nights!Such a moon!I walk out after dark when it is mild and clear,and can read any print by the moonlight,and see the distant landscape as well as by day.
Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok,and the skin and hoofs,which are pretty.
