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Peter Ewart
| Joined: 31 Aug 2005 |
| Posts: 1797 |
| Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England. |
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 Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 7:56 pm |
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Still catching up, so I've come to this one a bit late. This lovely photo at the drift was published in RW Leyland, A Holiday in South Africa (London & Liverpool, 1882). Although the author didn't acknowledge Wilmot among his thanks, he did use lengthy quotes from Wilmot on the war itself. Wilmot's work appeared in 1880: does it include this photo, does anyone know? My reprint contains no illustrations at all but I wondered if the original did? Leyland wrote his own work during 1881.
If Leyland didn't borrow the picture from Wilmot, I don't know where he got it, as he was only in Durban (Kisch?) for a matter of hours. He did leave a very interesting account of his escapade at the drift on 15 November 1880, however, and it may appeal to those who are interested in the workings of the ferry punt, etc. (Note that Leyland's holiday, on which he sailed only 13 months after Cetshwayo's capture, predated even Mitford's).
While chatting to Witt about the rebuilding of his house, "a boatman came up from the river to say the Buffalo was so high, and running with such velocity, it was utterly impossible to take a boat over, and that we must abandon the idea of crossing into Zululand. He had tried to take the punt across to bring over a missionary who was waiting on the opposite bank, but the boat was nearly swamped in the attempt, and he was thankful to regain the shore."
Undeterred, Leyland and his companion strolled down to the river with Witt. He describes the bank and Fort Melvill above it, exactly as in the above photo, and gives a description of the punt and its size. "Two stakes, driven firmly into the ground, were fixed one on each side of the river, and a steel wire was stretched from one to the other. On this wire ran an iron block with wheels, to which the boat was attached, and pulled across from side to side by a rope also hanging between the stakes, but suspended more loosely than the wire. We saw at once that the flat-bottomed punt was not a safe or even a feasible means of crossing, but that close by there lay moored a large ship's boat pointed at both ends, which the boatman had not thought of using. We suggested to Mr Witt that the river might be crossed in this boat, and we volunteered to bring over from the other side the missionary, who had been waiting there upwards of an hour.
Setting to work we soon had the large boat affixed to the runner on the wire, and by the simplest expedient of putting the tiller over to bring the boat's side slightly towards the stream, with her head pointing to the opposite bank, she took herself across as easily as possible, and with great celerity.
Such a thing had actually never been done here before, and Mr Witt was greatly charmed with the new idea. We eventually left him sitting in the stern of the boat, alternately crossing and recrossing the river for the sake of amusement, followed by the admiring eyes of a number of Kafirs, who congregated on both banks to witness the novel sight."
Seeing the photo of the Drift in this thread reminded me of this passage immediately - the scene looks exactly as Leyland describes it - spare pointed boat included! (Although I wouldn't call it large). The missionary, of course, was Charles Johnson, who had that year moved from Isandlwana and was busy building his house near Hlubi's homestead at what would become St Augustine's (the original name for the Isandlwana mission). There is also a nice description of the original little wattle and grass church at Isandlwana, which Johnson and his wife had built with local help.
Peter
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