My Stock Of Medicines Was Smashed;
And All Our Furniture And Clothing Carried Off And Sold At Public Auction
To Pay The Expenses Of The Foray.
I do not mention these things by way of making a pitiful wail over my losses,
nor in order
To excite commiseration; for, though I do feel sorry
for the loss of lexicons, dictionaries, &c., which had been
the companions of my boyhood, yet, after all, the plundering only set me
entirely free for my expedition to the north, and I have never since
had a moment's concern for any thing I left behind. The Boers resolved
to shut up the interior, and I determined to open the country,
and we shall see who have been most successful in resolution, they or I.
A short sketch of African housekeeping may not prove uninteresting
to the reader. The entire absence of shops led us to make
every thing we needed from the raw materials. You want bricks
to build a house, and must forthwith proceed to the field,
cut down a tree, and saw it into planks to make the brick-moulds;
the materials for doors and windows, too, are standing in the forest;
and, if you want to be respected by the natives, a house of decent dimensions,
costing an immense amount of manual labor, must be built.
The people can not assist you much; for, though most willing
to labor for wages, the Bakwains have a curious inability
to make or put things square:
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