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As we had no work, people all having left, we had to put our shoulders to the wheel ourselves and Becky and I determined as far as possible to act the part of sons as well as daughters, as father was still sick and our brothers still only little boys. Becky and I[64] had to take the lead and do whatsoever our hands found to do. Of course the little boys did all they could to help us. Mother had quite enough to do with domestic matters – father directed us. We first chose a place to settle down in which was named by the Hottentots “Canecundas”[65]. We cut some poles and reeds and made a sort of room or shed to live in till we could erect something better. Then we dug a piece of ground over and made a garden. We had one man to herd the cattle and donkeys - the children took part in herding the cattle. How pleased we were when we saw our garden so productive ! It quite encouraged us ! We decided to build a nice house on a rock from which we would have a nice view of the river and place for a large kraal behind the mountain surrounding it in the shape of a V, so that by putting railings from the point of the opposite rock to the house thus all would be enclosed and it was well we did as it afterwards proved. We set resolutely to work and chopped poles and long reeds which took Becky and me many weeks before we had enough – Morris arrived with his family from Cape Town. When we again got a supply of provision. Morris also came to live at “Canecundas” and put up a reed house for them. He had brought his nephew and a wagon driver named Jonathan from Cape Town and a leader named Hendrick. About this time the Company of Morris and Dixon[66] was dissolved under very disadvantageous circumstances for us, but being in such an out of the way country and father in such a weak state we were obliged to put up with matters and make the best of things. We were still working very hard at our house when one day the river came down suddenly and washed our garden away which was just getting ripe[67] – the water ran for three weeks bringing down great trees and cutting away the banks. The boy Hendrick also became very ill. Lawson[68], Sherman and Bassingthwaighte about this time came to live near us. They were now living together on their own account and had a lot of cattle and sheep. We had most of the framework of the house done and father got Bassingthwaighte to come and help put on the roof and we soon had the pleasure of moving into our new house. It had three rooms and a kitchen and a verandah. The doors and windows were taken from the old house at Sandfontein. Were not Becky and I proud of it ? I don’t think two girls ever worked harder than we did and then the dangers we ran ! For the lions had come to the neighbourhood and sometimes paid the place a visit. Some of the men said they found the track of a lion and where he had been lying down under a tree, not far from where we had been cutting some poles that day, and that we both had been in the wood at the same time, but we did not see him. At last, one night, the lion killed an ox and father, Morris and the other neighbours went to hunt him. Father of course could do nothing but go with the wagon “Honedas” the place where the lions had gone to. While they were away poor Hendrick died and there were only the cattle herd and another Hottentot to carry him to the grass, Mrs. Morris, Becky and I following. The third day the party returned without having killed any lions.

We now set to work to make a large garden and when that was done got a small plough up that was at Sandfontein[69] and with the donkeys ploughed in some corn. Just before this Morris and family had left for the Colony.

The lions now became most troublesome and one, in particular, most cunning – seldom going far away. The men set traps for him whenever he killed any thing and put a hair trigger gun in the footpath but it was set with only a thin piece of twine and covered with bushes he seemed to know it and went round it. He came every night about nine or ten o’clock and just before day but the cattle and things being in our good and natural kraal he could only frighten (them). One evening, as father and Jonathan were gone to the Bay, I went before sunset to set the gun in the footpath and went from there with Ben[70] and James[71] with the donkey cart up the river for wood – on our return coming down the bed of the river just as we got opposite the gun, the bullet whistling past the wheel. We could not at first make out the reason, but on examining the place we found our little dog, Blucher, had taken that way home and his tail, which he generally carried curled up, had touched the string and fired off the gun. It gave mother a great fright and she would not let me set the gun any more. We had to take the tracks of the lion every morning before the cattle went out of the kraal; if the lion went up the river they were sent down and vice versa.

Hans Larsen was one day riding his ox down the river when the lion sprang out from under a tree and he had a very narrow escape. The lion now often killed things in the veldt. Hans and Sherman moved away with their cattle – Jonathan also left. Sometimes we had some goats that would not stay in their little kraal which was inside the big one, they would climb up to a place we called the cave in the side of the kraal and lie on the edge of the top of the cave. As we only had the old cattle herd left, Becky and I[72] took to shooting to frighten the lion and one night, going round on top of the hill forming the one wall of the kraal, he caught one of the goats – next night I aimed the blunderbuss, which I had loaded with slugs and pebbles, to where the goats were and when I heard the lion catch one I fired as well as I could at him and he dropped the goat which rolled down into the kraal and he got away. Next morning we went to look at the place and found I had wounded him, as there was blood on his spoors. The cattle got quite used to his coming near the kraal and we were very much amused of a moonlight night watching them when they got his scent or heard him. They would all rush into the middle of the kraal and stand in a circle with their horns out – it looked pretty. One night Becky was loading the gun, she stood at the table where mother sat sewing, she had forgotten to put the cap on and just as she was pulling the wadding in, she remembered the cap and just stuck the wadding in the muzzle and put on the cap. The hammer was a little stiff and in putting it down the gun went off at mother’s ears, of course giving her a start – Becky saw the wadding sticking in the thatch and running, jumped on the table, made a spring and pulled down the burning stuff and threw it on the table. It was done in less time than it takes to tell it. Another night Bassingthwaighte and his boy were asleep in his little reed house, some distance from our place, the lion drove his good dogs up to the door. B. woke with the noise and they kept up firing till morning but the lion coolly sat on his hind legs like a dog before the house till just before daylight when he went away. B. came to us next day and asked father to let him sleep at our house in future as he would not venture another night alone at his house. On one occasion the lion was in front of our house and mother used to think that by suddenly opening the door the light would frighten him – then she would walk out on the stoep under the verandah, but this night as she opened the door and was going to walk out she stopped, shuddering and could not go on, so came in again. Fortunately she did, for next morning the spoors of the lion were just under the rock near the railings of the kraal. Another night there was great barking of the dogs on the stoep. As neither the blunerbuss nor the gun was loaded I called the man with his gun, but as he was not quick enough I seized his gun which was at the head of his bed – he was rather stingy with the powder and his gun was not often fired off. When I fired out of the front door, it kicked so that it knocked me back and left a large black mark on my arm. I did not interfere with his gun again. As to the lion he became so daring he would not go out of sight of the house even during the day but would lie in the reeds a little way off. In one afternoon he killed four of our calves and father was afraid he might kill some of us or he might go and lie in the mealies in the garden instead of the reeds, so he was determined to move away to Rooibank where the Mission Station was. Mr. Bam was there now in the place of the late Mr. Schepmann. We would not move mother and the children until there was a house for them – so father, Bassingthwaighte,[73] Ben, James and I[74] went to get a little place ready, leaving mother, Becky, Richard, Tom and Baby Robert[75] at home. - The lion had left us – he occasionally did for a few days at a time. There was one Hottentot left to mind the cattle and we left one afternoon, trekked all night, and the second reached “Rooibank”. About ten days after I was in the tent, which we had put up, I heard one Hottentot boy say to another “Did you hear the news ? Richard is dead.”[76] I went out and asked what they meant and heard, that the man we had left with mother, had just come. Father and Frank B.[77] had also seen him pass to the huts and went to question him. He told us the baby was dead and the lion had come back. He was afraid and had run away. We, of course, started at once leaving the children, Ben and James with Mr. Bam. Mr. Bam kindly lent us his driver and we trekked all night and reached the Swakop in the afternoon next day. We did not once span out. When we reached the gorge leading down to the river we fired a couple of shots to let them know we were coming, but heard no answering shot as was usual. This made us more uneasy. At last we reached the house and there was no one to be seen. We examined the tracks about the place and found, comparatively, as many lion spoors as cattle spoors and I rushed into the house and found it all in order – a large stump burning in the kitchen fireplace. I went to baby’s drawer where his clothes were kept and found it empty. I knew then it was true that he was gone.
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