Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 12

To be allowed to land in Capetown one must have a hundred dollars.

Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, foreigners--no one can land if he has not that sum. The tariff charged on foreign goods is from 50 to 125 per cent. The latter figure applies to tobacco. On a pound of American tobacco, which sells in the United States for 40 cents, there is a tax of $1.20.

Sixteen days is the shortest time in which mail can be transported from Capetown to England. The distance separating these two points is 6,000 miles.

Groote Schuur, the home of the late Cecil Rhodes, of very striking design and richly furnished, is located here in one of the finest estates in the world. Having a splendidly wooded park, with good paths built at convenient sections, it is shaded by the towering clefts of Table Mountain. The entrances to the Rhodes estate were never locked, and one had only to push open a gate to come in touch with nature in a superior form. Pa.s.sing away in 1902, eight years before the consolidation, but far-seeing enough to know what the future policy of the country would be, Rhodes bequeathed Groote Schuur to the first Premier of a United South Africa. Louis Botha, elected to that high office, thereby came into possession of this attractive home.

"Your Hinterland Is There" is one of the inscriptions carved on the granite base on which the bronze figure of Cecil Rhodes rests in the Public Gardens of Capetown. The front of the figure is facing north, and a hand is pointed in the same direction--to Rhodesia. "So little done and so much to do" were the plaintive words of a man who had added 750,000 square miles to his country's already large possessions.

The wine industry is prominent in this province. Some years ago the grapevines were ravaged by a disease. Grape stocks were imported from the United States, and the native vine engrafted to the American plant, when the industry again thrived.

Snook, a fish three feet in length, numerous about the Cape Peninsula, seemed the princ.i.p.al food of a great number of poor colored people of Capetown.

In a place that has been an English possession so long one would expect to find a general use of the English language, but, on the contrary, natives and a majority of Europeans speak Dutch.

Newspapers and printing in general are ahead of the town. The wages, however, are low compared to other large places in South Africa.

"Hi'm the merry widow!" he shouted. "Hi'm the merry widow!" A c.o.c.kney Jew, with a grooved face, was among the merchants who sold goods--underwear, shirts, socks, haircombs, handkerchiefs, etc.--on what is known as the Parade Ground on certain days of the week. He wore on his head a woman's white straw hat with a soft, broad brim, which flopped against the sides of his face while he vigorously cried his wares. Around the crown of the hat was a garland of artificial flowers--daisies, roses, forget-me-nots, etc. He stood on a box, and told his auditors he was almost giving everything away. He talked at the rate of a thousand words a minute, more or less, working so hard that the perspiration on his face resembled a large water-soaked sponge when pressed. While streamlets of sweat ran down the flutes in his cheeks, he frequently interlarded his cheap-bargain harangue with, "Hi'm the merry widow!" "Hi'm the merry widow!"

Nearly 200,000 people live in and about Capetown, and the mixture is the worst in South Africa. Malays came to the Cape Peninsula years ago, and the mongrel off-shoots of these, with Arabs and natives of St. Helena and other places, emphasize the word "colored."

Being situated at almost the junction of two seas, the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the climate is the best in South Africa. The weather is never very hot, and frost is unknown.

We shall travel northward over the Karoo again to Bloemfontein, then easterly across the Orange Free State to Ladysmith, board a train going south, and return to Durban.

As stated in the early part of this volume, I had $1,350 when I left New York. On returning to Durban I had $637. With that sum I was about to start for India. The second day after reaching Durban, however, I obtained work on the leading newspaper, which furnished me with employment for six months. My wages averaged $40 a week. Modest comforts were good enough for me, and, living expenses being reasonable, I was enabled to put away a snug sum. Work was there for me if I wished to "drop in" the next year, so I promised to be on hand. This opened an opportunity to visit another continent--Australia --which I had not taken into calculation before leaving New York, as at that time I had not money enough to do so. So, early in January, I was on my way to the Antipodes.

On my return from Australia I took another trip to Johannesburg and back. I went to work the first of August and continued to the middle of December. Then I made a trip to Zululand, and upon my return was again offered work. As I had not enough money for the remainder of the journey, I decided to stay. Taking another trip to East London, Kingwilliamstown, up through Kaffraria, to Cradock, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and back to Pietermaritzburg and Durban, in the middle of March, 1912, I went to work for the third time, and finally bid good-by to Durban in July following.

LEG THREE

CHAPTER I

Thirteen first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers--four women, three men and six children--boarded a steamship at Durban for Australia. The vessel was a cargo ship, but had accommodation for a small number of pa.s.sengers.

She had started from a Swedish port in the Baltic Sea with a full cargo of pine lumber. The distance from the Baltic port to Durban is 8,000 miles, and the ship's final destination was to be Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, over 7,000 miles further east. Speaking about long voyages, this one should satisfy the most ambitious.

A Swedish woman, with two children, boarded the ship at her home port, with Sydney as first landing. From Sydney she intended to sail to the South Sea Islands, until she reached Vavau, Tonga (Friendly Islands), still 2,000 miles further east from Sydney, where she and the children were to join her husband. The time required to travel from the Baltic seaport to Vavau was over three months, counting stops.

From Durban to Melbourne, 6,000 miles, the fare was only $100 first cla.s.s. Food was good, the ship steady, and weather fair. Our captain was a jovial soul, and the pa.s.sengers proved a congenial group. The vessel was well manned by a white crew.

The second day out again found the albatross and Cape pigeon as our companions. Later we sailed down to lat.i.tude 39, south of which sailors term the "roarin' forties," where the weather became chilly.

Two islands--St. Paul and Amsterdam--were the only land seen during the voyage, and not a single ship. One cultivates a genuine respect for seafaring men when traveling on ships that bring one in intimate touch with them. They are so thoroughly versed in the science of navigation that they know to a foot's s.p.a.ce almost what part of the sea they are sailing over.

One of our lady pa.s.sengers, returning to Australia, her native country, had her three children with her. Years before she and her husband left for South Africa, where fortune smiled on them; she was returning a wealthy woman. A New Zealander and his wife, an Australian, also were returning from South Africa. A baby had come to their home in Boerland and they were returning to Kangarooland to show the hopeful to their friends.

A feature of the sea at night in that stretch of the Indian Ocean represents what might be termed a starry marine firmament. The water contains phosphorous in sections, and, when opposing forces clash, bright, blue-white lights come thickly to view and twinkle and scintillate on crests of waves made by the wash of a vessel. These sparkling beams have their season during periods of contact, when, like embers, they gradually flitter away as the waves a.s.sume their normal level. From bow to stern the water line of a ship will be aglow with star-like streaks, the wake of a vessel appearing as a "milky way," this marine illumination taking place where the sea is "plowed"

by merchantmen, as it were.

"Is that Rottnest Light ahead, captain?" asked the New Zealander.

"Aye," answered the skipper. "We'll anchor outside the breakwater about 3 o'clock in the morning." We had been sixteen days out from Durban, and every one had a good voyage. In the forenoon, after the port doctor had completed his examination of the pa.s.sengers and crew, we pa.s.sed through the channel and into the harbor, and soon were alongside a dock at Fremantle, West Australia. We had reached Leg Three.

"What Ho!" is the national salute of Australia when countrymen meet, and if the reader will allow me to step slightly in advance of my notes, I shall take the liberty to offer, "What ho!" to "the Down-unders." The use of the term "Down-unders" is explained by Australia being situated almost in a direct line under that section of the globe const.i.tuting Europe.

"A White Australia" is the slogan of the people of the Antipodes, and the first thing one notices on coming from any of the black countries is the absence of black men about the docks.

Twelve miles up the Swan River from Fremantle, Perth, the capital and metropolis of the State of West Australia, is located. It was in 1827 that Captain Stirling sailed to the mouth of the Swan River, where Fremantle is located. He decided the location would make a good settlement site. Perth later sprang into existence, however, and grew so fast that Fremantle, with a population of 18,000 people, is but a port for the State Capital.

Big things are met with in Australia, and the State of which Perth is the official center is about four times larger than the State of Texas.

One inwardly joins with the people of the Commonwealth in their national slogan when the industrial activity is so strikingly contrasted between "Darkest Africa" and "White Australia." Australia is seen at her best when coming from any of the black belts.

The European style of pa.s.senger coach is in use, and the freight cars are also European, some of these not one-third as large as the American box car. Small locomotives are also in use. The country from Fremantle to Perth is sandy, the only verdure growing being the eucalyptus, or gum tree, as it is called. Homes seen along the railway track were of red brick.

When Perth--with a population of 60,000--was reached--well, it looked like one of the busy cities of the North. Smokestacks, streets crowded with people, splendid buildings, all work being done by Europeans, all vehicles drawn by good horses--no oxen in sight; streets asphalted--in that far-off land one will find as busy and as up-to-date a city as exists anywhere. Credit for this substantial condition of things is more strongly emphasized when it is remembered that West Australia is very hot, more suited to black races than white.

Clean streets, with bright-colored red-brick residences, one story in height, are prominent in this section of the country. A large number of working people are their own landlords, and those who do not own their own homes pay $3.50 weekly rent. The weekly system of paying bills--house rent and store bills--is the custom in Australia. As the government owns the railroads, postoffice and other public utilities, the employes in these departments, as those of munic.i.p.al and private employers, are also paid weekly. This has proved a good system.

The street car system is good, cars being of the double-deck type.

This was the first place the American system of street-car transfers was noticed.

One finds here a splendid park square with plenty of free seats and s.p.a.ce, flowers and gra.s.s. In a larger park, a short distance away, is a zoo. There is also a museum, art gallery, a good library, hospitals and schools.

Many people were gathered in the larger park on a holiday, and had brought lunch with them. The thermometer registered 107 in the shade.

At one place in the park a big kettle, three feet high, hung over a wood fire, was boiling. The holiday-makers came to the kettle for hot water to make tea. It looked out of place to see hot tea drunk in such weather, yet tea is the non-alcoholic drink of that country, and is said to be the best for that climate. The city employed the man who boiled water for the tea.

Swan River is said to be the home of the black swan, the graceful bird that makes ponds and lakes so attractive in many parks in the world.

Good meals could be had for twenty-five cents. Grapes were selling for four cents a pound, and peaches, melons, and other fruit sold at a proportionately low price. Mutton sold at four to six cents a pound; beef, from ten to twelve cents, and pork at twelve cents.

Educating the young is a p.r.o.nounced characteristic in West Australia.

The schools are maintained by the State, are free, and attendance is compulsory from the age of six to fourteen years. Twenty-one dollars is the sum the State fixes for the schooling of a scholar.

Scholarships of the value of $250 a year are offered annually for compet.i.tion among pupils between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Other inducements are made to bring out the best that is in the growing generation. In spa.r.s.ely settled farming districts, where ten or more children are to be found, the State reaches out a beneficent hand to qualify the child for the battle of life. In addition to appropriations for their schooling, and where the children must ride to school, 12 cents a day is paid to the person in whose vehicle the children are carried to and from the schoolhouse. Where a railroad runs through these sections, and the children ride on trains to and from school, no fare is charged.

Very liberal inducements are held out to persons taking up government land. Twenty years' time is allowed the settler in which to pay for his farm, and the interest charged is four to five per cent.

Residential growth and improved conditions, of course, result from the transaction.

To prevent destruction of crops by rabbits, which do a great amount of damage to growing grain in some parts, the government has gone to the expense of building rabbit-proof fences about tracts of land it has for disposal. The quality of wheat, oats and other cereals is of the best, meriting the awarding of first prizes at world expositions where they have been on exhibition. Sheep-raising is another great a.s.set of Western Australia.

The rich gold fields of this State are located from 300 to 350 miles east of Perth, in the heart of a desert, of which a large area of West Australia is composed. In 1884 gold was discovered in this section of the Commonwealth, but a greater rush to the mines occurred in 1890-92, when the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie finds became known. In this industry a hundred thousand persons are engaged. Before a railway was built over this barren stretch of country from the coast to the mines, many an adventurous soul perished during his journey in quest of the precious metal. No water is found in this district, that needed in homes and for treatment of the ores being "imported," pumped from a dam near Perth through pipes of 30 inch diameter for this great distance. Besides gold, copper, tin and coal are mined. Black workers are excluded.

Wages paid are more equalized than in other countries. Laborers receive a minimum of $2 a day, and mechanics from $2.50 to $3 a day.

Eight hours is a day's working time.