Supertaal: Koeitjies & kalfies » Toe SA die Britse vloot aangeval het...

Tuis » Algemeen » Koeitjies & kalfies » Toe SA die Britse vloot aangeval het...

Wys: Vandag se boodskappe :: Stemmings :: Navigasie

Toe SA die Britse vloot aangeval het... [boodskap #104035]

Wo, 22 Junie 2005 10:33

Ferdi Greyling
Boodskappe: 1232
Geregistreer: Mei 2006

Karma: 0

Senior Lid

Deneys Reitz in Commando:
------------------------------------------------------------ ------

At the end of ten days Nicolas was so much better that I was able to
get away in search of General Smuts, whom I found on the banks of the
Olifants River down towards the mouth. The sea lay only twenty-five
miles from here and the day after my return he sent word to the Units
quartered within reach, that all who had never seen it were to be sent
to him. Some sixty or seventy men arrived within the next forty-eight
hours, and with these we set off for a small inlet on the coast called
Fishwater. We rode via the Ebenezer Mission Station, and towards
afternoon caught a glint of the sea through a gap in the dunes. It was
amusing to watch the expression on the men's faces as the great
expanse of ocean burst on their view, for few of them had seen
anything bigger than the dam on their parents' farms, and, as we
topped the last sand-hills, they looked in amazement on water that
stretched beyond the horizon.

With one accord they reined in their horses in silence, and then, like
the Greek soldiers, rushed forward in a body, crying, 'The sea! The
sea!' each wanting to be first on the beach.

Soon they were throwing off their clothes, and our trouble was, not to
get them to enter the waves, but to prevent them from venturing in too
deep, for they were pitching down their saddles and riding barebacked
into the surf, shouting and laughing whenever a rider and his mount
were thrown headlong by the breakers.

After a while General Smuts ordered three of us to ride along the
shore towards some huts in the distance, to inquire whether any troops
had been here of late. In doing so we had an amusing encounter with a
Hottentot fisher-man. He stared open-mouthed at sight of armed Boers
patrolling the water-line, and, seeing his surprise, I halted my horse
and ordered him in a peremptory tone to show me where the road went
through. He said, 'What road, Baas?' Pretending to be angry, I
replied, 'The road to England, you fool, and show me the way at once,
for we are crossing to-night to capture London.' He looked at me for a
moment, and then exclaimed, 'My God, Baas, don't do it; the water is
over your head here, and you will all be drowned.'

When next I met Maritz and told him this story, he said that two of
his men had recently ridden on to the beach at Lambert's Bay, where an
English cruiser lay at anchor close in-shore. Dismounting, they opened
fire. Their bullets pattered harmlessly against the armoured side of
the warship, and when the crew turned a gun on them they made haste to
disappear into the sand hills, but, on their return to their commando,
they boasted that they had fought the only naval action of the war!

That night we camped in the dunes, sitting around great fires of
driftwood, the men discussing what they had seen until far into the
night, and telling each other of the things they would have to recount
when they got home again.

We spent two more days here, boating on the estuary and helping the
local fishermen to drag their nets. Then we returned along the
Olifants River to our starting-place, proud of having ridden our
horses into the sea.