File:Life in a troop-ship- serving out porter - ILN 1878.jpg

English: The Mail ship Nubian delivering troops to the the Cape Colony at East London.

Landing Place, East London
South Africa and the Kaffir War. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 13 April 1878. Volume: 72 , Issue: 2024, pages 4-6. Read the ILN.

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE KAFFIR WAR. We present a few more sketches by Mr. Melton Prior, our Special Artist who accompanied the 90th Regiment of Light Infantry, on board the Union Steam Ship Company's mail steamer Nubian, in the voyage from Southampton to the port of East London, near King William's Town, arriving there on Feb. 9, to take part in the later actions of the Kaffir War. Some of these sketches, like several which have already been published in our Journal, represent ordinary scenes of the soldiers' life on board ship; the serving out of rations of salt pork, inclosed in bags of netting, and the sending up of large cans or buckets of porter, for the consumption of each mess at the noontide meal, giving rise to many pleasant little incidents, all taken with perfect good humour. The "mess orderly" would bring his large tin dish to receive the collective bag of meat rations, as well as the potatoes, belonging to the twelve men of his mess; and it might happen that a few potatoes would roll off as he raised the dish on high and thrust it over the shoulders of those in front of him, in haste not to lose his turn when the number of his mess had been called. The daily allowance of porter was one pint for each man, and the full quantity for twelve men was delivered at once to the mess orderly at half-past eleven o'clock. The regimental tailors are shown in another sketch busied in sewing light covers on the new service helmets; but it was remarked that the covers supplied by the War Office have not been well made, and do not fit the helmets. With regard to the helmet itself, which is black, it seems convenient and useful, and has a good military appearance, worn without the cover. Among the subjects of Mr. Prior's former sketches were the " Christy Minstrels' Entertainment," which proved a grand success, owing to the good management of Lieutenant Lomax; and the " Church Parade," at which it was observable that sailors, soldiers, and women together attended Divine worship. The sergeants' and army sergeants' wives, and the wives of some of the private soldiers, had to go on the forecastle every morning, to be out of the way, at the hour when the troops were paraded on the poop-deck. Mr. Prior assures us that the arrangements made for their comfort on board the Nubian were perfect; the women travelled as second-class passengers, and the accommodation was as good as anyone could desire. The landing of the troops at East London, which is the subject of several Illustrations, seems to have been a rather troublesome operation. We gave a Sketch not long ago of the scene frequently witnessed in that inconvenient port, which is at the mouth of the Buffalo river, with a few miles of railway to King William's Town from Pamnure, opposite East London. There is a breakwater under construction, from the designs of Sir John Coode, at a cost of £200,000, with an embankment of the estuary, to improve the port of East London. As to its present condition Mr. Prior agrees with Mr. Anthony Trollope, from whose " South Africa," recently published, we quoted a description of the forbidding approach to that landingplace through a tremendous swell and surf. The surf-boats, manned by native crews, are hauled out, over the surf, by a rope which is anchored at sea. When they have got into po.ition, the Company's steam-tug takes them in tow, and places them alongside of the steam-ship. The luggage is then lowered into the hold of the surf-boat, and the passengers, men as well as ladies and children, suspended in the basket, are let down by means of a steam winch. They are put into the hold of the boat, and the hatches are battened down above them, as, in going over the bar, sea after sea will wash the deck, and it sometimes happens,that one or two of the boatmen are drowned. The boat is again brought to the anchored rope, and is hauled ashore, through the surf, by the men walking from the bows aft and pulling the rope, which is passed through grooves fore and aft, to run freely and draw the boat along. It is a very tedious job, taking about half an hour, the boat tossing and rolling furiously all the while, and the passengers are charged five shillings a head. Mr. Prior would much prefer landing by an ordinary native canoe, such as he has seen and used on the West Coast of Africa. Lovedale is the name of an institution for the education, jointly, of European and native African boys and girls, under the auspices of the Scottish Presbyterian Church Hissionary Society. It is situated not far from Fort Beaufort, in the uplands north of the Great Fish River, at an equal distance from Grahamstown and King William's Town, in the Eastern Province. The Wesleyan Missionary College of Healdtown is in the same district. Mr. Anthony Trollope describes Lovedale, which he visited; and it has lately been mentioned with commendation by Governor Sir Bartle Frere. The Rev. Dr. Stewart is the head of the college, but its actual management devolves on Mr. Buchanana; and there are eight European teachers, one of whom is Mr. Theal, author of a History of South Africa. The total number of scholars is nearly four hundred, of whom about seventy are European, chiefly dayscholars from the neighbouring town of Alice; but thirty European boys are at Lovedale as boarders. There are living on the premises three hundred boys altogether; but the native African boys, for whom only a charge of £6 a year is made, do not receive the same diet and lodging as the thirty English boarders, who pay at the rate of £40 a year. The payment likewise for day scholars is twice as much in the case of English boys and girls as in that of natives, the charges being respectively 30s. and £3 a year. The College receives a Colonial Government grant of £2000 a year, added to its income from school fees, and from the rent of an estate of 3000 acres, including a farm and a sheep run. The native boys work on the farm and in the garden, and learn the trades ot the carpenter, waggon-maker, blacksmith, printer, and bookbinder; they have a newspaper or magazine, the .Loredale 5News, published twice a month. The higher branchws of school teaching, classical, mathematical, and literary, tar more generally imparted to the Europeans, while the iad,,..c.Il teaching is for the African boys and girls ; but there is no restriction or exclusion. Mr. Trollope found the Kaffir girls particularly apt at singing hymns, and at needlework. The religious instruction of all the children is equally attended to. The latest news, by a Madeira telegram, is from Cape Town to the 19th inst. The Waterkloof district was cleared of the enemy, but there was continued severe fighting at Pile's Bush and Bailie's Grave. General Sir F. Thesiger, the new Commander-in-Chief, was personally directing operations at Pirie's Bush; Captain Shmaw was killed, and Captains Ella and Hart slightly wounded. The British forces number 5000, half regular troops and half volunteers. Our Special Artist has seen part of the fighting near Fort Jackson, and we shall get sketches of it from him. Sandilli, the chief of the Gaikas, has escaped into the Amatola mountain range. The most serious news, however, is that from the Trans-Vaal. The great chief or King of the Zulus, the warlike Secocoeni, has at last declared himself openly hostile, and is besieging two forts in the direction of Leydenburg. He can bring 40,000 or 50,000 men into the field, and is more formidable than Kreli and Sandilli and Macomo, and all the other Kaflirs of the Amaxosa race put together. Secocoeni's country, be it observed, is distant nearly 400 miles to the north from the scene of our late conflicts with the Galekas and Gaikas of the Kei territory.