HOW WE WERE LOOTED BY THE BOERS
(Type written by Sarah Richardson and found in her Family Bible)
On Nov 12th 1901 the Commandant of Vryburg gave us leave to go out and live at Kaalplaats, (about 2 miles from Vrytourg on the Kuruman road) but at our own risk. As there were wagons passing by the place daily and many coloured people going on foot. as well as others ploughing the land in the immediate vicinity, and others tending their flocks and herds, we were determined to go out, especially as we had to leave the house we were occupying, and there was no other available in the town. The Commandant warned us against taking too large a supply of provisions, or blankets etc. as he said they might tempt the Boers to visit us. So we left most of our groceries, blankets, and winter clothing stored in town. After several very busy days of packing, we left Vryburg on Nov. 27th, the children and our coloured servants going in the wagon, which carried all our heavy goods. Mr. R. and I followed in a spider, and we all arrived there soon after mid-day. Mr. R. was very busy getting our cooking stove put up, and the girls and I were busy making up the beds, and unpacking things that were wanted for meals etc. We had got 4 folding camp bedsteads, as our furniture from England had not yet arrived. The first night the wind got very high and our big dog "Tiger" which Frank had bought from one of the "Tommies", howled very often, so we did not get much sleep. Thursday the 28th was again a very busy day, and a very hot one, unpacking china and glass, and getting out things to make the place look more like a home. Mr. R. and Frank went to Vryburg in the morning for some things we needed. In the evening, we were all sitting on the verandah, looking at the stars. It was a beautiful night, the sky clear and cloudless, and we had a lesson in astronomy. We retired to bed about 10 p.m. The dog howled now and then, but I thought it was the cat teasing him. We had got off to sleep when Tiger awoke us by barking very furiously. He was a large boar hound, we heard the sound of some one moving outside the house. Even then I never thought of the Boers, but thought perhaps it was .some benighted travellers seeking shelter. There was a knocking at. the study door, and Mr. R. got up and went to see who it was. He saw a number of men on horse .back and came back to me and said, ‘My dear, I believe it is the Boers"• Then he opened the front door, and went out and I listened. I heard someone call out very loudly, "Hands up”, but could not hear what my husband said in reply. I wondered what they would do to him, and for a moment I felt as if my heart would stop beating, but then I was helped to be brave, and felt ready for anything. I hoped that if they shot my husband, they would come and shoot me, and in the right place. Then I turned with my face to the door, quite calm and composed. My husband said to them "Why should 1 put my hands up? I am here with my wife and 2 children come to do God's work and have nothing to do with the fighting.”. They covered him with their guns, and told him to go and get a light, as they must search the house. He came into the bedroom for a candle, and told me that he thought they would rob us of all our things. Before he lit the candle, he slipped his watch under the linoleum, and then went out. He purposely lit 2 candles, and put them in the stoop facing the town, because he thought the night watch in town and at the powder magazine would see them. We had been told by a sergeant to They turned out my work basket , took every reel of cotton, and every needle, also all my scissors, big and little, also my tonic medicine Quin-Phos. Two coloured tablecloths, one a Malagasy lamba, were on a chair back, those were taken, Aggle's little sewing mchine (a toy one) and her knitting bag with lots of wool, a satchel of mine which contained many very precious things to me viz. my little packet of photos of Malagasy friends, and a small pair of scissors shaped like a woodpecker, which had been my mother's and grandmother’s. All these put up shades at our windows on the town side, as the lights at night might make the guards in town think the Boers were about, and so confuse them. Then the Boers came into the house , first into the study, where my husband's clothes were, in portmanteau, hold-all, box and bag still unpacked. Unfortunately, he had taken all his clothing, and the leader of the party immediately put aside the portmanteau and hold-all as his special perquisites. They opened the American writing table, ransacking all the drawers, took from letters and papers, pipes, tobacco, hats, boots and shoes and coats which hung up, all went, they made a complete clearance. Some of the children's clothing was packed up with their father's, their mackintoshes, overcoats, and boots went too. – While this was going on, I slipped on my clothes in the darkness, and put my watch in my pocket. Sometimes a face or two peered in upon me, but I knew they could not see me, as well as I could see them, being in the dark. They trooped into our sitting room next, my husband was pleading with them, telling them they were robbing God, the leader -who spoke English well, and who looked quite a gentlemanly fellow, said “We must live". they took. Then they looked into the children's bedroom. Mr. R. said, "Surely you will not waken the children", they opened the lid of Frank's box, and saw a toy cannon, at which the youngest of the band, a lad not much bigger than Frank, smiled. Aggie slept through it all, and only woke up just as they were going away. Then they came into our bedroom, where I lay on the bed dressed, watching them. They did not come near me, but went up to where a few of my dresses hung, and examined them. One man, I specially noticed, he took up my pincushion, which had a bit of Malagasy lace on the top of it. The cushion was the gift of a friend (now dead) from a Xmas tree in the days long ago in Madagascar. I thought as I watched him "now are you going to take that?" He turned and looked at me, just as if he felt me looking at him, and put it down very quickly. They took a frock of Aggie's which was hanging up in our bedroom, broke open my bonnet box, took a box of Frank's new ties and handkerchiefs, and many other smaller things that were lying about the room. Then into the dining room they trooped, and made a famous haul, our box of provisions, tinned and bottled things were all taken, we had what would have lasted us a month probably. They took our table cloth, serviettes, cutlery, silver, (among them a pair of silver serviette rings, a gift from our children, on our silver wedding day, and many other silver wedding gifts). Then into the kitchen and pantry. My husband followed them wherever they went, and expostulated with them, but it was no good, although they were civil, and never said a bad word to us, nor touched us, yet they were most determined, and went about their plundering in a most business-like way. They took all our bread and biscuits everything eatable overturned our white flour in the pantry, and took woollen covering off my bread, which was set for baking the next day. We had two coloured girls with us sleeping in a little room off the kitchen and we were both fearful lest they should suffer harm. But they looked in on them, and they, and our man Pete who was sitting trembling in fear, were not touched. The Boers were not In the house more than half and hour. There were 25 of them, my husband counted them, and went out and looked at their horses, patting them as they stood ready for off. They were in very good condition, both horses and men, were well-fed and well-clad and most of them looked respectable. They took our mare which was very thin, we were going to fatten her up, she would have hard work to keep up with their strong horses poor thing. We found many things that they had taken, thrown away outside the house, our potatoes we found on the stoep too heavy for them to carry perhaps. Mr. R as soon as they were out of sight set off on his bicycle to the nearest blockhouse, which he reached in 6 minutes. For a long time he could not get inside their barbed wire fence, and then he had to be accompanied by a soldier to the jail, where there was telephonic communication with the town. They were ringing for a long time, before they got any reply, everyone in town seemed to be asleep, where the night look-outs were is hard to tell, we had flashed our lights about and torn down the shades in order to attract their attention, but no one saw them, I suppose, because no one came out to aid us in any way. Then daylight came, we looked round to see what there was left for breakfast, although we had not much appetite. I found a little oatmeal in a large tin, probably if it had been in a small tin it would have "been carried off, so we made a little porridge with the one kitchen spoon that was left us, and that and some cold potatoes warmed up as a cake, furnished us with as much as we needed. We sent Frank into town, to order wagons for our remaining goods, and Mr. R. after waiting in vain for anyone to come out from the commandant went in a little later to send a cable home about our misfortunes.
We were busy packing up the things that were left, and then there was a weary waiting until the wagons came. They did not appear until 3.50 p.m. and then they had to be loaded with all that could be put on them, and the spider was fastened on behind the wagon, and we returned to Vryburg. After unloading the goods and seeing them safely stored, it was just getting dark and we had to seek lodging at the Vryburg Hotel, as no other place was to be had, where we stayed for 10 days, and then came on to Cape Town. All the enamelled mugs plates etc. which we had provided for the students, as well as many of use in our kitchen, were eagerly sought after, and fought for among themselves by the Boers. They took all our good English straps, field glass, and. many other things. We were only 2000 yards from the powder magazine where a Maxim gun was mounted. An officer in the train told us that a Maxim was deadly at 4000 yards so we might have been protected but were not. It is alas another of the many ‘might have beens’. One man just before leaving our house came up to my husband and said, ”Here I want a pair of trousers". Mr.. R. said, “You have taken all I had, except these I have on and I am sure I am not going to give you these. " The man slunk off. Also one man had a travelling bag of mine in his hand and Mr. R. said, "This is my wife's, surely you don't want a lady’s bag", and the man let him take it from him and bring it to me in the bedroom. Many people say that we ought to be thankful that we escaped with our lives, and were never touched, because we were completely at their mercy, and many have suffered much more than we have done. My husband took out a waggon the week afterwards in order to bring in the school furniture which had been left behind. Although we were next door to the Commandant’s house, while at the hotel, he never called and never made any enquiries as to the extent of our loss. Of course we went out at our own risk, so cannot claim any compensation. But if we had been Boers left in such a plight, instead of English, the authorities would have sent out wagons for us at their expense, and would have had to provide us with food and lodgings. You see what it is to be only loyal English folk
