Adventures in Swaziland - Owen Rowe O'Neil

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197 The stream that divides the royal from the common ground 204 Type of Afrikander cattle 205 Swazi women at home 205 On the way to the royal kraal at Zombode 256 The second trip into Swaziland 256 Mother feeding her baby 257 Maiden singing to the Crown Prince Sebuza 257 Dr. O'Neil and companions are received by Queen Tzaneen 282 Dr. O'Neil, Queen Tzaneen, Dr. Sugden, and Mr. Crespinell 282 Wives of the prime minister to Sebuza 283 Queen Tzaneen and Lochien 283 Princesses at the sacred bathing pool 304 A scene at the royal bathing pool 305 Interior of the royal kraal 320 Chief witch-doctor of Swaziland 320 A school of witch-doctors 321 A Swazi seminary or school for young witch-doctors 321 Crown Prince Sebuza in festival dress 336 Crown Prince Sebuza 337 Lochien, commander-in-chief of Prince Sebuza's impis 352 Warriors of Prince Sebuza's impis starting out to battle 352 One of the royal impis 353 Priests building the sacred fire 360 A view of the kraal 361 Mr. Crespinell at home among his black brethren 376 Dr. Sugden, Prince Lomwazi, and Dr. O'Neil 376 Dr. O'Neil, Mr. Crespinell, and Dr. Sugden after their induction into the royal impi 377

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      How the O'Neils came to the Transvaal—Boers with Irish names—Oom Paul's refusal to buy Delagoa Bay—The Boers break for freedom—Their bloody battles with the savage tribes—The Great Trek—Dingaanzulu's treachery—The Dingaan Day celebration.

      I was born only a few days trek, or march, from the Swazi border and even as a youth made numerous trips into Swaziland. Through my uncle, Oom Tuys Grobler, known as "The White King of Swaziland," I was practically adopted by the savage rulers of that country and have always been received with the greatest honor and consideration by the various members of its royal family. My family have always been interested in Swaziland and there was seldom a time when one of my ten brothers was not hunting or visiting there. As one of the O'Neils of Rietvlei, which means "The Valley of Reeds," any of us were welcome.

      It may seem strange that Boers should bear the name O'Neil, but this is not out of the ordinary in the Transvaal. There are many Boer families, most of them prominent in South Africa, who have Irish names. My father's first wife was a Madden and our homestead at Rietvlei is only about seven miles from the town of Belfast, which our family founded and named. The record is not clear how these Irish names are found among the Boers, but the fact that many Boers have Celtic names refutes the statement that most of the Irish who fought against the British in the Boer War were renegades from the United Kingdom.

      My father is Richard Charles O'Neil, known among our people as "Slim Gert," or "Slick Dick" as it would be Americanized, the title being a tribute to his astuteness and good business sense. He was for six years minister of finance in the cabinet of the late Oom Paul Kruger, who has come to be regarded as one of the really great South Africans, his fame being greater to-day than at the time of his death. Father split with Oom Paul over the Delagoa Bay question and resigned from his cabinet. At that time the Portuguese offered to sell Delagoa Bay to Oom Paul for twenty thousand pounds. This was shortly before the Boer War. Father strongly advocated the purchase, since it would give our people an outlet on the coast, the Bay being a fine harbor. Oom Paul, however, emphatically refused to buy.

      "It would only give our enemies, the English, a chance to attack us from the sea," he said, ending the cabinet conference. "Now they can't get to us through Portuguese territory."

      To-day Delagoa Bay could not be bought for twenty million pounds.

      My grandfather was John James O'Neil, a direct descendant of the O'Neil who fled from Ireland in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and it was he who chose Rietvlei as the family farm. When I say "farm," I use the term in the Boer sense, since Rietvlei includes more than 100,000 acres of the most fertile land in the Transvaal and is quite large even for South Africa, the country of vast distances.

      As one of the survivors of "The Great Trek," my grandfather

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