post this there. With all love. DICK.

Deal's Central Hotel, East London.

February 20th, 1900.

DEAR MOTHER:

We are stopping at every port now, as though the Scot were a ferry
boat. We came over the side to get here in baskets with a neat door in
the side and were bumped to the deck of the tender in all untenderness.
This is more like Africa than any place I have seen. The cactus and
palms abound and the Kaffirs wear brass anklets and bracelets. A man
at lunch at this hotel asked me if I was R. H. D. and said he was an
American who had got a commission in Brabants horse-- He gave me the
grandest sort of a segar and apparently on his representation the hotel
brought me two books to sign, marked "Autographs of Celebrities of the
Boer War." It seemed in my case at least to be premature and hopeful.

Good luck and God bless you. This will be the last letter you will get
for ten days or two weeks, as I am now going directly away from
steamers. This one reaches you by a spy gentleman who is to give it to
Rene Bull of The Graphic and who will post it in Cape Town-- He and all
the other correspondents are abandoning Buller for Roberts. Let 'em
all go. The fewer the better, I say. My luck will keep I hope. DICK.

Imperial Hotel,
Maritzburg, Natal.

Feb. 23rd, 1900.

DEAR MOTHER:--

I reached Durban yesterday. They paraded the band in my honour and
played Yankee Doodle indefinitely-- I had corrupted them by giving them
drinks to play the "Belle of New York" nightly. The English officers
thought Yankee Doodle was our national anthem and stood with their hats
off in a hurricane balancing on the deck of the tender on one foot--
The city of Durban is the best I have seen. It was as picturesque as
the Midway at the Fair-- There were Persians, Malay, Hindoo, Babu's
Kaffirs, Zulu's and soldiers and sailors. I went on board the Maine to
see the American doctors--one of them said he had met me on Walnut
Street, when he had nearly run me down with his ambulance from the
Penna Hospital. Lady Randolph took me over the ship and was very much
puzzled when all the hospital stewards called me by name and made
complimentary remarks. It impressed her so much apparently that she
and the American nurses I hadn't met on board came to see me off at the
station, which was very friendly. I have had a horrible day here and
got up against the British officer in uniform and on duty bent-- The
chief trouble was that no