how the nigger does hate cleanliness! Evidently
this town was free in a real sense because well disciplined. We were
told that all the white people lived up on the hill that backed the
town and many kind invitations of hospitality were sent to us; so those
whose wills were stronger than the enervating hand of the
weather-master boarded the toy train and were carried up and up toward
the summit of the hills above the steam heat, where the air seemed to
be fanned from the very cooling-house of God. I had the pleasure of
being entertained by a French priest who had been on the western front
in the early days of the war, and he added to our knowledge more
first-hand stories of the bestial Huns' ravaging of convents and raping
of nuns. The bishop of this protectorate could not do enough for us,
and although we were not of his faith, he looked on us as children who
were very dear to the heart of God because of our sacrifices of blood
and flesh for the right.

We loaded ourselves down with curios, buying tiger-rugs, mats,
bead-necklaces, tom-toms, and assegais. We strung these chiefly round
our necks, as we had to have hands free to manipulate our crutches, and
some of us looked more like the "ol' clo' man" than smart army
officers. Of course "Bertie Gloom" had to suggest that we would have
to pay more duty on the "old junk" when we got it to Australia even
than the price that the dealers had already robbed us of.

At Durban the first thing we saw was a girl in white semaphoring like
mad from the rocks. As we spelled out that she was trying to tell us
that she was an Australian, we gave her three times three. Our
difficulty in reading her message was not through her bad signalling
but because of her speed. Doubt if we had a signaller on board so
quick! This was not the last of our indebtedness to her, for when we
got into the wharf she had a regiment of Kaffirs with sugar-bags full
of apples and oranges, and while we were still fifty yards from the
wharf she began throwing them through the port-holes and into the hands
of the men on deck. Not a half of one per cent fell short. She would
have made a dandy bomber, and was a dandy all round.

In fact, the people of Durban were the most hospitable and patriotic of
any people we had met. A delegation of citizens and ladies came down
to the boat to inform us that we were the guests of the city and that
everything was free to us. And later on we found them not to have