7b. 7th March 1934 - 27th December, 1934
MANKOYA
MARCH 7th 1934.
My dear Mummy,
I must send you just a line before I go off on another tour tomorrow. I shall probably be away about three weeks but I may get a chance of writing to you before I get back.
I really don’t think that I’ve got any news. I went out with the gun last night and surprised a spur-wing goose on a tree and slew it, which was a bit of luck. During the week we had an invasion by a mad dog which bit a messenger but was finally speared by another messenger and killed.
This house is surrounded by outcrops of ironstone so that it is difficult to arrange a golf course. However I have had a lot of it removed during the week by prisoners and it is a great improvement. Really one wonders what the other officials here have done as the place is still in a very rough state and no one would imagine that it had been occupied by white men for 20 years.
This house was made large one with the idea I believe that someday the Provincial Commissioner might live here and run not only Barotse land but also the Kasempa Province. I don’t suppose that that will happen now.
Much love to you all
your very loving
G.
NEW NORTHERN RHODESIAN
CAPITAL
The Times 16.3.34
A MEETING OF PROTEST
FROM OUR CORRESPOMDENT
BULAWAYO, MARCH 15
On the eve of the arrival of the new Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Sir Hubert Young, a public meeting at Livingstone protested against expenditure on the new capital, Lusaka, on the grounds that the revenue of the territory is inadequate to meet the interest and redemption charges, and that the capital expenditure will involve a heavy burden of taxation. The resolution was carried without dissent, Civil servants not voting.
Sir Ronald Storrs’s last act was to announce the decision to proceed with work on the new capital to the extent of £170,000. So Hubert Young will arrive at Livingstone on Tuesday.
MANKOYA
MARCH 22nd 1934.
My dear Mummy,
Here I am back again having had to cut short my tour when I got to the old mission station at Kaba Hill, as a murder was reported near the mission atLuampa and I had to hurry back and investigate. An old woman had been found with her throat cut and I have arrested a man in connection with it but think it most unlikely that I shall be able to get enough evidence on which he can be convicted, though it’s more than likely that he did it. On arriving back I find that there is a case of attempted murder waiting for me so I shall be very busy again. However I am expecting Curtis back any day now after his operation. When I was out on tour I stopped the mail on its way to Mankoya and took out all my letters and the was one from Curtis from Livingstone telling me that he was to go to Salisbury for his operation. There was also one from the P.C. telling me that he had had a wire from living stone asking him to send 45 carriers to meet Curtis at the Machili railhead on the 13th and that to save time he had sent to the D.C. Sesheke asking him to send the carriers. Unfortunately he did not know that Curtis had sent back all his kit to Mankoya from Machili. It was the 11th when I got the letter’s I gave my own bicycle to a messenger to take a letter to the P.C. asking him to wire Curtis at living stone and try and stop him there, until his things could arrive from Mankoya to Machili. I also sent a messenger to Mankoya to tell the clerk to get a few carriers and send them off at once with Curtis is bed, bedding, clothes for tour, food, etc. In due course the messenger returned from Mongu with a very curt note from the P.C. saying that Curtis was responsible for seeing that his things were at Machili to meet him, that there was no reason why they should have been sent back, and that he didn’t feel inclined to wire and stop Curtis as it would in effect give him another week’s leave and that he was presumably fit for work.
Personally I think that this is quite extraordinarily hard as even if Curtis did make a mistake in sending back the things, he hasn’t been out long and as he has only just come out of hospital presumably after his operation, I think it is most wicked to suggest that he should walk up from Machili to Mankoya (hundred and 50 miles about) in the reins with no tent, no bedding and only what food he has with him or can buy en route. However I’m making no comment to the P.C. and only hope that the carriers I sent off will reach him quickly. I shall quite likely get into a row myself as I sent a letter by bicycle messenger to Curtis at the Machile telling him I had asked the P.C. to wire him to wait till his things came. If he does wait I shall get it in the neck. Of course I never thought for a moment that the P.C. would refuse to wire.
I had fine weather for my tour and quite enjoyed it and got good duck shooting again. I will tell you more about it next week as I must stop now to go to the office and the mail goes this afternoon.
Much love
Your v loving
G.
1/– stamp on envelope for Fenella.
MANKOYA
March 29th 1934.
My dear Mummy,
I have just had a note from Curtis that he and Campbell will be here tomorrow.
I forget if I told you that I had met Sir Hubert Young the new governor at Mpika when he flew out last year to 9 ass land. We all thought that he was extraordinarily nice. I see that Rideal whom I relieved at LuwIngu when I first came out has just resigned from the service – I didn’t like him.
The murder case I have postponed till next week – it will be difficult to prove anything I expect.
Thank you so very much for the accession of books which continue to arrive but please don’t send any more just at present as I find that have got about 70 books still that I haven’t read, so they will last me several months I expect. I’ve been busy getting the pools of water near my house filled in by the prisoners. They were made originally when the house was built and have never been filled in. I had to have the very long grass cut down first and that disclosed about eight or nine holes full of stagnant water – a fine breeding place for mosquitoes. I had the water bailed out into channels and found underneath about 3 feet of most stinking mud which I had dug out and filled in the hole. There has already been a considerable diminution in the number of mosquitoes in my house. I always wear mosquito boots in the evening and it is now just as much a habit of shaving in the morning. When I was ill I wore flannel pyjamas which I’ve got here and also took the sheets off the bed and lay in blankets.
I’m still so delighted with the book plates you sent me and have stuck them in nearly all my books. They have now practically ran out so will you please send me a few more.
Daddy was amused at the name of the old woman in the Senanga district I saw on the way up, but ‘Morena’ is exactly the same as Bwana, and what all white people and all the very important Marozi indunas or chiefs are called.
The worst of this typewriter is that it makes my nails pare off in an uncomfortable way, but I expect to find it better for your eyes.
I have not been well just lately and mean to write to the doctor for a tonic as I still feel a bit run down.
I think it’s a very good idea your trip to the Mediterranean think that you will certainly have to come out to Cape Town next year and I will take a month’s local leave and come and stay with you there.
I got the Grand National splendidly on the wireless and very much hope that I may have drawn a ticket in the Irish sweep for which Cambell, Curtis and I had shares in a number of tickets.
It was rather a sell for I heard the Grand National splendidly but old Brough who has a loudspeaker had no success at all and even missed the result while I heard the record of the whole race and was thrilled. I was out on tour for the Sports and Boat Race and Brough missed the former but heard that Cambridge won the boat race.
There are public holidays from tomorrow to Monday inclusive so I shall have time to get up the new laws which come into force from April 1st. I think I told you that they are doing away with officers as J.P.’s and are dividing them into three classes of magistrates. I, as D.C., become a second-class magistrate and can try white men as well as natives and punish up to one year’s imprisonment. I may also have to take murder cases but these have to be referred to the judge first and he says who is to try them. I expect I shall find it a bit difficult at first, but as I am now the youngest and most junior D.C. in the country, that can’t be helped, and I haven’t the experience of the others.
I’m very pleased with the seeds you sent me which were just what I was wanting as I’m going to make a garden on the side of those waterholes I have filled in. I should like a lot more if you could order them for me. Coreopsis, Zinnias, Cosmos, Flox, etc. do well out here also any tropical plants of which Carter or Sutton might have seeds. There was a gardenia at Luwingu.
At the mission here atLuampa they have eucalyptus gums which do well, also you might be able to get good orange and tangerine seed. They say that if you plant an orange seed, it always comes up a lemon. There are limes here but that is almost all in the way of fruit trees. Some of those Jamaica quick-growing trees would be useful!!
Very much love to you all
Your v loving
G.
MANKOYA
April 4th 1934.
Recd May 4 1934
My dear Mummy,
Curtis and Cambell duly arrived back safely last week. Curtis was looking very well after his operation which she had had in Salisbury. Cambell had had a tent with him and they had to wait two days at Machili for the Sesheke carriers to arrive and then met the lot I had sent down with their belongings two days later, so they were lucky and didn’t have to sleep out with no tent.
The rains have practically stopped now and I went out with Curtis this evening to look at the plain 5 miles away where it was suggested that we should make an aerodrome. After Mpika I was dead against having one so far away from the Boma, so I was very glad to find that the plain was underwater, which means that the idea of having the aerodrome there will have to fall through. I shall now suggest that I make one just behind the office where the ground has been to some extent cleared. Being so close at hand the work will be very much easier to supervise.
I started to take the preliminary enquiry into this murder case today, sitting for the first time as a magistrate. I think I may perhaps find enough evidence to commit a man for trial for murder before the High Court. If I do it is possible though not likely that I might have to take the actual case of murder later.
I’m sending Curtis out on tour next week as he seems quite fit and it is now dry and no rain.
We got £80 in tax this month, which is the best since I was here, and in the three months of this year since I’ve been here we have collected £197 which is exactly the same as was collected in the four months before I arrived, so I’m feeling quite cheered up.
It is very nice to have Curtis and Cambell here again and we have had a lot of three-handed bridge battles. Old Cambell is delighted with the beautiful cards that you sent me – he goes on saying that he’s going to write to you one day, but I don’t know whether he will. I told him I thought you would like him to. He is enormously stout and very amusing, and drink sparsely. He insisted on taking photos of us the other day and of the house etc as he said he was sure our mothers would like to see them. I think I told you that his wife and two girls (13 and 9) are down in Choma, on the railway line and that he hadn’t been able to see them for over two years. He hasn’t a bean and his wife has a job at Choma as manager of the hotel. Curtis and I financed to some extent his journey down with Curtis and he was able to go to Choma while Curtis was having his operation and then, as he didn’t find a job, come back here with him. He has got one or two promises but I don’t know that he will get anything. Poor fellow, he is 56, so it’s difficult for him. He used to be one of the labour recruiters for Yule as Bredin was at Luwingu, and I don’t suppose he will ever get his own job back again. It makes a great difference having him here as he is most amusing, and a first class shot, and has been nearly all his life in Barotse land.
It was funny your sending me those chessmen, as the day before they arrived I had had a game against Jakeman at the mission, the first I had played since 1930. We had a terrific tussle which I eventually won, but I quite thought that he was going to beat me for most of the game. I shall now be able to have a game with him when he comes through here.
By the way, I rather suspect that the recent falling off both in quality and quantity of your letters is due to this bridge fiendish nurse of yours. Last month I only had two letters and this week a tiny letter of two pages. As the original family bridge fiend myself who gave you the infection, I think I’m being made to suffer for it.
At Easter Curtis and I went out shooting each evening and had great sport. On the first day he shot a duiker (small buck) with a shot gun and I got a black-breasted bustard which was very good eating. Next day our bag was nine guinea-fowl, three snipe, two francolin pheasants and a pigeon in two hours. My share of the bag was five guinea-fowl and to pheasants. On the third evening we neither of us fired a shot at all.
I am most delighted with the two little pictures and hope perhaps you will send me some more when you go again. I wish I could go with you. Have they got the Blue Boy there?
Much love to you all
your very loving
[unsigned]
40r—Q396 9 32 In reply please quote
No ______________
M O N G U
10th April 1934.
Dear Clay,
The news that Curtis is to be withdrawn from Mankoya and transferred to Kalabo will not I’m sure make very pleasant reading for you. A telegram from headquarters is the cause of this sudden change, and it seems that Thomas[1] is required to go on leave at once instead of as originally arranged in order that he may return to the Kasama province – presumably to relieve someone else and to avoid a shortage of staff in that direction. I’m informed by wire that proposed staff roster for this province will be sent me shortly and we shall then know the strength which it is intended to a lot to us; personally I doubt whether Mankoya will be a two-man station, so you will have to get along as best you can. Should you remain by yourself, and find at any time that the loneliness adversely affects you just drop me a line.
Green arrived yesterday from Balovale having completed 4 years or more. It will be a tour of 4 years and five months by the time he sails. He looks very well: you probably know that he is retiring.
The Williams go tour on Wednesday and I understand from Williams last evening that there is a good chance of them meeting Curtis on his way through.
Holland, Principal of the School, went off on Monday: he also is taking a pension and has been relieved by Cottrell.
Regards.
Yours sincerely
(signed) G. Stokes
[1] Now at Kalabo
MANKOYA
April 12th 1934.
Recd 11.5.34
My dear Mummy,
I expect you are back by now from your trip, and hope you had an ‘enjoyable time’. I expect as a matter-of-fact that you played contract most of the day and night. My luck is now right out, and last night I distinguished myself by revoking – not a thing to which I am prone.
Many thanks to Daddy for his kind thought in sending those medical supplies but I’m afraid the parcel is a bit of a white elephant as the government supplies these things free. The shop might have known that quinine is only taken in five grain tablets. I had to pay 8/10 in the way of customs for the parcel much to the amusements of Curtis and Cambell!!
I have been busy all week on this murder case and have come to the conclusion that I shall have to release the prisoner as there is not enough evidence to put him on his trial before the High Court. An awful blow occurred when the mail arrived last week, as I was ordered to release all prisoners who were in prison for less than three months to celebrate the presence of Prince George in the country. As I had just got about 50 of them and was getting good work done on the aerodrome it was a bitter pill, and I’m now trying to collect some more tax defaulters to take their place.
Curtis goes off on tour tomorrow and will be away till the end of the month at any rate.
One of my boys left this morning to return to Luwingu to get married and then come back here with his wife – he will have a long walk.
I hear that the new governor has now arrived in Livingstone.
Rather an amusing incident in court the other day. One of the witnesses for the prosecution asked if he could ask the witness [prisoner] a question. This I could not allow, but I removed the prisoner from the court and then turn to the interpreter, and asked him to ask the witness what it was he wanted to say to the prisoner about the ways of goats, which was what I thought that the interpreter had said he wished to talk about. However I had misheard what the man had said, which was’ the words of God’ and not the ways of goats. Laughter in court.
We had a wounded hartebeest close to the office this morning and Curtis sent his dog after it, but we don’t know yet if it has been caught.
I sent Curtis out to dig up the body [of the murdered woman], but he found that there were only bones left. During the time he was away, Campbell and I played the two-handed bridge you sent me and he was delighted with it, but said he found it harder than four-handed.
I haven’t heard yet when the P.C. means to visit us. The rains are just over I think and it will now get very cold. Apparently they get frosts here in May, so it must be even colder than it was at Luwingu and Mpika.
Much love.
G.
MANKOYA
April 19th 1934.
Recd May 18th
air saved 11 days on
Campbell’s letter of same date
My dear Mummy,
The expected blow has fallen and I have been ordered to send Curtis to Kalabo to be stationed there. This was not the result of any suggestion of mine, but simply due to the shortage of staff. Also as I’ve told you, Mankoya has nearly always been a one-man station. I shall therefore be alone here with the exception of Cambell who staying on with me until he gets a job, which he hopes will be in three or four months’ time. I enclose the very nice letter about it which I got from Stokes. To add to the blow I didn’t get any letter from you or Daddy, though I did get a nice wire the day after my birthday. I suppose the late paucity of letters from my fond parents is a result of having a father who is a beagling fan and a mother who is a bridge fiend….
Also my fond brother is hanging on like glue to those history parts of Churchill’s so that I have had only one in the past two months and have only had 10 parts altogether.
Another thing which has added to my recent discomfiture has been the discovery that one of the calves belonging to the Boma herd is sick and that the symptoms are suspiciously like those of Foot & Mouth disease. This will add a lot to my work I expect.
This morning however I had a real stroke of luck, for a native came in with two young cheaters about one month old. I bought them both for £1 and could have got them for 10/–. They are sweet things about the size of large cats now, and as they are very rare I shall probably make a lot out of them if they live. Cheaters are not dangerous like Lions or leopards, and in India are trained for hunting. These two are a male and a female from the same litter and though they spat and hissed at me, very soon took milk off my finger and from a salt spoon. Cambell is very thrilled as in 30 years he has only once seen them before, and he says that if they live they will be worth perhaps £200 each – though I don’t believe that. They are still whistling and calling for their mother a good deal but I expect they will get over that soon. Curtis is at present on tour, but Cambell and I got 4 guinea-fowl the other day and last night a partridge each.
The murder case still drags on, with every witness lying like – – – and saying that they cannot lie because they are Christians.
Now if I don’t get a nice fat letter from both of you next week, I shan’t write to you…
Much love to all
Your v loving
G.
P.O. Mongu
written – April.19.34 Barotseland
N.Rhodesia
Recd 29.5.34
not by air
Dear Mrs Clay,
in a spirit of bravado I told your son I should write to you. He has asked me several times if I have done so & I have had to reply “in the negative”. Soon I take my carriage & pen in hand & address you most respectfully, being fairly sure however that you will not be able to decipher most of my hieroglyphics.
I feel sure you will be glad to hear how extraordinarily kind he has been to me. I shall never be able to repay him. Had he been a relative he could not have been more thoughtful and generous. Mr Curtis, who is cadet here, has also been perfectly charming. I have lived in Barotse land for nearly 30 years & it is a great pleasure to me to see such good fellows taking the places of the “old hands”. Paparazzi has always been celebrated for the hospitality of the officials, but the tradition is more than worthily carried on by these boys.
I have been sitting in office with Gervas while he has been investigating a most perplexing case of the death of a woman who was found with her throat cut. I have been much impressed with the acuteness of his cross-examination of witnesses & general conduct enquiry. As I have acted as an assessor on more murder cases than I can remember, I think I am entitled to express an opinion. I can assure you that he will go far and he has the courage of his convictions.
We played two-handed bridge very frequently, as Mr Curtis is out on tour (the news here we play three-handed) but your young man is too good for me. I find two-handed more difficult than either three-handed or four-handed. Although one knows what cards the opponent has, it is impossible to know their distribution. Your boy brought a ripping little Chita (Cheetah) kitten today. He is much pleased. They are charming little things about the size of four months old kitten. Thick grey fur from head to tail & darkly spotted underparts. They “spit” like a cat, make a “churring” noise exactly like a monkey, & most peculiar loud “chirp” like a bird. They do not attempt to bite or scratch & our most fascinating things. They would not drink milk but sucked it out of a salt spoon! The boy who brought them said they had eaten raw meat, so I think they will live all right. Gervas is quite fit & very energetic. We go out most evenings with a gun. We got a brace of guinea-fowl apiece a few nights ago & a brace of red-wing partridges last p.m. so we are pretty well in the food line.
Mr Curtis has been ordered to Kalabo, to our sorrow, but we have discovered what looks like a case of foot & mouth disease in a calf in the government’s herd here. This may prevent Curtis travelling with a long string of carriers as there must be considerable danger of spreading the disease. Anyway we both hope it will stop him. We are a very happy family. A messenger has gone into Mongu to the Provincial Commissioner to report the matter. I expect a Vet or Stock Inspector will come over shortly.
I hope you & Mr Clay & your younger son are very fit & well! I must thank you again for your good son.
& am
very sincerely yours
Soane Cambell
MANKOYA
By Air
April 26th 1934.
Recd May 25
My dear Mummy,
2 nice letters from you this week so I suppose one of them had missed the post the week before. I expect you are both of you back from your trip, and hope you are feeling much rejuvenated. There is little news here this week. The ill calf died and I have had its tongue preserved in spirits for the vets to see – also its feet and hide. I have heard nothing yet about it from the P.C. and so don’t know if Curtis is to go off or not. For the present I’m keeping him here until I hear from the P.C. which I expect to do any day.
I hear there are six lines on the prowl, so perhaps they will pay a visit here.
We go out shooting each night and usually get something, but have not found the guinea-fowl lately. Tonight we are all going off in different directions, with a 1/– sweep on who gets the best bag. Cambell and Curtis both know the country better than I do, but one of my boys whom I acquired locally thinks he knows of guinea-fowl so I’m keeping it quiet and going off there. Curtis swears he’s going to get a good bag, but Campbell says he’s going to send his boy out while he has a sleep.[1] I should not be surprised if none of us see a thing. I must stop as the mail is just off. No news.
Much love to you all.
Your v loving
G.
[1] This letter was typed, but from this point on is hand-written by Gerard ! It would have been on a new page, so I guess Gerard didn’t want to keep that whole sheet just for a few words.
MANKOYA
May 3rd 1934.
Recd June 1st
My dear Mummy,
I have just sent a cable to Mongu to be sent to you asking for £70 to be sent to the standard bank to my account. Getting up the car and also buying a lot of stores in Livingstone for coming up here has run me right out of cash, and to be on the safe side I want this £70 to be sent out. I saw the manager of the bank in Livingstone and asked him if I could overdraw up to £50 and he agreed. So far I have not done so, but now I shall have to – – in fact for more than that in order to settle about my car at such a and I’d don’t at all want a cheque returned R.D.I hope probably I had £70 in the bank at Burton. In any case, I shall probably be able to send money home before the end of the year but just present I’m broke and don’t like to risk being right out of cash.
Curtis has gone and a lot of cases have arrived. I sent for a native detective to be sent out to investigate the murder case and he has found the knife which is a great piece of luck and I may now be able to commit the man who is suspected for trial before the High Court on a charge of murder.
The foot and mouth scare has fizzled out as the calf is dead and no others have gone sick so the vet says it can’t be foot and mouth.
The two cheaters are doing very well. I have fixed up a place for them on my veranda which is enclosed by mosquito netting, and they seem happy and are doing well, though they aren’t very tame yet although they come and eat from the dish which I am holding. I suppose I can’t expect more as yet. Thomas is asked me to take over his two puppies when he goes on leave so I am expecting them to turn up any day now. They are an attractive breed of mongrels which a man out here has evolved – big dogs with boar hound, Alsatian (?), Bull terrier and mastiff blood. Many people have got them and Curtis had one. They are very good bringing buck to Bay and would I expect they aligned. I think they are about eight months old but don’t know than sexes yet. I saw one of them in Mongu and it took a great fancy to me…
Gilbert the doctor at Mongu writes that he is very unlikely to be able to come out here until he can fly out. The aerodrome is now turning out very well, and as I have now got over 80 convicts the work is getting on very fast indeed. I’m longing to get out on tour again but these cases and the monthly returns are delaying me a lot and I don’t know when I shall be able to get away. I can hardly believe that it’s a year since I arrived home on leave. The time seems to be going very fast indeed especially now that I am in charge and have a lot to do and think about.
So far I haven’t made any progress at all with the new language but I haven’t had a chance to have a real go at it yet.
Very much love to you all
Your v loving
G.
WESTMINSTER BANK LIMITED
Telephone: Burton 3217 Burton-on-Trent
Please address reply to
THE MANAGER 9th May 1934.
Gerard A. Clay Esq.,
Weston House,
Albrey,
Surrey.
Dear Sir,
in accordance with your telephone request we have this day cabled the sum of £70. (seventy pounds) for the credit of Mr. G. C. R. Clay at Standard Bank, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia.
Yours faithfully
(signed) H.J.Brooks.
Manager.
MANKOYA
MAY 17th 1934.
Recd by air. June 15.1934
My dear Mummy,
I am almost more frantically busy this week than I was last, so this will be short. The car arrived the other day, but to my disgust and horror they had taken out the engine completely and though I have managed to put it back successfully I cannot get the wires all back in the proper places, without a book of instructions and they haven’t sent anything at all to tell me how to put it together again…
The enclosed photos will probably amuse you.
One of my prisoners died the other day in gaol and I have got four or five more ill so I am afraid there must be an epidemic of flu perhaps. A very big witchcraft case is now turned up and I have still not finished with the murder case, so I shan’t get out on tour again this month – rotten. However have now cleared things fairly well except for these cases, so may get out for most of June.
Much love to you all
Your v loving
(signed) Gervas Clay
MANKOYA
May 24th 1934.
Recd by air, June 22,1934
My dear Mummy,
Today is Victoria Day and the public holiday, so I shall be able to write you a decent letter at last. I’m not at all sure you deserve one but I expect packing up for your cruise and that wretched up: you had, are the reasons why I haven’t had many or long letters from you and Eddie lately.
I told you last week in a very short letter that the Aust in seven had arrived, and that I was horrified to find that they had taken out the whole of the engine in Livingstone, and had not sent any instructions for putting it back again and had only tied on labels to a few of the wires and connections such as ’ to top of coil’, and of course I haven’t got this faintest idea which the various units referred to are. However I got down to it with my boys (Cambell knows nothing of cars) and we managed to get the engine back in again with great difficulty. Then I found something was wrong and had to take it out again and then replace it. Then we began to find the right places for the various wires and’s connections and had done most of them when I suddenly discovered that they had removed the driving shaft (?) Under the car which connects onto the gearbox, so all the connections had to be undone again and the whole engine removed and put back once more with the shaft fixed in the proper place. Having last fix everything I could find an down, I discovered the following difficulties : –
- the accelerator pedal when pushed down remained down, and did not come up gradually as you took your foot off.
- The brakes would not work and seem to be hopelessly jammed.
- The starter was not where it was on my old 10, and though the Austin booklet talked about pressing the starting button that didn’t seem to be any button to press.
- How the horn was fixed on, also the radiator.
- Many of the screws for fixing the bonnet on had disappeared.
- Screws and bolts for fixing the exhaust onto the engine had disappeared except one, and the washer.
- I didn’t see where the wire to the speedometer was fixed to the steering gear or wheels.
- The accelerator is connection to the carburettor presented difficulties.
Last Sunday and Whit Monday I had a real wrestle with the car. I found out what was wrong with the accelerator pedal and fixed it properly, also I fix the horn and radiator and bonnet. I also got over the difficulties of 7 and 8above.
I then put in the accumulator and made all the connections.
I switched on the lights and to my great joy that once went on. The hooter was also in working order (a triumph, this) and also the wind screen wiper. I then wanted to see if the ignition was all right and if I could start the car, went to my horror I discovered that the car could not be started without an ignition key and that is was missing – I imagine those fools in Livingstone have forgotten to send it. So I am now helpless until I can get the key, though I should think it’s exceedingly doubtful if I shall get it to go even then. However I have really been so amazingly successful so far but I feel almost optimistic that I might get it to go with a bit of luck if I can get any decent instructions if I can get hold of the key and all the nuts bolts and washers which are at present missing.
I’m really hoping that when I have got the aerodrome in order here some pilot will arrive and will be willing to help me get the car to go.
The aerodrome is really turning out very well indeed and though I shall have a bit of a job stumping the whole area which has to be done very carefully, I have now got all the trees cut down and removed and can see what the grant looks like. The area is a bit on a slope but I don’t think that matters and the bottom edge is almost flat from end to end. I’m having to remove and rebuild in another place the cattle kraal and also all the messengers ‘Joneses’ [1] which is a bit of a job, but that is almost finished.
All the tree stumps have got to be dug out and filled in with rock and gravel and stamp down firm. That can be done when I’m on tour next month and then when I return the stump holes can be filled in under my eye. I am most anxious to get a successful aerodrome as soon as possible as then I shall be able to fly over to the railway line and take some local leave their later on if I am lucky. Also I imagine the males may be taken by air and the doctor could get here very quickly if he was wanted.
My two little cheaters are doing very well indeed though they aren’t a bit friendly yet. However they do always come when I appear with their food and I’m able to handle them a bit now. Whether I shall ever be able to train them to bring down game for me like they do in India I don’t know. I expect it will take a long time at all events.
The murder enquiry is over and I have committed the accused man for trial before the High Court. I am now in the middle of a big witchcraft case, in which it looks as if some of the men who are accused will get several years imprisonment if they are found guilty which seems likely. It’s quite an interesting case.
After that when I have got off the monthly returns for May I hope to get out on tour again and remain out for the whole of June. My idea is to go up to the Lalafute (eastern border) to theDongwe and some way along that and then down to theLuampa and done that to the Mongu-Makoya mail route and then back to the Boma. That will mean going right through the big Northern uninhabited area, which ought to be very interesting. Campbell will go with me. I was very glad to get a wire from Daddy and to hear that the £70 had been cabled to Livingstone – I was feeling very hard up.
Thank you very much for the various seeds which I shall have planted and which should do very well here. It is now winter here and very cold in the mornings and evenings, but there is no rain and the weather is really lovely. I got a beautiful photo of Reddy the other day from Ardie[2] taken by Fenella[3].
I expect I shall hear soon that you have gone off on your trip.
I don’t think I ever told you about a queer performance which was done for my benefit when I was last on tour. A man put up two poles about 30 feet high, with a piece of rope between them. He then togged himself up in various clothes and a wooden mask and rattles on his legs. His pals chanted and sang and he then climbed up the pole and went out on the rope and hung there kicking with the rope under his armpits. He did various evolutions and then came down, head first, the other pole. I asked the messenger what I was expected to give him for it (having thought it very feeble indeed) and was told 1/– all 2/–, and I gave him 2/6.
Instead of being grateful he said that he was always given 10/– in Mongu when he did it there. To which I replied that the sooner he went to Mongu and did it and got 10/– and paid his tax the better.
I hear they have made a man called Dundas chief secretary, but I know nothing about him. Heggs, who came out with me, is now D.C. Senanga. Peacock has gone to Broken Hill, but not as D.C.
I hope you put a little money on Colombo for me for the Derby. I wonder if you remembered that it was the horse I tipped just after last year’s Derby to win this year.[i]
I have heard from who is at Howe who is at Sesheke. He was for many years at Luwingu before I went there and I like him very much. We are going to try and meet on tour later on. He sent me parts of his tour reports and I was very pleased to see that he had been even more outspoken than I had been and to almost exactly the same effect.
Much love to you all,
Your v loving
G.
[1] latrines
[2] his aunt, his mother's sister
[3] her daughter
[i] https://singhiv.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/the-derby-1934/
An estimated half a million people began descending on the Epsom Downs right since daybreak on 6th June 1934. Around noon dark clouds drifted in and a sharp shower broke the three-week-long dry spell. Just at this time the royal cavalcade drove in led by the Rolls-Royce of King George V and Queen Mary; and followed by those carrying the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, parents of the present Queen Elizabeth II; other members of the family and the King of Greece. The Prince of Wales, who succeeded as King Edward VIII but abdicated soon, joined them a little later.
There was a huge buzz around the race as usual, but more so for the prophesy of Gipsy Lee, made as far back 1868, that a horse with a ‘W’ in its name would win in 1934. There were also a number of uncanny coincidences around the number 13, which particularly fancied the ladies, who backed Windsor Lad.
They were off five minutes after the scheduled 3 o’clock start, and Donoghue on Medieval Knight set a fast pace along the rails, with Colombo right behind. But reaching the top of the hill, the leader cracked and Colombo was baulked. Seizing the opportunity, Tiberius slipped by the side of the rails, pursued closely by Easton and Windsor Lad, down the hill towards the iconic Tattenham Corner.
Just after taking the big bend to the left, Tiberius began to fade and was passed. The dashing Charlie Smirke – returning after a ban of five years – soon breezed Windsor Lad past Easton. Meanwhile Colombo recovered and made a great run on the outside in the centre of the course. The crowd thought that the hitherto invincible favourite would carry the day yet again, and began yelling “Colombo wins”. In the final furlong the three horses were bunched closely together. At this moment Colombo’s stamina failed him even as Windsor Lad surged to the post, equalling the record of 2 minutes 34 seconds set up by Hyperion the previous year.
The jubilant 44-year-old Maharaja was already a popular figure on the English racecourses and had been affectionately nicknamed ‘Pip’ by friends and the public alike. Now the multitude roared “Good old Pip” as he led his victorious colt back to the unsaddling area. Soon the King invited Maharaja Vijaysinhji to the royal box, high up above the finishing post, and raised a toast to this exhilarating win.
MANKOYA
June 5h 1934.
by air.
Recd , July 6, 1934
My dear Mummy,
No letter from you or Daddy for two weeks, so you must be off on your cruise. I heard today from Ralph who says that your eyes were bad, and that you were all rather sick. What a pity.
I’m just off on tour tomorrow, or at least I hope so. I am rather afraid that a murder may turn up at any moment and stop me and I’m longing to get out. I should get some really good shooting to with any luck.
I don’t think there’s any news here. We have been out of an evening and I got three guineafowl one night which was luck.
Please tell Ralph that I am most grateful for his papers, and that he will get a letter from me soon if he’s lucky. Also that I’m most delighted to hear that he has got a rise in salary – though he still got a long way to go to catch me up… Will he get anything out of these patents, as far as I can remember Melsom did? I have been doing overtime all this week trying to get everything finished so that I could go off on tour and I haven’t had a moment even to look at the car for weeks.
I must stop as I’m still very busy,
your very loving
G.
MANKOYA
July 4th 1934.
Recd , Aug 3, 1934
My dear Daddy,
Very many thanks indeed for the many seeds which have arrived recently, and also Mummy for the plane tree seeds and oranges, rate fruits, and loquats. I shall not plant any of them for about another month or so, as it is now winter time here and bitterly cold the first few hours in the mornings and also at night. On tour was very curious how the cold was different at different places, sometimes it was so cold I used to wake at 5 a.m. with the cold and failed to get to sleep again. All the time I was out I wore a thin sweater next to the skin day and night and a big white sweater all day, except when out shooting.
We had a very good tour and I really enjoyed myself very much indeed. Being on my own, I did not have to hurry as I have always had to do before, so we went at a leisurely pace, and as we were out for over three weeks, we covered a good deal of country. We left – that is Cambell and I – on the 7th of June and I got back in the afternoon of the 30th. Our route which you will be able to find I expect on your map, was as follows – from Mankoya to the Namaloa stream and then across to the Lalafuta. Up the Lalafuta which was quite dry, to its junction with the Dongwe. (Should really be down not up, I suppose). Along the Dongwe to Tulishyas village. Thence inland down the Nkulashi stream, also dry except for waterholes, across uninhabited country for four days to the Luena, past Mayukwayukwa rapids and along the Luampa to Sikalenge village on the Mongu-Mankoya mail route, and thence to Mankoya. We got some shooting, and I shot well with the shot gun but badly with the rifle at first, though I improved later. My total bag was eight guineafowl, seven spur-wing geese, three puka, two reedbuck, and an Oribi.
I had rather fun with the spur-wing which I found in a flock of about 31 small pond. I crept up and fired both barrels of number four at them sitting (tut-tot), and got five. The rest flew off and then circled round over Campbell, who missed them and came back over me again. I took the first two as they came over quite high up and got a very pretty right and left, much to my joy. I was also very successful with the guineafowl, especially as we did not have the dogs with us owing to fly.
First time I went out with a rifle I came on reedbuck, started at two big arrange, wounded one, followed the blood spoor till it was late, turned for home and ran into three hartebeeste which I was less certain about. When I got here the place where we had left the spoor of the reedbuck, the Guide saw a lion slinking off, and we never found the reedbuck which no doubt had been eaten by the line. I did not see the line myself, but it was not far off. The messengers found blood spoor of the hartebeeste but lost it.
Later on up on the Dongwe, we ran into three Puku. Cambell got one and I bowled over the ram, head over heels, but he got up and went off, and though I followed him for hours I never got in, but I don’t think he was badly hurt. Next day I got a puku ewe with a good shot through the heart and felt cheered up. Later on I crossed the Dongwe into the Kasempa district and saw a big heard of puku. I began to stalk them when a big bush buck ram ran right across me. I had a shot at the puku – rather a long one and missed, and then by sheer luck half the herd came right towards me and stood behind an ant heap. I ran up and a ewe came out about 15 yards away and trotted past me, and I shot her running like a rabbit. The herd went off and I went on. In the distance I saw a puku ram standing but he was very cunning and went off. I followed and he stood again a long way off and again fled when I tried to approach him. I went on again and again saw him this time much closer, and shot him first time. He was a very nice ram, with very pretty horns. Campbell said it was the best puku head he had ever seen and that the head was a beautiful one. My cook skinned the head for me, and when the foot-and-mouth regulations permit I will send it home and you will be able to put him on the other side of old boy to match the lechwe. The head is rather like a lechwe, though the horns are not so long and both of them are water buck.
Must stop now as I am most busy
your v loving
G.
MANKOYA
July 11th 1934.
Recd , Aug 21, not by air
My dear Mummy,
I was so glad to get such good news of Ralph and to hear that Daddy had had such a good report from the London doctor.
I was also most interested to hear about Patrick’s engagement and want to hear what the lady is like, but I’m sure you were telling me for details when you see her. I have had such a nice lot of fact letters lately, so (perhaps you haven’t had much bridge). And I was so interested in all your news.
I am as usual exceedingly busy and hardly know where to turn. As soon as I got back I was faced with two more from the side cases, one of which I have already done, in which two ladies gave another cough here from the effects of which she very shortly afterwards died. I have dismissed the case against them however, as I don’t for a moment believe they intended in Blantyre, and also there is no evidence to show that they gave her the medicine except that they say so themselves. It is possible that I should be told to take a case against them for manslaughter, but I hope not. The other cases that of a boy of about 12 shot and killed a boy of 18 also by mistake when shooting small buck with a bow and arrow. This I expect will also not come to a case, but I have got to take an inquest of course.
The aerodrome is going on very well indeed and I hope will be in good order when the P.C. comes here, which he says he means to do next month about 26. I have had a very nice copy of a letter from the Commissioner of aerodromes to the P.C. saying that he wishes to thank the district Commissioner Mankoya for the interests he is taking in the aerodrome and he hopes the D.C. Balovale will also use prison labour to the same effect. I’m hoping to impress the P.C. with the progress made.
The head of the sanitary department wrote a report on a number of Bomas he had seen from the sun sanitary point of view and said that the native staffs were very badly housed etc. I have had to write and say what parts of the report I consider apply to this station and what I can do to act upon his recommendations with prison labour and without spending any money. I have written to say that when the aerodrome is finished I propose to build an entirely new messengers village, with new sanitary arrangements, an incinerator, a hospital hut, a school and a building for a market and that the expense of all these will be nil… Rather an ambitious programme and I shall have to do a deal of planning to get the new’ village’ to look nice. I have also said that I propose to enclose and protect the springs which form the water supply. What I have not said and intend to do is to make the messengers and other members of the native staff here (mailmen, warders, etc.) design their own buildings with my help and suggestions, as I think my doing that they will be much more enthusiastic. The idea of course is to make a model village which all natives visiting the Boma will see, and, one hopes, copy. Each man is to have his own three roomed house with plot of ground attached, and I shall encourage them to plant trees, fruit trees, etc. round their houses. It will be a very big job but I mean to have a shot at it if I can, and hope to have something showing by the time the new governor turns up here which I expect he will do by air. If he does not turn up till next year in the dry season, I should be able to have quite a lot to show him. I do not anticipate that I shall be moved from Mankoya and if I am asked if I want to be shall say no, as when the aerodrome is finished I should be able to get some nice jaunts by add down to civilisation now and then, and I would rather put up a good show on my own than be moved elsewhere just when things are beginning to be done in my way here.
I hope to go off on tour on Sunday or Monday next and shall go to Sikelenge and up the Luampa to the mission, thence across to the Mulwa and other streams near it and then back to the Luampa at Siwaliondo and then to the mission again and then back here. About two weeks I expect. It really depends how I get on tomorrow. I have been in the office till dark nearly every day since I got back and had to work over to holidays as there was such an accumulation of work and I wanted to get out on tour again as soon as possible. I had great fun on my last tour and hope this one will also be a good one and that I shall get some shooting. I might get a red lechwe as they are supposed to be common.
Very much love to all
Your v loving
G.
Hil / 101 / 579
13th July, 1934.
The Provincial Commissioner,
MONGU
----------------------------------------------
REX versus KAPUNGA : MURDER.
---------------------------------
Reference your Minutes Nos. 607 / 4: T/ 34 of the 6th June, 1934, and 662 / 4: T / 34 of the 15th June, 1934, respectively. After anxious consideration I have decided to enter a Nolle Prosequi in this case. Mr clay is to be congratulated on the very careful way in which he has endeavoured to extract truthful evidence from, in many cases, palpably untruthful witnesses, and my decision in no way reflects on his conduct of the proceedings. A great deal of the evidence is inadmissible (which is most difficult to avoid in this class of case) and the effect of it as a whole as far as my own mind is concerned, is to leave me in a state of some doubt as to Kapunga’s guilt; and I feel that no court would come to any other conclusion than that there was reasonable doubt in the case.
2. Kapunga, in fact, was at one stage of the proceedings quite properly discharged for lack of evidence against him, and, while the subsequent re-opening of the proceedings elicited some further facts, the evidence still seems to me to fall short of that required before a man can properly be put upon his trial for so grave a charge as Murder.
ALEX ROSE
CROWN COUNSEL.
Copy to District Commissioner,
Mankoya.
P.O. Mongu
Barotseland
N.Rhodesia
5 / 8 / 34.
Dear Mrs Clay,
Your boy thinks you might like another waffle from the. So, apologising, I presume to bore you once more. First, please let me thank you for your kind & interesting letter of June 3rd which I received while we were out on tour, from which we returned on 3rd Aug. I have all the tree & fruit seeds etc. planted in the garden with a view to planting out later on. It will be interesting to see if Laburnum grows. I have not yet seen it in this country.
Master Gervas is in very good form. He has the best native boy I have ever struck as Cook and General Foreman of Works. This old chap (I suppose he is really not more than about 35) apart from being an excellent cook, is a splendid example (very rare, I am sorry to say) of the “Friend of the White Man”. I must say I envy Gervas. Musonda (said Cook) looks after him amazingly well. Should Gervas be out after sundown, away goes master cook with lamp, coat, etc. to look for him. Never delegating this duty to an underling, mark you. Most unusual. Well. A good “boy” is “a Perl above price” & he is lucky to have one. We are both very fit, tho’ we had some pretty awful walking, most of the tour being through sandy country. However, this does not often happen in this district & one can usually bike part of the way at any rate. There were plenty of villages to attend to & we did not see much game. I only got a couple of small buck, but Gervas got a warthog boar & a Roan bull, also small buck or two. No doubt he will tell you about them & the dog’s (Penguin) behaviour in “trailing them up”. I saw 3 Lions one afternoon, one a particularly fine specimen. They were a long way off & I did not, needless to relate, fire on them. We enjoyed the tour, but I’m afraid he can’t get out again for some time as some new estimates etc. have appeared which have to be attended to & of course there is always the accumulation of work caused by absence from the station.
Gervas is as hard as nails & very fit. After a long “track” he would buzz off to look for game, while I curled up & felt sorry for my feet as a rule. He will perhaps tell you how nice cold boiled warthog leg is. One of our favourite dishes is Oribi liver, kidneys & bacon. I’m sure you and Mr Clay would appreciate some of our feeds. Fried pheasant & guineafowl breast is not to be despised either, I can assure you.
The aerodrome is beginning to look fine. It’s a pity you can’t fly along and see us. This is a lovely place & the nicest camp in Barotse in my opinion. The weather is simply perfect now & I’m sure it would do you & Mr Clay all the good in the world to take a run out here. I really do not think there is much danger of malaria so long as one takes five grains of the good old quinine daily. There are hardly any mosquitoes here & a most posh house. You would love the place. Most fascinating country. Mr clay would not miss his beagles as he could run like anything after Pongo & Penguin & if he could keep them in sight – well –! The garden is full of beans, tomatoes, etc. & we have actually had a couple of small cauliflowers (Yum Yum!) They are very hard to grow & about 1 – 100 comes up & “Collies”. There are dozens of pawpaws & they are excellent. Cape gooseberry is grow like weeds. Any amount of lemons and limes & a few small oranges. The granite dealers don’t seem to do too well, though we get a few. There are some mango trees but they don’t bear yet. We neither of us had a ticket on the Derby, & a good job too, for no-one won anything in this country. I hear Mr Clay’s sharp eye picked Winston Lad. What a day the bookies had!
The Chitas are well but still very nervous. The little mail will come & be stroked if one sits down, but the female sits a yard away & spit suspiciously. They are fascinating little things but it seems incredible that they attain such a size when full grown.
Yes we have terrific contests at bridge & after months of playing I think I am about 69 points to the good. At one time he was nearly 5000 points up & then I had a go & went up to about 4000. Two-handed is a marvellous game & we are both quite keen, tho’ of course we would prefer four-handed
the motorcar turned up all right but it is not going yet. He worked awfully hard on it & when he had pieced it together, found the “key” was missing! However no doubt it will “go” someday. I’m sorry to say I know nothing about motors & am one of the few people living who cannot drive one! As a matter-of-fact I have spent most of my life in Barotse & have been as much as seven or eight years without seeing a railway even, so have not had much chance of learning to drive a car.
I hope you & Mr Clay & your son are all well. Kind regards to you all.
Sincerely yours
(signed) Soane Cambell
J.S.Cambell
MANKOYA
AUGUST 8th 1934.
Recd , Hunstanton Sept 8
My dear Mummy,
I am afraid that you must have felt rather neglected for the last few weeks, but you knew that I was on tour. Just as I was on my way back last week, I got the mail and with it the forms for the estimates of revenue and expenditure for next year. I also got a note from Stokes to say that he would not be able to come here during the month as he would be too busy with the estimates. This is very disappointing, but we shall have a visitor before the end of the month as Cotterell the education man at Mongu is coming out and I hope will stay a few days.
We had quite a good tour, and stopped for two days at one place where there was good shooting and I had a real’ Red Letter Day’.
I think you know that Cambell gave me one of his mongrel terrier is called Penguin – is about the size of a fox terrier and not unlike one, you probably saw him in one of the photos I sent you. Well, on this particular day I went off early in the morning with Penguin and some carriers. I had not gone from the camp very far when one of the carriers saw something in the distance. I did stalk and came round an anthill to find a warthog on the other side. I had a shot and broke one of its hind legs – he was head on and not an easy target. The warthog went off at great speed and was soon lost to sight in the long grass. I then loosed Penguin and put him on to the spore myself and he dashed off at a great pace and was soon out of sight. We then found the blood spoor and began to follow it when we heard Penguin barking furiously in the bush behind us. We all ran towards the sound as hard as we could after some time I saw the warthog with Penguin harrying it. The warthog kept on trying to run off and Penguin then attacked his tail. Then the warthog turned and charged Penguin had to clear off as hard as we could. I had a shot gun with buckshot but was afraid to use it as they were so close together. When the warthog saw that there were people after him as well he went off again at a great pace and was soon out of sight again. I was completely done by this time and could only walk and trot interns in pursuit, but some of the natives went on ahead. At last the warthog went to ground, and I was able to get up to the hunt again. Warthog always goes into its whole tale first as you may know – it never makes a whole but takes over an ant bear hole. The result is that it is facing the entrance and can charge out at a great pace if molested in its whole. I therefore approached from the rear and with memories of digging out of Fox, got some of the natives to get some large pieces of wood and block up the entrance. When they had done this we began to dig and when we had made a small hole through I gave him an answer shot and then finished him off. We then went back to the camp with the corpse. Cambell had gone off and I heard him shoot in the distance. I had accomplished tea and then felt ready for another try as we wanted to meet rather badly.
This time I was also lucky fairly quickly and saw a herd of roan antelope feeding on the far side of the plane. I was able to stalk almost straight across to them behind a series of anthills, and get a nice steady shot. I ought really to have got to, but my first shot was again too far back and though my second shot also got him he went off into the edge of the bush. I again loosed Penguin and he again went off after the buck but he found it too big for him wisely circled round at a safe distance. I was able to get fairly close and finish it off. It was a young bull, with very poor horns.
Back to the camp I went and had lunch and arrest, and found that Cambell had got a right and a left at pheasants. Then in the evening I went off again, and soon found a steynbuck feeding out in the open. They are quite small, so I took the shot gun and went up behind a small bush. Once more I was too far back and the back went off obviously wounded. I again slipped Penguin and put him on the spore but he over-ran it and was very wild, I expect he thought he had another big beast before him. However I went on and put the buck up in the long grass, and Penguin was soon after him. The buck however disappeared into the bush with Penguin getting further and further behind. We followed up slowly after going some way the boys saw Penguin in the bush. We went up into a great surprise found he was walking round and round the little buck which was lying on its side nearly dead. He must have caught it and pulled it down. A great day for both of us. When I got back to the camp, I found that 10 minutes after I had left it Campbell had been told that there were Roan feeding nearby and had gone out and found three lions, one of which – Alanis – he says was a monster. They were some way off and he allowed them to depart unmolested.
I don’t know if I’ve told you that Stokes is now retiring early next year I believe.
You will remember the big murder case I had, in which I committed a man for trial before the High Court. The attorney general has decided not to prosecute but he wrote the P.C. a very nice letter about the way I had taken the case which I will send you later on.
Please thank Daddy very much for the book and also for the income tax rebate form which I must look at and deal with.
One of the cheaters died suddenly the other day but the other and more friendly one is very much alive and very friendly with Penguin.
I must stop now and get the mail off as it is late,
very much love to you all,
your very loving
G.
MANKOYA
AUGUST 16th 1934 by air
Recd Sept 15.1934.
at Cransford.
My dear Mummy,
Such a nice long and welcome letter from you this week. I’m afraid that you haven’t had very many letters from me lately. Things are now becoming much more peaceful in the office, and as soon as chill the education man has come through, I shall go off on tour again if I can. Until he comes I’m having a quiet time in getting a lot of odd jobs done which I have been meaning to do her since I got here.
The one remaining cheater is doing very well, since I began to feed it only on meat and milk, and it now runs about a lot with Penguin to whom it is devoted.
I’m now preparing my new garden and getting the ground well dug up and a lot of seeds planted in boxes etc. as this is the right time of year for planting. All the trees and bush and fruit trees seeds you sent me are already in, though none of them have yet appeared!
Cambell is very pleased with what he fondly imagines is an Apple tree which is growing in a box in which he planted apple pips but I am equally convinced it is nothing but a vast weed…
Stokes writes that he now hopes to get here in the middle of October – not a time which suits me at all well – though I shall be very glad to meet him.
I was most interested to hear all your news, of the Hicks wedding, etc. I did not know you did not like Oliver Todd, as I took a great fancy to him… I wish you could have had a second look at Hughes girl – he of course described her as being very pretty, but then his ideas on the subject were always rather peculiar, I thought… I have written to him and am going to give him a motoring rug made out of red lynx skin which I’m trying to get here. I don’t suppose he will get it for a long time but it will be particularly choice when it does arrive. I expect I shall also get much the same thing for Charlie. I was most amused about Patrick as I had meant to write but felt so sure it would not come off that I put off writing until I should hear more about it after his return from America.
Please thank Ralph very much for the little Austin book which will be invaluable and also for the papers. I write to him again soon. Much to our disappointment the wireless set broke down the other night in the middle of the news, most disappointing just before the last test match. I’m pretty sure that one or more of the valves is burnt out, and as they are the same I have had for about three years, I think it’s more than time I had some new ones. All four of them should be renewed I think, so will you get Ralph to send me for new ones by parcel post. He will know which to send expect, one of them is a power valve.
The gramophone is also broken, and I can’t get it repaired in this country as far as I know, so what with the derelict car, wireless set, and gramophone I think I must write to expanded metal company make an offer for their electrical manager’s services for a month or two…
Here is a copy of the nice letter I got about that murder case of mind. Stokes sent it on to me with a note at the bottom “with my congratulations” which was very nice of him…
Please keep a lookout for the new autumn novels and send me any good ones, I see Buchan has brought out a new one and also L.A.C. strong, which I should like. Campbell who usually reads all the new novels you send me, remarked one day that I appeared to choose all my novels for the immorality !!!! I have just read him this and he denies it, but says that having the early Victorian mind (sic) he thinks they were very modern….He sends you his respects (and adds, for some unaccountable reason, his sympathy)….
Much love.
G.
MANKOYA.
NORTHERN RHODESIA
AUGUST 19th 1934
My dear Uncle Wilfrid
[his father's youngest brother],
I am sure I owe you more than one letter and I have a guilty feeling that I never thanked you for the particularly thrilling novel you sent me at Xmas. As a matter of fact I am still slowly getting through all the letters I ought to have written ages and ages ago and have not had time to do. I expect you know that I am now the only official here, and as the district is the third largest in size in the territory and has a population of over 40,000 natives there has been a good deal to do. I was also unlucky enough to strike a murder case which took me a long time to unravel. When I finally committed the accused for trial before the High Court, the public prosecutor refused to proceed against him and he was discharged. However at last I’m getting things fairly straight here and I’m hoping soon to have everything as I want it. I have been able to get out on tour four times and hope to be able to tour the whole district before the end of this year of course whenever one makes plans like that a new murder case crops up and everything has to be given up till it is over. I’m also busy having an aerodrome constructed here with convict labour, and that is getting on very well. I hear that the new governor is anxious to fly up here next year if the aerodrome is finished by then, but what interests me even more is the possibility that I might be able to fly down to the railway line and take some local leave in the outskirts of civilisation. The shooting in this directory is very good indeed, but of course I have not yet had the best time of year which is really now beginning and will go on until Xmas. About this time of year all the big planes are burnt and new young shoots of grass spring up and the game which confined no young grass in the Bush comes out onto the plane’s morning and evening to feed. At the end of this month I hope if all goes well to go on tour up to my northern border and as to get there I shall have to goes through uninhabited country for four or five days I’m hoping to get some very good shooting indeed. I shall probably be out on tour for the whole of September and then in October the provincial Commissioner comes through and I shall meet him for the first time. I shall be very glad to do so is working for someone one has never met is always rather difficult.
By the end of October the duck will be beginning to arrive shortly after Xmas the duck shooting on all the rivers will be very good indeed. Last February I got some really most amusing duck flighting in the evenings and mornings on several occasions. I don’t know at all how long I’m likely to be at Mankoya, but I should think it’s quite on the cards that I shall be here till I go on leave at the end of 1936.
I’m busy making a garden here as although there were a few fruit trees and vegetables when I arrived there were no flowers at all, and I don’t see any reason why they should not do very well here.
Much love to you all
(signed) Gervas Clay
MANKOYA.
NORTHERN RHODESIA
AUGUST 22nd 1934
Rec’d 21.9.34
My dear Daddy,
very many thanks for your letter is both business and otherwise. I approve of your selling my war loan and buying the Australian bonds, though I cannot find the latter quoted in my Economist – are they new? I always imagined that you did not like Australian loans. Thank you very much for helping me about them. Would you let me know before investing any more and I may save, as I’m not saving anything at present out here and I owe Walters about £180, and I would like to pay them as soon as I can. That car is a complete white elephant and I suppose I was a full to bring it up here, as it cost’s a lot and I’m still paying off bills concerned with its transport. I hope by the New Year to be square out here and I shall then be able to send Walters something. They are not worrying me and are not at all likely to do so, but their bill is larger than I like at present and I want to reduce it.
Thank you very much also for doing my income tax rebate for me, I hope to send it off this week.
I had a very nice letter from the P.C. this week in which he says ‘I have been entirely satisfied with your administration of the Mankoya district’. This is very satisfactory as I had a feeling that perhaps you might not always have been satisfied.
I don’t think I have ever thanked you for sending me a nice Queen and book for my birthday, but I have not had it very long, and I’m only just beginning to read it. By the way that reminds me that No:16 of Churchill’s book has never turned up, so perhaps you could get and send me another one of that number.
We are expecting Cottrell here on Friday. He is the director of native education in the province and also headmaster of the Barotse national school at Mongu. I hear he is quite young.
I think I have said before that Stokes now hopes to get here in October. Before he comes I’m hoping to get in a big tour in the course of which I shall go through the uninhabited area again and up to the Dongwe and along it to my border. I shall then turn south and go down the western border until I get to Kandombwe when I shall go across to the Luena and go up that to the Luambua and then up that to its source and across to Kasabi and Mwanambuyu and home from there. I shall probably be out five or six weeks, but I’m not quite sure when I shall get away as I may be held up if I don’t hear from the P.C.it will be a very fine trip with any luck as it is a bit of country that is full of all sorts of game and this is just the very best time of year for shooting it. The other day I managed to shoot a stain buck at about hundred and 50 yards and although I missed it first shot, it was a very small buck said that at that range I was doing quite well to get it at all. I hope that now perhaps my shooting is going to improve a bit. We shall be to early for the duck and shan’t be able to take the dogs owing to the Tsetse fly which are very bad up there.
Your loving
G.
Rec’d Mamkoya
9.10.34 Barotse land.
By ordinary \ 5 weeks N. Rhodesia
mail / 5 days 30/8/34
Dear Mr Clay,
I am sending you today and ash-trade made from un-refined copper from the Roan mine. Gervas thought you might like it. It is something of a curio.
Gervas is in good form and we hope to go out on tour in a day or so, when we ought to see a fair amount of game now & then. We go through the uninhabited country again, which, though full of spore, especially buffalo, when we went through in June, was disappointing in the way of game, as there was a good deal of water about in the scattered pools away in the Bush. Now, these will have dried up & been sucked up by elephants & the game will have to resort to the pools along our route.
I expect he told you of the nice little “pat” he got from “The Legal Powers That Be” over the murder case? It is quite flattering, but thoroughly well-deserved, as he made a jolly good job of a very difficult case. We are quite thrilled by the car, in which we have been out several times. I am not a driver myself & am somewhat impressed with his attainments in rough veld, though he says “it’s easy enough”. I think he may be able to get to Mongu on the car, in fact, I feel sure he will be able to do so in time.
The mail is due to close & I must shut up to.
I hope you & Mrs clay are fit and well? My kindest regards you both,
Sincerely yours
Soane Cambell
I can never repay Gervas for his generous kindness to me. He could not have been kinder had he been my near relation.
? Sept. 1934
My dear Mummy,
here we are camped in the uninhabited country on our way out on tour. It’s about 11.30 & we have camped early as I have just bagged a big buffalo cow! We camped last night about 7 miles from here & came on this morning. I was riding along on my bike in a dry riverbed which had been burnt out. The was a rising fold of ground in the valley & I got off & cautiously walked up the slope in case there might be game insight on the far side. I suddenly came in sight of a large herd of Buffalo about a hundred yards away feeding & walking along away from me. I got down out of sight as quickly as possible & signalled to Campbell & the boys who were 50 yards behind me. Campbell & I got our rifles & peeped over the rise. The Buffalo were further off & walking away unconcerned. We therefore went up into the Bush at the side of the valley the idea of getting up beside them. This we did about a mile further on but not until they had seen us. We each had a shot & mine went very close but missed. Then I got a cartridge jammed & couldn’t get it in or out for several seconds. Campbell had a second shot. Hurd then turned up the side of the valley away from us & stood again on the edge of the bush. I got into a nice clear place & took a very steady shot & heard the bullet strike. Buffalo went away from the herd (which disappeared into the bush) & Campbell, seeing I had badly wounded one, also began to shoot at it & we both hit it more than once & it went down. We gave it several more shots for safety & then walked up to find it dead. A cow – unfortunately, but still the first full-grown Buffalo I have shot. We think Campbell wounded a ball with his first shot, but the bush was impenetrable & it would be very unsafe to follow it up at present. We have camped close by & the boys are now cutting up the meat 20 yards away. We are’s sitting in a nice shady leafy shelter we’ve had made.
We have also seen twice a yellow-backed duiker this morning which is strictly protected & one of the rarest buck in the country – so that it is most unusual to see one & especially so out in the open as we saw ours.
Mutundwe Plain
Just back from shooting a wildebeeste – a ball. We go off again tomorrow northwards. Having great fun. Am sending in to the Boma tomorrow & this letter goes then.
Much love to all,
Your v. Loving
G.
MANKOYA.
October 4th 1934
Recd by air 2.11.34
My dear Daddy,
a long time without a letter I’m afraid and now not a very long one as I am naturally very busy having to answer the official mail of four weeks. Stokes [Provincial Commissioner] has again postponed his visit and proposes to come in November. It’s a bit awkward as I wanted him to sign my declaration avoiding English income tax. However I have sent it to him and he may be able to sign it, though it is supposed to be done in his presence.
Before starting to tell you about my tour there are a number of things which you have said in your recent letters which want answering. As regards my remaining at Mankoya. It is almost certain that I shall remain in this province for the rest of my tour, and that being so I would think rather remain where I am then be shifted to another district just when I’m beginning to get to know this one. I had a long talk on various occasions with Kennedy the late Chief Secretary when I was staying with him in Livingstone a year ago. What he said amounted to this. That the government were not really interested in junior officers until they had been in the service for about 10 years, so long as they did their jobs properly. At the end of 10 years a man’s history sheet would be gone into thoroughly and he would then if it was good be given a real chance. He said that it was at this point that the majority of pro-promising young officers ruin their chances by getting married and becoming so interested in their wife that their work suffered. (He also told me that his father had told him that a man who married before he was 30 was a fool and a man who married after he was 30 was d----- full . . .) As far as I know I am doing quite as well as I can expect to do at present and it would be a mistake to try and force things until at any rate the end of this tour. When I go on leave in two years time I shall try and find out where they propose to send me and unless it’s something I fancy I shall ask to be sent to a line station (station on the railway line). It is interesting that my friend and contemporary Peacock who quarrelled with his first D.C. was supposed to be coming to Barotse on his return from leave. Kennedy himself told me that he had refused to let him go there, as he did not think that a man who quarrelled with his D.C. was suitable to go to a native protectorate i.e. Barotse land. Peacock is now at Broken Hill as a junior official. Of course if I get a chance of seeing the present Governor or C.S. I shall put in a word.
We had a very good and most amusing tour and I most thoroughly enjoyed it. For a wonder my shooting was in its best form and I got a buck each day for seven days on end and 11 altogether. My bag was 2 Buffalo, 2 wildebeeste, 4 hartebeest, 1 roan, 1 puku, and 1 oribi. One of the Buffalo was a ball and I have kept the head – horns only as it’s not a particularly big one. The great triumph was the Roan, which had a monster head of 33 ¼ inches which has only once been beaten according to the record book. Roan antelope are very common all over Africa but good heads are very uncommon and mine is particularly good on the horns very even and undamaged. I have taken the heads skin and hope to be able to get it sewn up at home. The day after shooting it and two days before the arrival of Mummy’s letter mentioning Pratsham again, I was thinking that the hall at Pratsham was just the place to put up the head and that there was really nowhere at Weston where it could show itself off properly. I’m very sorry to hear you have lost that house as I liked it particularly and always felt you might get it in the end.
When I got back here I found that the garden boys had gone and dug up all my nice flower seeds that money sent me and had planted cabbages in their place – most annoying. As the garden was full of seeds and the boys had obviously done nothing else while I was away I sacked the pair of them.
The cheater was particularly large and handsome when we got back but it has now disappeared and I don’t know whether it will return or not.
I had great difficulty with the car and at last found that the carburettor was empty. On filling it the car went, but I suspect a leak in it as I have to fill the carburettor every time I want to go out, though once it is full the car goes excellently. Please refer this query to Ralph, and thank him very much for the book he sent me which I finished at a sitting and had to sit out most of the night on tour to do it.
Much love to all
your v.loving
G.
