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[Page 22]
immediately. About June 10th, I think it was, one of our men, Miller, went down with meningitis. It was impossible to keep it from the troops & the news flashed round the ship till every troop knew that it had broken out. I think everybody had a bit of a shock, & all throats were sprayed with eucalyptus.
Miller was not expected to live twenty-four hours but he pulled round & finally was put ashore at Capetown.
On June 12th we sighted the S.E. coast of Africa, & two days later at 4 pm. entered Table Bay flying the yellow flag. It was night fall before we drew up alongside one of the many wharves, & we made fast & commenced coaling straight away. This was all done by natives, as, in Capetown no white man would dream of touching a shovel. Niggers do all the manual labour & they do it very slowly too.
The following day, a guard had been posted on the gangways & wharf, whose duties were to allow nobody to leave or board the ship. I am satisfied that nothing can be so blatantly stupid as a sentry. Tell him what he is ten times, & at the end he will be as blissfully ignorant of his job as he was before you told him the first time. Now the life of the Captain of the day under the most auspicious circumstances is not a happy one. Add to his ordinary duties, the fathering of a guard component of cheerful idiots – a shipload of Australians whose throats resemble the insides of a lime-kiln - a crowd of irresponsible civilians on the wharf whose one goal, to all outward