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Updated: June 29, 2025
"I will, you may be assured, tell you all I know," replied Swinton; "but you must not expect to find in me a Mr. Fairburn. I may as well remark, that Africa appears to be a country not able to afford support to a dense population, like Europe; and the chief cause of this is the great want of water, occasionally rendered more trying by droughts of four or five years' continuance."
"See!" he exclaimed, holding it up; "the fruit is perfectly fresh, and the shell cannot have been broken many hours; so, probably, there is some one still on the island." "Perhaps, sir, it is some savage; and he is hiding from us," remarked one of the men. "No, no," said Fairburn; "a savage would not have planted that flag-staff."
The evenings were passed in narrating their adventures to Mr. Fairburn, who was truly glad of the result of the mission to Port Natal, as it would be so satisfactory to old Sir Charles. Alexander was now most anxious to return to England, and resolved to take his passage in the first ship which sailed after the arrival of the wagon with his effects.
Such was the condition of affairs at the time George Fairburn left St. Peter's School at York. January brought many new orders for the Fairburn pit, and the owner had work for more men. So greatly was his business increasing, that the proprietor of the little colliery came to a decision that seemed likely to affect his son's whole future life.
A boat was then lowered, in which Prior, Fairburn and I, with a crew of four hands, pulled towards the shore. We had some little difficulty in finding our way through the reefs; but a passage at last being discovered, we landed on a soft sandy beach.
We had a table spread on deck, and an awning stretched over it. Fairburn sat at one end, and I at the other; and Van Graoul was placed at the centre, to act as interpreter for us both. They ate prodigiously, and each man drank enough arrack to intoxicate any three Europeans, without appearing to feel the slightest ill effects from the spirit.
"Why, it really does not appear that the colonial government, when in our hands, was more considerate than when it was held by the Dutch," replied Alexander. "Not much, I fear," said Mr. Fairburn. "The councils of the Caffre chiefs were at that time much influenced by a most remarkable personage of the name of Mokanna.
Captain Van Deck did not seem to know what to do himself, or to order his crew to do; but Fairburn rushed here and there, calling the people together, and soon got the sails clewed up. "What is to be done?" I asked.
We entered Sourabaya in the evening, when the streets were still crowded with the mixed population of the town, in their varied and picturesque dresses, each speaking their own language, or uttering the various cries of their respective trades. I directly rode to the hotel in the hopes of finding Fairburn there, as I was eager to learn how he was progressing with the schooner.
Its departure was hailed by the shouts and threats of a gang of pitmen from the Blackett colliery, but nothing like another fight occurred, thanks to the vigilance of Fairburn the elder. Not often has Europe been in a greater state of unrest than it was at the time this story opens.
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