A Mother's Devotion.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 6848, 25 March 1897, Page 4

A Mother's Devotion.

A terrible story of the drought In Namaqnaland (South Africa) is told by the Cape Times:—A poor woman not very long ago aet out for the mission station at Pella with two of her children, with a view of walking to Springbok for relief. The distance is considerable, the herbage nil, wayside protection a thing of. the future, and sand heavy. Her stages were nc3nsarily limited by consideration for where she would come upon water. She struggled with her children as far as the fir.3t water, and then rested preparatory to starting on the second journey. The three would have to travel about thirty miles before reaching the next water. They arrived at the spot where the water should be, but it was as parched and dry as a fierce sun-bitten rock. Famished in body and heartstricken with disappointment, the poor creatures had but one resource—try to cover the next long stretch of pitiless wilderness to where water under usual circumstances would be found. But the wretched woman was incapable of another effort, and at last she had to urge her children to try alone to go forward, and, as she put it, bring her some water. This must have been but a" tender ruse on her part to prevent the children from seeing her perish, and also possibly for them to save their own lives, for it meant a journey of sixty miles the going and returning. They were suscessful in their quest, and hastened back as well as they could with water for their unfortunate mother. Arrived at the place where they had left her no sign of her was to be seen; she had disappeared. The circumstances were later represented to the authorities, and search made, resulting in the finding of her bones scattered hither and thither, picked clean by dogs who had attacked and eaten her alive.