AN AFRICAN PIONEER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 17

AN AFRICAN PIONEER

Sunrise to Evening Star. By Marina King. George G. Harrap and Co. Ltd. 315 pp. (10/6 net.) The story of Mrs King's 70 years in South Africa is one of the most interesting and fascinating autobiographies printed in recent years. That it was written in her seventyninth year is remarkable enough; but the life and SDirit of the book form its special distinction. One of Mrs King's earliest recollections is of being told as a little girl of four by a thoughtless brother that she was not "worth her Fait." The mite had been asked to prevent a mob of unruly and frightened sheep from escaping a pen, and her failure earned her the brother's rebuke. From that small seed sprang the author's sturdy determination always to be worth her salt. And no one who reads her book will deny that she has fulfilled her ambition. The daughter of a naval officer who forsook the sea to go on the land at the Cape, Mrs King was born to a life of verv considerable hardship. When she was eight years old her father and the rest of the family, her mother carrying a new-born baby, set out in ox-wag-gons for Natal, a journey that occupied many months in days when roads were scarcely defined tracks across the veldt. To imaginative youngsters this was a magnificent adventure; to their elders it must have been a period of terrible anxiety. But the spirit and courage of the pioneers overcame all difficulties and dangers, and they settled on a new farm in the shadow of the Drakensberg Mountains in Natal For many months they lived hall in a tiny two-roomed house, and half in the waggons, till the men had time to build the family a house. And so the youngsters grew up, going to sleep lo the sound of the distant howling and yelping of hyenas, jackals, and wild dogs, never knowing when leopards would raid the cattle or bushmen attack their home. Little Marina, growing up in such surroundings, learned to be useful in the house and resourceful, courageous, and self-reliant outside of if, in training- for "earning her salt." Her first tragic experience, while still a youngster m her 'teens, was the death of her mother in child-birth. Left in the house alone, except for natives and younger children, the nurse whose carelessness was responsible for tiie mother's death having run away, Marina stood up to her first big responsibility. The farm reverted to her mother's family, and it was in Pietermaritxburg that Marina grew to young womanhood. There she met her first husband, Lieutenant Woodrotl'e, another naval officer who had_ settled in Africa. They were a lighthearted couple; and Mrs King relates many amusing stories uL : tneir first years together. incidentaliy, Lieutenant Woodroll'e had begun while in the Navy an intimate friendship with King Edward, then Prince of Wales, with whom he kept up a life-long correspondence. In their early married lite the young couple went to England and spent the fashionable "season' there, when Mrs King met many oi the interesting and distinguished people of the day, including the Prince ana Princess of Wales, from whom they received a most friendly reception.

Returning to South Africa, they settled on a farm; but it was a disastrous adventure. Part of the time the husband was away fighting in the Zulu war. Afterwards he became harbourmaster at Durbar. Then the Jure of gold conquered him, and when he pegged a claim his wife .joined him in the hard life of the goldfields. He was no', very successful, and they next ventured on a series of hotels in the wilderness, from which they at length won enough money to settle on a fruit farm. Here eventually her husband died. Later Mrs Woodroffe met Colonel King and married him, and they spent a happy life together till the Colonel's death.

In later years Mrs King went berk to the fruit farm, living happily with an adopted daughter, until in her seventy-fourth year she was ordered a change of climate. 71 was a call to her adventurous soul. She decided to motor to England, and so, in 1930, she and her adopted daughter, accompanied by a mechanic and a Zulu boy, motored rich! across Central Africa to the Coast. After many thrilling adventures and hardships this amazing journey was accomplished in safety. Mrs King's book is more than the story of her own life. If is the story, told in simple, humorous, and eloquent fashion, of pioneering life in the early days of the colony—a brave woman's plain recital of adventures and hardships. Through it her own amazing spirit shines brightly and warmly.