Page 177 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

83
1896
August and the Bethanians lost all their cattle although
they vaccinated repeatedly with the vaccine that had been developed. All the livestock of about 8 000 head of the Bethanie Location was destroyed!!
Upon the letter from Fitschen I had sold all my cattle and had asked Cousin Heinrich Albers in Heidelberg to buy me a span of donkeys with harness. He bought me ten in the Free State (9 mares and one stallion) for ₤ 60 and a donkey fruit cart. When they arrived in Bethanie everybody laughed and scorned me. At the time donkeys were unknown here. But when the cattle died and all roads were closed, my span of donkeys was the only means of transport. Everything had to be brought from Pretoria with it and very soon it was paid off. The 9 mares foaled and I could sell these foals at ₤ 10 – 15 per head in the next years when in addition to the rinderpest the East Coast Fever broke out. I had quite a number of donkeys on Klipkop. Donkeys were in great demand and you could go everywhere with them, there were simply no hindrances for them. And in the war with the Britains that followed in 1899 – 1902 they did not take away donkeys but only cattle and oxen. The donkeys were a “paying investment”.