CAPE TOWN TO CAIRO A Record by Jessie Webb of Her Journey With Georgina Sweet in 1922 Transcript of existing letters and diary, with photographs, added maps, footnotes, photographs and introduction By Margaret O’Callaghan, Canberra, 2013 i Copyright © O’Callaghan, Margaret, 2013 Reproduction allowed with acknowledgements of source. Privately published in 2013 Margaret O’Callaghan, Editor, 1945-. Cape Town to Cairo – A record by Jessie Webb of her journey with Georgina Sweet in 1922 Transcript of original letters and diary, photographs and news coverage, with added maps, footnotes, introduction and commentary, with bibliography. Historical travel. Includes bibliography. ISBN 978-0-9875516-0-3 1.Jessie Webb, 1880-1944. 2. History. 3. Cape Town to Cairo travel 4. Georgina Sweet, 1875-1946. Cover design: The editor DEDICATED TO Jane Lauder (Jeannie) Watson (1851-1916) To whom fell the responsibility of bringing up ‘Our Jessie’ from childhood, and who so admirably fulfilled those duties. Her own dreams1 may not have been fulfilled but her ward excelled in ways she could never have imagined. “Clarior Hinc Honos” “Henceforth forward the honour shall grow ever brighter”2 and Margaret Ellen (Peggy) Haynes (1909-1987) Barbara Haynes (Williams) (1912-1997) Jeannie’s Great-Nieces, who, luckily for us, preserved family history. 1 As expressed in her 1870 Diary 2 Buchanan family clan motto i CONTENTS Maps ..............................................................................................................................iii Tables ............................................................................................................................iii Photographs/Illustrations ..............................................................................................iii Country names used in 1922 and now .......................................................................... iv Glossary ........................................................................................................................ iv Acronyms ....................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... vii PART 1: FORWARD .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 BIOGRAPHIES OF THE TRAVELLERS .......................................................... 3 1.3 SYNOPSIS ......................................................................................................... 16 1.4 HISTORY OF THE MATERIALS ................................................................... 17 1.5 DESCRIPTION OF THE MATERIALS ........................................................... 17 1.6 ROUTE TAKEN AND DURATION OF COUNTRY VISITS ....................... 24 1.7 LETTER ADDRESSEES .................................................................................. 27 1.8 COMMENTARY ............................................................................................... 28 PART 2. TRANSCRIPTS ............................................................................................ 32 2.1. TRANSCRIPT OF LETTERS .......................................................................... 32 2.2 TRANSCRIPT OF THE DIARY ..................................................................... 108 2.3 TRANSCRIPT OF ANOTHER LETTER ....................................................... 146 2.3. TRANSCRIPT OF OTHER WRITINGS IN THE DIARY ........................... 151 PART 3: PRESS AND OTHER COVERAGE OF JOURNEY ................................ 153 3.1 Press Coverage ................................................................................................. 153 3.1.1 Women’s World, the Melbourne Monthly, March 1922 .......................... 153 3.1.2 Melbourne Argus, 1 March 1923 .............................................................. 153 3.1.3 Melbourne Argus, 20 April 1923 .............................................................. 154 3.1.4 Wyvern (Queen’s College 1.1.1923, 39. ................................................. 154 3.1.5 Brisbane Courier, Tuesday 24 July 1923 ................................................. 154 3.1.6 Melbourne University Magazine, August 1923, 130 ................................ 155 3.1.7 The Register, Adelaide, 12 Feb 1924 ........................................................ 155 3.1.8 Daily New Perth, 21 Feb. 1924 ................................................................. 155 3.1.9 Sydney Morning Herald, 22 Feb. 1924 ..................................................... 156 3.1.10 The Advertiser, Adelaide, 28 Feb 1924 .................................................. 157 3.1.11 Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 8 March 1924 ........................................... 158 3.1.12 The Brisbane Courier, 7th June, 1924, .................................................... 158 3.1.13 Brisbane Courier, 5 Oct. 1925 ................................................................ 158 3.1.14 Brisbane Courier, 23 Nov. 1932 ............................................................. 158 3.1.15 Papers on Various Australian Women, ................................................... 159 3.1.16 Australian Women’s Digest, Jan. 1946, 27 ............................................. 160 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 161 ii Maps 1. The entire route travelled 2. South Africa 3. Southern and northern Rhodesia 4. Belgian Congo 5. Tanganyika and Zanzibar 6. Kenya 7. Uganda 8. Detail of Albert Nile-Nimule-Rejaf safari route 9. Sudan and Egypt Tables Table 1. Watson Family Tree, relevant part only Table 2. Dates, route, mode of travel, duration and evidence of journey stages Photographs/Illustrations (All JW’s photographs in UMA) 1. Portrait of Jessie Stobo Webb (MUA) 2. Portrait of the Watson sisters, 1877 (family records)) 3. Jessie Stobo Webb, aged 27, 1907 (Mary Stewart Webb’s family collection) 4. Portrait of Georgina Sweet (MUA) 5. Untitled. Georgina Sweet on deck of SS Ulysses on the way to Africa (JW) 6. Photo of a page from a letter 7. Train and boat timetable (Faith, 1990) 8. “Women washing, Umgeni River”, Durban (JW) 9. Sketch of a Dutch Cape house roofline (JW) 10. Sketch of Table Mountain, Cape Town. (JW) 11. “The Horderns at Ferndene Hotel” (JW) 12. “Rickshaw driver with head-dress, snapped from rickshaw” [at Durban] (JW) 13. “Modderfontein Estate – the house”, near Pretoria (JW) 14. “Galloping native, snapped from train” (presumably in South Africa or Bechuanaland (JW) 15. “(Great) Zimbabwe homestead” (JW) 16. Native mine worker’s huts, Katanga (Shay) 17. Sketch of Elizabethville (JW) 18. Louis Cousin, 1920 (Shantz)) 19. Advertisement for Impreial Hotel, Kampala (Tabor) 20. “Mr Whitworth’s hut at Meru” (JW) 21. Sketch map (JW) 22. Sketch of a head-dress (JW) 23. Government motor van, Uganda, 1911 (Gann and Duignan) 24. The type of carrying arrangements used on safari (Pettifer and Bradley) 25. Sketch of skirt (JW) 26. Sketch of hut (JW) 27. Untitled. Appears to be a wood station on the Nile in the Sudan (JW) 28. Untitled. Appears to be one of the stops on the Nile in the Sudan (JW) iii 29. Untitled. It appears to be a wood loading point on the Nile in the Sudan (JW) 30. Sketch of hurricane/safari lamp (JW) 31. The Nile in flood and first glimpse of the desert opposite Kawa (JW). Photographs/Illustrations by: JW - photographs or sketches UMA – University of Melbourne Archives Others as referenced in the document Country names used in 1922 and now. Union of South Africa – Republic of South Africa Bechuanaland Protectorate – Republic of Botswana Southern Rhodesia – Republic of Zimbabwe British South Africa Company Chartered Territory3 then Northern Rhodesia – Republic of Zambia Belgian Congo - Democratic Republic of the Congo Mandated Territory of Tanganyika – United Republic of Tanzania Kenya Colony – Republic of Kenya Uganda Protectorate – Republic of Uganda Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (or Soudan) – Republic of the Sudan and South Sudan Egypt – Arab Republic of Egypt Glossary Apana (hahana) – no (Swahili) Apana missoure (hapana mzuri) – not good (Sw) Askari – Indigenous East African (or Arabic) soldier Bey –Turkish term for a chief, used later for a District Administrator /military man Blanco – washing soap, bar or powder Buttonies – English type of biscuit, also known as bachelor’s buttons Cerise scallops – presumably a blouse with scalloped edging in a cerise colour Cooks – Thomas Cook’s travel agency Dobie (dhobi) – washerman Dragoman – guide, translator Duka – small Indian run shop (Sw) Erissa – the cook who travelled with them from Nimule to Rejaf Fawn suede-tick that gives relapsing fever (probably of the Rickettesia family) Funde - expert Gwenda or givendra (Kwenda) – go on or go (Sw) Judu (Dudu) – insect (Swahili) Kabaka – Baganda King, Uganda Kanga (kanzu) – length of cloth worn tied around waste, East African Katikere – Baganda Prime Minister, Uganda Kesho – tomorrow Kopje – small rocky hill 3 For ease of comprehension the term “Northern Rhodesia” will be used when referring to what was at that time the Chartered Territory, a practice in line with Marcosson’s usage during his 1920 visit (p.76). iv Kosia - the cook from Kampala, who returned to Kampala when they reached Memsahib - missus