ILLUSTRATIONS CONTENTS

Front Cover 1. Great Karoo

It's Raining! 2. Passing Of The Karoo Bushmen
The Karoo Trekboer 3. The Springbok Migrations
Matjiesfontein 4. Railway Across The Karoo
The Wool Boom 5. Logan Of Matjesfontein
The Dreaded Oog 6. Towns Of The Great Karoo
Charles Murray's Grape Vine 7. Midsummer In Graaff-Reinet
The Ostrich 8. Karoo Skoff
Golden Fleece 9. Swartberg And Little Karoo
The Baboon Signalman 10. Karoo Ostrich
Man's Grotesque Caricature 11. The Karoo Botanists
The Cape Hunt 12. Golden Fleece
Hantam Settlers 13. Outlaws Of The Koppies
14. More Outlaws
15. Science Or Sorcery?
16. Karoo Snakes
17. Crime In The Karoo
18. The Land Of Begin Again
19. Forget The Dry Years
20. Home Of Strange Tales
 CHAPTER 1 Many have gone to the karoo under the cold
GREAT KAROO sentence of death and returned to live beyond the
three score years and ten.
Years and years I've trekked across it,
Ridden back and fore, Karoo is a wide term covering more than a
Till the silence and the glamour hundred thousand square miles in its widest
Ruled me to the core; meaning. Within that area are the strangest
No man ever knew it better, possible contrasts ... the huge daisies called
None could love it more. gousblomme making a wonderland of the veld
-Perceval Gibbon. for miles outside Beaufort West ... away to the
IT must have been a drought year when the first west in the Calvinia district many farms are
deserted and the sheep farmers are searching
Hottentot tribes migrating southwards gazed on
Namaqualand for grazing.
the Great Karoo for the first time. They named
these plains Garob, meaning dry, unfruitful, There are, in fact, many karoos in South Africa,
uninhabited. Pioneer white farmers corrupted and they form the most spacious plateau region
and used the Hottentot name, so that in in the world outside Asia. Nearest to the coast is
documents of two centuries ago you will first the Little Karoo, no desert nowadays but rich,
discover the words Carro and Karoo. narrow, irrigated valleys shut in by wild
mountains, the Swartberg and the Outeniquas.
In the karoo you may find children of five who
Climb over the Swartberg by the most
have never seen rain. Yet this killing climate also
sensational pass in South Africa and you come to
holds great healing power. A karoo farmer, you
the desolate expanses of the Great Karoo. I
will remember, invited a dying King of England
suppose the Great Karoo proper, bordered by
to rest his stricken lungs in that buoyant air.
mountains with six and seven thousand foot
peaks - the Cedarberg, Swartberg, the Roggeveld The first journey of my life was a Great Karoo
and Nuweveld - has an area of no more than railway journey. Summer, with canvas water-
roughly thirty thousand square miles, perhaps bags swinging from every doorhandle, each
five times the size of the Little Karoo. Yet it is daylight hour an ordeal. No dining-car in those
hard to say where the Great Karoo ends. It days. When I smell methylated spirits I always
merges into the high northern plains of the Cape, remember those early journeys between Cape
and much of the Orange Free State is spoken of Town and Kimberley, with my mother boiling
as karoo. It sweeps across relentlessly to the water for tea in the hot compartment. But the
northwest, to Sutherland and the Roggeveld and first journey I cannot remember, for that was in
Hantam; and beyond, even in Namaqualand, you 1900 and I was seven weeks old.
are still in true karoo sheep country. Some people argue that 1900 was the last year of
There are karoos within the Great Karoo - Ceres the nineteenth century, but I regard myself as an
Karoo, Tanqua Karoo, Bokkeveld Karoo, unwilling child of the twentieth, the century of
Roggeveld Karoo, the Mordenaar's Karoo north atomic uncertainty - live for the day and
of Matjesfontein and the Gouph Karoo reconcile yourself to suspense and inflation and
(sometimes the most barren of all karoos) under flying saucers as best you can. The nineteenth
the Nuweveld range. century would have suited my temperament
better. I have a high regard for the pace of the ox
Often the only visible boundary in the Great
and I think wistfully of the great hush which
Karoo is the horizon. "I am like an eagle," an old
reigned before the coming of petrol engines.
farmer told me. "I look all round and see no one,
not even the smoke of a neighbour's chimney. Nevertheless, it was a motor-car that first gave
That is why I love the Great Karoo." me the feel of the Great Karoo. I had seen it only
as many thousands see it, from the windows of
the trains. But I had grown up before the peculiar sucked the poisonous prickly pear fluid into his
spell of this vast, silent wilderness gripped all lungs by mistake at a demonstration in
my senses at once; before I realized the beauty Rhodesia, and it killed him. There was an old
locked in those brown spaces. Someone had prospector, a gambler all his life, who had put
distilled a motor fuel from prickly pears and his savings into the enterprise in a final effort
floated a company which aimed at transforming to amass wealth. He died a poor man. The only
a curse of the veld into a cool million or so for other passenger was a hungry-looking
the shareholders. The directors planned a journey financier who drew up his last glowing report
from Cape Town to Bulawayo to show South many years ago.
Africa that the new fuel would really give a In such company, with the old prospector
performance almost equal to petrol at much pointing out sights would have missed, I
lower cost. I was selected as the trustworthy, became aware that the Karoo contained far
independent observer who would be able to more than the "miles and miles of blow-all" of
swear afterwards that nothing but prickly pear the legendary British soldier's description. Sign
spirit had gone into the tank. (With all expenses posts were rare in the Karoo more than thirty
paid, this sort of light but skilful work suits me
years ago. We had to call at farm after farm,
admirably). So there came a happy day not especially at night, to ask the way.
long after World War I when a 1916 Overland
car turned northwards on the hazardous trek “Mense!” someone would shout in excitement
after being cheered out of Cape Town by the as the car rumbled up. "People!" The women
shareholders. remained silently in the background, peering
over the kitchen half-door, while the farmer
I am the only survivor of that journey. Our recounted every detail of the landscape he
driver, a famous racing motorist of his day,
knew so well. I can visualise many a "Take the main road." It sounded easy, but the
hospitable voorkamer adorned with Biblical main road across the Great Karoo was no more
texts and portraits either of Oom Paul or Queen than a wagon-track. Cape cart and wagon
Victoria. drivers whipped their teams off the road to
make way for us. Sometimes they failed to
Farmers were proud of their independence in
hear our feeble motor-horn, and then our driver
those days. They were a long way from dorp or
blew a police whistle. Motor-cars seldom come
rail, and so you found a forge and anvil and
in sight. The approach of another car far from
carpenter's shop in every farmyard. Some
a village was a noteworthy event, and usually
made their own gates, more or less skilfully,
we stopped like pioneers in a wilderness to
and I dragged scores of them to and fro on that
journey. They shod their own horses, built the exchange news of our adventures.
stone kraals and dams, sank wells and mended Wide roads turned away deceptively from the
pumps. groot Pad and led us to farm-houses secreted
behind flat-topped koppies and guarded by
Those were the days when one's host was
famished, leaping hounds. Unexpected twists
sincerely interested in visitors and his
in the road brought us suddenly into dry river-
questions were more searching than a modern
immigration form. Married or single? Purpose beds where heavy sand held the high-pressure
of journey? I could see each karoo patriarch tyres. But it was an intimate journey, never so
monotonous as the modern rush along the
summing us up, not with contempt but
tarred national roads. You could never sleep at
certainly without envy. And as we departed the
the wheel in the old days. The romantic old
farmer would always call after us,
reassuringly: "Vat die groot pad." road twisted past every kraal and dam.
Sometimes, even in the karoo, there was a
shady tree and an uitdraaiplek where the buildings. I can never drive past them without
radiator could be refilled in comfort. seeing a vision of that battered Overland car
with the extra tanks of prickly pear juice
In the villages knowing stoepsitters left their
strapped to the running-boards.
benches to gather round the car and jeer at our
"Cape to Bulawayo" banner. "You'll never get Before leaving each village there would be
there," they assured us, and secretly I felt they long discussions in hotel bars, maps spread on
might be right. the counter, while our learned advisers argued
among themselves over the best route. Once
I remember the old-fashioned karoo stores
we went in despair to a police station, only to
where one shook hands all round on entering
and then endured the routine cross- find that their latest road map bore a last-
century date.
examination. There were cries of wonder, and
often of disbelief, when we stated that our Ours was no royal progress. No day passed
motor-fuel was a prickly-pear extract. I had without punctures and minor repairs, and there
plenty of time to study the goods in those were several breakdowns on a grand scale.
stores; everything from sheep shears to coffins. Thus I could wander off into the solitude of the
Most of the wayside hotels were of the type in karoo, returning hours later to find the experts
which gin bottles served as water carafes, still bending over the tortured metal of the
rooms were cheerless and the only impressive engine. I could walk away among the
driedoring bushes, the brosdoring and
piece of furniture was the enormous richly
carved diningroom sideboard. Some of those klapperbos; or saunter along a river bed where
hotels remain unchanged to-day. Others serve the taaibos and mimosas grew; or climb a
as annexes, crouching behind modern koppie in search of hardy ferns on the southern
slopes. Always there was the red earth between
the bushes; always the meerkats worshipped Bumping along in that old car, under the sun
the sun beside their holes; always the sun blaze or in the white moonlight, I lost count of the
heated the rusty-looking ironstone, the typical days and longed to explore every corner of this
karoo ysterklip of the koppies. The old wilderness.
prospector struck this rock with a hammer one God helps those who help themselves, of course,
day, just to show me, and it rang like a bell. and the wish was granted. I went out into the
One abandoned farmhouse lingers in my memory. karoos on the queer missions that make up a
The upper storey was in ruins and the remaining reporter's life, searched for lost airmen, described
windows were shuttered. It must have been a fine the agonies of drought and flood, sat through
place once; but now it was a scene of mystery and murder trials and investigated miraculous tales of
decay. Under a huge weeping-willow tree stood a mineral wealth.
broken-down wagon. I thought of the ghost Drought in the karoo forms a picture that never
legends of the karoo, and I was pleased that we fades. All through the centuries you come upon
did not have to spend the night there. A solitary these black pages in the karoo story, the recurring
coloured man was living in a pondok close by, and inevitable dramas of drought. When drought
and I asked him the name of the place. ruled the karoo last century there were famines in
"Moordenaar's Bosch", he replied. which many coloured people died. Some
I saw no ghosts on that journey, but I came to survived by eating snakes and dogs and grinding
love the karoo plains and the distant mountains, the bones of animals that had perished. Prickly
blue in the morning, pink and purple and gold at pears became a luxury. Farmers lived on biltong
sunset. For mile after mile the great expanse was and brak water, and their bywoners ate dead
peppered with ant-heaps and small round bushes donkeys. Cabbages fetched six shillings apiece
like the tufts of wool on a Hottentot's head. instead of a few pence. Often the northern villages
were isolated because it was impossible for whistling and snorting of the horde. Soon the
wagons to move across country without grazing whole landscape was an ocean of millions of
for the trek-oxen. Bread could not be baked in the buck. A brown and white ocean. Waves of light
villages and prices rose so high that civil servants brown backs, dark brown stripes, white bellies,
could not come out on their salaries. Gaols were long white hairs on the rumps raised like fans. A
crowded with prisoners convicted of stock-theft, flood of living flesh, hungry and thirsty flesh.
their crimes provoked by hunger. Even nagmaal
Drought in our own time may be less
could not be held on the day appointed. People
sensational, but many scenes remain unchanged.
crossed the Orange River on foot when the river Sheep still die by the thousand, breeders killing
ceased flowing. During one great drought in the the lambs to save the ewes. Baboons prey on the
middle of last century it was said that one-third of sheep and dig for roots to save their lives when
the wealth of the Cape Colony had been
there are no sheep. Burning winds sweep up the
destroyed.
dust spirals. High trees and orchards wither in
Most stupendous of all drought spectacles were the villages. Thirsty springbok and other wild
the springbok migrations. I cannot say that it was creatures lose their fear of man and stand among
drought alone which impelled them to move, for the sheep licking the last moisture in muddy
naturalists have never solved the riddle. One day dams. Farmers go out with rifles and shoot the
the people in karoo farmhouses and villages, dying cattle to end their sufferings. Colonies of
people sleeping in wagons on the veld would meerkats trek by instinct to moister places.
awake to a sound like the wind before a Animals tortured by thirst stumble pitifully to the
thunderstorm. Dust clouds on the horizon homesteads in their vain search for relief.
marked the swift advance of the springbok. Then Ostriches tap on window-panes, and the lowing
came the thunder of the hooves, the bleating and of the cattle is an appeal that wrings the heart.
Mimosa and kameeldoring trees, and even the Then a hot wind stirs the vine leaves over the
tough brosdoringbos are shrivelling. stoep. Horses kick up their heels and snort as
Day after day for weeks the temperature on the they sense the changing weather. The wind rises
stoep remains over the hundred mark. Boreholes and the sky darkens. How large the raindrops
seem as you take deep breaths of the smell of
and windmills, dams and irrigation schemes and
cheap railway rates for fodder lessen the misery wet earth.
and prevent famines. But a long drought, searing Perhaps the rain comes at night, announced by a
the karoo from end to end, is still a feast for the gigantic blue whiplash of lightning that arouses
vultures. And a lizard crawling out of a broken every sleeper, followed by a thunderclap that
ant-heap may be the only living thing to be seen puts further sleep out of the question. Next
for miles. Cloud masses roll up magnificently moment the rain torrents are finding every
before weary eyes that have been deceived too forgotten crevice in the roof. Drought is
often to go on hoping. The billowing clouds drift merciless, but the breaking of the drought is
away again, and there is the merciless sun. Under ferocious.
the heat the whole karoo lies exhausted, and only Smell the karoo after the drought has broken,
the cicadas are singing in the river-bed. and that typical aroma will remain in your
Yet there must come a time when the promise so memory as long as you live. Moist veld has its
often withdrawn is fulfilled at last. Each day own scent; it may vary from district to district,
brings the oppressive thunder weather, with for it is compounded of soil and plant life. Take
everyone staring at the sky, or at the blue-headed a deep breath of the karoo when the rain is still
lizard, the bloukopkoggelmander, that is dripping from the trees. If you are breathing it
supposed to gaze steadfastly into the north when again after thirty, forty years you will renew
rain is on the way. your youth.
When you look out in the morning after heavy Millions of years ago the shallow basin of the
rain the karoo is a glittering sea with small Great Karoo was a vast glacier which became a
islands of bushes. No doubt the telephone wires lake when the ice melted. Then the pent-up
are down and many dams have been washed waters burst through the escarpment and these
away. On the main railway line, perhaps, the karoo rivers tore out the tremendous gorges of
water is cascading across the track, tearing up the Swartberg and other ranges; the gorges
the sleepers, and passenger trains are waiting in which we call poorts, where the precipices rise
the stations. But every spruit is flowing, every- sheer above the traveller for three thousand, four
one knows that the great transformation is at thousand feet. Sometimes, as in Meiring's Poort,
hand. Grass will soon cover the sunbleached the mountain peaks are six thousand feet above
skeletons and grow as high as the fences. the stream.
Revived bushes will wave in the breeze. Such
Some of the world's leading scientists believe
rains are worth millions of pounds, for the karoo
that the Great karoo saw the birth of the first
becomes a land of plenty. mammal. Here, too, millions of years later, the
Rain can be dangerous on the karoo, but hail is ape may have developed into primitive man. The
the menace farmers really fear. At times the hail famous karoo strata, undisturbed since the
lies three feet thick. Roofs are pierced by swamps dried up, have revealed marvellous
hailstones with the force of bullets. I remember specimens of extinct life, and the greatest
three thousand sheep, herded in pens at a karoo discoveries may still lie ahead.
railway station, being killed by hail as swiftly as Who discovered the Great Karoo? The ape-like
though machine-guns had been turned on them. men left no records, and so the Bushmen are the
Even tortoises are found dead on the veld after a first human beings we can recognise in those
severe hailstorm. great spaces. When you come to the white
explorers there is still a mystery which is So the Great Karoo and the Little Karoo have an
unlikely to be solved. I have dealt in a previous official discoverer, while those who went before
work 1 with the "lone grey company before the him are no more than a legend. The explorer who
pioneers"; and in the Cape of the late first described the journey over the unmapped
seventeenth century there were many such mountains was Ensign Isaac Schrijver of Leiden.
adventurers. They were vryburgers, cattle I have a kindly feeling towards this hard-bitten
farmers living-along the mountain ranges that old soldier, for he gave his name to a beautiful
shut off the Boland from the unknown and secluded corner of Saldanha Bay, still
hinterland. The governors at the Castle forbade known as Schrijver's Hoek. He was a reliable
them to wander beyond the limits of the colony; man, according to documents in the Cape
and they were liable to a year's imprisonment Archives, and he had explored Namaqualand as a
and confiscation of their cattle if they broke the sergeant. It is also on record that he was
law. Yet the call of the interior was too strong. entrusted by the Company with the salvaging of
They trekked off secretly over the mountains, the wreck of a Portuguese ship, the Nostra
risking the-freedom they loved, risking their Signora de los Milagros, beyond Cape Agulhas.
lives, to see what lay beyond the barrier. These Others had hidden valuable oddments from the
unknown explorers carried tobacco and beads, wreck and been punished for it; but honest
and they returned with cattle bartered from the Schrijver handed over all the diamonds and
Hottentots. Wisely they kept their secrets. jewels, porcelain and cinnamon, white linen,
exquisite little chests; all the saucers of gold and
flasks containing musk which he found in the
shattered hull of the Nossa Signora. Another
1
"Lords of the Last Frontier" (published by
Howard Timmins)
mission which Schrijver carried out successfully earlier years; but when Schrijver's party
was a search for runaway slaves who were being located the Inqua chief near the present site of
harboured by the Hottentots in the Sandveld to the town of Aberdeen, they had reached
the north of Piketberg. Clearly he was not only a country hitherto unseen by civilised men. On
fearless adventurer, but also something of a the way there Schrijver noted "a plain level as
diplomat. far as the eye could see." Dr. E.E. Mossop, the
Schrijver's adventurous karoo journey arose out historian, who traced Schrijver's tracks, has
of visits paid to the Castle by messengers from shown that this must have been the portion of
the powerful chief of the Inqua Hottentots. These the Great Karoo to the east of Blydeberg.
messengers said that their chief had heard of the Schrijver finally crossed the end of the
white men at the Cape and was anxious to meet Swartberg range, and spent several days
them. His country was rich in cattle, but no white bartering with the Inqua chief near a dramatic
man had ever been there. mountain which he called "Vervallen Casteel"
(ruined castle). Then, driving five hundred
Simon van der Stel selected Isaac Schrijver for
cattle and a flock of sheep before them,
this mission, and gave him twenty-one armed
Schrijver and his men set off on the return
Europeans, some Hottentots, and two wagons
journey. The whole expedition lasted three
loaded with strong drink, tobacco and red
months, and the redoubtable Schrijver rounded
beads. Thus, thirty-seven years after Van
off his report with the words: "To God be
Riebeeck's arrival, the first recorded expedition
thanks for His Grace that we have come hale
crossed the Outeniqua mountains through the
and hearty through so many perils."
elephant path called Attaquas Kloof into the
Little Karoo. So far they were still following Always at the Cape settlement there was the
the trail of unknown and illicit white hunters of urgent demand for meat. Early in the
eighteenth century the Company decided to the mountains. In extreme isolation such men
allow the frontier farmers to move farther became even stronger. They lived under
inland and set up cattle posts. Bold spirits wagon-tents with their families, and evolved as
spread out in search of grazing, leading a distinct type which has not died out to this
incredibly lonely lives, enduring severe day."
hardships, but finding in the karoo the freedom It is clear from the writings of old travellers
they had sought.
that many of the frontier farmers suffered great
One of the most imaginative Afrikaners I hardships. They were cut off by the mountains
know, a man filled with the tradition and from Cape Town, their only market. No passes
folklore of the race, gave me this summing up had been built, and it was impossible to cross
of the early karoo settlers. "They were the the mountains with loaded wagons. Pack-oxen
restless spirits, the hardiest of a tough people," were used, wagons were taken to pieces and
he declared. "Men who had grown up with an re-assembled. The trek to the Cape was such a
appreciation of the easy and pleasant living formidable undertaking that the most distant
naturally preferred to remain in the fine white farmers went to town once in two, three or four
homesteads of the old Cape districts, under the years.
oaks that framed the wide vineyards. They Isolation bred resourcefulness. Some
lived graciously, with fires roaring up their journeyed as far as the Cedarberg to cut timber
chimneys in winter, their silver ornaments for wagons and homes. They tanned the skins
glowing in soft candle-light. Only a really of buck, sheep and smaller animals to make
strong character. could make up his mind to their own velskoene and clothes; moleskin
leave the villages and the settled countryside jackets and heavy leather trousers. Once or
for the dry and distant grazing areas beyond twice a year, perhaps, a smous might reach
them with essentials they could not secure in natives, though the long war with the Bushmen
any other way - bags of gunpowder, coffee was to follow later expansion. The small
beans which they roasted and crushed between Hottentot clans were encountered as the
stones. Bullets they moulded themselves, and pioneers advanced; but the Hottentots, never a
they did not hesitate to melt down their strong or warlike race, welcomed the
precious tin cooking utensils when the supply newcomers and were glad to serve as cattle
of lead ran out. watchers in exchange for brandy and tobacco.
In a land without doctors they had to rely on It is doubtful whether there were ever more
nursing by their wives, on salt and brandy, than forty thousand Hottentots, all told, in the
aloes and herbs and balsams. Weaklings did Cape districts. Early in the eighteenth century
not survive in the karoo, and those who grew came the first great smallpox epidemic, which
up in that germ-free atmosphere were among spread from a Dutch ship, killed a quarter of
the healthiest people on earth. the white people in Cape Town, and almost
wiped out the Hottentot tribes. Far inland, the
A grazing licence cost five pounds a year. But
white settlers realised that solitude protected
there was nothing to keep a man in the
them from the scourge, and the death-roll on
confinement of the six thousand acres allowed
the karoo was negligible. But the Hottentots
on payment of that fee. If his own pasture
failed he could wander away over the horizon thought they had been bewitched. They made
no effort to avoid the mysterious contagion,
with his family, his wagon and his stock. Thus
and simply awaited death in their kraals.
the karoo trekboer was born.
So the Hottentots survived in the hinterland
One hazard the first karoo farmers were
only as scattered remnants. All through the
spared. In the beginning there were no hostile
karoo story you meet the Hottentot shepherd, a
faithful servant in the face of every peril of have been better for the Bushmen if they had
weather or wild beast. His descendants, no longer perished like the Hottentots in the first wave of
of pure Hottentot blood, are still the wise men of smallpox.
the veld, great hunters of jackals and other
CHAPTER 2
vermin, often the trusted advisers of their masters.
PASSING OF THE KAROO BUSHMEN
But the Hottentot race vanished long ago from the
plains where the Dutch explorers found the old VAN RIEBEECK heard tales of little wild folk
chiefs and gave brandy for long-horned oxen. called Sonqua soon after landing, but several
years passed before white men set eyes on this
Live close to nature in some remote corner and strange race. 2 Then, and for centuries after-
you may escape the plagues that ravage mankind. wards, there were some who doubted whether
In the karoo mountains there dwelt a race even the Bushmen were human beings. The early
more primitive than the Hottentots; those elusive Dutch settlers nicknamed them "Bosch-
little people, the Bushmen. The smallpox left manneker", the name given to the orang-outan
them untouched, just as the deadly Spanish of the Dutch East Indies.
influenza epidemic of our own time passed them
by. Uneasily they watched the white farmers It is clear from the narratives of the explorers
entering their age-old karoo hunting grounds. A that the Bushmen lived in the mountains of the
clash was inevitable; yet for most of the interior, and seldom ventured near the coast.
eighteenth century the vast game herds sufficed
for white man and Bushman, and seldom did the 2
It was in 1655 that the Dutch official
Bushmen attack the newcomers. When war was Wintervogel came upon a party of Bushmen near
declared at last, it was the most ruthless war ever a point on the Berg River still known as Sonqua's
fought on South African soil. Perhaps it would Drift. This was the first recorded contact.
One of the first reports described them as "an antiquity of the Bushman race in South Africa
entirely wild nation without houses or cattle, and pointed to their stone implements and
but well-armed with assegai, arrow and bow." other relics as "their unquestionable title
Skirmishes between explorers and Bushmen deeds".
occurred in Van Riebeeck's time; and not long During their golden age the Bushman clans
afterwards three Dutch burghers who were lived in peace with one another, their only
shooting hippo in the Berg River were enemies the beasts of prey. You will never find
murdered by Bushmen. Nevertheless, the a battle scene in the very old Bushman
Bushmen were not regarded as a serious paintings; only such happy events as dancing
menace during the first century of Dutch and hunting. In their caves they were secure. A
colonization. small rock shelter sufficed for a family, but
All this time the Bushmen remained undis- powerful Bushman chiefs selected huge caves
turbed in their great caves on the heights. which became the traditional homes of their
According to their folklore, as the Bushman clans for centuries. Such caves were richly
clans moved down from the north into the adorned with paintings and tribal emblems,
plains of the Great karoo, they found only the and the Bushmen gave these caves vivid names
millions of antelope and other wild beasts. For - the Cave of the Python, the Red Serpent, the
a long time the Bushmen believed they were Black Serpent, the Elephant, the Ostrich.
the only people on earth. To these lairs they carried their springbok and
George William Stow the geologist, true much other meat in triumph. Here they roasted
pioneer in Bushman research, spent forty years their uintjie bulbs, crushed and dried them. They
copying the rock paintings and gathering pounded grass seeds, too, and stored them with
details of the cave artists. He proved the great powdered locusts for hungry winter days. Here
they feasted on the roasted white ants called Lions never troubled the Bushmen, even when
"Bushman rice". Here in the season they brought they were far from their caves. They carried a
the heavy combs dripping with wild honey and secret powder which they sprinkled on their
made the secret mixture with roots that camp fires at night; and the lions found the
transformed it into strong beer. Under these huge aroma so nauseous that they kept their distance:
stone roofs, at the new moon or the full moon, Stow was told that this powder was composed of
they danced the Mo'koma, the "dance of blood", the spores of a peculiar fungoid plant growing
men and women leaping in circles until they only on anthills.
were covered in blood from their noses. The Bushmen had many other old secrets and
When the first thunderstorm of the season peculiarities. Their eyesight was the keenest on
approached, the Bushmen tore up their skin earth, and this was proved in a sensational
karosses. They knew that summer was on the manner late last century by Dr. W.H.I. Bleek, the
way, that they would soon have all the warmth linguist. When he had mastered the Bushman
they needed; and they beat their drums and language, Dr. Bleek took a detailed note of the
danced again: But they feared the lightning. Bushman legend of the “Dawn's Heart” and the
Sometimes the great rocks jutting out over their "Dawn's Heart Child". This showed clearly that
caves were struck by lightning, for these rugged the Bushmen had been observing the movements
projections drew the flashes more easily than the of the planet Jupiter and its satellites with the
smooth cliff-faces. Occasionally the rocks fell, naked eye long before civilised astronomers had
and these were catastrophes indeed. Whole clans made the discoveries which are now common
of Bushmen were crushed or entombed by the knowledge. Their legend was so old that the
fallen rock. Bushmen must have been aware of Jupiter's
sateliites even before Galileo saw them with his the white men entering their old hunting grounds
primitive telescope. without protest. For decade after decade through
the eighteenth century the movement went on
Never did the Bushmen cultivate a single plant,
with only occasional Bushman raids and
but their knowledge of herbs as medicines and
murders; nothing so widespread as to stop the
poisons was a rich legacy, the accumulated
advance of the white settlers or provoke a war.
wealth of their ancestors living century after
century as children of nature. So the cattle farmers trekked first into the land
News in the Bushman country travelled quickly where Ceres now stands, and called it the Warm
Bokkeveld because there were so many
and accurately, and this still occurs in the remote
territories where the Bushmen linger. Some springbok. Beyond lay the much higher and
investigators have fallen back on the theory of larger area which they named the Cold
telepathy. It is far more likely that the news is Bokkeveld. To-day you find vineyards and
carried by the Bushman's clever, traditional wheat, fruit and vegetables in these old districts;
and the oaks planted by the pioneers as far back
smoke signals - thin columns of smoke from
as the seventeentwenties.
damp grass, so faint that the smoke is usually
seen only by Bushman eyes. Yet they never They went beyond the Bokkeveld region to the
progressed beyond the Stone Age: Many white Roggeveld where the wild rye grows. Before the
hunters have seen Bushmen striking off long middle of the eighteenth century they were
flakes of stone to open and dress a springbok. settling in the Calvinia district, then known only
by the Hottentot name Hantam. Ten years later
Some of the great caves of the Bushmen
the valleys between the Langeberg and
dominated mountain passes into the Great Karoo
Swartberg ranges had been settled and the
and Little Karoo. At first the Bushmen watched
boldest spirits had gone on to the Nuweveld
(now Beaufort West) and the Camdeboo, the At last the Bushmen retaliated by killing the
"green heights" of the Hottentots between the overseer with an assegai.
present towns of Graaff-Reinet and Aberdeen. This act of revenge was regarded in the Cape as
Meanwhile others had ventured up into murder. A strong commando was sent up to the
Namaqualand as far as the Kamiesberg. By the frontier and many innocent Bushmen were
seventeen-sixties there were white farmers along massacred. As soon as the commando departed
the Sneeuberg range. Both the Great Karoo and the Bushmen rose across the whole Great Karoo,
Little Karoo had come within the rim of from the Kamiesberg to the Stormberg. Farms
civilization, though it was an insecure foothold were ravaged, farmers and their families were
indeed which the white trekkers had secured. murdered. After that (went on the old Bushman)
After all this time it is still possible to trace the more commandos rode against the Bushmen and
incidents that led to war. George Thompson, the the guerrilla war was fought along the frontier
Cape Town merchant who described his travels year after year.
early last century so accurately, investigated this Bushmen prisoners were sometimes taken all the
point. He found an old Bushman who had lived way to Cape Town. A band of fifty-eight
all his life, on the frontier, and remembered the Bushmen of all ages and both sexes were tried in
peaceful years when the farmers were seldom 1772 for the murder of the burgher Hendrik
troubled by raiders. Teutman and his wife and daughter on the
Then, in the seventeen-seventies, a farmer named Roggeveld border. Some were flogged, others
Coetzee van Reenen sent a white overseer to were hanged or broken on the wheel.
look after his flocks along the Zak River. The Thunberg the botanist was travelling in the
overseer was a brutal man who acted at all times Roggeveld two years later when he met a
as a tyrant and shot Bushmen for no reason at all.
commando which had killed a hundred for the Bushmen poisoned many springs and it
Bushmen; and they told him of another was always difficult to decide whether the water
detachment which had wiped out four hundred was safe. And always there was the thought that
Bushmen in the Sneeuberg. The government they might return to find their homes in ashes,
supplied powder and shot and handcuffs for their cattle stolen, their wives and children
these expeditions: Thunberg noted that members murdered.
of the commando had been wounded by arrows,
So powerful were the Bushmen late in the
but no one had died.
eighteenth century that they almost exterminated
A surgeon who accompanied a commando into the Hottentot remnants and nearly succeeded in
the Bushman country reported that the farmers driving out the white settlers. Farmers in the
used gunpowder and urine as antidotes when distant Sneeuberg appealed to Cape Town for
poisoned by arrows, and many recovered. Those help. "Many thousands of Bushmen have united
who suffered from such wounds asserted, their inward anger and rapacity, and now oppress
however, that they were subject to occasional and injure us as they have never done before,"
attacks of insanity, brought on by peculiar ran the appeal. "We fear for our lives and are too
weather conditions. A significant phrase weak to form commandos. Some of us are
appeared in this surgeon's report: "The Bushmen already flying to save our lives and what little we
have no fear of death." have left."
Apart from the danger, life on commando against Pioneers had reached the Sneeuberg region to the
the Bushmen meant weeks or months of north of the present Graaff-Reinet in the
hardship. The burghers were often hampered by seventeen-seventies, and there were so many
horse-sickness and lack of ammunition. They Bushmen in the mountains that they named the
suffered from hunger and thirst; especially thirst, country the "Boesmanstreek". Great herds of
wildebeest, springbok and zebra roamed the Hordes of Bushmen attacked the wagons of the
plains. The grazing was so fine that not only Cape meat contractor north of Swellendam in the
sheep but cattle could be kept there. It was a seventeen-nineties. They killed one white man
paradise compared with other stretches of the and captured eleven thousand sheep and two
karoo, but for the hostility of the Bushmen. After hundred oxen. A commando from Swellendam
a few years the farmers had to trek away again. overtook them and three hundred Bushmen were
For more than a decade the Bushmen shot.
successfully barred the way to this rich area. Towards the end of the century some farmers on
Three large commandos of burghers, half-breeds the northern border started a conciliation
and Hottentots took the field against the movement. Governor Macartney told the people
Bushmen and scoured the northern border for of Graaff-Reinet : "To free you from the rapacity
hundreds of miles. Five hundred Bushmen who of the savage Bosjesmen will, I fear, for some
refused to surrender were shot, and prisoners time require vigorous measures." He urged the
were apprenticed to farmers for a term of years. farmers to show mercy except when defending
But the wild Bushmen were fighting for their their families and flocks. Macartney added: "The
lives, knowing that the white invaders would rob Bosjesmans are to be left in possession of their
them of their hunting grounds. Right up to the just rights and habitations, and are not to be
end of the eighteenth century the war went in molested, nor their children taken from them or
favour of the Bushmen. When Governor van made slaves or servants of, on any pretence
Plettenburg led his famous expedition in 1778 whatsoever."
there was not a white farmer left on the So the farmers shot zebras for the Bushmen
Sneeuberg plains. (their favourite meat )and even distributed cattle
in the hope of making peace with their wild
enemies. The missionaries Kicherer and Edwards therefore be urged that the savages are but
set up a school for Bushmen on the Zak River, revenging themselves for being dispossessed
but they were often in danger and declared: of their own country. At the time when the
"Treachery is inspired by a desire to revenge Europeans settled in the Roggeveld, in the
the cruel wrongs suffered from the white men's Snow Mountains, in Agter-Bruintjeshoogte and
hand." This was an eighteenth-century "Mau other parts there were no Bushmen there. It
Mau campaign" in the karoo, and it is difficult was the wealth of the colonists which first
to see how either the Bushmen, with their attracted them thither, from their own proper
savage instincts, or the colonists acting in self- district on the banks of the Great River."
defence, could have behaved differently. The This was not an entirely accurate statement,
policy during the last years of the Dutch East though it was no doubt true of certain parts of
India Company was to exterminate the the frontier. It appears that Lichtenstein was
Bushmen, and between 1786 and 1795 the anxious to counteract the impression spread by
Bushman casualties were at least two thousand the English traveller Sir John Barrow, who had
five hundred killed and more than six hundred been through the country about five years
captured. Not many adult male Bushmen were
previously and had denounced the farmers.
taken alive. They fought to, the last arrow.
"The name of Bosjeman is held in horror and
Lichtenstein, the observant German doctor detestation, and a farmer thinks he cannot
who travelled widely in the hinterland, proclaim a more meritorious action than the
summed up in favour of the colonists. "The murder of one of these people," Barrow
Bosjemen did not originally inhabit the asserted. "A boer from Graaff-Reinet, being
countries whence they now carry on their most asked in the secretary's office if the savages
injurious warfare," he declared. "It cannot were numerous and troublesome on the road,
replied he had shot only four, with as much According to Lichtenstein, there was little
composure and indifference as if he had been trouble with the Bushmen in areas where game
speaking of four partridges. I have myself was plentiful. When he was travelling with
heard one of the humane colonists boast of General Janssens, some of the farmers on the
having destroyed with his own hands near northern border lit signal fires and brought a
three hundred of these wretches." party of friendly Bushmen to the camp. They
were given meat and dismissed.
Yet the critical Barrow realized that the white
people of the frontier lived in a state of Here and there the conciliation movement
perpetual danger. He noted that a farmer could showed good results. Major Collins, a British
not walk five hundred yards from his official sent round the country by Governor
homestead without a musket, and added: "To Caledon, reported: "Several inhabitants of the
bear a life of such constant dread and anxiety, north-eastern districts appear to have exerted
a man must be accustomed to it from his themselves with as much zeal to acquire the
infancy, or unacquainted with one that is friendship of the Bosjemen as they had before
better." In some places he found vineyards, done to blot them from the Creation." Collins
peach-trees, almonds, apples and pear-trees was referring to the Sneeuberg area, where the
loaded with fruit, on deserted farms. farmers had no serious trouble with the Bushmen
Lichtenstein mentioned the bravery of the wife after the opening of the nineteenth century.
Elsewhere the policy often broke down in times
of Veld Commandant Gerotz. While her husband
of drought. The hungry Bushmen were unable to
was away, Bushmen drove off a number of
resist the temptation of raiding cattle.
sheep. She pursued them on horseback accom-
panied only by a Hottentot, fought them and put Always the Bushmen observed the law of the
them to flight. wild. If a Bushman deserted his wife she
murdered the children. When a mother died, the thus arousing in the breasts of thousands a thirst
babies were buried with her. Twins were killed for revenge and plunder."
at birth. Bushmen threw their children to the Yet there were always farmers who had doubts
lions to save their own lives. Old people were about the wisdom of the war against the
put in thorn-bush kraals to die of hunger when Bushmen. Veld Commandant Gert van der Walt,
the clan moved on. Moffat the missionary who settled in the present Colesberg district,
declared: "Bushmen will kill their children reported to the government in 1825 that he had
without remorse if they are illshaped, in want of been fighting the Bushmen from the time he
food, or where the father has forsaken the could use a gun, but he could not see that this
mother; and bury them alive rather than allow vindictive retaliation had done any good. For
them to fall into the hands of enemies." several years he had tried to live in peace with
Moffat also explained why the conciliation the Bushmen and Landdrost Stockenstroom had
policy showed little success until the Bushmen encouraged this attitude. Van der Walt said that
had dwindled in numbers to the point where they he supplied the Bushmen with goats and other
were no longer able to resist successfully. "Past food, and in dry seasons the Bushmen looked
sufferings and past offences on both sides had after his flocks.
produced a feeling of hatred so universal that it Away in the west at the same period, George
was of no avail to pacify one party while in other Thompson (the Cape Town traveller and
directions, upon the smallest provocation, their merchant I have already mentioned) rode into the
compatriots were being shot down like wild Roggeveld and heard of other efforts to arrange a
beasts without pity, and men, women and truce with the Bushmen. Thompson said that the
children frequently indiscriminately slaughtered, remote country he saw on this journey was
visited only by a few vagabond smugglers and
missionaries, and claimed that his description last visit. If the report was satisfactory he gave
was the first to be written. He hired horses to them sheep, goats, trinkets and tobacco.
ride from farm to farm, and found the settlers "a "Truly these frontier boors have no very enviable
frank and hospitable, but uncultivated set of life of it," Thompson commented. "A Bushman
men, kind to the traveller, but constantly kills five hundred sheep in a day." Thomson
embroiled in civil disputes with each other and in could not find a Hottentot willing to accompany
a barbarous warfare of reciprocal aggression him as a servant into Bushmanland. He called at
with the miserable Bushmen." many homesteads which were built like clay
He stayed with Veld Cornet Nel in the forts with loop-holes. Yet there were men willing
Roggeveld, and was entertained by a Bushman to face all the risks of isolation. Far up in the
woman playing the ramkie, an instrument with Kamiesberg, in a lonely spot, Thompson met an
half a calabash at one end and strings like a Englishman named Martin, a man of seventy
violin producing a dull, monotonous thrumming. who had lived in the wilderness for so many
Nel told Thompson that he had accompanied years that he had almost forgotten his own
thirty commandos against the Bushmen in thirty language.
years. On one occasion two hundred Bushmen Farmers informed Thompson that Bushmen,
had been massacred and their children had been when taken young enough, made useful servants.
carried back into the colony. Bushman atrocities Those who had grown up in the wilds seldom
called for vengeance. However, the district had remained on the farms. "They prefer sloth,
become fairly peaceful as the result of a pact Nel liberty and hunger to labour, servitude and
had made with the Bushman leader. Every third plenty," Thompson summed up. "They make
full moon a band of Bushmen called at his farm dangerous enemies when they escape because of
and told him what they had been doing since the the knowledge of the farms they have gained."
However, a loyal Bushman shepherd must have by the Victoria West magistrate ended in charges
been a treasure; for he knew exactly where to against the burghers being withdrawn.
find grazing and brought his sheep back in fine In 1883 four Bushmen (a man and his wife, his
condition. Bushman servants on the farms were sister and one child) were shot dead by the three
paid only in food. brothers Steyn near Kenhardt. The corpses were
When did the war against the Bushmen end? found by members of the Northern Border
Certainly the Bushmen were still a force to be Police, and the three brothers were charged with
reckoned with in certain northern areas at the murder before a judge and jury at the Criminal
period of the Great Trek. Long afterwards there Sessions in Cape Town. Funds were raised in the
were occasional forays and murders. In the country for the defence. The brothers declared
remote Prieska district as later as 1881 a farmer that the Bushman was wanted for stock theft, and
named Barend Burger was killed by a poisoned that they were obliged to shoot to prevent him
arrow. A few years later Bushmen attacked a from escaping. All three were acquitted amid
police patrol in the Northern Cape, and the life of cheers.
Constable Stapleton was saved by his officer, Thus for almost a century the farmers on the
Captain Bellew, who sucked the arrow poison Cape frontier regarded the wild Bushmen as
out of the wound. deadly enemies. The most intense period of the
So it was not surprising that some border farmers war was the last three decades of the eighteenth
clung to the idea that Bushmen should be shot at century; but only when the last shattered clans of
sight. There was an affair near the Orange River the little people had crept away into the Kalahari
in which a force under Commandant van sands did the white families on isolated farms
Niekerk shot nearly fifty Bushmen, including achieve a real sense of security.
some women and children; but an inquiry started
Tales of the Bushman war are among the own deeds. He was torn to pieces by the dogs of
traditions of the old karoo families. One beloved Hans Bezuidenhout.
ouma after another, sitting in her chair by the Bushmen tortured many of their victims,
fire, has passed on these stories of the trek long especially Hottentots found in charge of the
ago from some pleasant corner of the old Cape, white men's cattle. The Bushmen tore out their
over the passes on to the plains; stories of the fingernails, scalped them, and finally dragged
wagon life; memories of hazardous childhood out their bowels.
and the atrocities of Bushman raiders.
One commando, finding it impossible to come
They were ghastly memories. In the remote Zak to grips with the Bushmen, killed a hippo and
Rivier district on the edge of Bushmanland, a left it on the river-bank as bait. From their
field cornet named Steenkamp was the victim of hiding-place they saw the Bushman spies
a sudden attack. With him in the little homestead examining the carcase and hurrying off to
were his wife and fourteen children. All day he spread the news. When the Bushmen came to
defended them, his wife firing one of the guns, the feast they fell into the ambush and more
the children loading. Then in the evening than a hundred were shot down with many of
Steenkamp was struck by a poisoned arrow and their women and children. Only five escaped by
died. For some reason the Bushmen retired swimming.
without killing the rest of the family.
When a commando attacked a Bushman cave
Avantine was a Bushman chief who kept the
they used shields of plaited branches or closely-
whole Nuweveld in terror for months. He sent
woven mats to ward off the poisoned arrows.
threatening messages to all the scattered farms,
Storming parties were covered by the finest
so that no husband dared leave his family marksmen, but rushing a cave often meant
unguarded. Avantine's end was as bloody as his
casualties. Sometimes a cave was blocked with Bushmen shouted defiance with his last arrow
brushwood and the Bushmen were smoked out on the string. It was an act of such bravery that
or smothered. Seldom did a Bushman ask for the commando leader called to him, offering to
mercy. If he were shot through an arm he would spare tits life if he would surrender. "A chief
use his foot to draw his bow. knows how to die!" retorted the Bushman,
releasing the arrow and jumping headlong over
The last stand of the Bushmen in the Sneeuberg
the precipice. For many years afterwards the
made a saga which is still told in the district
whitening bones of the Bushmen were to be
after a century and a half. All but one Bushman
seen on the inaccessible ledges.
clan had departed or made peace with the
farmers. This clan, having retreated into the Another dramatic episode was the
mountains with some stolen cattle, was extermination of the Bushmen in the Cradock
surrounded by the pursuing commando. The district as late as the eighteen-thirties. The
Bushmen were cut off among the rocks at the raiders had been coming down from their
edge of a precipice, and here they turned at bay mountain lairs and stealing horses, and the
for the last time. government agreed to a punitive commando.
One after another the Bushmen fell as the More than a hundred burghers under the
sharpshooters fired. Dying and dead rolled over redoubtable old Commandant Louw Pretorius
a projecting ledge as the commando pressed cornered the main body of Bushmen in their
home the attack, until only one Bushman great ancestral cave. The approach was
remained alive. This man stood on the farthest difficult owing to thick bush in the ravines,
point of the overhanging rock, in position where and the mouth of the cave was screened by
no member of the commando dared to follow. trees. Pretorius disposed his commando so that
The commando stopped firing as the last of the the Bushmen could not escape, and then sent
his interpreter to parley, with the enemy and No sooner had Du Plessis returned to the
offer terms of surrender. commando than the attack began. Burghers
The interpreter, a courageous lad of fourteen crept up under cover of shields, but there were
named Jacobus du Plessis, walked alone into many casualties. Seven men of the commando
were killed by Korel's arrows, and the
the cave and gave his message. Korel, the
chief, was a one-eyed Bushman with a great attackers fell back. Pretorius became worried
about this failure. His second-in-command,
reputation as a bowman. He used a large bow
Nicolaas Erasmus, then suggested that a more
and long arrows, and often secured a kill at one
effective screen against the poisoned arrows
hundred and thirty yards. Du Plessis found
Koral sitting in a circle of his warriors. The might be improvised by using the coarse,
young envoy was treated with respect, and heavy, woollen duffel cloaks which the men
had with them. Thirty volunteers crept forward
Korel listened carefully. "I can promise you
carrying a long framework covered with coats;
and your people safe conduct to my
and as the arrows struck, they became
commandant," said Du Plessis. "It is hopeless
entangled and hung down like bristles.
to resist. Your lives will be spared."
Sharpshooters were posted to deal with any
Korel had no confidence in the white man's Bushmen who exposed themselves, and under
mercy. When young Du Plessis had used every cover of the cloaks the column of men broke
possible argument, Korel rose and exclaimed: into the cave. Korel fell dead. His followers
"Go! Be gone! Tell your commandant that I am went on fighting until the last man had been
not a child, and that I have a strong heart. Go! killed.
Be gone! My last words are that I have a
Pretorius then led his commando in search of
quiver full of arrows, and I shall defend myself
other Bushmen outposts and located another
as long as I have life left. Go! Be gone!"
cave where a chief known as Uithaalder defied Shouting of the Big Men." Sometimes the nights
them for days. A frontal attack would have been along the Orange River are weird, and you can
impossible without serious loss of life, so the almost hear the echoes of those cries of anguish.
commando sat down to starve the Bushmen out. All the battles of the Bushmen were not with the
Escape seemed to be out of the question, for the white men. In the Calvinia district there is a
cave was set in the face of a precipice. Never- narrow mountain defile called Moordenaar's
theless, the Bushmen scaled that precipice in the Poort, where Bushmen murdered several white
darkness, every man, woman and child. Silently farmers. Close by, six large cairns mark the
they carried their little possessions along ledges scene of a desperate fight between Bushmen and
where even a baboon might have been baffled. Hottentots long before the first white trekboers
They were never seen again in the Cradock entered the country.
district.
Kaffirs and other native races in the east looked
Not every expedition was so fortunate. A hunting
upon the Rtishmen as beasts of prey and gave no
party of white farmers rode to the Orange River quarter. Korannas in the eighteen-thirties were
near Pella to shoot hippo, and were ambushed by
still capturing Bushman children and selling
Bushmen while returning through a narrow pass them into slavery for guns or brandy. Often the
in the Kaabas mountains. Most of the hunters
heartless Korannas made eunuchs of the
were killed by showers of poisoned arrows and
Bushman boys to tame them. Landdrost (later
stones. I have walked through that menacing Sir Andries) Stockenstroom described a scene
pass, with the mountains rising sheer a thousand within his own experience when Kaffirs and
feet from the sand on both sides. To this day, the Bastards attacked a Bushman clan. "They
people of Pella mission told me, the pass is
murdered the Bushmen and their women by the
called by its old Bushman name, meaning "the most abominable torture, threw those children
which were too young to live without nursing on That ancient Bushman had seen the coming of
a heap, covered them with straw and burnt them the commandos, the disappearance of his clan,
to death," Stockenstroom reported. "Some the loss of the old hunting grounds. But he spoke
grown-up ones they cut the flesh from off the bravely to Stow of earlier times, and ended
bottom of their feet and left them to starve, and proudly. "We are free men," he said. "We love
such children as could serve them they carried the sun."
off."
CHAPTER 3
George William Stow studied not only Bushman THE SPRINGBOK MIGRATIONS
relics and paintings but the survivors of the race.
The countless springboks are my flock
When the long war ended, a few tired old people
Spread o'er the unbounded plain.
found their way back like homing animals to the -Thomas Pringle
great caves of their ancestors. They came in
summer to gather honey from the high crevices THOSE vast springbok migrations which
where the bees had made their hives from time devastated the karoo districts of South Africa
immemorial. almost up to the end of last century must have
formed the most dramatic scenes in the whole
Stow once encountered a centenarian Bushman
world of mammals.
among the rocks of his fathers near the Orange
River. "He was the oldest looking man I had One cannot see everything, but I am sorry
even seen," Stow noted. "He had more the these cavalcades of fur and flesh occurred
appearance of a skeleton with a shrivelled before my time. There was a trekboer once, a
parchment skin drawn over it. He looked like a natural artist as a story teller, whose tale gave
man of past ages revisiting the earth, a fossil me the human side of it; one of those tales
man."
which carried the ring of personal experience Molopo river where it forms the southern
in every vivid detail. border of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Gert
noticed that the Bushman seemed worried
This man had left the Transvaal with his
about something. In the middle of the morning
family in the eighteenseventies as a boy of ten.
the Bushman left his oxen suddenly and ran
They were members of the first "Thirstland
off into the bush on the high northern bank of
trek," a group of people impelled by real or
the river. At noon Gert stopped for the usual
imaginary grievances, and certainly by a
outspan and meal. His wife had just settled
restless spirit, to seek a new country. Many
down to the cooking when the Bushman raced
died in the desert. Some reached Angola. But
into camp and urged the party to inspan and
this family of Van der Merwes broke away
follow him immediately. "The trekbokke are
from the ill-fated wagons and headed south.
coming," the Bushman declared. "It will be
They spent their lives trekking with their
death to stay in the river-bed."
sheep and cattle in search of grass. When the
old people died, the son Gert went on living Gert packed up, wondering whether the alarm
the only life he knew; sometimes in was justified, but remembering that he had his
Bechuanaland, in the Kalahari and often in the family with him. The Bushman led the wagon
North West Cape. By the time he was twenty- out of the river-bed, up the north bank to a hill.
one he had a wife and three children, two Van der Merwe drove the wagon up the hill as
coloured shepherds and a Bushman touleier to far as the oxen would pull it. Then they went to
lead the oxen and find the way from one the summit of the hill and the Bushman pointed.
water-hole or vlei to the next.
At first Gert could see nothing unusual, but later
One morning Gert van der Merwe's wagon he observed a faint cloud of dust along the
was plodding along the dry, hard bed of the horizon. It was miles away and did not suggest
any great danger to him. However, the Bushman up enough smoke to startle the buck and cause
persuaded him to cut and pile thorn bushes as a them to swing aside.
barrier round the wagon and cattle. The Gert waited on the hill summit. The buck were
Bushman explained that if the running still hidden in their dust screen, but hares and
springbok came over the hill instead of round it jackals and other small animals were racing past
they would trample every living thing in their the hill and taking no notice of the human
path to death. However, he hoped the thorn bush beings. Snakes were out in the open, too,
and the wagon would make them swerve. moving fast and seeking cover under the rocks
After protecting his wagon and stock, Gert on the hill. Gert and his men threw stones at the
climbed the hill again. By now the dust was snakes that came too close, but the snakes
only a few miles away, rising high in the air and seemed to be dominated by a greater fear.
spread over a wide front. Gert's hill appeared to Meerkat families and field mice also appeared in
be in the centre of the oncoming game. Now, for large numbers.
the first time, he felt a little nervous, for he At last came a faint drumming. No doubt the
realized that anything could happen if such a Bushman had sensed this drumming hours
stampede passed through the camp. So he before, with his ear to the ground. Only now
ordered his wife and children into the wagon could Gert hear it. The cloud of dust was dense
and made the dogs fast under the wagon tent. and enormous, and the front rank of the
With the aid of the two coloured men and the springbok, running faster than galloping horses,
Bushman he gathered heaps of dry wood and could be seen. They were in such numbers that
placed them in front of the wagon. By throwing Gert found the sight frightening. He could see a
green stuff on top of each pile he hoped to send front line of buck at least three miles long, but
he could not estimate the depth. Ahead of the
main body were swift voorlopers, moving along the wagon and were jammed in the wheels,
as though they were leading the army. injured and trampled upon. The wagon
When the buck came within a mile of the hill became the centre of a mass of dead and
the Bushman ran to the wagon and climbed in dying buck; and Gert saw more biltong than
despite the growling of the dogs. He was he could have secured in a year's expensive
taking no chances. Gert and the coloured men shooting. But the thorn barrier had broken,
then moved back, pausing only to light the and the buck were among the cattle. Before
fires. They remained with the cattle, which long the terrified, bellowing cattle stampeded
had sensed the danger and were milling round and vanished into the dust in the direction of
and lowing nervously. Gert's wife wanted the river. Gert had to let them go. There was
him inside the wagon; but he was gripped by only death for anyone who ventured after
the vast spectacle and climbed on to the hood them among the horns and hooves of the
for a better view. buck.
At the height of the rush, said Gert, the noise
The first solid groups of buck swept past on
was overwhelming. Countless hooves
both sides of the hill. After that the streams
powdered the surface to fine dust, and
of springbok were continuous, making for the
everyone found it hard to breathe. Gert's
river and the open country beyond. Then the
wife, who had been watching the rush with
pressure increased, the buck became more
frightened interest, had to draw the blankets
crowded. No longer was it possible for them
over herself and the children. The dust had
to swerve aside when they reached the fires
almost smothered them. Everything in the
and the wagon. Gert said he could have
wagon was an inch deep in pale yellow dust,
flicked the horde with his whip from where
and the Coloured men had also turned yellow.
he sat on the wagon tent. Some crashed into
Within an hour the main body of springbok buck had brushed off all herbage in their
had passed, but that was not the end of the passing, and splintered the young trees so that
spectacle. Until long after sunset, hundreds they would never grow again.
upon hundreds of stragglers followed the Far in the distance Gert thought he could see a
great herd. Some were exhausted, some few of his oxen. After breakfast he set off with
crippled, some bleeding. Gert wondered what his men to recover them. Every donga leading
had happened to the hares and jackals, and into the river, every little gully was filled with
the snakes which had not taken cover in time. buck. It seemed that the first buck had paused
Next day he found the answer. on the brink, considering the prospects of
All night lone buck passed the wagon. The air leaping across. Before they could decide, the
cleared, but dust rose again when there was ruthless mass was upon them. Buck after buck
any movement in the camp. At daybreak Gert was pushed into the donga, until the hollow
climbed the hill to see whether he could find was filled and the irresistible horde went on
his cattle. He had food, and there was a over the bodies.
water-hole not far away in the dry river-bed; Other sights reminded Gert of the fate he and
but without the oxen he was stranded. his family had escaped by accepting the
The morning air was so clear, the day so Bushman's warning. Small animals were lying
bright, that Gert felt for a moment as though dead everywhere - tortoises crushed almost to
the events of the previous day had a pulp, fragments of fur that had been hares. A
nightmare quality. Then he saw that the tree, pointing in the direction of the advancing
landscape, which had been covered with trees buck, had become a deadly spike on which
of fair sizes, green with food for his cattle, two springbok were impaled.
were gaunt stumps and bare branches. The
For a fortnight Gert camped on that hill beside fathers and grandfathers. I am never satisfied
the Molopo, searching for his cattle. He found with a legend when I can find the living
half of them. The fate of the others remained a memory, so I sought more survivors, men in
mystery. They might have been borne along their seventies and eighties. Two of them were
by the impetus of the stampede until they fell over ninety, and they had seen a lot; but they
and were trampled to death; or they might spoke to me in wonder of the trekbokke.
have escaped from the living trap far away
I know that the mighty elephants set out on
from the wagon. Gert inspanned the survivors
slow migrations, sometimes in large herds.
thankfully and the wagon rolled on, away The great treks of the North American bison,
from the scene of destruction. When he told the caribou moving northwards, were
the tale, it was clear that he regarded it as the marvellous sights. The little lemmings of
most memorable episode in a life which he
Norway, descending from their mountain
regarded as the finest on earth. "Ons lewe
homes in millions to lay waste the
lekker. Dit is vir ons heeltemal goed countryside, have been studied and discussed
genoeg," declared Gert at the end of his story. for hundreds of years. But the springbok also
"We live well. It is absolutely good enough
moved resolutely over wide areas in millions.
for us.
They, too, were drowned in thousands when
they came to rivers or the sea.
Such was the experience which came unbid- I once met a man who kept a store on the
den to farmers and their families, usually in banks of the Orange River late last century.
lonely places, though nowadays it is hard to He saw the springbok form a living bridge
find anyone who watched the stampede. There over the river as they raced towards the
are legends which men heard from their Kalahari "to reach better pastures," so he said.
Many perished so that the main body might That year, too, Cochran watched thousands of
cross with dry hooves on their backs. springbok trekking through Kenhardt village.
Then there was an ex-trooper of the old Cape Everyone in the place seemed to be shooting
Police named Cochran who had to patrol the from his stoep. It was probably the most
devastating migration within living memory.
south bank of the Orange River in 1897, along
a fence put up in the hope of keeping the Police gave the alarm and distributed
ammunition to farmers at half-price. The
rinderpest out of the Cape Colony. Cochran
damage was tremendous, but it might have
saw the migrating springbok charge the fence
been worse. For the invasion ceased suddenly.
along a front of five hundred yards and bring
it down. The leading springbok fell and were The springbok horde turned and raced back to
trampled and crushed; and the stench was so the Kalahari. It was said that rain had fallen
behind them; and the north wind had brought
revolting that a gang of Hottentots had to be
them, over hundreds of miles, the irresistible
employed digging trenches and burying the
smell of damp earth and young grass.
buck. "I collected two pairs of enormous
springbok horns from the dead at the fence," A farmer in the Calvinia district pointed out to
Cochran told me. "They were so large that me a plateau which rose gradually from the
everyone wanted to buy them. Some of the plain but ended in a precipice. Long ago, he
young troopers with me flogged their said, the Bushmen saw thousands of springbok
souvenirs in the Upington bars for a few feeding there during a migration. They drove
bottles of lager. I got six pounds for mine, but them cleverly towards the precipice, and then
I should have taken them to England and shot an arrow at one buck near the edge. As
given them to a museum. They were record they expected, the panic-stricken wounded
horns." buck jumped over the precipice, and the herd
instinct impelled thousands of buck to follow. Francis Masson of Kew, gave the earliest
Thus the Bushmen secured the greatest feast description of this antelope. Masson
of last century. They sent word far and wide to accompanied Dr. Thunberg into a country
the clans, they gorged and they danced. For called "Koud Bocke Veld" or "cold country of
years the bones of the springbok lay in deep antelopes, so named from a species called
depressions at the foot of the precipice. springbock." Masson declared: "This animal
when hunted, instead of running, avails itself
Trained naturalists seem to have missed the
of surprising springs or leaps."
springbok migrations. Thus the scientific
picture can be built up only from hearsay and During a later journey, Masson reported that
the scanty records left by farmers, hunters and since the Cold Bokkeveld had been settled by
travellers. John Millais painted the buck, but white people the springbok were no longer so
very few cameras were turned on the massed plentiful. Once in seven or eight years,
herds. Descriptions are vivid enough and tally however, the springbok came in flocks of
extremely well until you come to the point many hundreds of thousands from the interior,
where the observers try to explain the spreading over the whole country and not
migrations. leaving a blade of grass or a shrub. Peasants
were obliged to guard their cornfields night
The migratory springbok belonged mainly to
the old Cape Colony. They were common in and day, or the springbok would cause a
famine wherever they passed.
the Orange Free State and Transvaal, but the
enormous herds were found in the Kalahari Masson remarked that the migrating springbok
and the Karoo. Van Riebeeck and his men were always followed by lions. "It is
never saw a springbok. It was less than two observed, where a lion is, there is a large open
centuries ago that the English gardener, space," he wrote. (A later observer declared
that a lion borne onward by the avalanche of Landdrost (afterwards Sir Andries)
buck was crushed to death, though it left much Stockenstroom of Graaff-Reinet wrote to the
evidence of its wrath.) Masson himself Colonial Secretary about the springbok in
admitted that he never saw more than twenty 1821, a great drought year. "They have come
springbok in a herd; but he met a party of from the parched desert in such droves that all
Dutchmen who had been pursuing Bushmen, numerical description must appear
and they informed him that they had seen exaggerated," he reported. "An eye witness
great flocks of springbok to the north. can only believe the fact that farms have been
left on account of the exhausted state to which
Then comes the first of many theories. Masson
they have been reduced by these animals,
thought the springbok were forced southwards
by dry seasons. When rain fell they returned to which rendered the support of cattle on the
same farms impossible."
the interior. Thomas Pringle the poet formed
the same opinion about half a century later, Stockenstroom also wrote to Pringle on the
when he saw the face of the country near the subject. "It is scarcely possible for a person
Little Fish River speckled with springbok as admiring the springbok thinly scattered over
far as the eye could reach. "We calculated we the plains to figure to himself that these
had sometimes within view not less than ornaments of the desert can often become as
twenty thousand of these beautiful animals," destructive as locusts," he wrote. "The
Pringle recorded. "They were probably part of incredible numbers which sometimes pour in
one of the great migratory swarms which, after from the north during protracted droughts,
long-continued droughts, sometimes inundate distress the farmer inconceivably."
the colony from the northern wastes." When the springbok approached (said
Stockenstroom) the farmers surrounded their
fields with heaps of dry manure, the fuel of white with springbucks, myriads of which
the Sneeuberg, and set fire to it in the hope covered the plains." He summed up: "On the
that the hordes would turn aside from the failure during drought of the stagnant pools on
smoke. This seldom proved effective. Often which the springbucks rely, they pour down
the buck carried flocks of sheep along with like the devastating curse of Egypt from their
them in the mad stampede, and the owners native plains in the interior."
never saw them again.
Sir John Fraser, whose father was the Dutch
Stockenstroom gave much thought to the Reformed Church minister at Beaufort West in
mystery and stated boldly that although the 1849, left a memorable impression of the
farmers were baffled, he had solved the springbk invasion of the village in that year. A
migration problem. The springbok, he pointed smous drove into the village one day looking
out, multiplied in the deserts to the south of bewildered, and told the people that countless
the Orange River. There the herds were buck were on the way, leaving the veld bare.
undisturbed save by an occasional Bushman This report was not taken seriously. Soon
hunter. Finally the desert swarmed with buck. afterwards the people of Beaufort West were
Then a drought would leave the water-holes awoken one morning by the trampling of all
empty and the soil parched. Thirst drove the kinds of game. Springbok filled the streets and
springbok out of the desert, and they returned gardens, and they were accompanied by
only when rain had fallen on their secluded wildebeest, blesbok, quagga and eland. For
plains. three full days the trekbokke passed the
That was Stockenstroom's view. Not long village, and they left the veld looking as
though it had been consumed by fire.
afterwards the hunter, Major Cornwallis
Harris, saw the Griqualand West area "literally
Some observers have stated that a migration David Livingstone watched a small migration
usually started with small herds of springbok in 1875, and formed his own opinion. He
becoming restless and seeking their own kind. discovered that the springbok often left their
They gathered in larger and larger herds, northern areas at a time when grass and water
moving as inevitably as the tides. Sometimes were plentiful. "The cause of the migration
the trekbokke sauntered along their instinctive seems to be their preference for places where
paths. The kids travelled in a sort of migrating they can watch the approach of a foe,"
nursery on one side of the main body of buck; suggested Livingstone. "Oxen are often
and at intervals the ewes would visit them and terrified in high grass. The springbok
suckle their young. Suddenly huge groups of possesses this feeling in an intense degree and
buck would take fright and begin "pronking", becomes uneasy as the Kalahari grass grows
with backs arched, in twenty-foot leaps. Then tall. Vegetation being scantier in the more arid
came the stampede, all dashing along faster south, the herds turn in that direction. As they
than horses and even more gracefully. They advance and increase in numbers the pasturage
grazed hungrily but hastily and passed on gets so scarce that they are obliged to cross
leaving only torn earth. On the farms they the Orange and become a pest of the sheep
broke through any wire fencing they farmer in a country which contains little of
encountered; though it was only towards the their favourite food."
end of last century that they met this I found confirmation of Livingstone's theory
obstruction. Fearlessly they surged between
in the more recent observations of G.W.
homesteads and outbuildings. They filled the
Penrice, a naturalist who studied the springbok
dams and trampled their drowning and their
herds in the coastal belt of Angola. "At certain
dead ruthlessly in the mud.
seasons they congregate in one vast herd and
trek to some other veld where they again weeks with rich, succulent vegetation," Scully
disperse into smaller troops," Penrice wrote. went on. "This occurs at the season when the
"One never finds springbok in country where springbuck fawns are born, and when,
there is high grass; they seem to like to be able consequently, the does require green food.
to see all round. During one year of Hence the westward `trek', which is, I believe,
exceptionally heavy rain on the coast the grass of hoar-ancient origin."
grew very long, which resulted in all the buck
Scully described the most sensational of all
trekking farther south to a more sandy veld."
recorded springbok migrations (in 1892) which
The author and poet, William Charles Scully, ended in the South Atlantic. "The springbucks
was magistrate of Springbokfontein in as a rule live without drinking," he pointed out.
Namaqualand when the last springbok "Sometimes, however - perhaps once in ten
migrations came that way. He, too, had a years - they develop a raging thirst and rush
theory. He said that although the motive madly forward until they find water. It is not
seemed to have puzzled hunters and naturalists many years ago since millions of them crossed
from time immemorial, the explanation was the mountain range and made for the sea. They
really simple and obvious. Rain fell in dashed into the waves, drank the salt water, and
Bushmanland in summer, but the winter was died. Their bodies lay in one continuous pile
rainless. Bushmanland was bounded on the along the shore for over thirty miles, and the
west by granite mountains rising from the stench drove the trekboers who were camped
sandy plain. "Here no summer rains fall, but in near the coast far inland."
early winter the south-west wind brings Some farmers in the track of the trekbokke
soaking showers, and the sandy plains lying believed that the movement was due to disease,
among the mountains become clothed for a few such as brandsiekte (scab) or rinderpest. There
is evidence that the rinderpest years of 1896-97 opinions on the subject, and finally declared: "I
left the springbok untouched, though do not think they afford sufficient evidence to
brandsiekte was certainly present in some of justify any hard-and-fast conclusion. It is a fact
those shot. But the theory of illness is that there are not sufficient, carefully collected,
complicated by clear evidence that while the intelligently considered and rigorously tested
trekbokke looked emaciated in certain years, facts to enable us to come to any definite
during other treks they were obviously sleek conclusion as to the whole ‘mentality’ of these
and healthy. treks. Shall we now ever obtain such facts?"
Mr. S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner (Olive No one plotted the springbok migration routes
Schreiner's husband) made a determined accurately, so that significent evidence on that
attempt to solve the mystery during the 1896 point has been lost. It is believed that they
migration, the last of the great cavalcades of never went back on their tracks, but travelled a
trekbokke ever seen. Travelling by Cape cart in huge square or oval. No one knows how long a
the wake of the migration, he found every trek lasted, though it has been stated that the
homestead festooned with biltong. It was trekbokke were always back in their original
estimated that hundreds of thousands of buck haunts within six months to a year. The speed
had been shot in the Prieska district alone that of a migrating horde varied considerably. One
year, and nearly as many wounded. Motherless hundred miles may have been an ordinary day's
springbok kids were dying by the thousand. trek. The buck were capable of covering much
Yet the migration went on - in millions. greater distances.
It baffled Cronwright-Schreiner. He studied the Karoo farmers last century firmly believed in
works of Darwin and Lloyd Morgan on two varieties of springbok - the lean trekbok
migration, investigated all the South African and the fatter houbok (about fifteen pounds
heavier), which remained in one area. Such a form an old-fashioned laager with the Cape
reliable observer as Scully mentioned shooting carts and wagons outspanned in the shape of a
a houbok in the Richtersveld which was nearly large horse-shoe. Men and boys would ride out
twice as large as the springbok of the desert. to prey on the fringe of the migration. The
The adult springbok ram weighs from seventy women would help with the skinning and
to eighty pounds and seldom more than ninety. cutting of the biltong.
Only one species of springbok is found in
For decades last century each springbok skin
South Africa, known to scientists as Antidorcas
fetched sixpence at the store. (The thin leather
marsupialis marsupialis; and it has been was used for bookbinding.) Biltong was
established that differences in weight are threepence a pound, and it was a lean
simply due to age and condition. In South West springbok indeed which did not provide eight
Africa, however, the springbok is of a heavier
pounds of dried biltong. Backhouse, in 1839,
sub-species.
recorded that in the market at Cradock fresh
While farmers and trekboers did not always springbok fetched thirteen pence apiece. There
welcome the springbok invasions, they were were long periods when a fat springbok could
able to profit or at least balance their losses by be bought in the karoo villages for one shilling
laking heavy toll of the herds. Convoys of and sixpence.
wagons, carrying whole families, incepted the Were there really millions of buck in these
trekbokke, muzzle-loaders went into action, migrations? Some naturalists have doubted
and one bullet often killed more than one buck. whether the springbok could ever have existed
This was hunting on a gigantic scale, and in the numbers which staggered the early
nowhere else in the world has such slaughter travellers. Descriptions of the trekbokke,
been known. Each group of hunters' would however, are at least unanimous on this point.
One of the finest accounts was given a century Gordon Cumming. "I had some difficulty in
ago by that picturesque hunter Gordon convincing myself that it was reality which I
Cumming, old Etonian, cavalry officer, red- beheld, and not the wild picture of a hunter's
bearded and kilted Scot. He travelled by ox- dream. During this time the vast legions
wagon and shot mercilessly for five years, at a continued streaming through the neck in the
time when South Africa was indeed a hunter's hills in one unbroken compact phalanx.
paradise and no one seemed to realise that
"At length I saddled up and riding into the
some of the animals would one day be
middle of them with my rifle and after-riders,
exterminated. His bag was far larger than fired into their ranks until fourteen had fallen,
those of later, and more selective hunters such when I cried ‘Enough’. We then retraced our
as Selous. steps to secure from the ever voracious
One night Gordon Cumming lay awake in his vultures the venison which lay strewed along
wagon for two hours before the dawn, my track."
listening to the springbok grunting and Gordon Cumming confessed that he could
realising that a large herd was feeding near the form no idea of the number of antelopes he
camp. When he rose, he found that it was no beheld that day; but he has no hesitation in
mere herd, but a dense, living mass of saying that "some hundreds of thousands were
springbok marching slowly and steadily. within the compass of my vision."
They were coming through a gap in the One of the boers in the area told Gordon
western hills, pouring through like a flood, Cumming : "You this morning beheld only
and disappearing over a ridge. "I stood upon one flat covered with springboks, but I have
the fore-chest of my wagon for nearly two ridden a long day's journey over a succession
hours, lost in wonder at the scene," recorded
of flats covered with them as far as I could A family on the farm Witvlei had to sit round
see, and as thick as sheep in a fold." the well - their last water supply after the
Scully was lost when it came to counting the springbok had filled the dam - keeping the
springbok he saw in the 1892 migration. "In buck off with bullets and stones. In the end the
thirsty springbok beat down the defence, and
dealing with myriads, numbers cease to have
any significance," he declared. "One might as soon the well was packed with dead and dying
buck.
well endeavour to describe the mass of a mile-
long sand dune by expressing the sum of its That year the springbok poured through the
grains in ciphers as to attempt to give the main street of Prieska, and the magistrate sat
numbers of antelopes forming the living wave on the steps of his courthouse and picked off a
that surged across the desert and broke like few good specimens with his rifle. Prieska was
foam against the western granite ridge." always in the path of the migration.
Mr. T.B. Davie of Prieska recorded his During the 1888 trek, Mr. Davie and his friend
impressions of four great springbok Dr. Gibbons made a deliberate attempt to
migrations between 1887 and 1896. "The estimate the numbers of trekbokke. They were
whole country seemed to move, not in any on the farm Nels Poortje in the Prieska district
hurry or rush, but a steady, plodding march, when the sea of antelopes overwhelmed the
just like voetganger locusts," he declared. Mr. district. In front of them was a kraal which,
Davie saw the springbok in one continuous the farmer told them, held fifteen hundred
stream from Prieska to Draghoender (forty- sheep.
seven miles), plodding on, and just moving "Well," said Dr. Gibbons, "if fifteen hundred
aside far enough to avoid the wheels of his can stand there, then about ten thousand can
cart.
stand on an acre, and I can see in front of me kept accurate records of the skins he handled;
ten thousand acres covered with buck. That and between 1878 and 1880 this man exported
means at least one hundred million buck. Then nearly two million skins, mainly springbok.
what about the miles upon miles around on all Yes, there were millions of springbok on the
sides as far as the eye can reach covered with move, millions of buck followed by lions and
them." leopards, hyenas and jackals, and vultures to
They gave it up. No wonder men spoke of pick out the eyes of those that fell. When the
myriads of buck. During the 1896 trek, trekbokke raced through a narrow poort, it
Cronwright-Schreiner and two other farmers meant death for any human being in their path.
(all accustomed to counting small stock) At the time of the Great Trek a frontier farmer
surveyed the springbok on a vast, open plain found his three young sons and his Hottentot
and tried to form an accurate estimate with the shepherd trampled to death on the veld after
aid of field glasses. They counted section after the buck had passed.
section, and agreed that there were half a Nearly seventy years ago there was a Kalahari
million springbok in sight at that moment. But trader named Albert Jackson. He was still
the whole trek covered an area of one hundred living in Port Elizabeth in recent years, and he
and forty miles by fifteen miles. "When one told me one personal experience of the
says they were in millions, it is the literal springbok migration which helped to bring the
truth," declared CronwrightSchreiner. scene to life for me.
Millais, in his life of Selous, dealt with the "I slept on the veld during the 1896
wholesale destruction of game after the migration," Jackson recalled. "Often I put my
breech-loading rifle arrived in South Africa in
the eighteen-seventies. He met a trader who
ear to the ground, and even at night, when the never be asked again. Only the rams and the
buck were resting, it felt like an earth tremor." old ewes are killed.
No longer is the springbok seen in millions. Seldom now will you see fifty springbok shot
Yet the national emblem of South Africa, the on one farm in a day; yet in the nineties of last
only gazelle in the country, is in no danger of century one hunting party would bring in a
extinction. As recently as May 1954 large thousand, twelve hundred buck between dawn
herds of springbok, possibly fifteen thousand and sunset. The migrations and the massacres
buck, streamed out of the Kalahari and into have ended but the mystery remains.
the Gordonia district like the migratory
CHAPTER 4
swarms of last century. Farmers complained
RAILWAY ACROSS THE KAROO
urgently that their fences were being broken
and their grazing destroyed. The magistrate Then out of De Doorns she thundered
and a police officer flew over the invasion and over the starved Karoo,
area and decided that there was no need to lift Dwindling the hills behind her, farther
the ban on all hunting in force for three years and farther she flew;
in that district. Farmers would be allowed to And I know not which to praise the
fire their rifles to frighten the buck away - but more - these moon-shot hills of God
only under police supervision. Or the genius of the men who planned
and made the glorious road.
Venison has a market value. In districts where -John Runcie
shooting is allowed, farmers preserve their
springbok herds carefully, and the guest who WHEN, far too early, the steward rattled and
disobeys the rules at a springbok shoot will snapped on the lights and came in with the
strong aroma of railway coffee, it was the Great
Karoo. All through lunch, from groentesop to Dabbs was a Scot, like his engine; a well-built
pumpkin fritters, it was karoo. You might linger man with a peak cap, a penetrating stare, thick
over your afternoon tea, your dinner, your night- beard, small bow tie, heavy Victorian waistcoat
cap in the diningcar, but the landscape framed in and massive watch-chain and plaid trousers. You
the broad windows was still karoo, karoo, karoo. will find a portrait of this foot-plate pioneer on the
Even in the darkness it was unmistakable. And engine. Dabbs assembled his locomotive under a
when the next dawn came, the train had not yet galvanised iron roof built in a corner of the
passed out of the Great Karoo. Parade, and this became Cape Town's first
railway station. One end of the platform was
Where have all the old karoo trains gone? Some
overhung by the fir trees at the edge of the
of the primitive coaches remain beside the line
stripped of their wheels and serving as huts for Parade. In the station refreshment room the
traveller could buy a mutton pie and a glass of
labourers. There must be all sorts of railway
ale for sixpence. The porter supplied his own
museum-pieces strewn about the karoo. Yet there
uniform and had to live entirely on his tips.
was not a scrap of railway material, not a sign of a
When the platform was completed it was
railway, in South Africa a century ago. It was on
discovered that someone had made a mistake;
September 14, 1859 that the first small railway
the platform was higher than the floors of the
engine was landed on one of the Table Bay
carriages and it had to be rebuilt.
wharves. This was the "coffee pot" locomotive
which now stands in a place of honour on the It was the railway boom in England that
Cape Town station. With it came a character brought the "iron horse" to the Cape. When the
named William Dabbs, a driver of the old school, Cape of Good Hope Western Railway
who remained in charge of that engine until he committee first met in London in 1845, there
died. were no steel tracks in London and America's
railways were only three miles in length. Cape coaches came the following year, and "The
Town newspapers, however, did not welcome Argus" declared: "Railway carriages for the
the idea at first. The "Mail" published a Cape Town - Wellington railway are equal to
sarcastic leader suggesting a Cape to Cairo the best in England. The Governor's carriage is
railway, and so far the sarcasm has been very handsomely fitted up." One secondclass
justified. Nevertheless a company was formed coach was built at Salt River, " roomy, strong,
- no one thought of State railways in those well-made, and superior to anything yet seen in
days - and in 1858 the surveyors arrived in the Colony."
Cape Town. First-class passengers lolled back on two
Governor Sir George Grey walked under the cushions and put their feet on a small carpet; in
triumphal arch and "turned the first sod" of the the second-class each passenger had one
first railway in a field at Papendorp on March cushion; the third sat on the woodwork.
31, 1859. More than six thousand people were Compartments were lit by oil-lamps. Smoking
present when the salute of twenty-one guns and card-playing were forbidden, and the
was fired. Cape Town watched a fireworks regulations warned passengers against riding
display that night, and tar barrels were set on on the roof. Each compartment carried a
fire. detachable tin plate denoting the class, and
More locomotives arrived, one of them named humorists were always changing them, so that
first class passengers stepped into third class
Argus, and huge gangs of railway navvies
compartments - and vice versa.
landed to carry on where the Governor had left
off. Towards the end of 1860 the people of Two lines of rails left the Cape Town station.
Cape Town were able to travel (in open trucks) They passed between the Castle and a fine
to a church bazaar at Papendorp. Proper redoubt equipped with muzzleloading cannon
which were used to salute men-o'-war entering Salt River and win. Farther out in the country,
the bay. The system forked at Salt River, a however, Dabbs would open the throttle and then
single track leaving for the north, and the the run became exciting. One early traveller
double track going on to Wynberg. wrote: "With a shrill scream the train rushed over
the Flats at a rate which made the sand hills in the
The first railway time-table was published early in
foreground dance a mad reel round those in the
1862, when the line reached Eerste Rivier. It was
background." The top speed at that time was forty
bilingual, and gave details of four trains on
miles an hour. Many people refused to take the
weekdays and two on Sundays. Few who read it
risk. There were complaints when the trains killed
could have imagined that within seventy years the
hens and pigs. Clergymen denounced the railway
line would stretch from the little Liesbeek to the
company for running Sunday trains.
mighty Congo more than three thousand miles
away. Dabbs lived at a Long Street boarding-house, and
Sir Philip Wodehouse, the Governor, opened the often took a Native servant named Mitchell for a
run on the footplate. The servant was allowed to
Eerste Rivier section, but on this occasion the
polish the brasswork and blow the whistle. Such
railway company did not provide refreshments
privileges were only possible on those early days.
and there were no fireworks. A disappointed
onlooker sent his views to one of the newspapers: Mitchell lived beyond the century mark and saw
the old engine become a museum-piece on the
The whole affair was very dreary, Cape Town station.
Dear Public! I am weary, weary,
Inevitably, accidents occurred during the first
I would that I were dead.
year. A man had his foot crushed on the line and
At first the train ran at such a solemn speed that a died. Then a workmen's train collided with trucks
horsedrawn trap could race the "iron horse" to loaded with bricks; one labourer was thrown out
and injured. There were riots when rival gangs of When the line reached Wellington in November
imported navvies clashed. Engines were turned 1863, hundreds travelled to the celebrations in
over and part of the track was torn up during a three special trains. The whole Cape Volunteer
pitched battle at Salt River in which four hundred Corps was there, with guns and horses for a
men took part. Some of the navvies, dissatisfied military display. Bands played on station
with their pay of six shillings a day, went on platforms as the trains arrived. It was a day of
strike. But in spite of these incidents the line flags and flowers and red carpets. Privileged
reached Stellenbosch in May 1862, to be greeted guests feasted in the Wellington goods shed.
by a thousand people on the platform. As soon as the novelty of rail travel had worn
Soon afterwards the first of all South Africa's off, however, passengers began to grumble
many washaways was recorded. During the about delays. The trains stopped at Salt River
winter of 1862 the railway bridge over the river for twenty minutes, D'Urban Road (now
near Stellenbosch gave way, and passengers had Bellville) for twenty minutes, and for half an
to transfer to another train. hour at Stellenbosch "to give the energetic
The first excursion was organized to vendors of coffee and buns ample time to ply
Stellenbosch, and another when Mr. Bennett their business." Then there was the fire danger,
caused by sparks from the engines falling on
offered 350 erven for sale at Bennettsville. You
will search in vain for Bennettsville to-day; but thatch roofs beside the line. Directors of Cape
at that time the township appeared to offer Town insurance companies made a special trip
prospects and many people flocked to the sale. in 1863 to assess the risk.
Mr. Bennett gave a "champagne tiffin" and took The railway remained a private enterprise until
£2311. Bennettsville is now Klapmuts. 1872, when it was purchased by the Cape
Government for £773,000. The track was of the
European standard 4 ft. 8½ in gauge; and before Worcester was linked by rail with Cape Town
long . the government decided that extensions in June 1876. Governor Sir Henry Barkly spoke
would be too costly. So the 3 ft. 6 in. "Cape at the banquet, and in the evening there was a
gauge" was adopted. An intermediate rail was ball. Mr. W. G. Brounger, a fine railway
inserted to avoid scrapping the original rolling engineer from England trained in the
stock; and until 1881 both wide and narrow Stephenson tradition, was the man responsible
trains used the line. The late Mr. C.W.H. Kohler for carrying the line on from Worcester into
of the K.W.V. once told me that the man the Karoo. He was appointed Cape railway
responsible for the change to the narrower engineer in 1873, and he sent his field
gauge was his uncle, Mr. Berks Hutchinson, a eng:neer, Mr. Wells Hood, off with a Cape cart
Cape Town dentist. Hutchinson had worked on and four horses to find a route over the
railway construction in Canada, and he mountains.
persuaded Sir Bartle Frere, the Governor, to At the end of an enjoyable month in the open
make the change. It was a momentous decision, air, Wells Hood reported: "After very
but it saved the country millions upon millions considerable climbing about the Hex River
of pounds. The cost of carrying the broad-gauge mountains, I have found a route that gives
line over the Hex River mountains into the every facility for the construction of a cheap
Karoo would have been crushing in those days. railway. No gradient is steeper than one in
Sharp curves can be negotiated with the "Cape forty, and this only for a short distance. The
gauge". Locomotive engineers have overcome most important work would be a tunnel of
many problems of size and weight and speed, so about ten chains in length which it would be
that our trains are the largest and fastest in the impossible to avoid."
world running on the 3 ft. 6 in. gauge.
So the survey parties followed the line of hour," they declared. And there was a
Wells Hood's reconnaissance. The inevitable widespread belief that the iron monsters of
expropriation orders were served on angry steam and fire would stampede cattle and
farmers. It is amusing to compare the attitude sheep and render farms valueless. But the
of many karoo farmers in the early railway pioneer work went on.
days with the deputations which now seek Every fifty or one hundred feet a peg was
interviews with the Minister of Railways to
driven into the ground to fix the actual centre
plead for branch lines. Back in the eighteen- of the track. Then came the earthworks and the
seventies and eighties the coming of the plate-laying, the bolting together of sleepers
railway was often strenuously opposed. Anti- and rails with the line advancing three
railway conferences were organised, and thousand to five thousand feet a day.
speakers warned the nervous gatherings that
Ballasting, the packing of broken stone under
the "iron horse" would compete unfairly with the sleepers, had to wait for the construction
transport riding and put horse-breeders out of train to come up with its loads from the quarry.
business. Farmers also feared heavy taxation Then the line was jacked up and the ballast
and encroachment on their property rights.
packed tightly. Finally the stations and goods
Another argument was that the new and easy sheds and staff quarters were built, the drillers
means of communication would bring a flood found water, the line was fenced and all was in
of undesirables into the interior - or an readiness for the festooned engine, the flags
invading army. Farmers who had never seen a and bunting and the champagne.
train discovered something blasphemous in the At the end of 1877 the Hex River mountains
invention. "God never intended human beings had been conquered and the line reached
to be hurled along at twenty-five miles an Touws River, then known as Montagu Road.
The railway aimed at the heart of the Great engineers had been trained in Britain; but it
Karoo had cost less than half a million pounds. was a long time before anyone thought of
drawing on the colony itself for unskilled
A traveller during the construction period has
labour.
left an account of the journey. Trains left Cape
Town at seven-thirty in the morning and went No coal worth mentioning was mined in South
no farther than Worcester that day. Passengers Africa during the early years of the Cape
spent the night at Freislich's Hotel and Old railways. Welsh coal was used, and the Cape
Anthony called them early. Then the train Government found it expensive. So the railway
moved on to railhead, where the Red Star and authorities decided to start their own forests
Cobb's coaches waited to carry passengers to and burn wood fuel in the locomotives. A large
the diamond fields. blue-gum plantation near Beaufort West failed;
but other fuel forests near Worcester and Ceres
Railway coaches of those days were short, with
and at Constantia were successful. Thus the
four wheels, popularly known as "buck
Cape locomotives were able to cut down the
jumpers". The traffic manager had a coupé
import of Welsh coal. Only when coal was
with real leather upholstery. Ordinary
found in South Africa was the use of wood fuel
passengers complained that train travel made
abandoned.
their backs sore, but admitted that it was more
comfortable than the post-cart. As the railway line plunged deeper into the
More than two thousand immigrants from karoo, the farmers became reconciled to the
Europe were employed on the colonial new form of transport. But the sight of the first
railways at this time. One ship brought seventy locomotives, roaring across the karoo at night
in showers of sparks with the whistle going,
Belgian workmen. Most of the professional
was more than some of the primitive farm
labourers could stand. Shepherds of Bushman was more expensive but just as comfortable as
or Hottentot origin moved their huts away in India.
from the line. Some were so terrified that their Karoo trains have had special names and
employers never saw them again. nicknames ever since the early days. The
Beaufort West became the terminus in 1880, "Gunpowder Train" of the eighteen-seventies
and the official lunch lasted four hours. Those has its modern counterpart in the "Dynamite
were great days, and the quiet karoo village Train" of twelve sealed trucks which stops
was transformed. Railway passengers found every thirty miles to allow the wheels to cool.
the Kimberley stage coaches waiting for them. A train which leaves Cape Town late at night
There were wilder nights than any Beaufort for De Aar is known as the Spooktrein. But the
West had known before, and episodes such as most mysterious of all is the Makkadas train
the classic fight with bare fists between Big running on the branch line from Hutchinson to
O'Reilly from the diggings and "Sterk Jan" Calvinia. There are now many theories about
Venter, a local farmer. It all ended amicably in this nickname, and the true origin seems to
the nearest bar. have been lost. Some say that a bygone
Two famous karoo railway passengers of last fireman, bored by the slow pace, turned to his
driver and exclaimed: "Make a dash!" Others
century recorded their impressions. Mark
believe the nickname arose from the sound of
Twain wrote: "Easy riding, fine cars, all the
the wheels, turning slowly with a "mak-ka-das-
conveniences, thorough cleanliness,
das-das, mak-ka-das-das-das". Another
comfortable beds furnished for the night
skilpadtrein, between Oudtshoorn and
trains." The other was Winston Churchill, who
Klipplaat, stops so often that the passengers
declared that railway travelling at the Cape
call it Toet-hier-gaan-ek-toet-hier-staan-ek.
 The trains, the endless trains pass through De
Aar, and the people of De Aar think no more
De Aar is the Great Karoo railway station that
almost everyone in South Africa knows. It is of them than the passengers think of the town
also the place which most people remember beside the station. Yet there were white people
at De Aar long before the railway came. The
only as a station. While railways run, De Aar
must maintain its position as the most town of De Aar has been growing up beside
the railway line for more than half a century.
important junction in the Cape Province.
De Aar may be only a railway platform to you.
If I had a pound for every time I have paced It is home to six thousand people. And it was
De Aar platform from end to end I believe I once Olive Schreiner's home.
could pay my fare round the world. De Aar
No doubt the Bushmen were the first
lingers in my mind especially as the place
where often I had to leave a steamy inhabitants there, as they were everywhere on
the karoo. They left their paintings on the
compartment at six on a winter's morning to
rocks at Damfontein in the district. They were
wait for the Cape Town train. That was when I
there when the first farms were allotted to
came south from South West Africa, again and
trekboers in 1837. Two years later a certain
again, and many thousands of freezing
"Swart" Jan Vermeulen took possession of the
passengers have had the same bitter
farm De Aar, on which the town was founded
experience. You must have a fire when winter
long afterwards. He left a reputation for
strikes De Aar, and the restaurant on the
hospitality beyond the ordinary kind. His grave
station provides one. Last time I was there, the
and the ruins of his homestead are still to be
fire was brighter than the breakfast.
seen. De Aar means "the vein, or artery", of
course, and thousands of sheep gathered at the brothers were great figures in the railway
well fed by the strong spring on this farm. camp. Farmers who distrusted the banks left
For forty years "Swart Jan" and his successors their money in the safe at the Friedlanders'
farmed quietly at De Aar. Only the ordinary store. During boom periods the Friedlanders
karoo dramas, the long droughts and often filled bucket after bucket with sovereigns
encounters with leopards, disturbed them. in the course of the day's work.
Nothing changed much until 1881, when the De Aar was the scene of a bloody affair during
railway surveyors and construction gangs the construction days. Zulu and Fingo
appeared on the scene. Then the old De Aar labourers were kept as far apart as possible,
was no more. The empty karoo became a both at work and off duty. One day, however, a
workshop. Fourteen hundred natives, Zulus clash occurred over a buck which had been run
and Fingoes, pitched their tents on the farm. down by the Zulu and Fingo hunting dogs.
Some time before this development two Natives of both sides were killed in the fight,
but this did not settle the matter. Tension
farsighted brothers, Isaac and Wolf
mounted, the Zulus challenged the Fingoes
Friedlander, had arrived by ox-wagon from
again and again, and on Christmas Day 1883
Cape Town and opened a store, and later a
small hotel next door. It would be hard to find, there was an evenly-matched tribal battle with
even in fabulous South Africa, a country store about four hundred natives on each side. They
fought with pickhandles and axes, battles and
which enriched its owners within two decades
as did that little shack at De Aar. Isaac assegais and kerries from a quince-hedge. No
firearms were used, but after the fight there
Friedlander became a member of the London
were sixty dead and many more wounded. The
Stock Exchange - and lost most of the fortune
proud Zulus ran for their lives in the end.
he had made at De Aar. But the Friedlander
Railway officials were unable to stop the fight, and cart. He wished to visit a farmer named
but they telegraphed to Cape Town for help. Hauptfleisch.
Some days later the so-called "De Aar. "You know that Hautfleisch is a Dopper, I
Expedition" arrived, a large body of Cape suppose?" remarked Friedlander humorously.
Mounted Rifles under Colonel Southey.
"Yes, and so am I, " replied the stranger. He
Before the railway reached De Aar, the was President Paul Kruger.
construction camp was known as "Number
Six". Some documents of the period refer to The Friedlander brothers profited enormously
"Von Brandis junction", the intention being to from their De Aar enterprises, but they also
pay a compliment to the Transvaal official. But gave building sites to the Dutch Reformed
soon after the first train steamed into De Aar in Church and other churches and provided for
March 1884, the station was named "Brounger the town hall and sports grounds. Friedlander,
Junction". A board bearing this name stood on Amalia and Jenny Streets remind to-day's
the platform for some time. De Aar triumphed residents of the family which once owned most
in the end, however, and the old name was of De Aar.
officially restored. Nevertheless, it is a pity "At De Aar the uncertain part of our journey
that the memory of such a fine engineer as began," wrote Winston Churchill during the
Brounger should not have been perpetuated in South African War. "Armoured trains patrolled
some way along the line across the Great the railway line; little groups of armed police
Karoo. guarded the bridges; infantry and artillery
One of the stories told by the descendants of battalions garrisoned the village." In fact, there
the Friedlanders is of an old man with a beard were eleven thousand men in the De Aar
who called on Isaac Friedlander to hire a horse garrison. Thousands of horses were kept there
for despatch to the different fronts. The new desperately for water than De Aar. At one time
school was turned into a military hospital. there were more than three hundred private
Kitchener and French often inspected the bore-holes, and two-thirds of them ran dry.
stronghold. Yet in spite of this formidable De Aar had to buy a whole village,
strategic centre, General Christiaan de Wet Burgerville, twenty-one miles away, to solve
once succeeded in cutting all the De Aar lines the water problem. Burgerville had a church
of communication for several days. hall, school and post office, tree-lined streets,
De Aar's most famous resident was Olive many comfortable homes and a population of
Schreiner. Her husband Cronwright was law three hundred. It also had a spring capable of
agent, town clerk and market master from1904 supplying De Aar with a million gallons of
to 1912. In spite of an early bioscope, where water a day. De Aar was saved from a thirsty
Olive Schreiner sat in her own Madeira chair, death. Burgerville, having sold its water,
this particular couple found no inspiration in became a ghost village.
De Aar life. Cronwright Schreiner wrote of it, As recently as 1949 there were three De Aar
when he sold his business: "I could no longer residents who were all much older than the
endure the monotony and solitude of the town. One was Piet van Niekerk, who tended
uncongenial life at De Aar." He was succeeded his father's sheep on the site of the present
as town clerk by Hendrik Hanekom, later to railway station. Jan Vermeulen, a blacksmith
become famous as the Afrikaans actor. and grandson of the first owner of De Aar farm
No one passes through De Aar without was another; and the third was Oom Daniel
noticing the number of windmills and the Coetzee, who lost both legs working for the
gardens karoo soil will provide when irrigated. railways. He remembered the time when
No town in South Africa has battled more
leopards were caught in stone traps on farms in tradition of his own. He has been dead for
the De Aar district. thirtyfive years, and it is time his story was
told.
De Aar, the old railway camp, is one of the
inland towns of the Cape which does not suffer This vigorous Scot was born in Berwickshire
from the migration to the cities. On the in 1857, and set off to Australia in a sailing
municipal coat-of-arms you will find a railway ship at the age of twenty. The ship put into
locomotive and a merino ram. With those two Simon's Bay in distress and was wrecked.
sources of wealth De Aar must flourish. Jimmy Logan reached the shore with the
clothes he was wearing and an abundant supply
CHAPTER 5
of self-confidence. He had worked as a clerk
LOGAN OF MATJESFONTEIN
on the North British Railways, but the only
MATJESFONTEIN is only a wayside station to railway post he could find in Cape Town was a
most of you, a gateway to the Great Karoo linked porter's job at the new railway station, then
with the name of Logan. Generations of main under construction. By the time the building
line travellers have glimpsed the row of red- was finished, Jimmy Logan had become
brick houses which make Matjesfontein unlike station-master. The next step, as district
any other dorp in South Africa. Within those superintendent of the Touws River-Prince
houses are memories. Albert Road section, took Logan into the Great
Not only Olive Schreiner, but other famous Karoo for the first time.
names belong to Matjesfontein's strange past. Before leaving Cape Town he had married
The whole place is stamped with the Miss Emma Haylett. He became interested in
personality of James Douglas Logan, the catering, resigned from the Cape Government
"Laird of Matjesfontein", a patriarch in a Railways, bought an hotel in Touw's River and
a wholesale wine and spirit store in Cape varieties had come to the karoo. Gums and
Town. In the early eighties Logan decided to pines grew up by the thousand on Tweedside.
invest everything he had got in the
Matjesfontein area. When he started there was
just a corrugated iron shed beside the railway
line. Land was cheap enough, for no one
imagined that anything could be done with this
desolate country on the karoo edge.
Logan paid four hundred pounds for the farm
of three thousand five hundred morgen which
he called Tweedside. You must have seen it,
fifteen miles south of Matjesfontein, with its
three unusual iron gates and long fence
running for miles beside the railway line.
Altogether he bought sixty thousand morgen,
and most of these farms are still in the family.
Tweedside was his favourite. He opened up the
first artesian well in South Africa on that farm,
sank drill-hole after drill-hole, and planted
thousands of fruit trees in an area where no one
had ever dared to attempt fruit-growing on a
large scale. Cherries, pears and many other
Logan had his own private railway siding on "It has the appearance of a smart London
the farm. His farm labourers received free suburb, and close by are the golf links, cricket
cottages on condition that they kept them ground, tennis and croquet courts and
clean. If Jimmy Logan found a sign of litter, swimming bath fed by a sulphur spring."
however, the labourer paid ten shillings a Matjesfontein was designed and built by
month rent. Jimmy Logan. He imported London lampposts
Meanwhile he was also developing Matjes- for street lighting, and they are still there. The
fontein village. His own residence, Tweedside village was the first in South Africa to have
Lodge, was connected with the farm by the waterborne sewerage, and the first to be lit by
longest private telephone line in the colony. electricity. Logan spent a thousand pounds
tracing a watercourse on one of his farms. He
The secret of Logan's fondness for
discovered a supply that yielded eleven
Matjesfontein had its origin in his own weak
thousand gallons a day, a great find in the
chest, cured by the dry karoo air. He envisaged
karoo, piped the water to Matjesfontein and
Matjesfontein as a great health resort. For
sold water rights to the railways at a handsome
some years doctors in England had been
profit. The shipwrecked youth was firmly on
sending patients to Beaufort West, which was
his feet.
too dusty, and the Nuweveld mountains, where
some found they were inhaling too much grass. Cape Town newspapers devoted columns in
Logan believed in the Matjesfontein climate November 1889 to the opening of the
and set about providing amenities. Matjesfontein waterworks. Logan had invited
"Mr Logan insists on his village being as clean scores of guests, and when he entertained it
was done in the grand manner. The train
as the deck of a ship," wrote an early visitor.
bringing Lady Sprigg, Colonel Schermbrucker,
M.L.A. and many other leading politicians and Logan's drive and enterprise. It just became
personages, reached Matjesfontein in the fashionable to make the sea voyage to the Cape
morning. Jimmy Logan had organized a cricket and a trip to Matjesfontein. So I was shown
match, rifle shooting, pigeon shooting, Victorian albums filled with signed portraits of
billiards, and tennis. The Worcester band was the great. Lord Randolph Churchill (father of
there. Shortly before lunch Lady Sprigg turned Winston) was there in June 1891, a fine year
the wheel and a fountain played on the bare for veld flowers. He picked bluebells on the
veld. "The luncheon served in the decorated koppies, borrowed a dog from Logan at the
railway shed would have done credit to a first- suggestion of Rhodes, and went on a shooting
rate London hotel," declared a newspaper expedition to Rhodesia.
report. Colonel Schermbrucker declared that The Duke of Hamilton and many other titled
Logan had made a paradise in the desert. He
people stepped off the mail train at this little
hoped that Matjesfontein would become a village. I cannot imagine what brought the
large town. Another speaker suggested that the young Sultan of Zanzibar to Matjesfontein, but
name of the place should be changed to he was there, too, and Admiral Nicholson; and
Logansville. Mr. Logan replied modestly that it
Admiral Rawson, who gave his name to
was not that he had done so much, but that in Rawsonville; and Sir David Gill, the
the karoo others had done so little.
astronomer; James Stewart of Lovedale; all
During the nineties a stream of celebrated sorts of celebrities stayed at Jimmy Logan's
figures flowed up to Matjesfontein. I have hotel.
never fully understood how this pilgrimage of Olive Schreiner loved the place. She rented the
English aristocrats to the tiny karoo dorp came villa which became known as Schreiner
about, but it was certainly another result of
Cottage, next to the post office, and took her
meals at Logan's railway refreshment room - of Logan became a great patron of cricket at this
which more will be heard. Here she posted her period. He arranged the two visits of Lord
long letters to Havelock Ellis, and looked Hawke's teams to South frica - they played at
forward to his replies as she walked alone at Matjesfontein, of course - and he accepted the
dawn on the veld, feeling a "wild exhilaration" entire financial responsibility when the early
as the sun rose. Here, in 1890, Rhodes broke a South African cricket teams toured England.
journey to Kimberley so that he could dine When George Lohmann, greatest English
with her. cricketer of his day, broke down in health,
Logan offered him a home and an engagement
It was at Matjesfontein that Olive Schreiner
at Matjesfontein. The change to the crisp karoo
wrote "Thoughts on South Africa". She called
her cottage "home", and wrote to Logan during prolonged Lohmann's life for years.
one of her absences: "I shall be very glad to Those were the days before railway dining-cars
come back to dear old Matjesfontein." She at the Cape, and passengers took their meals
gave Logan's son a book for boys inscribed: hurriedly at refreshment rooms. In 1892 Sir
"From his very loving friend Olive Schreiner." James Sivewright, Minister of Railways, gave
And after hearing Jimmy Logan's stories of the catering contract to his friend Logan without
adventure on land and sea she advised him to calling for tenders or informing any of his
write his autobiography and offered to edit it ministerial colleagues. This caused a political
for him. South African literature has lost rich crisis of the first magnitude. Sivewright
pages owing to the unwillingness of such defended his action on the ground that tenders
characters as Jimmy Logan to put their had not always been invited in the past.
experiences on paper. Moreover he argued that Logan was an
admirable caterer.
Nevertheless, Sivewright had to resign and the established at Matjesfontein with a skilled chef
contract was cancelled. Logan then sued the in charge.
government and was awarded five thousand Another typical Logan enterprise, carried out
pounds damages with costs. Merriman and successfully for years, was the Matjesfontein
Sauer resigned. The cabinet disrupted by the mineral water factory. There he made all the
Logan contract had been known as "the ministry soda water, lemonade and ginger ale for thirsty
of all the talents". Rhodes had to dissolve and karoo railway travellers. The old plant is one of
re-form his ministry without three of the Matjesfontein's many relics.
talented members.
After his indirect but sensational appearance in
During the official inquiry into the catering
Cape politics, Mr. J.D. Logan entered the Old
contract, Logan stated that he had invested Cape House in person as Progressive M.L.A.
twenty thousand pounds in refreshment rooms
for Worcester and later as M.L.C. for the North
all the way up the line from Wellington to West Cape. Again he figured as a stormy petrel,
Bulawayo. He had intended to spend a further holding the balance of power in an evenly-
thirty thousand pounds to make these rooms divided Upper House and bringing about the
"second to none in the world". Matjesfontein downfall of the Jameson Ministry.
had the best refreshment room of the lot.
Nothing was too good for Matjesfontein. Logan Matjesfontein's most crowded months were
served two breakfasts there - one at three during the South African War, when it was the
shillings and sixpence, where travellers went for headquarters of the Cape Command with
"quiet and high-toned society", and a half- twelve thousand troops camped round the
crown breakfast for other customers. He had village. The Coldstream Guards, Seventeenth
planned a school of railway cookery, to be Lancers, Middlesex Regiment, all came to
know Matjesfontein only too well. Down a was the Black Watch regiment that put up the
side street in the former laundry a Major memorial, and Lady Wauchope visited the
Douglas Haig presided over a small mess, and grave after the South African War. Wauchope's
Mr. J.D. Logan was invited to a champagne body was never taken back to Scotland, as
party. Private Edgar Wallace of the R.A.M.C., some writers have stated.
unloaded medical stores on Matjesfontein Jimmy Logan had left Scotland, like thousands
railway platform. French, Ironside, Roberts all
of other Scots, with only a few pounds in his
marched down that main street. pocket. After the South African War he
Logan built the present double-storeyed Hotel returned on holiday, took over a castellated
Milner in the early stages of the South African mansion with a baronial hall near his native
War. The turret was used as a look-out post, village in Berwickshire, and became the
while the hotel became a military hospital. benefactor of the poor and aged in the district.
Always an individualist, Logan raised his own He still spent much of his time at his beloved
mounted corps for service in the field and Matjesfontein, however, and there he died in
equipped it at his own expense. He was twice 1920. His son, Mr. James Douglas Logan, and
wounded and mentioned in dispatches. his daughter, wife of Colonel H.J. Buist, stayed
on at Matjesfontein. For many details of the
One landmark at Matjesfontein that every
motorist knows is the granite monument to career of the "Laird of Matjesfontein" I am
indebted to them.
Major-General A.C. Wauchope in the private
cemetery south of the village. Wauchope was Some years ago, when the river at Laingsburg
killed at Magersfontein, but the body was was in flood, I spent a night at the Hotel
reburied at Matjesfontein which was, as I have Milner at Matjesfontein with many other
said, the military headquarters of the period. It motorists. I saw there one of the most complete
collections of South African male and female district, as no red deer had been seen in that part
big-game heads I had ever seen, and imagined of Perthshire for years. But that is the way the
that these, too, were one of the original Jimmy fine antlers of a monarch of the glen came to
Logan's enterprises. Many travellers must have Matjesfontein."
gazed in wonder at the array in the hotel Mr. Logan remembers the springbok migration
dining-room. During a recent visit to Matjes- of 1886 across a farm six miles to the west of
fontein, however, I learnt that the present Mr. Matjesfontein. The springbok still visit this area
Logan was the collector. He started about occasionally, and there is a small herd on
thirty years ago. A firm of taxidermists in. Tweedside farm. Tweedside is leased as a sheep
Pretoria supplied most of them, and farmers and wheat farm nowadays, but Colonel and
filled in the gaps. There you see magnificent Mrs. Buist retain the homestead and grow
specimens of the wildebeest and waterbuck, thousands of tulips.
kudu, springbok, gemsbok, blesbok, tsessebe
and hartebeest. Among the rare heads are those Most people think of Matjesfontein as part of
of the bontebok and nyala, and there are horns the karoo, though it is really on the fringe. The
of the situtunga. Many East African animals are true karoo veld begins at Whitehill, a few miles
included. "I only shot one of them myself - the to the north, where the Logan family gave the
red deer from Scotland," Mr. Logan told me. "I land for a succulent garden some years ago.
was out shooting woodcock in Perthshire, and This garden has been removed to Worcester, an
my gun was loaded with birdshot. Suddenly a unwise step in the view of some botanists.
stag broke cover. I let drive with one barrel, but Mr. Logan is no mean botanist himself. He has
it was like shooting against a brick wall. The many varieties of succulents in his own garden
next shot struck the back of the neck and the next door to the hotel at Matjiesfontein. Two
stag dropped dead. It caused a stir in the
succulents which he discovered bear his name; Lichtenstein visited Matjesfontein with
and in company with another botanist he found Commissioner De Mist a few years later, and
the only yellow stapelia known to science. In a found John Strauss, son of a German soldier,
good year, he told me, the veld between farming there. He told them that his father had
Matjesfontein and Sutherland has a more been among those who were murdered during
gorgeous display of wildflowers than the rising of the slaves.
Namaqualand.
Thus the settlement of Matjesfontein is at least
Matjesfontein takes its name from the rush one hundred and fifty years old. The railway
called Matjiesgoed from which mats are made. reached it in 1878, and from Matjesfontein the old
Early last century a farmer named Coetzee and Gibson and Red Star Line coaches set out on the
several of his relatives were murdered there by run of five or six clays to Kimberley.
slaves, aided by Bushmen; and Coetzee's wife Matiesfontein has never become the town which
was carried off to the Bushman stronghold. She Colonel Schermbrucker mentioned in his
would have been murdered too, but the slaves optimistic speech long ago. It is a village of two
spoke up on her behalf and she was held hundred people with two schools, and its glorious
prisoner. Then the Bushmen heard that a days have departed. Yet I drove away feeling, as I
commando was approaching. They were leading have often felt before, that small places like
her to the place of execution when the Matjesfontein have much beneath the surface if
commando under Veldkornet Nel arrived and you care to uncover it. I understood the
saved her life. NeI recovered twentyfive fascination it had for old Jimmy Logan; who liked
thousand rixdollars in paper money from the Matjesfontein better than his castle in Scotland;
Bushmen. and for Olive Schreiner, who was drawn back
there again and again at intervals of years.
Colonel Buist told me that when he saw the Great were as unique as the mountains. Would she
Karoo more than half a century ago he remarked have said that about a karoo capital such as
to another officer that it seemed like a desert. The Beaufort West, I wonder? All you would need to
officer pointed to the bushes and declared that reproduce the modern face of Beaufort West
they made the finest grazing for sheep in the would be the corrugated iron, the petrolpumps
world. "Little did I think that I would settle here and the juke-boxes.
in 1921 after thirty years as an army surgeon,"
In a drought, the blackened veld surrounding
remarked Colonel Buist. "Yet it grows on you and
Beaufort West makes you shudder. Someone
you get to like it. I don't know why the time must have been thinking of the Sahara when he
passes so fast, or what I have been doing, but I designed the aerodrome building like a Foreign
never have an idle day." Legion fort. Yet there is a moist and mellow
That must have been the way old Jimmy Logan old Beaufort West behind the cafes and
felt about it, too. John X. Merriman once said: "I garages. You have only to fly low over the
wish there were ten thousand Logans in South long gardens with their windmills to realize
Africa." However, there was just that one that this national road town has never lost
determined individual, and so there is only one touch with the soil.
Matjesfontein. Beaufort West, with five thousand white
CHAPTER 6 people and eight thousand non-Europeans, is
TOWNS OF THE GREAT KAROO the largest town in the Great Karoo, centre of
the leading sheep district. It was established by
OLIVE SCHREINER once declared it would be
Lord Charles Somerset as a magisterial outpost
impossible to build the old Dutch-Huguenot
in a lawless territory. Runaway slaves, cattle-
towns of the Western Province now, for they
raiders and other criminals passed that way as
they made for the no-man's-land beyond the first owner, Godliep Rudolph Opperman, had
Orange River. Smugglers carried powder and received the farm in 1760 from Governor
firearms to the natives. So in 1818 Lord Tulbagh. It was a cattle post, one of the first in
Charles placed Lieut. John Baird there as that area.
landdrost to maintain law and order on the Commandant De Klerk sold this farm and the
frontier. neighbouring Boesjesmansberg to the
The outpost was simply Beaufort in the government for £1025. The old commandant, a
beginning, in honour of Lord Charles remarkable character, had fought in several
Somerset's father, the Duke of Beaufort. Kaffir wars, and he had killed thirty lions.
(Years later it became Beaufort West to avoid Lichtenstein, who visited him, remarked that
confusion with Fort Beaufort and Port Hooivlakte was a model farm with eight
Beaufort.) Portions of districts as far away as thousand head of small stock, fields of corn
Tulbagh and Graaff-Reinet were embodied in and a large orchard. There was an abundance
the fifteen thousand square miles of the new of peaches and grapes of the very best sorts.
Beaufort district. The northern border was not De Klerk also pressed wine and sent raisins to
defined, but Baird was expected to keep an eye the Cape Town market.
on everything from the Orange River Such was the village site a century and a half
southwards to the Swartberg, from the Kariega ago. Mary Moffat, wife of the missionary,
river in the east to the Dwyka in the west. rested at Beaufort in 1820 and wrote to her
Hooivlakte, the farm of Commandant Abraham mother: "This is a newly-formed district where
de Klerk, was selected as the site for Beaufort our missionary Taylor has accepted a church
village. The original title deeds referred to which, by the bye, is only a room in a
"Hooijvlakte geleegen in de Karoo"; and the farmhouse with two beds in it. There are only
about six houses in the place. Mr. Baird invited instructed and confirmed, and their children
us to his house to eat, which we have done were baptized.
now for four days. He showed us a plan of the There were also a few white people who had
intended town. It is a fertile spot, bounded on been living beyond the civilized frontiers for
one side by the Gamka and on the other by the so long that they had lost touch with religion
Dry River." and feared the arrival of the predikant. John
When the Rev. Colin Fraser of Aberdeen Fraser (later to become Sir John Fraser), the
settled at Beaufort as Dutch Reformed Church minister's son, recalled that some remote
minister in 1825 he held his services at a farmers cleared out when they heard his father
poplar tree near the wall of the present dam. was coming. John Fraser once saw a whole
His church was a tent of wagon sails. The first family kneeling before his father's pulpit in the
real church was not finished until five years Beaufort church; grandfather and grandmother,
later. Fraser's parish stretched away into the father and mother and children of various ages;
littleknown wilderness to the north. There were and all were being baptized. They were
no roads and no permanent farms. The farmers Krugers, and his father had restored them to
were trekboers, settling down along the rivers Christendom. The grandparents had not seen a
and wherever they could find water for their church since they had left the Western
fat-tailed sheep, their cattle and their horses. Province. The others had never seen a church.
Fraser visited them on horseback, accompanied Colin Fraser, during one of his journeys in the
by an elder and an agterryer, a groom leading a Nuweveld, was asleep one night under his
pack-horse which carried bedding, clothes, velkombers (sheepskin blanket) when his elder
food and Communion plate. In this way called urgently: "Mister Fraser, don't move, listen
members of the church were gathered together, ... a big snake has crept under our blanket and lies
across my body. Slip out quietly and call the boy. blackened by fire and shining with fat, where they
Get the snake sharply by the tail and jerk him off had offered up sacrifices.
me and then we can kill it." The boy jerked the When the naturalist Andrew Steedman visited
snake so far that when they searched it had Beaufort in 1830 there were two streets, Donkin
vanished. and Bird Streets, about thirty houses and two
John Fraser told the story of his father's habit of hundred people. The church, he noted, was large
going down to the river-bed to read his Bible. He enough to hold a thousand people and was filled
sat in the bush on a mimosa stump and found it when the farmers came into town. The bell could
peaceful. The river at Beaufort is the Gamka, the be heard at a great distance. Steedman mentioned
old "lion river" of the Hottentots. One day the two drawbacks to farming; long droughts and
minister was sitting with his eyes closed when he raids by Bushmen.
felt a sudden weight on the Bible and looked up Shortly before Steedman's visit the district had
into the face of a lion. Fraser prayed. The lion
been shocked by the murder of Louis Nel, a
then rushed away into the bush. Next moment farmer, and his four children. The wife had also
Fraser was surrounded by Bushmen. They were been left for dead, but she recovered and stated
carrying spears, bows and arrows, for they had that the murderer was Reuter Calie, a native
been hunting the lion.
labourer. Two years later Calie was caught and
This clan of Bushmen had been living across the sentenced to death. This was the first time that a
river, opposite Beaufort, when Fraser had first scaffold had been set up in the village. The
arrived there. He had tried to convert them and execution was carried out with an armed guard of
failed, as all missionaries have failed up to this farmers round the gallows.
day. Soon the Bushmen moved away, distrusting
the white man, leaving a square, level altar,
The village watched an even more distressing When Bishop Gray paid his visit in 1848 he
scene in 1840. A young white man, Jan Lodewyk met a "Colonial lady" who told him that she
du Preez, had found two Hottentot children, a girl had not seen an English church minister for
of eight and a boy of six, raiding his father's thirty-eight years. He held a service in the
orchard. He fired on them, killing the girl and Dutch Reformed Church and raised £200 for
wounding the boy. For this crime he was an English church. Land was cheap at that
sentenced to death and hanged in public. period. One farmer told Bishop Gray that he
hired five thousand morgen of Crown land for
Beaufort West has always been famous for its
£1 a year.
pear trees, and when they are in blossom along
Donkin Street, the village rivals Pretoria in Nowadays one car passes through Beaufort
jacaranda time. As long ago as 1839 the Quaker West every minute, on an average, during
traveller James Backhouse mentioned them. those December week-ends when all the
"Beaufort is a pretty little town of about six school-children in South Africa seem to be on
hundred inhabitants, watered by two copious the road. This is certainly a contrast with the
springs, which give its gardens an scene a century ago, when the "Cape Mercury"
extraordinary degree of fertility," he wrote. declared: "For a dreary, down-on-your-luck
"The streets are bordered with mulberry, pear, retreat, try Beaufort West. Business is dead.
melia and weeping-willow trees. No canteen The municipal chest is insolvent. There is no
exists, the magistrate having refused to grant more talk of a town house."
licences. Large numbers of Boers have Modern sheep farmers would smile at the wool
emigrated from the district to Natal, parting cheques received by Beaufort West farmers in
with their farms for a trifle." the middle of last century. Nevertheless, there
were wills of that time proved at from £40,000 During a depression in the eighteen-eighties,
to £60,000 - great wealth, a century ago. milk was sold at a penny a bottle, honey at
I have found a record of seven artisans from twopence a pound, and potatoes at half-a-
England who reached Beaufort West in 1858. crown a bag. A man who married on a salary
of fifteen pounds a month was more
Within two days all of them had found work;
the masons at eight shillings a day, and a baker comfortable than he would be to-day with four
times that amount.
at four pounds a month with board and lodging
free. Beaufort West has long been in a position to
boast of its healthy air and the great ages some
Beaufort West's first gaol was not a success.
inhabitants have reached. It might also enter a
The gaoler in 1861 was an American negro;
claim for large families. Mr. Willem Petrus
and he left his post one night to attend a
Engelbrecht of Groendraai farm, who died in
friend's wedding. Four coloured men broke
1894 at the age of ninety-one, left thirteen sons,
out, burgled a store, selected the most
three daughters, eighty-six grandchildren, fifty-
expensive clothes and guns, stole horses and
eight great grandchildren and eighteen great-
rode clear away over the border. The negro
great-grandchildren - a total of 178 direct
became a prisoner as a result of his neglect of
descendants.
duty; but he, too, escaped and was never seen
again. Three years later the prisoners seized It was Beaufort West, of course, which sent the
their old Hottentot guard, threw him into a redoubtable Molteno, the "Lion of Beaufort
pond, and departed. On this occasion, however, West", later Sir John Charles Molteno, to the Old
all but two were recaptured. Cape House. Molteno came of a noble Italian
family which had been rooted in England for
generations before he sailed for Cape Town in loneliness and toil; and he managed his farm with
1831 at the age of seventeen. great skill. Within five years he was so prosperous
that he was able to hand over the farm routine to a
Young Molteno first worked in the Cape Public
manager and give some of his time to other
Library, then became a wine merchant. When the
affairs. Often he rode alone to Cape Town on
wine trade slumped he remembered a journey he
horseback, a distance of 360 miles. Molteno
had made to Beaufort West, and turned to wool.
became a great figure in Beaufort West affairs. He
No roads had been built, the mountain ranges
went to the Seventh Kaffir War with the burghers
were still great barriers, the rivers were
of his district, and returned as commandant.
unbridged. It took Molteno twenty days by ox-
Molteno then settled in the village. He started a
wagon to reach the farms he had bought at
bank, which the people sorely needed. He
Nelspoort. He had imported Saxon merino rams,
supervised his farms covering nearly one hundred
however, and now he started merino farming in a
thousand acres. And he became the first prime
district which had previously seen only the fat-
minister of the first cabinet in the Cape Colony.
tailed Hottentot sheep.
The old Molteno estate at Nelspoort was
The last of the lions were moving off when subdivided and sold in 1944, but the name of the
Molteno arrived, but he still had to deal with the "Lion of Beaufort West" remains in Molteno
leopards that carried off thirty of his sheep in a village and the Molteno Pass over the Nuweveld
night. There was no homestead on Nelspoort mountains.
farm. Neighbours wondered whether the raw
As a municipality, Beaufort West is older than
young Englishman could possibly make a success
Cape Town. It was in 1837 that this enterprising
of sheep farming. Within a year Molteno had lost
village took advantage of the ordinance
his wife and their young child. Yet he stayed on,
permitting the election of councillors. Two weeks
living in a tent, facing all the hardships, the
after the first election, Beaufort West was estimated at £100,000, but the most surprising
flooded. The Gamka river came raging down, a part of the disaster was that a man delivering
little girl was drowned in the street and two milk was the only victim to lose his life.
houses were washed away. The next serious Many years ago a man murdered his wife in
flood was in 1869, two years after the town the river-bed near Beaufort West. Ever since
dam had been completed. Leaks had been then, the people say, a fiery will-o'-the-wisp,
observed in the wall, and the bursting of the the dreaded oog, larger than the new moon, has
dam was anticipated. Everyone knew that been observed moving up and down the river.
rockets would be fired when the situation It is the spirit of the dead wife seeking
became really dangerous. At eleven one revenge. You see it coming; and then, at the
morning the rockets went up, church bells moment when a clash appears to be inevitable,
rang, and the whole population made for high it vanishes. Animals, especially horses, stand
ground. (I believe the only exception was an and sweat with fear when they see it. A daring
obstinate ouma who had a fine batch of bread transport-rider who drove straight towards the
in the oven and refused to leave it.) That flood oog became a lunatic.
cost Beaufort West £60,000, but there was no
loss of life. Six houses were swept away. Another version of the legend describes the
oog as the spirit of a mother seeking her
Beaufort West was flooded again in 1941, and daughter who had been drowned in the river.
that was the most expensive flood of all. The So many people have seen the oog that it must
people were asleep when the river burst its be accepted as a reality. Scientists think it is
banks. Water surged into almost every house formed by inflammable gas exuded by the
and shop. There were many rescues, and many rotting plant life of the river bed. The oog is
of the injured went to hospital. Damage was
observed more often in wet seasons than in went through their lives with the distinction of
times of drought. having sat on the Emperor's knee. After the death
of Napoleon many articles from Longwood were
In the town hall at Beaufort West you will find
sold, and Colonel Pritchard bought the tableware
a collection of Napoleonic relics which must
I have mentioned. These items passed to his son
be envied by the great museums of the world.
Charles.
There is a silver salver bearing the coat-of-
arms of the English East India Company. A Charles Pritchard went to school on St. Helena
silver wine-cooler, glass decanters with coats- and then, in 1832, received a commission as an
of-arms and monograms, a dinner plate, a Ensign of infantry in the East India Company's
silver butterknife and two salt-cellars are service. He fell ill while on duty and was
among the articles of fine workmanship which invalided out of the service on pension. Old
Napoleon must have used almost every day. It soldiers never die, however, and Ensign
was a queer chain of events that brought this Pritchard drew his pension for seventy-seven
beautiful tableware to Beaufort West. years! It was in the eighteen-thirties that he came
Among the officers guarding Napoleon on St. to the Cape and settled at Beaufort West. There
Helena was a Colonel Henry Hugh Pritchard. he took part in unicipal affairs and was later
When a member of Napoleon's staff reported elected as a Member of the Legislative
in 1816 that the Emperor was short of cutlery Assembly. One of his sons, William Auret
and glass, Pritchard sent a number of articles Pritchard, was the Johannesburg surveyor after
from the East India Company's military mess to whom Pritchard Street was named. Another son,
Longwood. Pritchard had a son Charles, born in Benjamin, inherited the Napoleonic relics and
left them to the Beaufort West municipality in
1815. Young Charles often called at Longwood
and became one of a number of children who memory of his father.
 between two hills, with a narrow poort to the
west. There was a sale of erven in 1844, and
All the karoo towns have their memories of old
each purchaser undertook to build a house within
dramas. Victoria West stands alone, however, as
four years or pay a fine of fifty Rix-dollars to
the scene of an unusual disaster more than eighty
church funds. Moreover, every erf had to be
years ago, when it was flooded by a cloudburst
planted with a border of quince or pomegranate
and turned into a village of the dead.
or elder trees. With the erf went grazing rights
No other event in Victoria West, before or since, for twenty trek-oxen, two milk cows, two horses,
can compare with that night of tragedy. There and a flock of sheep or goats. And no one was
was a time, I know, when Mrs. H.J. Wernich was allowed to sell wine or brandy.
killed by lightning in the village. William
One of the early ministers was the Rev. H.C.V.
Murray, an early magistrate, was murdered by
Leibbrandt. He raised money for the first
Korannas while out on an official mission. More
church organ, and worked hard; but his liberal
than once the houses have been shaken by
outlook caused a split in the congregation and
earthquakes. It must have been a grim moment,
he was offered £2,500 to resign. Leibbrandt
too, when the murderer James Morris was
later became the Cape archivist and historian.
carried to the scaffold outside the gaol and stood
there with the rope round his neck calling to a Many thousands of air travellers have read the
woman in the crowd: "Maria, look me in the name Victoria West on the mountain to the
face. It is your fault I am here, but you will north of the town. James Easton, a storekeeper,
follow me soon." and his son made a hobby of placing the stones
that form this huge sign into position. They
For years, of course, Victoria West was a quiet
worked secretly for weeks. Then one morning
village. It was laid out on the farm Zeekoegat,
Victoria West awoke to find that the stones had
been white-washed during the night, so that all clouds. Lightning flashed on the whitewashed
could read: "J. Easton – General Dealer - cottages, but no rain fell in the village.
Victoria West." Other shopkeepers were less As a prelude to a thunderstorm, air currents
enthusiastic over this little enterprise than the rush violently upwards and prevent the
Eastons. The matter came before the town condensing raindrops falling to the ground.
council, and the complainants declared that it Thus you have masses of water suspended over
was monstrous that a mountain should become small areas. If the storm passes over a
an advertisement for one man. The council mountain the uprush of air is broken and the
ruled that only the name Victoria West could gullies are filled suddenly with torrents of
be allowed to remain. Nowadays the council water. Such is the mechanism of a cloud-burst.
provides the whitewash. James Easton died in
1948, at the age of ninety-two. Only one man saw the cloud-burst on the
mountain slopes ten miles to the south-west of
Nearly a thousand people of all races were Victoria West that night. He was a farmer
living in Victoria West on the night of visiting his goat-kraals; and he realized
February 27, 1871 - the night of the flood.
immediately that many lives would be in
Among the large buildings were the Dutch danger as the flood raced along the Brak River.
Reformed Church, the new library hall, Quirk's He made for the nearest farm, Patrysfontein,
Hotel and the gaol. There were a few shops where the Hugo family lived, six miles from
and about sixty private houses. Before the village.
darkness fell that night the bed of the Brak
River, which runs through the village, was dry. Patrysfontein homestead was in ruins when he
It had been a sweltering day, but with the reached it. Frans Hugo told him that he had
twilight came a cold breeze and thunder been sitting round the kitchen table with his
wife and five children when they heard the They were dancing at Quirk's Hotel that night.
roaring of the water. The kitchen door was torn It was close to the river bed, far too close. Of
away by the flood. All of them made for the twenty-two people at the party, one escaped.
open air and became separated in the darkness A wave five feet high raced through the main
by the swift flood. Hugo had the presence of street, playing havoc with the raw-brick
mind to struggle towards the heavy farm cottages. Many were drowned in their beds or
wagon on higher ground. The wagon was in killed as the walls fell in. One side of the main
danger of being carried away by the force of street was higher than the other. Mr. Ferguson,
water, but he clamped down the brakes and it who had a house and shop with a high stoep,
remained like an island. He saw a small form was reading a newspaper in his bedroom when
sweeping past, and rescued one of his sons. his wife heard screams outside. She went out,
They were the only survivors. Miles away but ran back crying out: "We shall all be
downstream the bodies of the mother and the drowned." Ferguson hurried into the shop, lit
four other children were found next day. A all the lamps in the window, and opened the
coloured shepherd and his wife were also shutters so that people might find refuge on his
drowned on Patrysfontein. The house and
stoep.
furniture were wrecked and the farm ruined.
When the water struck the village, Rainie People on the lower side called to Ferguson to
Dodds, the belle of Victoria West, was trying throw a rope across. With the aid of this rope
on her wedding dress. The house collapsed, her Mrs. Dodds and six people from her house
spine was injured by falling bricks, and very reached safety, leaving the body of poor Rainie
soon she died. to the flood. Then Mr. and Mrs. Laws and
three men followed them and saved their lives
with the rope.
Hundreds of bales of wool floated down the John McDonald the butcher and his wife had
street. The lights in Ferguson's window just undressed when the flood reached them.
revealed doors and roofs, sheep, goats, mules They saved their lives by climbing the willow-
and horses drifting past the houses. One old tree at their front door; and there they were
woman was buffeted about amid the flotsam found naked, after they had been shouting for a
with her child until she lost consciousness. She long time.
drifted to a cartwheel embedded in the ground,
One aged couple clung to their doomed house
and one of her legs was broken between the
until a relative remembered them. All he could
spokes. Yet she held on until she was saved. do was to make them as comfortable as
Mrs. Jacobsohn made a raft of a featherbed and possible on a table under a tree, telling them to
placed her young children on it. They floated hang on to the branches if the water rose.
safely until the waters subsided. Mrs. Kossuth
Johannes Buyskes, driver of the mail coach,
was trapped in her living-room with the walls
was one of the flood heroes. It was raining so
caving in round her. She stood in the fireplace heavily as he approached Victoria West that
to avoid injury. When the water rose to her night that he could not see his mule team. It
chin she held her child of six over her head. was impossible to drive into the village, for the
For three hours she stood there, until she was
road had been washed away. Buyskes
rescued.
outspanned, and then went forward alone,
A young Hottentot girl was washed out of her feeling his way with a staff. He rescued so
cottage at one end of the village. She swam many people that a number of Victoria West
with the current until she was washed into a women later presented him with a long, plaited
tree at the far end. chain of their hair as a thankoffering.
In the narrow poort the water remained at a been drowned, with sixteen hundred merino
high level until shortly before dawn. When sheep. His dam had been completely
daylight came, however, it was possible to destroyed. In the village, thirty houses had
enter every house. All the carts in the village collapsed. The magistrate's court was badly
were sent to the river bank to salvage goods damaged and all public documents lost.
swept away during the night. Each cart To this day the death-roll has never been
returned with the bodies of the drowned. One
compiled with complete accuracy. Coloured
young man, Hugh Macdonald, strained his people were swept down the river and lost
heart severely during the rescue work and died without trace. Sixty bodies were carried to the
three years later. library hall, however, where relatives in the
Daybreak revealed the full horror of the village or from the farms identified them.
disaster. The "Beaufort West Courier" "The library hall, the only undamaged public
described Victoria West as "a pretty town in
building, was converted into a mortuary,"
ruins, with tales of woe and adventure wrote a survivor. "Bearer party after bearer
everywhere." The "Cape Argus" reported: "In party entered. The superintendent of police
all directions dead people, sheep, cattle, sent many weary searchers away to wander
horses, as also merchandise could be seen
afresh; others he led into the darkened room
lying about. Many of the corpses were naked."
behind. Among the dead was the body of a
Just below the village was Mr. A.L. Devenish's woman whose cottage above the poort was
farm. Here stood the finest farm dam ever built among the first to be swept away. The force of
in the colony, with a solid stone wall backing the onrush carried her and her children right
the embankment. When Devenish counted his through the poort and laid them against the
losses he found that five of his shepherds had churchyard wall at the end of the town, as
though bringing them to a resting-place. There us. It was so dark that no one could stretch out
were no marks or scratches of any kind on the a hand to help. Four of Uncle Anthony's
bodies, yet they had passed over jagged rocks. shepherds have gone and ever so many sheep."
Others were so cut that they could be identified The Kerkraad met and decided to bury a
only by their clothes. A gloom like the shadow number of victims in one grave, with separate
of a great pall lay upon the town. People in the burials for those whose relatives wished it.
streets spoke in whispers." Most of the farmers near the village had heard
A few letters describing the disaster have been of the disaster. At ten in the morning on March
carefully preserved. I saw one, written by a the first the church was filled and three
woman to a friend in Beaufort West, which ministers conducted the funeral service. Ox-
conveys the atmosphere of that day of tragedy. wagons served as hearses. The rows of rough
"Oh, we are in such distress," she wrote. "We coffins were placed in the graveyard and the
have had an awful flood and we were nearly funeral hymn was sung.
killed. Oh! you don't know the misery. The "Church and other bells were tolling," wrote
dead carts are going backwards and forwards. one of the congregation. "Husbands mourned
They are unable to make coffins for the for wives and wives for husbands. Then all
coloured people, but buried them all in large returned to the task of rendering assistance, for
graves. The shrieks for help were awful and the poorer classes only had blankets wrapped
never to be forgotten. Uncle Dan was very ill round them."
that night, yet he was up the whole night trying
to save people. He saved us all. We were all A breakwater wall was built a year later where
standing on the stoep above our knees in water, the river passed through the village. Victoria
every moment expecting the house to fall on
West has been flooded again since the 1871 several of the places I have mentioned from
disaster, but never with loss of life. Middelburg in just ten hours.
Probably the last flood survivor was a coloured Governor van Plettenberg, returning from the
centenarian woman who was living in the northern border in the seventeen-seventies,
location a few years ago. To-day you have to crossed the present Middelburg district. He
go to the graveyard to find reminders of the named a conspicuous peak Compassberg
tragedy - the granite monument and because the whole countryside could be seen
inscriptions on some of the tombstones. The from the summit. It was a dangerous area on
flood is no longer within living memory. account of the Bushmen; yet one farm was
given out as far back as 1780- a farm with a
"No such calamity has happened in South
romantic story.
Africa within the memory of man," summed up
the "Cape Argus" at the time. "The great This was Schoombiesklip, and the farmer was
Knysna fire and the bursting of the Beaufort Andries Godliep Schoonbee. (Some careless
dam sink into insignificance beside it." clerk got the name wrong.) Schoonbee was a
Dane who had thrown his brother out of a
window in Denmark and left the country in a
Middelburg gained its name because it grew up hurry, thinking he had killed him. (In fact, his
in the middle of the surrounding villages of brother survived.) Not long after his arrival,
Richmond, Cradock, Colesberg, Graaff-Reinet Schoonbee cut these words in a rock on his
and Burgersdorp. Those were the days when farm: "Anno 1780 Aprel ik ben die plaas heeft
karoo distances were reckoned in terms of aangeleygt A.G.S.B. vyt Denemark -
hours on horseback, and you could reach sprenghane als sant."
Locusts, the migrating springbok and severe before Middelburg began to take shape as the
droughts made all the early settlers wonder pleasant town of to-day.
why they had come to this far district. Murraysburg is about the same age as
Stockenstroom, who was there in 1827, Middelburg, but it grew much faster. In 1858
reported: "I found the country everywhere in a the "Cape Argus" reported: "What six months
most frightful state from the locusts, which ago was a dreary desert half way between
may be said to form almost one swarm all over Graaff-Reinet and Beaufort West now has
the district, nor is the drought less disturbing." seventy houses built or building and three
Most of the farmers trekked across the Orange hundred inhabitants. Orchards are springing
River in despair. up." The village was named after Dr. Andrew
It was not until 1852 that a meeting was held to Murray, six times Moderator of the Dutch
select a church centre. This was a time when Reformed Church, author of more than two
new villages drew to them white ne'er-do-wells hundred books and pamphlets.
who pretended to be craftsmen, but who Another karoo town founded in the eighteen-
divided their time between bad workmanship fifties was Hanover. It is now the half-way
and orgies round the brandy wagons. The evils house between Cape Town and Johannesburg,
of the coloured locations that marred this favourite night-stop for motorists who like to
period were largely due to these low whites. cover no more than five hundred miles a day.
Middelburg had a bad reputation in this The town was laid out on the farm Petrus
respect. The farmers came in for Nagmaal, and Vallei, owned by a German named Gous, born
to sell their produce; but at other times they in Hanover.
avoided the village. Thus two decades passed
It was the wool boom, of course, which created "bewitched mountain", because the mountain
so many villages during that period. People there seemed to recede as the pioneer
were pouring into the karoo, little knowing that Afrikaner hunters approached it. Others prefer
their descendants would be abandoning it for the Toornberg version, "mountain of wrath",
the cities a century later. In the ox-wagon days though I can find nothing to explain this
a karoo dweller who visited another town was origin. Sir Lowry Cole changed the name to
often expected to give some account of his Colesberg, and issued an order forbidding the
travels when he returned. Thus the "Graaff- use of the old name under penalty of a heavy
Reinet Advertiser", in September 1866 fine. That is one way of ensuring that one's
announced: "Mr. Smit has just returned from name remains on the map.
Hanover and informs us that the houses are The missionaries collected a number of
well furnished there, but that the church is the
Bushman families at this site. Landdrost
worst attempt he has seen in the country. The Stockenstroom closed the station, as he did not
Hanoverians have very strict town regulations. wish to have so many savages close to the
No stranger who buys cattle or horses is colonial frontier. Gun-runners often passed
allowed to stay longer than one day, otherwise
that way after the missionaries had departed.
he must buy a permit or have his stock Mr. Ryneveld, the Graaff-Reinet commis-
impounded."
sioner, captured a wagon there loaded with
Colesberg is older than most of its neighbours, gunpowder, lead and new guns. It was in
for there was a station of the London charge of four Bastards of the Barend
Missionary Society there very early last Barendse clan.
century. It had an earlier name which is a little A village was formed in 1830, when the first
hazy. Some say it was Toverberg, the
Andrew Murray preached there, and the
foundation stone of the church was laid. Casalis, Arbousset and other French pastors
Andrew Steedman, the Cape Town merchant, spent a few days in Colesberg three years later.
zoologist and author, was present at this They found an embryonic town. Round the
gathering. If he had arrived a week earlier he church lived a German shopkeeper, a doctor, a
might have passed within a mile or two of the carpenter from the Cape and a Swiss
place without knowing that a village was about watchmaker. The traveller Backhouse arrived
to be founded there. Now at dusk he came in 1839 and attended a temperance meeting.
upon hundreds of tents and wagons scattered Colesberg was a frontier town and far from
all over the veld, fires blazing for the evening temperate, he declared. Half the population
meal, whips cracking as more families drove was English. Mechanics were earning from,
up. As soon as the ceremony of laying the four to six shillings a day and spending a large
stone was over, the Graaff-Reinet traders part of it on strong drink.
brought out their goods. Steedman wrote: "It Colesberg residents protested when the circuit
was like an English fair without the theatrical court stopped at Graaff-Reinet. Witnesses were
booths and the demoralising scenes of riot or dragged from their families and had to ride two
drunkenness such as frequently disgrace
hundred miles, a special hardship in times of
similar assemblages overseas." horse sickness.
The church was opened two years later. Other events shocked Colesberg at this period.
Storekeepers from Graaff-Reinet put up stalls A Hottentot wagon-driver was struck by
in the main street, but the atmosphere was grim lightning, the fourth fatality of this kind in
owing to rumours of a Koranna raid. Once the three months. A dense swarm of locusts took
men were called to arms. Fortunately the four hours to pass the village. And three thousand
raiders turned out to be a herd of wildebees. panes of glass were broken in a hailstorm.
Colesberg had grown to a village of two thousand One of Colesberg's great claims to fame lies in the
people in 1859, and one traveller described them as fact that President Kruger spent his boyhood years
"very enterprising men of manners and education". on the farm Vaalbank in the district. That is not in
Their member in the Old Cape House was the Hon. doubt. A further claim has still to be proved;
Henry Tucker, who set up a record by riding his namely, that Kruger was born at Vaalbank. It
little roan skimmel from Colesberg to Cape Town, seems that part of the huge Colesberg commonage
five hundred miles, in less than six days. On was known as Vaalbank. When the Kruger funeral
another occasion Tucker drove a post-cart over the cortege passed through Colesberg in 1904 old
same route in one hundred and fifteen hours. people pointed to a certain house and remarked:
Colesberg lost many residents during the rush to "To think that he was born in old Venter's house."
the diamond fields, but it was visited by many Another anecdote refers to an incident on President
dubious characters and deluged by other fortune
Kruger's birthday in 1896, when a Mr. H.D.
seekers. Not long afterwards (in 1886) the "Cape Wentworth was present at the celebrations.
Argus" correspondent reported: "Colesberg is in an
awful state. There is no business, and about half "And young man, what part do you come from? "
the population is leaving. The sky is of brass and Kruger asked Wentworth.
the earth is of lead. Horses have no value." In later "From Colesberg, President."
years, of course, Colesberg became famous for
horses and one breeder was reputed to have made a "Yes, Colesberg has produced some good
cool million pounds. material," remarked Kruger jocularly. "I was born
in Colesberg."
An event of the nineties which some of the oldest
residents must remember was the balloon ascent Then there was the evidence of Mr. Ludwig
and parachute jump by Harry Goodall, air pioneer. Kamfer, aged ninety-eight in 1953, who spoke of
Kruger's visit to Colesberg in the nineties to meet
Sir Henry Lock. Kruger remarked to Dr. Knobel, houses belong to farmers and are shut up
his personal surgeon: "But you were also born during weekdays. There is neither teacher nor
here. I will show you our common birthplace." magistrate." Later that year the village was
illuminated in honour of the magistrate's
Steynsrust, in the Free State, disputes this claim
arrival.
fiercely. Many bistorians have tried to solve the
mystery of Kruger's birthplace, but no clear proof The gunpowder magazine blew up just over a
has been discovered. I like to think that such a century ago, but no one was hurt. Then there
strong personality as Kruger was in fact a son was the whirlwind at Rhenosterfontein which
of the hard old karoo at Colesberg. destroyed the outhouses, killed many sheep,
Richmond, another karoo town that every lifted a Hottentot shepherd off the ground and
national road motorist knows, stands on the carried him for a hundred yards. He was not
highest steppe of the Cape Province. You can seriously hurt.
freeze in winter at five thousand feet. Many little episodes in the life of Richmond
Richmond feels every wind that blows. It has would have been lost for ever if the village had
survived snowstorms and mild earthquakes, a not supported local newspapers from time to
flood that swept into the houses, drought and time. Thus I know that in 1865 an "ill-used
hail. swain" sued a young woman for breach of
promise. It was settled out of court, the swain
It was in 1844 that the first erven were sold.
receiving £400 and costs. He would be lucky
Four years later a visitor from Port Elizabeth
to touch that amount today. There must have
wrote: "The karoo lies on all sides. The stores
been more in it than met the eye.
aye substantial. There are few gardens owing
to the water supply not being too strong. Many
At this period the Richmond newspaper One hundred burghers returned from the
complained that it was impossible to rent a Basuto War during the following year.
decent dwelling house. Yet there were twenty Richmond's municipal council debated for
vacant houses in Main Street alone, all hours before voting £5 for the entertainment of
belonging to farmers who were too wealthy or the burghers, and then only on the strict
independent to let them. As a result, they were understanding that nothing stronger than
occupied once a month or once a quarter. ginger-beer should be offered to the men.
Owing to the water shortage, vegetables were a Some towns in the karoo may be regarded as
luxury. Meat cost sixpence a pound, while twins or triplets. Others are clearly individuals,
coffee was £12 a bag. "Richmond is not a poor with personalities which have grown out of
man's paradise," summed up the writer. Some their own people and the episodes of the years.
time later the newspaper reported that the All have something in common, a strong
village was becoming unpleasantly lively, and family resemblance outwardly and an inward
promised to rival Humansdorp in "anger, sympathy. Their main streets have shared the
malice and all uncharitableness." same experiences and watched the same
A sign of progress in 1880 was a public historic cavalcades in peace and war. They
subscription for a hearse. In that year, too, the heard the rumble of wheels and crack of whip
whole town gathered to watch the tarring, as the ex-wagons departed; northbound to
feathering and burning of an effigy of their adventure or southbound for the yearly trek to
M.L.A., Mr. Powell, who had not voted the sea.
according to their wishes on the railway They still share many, familiar scenes ... black
question. suits of ouderlinge and diakens in the
Sunday walk to church ... sheep in market
square ... above all, the streams of dorpe- Table Bay and drove northwards on the
naars seeking relief in the streets at night national road in heat that surpassed my desire.
from the heat. Every karoo town lives again in As I raced wistfully past the Durbanville
summer when night falls, and then indeed you turning I thought of the friends who would be
understand why this is the land of the stoep. in the farm swimming-bath later that day,
CHAPTER 7 among the fruit, trees and vines. They would
MIDSUMMER IN GRAAFF-REINET be eating cold turkey and salad in the shade,
while for me there would be the blazing road
Spandau’s Peak that sunsets burn
... karoo, karoo, karoo. But the road itself wa s
And the dove-clouds dally on,
an old drug that had lulled me through the
Fashioned like a haughty stern
years, and when I came out of the mist into the
Of a Spanish galleon,
sun on the far side of Du Toit's Kloof, all self-
Rock-browed Spandau gazes down
pity had vanished.
On a chess-board featured town,
Where in clean-cut squares are seen An old man baboon lolloped across the road
Houses white and gardens green. ahead; and because I had just come back to the
-Francis Carey Slater Cape from a far island, I hailed that baboon as
a friend. One night on that island I looked at
IT was midsummer when a burning and
the label on a bottle my host offered me and
unreasonable desire came over me to make the
remarked: "I know the farm where they make
acquaintance of Graaff-Reinet without further
delay. No one would ride with me into the that wine." Now, beyond Worcester, I passed
Great Karoo on the day after Christmas. Alone the vineyard which had sent that wine across
the ocean. Then over the Hex I roared, into the
I said good-bye to the gulls on the edge of
waves of heat, towards the karoo ocean. I
observed that Constable - the railway station brown karoo world. They were exiles,
that always puzzled me as a small boy suffering the pangs of exile, blind to the
interested in place-names - had become country that inspired Olive Schreiner's
Konstabel. (The change was made purely for masterpieces. Yes, you must love the karoo if
the sake of historical accuracy, when someone you are to dwell under the corrugated iron of
pointed out that the old Hottentot who lived those farmhouses that you see from the road ...
there beside the fontein a century and a half or those distant ones you do not see, beyond
ago was a certain Konstabel, not Constable.) the koppies, at the end of their own winding
Another little station, I remember, framed tracks.
itself in my windscreen as a scene for a painter Such were my reflections as I passed the tall
- green peppercorns, red roofs, a goods train stone needle set up as a signpost between
sending its black smoke into the blue, and Laingsburg and Prince Albert Road. Farther
brown earth surrounding the karoo station. north there was a koppie with a grave on the
You must love the karoo to live there. I summit. In the old days, I suppose, I might
thought of those people, reared in softer have sauntered up there to read the headstone
climates, who found life on the lonely karoo and then walked after the wagon. And such is
farms intolerable. At one time a few of the the curse of speed that I simply drove on,
wealthier farmers sent to England for wondering whether a karoo patriarch lay there;
governesses. Some of these girls, sensitive and possibly a man who knew all the moods of the
educated, were able to reconcile themselves to karoo; one who might have guided my pen if
the sudden change until at last they lived only I had known him. Thus I came thankfully
happily in the karoo. Others, in spite of every to Beaufort West, a town where motorists from
human kindness, never took root in the hard all over Southern Africa, men in shorts and
women in yellow shirts and red slacks, you look down on Graaff-Reinet from the
mingled on that Sunday evening with the heights it is a rich green oval with the longest
black-coated people on their way to church. street a mile in length. I think of it as an
You would not have seen that contrast in the emerald in a brown setting. Early travellers
old days. formed the same impression, for they called
the place "gem of the desert" or "gem of the
There is a road that takes you through the heart
karoo". Graaff-Reinet is a very distinct
of the Great Karoo, the stretch of nearly a
personality, different in many ways from other
hundred miles from Beaufort West to
karoo towns.
Aberdeen, a long run without a village. I
should have lingered in Aberdeen, for I am My hotel, old-fashioned but comfortable, with
sure I would have met friendly people and the stoep shaded by an hibiscus hedge, was
heard many tales of the century-old village. I once the Drostdy, the seat of government. As I
glanced at Aberdeen's church tower, which the drew up at the steps a "Christmas band" of
Aberdeen people claim as the highest in the native musicians and dancers was entertaining
country, visible across the flat karoo for the residents, the only band I have ever heard
twenty-five miles. (Noorder-Paarl, I believe, composed of drums and police whistles. Then I
has a slightly taller spire.) Then I fixed my went to my bedroom to slake a karoo thirst,
eyes ahead again, for I was weary of these with the rum-tum peep-peep resounding in my
shadeless plains and I knew that the Camdeboo ears.
mountains, Graaff-Reinet and the Sneeuberg I have only one grievance against Graaff-
lay to the north. Reinet, and you may as well hear it at once.
Graaff-Reinet is almost ringed in by mountains Resting on my hotel bed with a glass of water
and a great loop of the Sundays River. When beside me, I found persistent visions of war in
the Western Desert rising before my tired eyes. In the gracious homes of Graaff-Reinet I asked
Was it the heat that brought memories of the my hosts whether there was still any food or
shattered villas of Tobruk? Or the dust that drink which belonged essentially to the town.
made me think of the dusty road up from Someone found me a bottle of the old sweet
Sollum to Bardia? As I reached for the water red muscadel, a wine to remember now that it
again I traced the disturbance. It was the water, is no longer made. Another resident suggested
the chlorinated water of Graaff-Reinet. You that prickly-pear syrup might have originated
cannot have a desert war without chlorine, but in the district. You boil down the prickly-pears
I did not expect to encounter it again in this to a dark brown liquid like treacle, and it is
peaceful karoo town. My winetaster's palate sweet enough without the addition of sugar.
and my imagination had been disturbed. But this, too, is a lost delicacy since the
Fortunately I had Cape Town water in my pricklypear has been eradicated.
flasks, and I was able to banish the unwelcome When I set out to discover the secret of Graaff-
flavour and the visions. Reinet's personality I knew it would not be
Graaff-Reinet hospitality, I may add, does not easy. On the surface, of course, there are the
take the form of chlorinated water. Years ago small-holdings, the irrigated erwe in the so-
the great local drink, the traditional stimulant called "back streets" such as Donkin and Plasket
made in the town, was withond, a colourless Streets to the west of the town. Whole families
dop brandy which held its own valiantly still earn their livings in these pleasant vineyards
against any witblits made in other districts. and market gardens; one or two morgen apiece,
For a quarter of a century it has been illegal to flooded by day and again by night from the open
distil withond. furrows that run down the streets. You do not find
intensive cultivation on that scale in many other I asked Muller for the clue to Graaff-Reinet's
karoo towns. character. He said it was in the karoo soil. All the
Old Mr. Izak Muller, who had worked all his life fruit tasted better; everything had more flavour
on his small, beloved stretch of soil, told me that than the Western Province fruit. The crystal
grapes of Graaff-Reinet, the hanepoot and
the Graaff-Rêinet gardens were vanishing. There
was a demand for building sites, and a man who Barbarossa were the finest in the land. They made
konfyt there, green fig and watermelon and whole
was offered £250 for a slice of his garden
peach, such as no other town in South Africa
weighed it up against carrots at a halfpenny a
could produce. Hedges yielded the most delicious
bunch - and sold.
quinces and pomegranates. In the old days the
"When I was a boy the water furrows were much streets were lined with orange and lemon trees,
wider and deeper," Muller recalled. "I swam in and superb oranges (juicier than Clanwilliam and
them. I grew up among the peach trees, and my Transvaal oranges) still grew in the gardens.
earliest memory is of climbing and shaking the
Muller declared that even now the trees along the
trees on the day when the peaches were gathered
pavements enhanced the charm of the town. There
for drying. We ate mutton three times a day when
was the kaffirboom with its red flower in spring; a
I was a child - great dishes of mutton with stewed
few Camdeboo stinkwood trees; and many old
dried peaches. Some of the erf-holders went in for
cypresses, pines, gums, a few oaks and the pear
ostriches at the time of the boom, for no one made
trees which bore incomparable pears. I thought
a fortune out of market gardening. Then there was
that Muller was too enthusiastic; but then I found
a flood, and many ostriches in the river-bed were
his opinion confirmed by Scully (assistant
swept away. That was a disaster when a good
magistrate of Graaff-Reinet in the eighteen-
breeding pair cost a couple of hundred pounds."
seventies), a man I have always recognised as an
authority. Scully went further than Muller and by the late Mr. J.H. (Oom Jurie) Laubscher, 3 a
stated that the Graaff-Reinet grapes were, for great character - first a transport rider, then a
eating purposes, the best in the world. He thought market gardener, antique collector, narrator of
it was due to a combination of intense heat, rich karoo tales, and a man who had the reputation
soil and irrigation water. Scully drank so many of being able to make anything. Oom Jurie's
tankards of foaming new wine one day that he daughters told me the story of the doll factory.
passed out in Miss Leisching's dining-room.
It was a rainy day, and the whole Laubscher
However, he placed it on record that he awoke
family were sitting in one room when a
delightfully refreshed. neighbour and her little girl paid them a visit.
Muller talked to me about the almost forgotten The girl had an American doll which everyone
specialities known as Graaff-Reinetskoene and admired. Dolls had disappeared from the shops
Graaffreinetters. The shoes, of the velskoen owing to the war, and Oom Jurie gazed hard at
type, were of a bright yellow leather, the upper this doll with the movable arms and legs. "I
being sewn to the sole with riempies. could make one as good as that," he announced
Graarfreinetters were pipes, made by a resident finally. The family jeered at him. Oom Jurie
named Jan Koning from red karee wood. The then started work; his wife made the clothes,
stem was six inches long, and Koning's pipes one of his daughters painted the face; and Oom
were always in great demand. Then there were Jurie riveted the arms and legs so that they
the Graaff-Reinet dolls which were famous all
over Southern Africa during World War I and
for several years afterwards. They were created
3
Mr. Laubscher died in 1952 at the age of
eighty-six.
moved just as naturally as those of the Street. There I saw the porcupine quill house
American model. made in1890 by Joubert. I cannot imagine
what possessed Joubert when he set out to
Graaff-Reinet went mad over that doll, and
build a four-storied house (including attics and
every little girl wanted one. Oom Jurie and his
cellars) out of quills and using a cut-throat
family set out to supply the demand. Before
razor as his only tool. But others fell under the
very long they had to open a factory, and at the
spell, the farmers of the district, and they
height of the boom they were employing
trapped porcupines as fast as Joubert used up
seventy people. An old cripple sat and filled
the quills. Within a year the handsome
the bodies with granulated cork. Small boys,
porcupine mansion was complete; possibly the
earning money out of school hours, dipped the
only miniature house in the world composed of
dolls into the dye. It was a happy factory, and
this odd material.
the Graaff-Reinet dolls went out to every
corner of the Union and Southern Rhodesia. After the death of Joubert in 1907 his
Post-war wage legislation killed the enterprise, handiwork was exhibited to the public and
but Oom Jurie's daughters still meet old everyone who came to Graaff-Reinet stood
employees in the street and chat about those enthralled before the quill house with its fifty-
great days in the doll factory. There is an two windows, balconies, garden and yard. The
Afrikaans book for children, "Riena Reinet", masterpiece stands in a glass case four feet
which tells the story of the Graaff-Reinet dolls square on a revolving table. Visitors did not
in pictures. start signing their names until 1927, and at the
The queer hobby of a Graaff-Reinet man, the end of 1954 I left my name opposite number
7,627. Joubert also copied his wife's wardrobe
late Mr. J.F. Joubert, has taken many
thousands of visitors to a house in Bourke in quills, the medium he had made peculiarly
his own. While on trek as a transport rider he husband, an Irish doctor, in 1904. She drove
filled an album with neat geometrical designs, that car, and she was still driving cars when I
and this also is on view. I came away met her fifty years later.
marvelling not only at the industry of this I have seen many fine old houses in company
eccentric, bygone craftsman, but also at the with more or less famous people, but the
fascination of the miniature, the unusual privilege of walking round the Te Water Huis
spectacle, which has drawn such hordes of with Mrs. Keegan was one I shall always
people to the Bourke Street house since value. "This is a house of memories ... only
Joubert died nearly half a century ago. memories now," she said, but with such
They told me in Graaff-Reinet that almost philosophy that there was hardly a trace of
every home was a treasure-house of the past, a sadness in her voice. She pointed to an oil
place of wonder for all who love antique painting of her ancestors; not a formal group,
furniture. This is true, and you come very close but a cheerful scene in a living-room; and she
to the personality of the town in such mansions told me the story of one of the girls in the
as the Te Water Huis, ancestral home of the Te picture.
Water family. Even more remarkable than the The girl went to a religious meeting in Graaff-
house was the owner, Mrs. Keegan (formerly a Reinet. Her conscience was aroused to such an
Miss Jacie te Water), a lady of eighty-six who extent by the revivalist that she came home,
blended vivacious charm with wisdom. Mrs. threw her ball dresses in a corner, stamped on
Keegan opened the family Bible which came them and vowed that never again would she
from Holland with her ancestors, the first entry give herself up to pleasure. Far away in the
dated 1824; and she also produced a snapshot Free State a young predikant heard of the vow,
of the first motor-car owned by her late and wrote a proposal of marriage.
“Onbekend maakt onbemind,” replied this That is where Mrs. Keegan keeps her old
spirited girl. "Unknown is unloved." papers.
"That is a fault that can be easily remedied," Hundreds of birds come to be fed every
wrote back the predikant. He drove into morning in the Te Water Huis garden, Cape
Graaff-Reinet with a smart springwagon and canaries, lemoenduifies, finks, all feeding
spanking horses; and when he departed his round the sundial. In this garden are some of
bride went with him. the oldest vines in the town, Catawba and
acorn grapes; here, too, are very old walnut
Mrs. Keegan led the way from one high
and pear trees, and a geranium from a slip
reception room to another. I studied the rich
taken at Buckingham Palace. Sir Andries
wallpaper, glass chandeliers, grandfather and
Stockenstroom knew this house, but I think the
cuckoo clocks, the plush, inlaid chairs used by
hawthorn, rosemary and pomegranate trees
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth when
were planted after his time.
they visited Graaff-Reinet; chairs that were
saved from a Table Bay wreck when a lovesick Wine cellars were usually built at surface level
master mariner sailed too close inshore in the in the Cape, but this house has a cellar below
hope of waving to a Mouille Point girl nearly a the ground. This was once a wine estate with
hundred years ago. I saw the yellowwood huge vineyards. You can still catch the aroma
floors, the stone-flagged kitchen and pantries, of wine in the cellar, and the large vats are still
old copper kettles. I met the servants whose there. "We exchanged wine with relations in
grandparents had worked in the same house Constantia, " recalled Mrs. Keegan. "Every-
and made up the same canopied four-poster thing in the Cape is bound together."
beds. I saw a fifteenth century black iron
money chest, with a hidden keyhole on top.
Pride of Graaff-Reinet in the public sense is the stoep with its original iron railings and
Reinet Huis, once the Murray pastorie and now enter the klein voorhuis (hall) with the groot
a national monument and museum. Here agan I voorhuis, used as a dining-room, straight ahead
was more than fortunate in my guide, for Miss of you. Doors lead to the drawing-room, a
Isabel Lawrie is a grand-daughter of the Rev. smaller dining-room and many bedrooms. But
Charles Murray, and her mother grew up in the this hospitable pastorie housed so many people
house. at times - large families and guests - that some
of the cellar rooms were used as bedrooms by
I believe the foundations of Reinet Huis were
the Murray sons. Front and back stoeps are
laid in 1808, and the spacious, gabled manse
was completed about eight years later. Reinet supported by arches. The cellar rooms, with
Huis is more like a house in Old Cape Town walls three feet thick, correspond exactly with
the rooms above.
than a karoo dwelling. To-day it is the only
thatched house in a town which once knew Miss Lawrie showed me the dark study in the
nothing but thatch. 4 You walk up stone steps to cellar where the Rev. Charles Murray received
some of his callers. The cellar windows have
bars of yellowwood, an unusual arrangement.
4
When the Haarhoff home on Market Square Here, too, were the houtkamer (wood store),
was demolished in 1954, an old thatched roof the kalk-kamer (lime room) and the kaf-kamer
was found under the iron roof. Many old (chaff room). The building has been restored,
documents, going back to 1812, were but no structural changes have been made. All
discovered in the thatch. The Haarhoffs came the original doors are there with their
originally from Denmark and settled in Graaff- yellowwood panels and stinkwood frames.
Reinet early last century. Floors, ceiling timbers and ceilings are of
yellowwood. In the kitchen you see the old five hundred descendants were there, including
hearth and the ham-smoking chamber, which two daughters and a daughter-in-law.
appears to be a replica of one in the Koopmans This was the house which sheltered great
de Wet House in Cape Town. But the baking missionaries on their way to savage lands. In
oven was designed in a way I had never seen the diary of Robert Moffat (father-in-law of
before, for it has its door in the kitchen and an Livingstone) you will find these words:
opening in the adjoining room. "Murray of Graaff-Reinet is a renowned friend
I admired the hand-carved, yellowwood of Missions, his home is open to all. We were
staircase up to the loft; the two beautiful his guests for fourteen days." Livinigstone,
flights of curved stone steps into the back too, slept under this roof, and long afterwards
garden, the masterpiece of some bygone letters from the explorer were read to the
craftsman; and the cobbled courtyard. Murray children. French missionaries, some
with vivacious wives, were received with the
Such was the pastorie which the first Andrew
same hospitality - Pellissier and Casalis,
Murray occupied in 1822. It was his home for
Rolland and Arbousset.
forty-five years, and for decades it ranked as
the finest home in the village. All his children It was a rule in the Murray household that food
were born there. His son Charles lived on there for Sunday should be prepared as far as
until 1904, and Helen Murray (a sister of possible on Saturday. Everyone went to church
Charles) reoccupied it in 1907 when the old except the nurse-girl and the baby. The parish
building became a hostel for girls. Here in was so large that Andrew Munray had to travel
1922 the Murrays gathered again to celebrate great distances, until such places as Aberdeen
the centenary of the first Andrew Murray's and Colesberg, Middelburg and Murraysburg,
arrival; more than two hundred out of nearly had ministers of their own. But he was a happy
man. One of his daughters recorded that no one orange trees, with a vineyard on one side. Oats
ever heard him express a wish to return to were grown for the horses and lucerne for the
Scotland. cow.
Many scenes from Graaff-Reinet's past have Perhaps the greatest botanical achievement of
been preserved owing to the fact that a Charles Murray was the planting of the grape
photographer, Mr. W. Roe, set up in business vine which is now the largest (or second
there as far back as 1860. He took a picture of largest) in the world. Some say it was a cutting
the arrival of the Rev. Charles Murray at the from the Hampton Court giant, which has a
pastorie in 1866; and when the memorial to the main branch one hundred and twenty feet long.
Rev. Charles Murray was unveiled in 1915, Another account gives the South of France as
Roe was still there, at the age of eighty-eight, its origin. It is of the "black acorn" species,
to take the photograph. and Miss Lawrie informed me positively that it
was planted in 1870, on the day one of her
Charles Murray, of course, was the gardener of
uncles was born. To-day the circumference of
the family, and he made the Graaff-Reinet
the main stem near the base is seventy-five
pastorie garden famous. When he went to Cape
inches. It is difficult to measure the fruiting
Town for the Synod he brought back slips and
plants for his own garden and for friends. His branches, but they cover a trellis forty-six feet
in length. One branch crossed over a road in
garden covered more than six morgen and
the old days into an adjoining property, but
supplied all the fruit and vegetables for the
this has been cut away. The vine is a "shy
large pastorie family. He imported Smyrna fig-
bearer", but the ripening grape which I tasted
trees and other fruits from many parts of the
had a good flavour.
world. Just behind the pastorie was the flower-
garden. A path was bordered with lilac and
Mr. A.A. Kingwill of Graaff-Reinet, a veteran
farmer on whose judgment I rely implicitly, once
went to Hampton Court and measured the vine.
Unfortunately he lost the note-book containing
the exact measurements; but he established the
fact that the Graaff-Reinet vine was substantially
larger. A serious rift appeared in the gnarled
stem of the pastorie vine some years ago. This
has been cemented, and Mr. Kingwill believes
that the vine is safe and growing as vigorously as
ever.
I have heard of a vine with a fifty-four inch stem
covering a large glass-house roof in the village
of Kippen in Stirlingshire. This is claimed by the
Scots as the world's largest vine. Mr. A. Gordon
Brown, editor of the Union-Castle Year Book,
credits Graaff-Reinet with "a grape-vine greater
than that at Hampton Court and believed to be
the largest in the world." Grapes must have been
Charles Murray's favourite fruit.
At one agricultural show he exhibited forty
varieties, and he had many more in the pastorie
garden.
There was a time when Graaff-Reinet suffered seen the world before he settled in the town more
from too many vines - or perhaps it would be than half a century ago. He became the agent for
more correct to say, too much wine. An officer the Ford Model T, and under the contract he
in a British regiment, stationed there in the agreed to keep spares in stock to the tune of
eighteen-seventies, remarked: "The men could fifteen thousand pounds. One day in 1914
get as drunk as Bacchus for sixpence, and I must someone challenged him to produce every spare
say they availed themselves of the opportunity." part a Model T might need. Mr. Williams
organised an assembly line and put his four best
But this was a drunken period in Cape history,
mechanics on the job. In three and a half hours
and other centres were no better. You could buy
they built a Ford from spare parts, and Mr.
a bottle of mature Graaff-Reinet brandy for a
Williams drove it round the show ring. That was
shilling.
the first Ford ever assembled in South Africa.
Within living memory Graaff-Reinet depended
Graaff-Reinet's great landmark is Spandau Kop,
largely on goats' milk, and the goats were among
which the poet Slater called Spandau's Peak in
the sights of the town. At sunset the goats came
the verse I have quoted. Spandau Kop is a steep
in from the veld in long procession. Each goat
cone rising about a thousand feet above the town
knew its own home and stood patiently at the
on the south-western boundary. It can be climbed
gate until it was admitted. Goat-carts were
in about two hours, the last few feet of
widely used, especially for carrying fruit boxes
precipitous rock offering only one fairly easy
to the railway station.
route. Lichtenstein and other early travellers said
The man who brought the motor-car to Graaff- that the peak had been named by an old Prussian
Reinet (in the popular sense) was Mr. E.H. soldier, Werner, living at Graaff-Reinet, to
Williams, a former marine engineer who had remind him of the fortress near Berlin; but it is
possible that Spandau is a corruption of an had been missing until then, and it was obvious
original Hottentot name. Local footballers climb that the murderer had chosen this dramatic
Spandau Kop as part of their training. During my moment to heighten the mystery. Yet, as I have
visit I also heard of a ninety-year-old resident, said, he was never found.
Mr. N.P. Claassens, who was still climbing
Spandau Kop regularly.
Graaff-Reinet, as you probably know, is a
A notorious coloured house-breaker and husband and wife name. It was founded in 1786
murderer of the eighteen-seventies, known as Jan by Governor Jacobus van der Graaff, whose
Spandau, had a secret hiding place near the wife's maiden name was Reynett or Reinet. The
Spandau Kop summit. He evaded the police for a settlement was the farthest outpost of the Dutch
long time, but at last he was caught and hanged East India Company's territories, serving as
at Uitenhage. I found two unsolved murders in church and local government centre for the
the Graaff-Reinet records. One victim was a districts of Bruintjes Hoogte and Camdeboo.
leading resident named Spiller who was sitting
near his dining-room window one night when an When you seek the character of Graaff-Reinet,
unknown hand stabbed him to the heart. Then remember how remote it was in those early days
there was the affair which Scully investigated on and for long afterwards. Remember that these
the farm Oprysfontein, when a young man frontier settlers had always to be ready to fight
named Schoeman and his wife were found shot. for their lives. They were self-reliant people,
Scores of people attended the funeral on the independent to a high degree. If they had sent to
farm. When they walked back from the grave the Cape for help, there would have been no
they found the rifle with which the crime had answer for many weeks; and then, perhaps, the
been committed lying in front of the house. It answer would not have been satisfactory. They
had the idea that the government at the Cape passed through Graaff-Reinet shortly before the
cared little about Graaff-Reinet, and they in turn end of the eighteenth century. Even the landdrost
spoke with contempt of their rulers at the had a mud house. Ants undermined the clay
faraway Castle in Cape Town. In the Dutch days walls and bats put out the candles. Public
they declared a republic, the first in South business was conducted in hovels. The gaol was
Africa; and soon afterwards they were defying so flimsy that a prisoner escaped through a hole
the British invaders. in the thatch. Barrow said that there was neither
butcher nor chandler, grocer nor baker. He could
There is a legend, not without substance, that a
not buy wine or beer, milk, butter, cheese or
Graaff-Reinet patriot cut down a suitable tree,
vegetables.
hollowed it out with augers and red hot pokers,
bound it with riems for strength, and thus Lichtenstein formed very much the same
fashioned a wooden cannon. This was mounted impression a few years later. He said that land at
on the summit of Magazine Hill, and the patriot Graaff-Reinet was given out to soldiers who had
with his "army" of twenty-five men loaded the served their time, "or an European who had not
gun with powder, nails, bullets, stones and a talents sufficient to get his bread in Cape Town
bottle as a wad. It was touched off when a ... this was the part to which all such were sent."
British subaltern reached the summit with his A former ship's surgeon had established himself
redcoats. The home-made gun burst, but there in the village at this period, but he complained to
were few casualties. Soon afterwards the little Lichtenstein that although he was the only
republic was abolished, though a Graaff-Reinet professional man in the district he had scarcely
man, Gerotz, was allowed to remain as landdrost. any practice. Yet in almost every house were
people with dysenteries, agues, inflammations of
Barrow, the English traveller, found only twelve
families living in a street of mud huts when he the eyes and eruptive disorders.
Eight years afterwards came Burchell, to find a the steep mountain buttress. He also
greatly improved village. Fruits and vegetables, established the library which I found
this botanist noted, were growing in perfection. flourishing under Miss S. McAdam more than
He thought the place would.soon become a town. one hundred and thirty years later - one of the
"I saw at this time three smiths-shops, a wagon- oldest country libraries in South Africa. People
maker's and several shops or houses at which a of a better type arrived, including a Mr. Daniel
variety of European goods might be bought," Mills, "a settler of taste and education", and his
Burchell reported. "There was also a town two accomplished daughters. Doctors and
butcher and baker, and a pagter or retailer of school-teachers made their homes there, and
wine and brandy. Along the principal street a the atmosphere of culture was such that Cape
row of orange and lemon trees, at this time Town newspapers began referring to Graaff-
loaded with fruit, formed a decoration as novel Reinet as the "Athens of the Eastern Cape".
to an English eye, as it was in itself beautiful by About the same time the place was described
the clean, glossy verdure of the foliage and the as "this beautiful village where the inhabitants
bright contrast of the golden fruit." Burchell had given a grand ball and dinner to the circuit
passed some of the time playing an organ he court". There was a more sinister feast during
found in the house of Bremmer, a Hollander. His the same year when the Sneeuberg district was
Hottentot servants, on the other hand, sold the invaded by locusts. The few Bushmen left in
sjamboks they had cut from the hides of two the mountains dined heartily on locusts dried
rhinos and spent the money on brandy. and ground up with meal.
Graaff-Reinet made great progress under It was in Graaff-Reinet, of course, that some of
Andries Stockenstroom, junior (afterwards Sir the most famous Great Trek leaders lived.
Andries), who cut the first water furrow round These quiet streets heard the historic rumbling
as the wagons of Gerrit Maritz and Andries in former years. Nevertheless, he came upon
Pretorius began to break the northward trail. seventeen lions and killed five.
Soon afterwards the missionary Backhouse Another pleasant description was given by
visited Graaff-Reinet, which then had a H.H. Methuen. "Houses are neat and
population of three thousand. "The town stands picturesque, having large gable-ends to the
upon a crescent-shaped flat, bordered by the roofs and little terraces or stoeps on which
Zoondag or Sunday's River, in which there was mynheer loves to lounge away the delicious
now but little water," Backhouse wrote. "The summer evenings, dreamily smoking his
streets cross at right angles, and are bordered eternal pipe," Methuen wrote. "The only hotel
with lemon-trees; the intervening squares are is kept by Dresing, who has quite a menagerie
filled up with vineyards and gardens, having in his yard." A later hotel proprietor was John
hedges of lemon, pomegranate and quince, and Humphries of the Royal Oak in Market Square,
being watered from a copious spring in the a host who advertised his Welsh rarebits and
neighbourhood, by means of ditches. The hot whisky punch during the winter.
gardens are stocked with orange, pear, apricot
and peach trees. The houses, which stand Graaff-Reinet had an ivory market up to about
separately, are built in Dutch style and are 1870, and Roe's pictures show heaps of tusks
whitewashed; they have oleanders and melias brought down from the north and offered for
or other ornamental trees in front. The sale in Caledon Street.
blossoms of the oleander and pomegranate A public holiday was granted on August 30,
were very beautiful, and the air was perfumed 1886, the centenary of the foundation of
by the flowers of the vine." Backhouse added Graaff-Reinet; but the "Cape Argus" reported
that lions were not plentiful as they had been that the old families of the town held aloof
from the festivities "as was expected". Graaff- That lordly pauw was roasted to a turn;
Reinet organised a gala and exhibition of And in your country fruits and Cape
antiques in 1927, however, which everyone Sauterne,
supported. Among the hundreds of family The wildish flavour's really not unpleasant;
treasures were a ship's telescope brought out And I may say the same of gnu and
by a Huguenot, a piece of timber from the pheasant.
Haarlem wreck, ancient spectacles, clocks, -Thomas Pringle
watches, lace caps, dresses, shoes, jewellery, MOST of the dishes mentioned in Pringle's
violins, walking sticks, a machine for making poem may be classed as Karoo skoff. But
quill pens and sand boxes for drying letters. A where does that familiar South African word
letter written by Elizabeth Joubert to her "skoff" come from?
parents in 1792 on the occasion of her
marriage, and the shoes she wore at the Some say it was brought on shore three
wedding, were exhibited. The Booysen family centuries ago by Dutch sailors who spoke of
displayed a wood and brass footbath which had "schaften" - to take the noon meal. Others
been carried in after evening prayers for think it arose on the veld. The Afrikaans
centuries. Thus did Graaff-Reinet live up to its dictionary gives skof as the equivalent of lap,
reputation as a town where every home is a stage or trek. There would be food at the end
museum. of the skof, and skoff is the Anglicised form.
CHAPTER 8 Karoo skoff, in the early days at all events, was
KAROO SKOFF far more homely fare than the intricate spiced
and aromatic Dutch-Malay dishes of the old
Well, I admit, my friend, your dinner's good Cape districts. It was meaty and simple, the
Springbok and Porcupine are dainty food;
camp-fire cookery of people who were always this meat resembled bullock's tongues and
on the move. Woodsmoke was the dominant were called thigh tongues. He also enjoyed very
flavour, rather than saffron or tamarind. thin slices of raw eland meat, taken with bread
and butter. Eland ranks second only to springbok
One of Lichtenstein's first meals on the Karoo
in the scale of antelope meats. It is fat and tender,
consisted of Namaqua partridges. They were so
and resembles young beef.
abundant, he said, that sixty were brought
down in three shots. "In later journeys by At one karoo farm Lichtenstein noted that a large
myself, when I went beyond the bounds of the chest served as table and smaller chests as seats.
colony, they often afforded me a very First came a good soup made of mutton, then a
agreeable repast," the epicurean Lichtenstein wild goat roasted; while, as a great treat, by way
reported. I can confirm this judgment. One of of dessert, his hosts set before him some white
the finest meals of my life came out. of a three- bread and milk.
legged pot in which a kelkiewyn stew had been As a contrast, Lichtenstein described the
simmering all day. And among the great sights hospitality of Veld Cornet Peter du Toit of
of the wilderness is the swift rush of thousands Roodewal farm at the entrance to Hex River
of these little birds as they sweep down to a Kloof. "We were here entertained so profusely
pool of water. that it almost appeared as if our host was desirous
Lichtenstein always appreciated an unusual of making amends at a single meal for all the
dish and a satisfying meal. He saw an eland privations to which we had been subjected in our
shot, cut to pieces at once, salted and packed in journey through the Karoo," he wrote.
skins for smoking on the farm. The great Lichtenstein said it was usual to set before any
muscle of the thigh, he explained, was stranger guests specimens of everything the
particularly esteemed when smoked. Pieces of country produced, dressed in every possible way.
Thus it was hardly possible to count the number variety of foods dressed with vinegar and made
of dishes brought on with each fresh course. hot with spices - cauliflower, French beans,
gherkins, lemons, unripe maize and the young
Peter du Toit's banquet opened with a genuine
shoots of the bamboo. Sambal was a mixture of
South African dish, a soup of baked gourds, with
gherkins cut small, onions, anchovies, cayenne
small onions sliced in, some salt fish and cayenne
pepper and vinegar.
pepper. This was the renowned kalabasbredie.
Lichtenstein declared that bredie, in the Now the roast. It might be sucking pig, turkey or
Madagascar tongue, meant spinach. It was a word game, accompanied by six or eight sorts of
brought to the Cape by the slaves. "Throughout preserved fruit handed round in little tureens.
the whole colony," he added, "every sort of vege- Chicken and pigeon pasties closed the list of hat
table which like cabbage, spinach, or sorrel is cut dishes.
to pieces and dressed with cayenne pepper, is
Desserts included melons, watermelons, grapes,
included under the general term bredie."
mulberries, peaches, apricots, pome-granates,
The first dish, as a rule, went on Lichtenstein, was many sorts of oranges, figs, bananas, fresh
a strong soup made of fowls, mutton or veal, almonds and roasted chestnuts. During the
seasoned with red pepper and ginger and meal slaves waited at table while others stood
flavoured with cucumbers and tamarinds. Half- behind the guests with bunches of ostrich
cooked rice was often eaten with this instead of feathers keeping off the flies. Lichtenstein
bread. certainly fared well on the edge of the Great
Next came fish or beef, both cooked with a Karoo.
variety of sauces and many sorts of atjar and "Voluntary abstinence would be here, if not
sambal. Under the name of atjar was the vast absolutely blameable, at least very unnatural
and would be looked upon with contempt sucking pig pootjies, and accompanied by
rather than admiration," Lichtenstein summed whole wheat bread rolls. Next came stewed
up happily. "All these things are obtained with fowl with tapioca sauce; then-fried cockerels
so little exertion, the value of what anyone stuffed with livers of cockerels, sucking-pig
forgoes is so insignificant that it might fairly and springbok. These trifling dishes paved the
be reckoned a fault not to enjoy what nature so way for the sucking-pig, the home-cured ham,
liberally offers." and the stuffed leg of springbok oven-fried in
butter with a sprinkling of coriander.
Such were the views of a trencherman of a
century and a half ago. I once came across a Among the vegetables were green peas, green
description of a karoo farm breakfast with beans cooked with springbok ribs, yellow rice
which a traveller fortified himself at the end of and raisins, squashes with butter sauce, and
last century. It started with hot springbok fry, fried potatoes in clear jellied gravy. The salads
followed by cold springbok haunch, cold consated of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber
korhaan, steaming coffee with goats' milk, sambal and cooked young spring onions with
koekies of boer meal, springbok biltong planed egg sauce.
thin, wild honey, stewed peaches, tomato and Boiled fruit pudding with brandy sauce then
lettuce. So the gigantic appetite had not passed appeared, the alternatives being churned milk
fifty years ago. Here and there it survives to- baked with egg custard and melktert. Among
day. the drinks were thirty-year-old dop brandy and
Mr. J.P. Louw, a karoo farmer, once invited an Van der Hum.
English neighbour and his family to a It was a hot day, and everyone slept until four
Christmas dinner. It started with strained in the afternoon. Coffee was served with
vegetable soup, cooked. with springbok and
watermelon, tomato and agurkies preserve. Not In the old-time karoo kitchens there were few
long after this entertainment, Mr. Louw's son iron stoves with ovens. Pots hung from hooks
married the English neighbour's daughter, in the wall above the hearth; or three-legged
while the Englishman's son married one of Mr. pots stood over the flames. The oven was built
Louw's daughters, with happy results. But that of brick or clay without a chimney, and shaped
memorable Christmas dinner was served three rather like a tented wagon. The iron door
decades ago. The wool cheques are larger now, opened into the kitchen, while the oven, up to
but the meals are usually much smaller. five feet in length, jutted outside. Sometimes
the oven was a little detached building in the
Venison takes many shapes on karoo tables. A
yard near the kitchen. A rare sight nowadays is
recipe which I thoroughly enjoyed was that
devised by Anna Kok, regional home an ant-heap hollowed out for use as an oven.
The housewife who still uses the old oven
economics officer at Victoria West. Rub your
reserves it for bread, cakes, certain puddings
leg of venison well with salt and pepper, lard it
and pies and vegetables such as sweet potatoes
with smoked bacon, and leave it in vinegar for
and pumpkin. Meat is pot-roasted. Far more
two or three days. Add a few cloves, lemon
skill is needed when bread is baked in these
leaves, a sprig of thyme, some bruised
ovens. The trick is to get the fire well alight
peppercorns and a little burnt coriander.
just inside the door, then push the burning
Remove the leg from the vinegar and place in a
wood back and add more fuel. It takes about an
roasting pan. Rub in flour and place pieces of
hour of clever stoking before the oven is red-
fat on top. Baste often while roasting. Add a
hot and ready for the dough.
little sour cream to the gravy. Baste until the
meat is done. Fire and ash are then raked out, and the
housewife comes into action as fast as possible
with her broodskop. This is a broad plank with On trek, of course, there is still asbrood,
a handle. It carries the dough into the far dough baked in the ashes, or roosterbrood, for
corners of the oven. Forty loaves, perhaps, are which a gridiron is used. There is also a type of
dropped into position, and then the iron door is asbrood, a mixture of meal and water and soda
shut and sealed with clay. baked in cakes in the campfire embers, known as
stormjaers (dumplings). Dough becomes a
Whole-meal bread, leavened with sour dough,
delicacy when it is served as slinger-om-die-
was often baked in large earthenware pots in
smoel (literally, "pendulum-round-the-jaw"), a
the old days. This gave a light, sweet loaf. But
favourite in Nieuwoudtville district. This is a thin
I believe there is a rare karoo plant, consisting
dough cut into strips and prepared with milk. It
almost entirely of root, which makes bread rise
calls for expert handling, like spaghetti. Another
more surely than any yeast or baking powder.
dish often served in this district has a Hottentot
You will find the perdemeul still in use on name, T'ghoeboekoring, uncrushed wheat cooked
some farms in the North West Cape and as a substitute for rice.
Namaqualand. Horses or donkeys walk round
Mealie bread consists of cooked, pounded mealies
grinding the wheat. Any farmers' wife will tell
mixed with eggs, spices and milk and steamed in
you that this stone-ground flour, known as
a greased dish. It is then sliced and eaten with
plaasmeel, rises more surely and produces
melted butter. Stamped mealies were served at
tastier bread than the flour from a modern mill.
almost every meal on the karoo farms fifty or
It seems that the trace minerals, the almost
sixty years ago. The ripe yellow grains were
microscopic dust from the grinding stones, add
moistened and placed in a hollow treestump or
virtue to the bread.
wooden mortar. The centre of a wagon-wheel was
brought into play as pestle, and the husks were
removed. Then the mealies were boiled gently with curry powder and dried apricots. It is then
until they became tender as young peas. cooled, bones are removed and the mixture is
minced. After further boiling it forms a porridge
In districts where cows are rare, goats' milk is
and is poured into a glass dish to set.
widely used. The farm churns produce a fine
snow-white goat butter; and in the Calvinia My friend, Mr. A.P. (Tickey) Loxton, a Kenhardt
district there is a goat cheese which rivals the hotelkeeper, has a theory about diet which may
Swiss gruyere. have some substance. He says the shepherds of
the Kenhardt district, wizened men of Bushman-
A dish seldom tasted outside the North West Cape
Hottentot-Koranna descent, seem to live for ever.
is suurlewer, composed of squares of sheep's
liver, flour, vinegar, salt and the part of the They light a fire on a flat, black stone known as a
kaaiklip. When the stone is really hot a space is
sheep's intestines known as the vetderm. Karoo
made in the centre of the fire and the shepherd
folk believe that the vetderm is an excellent
cooks his simple meal of askoek (ash-scone) and
remedy for acidity in children. Then there is that
gebraaide skaapribbetjies (grilled sheeps ribs).
rare delicacy eiervrugte, or lambs' testicles. The
Mr. Loxton believes that if a shepherd reaches
lamb should not be older than about two months.
the century mark on this diet (with whatever
Remove the surrounding membrane, soak the
veldkos he can collect), then others might follow
testicles in salt water for twenty minutes, then boil
his example. I have an idea, however, that
until soft. Add flour, and flavour with salt, pepper
walking after the flock in the fresh air also has
and vinegar.
something to do with the shepherd's longevity.
Karoo brawn, known as bron or silt in Afrikaans,
Truffles are found in the red sand of the North
is composed of sheep's head, tripe and trotters.
West Cape, the marvellous underground fungus
The meat must be extremely tender after cooking
that the epicure Brillat Savarin called "the
diamonds of the kitchen". Three species have the Gordonia district are equal to many French
been identified, all of the genus terfezia. But and Italian species, given the right treatment in
whereas in France you look for truffles round the kitchen.
oak trees, in the desert regions of the Cape you Truffles are rarities known only to a few in
find them near the thorny acacia bush known to South Africa, but the kambro root has, been
botanists as acacia hebeclada. Bushmen hunt eaten by white and coloured in all the arid karoo
the truffle with dogs, just like the more advanced regions for centuries. Thunberg, in 1774, was
truffle collectors in Perigord and Piedmont. referring to kambro when he wrote: "The
Truffles are known to the Bushmen as t'naba. Hottentots who traverse these dry carrow fields
Goats also find the deep cracks in the desert use several means not only to assuage their
where the truffles are skulking. You may have to hunger but more particularly to quench their
dig only a few inches, or the truffles may be four thirst."
feet deep. Some truffles are no larger than your
thumb, others reach the size of an apple. The French traveller Le Vaillant described a
journey with his native servant Kees when they
It takes a chef to make the most intelligent use of
were both almost dying from heat, thirst and
truffles. Farmers on the Cape frontier simply boil
exhaustion. Kees suddenly dropped to the
them, and eat them with butter, pepper and salt, ground and scraped with both hands. Le Vaillant
but they taste insipid. The peculiarity of truffles helped with his dagger until they unearthed a
is the unusual penetrating fragrance which kambro root which they halved and devoured.
blends perfectly with certain other foods and No wonder Le Vaillant called it "precious fruit"
improves them. You can even flavour an egg in his narrative.
through the shell by leaving it in contact with
truffles. I am assured that certain truffles from
Lichtenstein also referred to the kambro in these has a sour-sweet flavour, and enjoys a great
words: "The Bosjesmans on the other side of the reputation in the Kenhardt district (when taken
Great River feed much upon the bulbous root of with gin or brandy) as a cure for stomach
their kambros, a plant yet little known to complaints. Certain uintjies taste like chestnuts
botanists and undefined by them." and make a strong soup. All the foods that come
under the heading of veldkos are most relished by
Kambro has been identified since then as a Fockea
trekboers, shepherds and hungry school-children.
species. It resembles a large sweet potato, first
tasting bitter, then sweet. Shepherds still dig it out "That lordly pauw was roasted to a turn," remarked
gratefully to quench their thirst. Many farmers' the poet. You are unlikely to taste a gompou
wives turn chunks of it into konfyt by soaking it in (modern spelling, great bustard), on the karoo
lime water and cooking it with ginger. nowadays, as they are classed as royal game. I
have shot and eaten them in Bechuanaland,
An unusual karoo konfyt is made of wildekom-
however, and a more satisfying game-bird one
kommers. These are peeled and left overnight in a
could not hope to encounter. Selous shot a forty-
mixture of water and bicarbonate of soda. Weigh
pound gompou, and I have heard of even larger
the wild cucumbers in the morning. Add an equal
specimens. The luscious breast is dark on the
weight of sugar and water, which must be deep
outside, white beneath.
enough to cover the cucumbers. Boil the syrup
first, then add the cucumbers and continue boiling Gompou should be stuffed with a forcemeat of
until the konfyt is thick. ham, suet, lemon, marjoram, parsley, breadcrumbs
Many varieties of uintjies (edible bulbs) are found and eggs, and roasted like turkey. Very small
in the karoo. Some are eaten raw, others stewed game-birds are sometimes wrapped in fat pork and
simmered in a broth of herbs. The hunter H.A.
with meat. Gaap is scraped and used in salads; it
Bryden devised a recipe for game-birds which is
worth repeating. He stewed five guinea fowls and sucking-pig. First the hedgehog is embedded in
three partridges with water, sliced onions, potatoes, clay, then cooked in the embers of an open
two dessert spoonfuls of Worcester sauce, two fire. When the clay is properly baked it cracks,
wineglasses of red Cape Pontac, pepper and salt and the succulent hedgehog may be removed
and half a teacupful of flour and water mixed into a while the prickles are left behind in the clay.
paste. Another old karoo delicacy was the anteater or
Porcupines are rodents, but they taste like pork and erdvark, but this is protected nowadays. The
their "crackling" is better than pork. They know thick part of the neck was used, and a thin
how to defend themselves, and it is not easy to dig layer of skin scraped off, like pork. Then the
a porcupine out of its lair; so you seldom find meat was spiced with salt, pepper and
porcupine on the menu. Nevertheless, porcupine coriander, soaked in vinegar for two days, and
makes a grand dish. As a large porcupine weighs roasted in pot or oven:
sixty pounds, there is usually enough for Tortoises live on medicinal herbs, their flesh is
everybody. First you take out the quills, scald and tender and tasty as chicken. So there is a great
scrape the body to remove the hair. Wash the skin, demand for tortoises in the country, both as
which is the greatest delicacy, and let it soak in medicine and food. I heard in Namaqualand of
water, with pepper and salt added, overnight. a farmer's wife who appeared to be dying of
Now boil the skin in fresh water until soft, cut tuberculosis. The coloured labourers collected
into neat pieces and grill over a charcoal fire. all the tortoises they could find within miles of
Serve with butter and lemon. The flesh may be the farm house; scores of tortoises had their
stewed or roasted. heads chopped off so that the patient could
Hedgehogs are far more common in the karoo drink the warm blood. And she recovered
than porcupines. They have the flavour of
completely, gaining weight to an embarrassing the signs that the antheaps are in a fit state to
measure. be robbed.
Dr. Louis Leipoldt used to recommend tortoise You approach the ant-heap with a rys-yster, a
soup as a tonic. The whole tortoise is boiled flat piece of iron which gives out a dull sound
down, and then the juice is strained oft and if the ants are at home. After rain, as a rule,
taken. Among the best parts are the legs and satisfactory hauls of ants are made. Another
the liver. Tortoise meat is at its best when almost infallible sign is the budding of the
scalloped with breadcrumbs, butter, salt and 'ngomsganna plant. The edible ants are not the
lemon. Tortoise eggs, which are about the size ordinary inhabitants of the ant-heap; they are
of golf-balls, are rich and nourishing. Karoo the young king and queen ants which later
cooks will tell you that these eggs make grand forsake the heap on wings.
omelettes, and impart the most subtle flavour
Having secured your rysmiere, throw them into
to cakes. The most common method of dealing
lukewarm water and they will float. Other ants,
with a tortoise is to cut off the head, then cover which may be mixed with them but which are
the whole shell with live coals from an open not so tasty, will sink. Dry the rysmiere in the
fire. Crack the shell to find out when the wind and grill in a frying-pan. Keep the
tortoise is done.
abundant fat which is given out, as this is
Queerest of Namaqualand luxuries is the dish Namaqualand's most valued ointment for sores,
known as rysmiere, the famous "antrice" which bruises and burns. Spread your grilled ants on
is eaten by some white people and all the bread and butter. Some people feed their fowls
coloured population. It is not gathered every on rysmiere. Hens flourish on this diet, and it
day. Wise old Hottentots scan the heavens for imparts the authentic ant flavour to the eggs.
Biltong, I suppose, must rank as the most typical packets of tea to offer you. They drank it weak,
and traditional karoo food. Springbok makes the without milk or sugar.
finest antelope biltong in the world; but in By the time of the Great Trek, coffee had
Bushmanland there are biltong varieties which I become firmly established. I have never
have never seen elsewhere. These are made from discovered the reason for the change of taste;
ribs and legs of sheep and goats. You can make though it is on record that the Dutch East India
biltong out of any meat, and even lion has been Company sent coffee plants to the Cape, and that
used. certain farmers grew coffee successfully during
Then there is a controversial dish called the eighteenth century and after the second
tassalletjies which is made differently in almost British occupation. But it was a curiosity which
every Cape district. I place it in the biltong class did not pay. The main supply of coffee came
because some cooks dry the meat in the wind from Brazil and other countries.
after it has been laid in vinegar. The strips of By all accounts, the old farmers appreciated
preserved meat hang from the rafters in the loft, good, pure coffee and only adulterated it when
like biltong, until they are required. Then they supplies were running short. They roasted their
are grilled on the coals. Tassaletjies appears to coffee beans in iron cylinders and ground their
be derived from the Portuguese tassalho, coffee with stones. Copper kettles were used for
meaning preserved meat. the brew.
Coffee is the beverage of the karoo, and few of Karoo travellers are still liable to encounter
those who live there now can be aware that tea weird coffee mixtures. Oom Jan clings to the
was the drink of their ancestors. Yet if you had favourite old blend consisting of peas roasted
stopped a smous on the karoo a century and a and ground with the coffee beans. Roasted
half ago he would probably have had only
wheat, barley and mealies are often used. Some resistant. Dig up the roots of this tree, and
families mix coffee with roasted peach or prickly when they have been dried in the sun, roasted
pear peels on account of the distinctive flavour. and ground you can make the karoo's most
Carrots and ripe figs, dried and ground, are also famous coffee substitute, witgatkoffie. Some
found in many a karoo coffee mixture. Mealie say that too much of it is bad for the eyes. It is
coffee was the choice of the men in the certainly a far more powerful concoction than
commandos during the South African War, at mealie and bran substitutes. Until you become
times when no real coffee was obtainable. It used to it, witgatkoffie often acts as a
warmed them in the cold light of many a purgative.
winter karoo dawn. Finally there is ghookoffie, made from the fruit
Where the witgatboom grows, of course, a of the wild almond tree. When fresh, the fruit
coffee shortage causes no trouble. This tree, produces symptoms of poisoning in some
also known as the shepherd's tree, is found in people. After long soaking in fresh water,
many parts of the Great Karoo and westwards however, it may be dried and roasted without
all the way to Namaqualand. It grows by itself, fear of ill-effects.
to a height of twenty feet, sometimes offering Sugar was often a luxury on remote farms.
the only shade for miles. Honey was the usual substitute, though some
Shepherds love the witgatboom for other were able to secure bossiestroop, the thin
reasons as well. It is an evergreen, the berries syrup found in certain protea flowers. Honey is
can be eaten by men and animals and sheep also transformed into honey beer. The brewers
thrive on the leaves. Burchell, in the North squeeze out the honeycomb into lukewarm
West Cape, was the first to describe it. It has a water, allowing two gallons of honey to one
white trunk, and the shapely tree is drought- gallon of water. Yeast is added to hasten the
fermentation. This is a drink which rivals that CHAPTER 9
liquid fire of the North West Cape known as SWARTBERG AND LITTLE KAROO
witblits. Sudden the desert changes
Witblits, of course, is home-distilled dop The yaw glare softens and clings,
brandy with a high alcholic content. On lonely Till the aching Oudtshoorn ranges
farms the grapes are still pressed in the balies Stand up like the thrones of kings.
(large vats) with bare feet. Some days later the -Rudyard Kipling
liquid mos is passed into the old A LONG the northern edge of the Little Karoo
brandewynketel or still, made to very much runs one of South Africa's great mountain
the same pattern as those used by Tennessee ranges. This is the Swartberg chain, the "Black
"moonshiners". A slow fire then gives a pure, Mountains" of the old travellers. Those visitors
strong witblits - white lightning because it has of a century and a half ago spoke in wonder not
none of the colour imparted to more only of the deep poorts and snowy peaks, but
respectable brandies by their casks. also of the patriarchs and other strong characters
Farmers are allowed to distil small quantities they found living in mountain solitudes.
of witblits for their own use. If the excise The long barrier of the Swartberg, stretching
officer discovers a surplus, the high duty must eastwards from Touws River for hundreds of
be paid. Thus every additional vaatjie,
miles, halts the precious rainclouds drifting up
earthenware jar and wicker-covered demijohn
from the coast and robs the thirsty Great Karoo
must be hidden with the greatest ingenuity and of its water. It is still possible to find scenes of
smuggled away to eager neighbours under wonder in the Swartberg, second only to the
loads of pumpkins. Drakensberg in size. And civilization has not yet
overtaken all the hermits and personalities of the convicts who built the pass. Today you must
lonely places. seek men in the seventies and eighties for such
memories. Thomas Bain, of course, was the
Give me a choice of gateways into the Great
second son of the redoubtable Andrew Geddes
Karoo and I would always take the Swartberg
Bain of Bain's Kloof. Taught by his father,
Pass. I have travelled only one road in my
Thomas finally achieved equal fame as a road-
lifetime more dramatic, and that was the fifteen-
builder.
thousand foot pass beyond Darjeeling that leads
into Tibet. You can freeze to death as surely on Bain was approached after the failure in 1881
one as on the other. of a contractor named Tassie: This man had
assured the authorities that he could build the
On the Swartberg Pass summit you are more
pass for £18,000, and started work with one
than five thousand feet above sea level. Long
hundred natives. Within two months all his
before the pass was built there was a track for
labourers had drifted away. Bain then planted
pack-animals, so that white smallholders in
his flags along the mighty curves of the
incredibly remote valleys could reach the outside
footpath which was to become the pass. One
world. Those were the steepest tracks in the
thousand convicts, forty constables with rifles
country, just as the present Swartberg Pass is
and dogs, twenty warders with revolvers,
steeper on both sides than any other main road
pass in South Africa. A gradient of one in three arrived on foot from Prince Albert Road
station - as grim a cavalcade as ever the Great
can be sensational.
Karoo had seen.
When I first went to Prince Albert, the
Among the eighteen convict gangs was only
onderdorp at the foot, there were many who
one composed of white men. Well-behaved
remembered Thomas Bain the surveyor and the
convicts were drafted to the koffiespan and
received coffee, sugar and tobacco with their Without the aid of doctor or midwife, Mrs.
rations. There was a kettingspan (chain-gang) Stockenstroom had a son. Jim Stockenstroom
for difficult customers. You can still see the spent the first seven years of his life at the
ruins of the stone huts where the convicts store on the summit. He is one of those who
lived. Not far away are the graves, one hundred remember the convict gangs, and the sound of
and fifty graves of convicts who failed to the bells rung every five minutes by the
survive the five years of hard labour on the warders at night to show they were alert.
pass. Yes, some of those convicts paid in full on the
Even in midsummer it is sometimes chilly on Swartberg for their crimes. Murderers toiled
the Swartberg Pass summit. Winter can be beside illicit diamond buyers and thieves. It
deadly. At times even the harddriven convicts was the pick and shovel period, with never a
had to be ordered indoors while snowstorms machine to lighten the merciless task. They
raged. One night the roof of a hut collapsed made the pass with their hands, and no
under four feet of snow and thirty convicts champagne came their way when Colonel
were frozen to death. Schermbrucker, Minister of Public Works,
McKay and Rose had the food contract. They drove up for the opening ceremony.
put a young couple, the Stockenstrooms, in "Bain is a wonderful man," remarked
charge of a store and butchery near the Schermbrucker in his speech. "Show him an
summit. Every day cattle and sixteen sheep easy place to make a road and he shakes his
were slaughtered for the convict's "soup". In head. But show him a place where a monkey
addition, each man received a loaf of bread and can't get out, and he will jump at it like a cat."
beans. Many died on that stupendous pass, as I And indeed Bain's achievement stands to this
have said, but there was also one birth. day as an example of steep gradients which
have turned out to be safe. The high walls help, traffic. Snow was the hazard the drivers had to
of course; there is a clear view ahead; and face in winter, and tales of their ordeals are
careful drivers have never had anything to fear. still told.
It cost eighty thousand pounds, that pass, and Karoo farmers, accustomed to heat, did not
Bain gave wonderful value for the money. always realise the danger of the biting winter
Soon after the opening a mail-coach service cold. They would drive their teams to the limit,
was organized, with Mr. Jan Haak holding the so that when the hot animals were unyoked or
postal contract. Every day before dawn the unharnessed at the Toll House on the summit
coach left Prince Albert Road station, drawn they were in great peril. Many a strong mule
by six mules. It reached Oudtshoorn at four in fell dead because the owner did not keep the
the afternoon, and the passenger fare was thirty team going when the temperature was below
shillings. One driver, an expert in his way, zero. Wise drivers abandoned their wagons
entertained passengers by aiming jets of when snowstorms threatened, and hurried their
tobacco juice at the Swartberg lizards, scoring animals down the pass to the outspan below
more hits than misses. But it was hard on the the snowline.
mules; a mule seldom lasted more than a year It was during a severe winter in the late
on that run. eighteen-eighties that a tobacco farmer with
There grew up along the route one of South his wife and seven children was approaching
Africa's sagas of transport-riding. Practically the Swartberg Pass summit in a blizzard. He
all the Oudtshoorn produce went over the had two wagons loaded with roll arid leaf
Swartberg by wagon to Prince Albert Road tobacco. By using double teams, one wagon
station until 1903, when the railway brought the family through the sleet and snow
approached Oudtshoorn and diverted the to the Toll House. The other wagon was soon
buried under the snow. Most of the men of the escorting to the reformatory in Cape Town. A
party rushed the cattle down the pass and were storekeeper with a reckless sense of humour
unable to return. That left the family marooned was also travelling, and he passed the time
on the summit, cut off from the world below pleasantly by pretending that he was going to
by snowdrifts. help the prisoner to escape. When the coach
halted on the summit the joker went too far and
A bungalow where Bain's foremen had lived
the constable drew his revolver. It went off,
was still standing, and in this cottage the
and the storekeeper was shot through the heart.
family took refuge. Fire was the first necessity
The constable was charged with culpable
for survival, and they had to break up the
homicide at Worcester circuit court and
furniture to keep the fire going. They had
acquitted.
enough food, but as the days passed and the
blizzard still raged, their fire became a I believe the first motorist to conquer the
problem causing deep anxiety. When all the Swartberg Pass was Dr. G. Russell of
furniture had been consumed they tore off the Oudtshoorn. His first attempt, very early this
inner doors and wooden fittings. One young century, failed on the steep "Buchu Draai"
girl developed a temperature, became delirious section; but later, with the aid of Mr. Donald
and died. Another daughter then developed Menzies, he was successful. Even to-day the
hysteria. She was alive at the end of a week, careful motorist has to watch his radiator when
when the snowstorm lifted, but died after her he climbs the pass.
family had reached safety in Prince Albert. Mountains cast a queer spell over certain
Another tragedy of the summit occurred in eccentric humans. Until a few years ago a
1901, when a police constable was a passenger white troglodyte named Oom Hennie Alberts
in the mail-coach, with a coloured boy he was lived in a cave near the Swartberg Pass; a man
who has now become a legend in the district. was typical of the lurking dangers of the
Oom Hennie carried a goatskin umbrella Swartberg range. Theunis went into the
winter and summer, like Robinson Crusoe. He mountains with his father after a leopard which
had a Man Friday, a white simpleton known as had killed a calf. They cornered the leopard in
Ou Hendrik Rheeders. its cave in a krans with a seventy-foot drop
below, the ground at the foot being covered
Oom Hennie disliked walking, so he built
with thornbush and the spiky mimosa saplings
himself a small hand-cart. Ou Hendrik pushed,
used for fencing. One of the dogs, a ferocious,
and thus the two wild, bearded men of the
yellow, stump-tailed baboon slayer, went in boldly
mountains were seen occasionally in Prince
and took the leopard in the rear. After a short fight
Albert village. It was Oom Hennie's pleasure
the dog emerged with its scalp missing and the
to recite doggerel of his own composition. At a
leopard in pursuit.
moment's notice he could turn any idea into a
strange, effortless rhyme. Oom Hennie is dead, The father had his flintlock muzzle-loader with
but Ou Hendrik was still living in a cave, him, an oldfashioned "Sanna". He fired and
without a scrap of furniture, without blankets, wounded the leopard,. which rushed at Theunis
without nothing more than a cooking pot and a and gripped his shoulder. Locked together, Theunis
spoon, when I last heard of him. He was and the leopard went over the cliff.
planting mealies and pumpkins in the dry river The leopard was impaled on the sharp trees and
bed, selling firewood in the village, and was killed at once. Theunis fell clear into soft sand.
turning all visitors resolutely away. He was carried back to the farm and remained
An earlier eccentric in these parts was a farmer unconscious for days. The doctor, after a ride of
nicknamed Mal Theunis. His madness, fifty miles on horseback, pulled him round; but he
however, was the result of an accident which
was never the same after that experience. He was the Cape Town market with butter, dried fruits and
Mal Theunis. wine.
General Janssens and Lichtenstein visited him
there in 1804, and found that De Beer had paraded
Bushmen were the only human beings in the
the whole population (about twenty people) armed
present Swartberg Pass neighbourhood until late in
with muskets. De Beer himself wore a sword in
the eighteenth century. Then a white pioneer
honour of the occasion, while his eldest children
named Samuel de Beer arrived and secured his
played fifes. Three salutes were fired. The
ground from the Bushmen in one of those enviable
Batavian tricolor flew over the house.
transactions where the savages went away
delighted with a few knives and rolls of tobacco. De Beer provided an excellent dinner, and
Lichtenstein carried samples of the wine back to
De Beer suspected that the Bushmen might return,
Europe with him and reported that it was esteemed
and when he went out to inspect his cattle that
by connoisseurs almost as highly as Constantia.
night he gave his wife Leonara a gun. Hearing a
The brandy, added Lichtenstein, when distilled
shot, he raced back to the wagon. His wife
anew with charcoal powder, was equal to the best
reassured him. "It was only a lion", she remarked.
cognac. Lichtenstein, however, formed a less
Kweekvallei, the "valley of cultivation", was the favourable impression of his host. He described
name De Beer chose for his farm. A few years later him as a vain, bigoted, dominating political fanatic
he was settled firmly on the site of the present who looked with contempt on his neighbours. De
Prince Albert village. He was able to irrigate his Beer, he said, had been born in Paarl and had
gardens and vineyards from a strong spring in the acquired courtly manners and refinement before
hill behind the homestead; and he was supplying settling in the wilderness. De Beer asserted that
Africa was the most fertile and blessed country on
the globe and would produce everything if the the oldest bearing the date 1841, a year before the
peasants were less idle and stupid. The fertility of village was officially proclaimed a township. Some
his own farm proved it. He also impressed on his of these fine homes have been traced to one Carel
visitors that he was a very rich man and a genius; Lotz, a clever builder who learnt his craft in
but it was clear to Lichtenstein that he was hated Tulbagh and settled in Prince Albert in the early
by his neighbours and dependents. eighteen-forties. Dr. Mary Cook, authority on old
Cape architecture, has pointed out that early
De Beer had a profound veneration for the heroes
paintings of karoo villages prove that many places,
of the French revolution. He had named his two
such as Colesberg, once had gables, but nearly all
youngest sons John Bonaparte and Nicholas
of them have vanished. Prince Albert is fortunate
Moreau. At the age of three Bonaparte fell into a
in having had property owners who preserved
water cistern and was drowned.
these gems.
Such was the man who became known much later
Several villages in the Great Karoo have had their
as the "Father of Prince Albert". Samuel de Beer
golden dreams, and Prince Albert was one of them.
entertained many travellers at this outpost. Lord
Alluvial nuggets of gold have been found in the
Charles Somerset appointed him Veldkornet of the
district again and again. During a rush in the
district. Towards the end of his life De Beer went
ninetes of last century hopes ran so high that a
to live at Kleinplasie near the present Swartberg
local newspaper called the "Gouph Gold News"
Pass route, and the ruins of his home are still to be
was started. On one farm a koppie known as
seen.
Donkiekop was re-named Goudkop after gold
Prince Albert, unlike other Great Karoo villages, worth two thousand pounds had been recovered by
has a flavour of the Western Province about it. You prospectors. Diamond drills have been used in
find a number of gracious old houses with gables, recent years in the hope of tracing the reef; but it
must be admitted that the Prince Albert peach crop have been delayed by floods, of course, for you
(a hundred tons a day at the height of the season) is must cross the river twenty-six times in the
still far more valuable than the gold. poort, and in winter the stream is swollen. But
that does not satisfy me, for the poort is only
Among the historic relics displayed at Prince
thirteen miles long.
Albert is an old cannon, possibly from a Dutch
East India ship, which found its way to the old Another legend describes a hunt for a stock-
farm Rosendal, about forty miles from the village. thief who fled into the poort and hid there for
More than a century ago the cannon was fired seven weeks before he was cornered. I think it
every New Year's day; and every year when the is far more likely that the name is a corruption.
harvest had been gathered at Rosendal the One of the Berlin Mission Society's preachers
cannon was always fired in the direction of the years ago was Zerwick, and the original name
village to spread the news. was probably Zerwickspoort. Here, too, are
memories of convicts who built the road and
left three ruined prisons as relics of their toil.
Through the Swartberg, linking the Great
Strangest of all the Swartberg poorts is
Karoo with the Little Karoo, winds a narrow
Gamkaskloof (Lion's Kloof), which might have
poort with a mysterious name - Seven Weeks
remained an unknown paradise if some evil
Poort.
genius had not given it the nickname of "The
Some say that an early trekboer entered the Hell". No doubt he was feeling the heat of the
poort in the hope of finding a short cut to the valley, shut in by mountains and walls of sun-
present Laingsburg area and wandered through baked rock. The people of "The Hell" have
the break in the mountains for seven weeks been cursing him for it ever since, for the
before he emerged on to the plains. He may nickname has brought inquisitive visitors and
sensational articles have displeased the hard- will not even look out of the window. There are far
working community. too many people here - millions of them. And the
Calitzdorp is the nearest village, but "The motor-cars will kill you if you give them a chance.
Hell" can be reached in comfort only by I shall certainly never allow my wife and children
helicopter. It has no road, nothing but a track to come to this place."
for pack-donkeys. As there are only about In the valley the woman school-teacher also acts as
twenty families living in the kloof, the road- doctor and holds Sunday services. At one time a
makers have by-passed this solitude. You must visiting minister officiated at marriages. Now
leave your car at Matjiesvlei farm and struggle enterprising young people go to church at
along the Gamka river banks on foot for two or Calitzdorp or Prince Albert. Divorces are
three hours, sometimes knee-deep in water, to unknown. No one thinks of starting a lawsuit of
meet white people who have never seen the any kind, for that would mean leaving the valley.
outside world. If these people had an easier time they would, no
That is the main claim to fame of the less doubt, leave their homes occasionally in search of
ambitious Gamkaskloof people. One man over new scenes. But the fact is that their irrigated
eighty, born and brought up in the kloof, has holdings demand constant attention. They grow
never seen fit to venture beyond the entrance; wheat and prepare the special Gamkaskloof dried
and there are other stay-at-homes. A few have fruit which a noted for its flavour. Hanepoot
been forced out by illness and a tetanus patient raisins, dried figs, peaches and apricots go out on
had to be carried for miles on a stretcher. But donkeys, each donkey carrying one hundred
they do not like it. One middle-aged pounds of produce. Carts and wagons are used on a
Gamkaskloof stalwart who was sent to hospital few farms within the valley. These were bought
in Cape Town a few years ago told a visitor: "I outside, carried to the river, taken to pieces, and
floated down to the farms years ago. No one has Bushmen were the first human beings to find
yet found a way of bringing in a tractor. Old- sanctuary in this kloof, and for centuries they were
fashioned watermills grind the wheat. secure in their caves. Hottentots under a Kaptein
David Kever, armed with guns, drove them out at
Some of the people retain the delightful attitude
last and settled in the kloof about the end of the
towards banks which was more common in South
eighteenth century. Kever had adopted or
Africa last century, when golden sovereigns were
kidnapped a white child, Danie Hartman, who
hoarded in wagon-chests under the bed. One little
grew up there. At last Danie decided to leave the
capitalist in "The Hell" decided to hide his savings
Hottentots and seek his own people. His stories of
in his bee-hive. He knew how to handle bees, and
Gamkaskloof seem to have aroused the interest of
he left several hundred pounds in charge of the
bees, mentioning the cache in his will. But the bees certain farmers during the restless period before the
Great Trek. They were looking round for a lonely
disliked the odour of his beneficiaries, and those
area where no British officials would be likely
who disturbed the hive suffered heavily.
to irritate them, and in or about the year 1830
One of the Mosterts of Gamkaskloof made a they moved into Gamkaskloof. Some of their
remarkable discovery there some years ago. He descendants are still there.
was searching for lost donkeys when he entered an
The first writer to penetrate this remote
old Bushman cave and found a medal. It bore the
stronghold was Deneys Reitz. He and his
date 1690 and had been issued by William of
companions were trying to rejoin General
Orange (later King William III of England) to his
Smuts on the Great Karoo, and they chose the
soldiers. Probably the Bushman had robbed a
route through Gamkaskloof as one where they
colonist, victim of a poisoned arrow.
would be most unlikely to be intercepted by
British troops. Reitz gave a fine description in
"Commando" of the shaggy giant in goatskins, many a leopard skin (five pounds reward),
one of the Cordier family, who spoke an many a jackal's tail (fifty shillings) and baboon
outlandish Afrikaans dialect and showed him tail (seven shillings and sixpence) is handed in
great hospitality. at the Calitzdorp magistrate's office. Years ago
the hunters were able to live on hunting alone -
"We spent the night and the next day with this
the life, for some men, with a charm which
curious Swiss family Robinson, and in the
nothing else in the world can equal. Now they
evening toiled up the cliffs again, accompanied
are resigned to tending their orchards and
by our host and some of his colts, who stayed
flocks; but always with a gun handy.
with us around our camp-fires," Reitz wrote.
"The following morning they led us across Housing in the kloof is neat but not inspiring.
rugged mountains until by dark we looked You will look in vain for gracious Cape gables
down at last upon the Northern plains." and Batavian bricks. Thatch is there, but walls
are of pressed mud. One woman built herself a
The people of "The Hell" knew very well that
cottage with these simple materials in four
the South African War was being fought. They
months. She really did build it herself, for
had made a queer artillery piece from a hollow
there are only two coloured families living in
tree-trunk, loaded with gunpowder and stones.
the kloof and the people are accustomed to
With this weapon they hoped to repel a British
doing labourer's work themselves. In this and
invasion. Fortunately the fighting never
other ways, Gamkaskloof is a little world
reached Gamkaskloof.
unlike any other part of South Africa ...
Men brought up in Gamkaskloof are cunning isolated but resourceful, far from rich but
hunters. Leopards, jackals and baboons often largely self-contained.
attack their donkeys, sheep and goats; but
Those who go shopping at Calitzdorp or Prince Oudtshoorn. On the farm Heuningkrans
Albert for themselves and others are inclined members of the De Jager family make the
to put it off as long as possible. A young man trektou, the heavy trace for linking the pairs of
in search of a wife may march out gladly. oxen to a wagon; and it is the plaited raw hide
When it means bringing back donkey-loads of trektou which they make in the traditional
paraffin and coffee, sugar and other groceries, manner, not the chain or steel cable.
then once in two or three months is often
One great advantage of the raw hide trektou is
enough.
that it does not attract lightning. When metal
is used, a whole span of oxen may be struck
Old industries survive in the valleys of the dead in an instant, and the driver may be
Little Karoo. Lichtenstein found a Dane lucky to escape.
named Nielsen within one of the recesses of Strength is the essential quality of the trektou,
the Swartberg, and this man was extracting and many precautions are taken. The old-
the oil from the blossoms and rinds of the fashioned craftsman believes in burying a wet
oranges he grew. He also cultivated bullock's hide in the dung of a kraal for
peppermint, aniseed and fennel with the same several days. Heating due to fermentation
object, and sold his oils to the Cape Town removes the hair, but the skin is not left long
apothecaries. enough to be damaged. Then the cutter starts
I doubt whether there is anything left of work; a most difficult task if the hide is to be
Nielsen's enterprise. But the riem-brei cut without waste into strips three inches
industry, a romantic survival, may be watched wide. The next step is to suspend the riems
in a Swartberg kloof about thirty miles from from a branch of a tree with a weight at the
lower end, a wagon-wheel or heavy stone.
The damp raw hide is twisted into a tight coil preserved in the Pretoria monument. It was
and all the water is squeezed out. Day after found on the farm Keurbosfontein in the
day the process is repeated until the riems Hoekoe, home of the Van der Berg family, a
become soft. But the men walking round with picturesque corner full of valuable relics. They
the wheel, with levers protruding, must make had a Cape cart there which was two centuries
certain that the contraption does not slip from old, and a stinkwood plough. The Rev. Dirk
their grasp and take charge. There is enough van Velden, first minister at Ladismith, used
force in the coil of raw hide to kill a man. the venerable Cape cart for his journeys to the
Synod in Cape Town.
In the final process the riems are coated with
grease and six or eight strips are plaited into White settlers hired Crown land in this district
the trektou. There remains the wagon test. before the end of the eighteenth century. It was
Only when the trektou has been used with a not until 1852, however, that Balthazar
loaded wagon, driven uphill and through sand, Klopper (known as Oom Balter) sold fifty
is the finished product regarded as ready for morgen of his farm Elandsvlei to the Dutch
sale. The safety of wagon and load depend on Reformed Church so that a village could be
those plaited riems. If the trektou breaks on a established. A handsome church had been built
steep pass, the result may be disastrous. previously. Lady Smith, the Spanish wife of
Riems which do not pass the test may be used the Governor, Sir Harry Smith, consented to
for painting whip-lashes and mending the village being named after her; and sent a
harness. gift of £10 and a Netherlands Bible.
Ladismith in the Little Karoo provided the Ladysmith it remained until 1879, when it was
changed to Ladismith to avoid confusion with
Voortrekker wagon Johanna van der Merwe,
the authentic kakebeenwa which is now the Ladysmith in Natal which had been
established two years earlier than Ladismith, that the first train steamed into Ladismith
Cape. station. It bore a legend, in chalk: "After 44
years".
Oom Balter had been willing to sell his whole
farm for £4,000 and the purchase of only a Ladismith has had its centenarians and other
portion for £1,000 turned out to have been a personalities, including a mayor, Mr. H.W.
blunder. There was not enough water for the Becker, who held office continuously from
village in the irrigation furrow during the 1888 to 1920. But the character Ladismith
twenty-hours a week when Oom Balter still talks about occasionally was "Pierinkje", a
allowed it to flow. People often had to send up comic little Hollander who started work there
to the spring on Oom Balter's farm for water to as church-warden, teacher and catechist about
drink. With this handicap to be endured, the a century ago. His name was Jan Pierik and his
isolated village grew slowly. After seven years salary was £80 a year; but he was a lifelong
there were only nineteen houses; but a quarter bachelor and so he contrived to pay his way.
of a century later Ladismith consisted of one One day a dog entered the Dutch Reformed
hundred houses and three hundred people. Church at Ladismith during the morning
A post-cart running to Touws River railway service. Pierik stood in front of the dog and
station was for many years Ladismith's only announced: "Je word verzocht de kerk te
verlaten". (You are requested to leave the
regular link with the outside world. It took all
church.) The dog did not budge, so Pierik
day to cover the distance of sixty miles, and
delivered his final warning: "Ik waarskuw je
the driver sounded a bugle to announce his
arrival. As far back as the eighties of last nogmaals dat op lastgeving je verzocht wordt
de kerk te verlaten". (I warn you once again
century the people of Ladismith were promised
that on instructions you are requested to leave
a branch railway line, but it was not until 1925
the church.) As the dog still took no notice, Unfortunately only a fraction of the soil is
Pierik marched up the aisle to the minister and fertile, there is a water shortage, and the farms
reported: "Weleerwaarde Heer, ik heb den are overstocked and overpopulated.
hond verzocht de kerk te verlaten en hij So the Zoar settlement, with a population of
weigert dit ten sterkste". (Sir, I have requested thirteen hundred, usually consists largely of
the dog to leave the church and he has refused
old people and grandchildren. Many of the
to the utmost.) others go to the cities to work. Zoar's own
Pierik was leading the choir on one occasion industries include growing a green-fig harvest
when he chose too high a note for his capacity. for the famous konfyt, and gathering bush tea
The minister leaned over the pulpit and from the Klein Swartberg heights. Donkeys
remarked quietly: "Pierinkje, old chap, you are tread out the wheat in Biblical fashion. Most
going to commit suicide." Pierik took the hint families grow their own vegetables.
and started again on a lower note. Youngest of the Little Karoo dorps is De Rust,
Twelve miles from Ladismith, on the which arose early this century on the farm of
Oudtshoorn road, is Zoar mission, a collection that name, twenty miles to the east of
of little farms which have been worked by the Oudtshoorn. De Rust was a farm at the end of
coloured people for nearly a century and a half. the eighteenth century, and most of the
Two brothers Nel presented the original farm travellers and transportriders knew it because
to the government for missionary work, and they had to rest there when the rivers were in
the Berlin Missionary Society started the flood. Petrus Johannes Meiring, a cattle
enterprise. It was taken over by the Dutch farmer, became the owner in 1832, and
Reformed Church towards the end of last Meiringspoort is named after him. The first
century, and further land was secured. footpath through this narrow, vertical, thirteen-
mile cleft in the Swartberg was Meiring's do, and geological spectacles never grip me for
work. You may remember that the poort is just long. But there is one little-known point about
wide enough to allow the road to run beside these famous caves worth placing on record.
the river. Meiring's nickname was Blomnek, Credit for being the first white visitor to the
and this nickname remains on the map; for Cango caves has always been given to the
Meiring made a road over Blomnek to De farmer Van Zyl, who was supposed to have
Rust. been following a wounded buck when he came
upon the entrance to the vast grotto. Strange to
White farmers settled in the present
say, this is at variance with Van Zyl's own
Oudtshoorn district two centuries ago. Among
story, which he recorded at the time.
the pioneers were Phillipus du Preez of Matjes
Rivier (1756) and Johannes Strydom, whose The late Mr. J.W. ("Oubaas Johnnie") van
farm was officially described as "Kruis Rivier Wassenaer, greatest of all Cango guides,
over de Oliphants Rivier aan de Cango." That always claimed that he had found Van Zyl's
was in 1759, and no earlier record of the use of own notes. According to these notes, Van Zyl
the name Cango has been discovered. Claas was anxious to find shelter for his stock, which
Grobbelaar arrived the following year. At the were suffering in the bitter winter of 1780; and
same time Hermanus Steyn occupied a farm so he sent an old slave to search the hills. The
near the Cango caves, though twenty years slave returned on July 11 and declared:
passed before the hidden wonders were "Master, there is a place under a rock big
revealed to civilized eyes. enough for all the cattle to shelter all through
I do not intend to lead you through the familiar the winter." Barend van Oppel, an old sailor,
was present when the slave made his report,
Devil's Workshop and other fabulous
chambers, for you know the way better than I and he decided to visit the place. The slave
told him it was dark inside, so he took some again. Never did he lose himself on these
tallow candles and rags soaked in tar. Van lonely and dangerous wanderings; but once he
Oppel stopped on the brink of a drop which he fell into chilly water after breaking two ribs,
thought of as a bottomless pit. Van Zyl arrived and it took him thirteen hours to struggle out
later, and his slaves lowered him on a long again. "Oubaas Johnnie" knew those caverns in
riem into the cavern known nowadays as Van a complete black-out. His sense of direction
Zyl's chamber. never failed during seven thousand journeys
alone. Once he reached a snow-white chamber
"Oubaas Johnnie", who died during World War
sixteen miles from the entrance, leaving his
II, started work as a guide in 1880, long before
footprints where no other human eye has yet
there was a road to the caves or a gate at the
re-discovered them. But he never found the
entrance. He retired in 1928, two years before
other end of the ancient underground river.
electricity had been installed; so that he
belonged to the magnesium era. During his So the caves must still hold many secrets.
early days the veldkornet of the Cango Geologists hope to discover fossilized animals
collected fifteen shillings from each party of in the unexplored dolomite passages. A burial
visitors. Anyone found trespassing in the caves ground of petrified bats was found some years
had to pay a fine of four guineas. ago. Imaginative visitors peer into the farthest
recesses they are allowed to penetrate and ask
For more than thirty years "Oubaas Johnnie"
themselves the same question: "What lies
spent four nights a week exploring the caves.
beyond?"
He knew that the caves were once the course
of an underground river, and it was his Along this valley, in rock shelters and caves
ambition to discover the unknown opening littered with the bones of old feasts, the
where the river emerged into the sunlight Bushmen of the Cango made their last stand.
For centuries they had lived in a Bushman's One day, perhaps, the Cangocaves will have a
paradise; a land of flowing streams where they rival. Other caverns of surpassing beauty have
satisfied their great meat hunger with the flesh been discovered from time to time, and it is
of elephant and hippo, kudu and eland, buffalo clear that so far, no one has touched more than
and zebra. The honey from which they made the fringe of a world of subterranean wonders.
their beer came from the huge, wild hives on On the Grootkraal farm, for example, there is
the heights. When they longed for a change of an underground lake. Early this century several
diet it was usually possible to raid the flocks of young men lowered a small raft through a hole
sheep owned by the Hottentots beyond the and launched it on the surface. They went
Outeniqua range. down boldly and lit their lamp and voyaged on
Now there are only the paintings. In many these eerie waters. A later expedition went farther,
until the paddlers heard a rushing sound which
places you can see at a glance how the
suggested a waterfall in the darkness. Human
Bushman artists found their subjects. One cave
nerves could stand no more, and the explorers
reveals the artist's impressions of swallows in
hurried back to daylight. Everywhere in the
flight, and the swallows are still nesting in the
Cango valley the limestone is honeycombed with
precipice above that cave. Another cave is
the strange passages and caverns which are found
situated below one of those enormous old
only in limestone formations. Irrigation furrows
hives I have mentioned; and inside is a
have a disconcerting way of emptying suddenly.
painting of a hooded Bushman robbing the
The water has gone down a newly-opened hole to
hive with angry bees attacking him. Elsewhere
the mysterious Cango underworld.
there is a painting of a red and yellow rainbow,
with zig-zig flashes of lightning beneath it. A new cavern was found in 1950 on Mr. H.S.N.
Schoeman's farm Marseilles, only a mile from the
Cango caves. Here the explorers discovered me to do. This is the secret of the delight I derive
unsuspected treasure in the shape of tons of bat from travelling. It may be supposed that I sustain
guano, which came in useful on the tobacco lands. a great disadvantage in not being able to observe
Not far from this spot is the stone dwelling built the countenances of those with whom I converse;
by slaves in 1810 for Commandant Botha, but the tone of voice, the manner and my own
grandfather of General Louis Botha. And on the imagination compensate the deficiency."
hill above the house is the cave where the old
Holman arrived at the Cape in 1829, and rode
commandant found shelter for three hundred head
everywhere on horseback. Among the farmers
of small stock and guarded them against Bushman mentioned in his book, who entertained him well,
raiders. was Philip Botha, whose place was near the
This must have been the Botha who entertained Cango caves. Botha had twenty children, all by
that pathetic, courageous traveller, Lieutenant one wife. The farm tutor acted as conductor while
James Holman, R.N. Holman had to retire from the children and three nephews sang the "Evening
the Royal Navy at the age of twenty-five when he Hymn". Lusty children they were. Holman
became completely blind. But he overcame his declared that it was done "in an uproarious
handicap magnificently, and went on travelling manner", and referred to the children as
until he had visited many parts of the world. "stentorian choristers".
"What is the use of travelling to one who cannot Cango valley preserves the remote past. A
see?" Holman wrote in one of his volumes. "I fossilized dinosaur egg, six inches long and hard
answer, does every traveller see all that he enough to baffle a baboon, was dug up in the
describes. By having things described to me on neighbourhood. Many old walnut trees are to be
the spot I think it is possible for me to form as seen along the Grobelaar's River, and in wartime
correct a judgment as my own sight would enable the nuts fetched good prices. Now the walnut
cheques are small compared with the returns from and they gave it a nickname which was soon
lucerne and tobacco. A plant of the district, which forgotten - Velschoendorp.
grows wild nowhere else in South Africa as far as I Water was Oudtshoorn's problem for more than
know, is the liquorice plant. Some farmers seem to half a century, and for this reason the village grew
be unaware of its presence. Other shrewd farmers slowly. In drought, water had to be brought for
dig out the roots, which have fetched £100 a ton. miles in barrels and sold to householders at
Liquorice is used for medicinal purposes, of sixpence a bucket. The drought of 1865 was so
course, and for sweets. severe that many of the leading farmers sacrificed
Oudtshoorn village came into existence about a their land and trekked to the Transvaal. Yet in the
century after the district had received its first white same year Mr. Justice Watermeyer held the first
settlers. Church services had been held on the site Circuit Court in Oudtshoorn and noted that the
for some years, but the place had been known as early pondoks had all disappeared and the village
Grobbelaar Rivier after one of the early farmers. consisted of sixty neat dwellings. The prison was
Then, in 1847, Surveyor Ford cut up the farm among the best in the colony. There was a £13,000
Hartebeest Rivier into five hundred erven, and church.
there was a public sale. Mr. Egbertus Bergh, Oudtshoorn, with its water shortages, enriched
magistrate of George at the time, was asked to many a country attorney taking part in countless
suggest a name for the village. His wife was a water disputes. The great Langenhoven was at one
descendant of Baron Van Rheede van Oudtshoorn, time far better known in Oudtshoorn as an expert
who died on the way to the Cape before he could on the water laws than as a poet. The district also
take up the post of governor. Hence the name. But produced irrigation experts, men who taught the
the George people were sarcastic about this upstart, rest of South Africa how to make the best of
slender resources with weirs, sloots and furrows.
As far back as 1882, farmers in this district were the Oudtshoorn cellars you will also find light
selling their land at £600 a morgen; and in that year sweet hocks, flor sherries, the dry white table
one farmer produced 80,000 lb. of tobacco on six wine called Amaliensteiner and the peach
morgen. brandy liqueur.
Among the wonders of Oudtshoorn town, to my CHAPTER 10
mind, are those lavish, ornate Victorian mansions KAROO OSTRICH
which stand like monuments of bygone riches
AFRICA'S largest bird is a conspicuous figure in
based on the ostrich feather. Not that Oudtshoorn is
the karoo story. I do not intend to describe the
poor today. It has known fantastic prosperity and Oudtshoorn ostrich catastrophe again, however,
deep anguish, and the old days of ostrich wealth for I think that everyone must have heard of the
are unlikely to return. (If they did, the
lovely feathers that fell from £50 a lb. to the
Oudtshoorn farmers would view the situation
price of a duster. The ostrich is a fascinating bird
with keen suspicion.) But such country palaces
apart from its plumes, with a dark past which
as Finehurst and The Towers will never have baffles the scientists.
replicas. One town house, which cost £25,000
when it was built in 1901, was sold for one- Long ago the Roman zoologist Pliny started a
tenth of that price thirty years later. Such are fallacy that persists to this day; one of those
the vicissitudes of Oudtshoorn. dangerous fallacies based on the misinterpretation
of a fact. Writing of the ostrich, Pliny declared:
All through the years this district has grown "The veriest fools they be of all others; for as high
something which has more fascination for me as the rest of their body is, yet if they thrust their
than the most gorgeous ostrich feather. I refer head and neck once into any shrub or bush, and
to the muscat grapes which yield some of the
finest fullbodied sweet wines in the Cape. In
get it hidden, they think then they are safe sometimes fatal. When they fall at last they do not
enough, and that no man seeth them." rise again. The adult will feign death, however,
when taken by surprise in surroundings where
It has taken the scientists about nineteen hundred
escape is impossible.
years to clear up that mystery. The ostrich does
not bury its head in the sand. What it does is to Dr. J.E. Duerden, formerly professor of zoology
squat and stretch its neck and head along the at Rhodes University College, Grahamstown,
ground so that it merges with its surroundings. At made a deep study of the deathfeigning instinct
a distance, the body can easily be mistaken for a and decided that it was a congenital or hereditary
bush or rock. Protective colouring strengthens the act on the part of ostrich chicks, performed
illusion. The ostrich is not such a fool after all. without any previous experience and without
instruction by the parent birds.
Firmly implanted in the ostrich is a death-feigning
instinct by which it has often saved its life. Watch Duerden also pointed out a closely related instinct
ostrich chicks only a few days old, and the displayed by brooding or nesting ostriches. In this
moment anything frightens them they will crouch duty the cock and hen occupy the nest alternately,
down exactly like their parents. You can pick up the hen by day, as a rule, and the cock by night.
an apparently lifeless chick and it will not stir. A The greyish or dull brown feathers of the female
brood of ostrich chicks which scatters and then bird harmonise closely with the surroundings by
crouches in bushy country is almost impossible to day, and the black feathers of the male by night.
find; the farmer must wait patiently for the chicks These habits provide a perfect example of natural
to gather round their parents. selection. The wild or semi-wild ostrich sits on
Adult ostriches prefer running when startled. the look-out with its long neck erect; but on the
They can outpace any horse, but the effort is approach of man it drops its neck and head flat on
the ground. Often when searching for nests the
farmer must hide behind a distant koppie and use Cronwright-Schreiner, was for nine years a karoo
his field-glasses to locate the binds. "One can ostrich farmer, and he set himself the task of
never be quite certain what are the factors, solving some of the mysteries of the ostrich. He
conscious or otherwise, which determine any found as many as one hundred and fifty eggs in
action of an ostrich without becoming an ostrich and around one nest. By marking eggs, and by
oneself," Duerden warned. "The stupidity lies in careful observation, Cronwright-Schreiner
our attempt at an explanation, and not in the bird discovered that the hen laid one egg every other
itself." day and that the average total was fifteen eggs.
(Earlier writers gave totals of from four to thirty.)
Did the ostrich ever fly? Some zoologists believe
Often a few eggs were found outside the nest, and
that the whole tribe, the ostrich and emu and rhea,
according to old-fashioned belief they were laid
never had the power of flight. Ostrich embryos,
there on purpose so that the new-born chicks from
when compared with the embryos of birds that
the nest would enjoy a first meal, conveniently
fly, reveal no characteristics of flight. The other
placed, the moment they were hatched. In fact, the
school of thought regards the ostrich as a
older birds are cannibalistic but the chicks are not.
degenerate bird which lost the art of flying
The detached eggs have simply rolled out of the
because it had few enemies and never used its
shallow nest by accident.
wings to escape. Every part of the wing-structure
shows signs of degeneration. This is one of the One ancient belief which persisted until recent
problems which remains unsolved. years was that the ostrich left her eggs to hatch
How many eggs does the hen ostrich lay? It took out in the sun. The truth is that the eggs must be
a long time to settle this simple question owing to protected by the birds, or the chicks would be
killed by the heat of sun and sand.
the fact that several hens often make use of one
nest. Olive Schreiner's husband, Mr. S.C.
Is the ostrich polygamous? Not in the wild abandon the nest owing to sheer boredom. The
state, the scientists fell us. The idea of the male farmer, having no foster parents or Incubator
ostrich as a polygamous bird arose when it was available, would hear movements within the
observed that several females laid their eggs in eggs and become frantic at the thought of the
the same nest. Nearly all the old natural history money he would lose. (At one time, you may
books printed this fallacy, and it was not until remember, chicks were worth £10 apiece or
Cronwright-Schreiner's investigations at the more.) So the farmer took the eggs to bed with
end of last century that the truth came out. In him.
captivity, of course, there are few cocks and General Hertzog was fond of telling the story
many hens, and so polygamy becomes the rule. of a sight he remembered in the yard of a karoo
The intelligent farmer, however, finds that one ostrich farmer. He saw a number of strangely
hen to one nest prevents chaos when it comes
immobile native women, and asked what they
to hatching the eggs. were doing. The farmer explained that. the
Oudtshoorn farmers went livid soon after eggs of first-class ostriches were far too
World War II when it was announced from valuable to be left in camps, so he employed a
Hollywood with a flourish that a professional special team of women to do the job in relays.
"screwball" named Jim Moran had hatched an Several farmers 1n the district were employing
ostrich chick - "The first in history to be these foster-mothers, but with the drop in the
hatched by a male". This simple feat was price of feathers they were thrown out of work.
performed time and again in Oudtshoorn One ostrich egg holds as much nourishment as
during the boom period. What usually a dozen hens eggs, sometimes as much as two
happened was that the birds would hatch dozen. The weight of a good specimen is two
twelve out of fourteen or fifteen eggs and then pounds seven ounces, compared with two
ounces for an average hen's eggs. Newcomers have enjoyed is an ostrich egg omelette with
to the Little Karoo were often challenged to eat grated ostrich biltong sprinkled over it, and served
an ostrich-egg at a sitting, with a penalty of in the shell of an ostrich egg.
five pounds for failure. It simply could not be Fresh ostrich meat is eaten, but usually in some
done by the ordinary man. Nevertheless, the disguise or other. I have heard of volstruis
newcomer was advised that if he missed his frikkadelletjies, for which the flesh is boiled,
breakfast and lunch he would manage this minced and then made up into rissoles in the usual
gigantic meal at the local hotel at sundowner way. Ostrich sausages are prepared with sheep fat.
time. The victim was always given the choice You can make a good ostrich soup. Ostrich steaks
of fried, boiled or scrambled egg, or omelette. are too stringy. An ostrich chick is tender enough
But the flavour was rich, and those who might and far better eating than the legs of adult birds.
have consumed the same quantity in hen's eggs Almost everyone in South Africa has tasted
were unable to go on swallowing such a ostrich biltong, the form in which the meat is
cloying dish. usually eaten. Mile after mile of this biltong may
Hottentots and Bushmen used to bury ostrich be seen drying on the frames and wires called
eggs in hot ashes and stir the liquid through a stellasies near Oudtshoorn.
small hole in the shell. It takes an hour to boil Pliny praised ostrich fat as medicine. "Ostrich
ostrich eggs hard. The modern housewife, in areas grease was sold for eighty sesterces the pound,"
where these eggs are available, uses them mainly he wrote, "and in truth it is much better for any
for cakes and custards. Probably the best use it shall be put unto than goose grease." No
breakfast dish is scrambled ostrich egg; but it is doubt there are some who still find curative
advisable to add minced onion and grated cheese. properties in this soft, bright yellow fat, but it is
A local dish which many visitors to Oudtshoorn more often used for saddles, harness and boots.
Pliny was not always right in his remarks about is to slit the neck, and the bird soon recovers from
the ostrich. "A wonder this be in their nature," he this operation.
declared, "that whatsoever they eat - and great A small tortoise is a titbit which the ostrich can
devourers they be of all things without difference manage in one gulp. Karoo tennis players are well
or choice - they digest it." Unfortunately every aware of the danger of losing a ball when there
ostrich farmer has suffered losses as a result of are ostriches near the court. A farmer's wife
items which his ostriches could not digest. One once left a ruby ring on the back stoep while
valuable bird snatched a meerschaum pipe out of she was doing the washing, and an ostrich stole
the farmer's mouth and swallowed it. The pipe it. Then a serious problem arose, because three
alone might have done no harm, but the ostriches were prowling round the stoep at the
smouldering tobacco was more than the ostrich time. One after another they were killed, and
could stand and it soon died. Cronwright- the ring was found in the crop of the third.
Schreiner lost a cock ostrich which followed the Among the many peculiarities of the ostrich is
men putting up fences and polished off all the odd its immunity to pain. They are "accident-prone
bits of wire they left behind. This bird ended its to a high degree; and the late Mr. Max Rose,
fatal meal with half a dozen brass cartridges.
who farmed ostriches at Oudtshoorn for nearly
Ostriches have also survived queer meals. I once sixty years, once declared that he had never
found an authentic and distressing record of an known an ostrich die of natural causes. Ninety
ostrich that swallowed a live kitten. For a little per cent, he said, died from broken legs. You
while the kitten could be heard mewing inside the have only to watch an ostrich colliding with a
ostrich. gate or fence at express speed to realise how
these accidents occur. When they take the
Sometimes the ostrich swallows a tin can or bone
shock of impact on the thick breastbone they
which sticks half way down the neck. The remedy
are safe. But when two savage cocks decide to kicked the baby away and trampled it to death.
fight it out with a barbed-wire fence between The desperate mother saved her own life by
them you can expect casualties. The kicks land catching the ostrich by one leg, causing it to
with such vicious force that it is like listening stumble. She then struggled until she had
to someone thumping a drum. broken its neck.
Female ostriches are subject to an unusual The list of people kicked to death by ostriches
danger. The great, massive eggs may burst in South Africa is longer than you might
inside them, and this is often fatal. imagine, and "tame" ostriches have been
responsible for most of the fatalities. Very
One more mystery. How long does an ostrich
soon after the feather industry started you find
live? Mr. Rose had a famous breeding bird,
Klein Prins, which lived more than forty years. the first names on the tragic record. Before and
during the breeding season the male ostrich
Their feathers lose their value after fifteen
becomes insanely savage and treacherous. He
years; but I believe that barring accidents there
will vent his rage on anyone and anything
is nothing to prevent the ostrich passing the
except his mate. Warning signs are not
half-century mark. Nevertheless, for the reason
wanting.
I have given, the maximum age of the ostrich
has never been accurately determined. First comes the booming note of defiance, the
brom that sounds like the roar of a lion. The
It takes courage of a high order to break the
neck swells like a cobra, the ostrich spreads his
neck of a kwaai ostrich as a coloured mother
wings, shakes them violently, crouches, then
did near Calitzdorp a few years ago. She was
rises and makes his rush. Everyone on an
taking food to her husband and carrying her
ostrich farm knows how to deal with this
baby on her back when the ostrich rushed up,
situation, but it calls for steady nerves. You
face the charging ostrich like a toreador, downward. Even an ostrich chick has been
holding a long thorn branch instead of a cloak. known to break down a loose stone wall.
Thrust the thorns into the venomous face, step Motor-car radiators and headlamps have been
aside, and the bewildered ostrich is forced to wrecked by ostriches. A railway locomotive
close his eyes and halt. came off better, for it was the bird that was
torn to pieces. Ostriches battle senselessly and
Each male ostrich has his own domain in the
furiously among themselves, always at the risk
camp, and the visitor who eludes one angry
of damaging their brittle legs. Chicks are not
bird by this time-honoured method soon finds
immune from sudden attack by older birds. For
himself menaced by another. Thus it is
the farmer it is often a heart-breaking business,
possible to spend a morning full of thrills
and usually the finest birds are the ones that
which are liable to become tedious by
are lost.
repetition.
Pet ostriches are as unpredictable and as
Newcomers with theories about quelling
treacherous as pet baboons. One old ostrich,
ostriches by the power of the human eye are in
which had appeared for years to be completely
real danger. One such visitor to an ostrich farm
harmless, knocked out its owner one day
was found, after a long search, grilling on a
apparently because it failed to recognize him in
high, blistering boulder with the hissing cock
a new hat. They attack coloured people more
ostrich on sentry-go below. Never again did he
often than Europeans, and they seem to hate a
boast that he was "not afraid of a dickey bird".
horseman more than a man on foot. The
One stroke from the toe of an ostrich will rip a spectacle of an infuriated ostrich racing beside
man's stomach open. It kicks with the strength a man on horseback, helping the horse along
of a horse, but the direction is forward and
from time to time with hefty kicks, would be
ludicrous if it were not so dangerous.
When a cock is guarding the nest it will go into
action immediately on the approach of a buck,
porcupine or jackal. Farmers know that if they
sit or kneel beside the nest they are immune
from attack, the reason being that the ostrich
does not wish to jeopardise the eggs. On such
occasions the ostrich puts its head on the
ground, hisses and flutters its wings.
Female ostriches are vicious only when they
have chicks. Then they, too, must be treated
with care. Trek-oxen are easily frightened by
ostriches, and it is on record that a wagon once
fell over a cliff as a result of an ostrich starting
a stampede among the oxen.
Knysna was shocked many years ago when a
farmer's wife, Mrs. Hendrik Barnard, was
attacked by an ostrich. She lay alone on the
veld for three hours and died soon after being
found.
Twisting the ostrich's neck seems to be the best reared. He sent ostriches as presents to Eastern
defence if you are caught without a thorn bush. potentates and the Emperor of Japan.
A lad named Saunders of Oudtshoorn had a As far back as 1706 an English visitor, Charles
boy of eight with him when they were cornered Lockyer, noted that three ostriches had been
by an angry mannetjie. Saunders seized the sent from Cape Town to England in the man-
neck, jumped on the ostrich's back and twisted o'-war Oxford, but all had died at sea. "Ostrich
the neck until the bird became unconscious. feathers", added Lockyer, "have become an
You can try lying flat on your face, for then the article of export to Europe". Wild ostriches
kick loses most of its force. But the ostrich will roamed within sight of Cape Town a century
trample a prone victim, or sit on him; so that ago, feeding on the young wheat, and they
scratches and bruises are inevitable. It pays to were common on the karoos; but no attempts
fight back - but it is far better to hold the were made to breed from tame pairs and then
ostrich in check with a few thorns. Africa's pluck-the feathers. It is hard to say when the
largest bird is no mean adversary. fashion developed to the point where a keen
demand arose for the feathers.
Solitary ostrich chicks were often kept on
Who started the ostrich feather industry? Once
farms and reared as pets, but there was no
it was easy to provoke a violent controversy by
thought of profit. It seems probable that the
asking this question; it was like trying to
idea of ostrich farming came to South Africa
identify the first discoverers of diamonds and
from Algeria, where the first breeding
gold. Van Riebeeck bought two young
experiments were carried out in the 'fifties of
ostriches from the Saldanha Hottentots soon
last century. One of the South African ostrich
after his arrival to see whether they could be
breeding pioneers, wrote: "The people.
constantly saw feathers sold for nearly their book has been preserved by Booysen's
weight in gold, yet the idea never struck them descendants, proving his claim as a pioneer.)
of domesticating the bird and reaping a half- Booysen had shown that the domesticated
yearly crop, instead of hunting and shooting ostrich feathers were superior to the wild ones.
the ostrich for a single crop." Some authorities declare that a Mr. Arthur
The late Senator G. G. Munnik once told me Douglas, a retired officer of the Royal Navy
that the first South African ostrich breeder was who settled in the Albany district, was the
a Mr. I. H. Booysen of the farm Klipdrift in the ostrich breeding pioneer. Senator Munnik
Graaff-Reinet district. Booysen was driving insisted, however, that Douglas learnt the art
through Beaufort West in the eighteen-sixties from Booysen. Dr. John Atherstone of
when he met a Mr. William Kinnear, a civil Grahamstown collaborated with Douglas in the
servant, who gave him this advice: "Get hold invention of an incubator for ostrich eggs.
of ostriches and farm with them - it is going to Kinnear ranks as a pioneer, but he seems to
be one of the richest industries in South have acted on his own shrewd prophecy some
Africa." time after Booysen had put the idea into
Soon afterwards Booysen told Munnik that he practical form.
had followed this advice by catching and Then there was a Mr. Charles Heathcote, who
rearing twenty-one chicks. His neighbours made several journeys to the Kalahari in the
thought he had gone mad, and one of them sixties in search of wild ostrich chicks for
asked him: "Why not farm with springbok and breeding purposes. And in 1919 there died a
aasvoels, too" Nevertheless, when Booysen put Mr. Jurie Gouws of Klipplaat, better known as
his feathers on the market and received £44 a "Jurie Volstruis"; his friends claimed that he
pound, orders for chicks poured in. (The order had originated the industry. Gouws was a
hunter who sold many feathers to Arthur CHAPTER 11
Douglas, who in turn exported them to his THE KAROO BOTANISTS
family in Scotland for disposal. It seems that
The barren earth and the burning sky,
Gouws was also among the early breeders.
And the blank horizon round and
Many fallacies had to be shattered before the round
farmers were convinced that breeding could be Spread - void of living sight or sound.
made to pay. There was a firm belief that
THAT was the Great Karoo as the poet
ostriches would not lay fertile eggs in
Thomas Pringle and many others saw it. No
captivity. Some said the parent birds would eat doubt the weather influenced some of them.
all the eggs before they were hatched. And the But as the days passed and the wagons rolled
feather brokers discouraged experiments by
, on, all of them must have realized that the
warning the farmers that the plumes from tame
"blank horizon" was full of life for those who
birds would fetch low prices. stared deeply enough into the brown face of
Arthur Douglas deserved great credit for his the wilderness.
early publicity campaign, in the Cape and Possibly the botanists were the most sensitive
overseas, on behalf of the ostrich farmers. One of all karoo travellers. The pioneer botanists,
point he made was that ostrich farming offered however, could not compare the ancient world
a more secure livelihood than working a claim of the karoo with other semi-deserts; they
on the newly discovered diamond diggings. could not have known that this was a floral
For decades he was right, until the t:me came wonderland without a rival on the earth's
at last when the ostrich feather industry surface. Only in our own time has Professor R.
received a harder blow than even the diamond H. Compton pointed out that the karoo displays
market has known.
the most varied assortment of succulents in the Compton. There are no affinities. But there is
world. These are, of course, the typical karoo nothing haphazard about the karoo vegetation
plants. They are rare (apart from the cactus) in and flora. Long ago the old karoo selected out
the American semi-deserts; and in Australia of the material available those elements which
they hardly exist. But in - the karoo you find would fit into the karoo environment. In the
the almost leafless stem succulents, euphorbias northern karoo, the flora is linked with Central
and stapelias; the leaf succulents with Africa. The Eastern Karoo, with its summer
practically no stem, conophytums and lithops; rainfall, is more like the grassveld country. In
and the succulents that disguise themselves the west, a winter rainfall area, the shrubby
cleverly as stones and other unpalatable plants resemble the coastal scrub. Cape flora is
oddments from the karoo landscape. found along the southern and western borders
of the karoo. In the Koup, the bleak area seen
Compton has declared that no plant incapable
from the train between Laingsburg and Prince
of vigorous resistance to aridity and grazing
Albert Road, you see the most extreme forms
could possibly survive karoo conditions.
of karoo vegetation.
Grazing has always controlled the growth of
karoo plants. The wild animals were there The late Professor E. H. L. Schwarz of
thousands of years before the Hottentots came "Kalahari redemption" fame had a queer theory
with their fat-tailed sheep. So the plant life on about the karoo flora which other scientists
the karoo, the deep-rooted shrubs, revive refused to accept. He suggested that the karoo
almost miraculously in spite of severe grazing plants had their origin and evolved near Mont
year after year. aux Sources in the mountains, which are now
twelve thousand feet high but which at no very
You cannot compare this vegetation with other
distant date (according to the professor) rose to
semi-deserts in Africa or Australia, says
twenty thousand feet. Then when the country immense desert flora to evolve. At no later
dried up the plants came down, their seeds time was there a period of high rainfall over
wafted by the wind. They had to wait a long the entire country sufficient to wipe out the
time before the ground became suitable for desert-loving plants.
their growth. "But as Alpine plants can grow in Many botanists have noted the remarkable
an English garden, so these forms could have uniformity of the vegetation, the low bushes a
survived, till at last the droughts cleared off the couple of feet high and a few feet apart, spaced
grass," Schwarz argued. "Then they descended as though laid out by a gardener. When you
from their lurking places and multiplied examine the bushes closely, you find great
exceedingly." variety; a clump of five or six genera huddled
Schwarz believed that the karoo was a grassy together for shade and mutual support. Dr.
plain with running rivers only a few centuries John Hutchinson of Kew pointed out that low
ago. Other scientists, however, have pointed spiny bushes sheltered other very different
out that the Karoo flora evolved during a very fleshy plants, and sometimes a snake as well.
long dry period. Dr. D.F. Kokot, a senior Between the bushes the bare soil often reveals
irrigation engineer who has made a special signs of erosion. Sheep and goats keep the bare
study of the karoo climate, has declared that ground open. The bushes are old and gnarled;
the dominant climate must have been arid; they often seem to be dead until the
otherwise plants as sensitive to moisture as resurrection after the rain. In sandy soil, the
Hoodia would have died out completely. It is widespread driedoring is the dominant bush,
clear from the botanical evidence that far back and this produces a dense covering of white
in geological times there occurred a period of flowers when the drought breaks: There is
aridity intense enough and long enough for an another driedoring species, the wilde granaat,
which prefers the koppies and gives out this is the tree of memories. It kept my camp-
brilliant yellow flowers. Brakbos, another fires going in far places. The reek of the smoke
typical bush, is almost identical with the salt- brings back odd corners I am unlikely to see
bush of the Australian sheep runs. Kersbos again, and faces of friends I shall never meet
burns steadily like a wax candle if lighted again. The kameeldoring has the grim
when green. It is often used as a torch for reputation of attracting lightning, but the pods
burning off the prickly pear thorns. Then there are nourishing and you can build a wagon of
is the rosyntjiebos or brandy-bush, often five this hard wood.
feet high, with flowers like yellow stars and a The spekboom, another valuable tree, is a
fruit about the size of a pea. "Mampoer succulent. In times of. drought it is greedily
brandy" is made by crushing this fruit, adding devoured. Karee trees grow in the sandy
water so that it ferments and then distilling the
kloofs; their trunks are often used as fencing
mixture. Long ago the karoo Bushmen used posts, while the wood makes good charcoal.
this bush for their reed flutes and their bows. Mimosa, from the dry river beds, is another
The gannabos, with its rich green leaves, great firewood of the karoo, and the thorn
flourishes in the brak soil. Sheep and goats
branches are built up into kraal walls. You find
love it, and it supplies the ashes which help to the wolvedoring among the mimosa, with
make soap on the farm.
woodpeckers nesting in the soft trunks and
Only in the south of the karoo are trees at all eating the grubs and beetles out of the wood.
common. My favourite tree of the dry regions Goats eat the flowers of the aloes, but it makes
is the kameeldoring, the tree I have slept the milk too bitter for the kids to drink. In
beneath so often, not only in the karoo but in spring the aloes blaze against the
South West Africa and the Kalahari. For me, mountainsides with their spikes of scarlet and
orange flowers. Even some of the euphorbias, "On meeting a lion," warned Thunberg, "one
with their milky latex, serve to keep cattle ought never to run away, but stand still, pluck
alive in severe droughts. Few are poisonous. up courage, and look it stern in the face. If the
lion lies still without wagging its tail there is
"Botany is a science of life, and cannot be
no danger, but if it makes any motion with its
learnt fully from the dead, from the dried
tail then it is hungry and you are in great
specimens buried in paper covers," General
danger."
Smuts once declared. "All the great botanists
have been naturalists, field naturalists, Thunberg never met a lion himself, I think, but
studying nature from life, wanderers and he was nearly killed by a buffalo on his first
seekers for the precious secrets which only journey, and he had a narrow escape from
intimate contact with the living can disclose." drowning in a deep hippo pool. "I penetrated
every year to the more remote regions, through
Into the Great Karoo, long ago, went the field
sandy dunes, treacherous ravines, the parched
naturalists. Among the first was one of the
karoo, undulating plains," Thunberg wrote. "I
great ones, Dr. Carl Peter Thunberg, now
prudently eluded ferocious tribes and beasts,
called the "father of Cape botany". He was no
and for the sake of discovering the beautiful
botanical specialist, however, but a man who
plants of this southern Thuie I joyfully ran,
noted all he saw and gave future explorers the
sweated and chilled."
benefit of his advice. Some say he was an
indiscriminate observer. However, I would not Francis Masson of Kew, who travelled with
have missed the instructions this bold botanist Thunberg, has been mentioned earlier. He
gave for meeting a lion. pointed out that the karoo "afforded more
riches for the naturalist than perhaps any other
part of the globe."
Thunberg's fellow-countryman, Andrew twelve or fourteen years of age, set on the table
Sparrman, was his companion on some of his a fine breast of veal, with stewed carrots for
rambles. Sparrman also organized a long karoo sauce; and after dinner offered me tea with so
journey of his own. One of his worries was the good a grace, that I hardly knew which to
lack of a driver for his ox-wagon. "Had I had it prefer, my entertainment or my fair attendant."
in my power, I would gladly have bartered one Thunberg and Masson had a companion who
or two of the seven sciences for the art of
remained at the Cape long after they had
driving oxen," he wrote. Sparrman was not departed. This was Johann Andreas Auge, a
only a botanist but a doctor of medicine and German who was for a quarter of a century
professor of physics at Stockholm. He had a superintendent of the Company's garden in
flair for summing up a character in a few vivid Cape Town. (He was, in fact, the man who
sentences. Listen to his story of his arrival at
transformed it from a vegetable patch to a
the house of the farmer Van der Spoei (Van botanical garden.) Auge was also sent into the
der Spuy) and you have a perfect example of hinterland by Governor Tulbagh, and he knew
his style: "He stood stock-still in the house the Namaqualand and karoo flora well. Now
passage, waiting for my coming up, and then
and again Auge was able to make a little
did not stir a single step to meet me, but taking money on the side by selling collections of
me by the hand, greeted me with, Good-day!
herbs, birds and insects to strangers. One such
Welcome! How are you? A glass o f wine? A collection was bought by the Swedish banker
pipe of tobacco? Will you eat anything? I
Grubb and studied by Professor Bergius, who
answered his questions in the same order as he
described it in that rare and important work
put them, and at the same time accepted of the
"Plantae Capensis". Auge himself was more
offer he made at the close of them. His
discoverer than botanist.
daughter, a clever, well-behaved girl of about
In his old age poor Auge became blind and Auge suffered another blow, second only to the
settled on a lonely farm, owned by a friend, in loss of his eyesight. The farm where he had
the Swellendam district. There he was visited found shelter was raided by Kaffirs and Auge
by Lichtenstein, who found that Auge had lost all his remaining plants and books. Auge
forgotten his native tongue completely, and lived for more than ninety years. One or two
spoke only "the corrupted Dutch of the of the trees he planted have been identified by
colonists". Lichtenstein had the pleasure of botanists in recent years in the Cape Town
being the first to inform Auge that Thunberg botanic gardens.
had honoured him by calling a plant species Lieut. William Paterson, who made four
Augea Capensis in order that future botanists journeys during the years 1777-79, ranks high
might have a lasting memorial to his services. both as explorer and botanist. Among his
Lichtenstein, unfortunately, could not describe
discoveries in the Hantam mountains was the
the plant at once, and this failure made Auge "elephant's foot" plant, later classified as
angry. The plant is a pale green, compact testudinaria elephantipes. The Hottentots
succulent, a typical karoo plant rather like a were eating the roots of this plant. It has
mesembryanthemum. Dr. John Mitchinson of
always been a rarity, and nowadays it is
Kew, during his 1928 tour, noticed it as the completely protected. The plant takes half a
only living plant in the Bushmanland
century to reach a height of six feet. It yields
wilderness at a time when there had been no
cortisone or diosgenin, the valuable medicine
measurable rain for over four years. Yet this
used in the treatment of rheumatism and
juicy succulent dominated the trackless
epilepsy.
landscape for miles.
Paterson also discovered the weird kokerboom
(Aloe dichotoma) from which the Bushmen
and Hottentots made quivers to hold their illustrated with big snake and wildebeest
arrows. The first scientific account of the adventures."
botany of the Orange River was Paterson's Greatest of all the old karoo travellers and
work. botanists was William Burchell. He travelled
Francois le Vaillant, the picturesque, boastful for four years, accompanied only by
yet intelligent French traveller of the Hottentots, covering more than four thousand
seventeen-eighties, was a zoologist rather than miles and setting foot in many places where no
botanist. Nevertheless, he sketched the white man had been before. He made nearly
euphorbias during his karoo journeys and five hundred sketches, pressed and dried about
described the kokerboom. Many later travellers fifty thousand botanical specimens, and
attacked his narrative, and some plagiarized collected two thousand kinds of seeds and
him. His work, judged by the standards of his hundreds of bulbs. His two-volume work on
period, was remarkably accurate. his travels is a masterpiece; according to
Mendelssohn "the most valuable and accurate
A Kew gardener, James Bowie, collected karoo
work on South Africa published up to the first
specimens for several years early last century.
quarter of the nineteenth century." The
His plants and drawings are preserved at Kew.
illustrations are beautiful, and it is hard to find
After his official mission had ended he
a complete copy of the work to-day because so
returned to the Cape as a private collector. His
many readers broke up their books to frame the
lack of success was explained by a
colour plates. Burchell carried out all this work
contemporary, who wrote: "His great pleasure
"solely for the purpose of acquiring
was to spend his time among the free-and-easy
knowledge".
company of bar-parlours, recounting
apocryphal stories of his Cape travels, largely
I would like to have travelled across the karoo painted canvas, with sail cloth over all. He had
in his wagon. Seldom did he cover more than much of value to protect from the rain,
twenty miles in a day; and once, when making including fifty books, presents for chiefs and
a side-trip by horse-wagon, he recorded his goods for barter, arms and ammunition and
distaste for speed: "We flew past every object medicines. His bed was separated from this
and hardly had I turned my eyes to anything general cargo by a canvas screen.
remarkable by the road side than it was already
Many people did not expect to see Burchell
behind us. Such expedition was indeed a
again when this wagon left Cape Town on its
novelty to me, and very different from the rate long trek. It was indeed a hazardous enterprise
to which I had been accustomed; but as a in 1811, though Burchell never dramatized the
traveller desirous of observing the features and dangers as did Le Vaillant and others.
productions of a strange country I abhorred
galloping horses and would have preferred Near the colonial frontier Burchell once
sitting behind a team of my own oxen whose encountered two "tame" Bushmen riding oxen.
steady pace seemed to have been measured One was a chief, carrying a staff of office with
exactly to suit an observer and admirer of inscribed brass top. They were returning to
nature." their clan from Tulbagh, where they had asked
the landdrost for protection against a native
Burchell's wagon, with all equipment and two
invasion from the east. Burchell, contrary to
teams of oxen, cost six hundred pounds. It was his expectations, found the Bushmen
fifteen feet long, with the standard interesting. People had told him that they were
measurements of the period. The covering of beings "without reason or intellect". On the
his wagon, however, was unusual. On a frame
contrary, they seemed to him "men of lively
of bamboo were spread Hottentot mats, then
manners and understanding".
"Just listen to Burchell's description of the century the white rhinoceros would become a
vultures: "There was a heaviness in their gait rarity.
and looks which made one feel halfinclined to Burchell loved the wagon life as deeply as any
consider them rather as beasts of prey than as trekboer. He set down his affection in phrases
feathered inhabitants of the air." which were stilted yet sincere: "Nothing but
Near Prieska this observant traveller breathing the air of Africa and actually
discovered a plant closely resembling the walking through it and beholding its
pebbles nearby. Elsewhere he found the barrier inhabitants in all the peculiarities of their
of thorns which protected another plant from movements and manners, can communicate
browsing animals. His comments show that he those gratifying and literally indescribable
was the first to establish the principle of sensations which every European traveller of
protective colouring and form. Clearly he was feeling will experience on finding himself in
a pioneer on the track which Darwin followed the midst of so interesting a scene - a scene not
to the end. merely amusing, but one which may be highly
It was during this journey that Burchell made instructive for a contemplative mind."
the greatest zoological discovery of his life. He Burchell's name has been given to the genus
found the largest land animal next to the Burchellia, an ornamental evergreen with
elephant - the white rhinoceros, which should bright scarlet flowers.
be called Burchell's rhinoceros. He described A decade after Burchell came a somewhat
and illustrated the head and horns in a mysterious figure, Johann Drège. His
communication to a French society. collection of South African plants was
Wastefully, he shot ten specimens for the sake unrivalled. "His labours were enough to have
of measurements, little knowing that within a
made famous half a dozen scampering Pappe's plants, formed the nucleus of the South
travellers of the ordinary type," wrote a later African Museum herbarium. Zeyher died
botanist. Yet beyond the fact that he was a during the 1858 smallpox epidemic.
German, practically nothing is known of him. Ecklon, a Danish apothecary, rambled outside
Marloth stated that Drège collected eight Cape Town with Burchell and then went far
thousand species and two hundred thousand afield. Ecklon and Zeyher sent thousands of
specimens during eight years at the Cape. specimens to Europe, including many living
Unfortunately the bulk of this huge collection karoo succulents. The specimens were made up
was destroyed by fire in Hamburg. Drège was into sets and sold profitably. Danish scientists
the first to establish the botanical regions of brought Ecklon's work to the notice of the
South Africa. King of Denmark, who granted Ecklon a small
Two collectors who worked in partnership pension. Kiel University awarded Ecklon an
during the eighteenthirties were Karl Zeyher honorary degree as Doctor of Philosophy.
and Christian Ecklon. It was their misfortune In the eighteen-sixties Ecklon was living in a
to encounter the swing in popular taste from small, isolated house at the end of Sea Point,
Cape plants to tropical flowers and orchids. on the road to Camp's Bay. He had so many
Both felt the sting of poverty after unusual plants in his garden that people called
comparatively prosperous years. the neighbourhood Botany Bay, later corrupted
Zeyher, a trained German gardener, was also a to Bantry Bay. Then came the Prusso-Danish
big-game hunter. He shot an Addo elephant war, and Ecklon's pension was struck off. He
and killed a leopard with his knife. Zeyher was nearly seventy, and if old friends had not
made two long and successful journeys in supplied him with food he would have starved.
Namaqualand; and his collection, with Dr. Karl Poor old Ecklon was reduced to selling sets of
bulbs and herbal remedies. Sometimes he crept Botany is heavily in debt to the amateur. You
about Table Mountain and Lion's Head have met some of them on this karoo
gathering other specimens in memory of his journey; the physicians and others who were
great collecting days. During the severe winter in love with the flowers. Rudolf Marloth,
of 1868 two medical friends secured a bed for author of the standard work of this century
him at the Somerset Hospital. It is on record on the Cape flora, was an analytical chemist.
that they physicked him with strong soup and And I cannot leave the karoo botanists
good wine." But it was in vain. The old without mentioning Mr. Gilbert Westacott
botanist died there at the age of seventy-three. Reynolds, the aloe specialist, who is a
Dr. Peter MacOwan bridges the gap between business man. Reynolds, author of "The
the old collectors and the modern scientific Aloes of South Africa", travelled many
thousands of miles to study his plants and
botanists. He came to South Africa as a
photograph the flowers in all stages. Aloes
young man suffering from lung trouble, and
grow almost everywhere in South Africa;
lived to seventynine. MacOwan held several
their flowers may flame in midwinter; or,
important posts-director of the Cape Town
like the Aloe falcata of the Van Rhynsdorp
botanic gardens, curator of the government
district, become most brilliant in
herbarium and finally government botanist.
midsummer. Reynolds discovered thirty new
He also left his mark on the karoo. For it was
species and varieties. Professor Compton
MacOwan who introduced the Australian
declared that he made botanical history with
salt-bush and other species which have
his work. General Smuts said the book would
turned hopeless brak land into valuable
become the masterpiece of the genus.
pasture.
Rarities still linger in the recesses of the wonder on the grey-green flowers with small
karoo and you may still come upon what the brown dots.
botanist Harvey called "a plant to be dreamt Fockea crispa was envied by every other
of rather than seen". Once it was thought that botanical garden in Europe and America. It
the rarest plant in the world had been was displayed proudly at the great shows,
discovered there, the only survivor of an and no other herbarium was able to match it.
extinct species. The karoo produced no further specimens,
The story opened more than a century and a and so the Schönbrunn staff claimed this
half ago, when Baron von Jacquin, director plant, as I have said, as the only survivor of an
of Schönbrunn near Vienna, the finest extinct species. When the International
hothouse in Europe, sent two collectors to Botanical Congress was held in Vienna in
the Cape. These men, Franz Boos and Georg 1905, the experts gazed in wonder on the
Scholl, arrived during the First British solitary, carefully-tended Fockea crispa.
Occupation. They collected nearly three All this adulation stimulated the late Dr.
hundred cases of living plants within a few Rudoif Marloth to seek further specimens. One
years; and in this collection was a weird year after the Vienna Congress he located a
tuberous mass one foot in length with a similar plant in the Sandrivier mountains near
diameter of six inches. It was given the Prince Albert; but he had to wait three more
scientific name of Fockea crispa. After a years, until a season when good rains fell, to
century, the Schönbrunn records proved that make sure of his identification. Then he went
it had grown no thicker. Every year in to the site again and found the plant in bloom.
October it bloomed, and botanists gazed in Undoubtedly it was Fockea crispa. He sent it
to Schonbrunn, where it came as a shock to the
long-standing pride of the staff. However, the CHAPTER 12
old root was still regarded as a great rarity and GOLDEN FLEECE
nurtured through both World Wars.
We hear the Hottentot herders
Mr. H. Herre of Stellenbosch University dealt As the sheep click Past to the fold.
the final blow to the romantic legend. He RUDYARD KIPLING
discovered hundreds of Fockea crispa plants RARE characters, the old Hottentot shepherds. In
growing near Ladismith (Cape). It was known
these days of jackal-proof fencing there is less
there by its old Hottentot name of ghwarrie- room for the shepherd's skill; but the type
koe. For centuries the Bushmen and Hottentots survives here and there on the great sheep runs of
had relied on this moist root for both food and the karoo.
drink. On the farms and in the village, white
house-wives made konfyt of it. Mr. Herre sent They are old servants indeed, sometimes the
a sample of ghwayyie-koe-konfyt to descendants of slaves who remained on the farm.
Schönbrunn. It must have had a bitter taste for They know exactly how to lead the sheep into the
those who had cherished the karoo plant for so best veld at each season. When the shepherd
long, the rarest plant in the world, as they had cracks his old karwats, his short whip, the flock
fondly imagined. falls into line and wheels and bunches and obeys
the order. Effortlessly he guides them into the far
corners of the farm where the safe plants grow.
The shepherd's dog, often a collie, is equally wise
in the ways of sheep. A dash or a snarl is enough;
never a bite.
Last century a good shepherd earned a pound a sheepdogs are his friends. Without them, he might
month and was pleased with it. He also drew lose his flock in the mist and spend days
rations according to the size of his family; old searching for them. But snow is a still greater
ewes, boer meal, salt, tobacco and untanned ox- menace. I have heard of a flock of five hundred
hide for his velskoene. He lived in a mud- sheep being frozen to death in a sudden
plastered hut of poles covered with melkbos when snowstorm. The shepherd was found huddled
he was at home. More often than not he was miles in a shallow cave, kept just alive by the
away with his flocks. warmth of his two faithful dogs.
In times of drought he shared his master's anxiety. The late Mr. J.W. Brink once told me of a
Often the ewes were so lean when the lambs were karoo shepherd who was overtaken by a
born that their lives could be saved only by blizzard on the heights. This man had a small
cutting the throats of thousands of newborn hut within half a mile, but a deep kloof
lambs. intervened and the driving snow blinded him.
However, he knew of a cave close at hand and
During bitter winters the shepherd's life may
he made for it, leaving the dogs with the sheep.
become hazardous. It is on record that twenty
It was a refuge he had used before on cold
shepherds perished with their flocks in the 1885
nights, and he had left a heap of brushwood at
snowfalls at Beaufort West. There are times when
the shepherd is sent into the high mountains that the entrance. The shepherd looked forward to
lighting his fire and making coffee.
fringe the Great Karoo in search of green feeding,
and then much depends on his knowledge of the A harsh growling, then low whining sounds,
kloofs and pastures, and above all the weather. greeted him as he stooped to enter the cave. He
Mist and snow are the shepherd's main enemies looked into two glaring green eyes. Then he
on these expeditions far above the dry plains. His switched on the electric torch his master had
given him and confirmed what he had expected route which a farmer is entitled to follow when
to see-a female leopard with cubs. Next leading his sheep to new pastures at a time
moment he was running for his life. He spent a when the stock must either trek or die.
sleepless night in another cave, unarmed and Interpretation of the law, however, has
worrying about his sheep and the prospect of a enriched many a village attorney.
visit from the leopard and its mate. The You may still see great treks of sheep in
leopards left him alone, but in the morning he
Bushmanland and other remote areas. On
found one of his dogs dead, the other seriously moonlight nights you may come across a huge
mauled, and a number of sheep torn to pieces. flock on the road. If it is dark, or raining, the
Both leopards were shot later by the farmer sheep will not move.
and the cubs were captured.
Goats often play the part of sheep-dogs in the
The shepherd and his collie were seen at their karoo, though they lead the sheep instead of
best along the winding trekpaths of the karoo. driving them. Who has not seen a dignified
Those were delicate journeys, calling for much kapater at the head of a long procession of
diplomacy on the part of the owner of the sheep bound for the kraal? The kapater, of
sheep. The custom grew up in the spacious course, is a castrated goat; and a well-trained
days before fences. In those free, early times kapater is the key to the easy management of
the sheep wandered across country feeding at sheep. When the shepherd has to take his flock
will; and the land was so sparsely populated across a river, the kapater becomes essential.
that it simply did not matter. Then the farms First the kapater is guided into the stream, and
dwindled in size, and grass became valuable. the bolder sheep follow. Backwards and
Feuds started and ended in lawsuits which forwards swims the amenable kapater until
made legal history. A trek path is a definite
thousands of sheep have reached the far bank Even the huislammetjies have to undergo the
safely. ordeal of the shearing shed. These are the
When a farmer is buying and selling sheep, the motherless lambs which have been brought up
shepherd's advice is valuable. At shearing time on the bottle by the women of the household;
the very tame lambs one falls over at the
the shepherd becomes a stern critic of any
young shearer who fails to handle one of the kitchen door. In accordance with Cape
tradition, the woman who has reared a
flock properly. Shearers are coloured men who
huislammetjie receives the money for the first
trek by donkeycart from farm to farm in the
wool.
karoo, usually accompanied by their wives and
families, their goats and fowls. They live in the Modern farmers give each shearer a pen, and
open air, with only a bush skerm as shelter, count the shorn sheep at the end of the day.
and they like it. Put them indoors and they But the old-fashioned way survives on many
would probably die of pneumonia. A diet of karoo farms. A tin is nailed to the wall of the
mutton, bread and coffee keeps them in good shearing shed. Into the tin the farmer drops a
health; and there is always a more elaborate number of lootjies, fragments of punched
feast in prospect when the shearing is over. cardboard; or he may use beans if he is
absolutely sure that his beans are of a type
It is back-breaking work, bending over sheep
which cannot be bought at the store. After
all day long, so the shearers are usually small
working from dawn to dusk, a good shearer
men. The scene in the shearing shed is busy
and cheerful; shears clicking, the men may have acquired forty or fifty beans, which
chattering, wool classers sorting the fleece, will be redeemed for cash. By that time he is
ready for his skaapribbetjies - and any
small boys dancing on the bales to ram down
the corners.
refreshing liquid the farmer may care to It, was a great spending spree while it lasted, a
contribute. wonderful contrast with the black depression
years when wool fetched three pence to
sixpence a pound. Farmers put their wealth
Wool was cheap early last century. A Graaff- into steel barns, tractors and heavy machinery,
Reinet builder designed a house with the inner wire-netting and wool-presses to escape some
walls composed of timber and reeds, and a of the income tax. Many bought seaside
three-inch cavity between these materials was houses. In the De Aar district a farmer ordered
packed with wool. This made the rooms warm a £12,000 homestead and sent to Pretoria for a
and soundproof. landscape gardener to design the grounds. That
That builder could never have imagined the was a novelty for the karoo.
wool boom of 1950, when top grades fetched Karoo farm values rose to double the pre-war
more than twelve shillings a pound. During prices. Farms that were leased between the
that boom, you may remember, an eccentric wars for a hundred pounds a year fetched
karoo farmer was asked by the dorp garage thousands in rent. The value of the South
proprietor to send a cheque for the new car he African wool clip rose in a few years after
had ordered. The farmer disliked writing World War II from fourteen to ninety millions.
cheques. Instead, he sent his labourers round One farmer and his sons in the Victoria West
the farm to pick every scrap of wool off the district received a wool cheque of about
fences. The bales went to the garage pro- £200,000 for the 1951 season. There was a
prietor, who acknowledged them by telegram: time when it looked as though the Union's
"Car ready for delivery stop Wool sold stop wool would bring in almost as much as the
Forwarding you £200 cash balance." gold; but devaluation sent gold ahead again.
Sheep farming has its peculiar risks, and it Nicholson complained of the diseases of sheep
never was an occupation for the settler without rampant in his time, the scab and violent
previous experience of the country. There is a inflammation of the lungs and intestines, and
reliable little book called "The Cape and its above all the droughts. He asserted that at the
Colonists" by George Nicholson, an English ruling prices of wool, sheep had never returned
settler of 1843 who learnt sheep farming the more than four per cent of the money put into
hard way. them. Common goats, he declared, owing to
the demand for skins and tallow, were a far
Nicholson was persuaded to try sheep farming
better investment.
in the Sneeuberg, and became owner of thirty
thousand acres of mountain and plain. This Stories of sheep are so plentiful that you might
cost him two thousand pounds, and it carried fall asleep counting them. Not long ago, you
about five thousand sheep. He started with will remember, there was the discovery of the
three thousand woolled sheep of good quality. sheep with the "golden teeth" in the Vosburg
Beasts of prey were destructive, but Nicholson district of the North West Cape.
recorded that they were "nothing in It seems that the local minister was dining with
comparison with the predatory Hottentot the farmer. The farmer was about to plunge his
herdsmen". Here, he said, the patriarchal Dutch fork into the chief dish, a sheep's head roasted
family had an advantage over the English whole, when he noticed something glittering.
farmer whose children left him as soon as they Probing deeper, he announced that the teeth
were old enough to do so. The farm of an were coated with gold. In the excitement the
Afrikaner was sufficiently guarded by six or meal was abandoned. Rumours ran round the
seven adult males who kent constant watch. district. It was argued that the sheep had
picked up a covering of alluvial gold while
browsing on the veld. Prospectors arrived, geld Next day Pio led his wife and two natives up
fever gripped the village and district, property the mountain. Mrs. Pio had to be helped up the
values soared. Soon afterwards came the cliff with a riem; yet the sheep had climbed
explanation. "Gold-plated" teeth, announced unaided. The natives looked at the six monsters
the experts, were fairly common among karoo and said they were the ghosts of sheep. It was
sheep. The glitter was caused by tartar, proved that the sheep had lived on the summit
deposited by the saliva in thin films. It was not for three years. The climb was a marvel of
gold. animal ingenuity. But it was also clear that the
sheep had survived all that time without water.
A more remarkable sheep story, to my mind,
Each sheep yielded an average of twenty-four
was that told by a Tarkastad farmer named Pio
a few years ago. There are two mountains on pounds of wool. And never did sheep find the
shears more welcome.
his farm, Martha and Maria, and both are
encircled by steep kranse, rocky cliffs at the Turn over the files of any South African
summits. newspaper, search the records in the archives,
Pio climbed one of these three hundred foot and you will see how closely sheep are linked
cliffs. He went armed, for he had been tackled with the life of the karoo and the whole
country. News of sheep sales, importations,
a short time before by a trapped baboon. There
was no easy route to the top, but at last he flocks drowned in floods or killed by baboons,
reached the plateau. There he found six lightning, veld fires, drought and disease-these
animals which he recognised with difficulty as events are never absent from the columns of
sheep. They were like huge balls of wool. Even country newspapers.
their eves were almost closed by the wool, Often the sheep gain a wider publicity. At
which had grown to a length of nine inches. Victoria West once, more than a thousand
sheep were crowded together during a in the world; leggy and light when dressed, but
thunderstorm, and one flash of lightning killed admirable when cooked.
eight hundred of them. There are also the The weight is in the tailfat, and one tail may
sheep records that crop up occasionally. Mr. weigh more than sixteen pounds. These native
Carl Carr took a prize at the Worcester Show Afrikander sheep have never died out.
in 1888 with a sheep weighing 164 pounds. Centuries ago they provided scurvy-stricken
Strange cases of atavism, or reversion to the crews with meat, while the Hottentots received
Cape sheep ancestor, occur (though rarely) tobacco and trinkets. To-day farmers still feast
among animals which appear to possess pure on them.
Merino characteristics. A lamb born at Barkly Sheep from the best flocks in Holland were
West was thought at first to have been sired by sent to the Cape in Van Riebeeck's day, some
a steenbok. The long, slender legs and shape of of them only to be killed by leopards. The first
the head, and particularly the russet brown laws dealing with sheep were passed seven
coat, supported the theory. But the lamb was years after Van Riebeeck's landing; now the
really a "throwback" to the fat-tailed wild legislation on the subject fills volumes. Fines
sheep, ancestors of all the sheep in the world. were paid in sheep during the early period of
the Dutch East India Company's rule. Spanish
rams arrived as far back as 1689 to raise the
These fat-tailed native sheep impressed the
grade of wool. Before the end of the
first Portuguese explorers when they landed at
seventeenth century, ships were carrying Cape
the Cape. The lop-eared Afrikander sheep are
wool to Holland. One writer noted: "It was
rather like the Persian breed, one of the oldest
very remarkable that the wool of the
Fatherland sheep, sent to the Cape, improved Australia. These were among the original pro-
so perceptibly by the change of climate." genitors of Australia's millions of sheep.
Nevertheless the farmers did not take kindly to Some years after receiving Colonel Gordon's
wooled sheep. They argued that such sheep sheep, Australia contributed to South Africa's
were more liable to scab; and indeed, there are flocks by sending a number of Saxon rams from
many references to "brandziekte" in early Mr. Alexander Reley's estates in New South
documents. A placaat of 1714 dealt with sheep Wales. They arrived in the barque Leda in
diseases. How many there have been since excellent condition, and a committee of experts
then! decided that they were of greatly superior quality
to anything yet imported into the Cape Colony.
The first serious attempt to breed sheep on a
The wool combined weight and softness,
scientific basis appears to have been made by
strength, elasticity and closeness of pile. As a
Colonel Gordon, who was in the Dutch
result, further large shipments of Saxon and
Company's service in 1790. He procured a
Merino rams were ordered.
number of rams, of the fine-woolled sheep of
the Escurial breed which had been presented to Yet the fat-tailed sheep continued to reign almost
the Netherlands Government by the King of supreme. It was valued in the remote platteland
Spain. Some he kept for himself; others were not only for its meat and lard, but also for the
distributed among the farmers between Cape shoes, jackets and trousers which could be made
Town and Mossel Bay. They were crossed with from the skin. Moreover, wool-washing and
the hairy native sheep, producing an animal with clipping meant hard work, and merino breeding
a rough, lustreless but abundant fleece. Some of stock cost more than many farmers could afford.
Colonel Gordon's sheep went on later to
Some of the country trading firms tried to present enormous industry was founded. Soon
encourage wool production by gifts of merino after the middle of last century the value of the
rams to certain farmers. The tale is still told of a Cape's wool exports had passed the £1,000,000
remote farmer who trekked into the dorp on his mark. Wool, in the days of the ox-wagons, was a
yearly visit with his wagons loaded with skins great sight on the country roads of the Cape.
and other produce. He also brought a small bag Up to the early years of this century the sheep
of wool. The dealers decided that this was the
for Cape Town's tables arrived on the hoof,
right moment for subtle propaganda. They bid after long treks from Namaqualand and the
against each other for the wool, and it was karoo. Buyers went out by Cape cart every
knocked down to one of them for a fantastic year in August in search of the trekboers.
sum. The farmer returned home with a wagon- These trekboers, of course, had clung
load of rams, the story spread, and soon the
tenaciously to the tasty Afrikander sheep. For
whole district had been converted to wool. days they would bargain with the buyers. Then
Earl Caledon, Governor of the Cape in 1808, the flocks would be assembled for the
tried to force the wool industry on the farmers. southward journey, thousands of newly-
Spanish sheep were supplied free; but after two branded sheep trekking together in charge of
years owners of Afrikander sheep were to be wise old Hottentots.
heavily taxed and farm rents doubled. Passive Many a cavalcade of sheep went over Grey's
resistance defeated this high-handed policy. Pass in those days. Others followed the coastal
Lord Charles Somerset stocked Groote Post in route, crossed the Berg River drift at Melck's
the Darling district with fresh Spanish stocks. farm Kersefontein, and used the old trek path
The van Reenens, van Bredas and others helped through Hopefield and Darling. The last river
to improve the breed; and on their faith the
was the Diep River at Visser's Hok, within building long stone walls. You can still see
sight of Table Mountain. By that time the many of these century-old relics in the karoo.
sheep had usually been on the road for a Some stretch for miles. They must have been
month; but they were in fine condition. Now started in the days of the voortrekkers and
the sheep speculator reaches Namaqualand in a carried on by later generations of indefatigable
few hours' driving, and the sheep come down farmers.
by rail. Mutton chops cost sixpence a pound
They had to carry the stones over long
half a century ago. Speed has sent up the price
distances and place them skilfully, without the
considerably. aid of mortar, so that rain would do no harm.
Competitions were organised, bets were
Sheep brought the first fences and gates to the placed, and the finest wall-builder received
karoo. Though the advantages of fencing were sheep as his prize. They might have used
obvious, there were many opponents - like the timber, but they preferred to put up something
almost as solid as the Great Wall of China.
somewhat conservative farmer who threatened
You can see walls in the karoo four feet high
at a meeting: "Ek skiet morsdood die eerste
and more than two feet wide, stretching away
man wat durf een gat maak op my grond
vir een draad heining." ("I'll shoot stone into the distance. Farmers have nibbled at them
dead the first man who dares to make one hole when they needed stone for new farm
buildings. Shale walls have fallen in many
on my ground for one wire fence").
places. Yet many of the stone walls are still
Before the arrival of cheap fencing wire, the standing firmly after more than a century.
karoo farmer either had no visible boundaries
Galvanised wire put an end to stone walls. It first
or else he embarked on the staggering task of
appeared in South Africa soon after the middle
of last century. The pioneer jackal-proof Railways were fencing their lines against stray
paddock was built by Mr. Michael Jacob van cattle and sheep.
Breda of Zoetendalsvlei in the Bredasdorp With the wire came the first gates. Travellers
district. That was in 1852, and it was also the who know no other Afrikaans are able to
first in the southern hemisphere. I believe the translate that all too familiar phrase: "Maak toe
karoo pioneer of wire fencing was Mr. John die hek." And you must do it, too. In 1912 it
Sweet Distin, who farmed in the Middelburg became an offence to leave a gate open, or to
district. He had previously employed a gang of pass through an open gate without closing it. The
twelve Basutos solely on wall building. When he maximum fine is £10, and £20 for a second
heard that wire was available he imported an offence; and you may be sent to gaol for a month
Australian fencing expert to carry out the work. without the option if you have a previous
Some of that original fencing is still in use on the conviction. Nevertheless, the magistrate usually
farm Tafelberg Hall. lets the offender down lightly with a fine.
Barbed wire came later. Invented by an One question that often arises is the legal
American farmer, Joseph Glidden in 1873, this definition of a gate. The answer is "an iron or
ugly essential was originally devised to keep wooden frame spanned with wire." No doubt you
dogs off Mrs. Glidden's flower-beds. Shipments have struggled with barbed-wire and pole
reached the Cape in the early eighties. In August devices which require great strength to open and
1885 a Mr. Paterson claimed and received close. Nevertheless, these inventions of the devil
damages from a country town council when his are gates in the eyes of the law. In a Supreme
clothes were torn on a municipal fence. Before Court case in 1925 it was held that "any structure
the end of the century the Cape Government or contraption which can be opened and fastened
and which is fixed across a road or footpath to
form a gate is a gate within the meaning of the For a second a pack of baboons, at least a
Act." hundred strong, turned and stared at the
intruders. At the same moment the sentinel
CHAPTER 13
baboons gave the warning. With those urgent
OUTLAWS OF THE KOPPIES
barks the whole pack crossed the road in front
NATURALISTS have been studying the baboon of my car, racing up the slope to their koppie.
for centuries, but there are karoo farmers who
know more than the scientists about certain They crossed the road at full gallop, tiny
aspects of baboon life. One generation after baboons hanging in terror beneath their
mothers, small ones riding like jockeys, shaggy
another of the same family will carry on the
old fellows turning boldly in an organized
endless war against one generation after another
of the same pack of baboons on the same farm. rearguard action and barking as though they
The humans discuss the baboons, and there can would menace the car. I had seen it all before,
be little doubt that the baboons pass down what but I sat enthralled. My American friend
declared it was the greatest sight of his life,
they have learned about the humans, probably
worth travelling all , the way from New York
more than the farm people realise.
to see.
One of the loneliest karoo roads I know runs
Karoo farmers know the baboon only too well.
through the mealielands of an isolated farm.
More folklore, more legends have grown up
Long ago I drove through those mealies with
round this grotesque caricature of man himself
an American visitor beside me. I had warned
than any other beast of the veld. It seems that
him to expect nothing but karoo, karoo, karoo
the Chacma baboon, the dog-faced, brown-
... and he had still been eager to come. That
haired pest found everywhere from the Cape to
day the brown veld seemed to move suddenly.
the tropics, can never live in peace with
mankind. Yet there are not many karoo of mealies, pumpkins or melons, throwing
koppies without a baboon population. many a cob aside wantonly after one bite. A
pack will swing on the fencing-wire of a farm
Kill a baboon, cut off the tail and scalp, and
and tear it down like mischievous boys. In the
the government will pay you a reward which
Little Karoo the baboons raid vineyards and
varies from time to time and from district to
apple orchards and trample down fields of
district according to the amount of trouble
wheat and lucerne.
caused by baboons. For ways that are
mysterious and tricks that are cruel, the baboon This havoc never ends. The baboon outlaws
heads the list of destructive animals. A farmer not only survive but flourish in settled farming
who had hunted baboons for fifty years once areas, always a menace in spite of merciless
confessed to me that he had never discovered hunting. Jackals certainly take a much heavier
where a troop made its base, how they toll of the sheep; but the widespread and
communicated with each other, or what indestructible baboon ranks as the greatest and
instinct enabled them to avoid danger. most cunning enemy of many farmers.
Baboons gouge out the eyes of lambs. They Guns and dogs, traps, prussic acid capsules,
tear iambs and kids open to secure the curdled baited cages are used every day in the war on
milk in the stomachs. Apparently this is a new these brigands of the veld. The baboons are
form of crime which has arisen since the thinned out but never destroyed. One farmer,
extermination off the prickly pear. Full-grown desperate after heavy losses, caught a large
sheep have been taken in some areas. Baboons male baboon, sheared it, painted it white with
attack the young of all the game animals, and red rings round the eyes, tied a tin of pebbles
wipe out guinea fowl and partridge. In half an round the neck and freed it in the hope that the
hour a large troop of baboons will clear a field living scarecrow would drive other baboons off
the farm. They did not stay away for long. No district, with oranges as bait. Forty baboons
really effective invention for defeating the wily have been caught at one fall of the door in such
baboon has yet been devised. traps, while a champion baboon hunter now
counts his bag in thousands. Many of these
Occasionally the bobbejaanhok or cage trap of
trapped baboons have been supplied alive (at a
wire-netting succeeds for a time. There is a
pound a head) to the University of the
trap-door held up by a wire which runs over a
Witwatersrand. Certain diseases of
pulley and is attached to a weight. Mealies or
malnutrition run similar courses in human
pumpkins are placed inside; and the weight is
beings and baboons; and it has been found
adjusted so that when a baboon touches it, the
possible to produce gastric ulcer experimen-
door falls. De Aar district farmers became
tally in baboons, thus aiding the precise study
desperate when the baboons took their valuable
of the cure. Some tough old baboons have
merino and karakul sheep, and they built these
avoided this fate by biting through the wire-
traps on a large scale. In the course of time,
mesh and escaping from the traps.
however, the baboons learnt to lift the trap-
door and walk out. Mr. J.J.W. van Zyl of Coloured farmers and farm labourers suffer
Smouspoort then perfected a trap with a door heavily from the baboon menace, for they
so heavy that no baboon could lift it. That seldom own firearms. There are remote valleys
caught a good many raiders. In the end the in the Little Karoo where the baboons once
observant baboons decided that it was not almost succeeded in reducing the coloured
worth while entering any cage, no matter what people to a state of starvation. These people
the bait might be. had small vegetable plots, irrigated from the
Gamka and other rivers, where they grew
Traps made of double jackal-proof fencing and
sweet potatoes, pumpkins, beans and mealies.
iron standards are used in the Graaff-Reinet
If they lost their autumn crops for any reason Old Klaas, a Hottentot baboon hunter with a
they went hungry in winter. For this situation great reputation, was called to the rescue of the
occurred towards the end of last century, when Little Karoo farm labourers. He noticed that
a farm labourer earned ten shillings a month, the most dangerous pack was led by a baboon
with rations which did not go very far in a patriarch, a cunning and destructive old fellow
large family. who could not be shot, poisoned or caught by
dogs. Klaas designed a wire snare for this old
Packs of baboons ravaged the vegetable plots
warrior.
while the men were at work. Sometimes the
men organised baboon drives, and their dogs Not long afterwards a white visitor entered the
went boldly into holes and crannies where no valley and found the whole coloured
man dared venture. It was a bitter struggle. population dancing in triumph round a tree.
Dogs are fearless when pitted against baboons; Tied to the tree was the baboon leader. The
they fly at the throats of their enemies and snare set by Klaas had worked. Now the people
claim many victims. But the old warrior were gathering all their mongrels with the idea
baboons are too clever for them. They will fold of turning them on the captive baboon and
a dog in their powerful arms, crushing and allowing them to tear it to pieces. There was
biting; then, with the sharp fangs still some disappointment when the visitor pulled
embedded in the dog they will thrust the body out his revolver and shot the baboon.
away from the jaws, tearing the flesh horribly. The system of posting sentinels during a raid
The final act, when this is possible, comes on a mealie-field, which I have mentioned,
when the baboon throws his adversary over a reveals the deepest cunning of the baboon. You
precipice. can always tell the sentinel baboon because his
tail is bent in a loop, an unfailing sign of his
alertness. Acute observers declare that the of the baboon. Leopards do stalk sleeping
warning bark he gives contains something baboons, but their appetites are not sufficiently
more - the direction in which a safe retreat lies. hearty. And the leopard does not always win.
It is significant that baboons always run A farmer, hidden in a lonely kloof, once
directly away from danger, even though the watched a baboon troop surround a leopard.
approaching human beings cannot be seen by Commands were barked out by the baboon
the main pack. A baboon sentinel who fails in leaders, the circle grew smaller, and soon the
his duty, it is said, is cast out of the pack as a, leopard was torn to pieces. If you examine the
punishment. Sometimes you meet an old two-inch long eye-teeth of a warrior baboon,
baboon hunting alone, an outlaw of outlaws, teeth sharp as knife blades, you will see how it
like an aged ‘rogue’ elephant. Such baboons was done.
are dangerous, for hunger makes them
Hawks and eagles have been known to carry
desperate.
off baby baboons. Parent baboons are always
It is a pity that baboon skins have no on the lookout for these enemies, and they
commercial value: There will be no have a special warning cry when such attacks
extermination of the baboon tribe until they are threaten. An unusual enemy of the baboon is
hunted profitably for their skins. Baboon skins the python. A party of hunters once saw a
have been tanned and used for boot "uppers"; baboon fall from a rocky cliff into the Orange
but though they wore admirably, the leather River with a huge python coiled round its
never lost its squeak. And the flesh is so bitter body. They were so firmly interlocked that
that it is hard to find a native who will eat it. both were drowned, but the bodies were
Some farmers maintain that leopards should be recovered some way downstream.
protected, as the leopard is the natural enemy
As a rule, the baboon is too clever to risk death another little township. A troop of baboons two
by entering the abode of man unless he is fairly hundred strong, driven by hunger from their
sure that there are no males about. A farm mountain fastnesses, suddenly raided the outskirts
foreman near Graaff-Reinet once left his house of the railway settlement in daylight. Within a few
with one of the half-doors swinging open, and minutes not a live fowl was left. Only when men
during his absence there was a baboon rushed to the spot with guns did the baboon army
invasion. The whole pack entered the house retreat, muttering and grunting angrily.
and one of them must have closed the door by A lone rogue baboon nearly five feet in height
mistake. At all events the door remained firmly broke into a church and ransacked the vestry. The
closed and the dozen baboons went mad with same baboon killed four sheep one night on a
fear. They leapt on the furniture, smashed the farm in the district, ripped the door off a school
crockery, wrecked the whole interior before one and scattered the books, and broke many
of them broke a window and let the pack out. It farmhouse windows. It was tackled by a Great
was a miserable homecoming for the foreman, but Dane on one of the farms. After a short fight the
he was glad that his wife and children were away. dog was killed. Farmers within a radius of thirty
When a woman is about, of course, baboons lose miles gathered in an effort to end the terror, but
their fear and become insolent. Some years ago the baboon escaped.
two baboons smashed up the nurses' home, which A wine farmer once returned home to find a troop
stood apart from the hospital at a remote of drunken baboons chattering and quarrelling
settlement. They had entered in search of loot,
outside his cellar. He had distilled brandy that
and they left the, rooms with vases and chairs
morning and left a heap of lees to dry in the sun.
smashed and radio set wrecked. The most The baboons had consumed the intoxicating
spectacular invasion in recent years occurred at mixture. When the farmer saw their queer antics
he laughed so much that he decided to allow them off crippled. We found it dead later, with the skull
to stagger away. He said afterwards that the fractured. I still have the skull. Dr. McPherson of
resemblance to some of his friends was so Uitenhage attended to me and I still have the
uncanny that he had not the heart to fire a shot. scars."
The late Mr. Donald Bain, hunter and experienced Bain disallowed this claim on the ground that
naturalist, once offered £25 to anyone who could Heugh had given provocation by approaching the
prove an unprovoked attack by a baboon on the baboons.
open veld. This challenge was taken up by Mr. I have never had conclusive evidence of baboons
Robert H. Heugh of Uitenhage, who stated that he killing a white man in South Africa, though a
had found a pack of baboons raiding his mealie grim story told in the Robertson district suggests
lands near a native hut. He heard cries of alarm, that such a tragedy may have occurred there., Mr.
ran up, and found that the native children had Pieter Lewis, a farmer, went for a walk in the
taken refuge in the hut. Langeberg range and was never seen again.
"The baboons saw me and one large male made Someone reported that he bad heard the baboons
straight for me, showing his teeth," declared Mr. on the heights barking as though intensely
Heugh. "I was under the impression that the excited; and he thought he heard a call for help.
baboon was merely trying to frighten me, so I Search parties found no trace of the missing man.
stood my ground. A moment later the baboon Baboon hunting can be dangerous, of course, and
gripped me, tore my clothes off and bit me in some hunts have ended in tragedy. The late Mr. F.
several places. As we rolled on the ground I W. Fitzsimons, when he was director of the Port
seized a stone and hammered the baboon on the Elizabeth Museum, took part in a drive by a small
head. Natives came to the rescue and finally beat mounted commando of farmers and natives
the baboon off with their sticks. The baboon went
against the baboons. They tried to run the baboons narrow escape when several large rocks fell
down before they could reach the upper edge of a among them, and the minister noticed that these
precipice. One native dashed headlong into the rocks were being pushed over the edge of the cliff
baboon pack by mistake. Next moment the native by baboons.
and his pony shot out over the precipice into There is a true story of a farmer's wife out riding
space and were killed on the rocks far below. on horseback in a kloof infested by baboons. One
Close to the bodies of man and pony was a huge bold male ran alongside the horse and then sprang
dead baboon. up behind the woman. The strange motion
Mr. Coetzer, a Cradock farmer, came upon puzzled the baboon, and he clung tightly to the
baboons drinking at his dam. The pack made off, woman while the horse bolted for home. It was a
but the rearguard of five large males moved situation which would have been ludicrous but
towards him. He pelted them with stones, but still for the terror of the woman. Near the farm-house
they advanced. Coetzer mounted his horse and the baboon realized that he was running into
galloped away with the baboons in pursuit. Near danger and leapt off. Baboons never fear women,
the homestead four of the baboons turned and ran and their skill in detecting a man dressed in
off, but the fifth baboon followed him into the feminine clothing (or vice versa) has been
house and was shot near the door. It would be proved again and again. Many a farmer's wife
hard to find a record of another attack carried out has found her stoep filled with insolent baboons
with such determination. when her husband has been away. They peer
through windows, kill any small dogs that
I believe it was a minister of the Dutch Reformed
venture out and tear the vegetables out of the
Church who recorded the experience of a party
kitchen garden.
which climbed a koppie. At the summit was a
krans several hundred feet high. The party had a
It is said that an experienced baboon can tell One of the strangest encounters with the baboon
whether a man is carrying a stick or a gun. ever recorded was the "baboon ride" by Mr.
Fitzsimons found that he could approach a pack Hendrik Maartens of the farm Nooitgedacht near
to within fifty yards when he went unarmed. Cedarville in East Griqualand, Hendrik was
Probably there are old baboons who have some sixteen at the time, a short youth but powerful.
idea of the range of a rifle. Then there is the He had listened to his father telling stories of the
undying tale of the baboon sentinel who can baboons he had captured alive. His father
count up to two, but no further. In other words, if sometimes asked him solemnly: "Hendrik, why
three baboon hunters go into the fields and one don't you bring a live baboon home?"
remains hidden while two walk off, the Hendrik was out on horseback looking for
unsuspecting baboons will walk right into the strayed sheep when he surprised a pair of full-
trap. grown baboons which were picking up
Eugene Marais, one of the few Afrikaners who scorpions. For two hours he chased the male
liked baboons, once carried out a series of across broken, difficult country and finally ran
experiments to test this story. He decided that the him down. Hendrik leapt off his horse and
baboons watched the people of the farm gripped the baboon's tail. The baboon lunged at
carefully, until they were able to class them as Hendrik's throat, then bit his left wrist. By this
harmless or dangerous. The farmer could take his time Hendrik had the baboon by the throat and
whole family into the mealie field, and then hide he held on. Then, shifting his grip, he took the
himself and send all the others out. But until the baboon by the ears and held it in front of him.
baboons were satisfied that the farmer had gone, The baboon fought hard, wriggled and screamed,
they would not raid the mealies. but Hendrik was determined to capture him.
"Nou bobbejaan, gaan ek en jy huistoe ry! "
declared Hendrik, "Now baboon, you and I are sad. After years of captivity the male escaped,
going to ride home." the chain still fastened to the strong leather
belt round its waist. Hendrik went out in search
Hendrik kept his knees behind the baboon's
of it, and some days later he discovered the
shoulder-blades, and there were times when an
female hovering round a deep cleft in the
onlooker might have thought he was really
rocks. The chain had hooked round a tree in
riding the baboon home. Once the baboon
such a way that the baboons had been unable
curled its tail round a tree; once it feigned
to free it, and the male baboon had died of
death. Hendrik simply dragged it along until he
thirst and starvation.
could make it fast to a tree outside the
homestead. Then he called the family out, and
fainted. He had lost blood in the struggle, and
It is now fairly clear that the baboon is mature
he was exhausted.
at four or five years and lives about fifteen
When he recovered, his father asked him why years in the wild state. Secure in captivity, a
he had done such a mad thing. "Because of zoo baboon once reached the age of forty-five.
what you told me father-the baboons you Scully the poet, usually a most reliable
brought home alive", Hendrik answered: observer of wild life, declared that he knew
"Those were baby baboons," declared his one undoubted case of a baboon, shot during a
father. hunt, that, weighed two hundred and fifty
Some say that baboons mate for life. Hendrik's pounds. Now the normal weight of a large
baboon was put on a chain; and every night the male seldom exceeds one hundred pounds. In
female called from the heights and the male the Langkloof near George there appears to be
answered with a deep roar. The ending was
an abnormally heavy race of baboons,
however, and one of these, weighed by Mr.
Dennis Munro a few years ago, showed one
hundred and eighty five pounds on the farm
scale. Such an old skelm may have eye-teeth
jutting out three inches from the gums.
White baboons have been captured, and a
reddish baboon was seen by motorists in
Bosluiskloef near Prince Albert ten years ago.
There is a yellow baboon in Rhodesia.
A rarity in baboon-infested districts is a
baboon skeleton. I do not suggest that the
baboons bury their dead; but the skeletons
seem to vanish in a way that is reminiscent of
the legendary graveyard of the elephants. And
I recall Mr. L.D.J. Pienaar of Beaufort West
pointing out that he had a large pack of
baboons on his farm, but that in thirty years he
had never found a skeleton. He mentioned the
fact that the baboons carry off their wounded,
if they get the chance, after a brush with the
farmer. What happens to the dead baboons?
Baboons fear snakes more than any other Baboons have also learnt to avoid the red-hot
living creature, certainly far more than they sting of the scorpion. Nevertheless, the
fear human beings. If you tease them with a scorpion is a favourite item of food; so the
rubber imitation snake they soon discover the baboon can be seen turning over the stones in
trick and go mad with rage. A dead snake, on search of scorpions, and trembling nervously
the other hand, causes extreme terror. One whenever they find one. The baboon's sense of
owner of a pet baboon slung a dead yellow smell is poor, but it has first-class eyesight.
cobra round the baboon's neck. The baboon A baboon mother with young presents a human
died of fright. spectacle indeed. She will wash her offspring
A farmer stalked a party of baboons in a in a mountain pool just as a baby is bathed, and
watermelon patch. To his surprise, he was able put it across her knee and spank it if there is
to come right up to them without the alarm the slightest sign of naughtiness. Baboons have
being raised. Then he saw that the baboons also been seen using a small stick for the
were grouped in a circle and staring as though purpose.
hypnotised at something on the ground. Only It is really no wonder that baboons turn into
when he fired a shot did they disperse. Then he brigands raiding farms, for their dry, rock-
saw two dead baboons, a female and her baby; strewn koppies often fail to provide enough
and close by a cobra was still twitching in its food. They love honey, climb precipices like
death agony. The snake must have bitten the Bushmen to reach the wild hives, and risk the
little baboon. Then the baboon mother had anger of the bees when they plunge their arms
attacked the cobra and killed it-but not before into the huge combs. They know all the edible
she had received a fatal bite. bulbs, roots, herbs, flowers and gums, bark and
berries. Every baboon pack has its own feeding which makes it necessary to secure a permit
grounds, and trespassers are roughly handled. before wild animals may be kept as pets.
Baboons which live near the sea have Some chained baboons are made vicious by
discovered the virtues of shellfish. But the teasing, bad feeding and lack of exercise.
appetite of a baboon is never satisfied. A Almost inevitably there comes a day when
Graaff-Reinet farmer surprised a full-grown such baboons reveal their treacherous instincts,
male baboon in the act of drinking milk and many tales of attacks and other escapades
straight from a cow's udder. On another farm, of pet baboons are told. On a Harrismith farm a
the foreman was in the habit of feeding the Mr. de Wet du Plessis kept a baboon that
pigs at noon and then going off to his own weighed nearly one hundred and fifty pounds.
lunch. The baboons noted this time-table and This pet appeared to be tame, except in the
made their plans. One day the foreman heard presence of dogs. The baboon would simulate
the pigs screaming, and hurried back to find friendship until the dog came within its grasp;
the baboons riding the pigs, pinching them then it would carry the victim to a cliff near the
cruelly and, of course, stealing their food. homestead and hurl it to death. Several sheep
were destroyed by the baboon in the same way,
but Mr. du Plessis allowed his pet to live. He
Visitors to karoo farms are often puzzled when took the baboon for a walk one day and was
they find that the farmer and his family have passing the edge of a cliff when the baboon
made a pet of their main enemy. The baboon suddenly seized him and tried to force him
on a little platform at the top of a pole was, over the edge. Mr. du Plessis fought for his
indeed, one of the familiar sights of South life, hitting and kicking the baboon and
Africa before a law was passed a few years ago receiving a number of severe bites. He was
being driven mercilessly towards the brink of Soon everyone on the farm gathered round the
the cliff, and was growing weaker when he put pole while the farmer made a plan. Mattresses
all his remaining strength into a last blow. It were heaped on the ground. Then everyone,
landed on the baboon's jaw and ended the including the frantic mother, retired into the
attack. After that episode the baboon was shot. house and watched. Adonis tired of his game
without an audience, slid down the pole and
Pet baboons have often stolen babies from
put the baby back into its box. The angry
their cradles, sometimes playfully, but also on
farmer waited until Adonis had climbed his
occasion as an act of revenge. There was once
pole again, and then took careful aim. That was
a pet baboon Adonis which formed the habit of
the end of one pet baboon's career.
vaulting over the half-door into the kitchen
when the native cook girl was out. Adonis The late Oom Abraham Basson, who was Paarl's
would then throw all the pots and pans off the oldest resident, ninety-six years of age at the time
stove in the effort to find his favourite of his death some years ago, was stolen from his
delicacy, boiled potatoes. One day the maid cradle by a pet baboon. He was about three
caught Adonis in the act and punished him by months old when this adventure occurred. His
pouring a pot of almost boiling water over him. mother had left the cradle in the open air, and
when she returned young Abraham had vanished.
Adonis leapt up his pole, licked his wounds
A frantic search revealed the baby in the baboon's
and bided his time. Six weeks later the girl left
arms on a gable of the house. Not until a favourite
her young baby asleep in a box on the kitchen
floor. When she returned Adonis had climbed sweet was offered did the baboon place the baby
his pole with the baby and was shaking and on the roof and clamber down. The rescue was
carried out hurriedly, for little Abraham was in
pinching the child with the clear motive of
frightening the mother. danger of rolling off on to the ground.
Scully put it on record that he had watched a South Africa's most famous trained baboon, one
baboon carrying trays of drinks to the guests in an which always remained faithful to his master, was
hotel. He had also seen a baboon shepherd. Mr. Jack the Signalman. The story would be
Kalman Kittenberger, a professional hunter, incredible without the photographs and the
claimed to have trained a baboon as gun-bearer, a evidence of people who saw Jack at work year
daring procedure when you come to think of all after year. I believe the first report of Jack's
that is involved. I have also heard of a farmer who achievements appeared in a paragraph which I
took three tame baboons to his lands, pulled up a found in the "Cape Argus" dated April 2 1884.
weed, and handed it over to the baboons for "Passengers who reach Uitenhage by train are
inspection. After he had repeated the process for a very frequently spectators of a sight that would
little while, the baboons followed his example. have gladdened the heart of Professor Darwin,"
They tugged at the most difficult roots until they ran the report. "The signalman at the station lost
had eradicated them, and the farmer told his both legs in an accident. He then trained the
friends that one of his baboon labourers was equal baboon to help him. The baboon pushes his
to three natives. master on a trolley and performs sundry offices
for him with the fidelity of a Man Friday. The
Professor S. Zuckerman has said that there was a
baboon works the lever to set the signals with an
time before the advent of man when the simple
imitation of humanity which is as wonderful as it
pattern of the baboon world probably represented
is ludicrous. He puts down the lever, looks round
the highest level of social evolution attained by
to see if the signal is up, and then gravely watches
any mammals. Today the trained chimpanzee is
the train approach. The signalman watches Jack
regarded by some as the most intelligent of the
ready to rectify a mistake."
primates. Let me prove to you that the baboon is
not so far behind.
There was no exaggeration in this report; in "manhandle" the condemned railway sleepers
fact it told only part of the story. James Edwin which Wide used as fuel, tumbling them over
Wide, nicknamed "Jumper", a guard on the old and over from the dump to the kitchen door.
Cape Government Railways, was swinging Wide kept an important key in his signal-box.
himself from truck to truck along a moving It unlocked the points that enabled locomotive
train when he fell on to the metals. As a result, drivers to reach the coalsheds. Whenever a
he lost both legs at the knees. Thus crippled in driver wanted it he gave four blasts on his
1877, he took a post as signalman. whistle and Wide would totter out on his
About three years later Wide was in the crutches and hold up the key. Jack watched
Uitenhage market place when an ox-wagon this performance for a few days, then raced out
came in with a large young baboon acting as with the key as soon as he heard the four
voorloper. The owner told Wide that the blasts.
baboon had been caught as a baby and was Finally the time came when "Jumper" Wide
unusually intelligent. This gave Wide an idea. was able to entrust the signal levers to the
His cottage was half a mile from the signal- baboon. In the end, the baboon needed no
box, and he had found the walk so difficult on instructions from its master. Jack really knew
two wooden legs that he had made himself a which lever to operate for each approaching
light trolley propelled by hand apparatus. Wide train. It was not an intricate system at
decided to buy the baboon so that it could push Uitenhage in those days, of course, but the
the trolley. spectacle of a baboon responding correctly to
Jack the baboon soon mastered this simple every train whistle was never forgotten by
task. Moreover, he learnt to lift the light trolley those who watched.
on and off the track. He could also
Inevitably there were complaints from nervous story of his pet to Fitzsimons of the Port Elizabeth
railway passengers, and the system manager Museum, poor Wide broke down and wept. Wide
ordered an official investigation. Jack came out declared that his years with Jack were the
of it without a stain on his skill. Furthermore, happiest of his life. Wide's grandson, Mr. A.J.
the railway administration accepted him as a Havers, has stated that his grandfather had
regular employee and put him on rations like intended to cure and stuff the baboon's skin, but
the apes of Gibraltar. he left it too long and the skin went bad. Jack's
skull, however, is an exhibit at the Albany
Jack's rations consisted largely of vegetables
Museum, Grahamstown.
and fruit. He ate candles as a special treat, and
thoroughly enjoyed his daily tot of brandy. His Fitzsimons knew that doubt would be cast on the
only serious failing was the well-known extraordinary career of the baboon signalman, so
baboon trait of jealousy; and if Wide fondled a he took steps to preserve the proof. In his museum
dog, jack's mood became extremely menacing. he placed photographs of Jack on duty, and
written statements by twenty-five Uitenhage
At the cottage, Jack worked the water pump,
residents confirming every detail of the baboon's
carried off rubbish, and performed simple tasks
achievements.
in the kitchen. He also acted as "watch-dog",
admitting friends and frightening tramps out of
their wits. Jack always locked the door when he South Africa has many tales of "baboon boys"
and his master left the cottage. and other Tarzans in real life. False or true? I hate
Jack, like other pet baboons, contracted to disturb a romantic legend, but these queer
tuberculosis and died in 1890. His master was stories never convince me. South Africa's most
inconsolable. Years afterwards, when telling the famous story of feral man is that of Luke, the
"baboon boy", who died on the farm Thornhill in some native mother would recognise him; but all
the Bathurst district six years ago. Such an efforts failed. At last he was sent to a
authority as Professor Raymond Dart once gave Grahamstown mental hospital. Luke grunted and
his verdict in favour of Luke; yet a later scientific barked, but could not talk. He displayed a huge
investigation revealed a very different picture. appetite and a decided preference for uncooked
foods. At the end of a year he had lost all fear of
Luke was first brought to light, in all good faith,
human beings and had learnt to walk erect. The
by the late Mrs. Ethelreda Lewis, the writer. She
doctors classified him as a Xhosa-Hottentot
met him on the farm Thornhill in 1928 and
mixture.
published the undying tale. According to local
gossip, Luke, as a baby, had been stolen from his Mr. George Smith, the Thornhill farmer, then
native mother by a pack of baboons. About ten offered to "adopt" Luke; and on the farm Luke
years later (in 1904) two mounted policemen spent many happy years. In the course of time
were on patrol in the Koonap district when they he even picked up a little English. It was a hard
encountered a pack of baboons and opened fire task, training Luke as a farm labourer, but
with their revolvers. In the rear of the pack the Smith succeeded. Luke was powerful. He
troopers saw a limping figure. They hurried could lift heavy grain sacks and chop more
towards it, expecting to find a wounded baboon. wood than any other man on the farm. Many
Instead they found a snarling native boy, naked visitors called to see Luke and hear of his life
and covered with scars and scratches. The boy with the baboons. A small charge was made.
resisted furiously, but the police took him with The freak was exhibited for profit, and the
them. Tarzan legend became more vivid year after
year.
In the weeks that followed Luke grew docile. He
was taken from kraal to kraal in the hope that
Luke was never very lucid in his speech, but he stung by bees while robbing their hives. I fell
often tapped a deep scar on his forehead and over a krans while busy searching for food and
declared: "Big bird kick me." That encounter broke my left leg. While with the baboons I
with an ostrich was his whole past. Doctors walked on all fours and slept in the bush
found that one of his legs had been broken and entirely naked. I was busy hunting for food one
had set almost perfectly. Of this Luke day with my baboon companions when two
remembered nothing. policemen shot at us with revolvers. I tried
very hard to escape but I was captured and
No one seems to have questioned the story
carried away on a horse by one of the police-
until 1939, when Dr. J.A. van Heerden, a Cape
men. I cannot recall the place or district in
Town mental specialist, started a scientific
which the police found me."
investigation. First he discovered that the
police records contained nothing about an After studying this remarkable document Dr.
incident which the troopers should have van Heerden went to the farm with Dr. Drury
reported in writing. The mental hospital of Grahamstown and examined Luke. "From
records also shed no light on the baboon story. the beginning I was doubtful about baboons
A police statement taken from Luke in 1939 carrying off a human baby and rearing it," Dr.
reads (somewhat ludicrously) as follows : "I van Heerden told me. "I was brought up on a
am an employee of Mrs. G. Smith. I can only farm where we kept baboons as pets. I know
their habits. A native baby would be fairly
recall a few incidents of my life among the
baboons. My food consisted mainly of crickets, heavy to carry. Baboons dislike the odour of
ostrich eggs, prickly pears, green mealies and natives. And if the baby had been carried off, it
wild honey. I was kicked on the head by an would probably have been torn to pieces by
ostrich while raiding its nest and was, often jealous young baboons. When I went to the
farm I was not surprised to find that Luke was told me of an uneducated white woman who
a low-grade imbecile. His own evidence was lost her baby a few days after birth. A
worthless. The whole thing appears to have neighbour gave her a tiny baboon which had
started as a joke and it was perpetuated for just been brought in by a party of hunters. For
profit. The alleged kidnapping by baboons months the woman nursed the little baboon.
goes back to 1904 and there it not a scrap of Fitzsimons asked her whether she would sell
first-hand evidence to support it. As a result of the creature for his museum. "Sell my little
this investigation, Professor Dart wrote a darling," she cried angrily. "Never! Not for a
scientific paper refuting his previous verdict." thousand pounds!"
So I accept this verdict and reject the "baboon CHAPTER 14
boy". No doubt the story became distorted at MORE OUTLAWS
the point where the police troopers picked up
“NYAH-H-H-H-YAH-YAH-YAH” When the
the imbecile boy on the veld. Probably there
farmer hears that howl in the night he knows that
was a pack of baboons in the neighbourhood, a jackal is calling others of his tribe to a kill.
and by sheer imagination the boy became
linked with them. Within living memory the Cape Hunt went in
full cry after jackals within sight of Cape Town.
There is scarcely a baboon-infested area in Now the jackal has been driven into the karoos
South-Africa or Rhodesia without its "baboon and the mountains. In spite of a century of
boy" legend. But never has careful hunting and the intensive campaigns of the past
investigation revealed a genuine Tarzan. fifty years, no one has proved that the jackal
However, if you reverse the situation, you will species is diminishing. Thanks to an ample diet
have no difficulty in finding examples of baby
baboons in human families. Fitzsimons once
of mutton, there may even be more jackals than cloth with silvery hairs. It has large ears, a
ever before. slender muzzle and a most acute sense of smell.
Long ago the Jackal served a useful purpose. It If it had to rely on eyesight to escape its
followed the lion and the leopard and finished hunters, the whole species would have been
their scraps, leaving the veld clean. When the dead many years ago.
first stock farmer pushed into the Great Karoo Comparatively harmless animals which are
they regarded the great cats as their main often classed with the black-backed jackal are
enemies. When the lions vanished, carrion the silverfox, Delelande's fox and the aardwolf
became scarce. And so the jackals began or maanhaarjakkals. These do little or no
feasting on sheep. It has been a long and damage, preferring mice and insects to sheep.
luscious feast, and by now the losses of the
The killer jackals of the karoo regions eat more
sheep farmers run into millions.
mutton in a year than do the people of any
When I speak of the jackal I mean the killer, the South African city. They destroy more than two
black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), hundred thousand sheep every year, worth
commonly known in Afrikaans as the rooi- something like half a million pounds when you
jakkals but also known as the blourugjakkals, consider not only the capital loss but the wool.
grootjakkals, vos or vossie. This criminal is Farmers are forced by the jackal menace to
about the size of a large English fox and is, in kraal their sheep at night. On the way to the
fact, a fox. In shape, stride and behaviour it kraals the sheep trample down the veld and
reveals itself as Reynard's close relative. Only form paths which cause soil erosion. In the
the colour is different. Flanks and limbs close contact of the kraals there is a greater
certainly have a rufous tan, but the back is so risk of diseases spreading.
dark that it seems to be carrying a black saddle-
If the jackal sought its meat like the lion, and this way. Jackals have been seeing trying to
killed only enough to satisfy its hunger, the frighten the sheep into retreating by making
farmer might be more philosophic about the sham charges and howling. Once a sheep is on
pest. But the jackal, having eaten its fill, takes the run the jackal makes short work of it by
a delight in maiming the flock by biting off sinking its fangs into the neck behind the ear.
noses and lips. Thus dozens of sheep and Some observers declare that they have seen
lambs may have to be destroyed next day.
lambs running towards a jackal, thinking it was
Carnivorous by nature, the jackal will also feed their mother. The jackal rushed off in sudden
on dassies, rats and mice, birds and hares and fright and took refuge in an antbear hole,
small buck. It will attack a young ostrich, and where it was found and killed.
roll ostrich eggs against a stone to reach the
contents. A jackal has succeeded in killing a The jackal, of course, knows very well that it is
year-old calf, while a pack of jackals will no match for a dog of its own size. It can
tackle a cow. Failing meat, the jackal will eat outpace horses and dogs and scale a koppie or
herbs and berries, fruit, grapes, watermelons mountain at full speed. When it goes to earth
and prickly pears. It has been seen eating the dogs may succeed in reaching and finishing
stranded fish, and it will not turn up its nose at it; but sometimes the mouth of the burrow is
a lizard or tortoise. too small for the dogs and dynamite must be
used. Even dynamite is useless when the jackal
Much has been made of the cowardice of the
has its lair far underground. I once heard of a
jackal, but it remains to be proved that it is
party of farmers who became desperate when
cowardice and not cunning. There is evidence
they cornered a notorious jackal in a deep
that a jackal will not attack a sheep face to burrow and were unable to reach it. After a
face; and ewes have protected their lambs in
long wait they caught a meercat, tied a stick of
dynamite round its neck, lit the fuse and placed pursued, it has been known to hide under water
it in the burrow. It went down, mad with terror, with only the tip of the nose above the surface.
to where the jackal was hiding. The explosion Cunning as a jackal, they say, and there are
made huge boulders on the surface sag, and many stories to prove it. No animal feigns
everyone thought that the jackal had paid the death with greater realism, and then comes to
penalty at last. Next moment the jackal, a life again more quickly in the race for safety.
vixen with a young pup in her mouth, darted There is usually a back-door to the jackal's
out of the burrow into the midst of the men and earth. The jackal mother never stays with her
dogs. That was fatal, for the dogs tore her to pups after the first few days; but as soon as
pieces. they are able to move on their own feet she
transfers them to a hole (often a meercat hole)
Jackals when infested with fleas have a trick
with an entrance just large enough for the pups
which is also known to the foxes. They will
to enter. When she comes at night to feed
collect a mouthful of wool from fences and
them, they crawl out. If the hole is visited by a
bushes and then stand in a pool of water.
man or dangerous animal, the mother scents
Gradually they allow themselves to sink, tail
the intruder and removes her pups, one by one,
first, until only the jaws and the wool are
by day or by night, to a place of greater safety.
visible. By this time the fleas have all taken
This may be miles away, but she does not rest
refuge in the wool. Then the jackal lets go of
until the last pup has been transfered. Young
the wool and swims quickly away out of reach
jackals soon learn to hide in side-burrows,
of the fleas. Sometimes a piece of wood is used
pulling down the earth behind them, so that
instead of wool.
only the most experienced dog is able to find
A jackal will run and swim down a stream for them.
miles to obliterate its scent. When hotly
When the pups are old enough to eat meat, the Many farmers declare that the jackal cannot be
mother disgorges the meat for them. tamed. You may find a jackal kept as a pet here
Naturalists believe that only the female jackal and there; but I think the owners would all admit
possesses this knack of bringing up meat for that such jackals never become as tame as dogs.
the litter; and owing to her power of easy Sooner or later most of them hear the call of the
vomiting, she is able to reject poisoned meat wild and slink away.
before it has taken effect. It is a fact that very
I once heard of a jackal pup, captured in the
few female jackals are caught with poison.
Prince Albert district, which was suckled by a cat.
Jackals cover long distances at night, possibly At eight months it played with the children of the
as much as fifty miles during the dark hours. farm and become friendly with a collie. This
Proof of one long run was found in the jackal never bit anyone. Some-jackal hunters and
stomach, in the shape of grapes, when a jackal farmers have tried to train jackals to hunt their
was shot dead. The nearest vineyard was own species; and the crossing of jackals and
twenty-five miles away, on the far side of a greyhounds has also been attempted for the same
range of mountains. purpose. Such experiments have never given the
As a rule the jackal is a lone hunter. Mating slightest promise of solving the jackal problem.
pairs are seen together, of course or a female Dogs have been found reluctant to kill a female
with her young. More rarely, a pack of three to jackal. The only certain way to overcome this
five jackals may hunt together. Many a man difficulty is to train bitches for the hunt; they
has been bitten by trapped, wounded or show no inclination to spare their own sex among
cornered jackals. A deliberate attack by a the jackals.
jackal on a human adult has still to be reported.
One farmer used a young jackal to train his The jackal played with the puppies when Van
hounds and reached the point where the jackal Pletsen was watching. Once he was out of sight
was sent off and the dogs were put on its tracks. the play became a bullying game. The puppies
After a time the baying of the hounds ceased and dared not approach the dish of food until the
the farmer set out to see what had happened. He jackal had eaten its fill.
found the whole party returning home happily, the Like all jackals, this pet never knew when it had
jackal gambolling with the dogs. It seems that a
eaten enough. It became gross with fat, yet it
coloured servant, to save trouble, had been killed fowls, raided the pantry and took the mice
feeding the jackal with the dogs for weeks, and so out of the mouths of the farm cats. Van Pletsen
they had become good friends. was thinking of giving the jackal to a zoo when
The late Mr. J.S. van Pletsen, one of the leading the problem was solved for him. One night at
amateur naturalists of his day, reared a jackal pup dusk there came the call of a jackal roaming on
which had been caught two days after birth. It was the mountain. With a snarl the pet stood up on the
given to a bitch which had just had puppies; and stoep, every hair bristling, every sinew
after a suitable interval Van Pletsen removed two quivering. Soon afterwards it leapt over the yard
of the puppies, fed them with the jackal, and fence and raced away to the heights. Two days
allowed them to grow up together. He found that later it was shot by a mounted constable on
the jackal developed in intelligence at a much patrol.
greater rate than the puppies. It went about Jackals have few friends, but porcupines and
silently, learning the meaning of everything, jackal pups are sometimes found in the same
finding out where there might be danger, looking burrow. One farmer who dug out this odd
for escape routes. assortment observed that the pups cowered
behind the porcupines when attacked by dogs,
and the porcupines defended them. It has been I am told that some of South Africa's expert
suggested that these animals are allies. Porcu- jackal hunters depend to a large extent on their
pines and antbears pierce the jackal-proof fences, ears. They understand the jackal language, they
and the jackals bring back the meat. hear the special call of the female when she
visits her pups, and so they locate the burrows.
"Nyah-h-h-h-yah-yah-yah." That is the assembly
When you know the peculiar, low-toned "home
call, as I said in the beginning. Perhaps the most
shout" of the female, then you are on the way to
characteristic night sound in the karoo districts
exterminating a whole family. Not many hunters,
where jackals still flourish is the ordinary
unfortunately, are able to use such subtle
hunting call, a shrill "yaaa-ya-ya-ya."
methods.
The mating call is more romantic than some of
Are the vermin clubs really exterminating the
the jackal's cries; for the male gives a deep,
throaty howl while the female responds with a jackals with their packs of trained hounds? It is
hard to say, though there is some truth in the
sound like a hearty laugh on a higher note. When
view that they are simply causing the jackals to
alarmed, the jackal yelps like a dog. In a tight
migrate to safer districts. Records of "kills",
corner it grunts, quacks and cackles. The
when you consider the thousands of dogs
warning note is a "hauch", or a "wuff" if the pups
employed, are not impressive.
are involved. An angry jackal "keckers" like a
fox. The young whine very much like puppy- Years ago all the farmers of a jackal-infested
dogs. If a pair of jackals call when the sun goes district banded themselves together to rid
down at the same place for several evenings in themselves of this vermin once and for all. On
succession, the farmer can be sure that a new the appointed day a commando of six hundred
litter has arrived. men set out on horseback. They had rifles,
shotguns and dynamite, and they were
accompanied by an army of dogs. All of them in the Great Karoo and Little Karoo, must have
slept on the veld that night and went on with the killed fifteen hundred jackals during his thirty
chase next day. The total bag was nine jackals, years on the trail. He uses dogs, a shotgun,
and one farmer, was wounded by a charge of traps and poison.
buckshot in the rear. But every hunter knows that there are long
English fox hounds have been trained to hunt odds against poisoning a jackal. You can try
jackals with some success, and a pack of thirty strychnine in balls of fat if you handle
owned by a Paarl farmer, Mr. D.H. Smith and everything with forceps. Even then, something
his son Mr. L.J. Smith, have become famous. usually gives a warning. It cannot be due
Some time ago it was stated that these dogs entirely to the human odour round the bait. Pet
were earning £1,000 a year for their owners. jackals, accustomed to being fed by human
They are taken by road to the scene of the hands, will reject poison immediately, and this
hunt. In distant areas, with unfamiliar applies to jackal pups which have never had a
vegetation, the dogs ignore the scents of other chance of being taught by their parents to
animals and concentrate on jackals. Dogs avoid poison.
owned by the Smiths killed a thousand jackals Among the professional hunter's secrets are
in fifteen years. The fox hound, having found various methods of removing the human smell.
its jackal, invariably snaps the backbone with One old hand at the game, I am told, always
one quick bite. tries to obtain jackal's kidneys for the purpose.
There is no doubt that the professional jackal He makes a small kraal of thorn-branches,
hunter often secures results when the farmer covers the trap near the entrance with sand,
has failed on his own land. Jan Elom of and tethers a live lamb or kid at the far end.
George, a coloured hunter who is well-known The jackal's kidney, having been cut open, is
placed under the vital part of the slagyster. It killer. Yet even the farmers who suffered so
seems that the aroma of kidney, besides heavily during Broken Toe's eleven years of
deadening the human odour, makes any raiding must have felt a grudging admiration
prowling jackal think that one of his own kind for this enormous and wily jackal. Broken Toe
has been in the neighbourhood. As a result he seemed to be invulnerable. It was in 1924 that
feels more comfortable, goes in after the lamb, the spoor of the jackal with a broken toe was
and finds himself in the steel jaws of the trap. first observed by Mr. S.J. Horne on his farm
Kragga in the Riversdale district. In the years
Experienced jackal hunters also rely largely on
that followed the spoor was often seen on the
their skill as trackers. They watch the water-
coastal dunes; and not only the spoor, but
holes, and the tracks leading away into the
Broken Toe himself, with his grey-white fur
mountains. Some of them set so many traps
giving him protective colouring against the
that it takes days to visit them all. The old
sand. Early in this career of crime Broken Toe
coloured hunters often wore a cap of jackal's
started killing and maiming lambs on Mr. J.S.
skin as the badge of their trade, and a necklace
Human's farm Honingfontein. The jackal
of jackal's teeth. One other part of the jackal
always attacked many more sheep than it could
which they never wasted was the liver, for
eat. It was a wanton killer, and as its lists of
when this had been dried and powdered it was
victims grew, the farmers of the district
regarded as the finest possible treatment for
realised the danger and put up a reward of £30.
convulsions in children.
Mr. Human, smarting under heavy losses of
Broken Toe was the most famous jackal South
stock, became the most determined hunter of
Africa has ever known. He claimed as many
Broken Toe. Soon he decided that ordinary
headlines in his day as Huberta the Hippo, but
never the same affection. Broken Toe was a
methods were useless. Once he shot two buck, jackal, were trying to work back on to the trail.
left them where they lay with poison in their "At that moment I saw Broken Toe standing
carcasses, and awaited events. He had seen the rigid four hundred yards away from me,"
tell-tale spoor, in the neighbourhood and next recalled Mr. Human. "He was watching the
morning he went hopefully to the bait. Broken dogs intently, and no doubt enjoying himself
Toe had been there during the night, but had hugely. He looked almost white under the sun.
not touched the poison. Then the dogs seemed to be approaching him
and he was away." On another occasion
Traps were not worth trying, for Broken Toe
Broken Toe, almost cornered, simply lay down
had never forgotten his youthful encounter
in his tracks. The hounds passed over him, and
with a trap, and the broken toe it had caused.
Broken Toe then doubled back through the line
Hounds might provide the solution, and Mr.
of hunters and escaped.
Human rode out again and again with his pack.
Broken Toe outwitted them all. He covered At last the Riversdale farmers became
hundreds of square miles during his sheep desperate. The reward of £30 was doubled,
killing raids, and although he was sometimes well-trained packs of hounds were brought in
sighted, more often he was far from the scene from Paarl and other areas, and then began the
of the hunt. most intensive jackal hunt ever organised. The
newcomers were eager to succeed where the
Mr. Human described one of the tantalising
six Riversdale hunting clubs had failed. With
glimpses he had of Broken Toe. Herd-boys had
marvellous stamina Broken Toe eluded them
reported the spoor, and Mr. Hiaman had gone
all. After a chase of twenty miles over rough
out at dawn with three hounds and picked up
country the packs always lost touch.
the scent. Several hours later the hounds,
baffled for a moment by the tricks of the
In July, 1935, that well-known hunter, Fick of history of South Africa has claimed so many
Darling, set out on the trail of Broken Toe. He victims. Fick, the successful hunter, must have
took no dogs. On the farm Swartheuvel, where killed a thousand jackals during his career, half
some sheep had just been killed, Fick found of them with his gun, the other half with
the notorious spoor. He had not been following hounds. Broken Toe died with a much higher
it for long when a huge jackal rose from cover score of sheep.
and raced away. Fick raised his gun, as other
hunters had done, but this time Broken Toe fell
dead. Farmers in the Beaufort West and some other
karoo districts have come to look upon the
At first there were many who did not believe little dassie as a greater enemy than jackal or
that the jackal with the charmed life had really baboon. Again the sensitive "balance of
been destroyed. The clue of the broken toe, nature" has been upset. Where the dassie's foes
however, marked this criminal of the veld as have been almost exterminated, the dassie
clearly as a fingerprint. Mr. Human, who had population has grown enormously.
lost so many sheep, collected a fitting reward
for the hunter who had disposed of the old Once the dassies were held in check mainly by
enemy. The death of Broken Toe was worth the cat family, the leopard and cheetah, lynx
much more than £60 to the Riversdale farmers. and wild cat. Jackals enjoy a diet of dassies.
There was keen competition to secure Broken The dassie colonies are often menaced from
Toe's skin. the sky when a Verreaux's eagle (known as the
dassievanger) swoops down on a fat, sun-
Broken Toe had killed more than four thousand loving dassie and carries it off to its nest.
sheep during eleven years of raiding. It is Finally there is the python, which needs more
doubtful whether any other jackal in the
than one dassie for a proper meal. Some of that impression when moving its jaws
these hungry dassie-eaters have diminished to reflectively.
a great extent after vigorous campaigns. So the Canon Tristram, the first naturalist to give a
dassies, finding their grazing on koppies and trustworthy account of the dassie's habits,
mountains overcrowded by their own kind, are remarked that the flesh was much prized by the
coming down on to the karoo plains to eat the Arabs. He himself found it good, but rather dry
same grasses as the sheep. Many farmers and as dark in colour as that of the hare.
believe that the dassies will one day become a
national pest and menace the sheep districts to Bushmen and Hottentots hunted the dassie
the same extent as the rabbits do (or did before with kerries and stones, eating the meat and
they were infected with the myxomatosis using the pelts as clothing. White people
disease) in Australia. The authorities agree seldom taste this meat, though it is wholesome
with this view, and in 1947 dassies were added and palatable. The dassie should be skinned,
to the official list of "vermin" in the Cape. starting at the tip of the nose and working
Millions have been killed since then, but still down under the body, using kitchen scissors or
they come. a sharp knife. After it has been disembowelled,
the dassie should be cut up into suitable pieces,
In the Old Testament the dassie appears as a placed on a tray, sprinkled with pepper and salt
"coney" or rabbit, and Leviticus included it in
and left for twenty-four hours. Then place the
his list of forbidden meat "because he cheweth meat in a large pot with three or four cups of
the cud, but divideth not the hoof, he is
water and slices of onion. Boil until tender. A
unclean to you." In fact, the dassie does not
little water should be added from time to time.
chew the cud, though it does sometimes give When tender the meat and onion should be
allowed to brown. Then a little more water
should be added and the meat cooked for a some naturalists to be a scent gland, active
further thirty minutes before serving. A young only during the breeding season. But the
dassie tastes rather like chicken. Older ones function of this strangely-placed spot has still to
should be curried. be proved. It is possible that the scented fluid
enables the dassies to locate one another in
Make no mistake about it, though - you are not
thick bush or at night.
eating rabbit when you tackle a plate of dassie
meat. The name dassie, from the Nederlands, Dassies, unlike rats and rabbits, are born with
means badger; but it is no badger either. their eyes open and covered with fur. They are
Dassies still baffle the naturalists. They able to fend for themselves almost at once, and
certainly belong to the ungulates, the hoofed here again they resemble the ungulates. They
mammals, and they are clearly related to the are also fond of taking dust-baths to rid
elephant and the rhinoceros. The large incisor themselves of fleas and parasites, just like
teeth, which made early investigators place this horses and elephants.
animal among the rodents, are now regarded as At one time all dassies lived in the trees, and
little elephant tusks. And the dassie's feet have there is still a tree dassie (Procavia arborea)
certain rhino characteristics. Huxley placed the found in the eastern Cape Province and far to
dassie in an order by itself. Cuvier declared: the north. The common dassie of the karoo
"Excepting the horns they are little else than regions (Procavia capensis) is a remarkable
rhinoceroses in miniature," The last word has example of an animal which survived and left
not yet been said on this point.
the trees and adapted itself to a new mode of
One dassie peculiarity which no one has life on the racks when the country dried up.
explained satisfactorily is the bare patch on the Beyond the borders of South-Africa the dassie
back, the dorsal spot which is assumed by is known as the hyrax.
On the rocks, the dassie must rank among the bouncing off to alight on a ledge that could be
finest climbers in the world of mammals. The reached in no other way.
thick, black, hairless soles of the feet are kept Dassies are great sun-lovers, dreaming away the
moist by sweat glands, and when the muscles days on the warm rocks. But like the baboons,
form a hollow cup the dassie can cling to a they have their sentinels. Some squeak, others
precipice without fear. The suction is so emit a loud warning scream. Hottentots will tell
powerful that a dassie, shot dead on a vertical you that although dassies and pythons are old
rock face, has remained in position as though foes, the dassies are friendly with poisonous
transfixed. snakes. They say that a dassie will always warn
It seems that the dassie has nothing to fear even a cobra of the approach of its deadly enemy, the
when it does fall from a height. The strong secretary bird.
skeleton, loose skin and dense fur make it one
The eyesight of the dassie is excellent, and
of the toughest animals on earth. A dassie
hunters are sometimes observed a mile away.
robbing a high fruit tree has been observed to They can stare into the sun for long periods
drop with a heavy thud rather than climb down. without blinking; possibly the only mammals
The late Dr. Austin Roberts saw a dassie fall a that can do so. Only recently did a zoologist
hundred feet from a cliff after being shot. It fell
dissect the eye of a dassie and observe the
on a rocky surface, but in spite of the bullet
unusual structure. Dassies hear well in spite of
wound and the impact it raced away to shelter. their short ears, and their sense of smell is keen.
So the dassie can take risks that no human Dassies have their own shrill language and
climber would consider for a moment. Roberts some people know how to call the wild dassies
watched a dassie family, with a long drop below out of their crevices in the rocks. "Wit-she, wit-
them, flinging themselves at a rock face and
she," is the call, delivered with a hiss and It is often said on the karoo that ten dassies eat
mingled with barks and gutturals. as much as one sheep. Nevertheless, the dassie
You have to put your bullet through the dassie's is not without friends among the scientists.
heart or brain if you wish to recover the body. Defenders of the dassie point out that dassies
(unlike rabbits) breed only once a year, with
They are notoriously hard to kill. Even when
grievously wounded they will make for their two or three in the litter. Dassies only become
mature at the age of two years. And they thrive
rocks with the last of their strength, and drag
on many harmful weeds which sheep do not
themselves into a deep crevice to recover or die.
touch. These scientists also point out that if you
When a dassie hunt is organized the farmers exterminate the dassie, many carnivorous
usually employ packs of dogs. On the ground, animals will prey on the sheep instead.
away from the rocks, the dassie is at a
The defenders have made another good point
disadvantage and is easily run down by dogs or
men. In a crevice, however, a cornered dassie worth investigating. They say that the dassies
never move far from their rocky strongholds.
will inflate its body and use its feet to resist
How then can these slow-moving creatures
anyone trying to haul it out. It will also bite
destroy the grazing on plains where they dare
furiously. Professional hunters have adopted a
cruel method of finishing off the elusive dassie. not venture far?
They use a long corkscrew device which finds However, it is most unlikely that the dassie will
the dassie in its inaccessible refuge and pierces be exterminated, for its powers of recovery are
the body. Dassies will not take poison, and it is astounding. Dr. Austin Roberts pointed out that
hard to devise a trap that will capture many of in recent years nearly all the dassies in the
them. karoo contracted bubonic plague through their
fleas and died off; yet today there is no visible Early travellers in the Cape, men with scientific
sign of a decrease in the dassie population. training, were puzzled by a peculiar substance
If the killing of dassies could be made to show a they found in some caves, black masses like pitch.
profit, the dassie might be in some danger. Thunberg thought it was bitumen. But the
Bushmen and Hottentots knew better, and so did
Dassie skins make excellent kurosses, but they
were in much greater demand in the days of ox- many farmers. They call the substance klipsweet
or dassipis. In the Cape Pharmacopoeia it is listed
wagons and Cape carts. The closed motor-car
more delicately as hyracium. Hyracium has been
has affected the whole kaross trade. So you can
used as a medicine for centuries. It is one of those
buy a dassie kaross for about seven pounds.
About forty skins go to a double-bed kaross; but if traditional remedies which are endowed with
you are thinking of hunting dassies for this almost magical powers by credulous people.
purpose, remember to secure double the required Dr. L. Pappe, author of the pioneer work on Cape
number so that the skins may be graded and medical remedies, devoted an appendix in his
shaded properly. Winter skins are essential, and 1857 pamphlet to this substance. He explained
they must not be pelts from dassies that have been that the dassie seldom drank, so that the urine was
poisoned. not thin and limpid but thick and glutinous. "From
Many attempts have been made to market the a peculiar instinct these animals are in the habit of
dassie skin overseas, but never with success. One secreting the urine always at one spot, where its
watery parts evaporate in the sun, while its more
dealer who sent samples to Germany was
informed that the Continental river rats yielded tenacious portions stick to the rock and harden in
better and larger skins. So the farmers claim their the air," Pappe wrote. "Among the farmers a
rewards for destroying "vermin", and millions of solution of this substance is highly spoken of as
dassie skins are piled on the official bonfires. an antispasmodic in hysterics, epilepsy,
convulsions of children, St. Vitus' dance, in short I believe hyracium is still bought by
in spasmodic affections of every kind." manufacturing chemists. It is then refined and
The Rev. H. Kling, the Rhenish missionary who embodied in medicines for the treatment of
studied herbal and other remedies and wrote "Die disordered kidneys. A fragment the size of a pea,
dissolved in boiling water, is still the great karoo
Sieketrooster", also thought highly of hyracium.
In his pamphlet he quoted a Dr. A. Brown, who remedy for colds and influenza. When brandy is
added, the patient is even more eager to swallow
declared that he prescribed it daily. By this means
this strange old nostrum.
he had cured a long-standing case of
hypochondria and hysterical nervousness which Two friends of mine once discovered a cave
had baffled many practitioners. Another patient containing huge masses of hyracium, and they
had been in bed for eighteen months with a hectic were kind enough to present the South African
fever, regarded as a hopeless case by several Museum with a sixty-pound lump. This gift led to
doctors. After taking hyracium, she became fat some newspaper publicity, but they outwitted
and plump, and was cured in a month. rival treasure hunters by giving out that the cave
The origin of this deep belief lies in the herbal was in the Cold Bokkeveld Mountains near Ceres.
diet of the dassie. It is argued that hyracium Then they brought load after load of the precious
hyracium to Cape Town and sold it to the
contains the herbs, including buchu, in a highly-
concentrated form. Hottentot medicine men chemical firms at several shillings a pound.
boiled and strained the gluey substance and Recently I learnt the true position of the cave,
administered it by mouth for many sorts of near the summit of the Pakhuis Pass outside
poisoning and for pains in the back and stomach. Clanwilliam. Hyracium is formed only in a dry
In dried, powdered form, it was rubbed into the climate, and there are many such caves in the
scarified flesh after snake bite or scorpion sting.
karoo districts, where the atmosphere allows the the sun-baked sand. Or so the anxious farmer
substance to coagulate. hopes. Is it science or sorcery? No one can tell
you why the divining rod dips and twists. It is
I wish that I could tell you that the dassie is really
as simple as the homing instinct of the pigeon,
a benefactor of mankind, but unfortunately the
and just as hard to explain.
modern scientist makes short work of hyracium.
Professor J.M. Watt, the pharmacologist who has There was a time when dowsing was regarded
investigated so many South African medicines, as an unlawful act made possible only by a
found it in use in some places to cure sharp pains contract with Satan. The job has now become
in the ear; others pulverised and mixed it with somewhat more respectable. When the
goats' fat and applied it as plaster to ulcers. "Alas borehole yields water as promised, the diviner
for men's faith in such remedies," Watt summed is a public benefactor who has earned every
up. "The effect is only psychological." penny of his fee. And if there is no water -
well, the drilling may have been done badly, or
CHAPTER 15
the borehole was not deep enough. Sometimes
SCIENCE OR SORCERY?
the farmer does not have the satisfaction of
WATER in the karoo is often worth more than a calling the unsuccessful dowser an imposter.
reef of gold. I once heard of a farmer who Long before the borehole has been sunk, the
became so desperate that he gave his pet baboons diviner has passed on over the horizon. Water
salty food and then released them to see where diviners vary greatly both in character and
they would dig for water. skill. Most of them are honest people who are
Every district in the karoo has its waterwyser, convinced that they have the power to find
the diviner or dowser whose willow twig will water and sometimes other hidden objects as
twitch and point to running streams beneath well. In fact, it is now generally admitted that
the divining rod does respond to subterranean and a half ago, wrote of his meeting with an
water. Only when you seek the explanation do Irish water diviner in the Cape platteland.
you come up against the old mystery. There This man had been "impressing the Dutch with
are theories, but nothing has been proved. his powers", using a lens with an air bubble.
He told the farmers that the bubble was a drop
Possibly one person in three would make a
of water possessing the sympathetic quality of
dowser, given the right training. I once
always turning towards its kindred element. He
employed a dowser who operated his own
begged Barrow not to expose him.
drilling machine. He struck water on my
property, but at greater depth than his estimate; Yet there are dowsers who have scored one
so he reduced his bill to soften the blow. Such "hit" after another where qualified geologists
men, who see the results of their dowsing, with instruments have failed. (And vice versa,
amass great experience of the "lie of the land", it is only fair to add). Let us watch them in
all the surface details, the known springs, trees action and see whether it is possible to form an
and vegetation -- the clues, in fact, to under- opinion about this controversial art.
ground water. They go on using their twigs, South African dowsers seem to prefer a forked
but some say that they are guided more by twig from a weeping willow, though mimosa,
practical experience than by any mysterious quince or the sinews of a young cockerel will
twitching. At all events they follow the venture all serve the purpose. I have heard of a German
through from start to finish, and they are on the dowser who used a sausage. Some dowsers
spot to answer for their failures. walk barefooted to allow the mysterious forces
No doubt there was a dowser among those who direct contact; others wear hobnailed boots.
stepped on shore with Van Riebeeck from the Rubber soles appear to insulate the dowser
Drommedaris. Barrow, more than a century from the electromagnetic field - if indeed there
is such a thing - which is supposed to bring the Lankester regarded him) believed that a
twig to life. spontaneous movement of the twig occurred.
As a rule the dowser holds his arms in front of Lankester's theory, however, breaks down
his chest, hands turned inwards, grasping the when the dowser produces the same queer
stick firmly and with the fork pointing into the "dowsing reflex" without the aid of the twig. A
air. He marches to and fro across the veld, metal ball suspended by a thread indicates the
seeking the hidden vein of water; and when he underground water long before muscular
reaches the spot the twig jerks downwards fatigue sets in. So the modern scientific
against the normal action of the wrist muscles. opinion admits the possibility of some form of
Sometimes the rod snaps. Some dowsers swear "radiation" from the hidden stream. The
that the divining rod moves with such force on dowser experiences a slight change of tone in
occasions that it takes the skin off the palms of the arm muscles, and the rod amplifies this
their hands. reaction.
Sir Ray Lankester, F.R.S., declared that the Some dowsers claim that their arms tremble
antics of the divining rod were caused by violently and their facial muscles contract
fatigue of the muscles and their sudden and when they pass over water. Tickling in the feet
unconscious relaxation. The relaxing is another symptom, while a feeling of
movement occurred more readily in certain suffocation has been reported. But research
conditions of the nervous system, when the into dowsing has not been carried very far. The
attention was concentrated on the search and nature or the "radiation" which affects the
the unconscious control of the muscles was in dowser with more or less dramatic intensity is
abeyance. Thus the simple-minded operator (as still obscure. You can call it electricity if you
like, or cosmic rays. Science does not know.
One seldom hears of women as dowsers. day when he demonstrated his skill by
Ministers of religion and mere boys appear accident. Cornelis lost some money and bullets
prominently in the annals of this strange art. in the sand. As soon as Dawid heard of this he
Only a few years ago the Rev. J.J. Engelbrecht went straight to the spot and recovered
found water for the town of Willowmore. He everything.
predicted five thousand gallons an hour at five Dawid's unusual, reddish-brown eyes saw
hundred feet and undertook to pay for the
water at a certain depth after one of the farm's
borehole if he was wrong. He turned out to be boreholes had dried up. The farmer drilled a
almost exactly right. This minister of the few feet deeper, and up came the water. Dawid
Dutch Reformed Church declares that also claimed to be able to see the contents of a
practically every farm has a stream giving at sick calf's stomach. Later he told Cornelis that
least five thousand gallons an hour; and he
he could see inside human beings, and that his
believes that South Africa could be powers frightened him. For this reason he held
transformed into a farmer's paradise. aloof from people, confiding only in Cornelis.
Namaqualand farmers were placing great faith It all sounds fantastic, but Dawid Brand has
in a twelve-year old coloured boy, Dawid provided many surprises for doubters. He
Brand, in 1949. He gained his reputation as a found water on a Bushmanland farm where
result of successful water-divining not only in every previous borehole had been
Namaqualand, but also in the arid wastes of unsuccessful. On another farm he could see no
Bushmanland, Gordonia and South West trace of water. Government drillers sank
Africa. Dawid was a shepherd on Mr. Jan boreholes to four hundred feet after Dawid's
Tillie van Niekerk's farm near Gamoep; and he effort, and they failed completely.
was out with his employer's son Cornelis one
I find it extremely interesting to compare finding water or minerals; but diviners like
Dawid Brand's recent activities in Dawid Brand and Pieter van Jaarsveld, who
Namaqualand with reports of the achievements "see" beneath the earth's surface, are not
of youthful dowsers in Europe centuries ago. encountered nearly as often as those who use
You find precisely the same details. "This the twig.
child can see through the ground springs and Van Jaarsveld declares that he sees a beam of
water pipes however deep they may be", runs
light on the ground, like moonlight striking
the record of Jean Tarangue, aged fourteen, of through a window-pane. The light vibrates in
Marseilles (1772). "He sees water as we see such a way that he can follow an underground
wine in a glass." You will also discover stories stream. He traces one artery until it crosses
of dowsers who could diagnose gout, another, then plants a stick where the greatest
rheumatism, neuralgia and heart symptoms as
supply of water can be expected. He feels the
easily as they located underground streams. arteries so keenly that he can follow a hidden
And many of the famous dowsers of the past vein of water in the dark. At work, Pieter van
were credited with finding lost and hidden Jaarsveld walks as though he is drowsy, both
objects - just like little Dawid Brand of
feet dragging, eyes fixed on the ground. He
Namaqualand, who could not possibly, have becomes vigorous only when he "sees" water.
heard of these remarkable happenings in
Pieter charges £25 for each site he discovers,
distant lands.
and he has earned £300 within two days. But
South Africa's most celebrated young diviner even an ordinary day's work often leaves him
in recent years has been Pieter van Jaarsveld, with a head-ache. That is the penalty for
the red-headed "boy with the X-ray eyes". possessing "X-ray eyes".
There is really nothing new in his way of
Metal dowsers usually hold in their hands or concentrating on a particular metal, if he is to
tip the divining rod with a sample of the metal find that metal.
which it is desired to find. They admit that How does the dowser realize that he has the gift?
gold is difficult, unless it happens to be in the Probably many people go through life without
form of sovereigns buried near the surface. discovering their power in this respect. Oom Piet
They say that it is essential to concentrate on Myburgh, the old "water wizard" of the North
the metal, note their responses, and "tune in" to West Cape, was out on the veld near Prieska as a
the sample before setting out in search of the boy of fourteen when the stick he was carrying
metal. Silver, if it is present in large quantities, bent downwards sharply. It gave him a shock,
causes a stabbing pain in the dowser's feet. and he rushed home to tell his father about it. His
Petroleum affects the elbow. Some dowsers father guessed that the boy was a diviner, and
claim that "waves" enter the body through the tests proved that he was right. In this case it is
feet when they pass over water. interesting to note that Piet Myburgh was not
Many people are sensitive to water, but the concentrating on anything in particular when his
ability to indicate hidden metals is stick indicated the forces at work in his body.
comparatively rare. One faint clue to the vast Pieter van Jaarsveld was six years old, on the
mystery may be found in an experience shared farm at Burghersdorp, Cape, when he found his
by dowsers who are able to trace both metals father sinking a borehole at a spot where no
and water. They all declare that they must have water was to be "seen". Now little Pieter had
the object of the search in mind before the assumed, up till then, that everyone could "see"
start. A dowser seeking water will not respond underground water. He, too, suffered from shock
to the richest ore just beneath his feet. He must when it came home to him that he was different
go through the whole process again, from other people. His father did not believe him
at first, but when he drilled in vain he decided to Scientists have done their best to trap the
consult his little boy. Pieter showed him the right dowsers, and they have trapped a good many
spot. Later he added to his reputation by finding imposters. But the honest dowser, the tool of his
a gold ring which his schoolmistress had hidden divining rod, has provided the scientists with
in a heap of sand. riddles they cannot solve. And the man who
ought to know all about it, the dowser himself, is
Water diviners complain that they have no rest
as much in the dark as the world's finest
when their beds happen to be placed over a
scientists.
strong vein of water. Many mysterious human
aches and pains, according to the diviners, are CHAPTER 16
caused by streams beneath the room in which the KAROO SNAKES
sensitive person sits or sleeps. The remedy is to IF you meet a poisonous snake anywhere in the
pad the floor thickly with newspaper or pulp dry karoo regions it will probably be a puff
building board. adder, cobra or boom slang. It may be a
Some dowsers are soon exhausted. If they use spotted skaapsteker, of course, or a karoo whip
the twig more than three times a day they find snake; but these are not so common. Other
the effort unbearable. Others say that the power snakes which favour the dry areas, though they
of divining leaves them from time to time, but are rarely seen, are the coral snake and the
that it always returns. The really sensitive horned adder.
dowser not only finds water, but tells you the It would be more difficult to find a genuine
depth, the number of gallons an hour a borehole slangmeester nowadays than any of the snakes
will yield, whether fresh or brackish, and the I have mentioned. Some of the old karoo
type of rock through which the drill will pass. Hottentots undoubtedly possessed the art of
proofing themselves against all sorts of his body. He was never entirely free from a
poisons, especially snake venom. I would not queer sort of lethargy. He was nearly always
say that the last slangmeester or gifdokter has cold and sleepy, and only felt comfortable on
passed on, for as recently as 1928, the late Dr. the burning summer days.
P.W. Laidler found an extremely clever one Probably the slangmeesters of centuries ago
practising in Namaqualand. This was Jacob discovered the seasons when snake venoms are
Klaas, who had learnt his queer profession most virulent. (Midsummer is the most
from his father, a full-blooded Hottentot. But dangerous period). They identified the species
this knowledge seems always to have been which seldom caused death, even with a full
rare, and now the narrow circle of wise men bite. They realized that a deadly snake often
must be almost extinct. fails to deliver enough venom to cause serious
That the slangmeester himself was immune to symptoms, apart from those induced by the
the fatal effect of snake poison there is no victim's own fears. They must have known,
doubt. He cut his arms and rubbed in graduated too, that six human victims out of ten recover
doses of the two great venoms, puff adder and without any form of treatment. So they passed
cobra, at the right intervals. In the end, no on to their pupils various items of knowledge
snake could kill him. As for scorpions, he which our own scientists have confirmed in
treated them with contempt and they were recent years. Once these facts are understood,
allowed to sting him simply to impress his the performance loses its magic. But nothing
audience. can rob primitive man of the credit of
unravelling complicated processes at periods
Those who have observed the slangmeester
when civilized man was ruled by superstition
closely say that he was always, to some extent,
and ignorance when he encountered snakes. It
under the influence of the various poisons in
is a fact that many white people in South swelling went down, and the child slept and
Africa still accept the medieval folklore of the recovered.
snake world as fact. Many natives believe that if you swallow the
No doubt the slangmeester sucked out some of poison bag of a snake which has bitten you, the
the venom if he happened to be on the spot bag will act as an antidote to the poison.
when the bite was inflicted. I found a Fitzsimons carried out experiments on many
description of the methods of one of these old animals to test this theory; for example, he fed
Hottentots, named Jantjie, when a two-year-old a jackal on puff adder venom for six weeks and
child was brought to him with a leg swollen to then allowed a puff adder to bite it. One hour
twice the normal size. Jantjie examined the two later the jackal was dead.
punctures made by a puff adder's fangs, then Some farmers still have great faith in the so-
tied the leg below the knee with a strong riem
called "snake stones" - the slangsteentjies
and allowed it to hang over the edge of the hundreds of years old which came originally
bed. The child was in great pain, but Jantjie from the Dutch East Indies and have been
made a deep incision over the fang marks with preserved as heirlooms. Seldom can the owner
a pocket-knife and opened up the punctures. of a snake stone be persuaded to sell it. After
When the blood was flowing freely he untied all, it may save his life one day!
the thong and manipulated the veins so that
more blood exuded from the open wound. These porous stones are usually flat and about
Finally he rubbed a brownish powder into the the size of small coins. Thunberg, nearly two
wound and the bleeding stopped. Jantjie then hundred years ago, remarked that farmers
gave medicine to cause vomiting. Soon the would pay the equivalent of £50 for these
stones. "The genuineness of a snake stone is
tested by its adhering to the palate when placed doctor's famous Bengal snake stone; but I
in the mouth," Thunberg wrote. "When it is believe that a bid of £100 was refused and the
applied to any part which has been bitten by a heir to the estate retained the stone.
serpent it sticks fast to the wound and extracts Hottentot slangmeesters sometimes used a
the poison. As soon as it is saturated it falls off type of snake stone which was believed to be
by itself. If it is then put into milk it is part of a snake. "I saw a snake's light last
supposed to be purified and the milk is said to night," people in Namaqualand still declare.
turn blue." Thunberg believed in the power of According to folklore, if a snake's hole is
the snake stone and quoted examples of its closed with earth the snake will bite itself to
successful use in rinkals poisoning. death. Next morning the snake stone is found
Selous the hunter was another believer. He in front of the hole. Sometimes a twinkle is
recorded that an old Boer friend, Frikkie de seen against the rocks in the darkness, and the
Lange, had a snake stone "that had saved the Hottentots will go in search of the priceless
lives of many people and horses," and for snake stone. "It is the snake's strength and
which he had refused an offer of £50. Selous must be stolen," they say. Probably the
met a Miss Fortman who stated that as a child glimmer was one of the many quartz crystals,
she had been bitten by a cobra and saved by loose or embedded in the rocks, which occur
means of a snake stone. all over Narnadualand and reflect light at
Dr. William Simpson, district surgeon of night.
Tulbagh in the fifties of last century, used a There is a tale of a Hottentot slangmeester
snake stone in his medical practice. Dozens of who placed such faith in a snake stone that he
farmers attended the sale of his equipment allowed his own son to be bitten by a cobra.
after his death in the hope of securing the The stone was applied immediately and the
boy suffered no ill-effects. If this story has any quinine, arsenical "Tanjore pills" from India,
foundation, it is probable that the and various roots, barks and herbs. Analysts
slangmeester tricked his audience, either with have discovered that most of the proprietary
a snake which had just been "milked" or with a snake-bite “cures” consisted of strychnine
harmless snake. and ammonia. Strychnine may act as a nerve
stimulant, but it is no more use than ammonia
Yes, it is sad to relate after such marvellous
in neutralizing snake venom.
testimony that the snake stone is a complete
fraud. Many scientists have tested the stones Nothing can compare with the modern,
and found them to be mere fragments of concentrated, ant venomous serum, which
charred bone, or chalk, of a composition of deals effectively with both nerve and blood
vegetable matter. They are all absorbent, but in poisons. When this is not available, a
such low degree that the small quantity of tourniquet must be applied without delay, tight
poisoned blood which may be drawn out of the enough to stop the circulation of the blood.
wound is of little or no importance. Then incise the fang wounds and rub a paste of
Nevertheless, the owner of a snake stone is permanganate of Potash (a few crystals mixed
often a fanatic whose faith remains unshaken. with a few drops of water) into the wound. The
crystals alone burn too much. This is probably
Another great South African snake-bite remedy
of last century was "Croft's Tincture". You the best of all the old treatments, as it destroys
all the venom with which it comes into contact.
would not find many karoo homesteads
without a bottle of this magic mixture. Unfortunately it cannot follow the venom into
"Honniball's Patent Wonderful Extract" was the body.
another; while many believed in "Fisher's Alcohol has killed a number of snake-bite
Balsam of Life," eau-de-luce, ipecacuanha, victims who might have recovered if they had
been left alone. Many country people have an
inflexible belief in the power of brandy to Every year about forty thousand people in the
counteract the venom, provided the patient world (but mainly in India) are killed by
empties the bottle. People who are snakes. South African fatalities would only
unaccustomed to such heroic doses suffer from account for a small fraction of the world total,
alcoholic poisoning at the very time when they the reason being that people of all races in the
need all their strength to combat the venom. A Union walk delicately. The snake inspires
tot or two may be beneficial, however, in terror. Even the proud Zulu will run from a
preventing the sufferer from becoming terror- snake. India's fatalistic millions are careless.
stricken.
The late Mr. W.E. Fairbridge, a tireless
It should be remembered that when a snake historian, went through all the South African
injects a full dose of poison, a child is more records he could find, including newspapers,
seriously affected than an adult because of the from 1772 to 1918, and noted every case of
smaller blood capacity. Thus a child requires a snake-bite reported. He found recorded only
larger dose of anti-venene than an adult. 130 fatalities during that long period. The
Carbolic soap is a useful first-aid remedy for puff-adder came first on Fairbridge's list, with
certain snake-bites. The discovery was made in the cobra second. In Natal, however, the
India and investigated by the South African mamba headed the list.
Institute for Medical Research. It was found Fairbridge never published his findings, but I
that a five per cent solution of the soap gave have studied his notes on this subject. I found
some protection against Cape cobra and rinkals that he had come across a painful episode on
venom, but did more harm than good when the the Cold Bokkeveld early last century. A
bite had been inflicted by a puff adder.
farmer, J.H. Steenkamp, sent out a young out of his hand. Mr. Vollgraaff killed the
female Hottentot with her infant at breast to snake, to Henry's great distress.
herd cattle. When she did not return that "I used to stroke him and he likes it," Henry
evening, Steenkamp thought she had deserted. sobbed. "He lay quite still and never did
On the third day, however, she was found dead anything to me."
on the veld, an obvious snake-bite victim. The
child was still alive, and was saved. Snakes are credited with the power to
fascinate, or hypnotise their prey. Men have
Fairbridge's notes proved that all through the remained within striking distance when
years, children were the most frequent victims. common-sense should have aided them to
Again and again the old newspaper reports
escape. Small animals have been observed in
used the phrase: "Croft's tincture was applied,
deadly peril of an approaching snake, yet
but without effect." It is clear that some young
making no effort to escape. But there is
children do not display the instinctive horror of nothing to show that men, monkeys or mice are
snakes which comes in due course to most influenced in such situations by anything out-
people. A true story from Grootdrink on the side their own bodies. A man, terror-stricken,
Orange River near Upington illustrates this may become "rooted to the spot", and monkeys
fact. Mrs. Vollgraaff noticed that her five-year- and apes are believed to acquire the same
old son Henry always took a small parcel of foolish behaviour as a result of watching older
food with him when he went out to play. He members of the tribe. Imagination makes
said it was for his "friend", and his mother cowards, and the repulsive appearance of the
thought he was feeding a stray dog. One day creeping snake creates a form of fear that may
she followed him and found him sitting beside even paralyse the muscles. The small animals,
a rock with a large Cape cobra eating porridge such as rats, that await death unmoved, are
probably so interested in the arrival of the eyesight wonderfully improved after the pain
snake that they do not consider retreat until it has left him.
is too late. Do snakes procure milk from cows and even
One hears many sensational snake legends. women? This belief is deeply-rooted among a
The puff-adder is said to strike backwards and great many farming people, white and
leap eight feet into the air. The Pack mamba coloured, all over South Africa. It is one of the
puts its tail into its mouth and rolls after a oldest fallacies in the country - if indeed it is
victim like a hoop. Adders defend their young entirely without truth. Such an authority as
by swallowing them. Young puff-adders kill Fitzsimons confessed that it puzzled him. The
their parents at birth. All these tales I have belief was so general. "I do not say that it is
heard related in lonely farm-houses with such untrue, but I cannot bring myself to believe it,"
solemnity that I dared not express my doubts: he wrote.
Useless to point out that the anatomy of the Mr. Edgar Layard, curator of the South African
snake is not adapted for any of the marvels Museum a century ago, investigated the story
described. and invited anyone with experience in the
The rinkals and black-necked cobras, however, matter to produce evidence. He had heard, he
undoubtedly possess a mechanism for spitting said, of snakes twining their bodies round a
their venom up to a distance of about ten feet. cow's hind legs and "drawing at the teats with
They aim for the eyes, whether they are great composure". Layard also mentioned the
attacking man or beast, and the pain is belief that a snake had the power of charming a
distressing. Fortunately the venom is easily cow, once sucked, back to the same spot. Such
removed by swilling it out with plain water. a cow would call to the snake as if it were her
Strange to say, the victim may find his calf.
"Some ladies are said to have been personal alone," she told him. "It will roll off when it is
sufferers from the reptile's depredations," gorged." As she spoke it moved off the baby,
added Layard with nice Victorian delicacy. "If and the father put his child gently out of harm's
any kind friend will prove the fact of cow- way. Meanwhile the other labourers had called
sucking, I hereby engage to have the snake the farmer.
stuffed and placed in the museum with a cow. The farmer wept when he saw the woman in such
This offer brought to light a farmer's wife with a painful quandary and asked her what she wished
a remarkable story. She described an incident done. She urged everyone to keep perfectly still.
on a wine farm when the grapes were ripe. "I feel as if the Almighty is directing her, and she
Some of the labourers were scaring the birds must be obeyed," declared the farmer.
away from the vineyard with whips; but at Very soon the snake fell off, replete and helpless:
midday it was too hot for both the labourers In a moment the husband made good use of his
and the birds. The coloured men went to rest hatchet. "The glutton was hewed in pieces and the
under the trees; and nearby was the wife of one poor woman sprang to her feet, truly thankful for
of them. She was a Hottentot woman with a her escape," reported the farmer's wife. "The
good deal of white blood, and she had an infant ground where the remains of the snake lay
on her arm. The woman dozed. Then she felt appeared as if a basin of milk had been poured
uneasy, and awoke to find a large venomous over it."
snake fastened to one of her breasts. The baby
was sleeping with its mouth to the other, and The farmer's wife added that the woman had been
the snake lay across the child. aroused by a painful sensation. "As the fangs are
in the sides of the jaws," she pointed out, "there
Keeping herself under control, the woman would be room enough for even a middle-sized
quietly called to her husband. "Leave the snake
snake, especially the broad, flat-headed kind, to found the udder empty. Then someone suggested
lay hold of what would procure it the milk. The that a snake was taking the milk, so Mr. Pienaar
woman felt a good deal of pain all the time the kept the cow at home and milked it. Next day he
reptile was sucking, but the skin was not broken." sent the cow back to the veld and watched it
closely. The cow stood mooing in a part of the
Layard remarked that the same tale was told in
veld where there were a number of holes. Mr.
India, where snakes suckled cows, goats and
Pienaar crept up close to the cow and saw a snake
native women asleep on the ground. He might
emerge, rear up and drink. No sooner had the
also have included the variant told for centuries in
snake left the cow than Mr. Pienaar struck it dead.
England; the hedgehog that drains the udders of
cows during the night to the surprise of the Mr. Hendrik Human of the farm Biesiedam in the
milkmaid and the indignation of the farmer. Other Vosburg district, in February 1954, was sceptical
creatures of English folklore possessing the same when his cowherd reported that a puff-adder was
mischievous habit are the slow-worm and the drawing milk from one of his cows. Nevertheless,
fern-owl. However, Layard remained uncon- he hurried to the spot and shot a fat, fully-grown
vinced. "The idea is slyly encouraged by the farm puff-adder. The snake was full of milk,
labourers, who accuse the snakes of having confirming the boy's story. No wonder Fitzsimons
sucked what they themselves have stolen," was puzzled.
commented Layard.
Well, that was a hundred years ago, and still the Motorists, I think, often see more snakes in a day
story goes on with the farmers themselves giving than others encounter in a year. I soon learnt to
evidence in favour of it. Mr. P. J. J. Pienaar of resist the temptation of racing forward to run over
Franschhoek declared in 1952 that he had a black snakes. It appears to be an easy way of dealing
cow which was in milk, though every evening he
with a pest; actually, it is a perilous amusement. lent that I have known campers to hang up ropes
The first snake I drove over, a cobra, was thrown smeared with garlic outside their tents at night.
up by the wheel against the windscreen. Other Fitzsimons carried out a series of experiments to
motorists have carried snakes with them for miles, test the theory. He found that many species of
finding them under the bonnet or on the floor in snakes crawled without hesitation over the rope. It
the back, and still vigorous enough to bite. One seems that the usual snake-bite outfit with anti-
driver discovered a large cobra hissing beside his venomous serum is still the best form of
leg in a limousine at night. He was afraid to use insurance.
his brakes for fear of nipping the snake underfoot. There is great conflict of opinion on the noises
A moment's thought, and he switched off the made by snakes. Among the strange sounds of the
ignition, opened the door, and flung himself from African night, many have heard mysterious
the moving car. The right choice, I think, for if he
"crowing" sounds which have been attributed to
had been bitten, he might have died before help cobras; while the "humming" note of the puff-
reached him. As it was, only the car was adder has been widely reported. Sir Hector Duff
damaged. once heard "a singular, long-drawn metallic sound
Some people claim to be able to detect the or cry, like the high note of a wire in the wind",
presence of snakes by peculiar odours, varying which puzzled him. His servants declared it was
from the fragrance of flowers to a sharp smell like the voice of the crowing snake, a tree cobra more
that of burnt potatoes. Outside the reptile house in deadly than others of the species. Father Guilleme
a zoo, however, it is extremely doubtful whether of Nyassaland noted similar sounds on many
snakes betray themselves in this way. It is also occasions, sounds like a gentle snore or the
asserted that snakes dislike certain odours, purring of a cat. He declared that there were
particularly crushed garlic. This belief is so preva-
snakes capable of producing sounds like a cock
preparing its vocal chords to greet the dawn. There was a time when a tame secretary bird
There is no doubt that one snake can store might have been seen on duty in the poultry
sufficient venom to kill a number of animals. yard of many karoo farms, killing snakes and
Oxen have been accidentally driven over a snake, keeping an eye open for raiders from the sky.
and several of the team have died. A hunting The poultry-keeper knew very well that such a
party once lost several valuable dogs as a result guardian might occasionally take an egg or
of a chance meeting with one cornered snake. chick as a fee for services rendered. Looking at
Fortunately the escapes from snakes outnumber it broadly, however, the secretary bird earned
the fatalities. The luckiest escape on record, his keep by seeing that no other creature robbed
perhaps, was that of a man who went out the poultry yard.
shooting with an orange in his pocket. A snake
It is as a snake-killer, the traditional slang-
killed the dogs and then struck out at the man.
vreter, that this stately bird is famous in South
The venom was found in the orange. Africa. Though it can soar like an eagle, it
Finally there was the government official, far prefers to spend most of its life searching the
from medical help, who was bitten by a snake. ground for snakes and other items of food.
He drew his revolver, shot the snake, then shot When Sagittarius the secretary bird discovers a
off the injured finger. For some time he
snake you see a sinister ballet dance indeed.
preserved both the snake and the finger in
Hardly once in a hundred such duels does the
bottles as proof of his truly remarkable tale. snake stand a chance. With outspread wings the
Anti-climax was brought about one day by a bird leaps in, striking again and again with its
naturalist who pointed out that the snake was
not of a poisonous species.
powerful feet. It kicks like an ostrich, then rips secretary bird stands alone. Dr. Leonard Gill
the dead snake to pieces with its beak. regards the secretary bird and the ostrich as the
The bird's technique varies when dealing with most typical African birds; true denizens of
this continent.
poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. There can
be no doubt that it knows the difference. Face to Secretary birds are not mute, as some writers
face with a rinkals, for example, the bird dances have stated. They have a rattling cry not unlike
warily and uses its wings as shields. But it will that of the Stanley crane. Pet secretary birds
hold a harmless snake dawn with its feet and often become a nuisance with their alarming
use its beak as a weapon. hiccups and harsh croaking for food.
The kick of this bird is something to remember, Most authorities on wild life are agreed that
and it can stamp a rat flat with a few well-timed the secretary bird does more good than harm.
blows. Yet the slender legs are brittle and easily H.A. Bryden summed up in this way: "If they
broken. do occasionally take toll of the young of game
birds, hares and other creatures, their
Sagittarius serpentarius deserves his scientific
achievements among locusts, snakes, lizards,
name. His gait is that of an archer rather than a
rats, mice, frogs, insects, the young muishonds
secretary, though the black and g r e y crest
and other weasel-like and destructive creatures
feathers do resemble quill pens. Although he is
far outbalance any injury that their omnivorous
a bird o f prey, he has been placed in a genus
appetites may inflict on South African
of his own. It was difficult too classify a bird
sportsmen."
with the hooked bill of an eagle and the body
and legs of a stork. The cariama of South Le Vaillant, the French traveller, claimed to
America may be a relative, but in Africa the have seen a secretary bird's stomach containing
eleven large lizards, eleven small tortoises and temper with his own mother and fired a shot at
five snakes "as thick as a man's arm". That was her. The mark where the bullet struck a door
going a bit too far, as Le Vaillant often did. was shown to an official long afterwards.
Nevertheless, this writer gave one of the most It was said that Swanepoel put his brand on
vivid early descriptions of the fearless bird that any unbranded cattle found in his neighbour-
knows how to deal with snakes. hood. In that way he had built up a large herd.
CHAPTER 17 His house was large and well built, surrounded
CRIME IN THE KAROO by a thorn-bush fence. A pack of fierce boer
dogs roamed with Swanepoel, ready to do his
MURDER is a crime of the cities, but
bidding.
murderers also appear in the lonely places,
where their crimes go unpunished for years. It Swanepoel was first arrested in 1840 for
was in the Little Karoo that Gerrit Johannes flogging a Hottentot woman so severely that
Swanepoel killed his victims. This human she nearly died. Judge Menzies and a jury tried
monster must have butchered a dozen men him when the Circuit Court came to George,
before he went to the gallows. and he was sentenced to two years' hard
Swanepoel was a stock farmer at Rietfontein in labour. He served his time on Robben Island.
There he became friendly with a half-caste,
Attaquaskloof, a valley in the Oudtshoorn
Stoffel Viljoen, and offered him work on the
district. It was a remote farm, though in 1839
farm when they were released.
Swanepoel's father lived in the same kloof.
Some called the place Swanepoel's Poort. You A murder charge was first brought against
can judge Swanepoel's reputation, even in Swanepoel in 1846 as the result of the death of
those days, by the story that he once lost his a Griqua, one Jan Hesqua. There was evidence
that Hesqua had been shot in the back by was strengthened when they were both charged
Swanepoel and wounded. Swanepoel then told with cattle-theft and acquitted. One of
his wretched victim to pray, and finished him Swanepoel's goatherds, Jan Willemse, gave
off by fracturing his skull with a stone. Judge evidence for the Crown. A fortnight later
Menzies, the same judge who had sent Willemse vanished and was never seen again.
Swanepoel to Robben Island doubted the main Everyone in the district knew that Willemse
Crown witness, an accomplice who had turned had been murdered, but there was no proof.
Queen's evidence. Swanepoel was acquitted. Swanepoel was arrested. The Attorney-General
declined to prosecute and he was released.
Several years passed, and there were many
rumours of dark deeds on Swanepoel's farm. It Further charges of stock theft were brought
was suggested that when a carpenter or painter against Viljoen, but he was acquitted before
had drawn his pay after working on the farm, judge Musgrave at the Circuit Court held at
Swanepoel sent his dogs after him and the man George. Then, in February 1856, Swanepoel
was torn to pieces. On other occasions was re-arrested on the charge of murdering the
Swanepoel would ride out after the departing Hottentot goat-herd Jan Willemse.
workman on horseback, intercept him near the The murderers had fallen out. Viljoen had been
edge of a cliff and throw him over. Thus he grumbling about the remoteness of the farm,
recovered the money he had paid. There was and he had asked Swanepoel to pay his wages
also a suspicion that Swanepoel and Viljoen and let him go. Instead, Swanepoel had given
had murdered men out hunting for the sake of him an ox which had strayed on to the farm. "If
their guns and ammunition. anyone asks any questions, say you are taking
No doubt Swanepoel and Viljoen felt they it to the pound", suggested Swanepoel.
were too clever to be caught. This delusion
The ox was recognized by the owner's brand, bedroom to find out why Swanepoel was so
and Viljoen went for advice to Field Cornet anxious to go in there. Against the wall were
Pieter Raubenheimer. This was a chance four muzzle-loaders, all ready for use with
Raubenheimer had been awaiting for a long percussion caps on the nipples. So the escort
time. He persuaded Viljoen to turn Queen's left the farm with Swanepoel trussed up
evidence, and Viljoen made a long statement to securely in a cart.
the police at George.
There was a preliminary examination by the
Raubenheimer had to plan the arrest cleverly, Oudtshoorn magistrate, Colonel Armstrong,
for he knew that Swanepoel would shoot at and then Swanepoel was taken to the old
sight if he suspected that Viljoen had given George tronk, a building which has vanished
him away. He arranged with Head Constable completely. Swanepoel spent each day locked
Penn and two farmers to accompany him to the in the stocks which stood in the gaol yard. He
farmhouse. Viljoen was told to remain hidden spent his nights in the strongest cell with a
until he heard a whistle. Raubenheimer guard at the door.
informed Swanepoel that his party wished to Mr. Justice Cloete presided at the George
hunt kudu, and they were all invited inside for Circuit Court that year. Swanepoel's wife and
a drink. They left their guns on the stoep. As two children were in court. Grietje Kraaiyen-
Swanepoel raised his glass the four officers of stein, who had lived with the murdered goat-
the law overpowered him and bound his arms herd Willemse, described the events of the
and legs. night when Willemse drank too much and
Swanepoel begged to be allowed to change his aroused Swanepoel's rage. She had seen
clothes before leaving the farm. This plea was Swanepoel break Willemse's neck with his
not granted, but Raubenheimer went into the bare hands. "I heard the bones crack, just as a
stick cracks," she declared. Grietje risked her On the day of execution everyone in the
life by catching hold of Swanepoel's leg in an district, white and coloured, converged on
effort to pull him away. It was useless. George to see the end of the man who had
Swanepoel took out his knife, cut Willemse's come to be known as the "Terror of the
neck and left him lying dead. For three months Outeniquas". The gallows were put together at
Swanepoel kept Grietje inside his thorn-bush the foot of York Street, and a low fence was
stockade so that she could not inform the built round the platform to keep the public at a
police. suitable distance.
Viljoen, apparently, was not present at the Down the street, beneath the oaks, came the
murder, but his evidence was that Swanepoel cart drawn by two horses in which Swanepoel
had told him about it, remarking that he had made his last journey. Next to the cart was a
buried Willemse, but the dogs had unearthed small posse of police. Outside the police rode
the corpse. They went together to the spot, and thirty mounted volunteers. Swanepoel swung
found an arm raised to heaven as though himself out of the cart and was accompanied to
demanding vengeance. So they took the body the gallows by two ministers, Kretzer and
of poor Willemse in a sack on horseback from Dawson. The district surgeon and the hangman
that place and threw it into a deep hippo pool met Swanepoel at the fence. The last prayers
in the Gouritz River. were said, and then Swanepoel asked: "Has my
Swanepoel was ably defended by Advocate reprieve not come from Cape Town?". He was
Laing from Cape Town, but the Crown case told that there was no reprieve, Swanepoel was
was too strong. The jury brought in the handed a white woollen cap, which he pulled
inevitable verdict, and Swanepoel was over his eyes. Then the noose was placed
sentenced to death. round his neck, and the trap was sprung. The
execution took place on April 28, 1856; the Outeniquas". No one will ever know how
last public execution held in George. many men he murdered.
Six months later Chief Constable James Gavin An early Oudtshoorn photographer took a
of Oudtshoorn called on Swanepoel's widow to portrait of Swanepoel and his little daughter. If
collect the quitrent due on Rietfontein farm. you go to Oudtshoorn museum you can study
Mrs. Swanepoel showed him her husband's the face of the murderer; but it will not tell you
grave; for the body had been brought back to much. The sadist looks nothing more than an
Rietfontein on an ox-wagon. affectionate, normal father.
Gavin stayed the night. When he went to bed
he thought of a previous occasion when he had Namaqualand still remembers the bloodshed
visited Swanepoel to collect the quitrent which on the road between Springbok and Clan-
was in arrears. Rather to his surprise william in April 1869, when a party of
Swanepoel had paid him in gold. Gavin knew handcuffed prisoners butchered their guards.
Swanepoel's reputation, and he had brought a There was an extraordinary sequel, too, which
pistol with him. When he went to bed, he roused the scattered white people of this
barricaded his door with furniture. Someone wilderness like the Bushman raids of old.
tried to enter the room during the night. It was
too much for Gavin. He climbed quietly out of The ill-fated cavalcade, fifteen Bushman and
the window with his pistol and the gold, coloured prisoners and their white escorts,
saddled his horse and rode away. But on the were on their way to the Circuit Court at
farm Rietfontein were the unmarked graves of Clanwilliam. Special Constable Charles
men who had not eluded the "Terror of the Crowley rode ahead on horseback. Then came
a cart driven by another white special
constable, Petrus Coetzee. In the cart with the road Crowley and the cart went ahead to an
rations were three prisoners who were unable empty farmhouse where the escort intended to
to walk, an old man, a cripple and a woman. spend the night. Brandrug waited until the cart
Behind the cart marched the twelve male was out of sight, and gave the signal. First the
prisoners, handcuffed to each other, in charge prisoners surrounded Risband and beat him to
of Constable Floris Risband and a special the ground with their handcuffs. Then one of
constable, Thomas Mulligan. Risband had his them cut his throat.
twelve-year old son with him, while the driver Now the prisoners had a rifle and ammunition,
Coetzee was accompanied by a coloured and the key to the handcuffs. They were free
servant. and armed, and within a few minutes Mulligan
Seven days later a post-cart driver found the was dead. There was some delay while the
bodies of Risband, Mulligan, Coetzee and the prisoners debated the next step, and Coetzee
coloured servant beside the track leading to the cart driver rode back to find out what had
Lily fountain mission station. The cart was happened. They shot him dead, and marched
there, but the contents and the mules had on to the farmhouse.
disappeared. There was no sign of the Crowley came out of the front door just as the
prisoners. After the field cornet and district prisoners arrived. He was fired on and fell with
surgeon had visited the scene, a reward of £5o a charge of slugs in the arm. Coetzee’s
was offered for the arrest of the murderers. coloured servant was the next to be attacked,
It seems that the ringleader in the plot to kill and he was killed. The prisoners fully intended
the constables was Roman Brandrug, a to murder Crowley and the boy Risband; but
Bushman, who had secured a knife before the the woman who had travelled in the cart
party left Springbok gaol. One evening on the pleaded successfully for their lives. She also
prevented this desperate gang from setting fire into Springbok for safety. The next commando
to the farmhouse. that went out after Brandrug was much
stronger.
Crowley was alive when the post-cart driver
found him, but he lost his arm as a result of the In a lonely bend of the Orange River the
affair. The prisoners fled in a body towards the commando leader, Jan Kok, cornered the
remote fastnesses of the Orange River runaways. Brandrug placed his men behind
mountains pursued by a small commando. boulders, and the fight was carried on for
Brandrug persuaded a few other coloured hours, both sides firing. At last Jan Kok
miscreants to join his gang, so that he had decided that the only way to make the arrests
about twenty men under him, some of them would be to advance behind the cover provided
armed. With this force he was able to beat off by a herd of cattle. This he did, and during the
the first attempt by the commando to round up fighting at close quarters Roman Brandrug and
the murderers. This skirmish occurred in a most of his followers were killed. Two of the
narrow kloof on Hermanus Van Zyl’s farm original party of prisoners were captured,
Haas Rivier. Brandrug robbed Van Zyl of Klass Vrolyk and Christian Jagers. They were
thirty horses and eighteen head of cattle. And tried and sentenced to death in Cape Town,
when the commando approached his hiding though the "Cape Argus" had suggested a trial
place in the kloof, Brandrug called out to and execution at Springbok, where the moral
them: "I cut the constable's throat and I shall effect would have been tremendous.
not stop until the lost white man is dead." So there came a September dawn in 1869 when
So here was a little rebellion by a band of a gun was fired and the light showed the street
murderers in the far north of the colony. Van crowded from end to end. Outside the gaol
Zyl and other outlying farmers had to move stood the whole Cape Town police force,
armed with swords. The newspapers reported china-blue eyes and thin, cruel mouth.
that a number of "degraded females" had Genricks had been a sick-bay attendant in the
joined the crowd watching the proceedings. Royal Navy, and later an attendant in the sick-
bay Island lunatic asylum. He was small, lean
The gallows had been set up on the gaol stoep
and muscular.
the previous day. Soon after six Vrolyk and
Jagers, with the gaol chaplain, walked up the When the official inspection of the gaol took
steps to the gallows. The chaplain shook hands place, Scully found that some of the prisoners
and stepped down, the nooses were adjusted looked sleek, while others were plainly
and the hangman pulled the lever. The cruel emaciated. Scully came to a locked door, and
drama that had opened on the road in remote ordered Genricks to open it. At first the gaoler
Namaqualand had ended with one of the last refused on the ground that the yard beyond the
public executions held in Cape Town. door was empty. Then he fetched the key and
the first page in the horror of Springbok gaol
was revealed.
Probably the most sadistic murderer ever
Scully found a living skeleton, an elderly
known in Namaqualand in civilized times was
coloured man covered with scars and ulcers,
William Genricks, gaoler at Springbok when
shivering in rags in the winter breeze. Genricks
Mr. William Charles Scully arrived there in
had been starving him to death. Scully sent the
1886 as magistrate. Scully described this
victim to hospital, put a police constable in
scandal as "the grimmest and most appalling
charge of the gaol, and went home to consider
experience of my official career."
the matter. That night Genricks came to Scully,
Genricks called on the new magistrate on cringing and begging for mercy. By day the
arrival, and Scully noted the ill-tempered face, sadist was insolent; but all his courage left him
when darkness fell, and he went down on his took statement after statement showing that
knees and sobbed. men had been beaten with clubs, and their
bones broken, while they were starving to
During his next inspection of the gaol, Scully
death. Old men were drenched with water and
lined up the prisoners and assured them they
forced to spend the night in bare cells wearing
had nothing more to fear. They told a story of a
their wet clothes. A few well-fed prisoners had
reign of terror such as Scully had never
assisted Genricks in the daily routine of
imagined; and they showed him their scars. In
torture. According to the survivors, there had
the gaol office Scully found records showing
been more than fourteen deaths, and the
that fourteen deaths had occurred within eight
official records were incomplete. Scully placed
months. No form of inquest had been held.
Genricks under arrest.
The acting district surgeon was a Dr. Fox of
Unfortunately it was only possible to secure
the Cape Copper Company at O'Okiep. Scully
accused him of neglecting his duty. "My dear positive identification of three corpses. (The
finger-print system had not come into use).
Mr. Scully", replied the doctor, "when I was
Genricks appeared at the Criminal Sessions in
with Lopez in Paraguay, I often, as I sat
Cape Town charged with these three murders.
drinking my coffee at sunrise, saw five-and-
twenty men marched out together to be shot. I Dr. Fox, a Crown witness, shielded Genricks in
don't value human life at that." He snapped his order to cover up his own gross negligence.
The ignorant prisoners were easily confused by
fingers.
the clever advocate for the defence. So the jury
Scully went on with his thorough investigation. could find Genricks guilty only of common
He had bodies exhumed from three graveyards assault, and the judge sent him to prison for
and turned a disused house into a mortuary. He twelve months with hard labour.
Long afterwards, Scully wrote that he regarded tired. He could hold his breath for minutes at a
Genricks as "a dweller in that undefined time, and often evaded pursuit by hiding beneath
borderland between the sane and the insane, in the surface of a vlei.
which moral responsibility may or may not be Dirk Ligter once proved his speed by racing after
held as binding." He wondered what happened a pack of baboons and catching one by the tail. He
to the sadist of Springbok gaol after he had was admitted to the Old Somerset Hospital in
served his sentence. Cape Town in 1938, and the doctors who
examined him marvelled at the strength of his
heart. He died the following year at the age of
Crime on the karoo usually means stock-theft.
seventy-eight.
They were hanging Hottentots for it a little
more than a century ago, and white offenders Always in the Karoo story you will find
of that period were transported from the Cape individuals who tired of work on the plains and
to Australia as convicts. Stock-theft, a hardy took to the mountains. Some managed to keep
annual at all farmers' congresses, is a problem within the law, others could not. Among those
that has never been solved. It will remain as classed officially as criminals was one Damon
long as there is hunger - and a sheep with a Perderuiter, a Griqua who preferred a free life in a
throat to be cut. cave on the heights to drudgery as a farm
labourer.
A stock thief who was fondly remembered
even by farmers he had robbed was Dirk Ligter Damon Perderuiter lived in the Hex River
of the Ceres Karoo. Dirk was a great runner, mountains during the nineties of last century. He
and it is said that he could escape from a could read and write, and often he came down
policeman on horseback if the horse was a little from his solitude to buy the newspapers. If that
seems queer to you, compare the newspapers of whole sheep or pig on his back. When it came to
those days with your sheets of today and you may beef, a leg at a time was enough.
understand. But it was not that reason alone which No one suspected Damon of stock theft. His
drove Damon to retreat from civilization in the hiding place in Boskloof was so wild and remote
prime of life and become a cave-dweller. that when he threw the remains of animals he had
His cave in the face of a precipice could be eaten out of his cave, leopards gathered below and
reached only by a bold climber. It was protected Damon listened to them crunching the bones.
by an overhanging rock, which made it almost Damon never molested a human being. He was, in
invisible; and Damon made it more secure by fact, a kindly man. One day he found a coloured
building a clay wall. He could keep a roaring fire woman drunk and incapable at the roadside; he
going inside without a glimmer showing in the took her wailing baby from her and carried it to
valley. As a final precaution, Damon took care to her home.
approach his lofty home by many different routes,
so that there was no beaten path to arouse Meat he never lacked, but he had to cut and sell
suspicion. firewood to buy other necessities. For years the
hermit of Boskloof led his own life and
It was snug up there in the cave. But a man must
satisfied his great meat hunger to the full.
live, and Damon Perderuiter had a craving for
meat which could be satisfied only by raiding the Damon Perderuiter was caught at last, by a
surrounding farms. He used stones to kill fowls, farmer who happened to be guarding his pigs
pigs, and sheep, and he could finish off an ox with when the lone raider arrived. The police made
his knife. Nothing was wasted. He was so him lead them to his cave. They found the cave
powerful that he could reach his cave with a cushioned luxuriously with the skins of
hundreds of sheep.
So the freedom-loving hermit had to serve a occupied a shack in the valley, was unaware of
prison sentence. When he came out, the owner Kleyn's presence. This was a tribute to Kleyn's
of Boskloof farm gave him work and a cottage. precautions. He used bow and arrow when he
And when the day's work was done, there was needed meat, and he wore sheepskin slippers to
nothing to prevent Damon Perderuiter from hide his spoor. Tom Stevens often puzzled
climbing up to his old home and revelling in over the broad, confusing marks left in the
past glories. sand by those slippers.
Another child of nature who did not fare so From this hiding place Kleyn sallied forth to
well and certainly deserved his punishment satisfy his needs, and more. As a bow and
was Martinus Kleyn, a man of Hottentot arrow hunter he might have remained at liberty
Bushman blood. Kleyn, son of a labourer in the for years. He chose to break into stores and
Oudtshoorn district. was a house-breaker. He collect such articles as gold watches, knives
was sentenced to hard labour on Robben Island and forks, clothing, tools and razors, all in
about thirty years ago, but he escaped on a large quantities. Among his loot was a Mauser
driftwood raft, paddled to Blaauwberg beach, rifle and cartridges. A demijohn of Cango
came through the surf by a miracle, and made brandy and a huge roll of tobacco were put to
his way back to Oudtshoorn. immediate use.
Kleyn dared not show himself in the village. Martinus Kleyn was caught entering a store
He solved that problem by taking up residence one night. The police, in their kindly way,
in a cave in the narrow ravine leading into the persuaded the transgressor to lead them to his
Kansa valley. It was a perfect sanctuary, cave. You will remember that Damon
hidden by scrub. Perfect, so that a white game Perderuiter had many skins to show. Kleyn's
hunter named Tom Stevens, who often cave looked as though everything on a mail
order firm's list had arrived at once, from and elsewhere as a horse-thief and gaol-
mandolines to spoons. Kleyn went back to breaker.
prison for ten years. The first mention I have been able to find of
Ten years later, unknown to the people in the this William Smith was in a government notice
Kansa valley, Kleyn was back in his cave. He in 1850, after he had escaped from the George
had hidden his rifle and cartridges so well that gaol. Here is the description: "An Englishman
the police had never found them. But the about twenty-six years of age, five feet eight
temptation to fire at a passing buck was inches in height, black hair, black whiskers,
something Martinus Kleyn could not resist. brown eyes, snub nose, small mouth and round
The shot betrayed him. He had the proceeds of chin. He was dressed on the day previous to his
a fresh robbery in the cave, and there the escape in a blue pilot cloth hip jacket, striped
police found him - a foolish man who had gone waistcoat, white shirt, pair of white trousers.
back on his tracks. This time it was the He took with him a leghorn hat, two pairs of
indeterminate sentence for Martinus Kleyn. No blue moleskin trousers, one blue-striped
doubt he often regretted that he had given up waistcoat, one pair of Wellington boots and a
the silent bow and arrow. blue cloak."
Comparatively few white men resort to stock This mid-century highwayman escaped from
theft, though there were some daring horse- the old Cape Town tronk in the Heerengracht
thieves last century. Scotty Smith (who arrived on more than one occasion. He visited
in South Africa in 1877 and died in 1919) was Fraserburg in 1859, a polished and genial
the greatest of them. It is not so widely known, rogue, well-dressed and well-mounted,
perhaps, that an earlier Smith, an Englishman, carrying an assortment of stolen jewellery in
made a name for himself on the Great Karoo his saddle-bags. Smith also showed the
admiring farmers a fine double-barrelled rifle which is still to be seen cemented into a rock
and the latest pattern in revolvers. Everyone near the top of the pass. William Smith was
treated him as a hero. Many residents, found dead in 1862, and it was suspected that
especially the girls of the village, were another convict had murdered him.
shocked after his departure to hear that the
CHAPTER 18
police were after him.
THE LAND OF BEGIN AGAIN
Someone who had met him at this period HALF the Cape Province, I should say, is a
remembered that Smith had rings on his blank in the minds of most South Africans. I
fingers, a gold watch and chain -- and two am thinking of the North West Cape, of course,
revolvers in his belt. When paying for a round the last spaces to be mapped and surveyed and
of grog he would often draw out a handful of settled, the districts still unknown and
gold, throw down a sovereign and tell the mysterious to the traveller who keeps to the
barman to keep the change. Sometimes he national roads.
posed as "Sir John Williams". He lodged
unrecognised with a hospitable police sergeant In some parts of this vast, harsh country all the
at Beaufort West. But a series of escapades in year's rain may fall in one shower. I was not
the Worcester district brought about his surprised to hear it called "the land of begin
downfall and he was caught while hiding in the again". Gently it rolls away westwards from
Rondebosch woods and sentenced to a long the main railway line through the Great Karoo,
term of hard labour. a treeless land with few landmarks, often like
an inland ocean. Much of it is sandy, with
Bain's Kloof was being built by convicts at that
isolated granite koppies thrusting up from the
time. Smith worked there, and the warders red surface. You will find some of these plains
found it advisable to chain him to an iron ring
strewn with round black dolerite boulders. perhaps, too imaginative woman I met in a
Here, too, is the panneveld with Verneuk Pan village on the plains.
as the most remarkable example; and here are "We live behind invisible bars, imprisoned by
the kolk and vloer formations created by rivers limitless space," she told me. "The earth is so
which spread out over the flat country in rainy flat that we long for the sight of a mountain.
seasons. This is indeed the Agterwêreld - the We are imprisoned by the plains of freedom.
world behind the busier world along the main The space you admire so much makes us feel
railway line to the north. Prieska on the Orange petty, and indeed we are small."
River falls within the North-West Cape
borders; so do the scorching plains of She declared that the winters were tolerable
Bushmanland and the dusty but not always because the cold numbed hands and feet and
desperate villages of Prieska and Kenhardt, feelings. In the summer every nerve was on
Carnarvon and Fraserburg, Sutherland, edge and she felt cut off from the world. Day
Williston and Calvinia. after day the killing sameness brought out the
worst and the best in every man and woman.
I have slept under the stars on these plains
Always there was the veld, grim and relentless,
often enough to feel the spell. The poet
silent and tired.
William Charles Scully regarded Bushmanland
as one of the most complete solitudes on earth. "Is there nothing you enjoy?" I asked her.
He loved the empty spaces and found "Yes, one thing. Week after week in summer you
inspiration there. Yet there are some who form have the long, stifling, dust-laden days when you
a very different impression, and their outlook cling to a life that has become a burden. There is
was summed up by an intelligent though, just the heat, the dust, the iron bedsteads on which
we sleep outside, tormented by insects. Then
comes a dramatic change in the weather, when a from our camp-fires, and once I was forced to
sudden thunderstorm drenches us as we lie asleep wade through a side-stream and sleep on an island
under the sky. That is a moment we enjoy. But it to avoid them."
is lonely here, my friend, and we are modern In the desert Scully lived on coffee and
people far from the crowd." boerebeskuit and grilled springbok liver.
That was her view, and she was an Afrikaner Sometimes he rode his elderly horse Prince at the
woman, though not a daughter of the North West gallop for ten miles without a check. Each dawn
Cape. Scully, born in Dublin, went to school with refreshed him, and he found new vigour in the
Theal the historian, spent his boyhood years on a strong sunshine of early morning. He was
sheep farm and took part in the Kimberley exhilarated by the sights and sounds of the plains,
diamond rush at the age of sixteen. I was first the voices of solitude from the clucking of a lizard
privileged to meet this grand writer on his to the jackal's howl. "I was close enough to the
eightieth birthday. He spoke wistfully of the wild heart of solitude to hear its beats," he once wrote.
border districts of the Cape Colony in the eighties That day I asked Scully to reveal the secret of
of last century, and it was clear that the years had desert solitude, for this was his favourite theme.
not weakened his affection. "Lush greenery and rich valleys may stir the
He spoke of trekking at night to spare the oxen, emotions, but the desert arouses the intellect," the
with only one outspan of an hour at midnight. aged poet replied.
Often he walked beside the wagon, ankle-deep in In the desert, Scully found himself invincible. He
sand, from sunset to sunrise, because the wagon believed that all really great ideas had sprung
was filled with water-casks. "Large yellow from deserts; that the wilderness had ever been
tarantulas swarmed in the gorges near the Orange the storehouse of spiritual things. He gained
River," he told me. "Sometimes they drove us
intellectual power in Bushmanland, and declared child to be born in the district. His father had
that he lost it in the land of corn and wine. come up from Oudtshoorn in the eighteen-
fifties, helped himself to a three thousand
So I travelled in the tracks of the poet, wishing
morgen "request farm" free of charge, and
that I could see all that he had seen. The older
bought additional land at a shilling an acre. In
one grows, the more one realizes how many
the end he and his sons owned nearly a quarter
precious memories vanish for ever with the
of a million acres.
death of every old person. I searched for the
old people, and saw the past through their Oom Jasper told me that in his youth he often
eyes. rode a hundred miles through the Prieska and
the present Kenhardt districts without seeing a
I could remember easily enough the time when
farm house or meeting a single white person. It
land in the north West Cape fetched half a
was not until 1870 that the first mud-building,
crown a morgen, and farms of one hundred
a police station, appeared in Prieska.
thousand morgen were not unknown. There
was a true story of a trek Boer who camped on A grim story, stranger than fiction, illustrates
a farm with his flocks for six months before the great isolation :n those days. The
the owner discovered him. You could buy a veldkornet at Prieska reported that a blue-eyed
sheep for four shillings and wool fetched three boy of European descent, with straw-coloured
pence a pound. hair, was living with natives in the district and
The old people spoke of more spacious days working as a shepherd. A native had said that
than ever I had known. I met an eighty-year- the boy had been kidnapped in the Western
old Prieska resident, Mr. Jasper van der Province some years previously, and the
veldkornet suggested that the boy's relatives
Westhuizen, who was probably the first white
should visit Prieska in the hope of identifying
the lad. Major David Blair Hook, the Northern and the railway had reached Wellington.
Border magistrate accompanied two male Prieska was still a remote wilderness.
relatives of the lost boy to interview the young Prieska is a corruption of the Koranna name
white shepherd. Priskab, "the place of the lost she-goat". This
"A wilder specimen of a herd I never had seen, was the safest drift across the Orange River for
with tangled locks and savage scowl, yet with miles and the natural place for a village. Yet it
deep blue eyes, fairest skin and features of the was not until late last century that Prieska
Saxon," reported Major Hook. "The two men began to show, signs of activity. It was known
from the Western Province would not, dared to certain trekboers who went there in good
not claim him as their own, although the years, when summer rain brought up the grass;
likeness to the missing child was striking. To but for a long time no white farmers wished to
bring back a wolf to where a lamb was settle permanently in such a dry area. After
nourished by its loving mother was a venture rain the pans filled up, and that would keep the
beyond their love." sheep going for months. Thus the pans became
It seems that the boy, speaking only a native the most important landmarks - Hartbeespan,
language, denied his origin and claimed a Jakomienpan, Brulpan, Eierdoppan, Wegsteek-
pan, Gelukspan, and every one of them with its
native woman as his mother. He glared at
Major Hook, but when given biltong he own story.
devoured it like a wild beast. The effort at People living in Prieska not so long ago
identification had failed, and the boy was left remembered the first magistrate, a free-and-
in the kraal. This occurred at a time when easy frontier type, holding his court in the
diamonds had been discovered at Kimberley, open air under a large kameel-doring tree.
When he had disposed of the work a braaivleis
was organized, everyone toasted the of fat used for cooking. This area of sixteen
magistrate, and they danced to the music of a hundred square miles is a land of pans and
concertina. One of the Prieska characters of mirages, criss-crossed by the wagon tracks of
those days was a law agent named Proudfoot, generations of trekboers. Many years ago there
who also dealt in patent medicines which he was a farmer who owned ten thousand morgen
had invented. Proudfoot's pills and ointment of grazing in the Kaaing Bult. He wished to
had a great reputation among the trekboers. share it out among nine sons and sons-in-law,
and about twenty years ago a surveyor set
Prieska became the railway terminus of the
about the task. It was then discovered that the
North West Cape half a century ago. Anyone
farm was eleven hundred morgen larger than
with donkeys and a wagon could make a living
the owner had supposed. The original surveyor
as transport-riders; and when the Germans over
had been deceived by the mirages.
the border went to war with the Hereros and
Hottentots, the livestock and produce dealers Near the railway line beyond Prieska is a farm
and transport-riders made fortunes: At one with the puzzling name of Draghoender. It
period, however, leopards became so should be Dragonder, the Afrikaans for
troublesome that even the horses in the village dragoon; and the name goes right back to the
were being attacked. The farmers organized a days when a British cavalry regiment formed
commando and went up into the mountains part of the Cape Town garrison, nearly a
with the intention of exterminating the enemy. century ago. When the dragoons sold their
Not a leopard was to be found. horses, one of the buyers named his mount
West of Prieska is the Kaaing Bult, the "suet Dragonder and rode it into the North West
Cape on a hunting expedition. The horse
ridge", sprinkled with white quartz pebbles
which reminded the early farmers of the lumps strayed, and he returned without it. Next year
he went hunting again, and found the horse Thus, whenever a trek Boer reached the spot,
where he had lost it. The horse had survived in Ockhuis would tell him: "Ja meneer, ek het 'n
that barren world by smelling water in a river Put, maar dit is 'n put sonder water." (Yes sir, I
bed and kicking up the sand until a fountain have a well, but it is a well without water). By
was revealed. This discovery made it possible this device Ockhuis held on to his farm for a
for a farmer to settle there, and he named his few years, and the familiar reply was the origin
farm Dragonder in honour of the horse. of the name Putzonderwater. Then, in 1886,
Hottentots corrupted it to Draghoender. the farm was leased to Peter Connan, a
Scottish storekeeper at Draghoender. Ockhuis
Still farther along the line is a station called
had to move away. Connan and his partner
Putzonderwater. Here, in the early eighties of
last century, an old coloured man David Liebenberg bought the farm, of twenty
thousand morgen, for nine hundred pounds a
Ockhuis decided to dig a well. His sons Hans
few years later. The well which Ockhuis and
and Gert helped him, and they opened up a
his sons dug is now the site of a pumping
good supply of fresh water. This well was of
station supplying Putzonderwater village and
great importance in a land where the trekboers
the railway locomotives. Peter Connan and his
had to make long and dangerous journeys from
brother J.G. Connan (who joined him in the
one source of water to another in times of
nineties) were pioneers who set a fine example
drought. Ockhuis knew very well that if he
in this far district. Descendants have carried on
boasted about his water he would probably
the family tradition.
lose his farm; for the land in those days was
absolutely free and few had any sort of lease or
title. Putzonderwater is the station for Kenhardt,
fifty miles away to the west. Every year Mr.
‘Tickey’ Loxton of Kenhardt sends me a parcel farms were not given out until the eighteen-
of springbok biltong in memory of the days eighties. Bushmen added to the hazards; in
when I stayed at his hotel and listened to the 1884 two white farmers, Jan Buckle and
tales of the district in his friendly bar. Henning Claassens, were killed by poisoned
arrows. As late as 1902 police armed with
The Loxtons were among the pioneers in those
machine-guns had to go into the mountains
parts. The district was only proclaimed as part
along the Orange River to deal with coloured
of the Cape Colony shortly before the middle
bandits under Koos Bontbors.
of last century; and for decades after the pro-
clamation it remained no-man's-land where Kenhardt village appears to have been founded
Koranna raiders and other dangerous Hottentot in 1876, when the Kerkraad at Carnarvon
bands plundered the cattle of peaceful half- received ground for a church and school.
breed nomads and often murdered the Bastards Services were held at first in a reed hut on the
as well. Later a lawless type of Bastard site of the present hotel; and the Rev. W.P.
appeared, the result of unions between white (‘Blou Willem’) de Villiers visited the
runaway criminals and coloured women. Such trekboers. In those early days the nearest
a band, led by Barend Barends, enslaved railway station was Hutchinson. Even when the
certain Hottentots and Bushmen and terrorised line reached De Aar the donkey-wagons took
huge areas. six weeks to carry the sheep and goatskins to
Thus the village of Kenhardt started as a police the railway and return to Kenhardt with
station, with the constables camping under the groceries and other trade goods. Horses and
kameel-doring tree which still stands in live sheep were sent across country to the
Gibbons-street. There was so much fighting diamond fields and later to Johannesburg; and
that permanent settlement was delayed, and
this was a profitable business for the remote ever lived, he must have been an adventurer
Kenhardt farmers. worthy of that wild frontier district.
The name Kenhardt is a deep mystery. Years I did meet a man who had been based on
ago in ‘Tickey’ Loxton's bar I was told there Kenhardt as a Cape Police trooper in 1897 but
was an old hunter of that name, but no one he could not solve that riddle. One event he
seemed to know anything about him. Later remembered was a cloudburst which wrecked
research at the magistrate's office revealed a the Kenhardt cemetery and carried it into the
police officer named Kenhardt. Strange to say, three wells supplying the village. Typhoid
there was also some evidence to show that the appeared, and my friend the trooper was
village was known as Kenhardt long before among the victims. "They fed me on askoek
Kenhardt arrived. I also heard an ingenious and grated biltong, and it was six weeks before
explanation which brought in an aged coloured I had a proper meal," he recalled. "I daresay it
woman who lived on the site of the village was a good diet, but I have never wanted to
before any white people settled there. She was taste biltong again." Kenhardt, as the result of
hospitable to white travellers, giving them a a tragedy, has a claim to fame which may have
clean hut to sleep in, so that in later years been forgotten. As recently as 1912 a young
many remembered her. They would say: "Ek farmer in the district was killed by a lion. I
ken haar graf" (I know her grave). From the think this must have been the last lion in the
Afrikaans words "Ken haar" the name of the country south of the Orange River to take a
village is supposed to have been derived. It is human life.
not a completely satisfying theory. I wish that I
Late last century there was a Bushman in the
could find traces of old man Kenhardt. If he
Kenhardt district who clung proudly to a
hardebolkeiltjie hat, a bowler bearing the
inscription. "Made expressly for H.R.H. the dry river called Ibequa, meaning "the
Prince of Wales." This old Bushman also murderers", and Khamasas, "the fountain of
possessed a morning coat made by the royal the lions".
tailor. His name was Klaas Velletjies and he Afrikaans names in these lonely districts are
worked as shepherd for a farmer named picturesque and often poetic, though many
Wolhuter. origins are hard to guess. Rusiemaak was the
In some way which I have never been able to scene of a forgotten quarrel, jokes were told at
discover, Klaas Velletjies was sent to England Grappies, and at Rugseer someone had a sore
with his wife and child. This queer trio back. But what happened at Stilstaan-en-
appeared before Queen Victoria. and the afspring to make the old rider stop and jump
Prince of Wales presented Klaas with the off his horse? The farm Keelafsny, I know,
clothes I have mentioned. Klaas often related was the place where the rebellious Korannas
his court experiences round the camp-fire, but cut the throat of the unfortunate magistrate
the deepest impression he carried away from named Maximilian James Jackson. Kombers-
England with him was of the Smithfield brand must be the spot where someone's
market. He had never imagined that there was blanket caught fire. Dwaalgees (erring or
so much meat in the world. wandering spirit) sounds like a queer story that
is lost for ever. I can imagine the revelry at
When you are finding your way over these
Kantienpan easily enough, and the peace at
brown wastes with a large-scale map you will
Stilverlaat (quietly deserted). Vraweer (ask
observe that old Hottentot names have
again) is still a riddle to me, but I have solved
survived in many little places, fitting the weird
Rokoptel (pick up the skirt). A peculiar thorn
country better than the English village names.
grew an this farm after rain and caught in the
Here is Oeboeboegorra, the "tiny waterhole"; a
long dresses of the women if they were not he made up his mind to spend the rest of his
careful. days.
Jan Latsky was sixty when he secured a farm
of eleven thousand morgen, ten miles from
Drive almost due south from Kenhardt for a
where Carnarvon now stands. He named the
hundred and forty miles, and you come to Car-
place Celeryfontein because wild celery grew
narvon. This was named after Lord Carnarvon,
there, built a stone house with loopholes for
and has no other link with the Welsh seaport.
defence, opened up fountains, planted trees and
Among the pioneer settlers on these dusty made stone kraals for his stock. Several years
plains was a romantic figure indeed, the Polish later he married, and two sons were born. He
adventurer Jan Latsky. This giant had served in died in December 1867 at the age of one
a Cossack regiment against Napoleon. He had hundred years and five months, and was buried
seen Moscow burning, and bore the scars of a on the farm. Justus Latsky, composer of
bullet wound in the shoulder and a sabre slash "Karooland", great-grandson of the old soldier,
on the forehead. After fighting at Waterloo he farmed Celeryfontein in recent years.
landed without a penny in Cape Town in 1821
Carnarvon is close to the Kareeberg, on the
and looked round for work.
route followed by the old explorers and traders
He was fifty-four, and his wounds troubled beyond across the Orange River to the land of
him at times; but he knew how to handle the Bechuanas. Rhenish missionaries started
horses and served a Paarl doctor as groom for work in the district in the eighteen-forties, the
three years. Then he moved northwards with a Rev. C.W. Alheit and others. One station set
buggy and two horses, earning a living as a up for the Bastards was Schietfontein, often
smous. The wide karoo gripped him, and there mentioned by travellers of the period.
Lichtenstein, who was there earlier, described theory that many thousands of years ago there
the long, gaping valleys, where not a tree or a existed a great oil basin below the Karoo. It
bush was to be seen. He said the whole country may have been shattered by earthquakes and
was like the sea in a violent storm, when the volcanic eruptions; but the syndicate which
waves rise to mountainous height. sank thousands of pounds at Dubbeldevlei
thought the oil was still there. Dr. Wagner of
About one mile to the east of Schietfontein was
the Geological Survey described the unhappy
another Rhenish station, Harmsfontein, where
enterprise as a "courageous and honest
a number of Xhosa families settled.
attempt". In his opinion the oil that reached the
Harmsfontein became Carnarvon, though the
surface came from the grease used by the
name was not changed until 1874. In the
boring machine. Thus, after fourteen years, the
seventies there were not more than a dozen
work was abandoned and only the rusting
white families on the spot, and the whole
machinery tells the tale of the borehole that
district produced only a few hundred bales of
never gushed oil.
wool a year. You could lease a farm from the
government for five pounds a year or buy a Thirty miles north of Carnarvon on the Prieska
huge sheep run for a hundred pounds. Thirty road you pass through the farm Carel Krieger's
years later the same farm would have been Graf. The name recalls one of the greatest
worth thousands. dramas of the North West Cape, in the days
Great efforts were made to find oil in the when outlaws fled beyond the borders of the
Carnarvon district between 1907 and 1921, colony leaving only legends of their
and one borehole on the lonely farm adventures.
Dubbeldevlei reached a depth of five thousand Carel Krieger (really Kruger) was an
feet. Belief in oil was based on a geologist's antecedent of President Paul Kruger. He and
his brother Jacob were born and brought up in the Kruger brothers disappeared into the
the Roggeveld; and in 1776 Carel was unknown north, Carel taking his wife and
appointed Veldwagmeester of the Klein family with him. They were tried in their
Roggeveld. He carried out road repairs and absence, the prosecutor claiming sentence of
organized the defence against Bushmen "death by the cord" for Carel; while Jacob, as
raiders. an accessory, was to be beaten and branded on
the gallows and then imprisoned for fifteen
It was said that the Kruger's possessed such
years.
mechanical skill that they could make
anything. Carel, unfortunately, chose to carve Carel Kruger found a safe base in a distant,
two wooden dies for stamping rixdollar notes inaccessible kloof which he called Kruger's
closely resembling those issued by the Dutch Kraal. The brothers lived as hunters along the
East India Company. Jacob carried some of Orange River, gaining the confidence of the
these forgeries to Cape Town and bought guns natives and roaming where no white men had
and knives, ploughs and sail-cloth and ever set foot before. They made their own
buckskin trousers. He was arrested, but gunpowder, worked copper ore and cast copper
escaped. bullets in stone moulds. Whenever they shot
any animal they cut out the bullets for use over
Orders were sent to the Veld Corporals of the
Roggeveld for the arrest of the brothers, but and over again.
these officials failed to act. They explained It was in 1791 that Carel Kruger wounded an
that Carel Kruger was a man of hasty temper, elephant near the Kareeberg range, on the farm
well supplied with arms, who might endanger which now bears his name. He was trampled to
their lives; and added that they were not death. No doubt his brother was with him; and
obliged to arrest a fellow burgher. Meanwhile it is probable that two other outlaws, Jan
Meyer and Anthony Botes, were in the search of a route to Mozambique. The whole
neighbourhood. Meyer, a Roggeveld farmer, party was either massacred or died of fever;
had been serving a sentence on Robben Island, though it was believed in the Kruger family
but he had made a crude boat, reached the that Jacob Kruger was killed by a lion in the
mainland, and struck inland to join the Kalahari.
Kruger's in the wilderness. Dr. E.E. Mossop, who traced the careers of
Carel Kruger's estate, according to a document many early Krugers, lamented the fact that
in the Stellenbosch archives, consisted. of only Jacob Kruger had kept no diary of his
a few hundred rixdollars in cash, but he and his wanderings in the unknown regions beyond the
wife owned a female slave, nearly seven Orange River between 1783 and 1805. Had he
hundred sheep, a wagon, oxen, five horses and done so, he might have gained a place for
three guns. himself among the South African explorers.
Lichtenstein, however, left this description of
Ten years after Carel's death an expedition
the man: "He spoke little and laughed seldom,
which included Petrus Borchardus Borcherds
knew no fear: his deep-set eyes, long grey hair
reached the Orange River where Prieska now
and great beard lent him a threatening
stands. There they found the missionary
appearance. He carried a short thick elephant-
Edwards and his family and Jacob Kruger. A
few years later, after the Second British gun carrying bullets weighing quarter of a
pound."
Occupation, an act of amnesty permitted Jacob
to return to the colony. He settled on a The Rev. D.R. Kannemeyer found a son of
Roggeveld farm; but it seems that the pardon Carel Kruger in 1861 living near Fraserburg.
had been granted on condition that he acted as The son, then over eighty, had inherited the
guide to an expedition led by Dr. Cowan in family mechanical skill. He had built himself a
house of cut stone, and the farmers always Clanwilliam in 1860, however the Bastards
brought their guns to him for repair. began moving out. For many Bastards, the
Kannemeyer added that in 1891, descendants liquor sold by transport riders was an
of the Krugers were still in possession of the irresistible temptation, and they parted with
farm Leeuwfontein in the Fraserburg district. their farms for cases of brandy. These were the
Bastards who trekked northwards with their
cattle and horses, accompanied by the Rev.
On the railway between Carnarvon and J.C.F. Heidemann, to settle finally at
Calvinia is another village that started as a Rehoboth 5 in South West Africa. Others found
mission station - Williston, formerly Amandel- a new home in the Kalahari and made a living
boom. About seven hundred Bastards were as hunters. Amandelboom changed its name in
trekking from fountain to fountain to the west 1883, when the municipality was formed. Mr.
of the Kareeberg during the eighteen-forties. Hampden Willis was a Cape Government
Many of them had known white fathers; and official. The pioneers, such men as Dawid
having been brought up as Christians they Louw, Johannes Theron and Hendrik Ester-
asked the Rhenish missionaries at Wupperthal huyse, owned enormous farms, all over thirty
in the Cedarberg to send them a leraar. thousand morgen. Karakul sheep were intro-
Two missionaries, Lutz and Beinecke, arrived duced as far back as 1920 by the late Mr. N.F.
in 1845 and pitched their tents by a strong Hodgson.
fountain in the shadow of a wild almond tree;
hence the name Amandelboom. Other Bastards 5
See "Lords of the Last Frontier" by
trekked from all sides to join the congregation.
Lawrence G. Green (Timmins), for the story of
When white settlers came into the area from
the Rehoboth "republic" in South West Africa.
About eighteen years ago a primary school Two large Bushman clans lived within raiding
teacher, Mr. J.H, Swart, decided to transform distance of the farmers. They wiped out the
Williston and the district by a tree planting Naude family, the father and mother and two
campaign. His pupils helped, and the village children and all the coloured servants with the
and district now have twenty thousand trees exception of one young girl. This survivor
which might have remained unplanted if it had carried the news to the nearest white people,
not been for Mr. Swart's enthusiasm. and a strong commando set out in pursuit. One
party of Bushmen were located from the
Fraserburg, south of Carnarvon, was another of
Ezelberg (named after the mountain zebra);
those districts which remained empty for a
long time because of the Bushman menace. I they were feasting on stolen cattle among the
have traced a grazing licence given to Dirk reeds round the spring on the present
Fraserburg site. The commando dealt with
Marks as far back as 1741, his farm
them, and passed on to attack the main force of
Driefontein being described as the "verlaatene
the enemy at Blauheuvel. So many Bushmen
plaats" of the widow Bezuidenhoud. That was
were killed in the dawn attack that the bodies
in Governor Swellengrebel's time, and Dirk
were placed in a cave and walled up. This cave
Marks had to produce two good four-year-old
is now part of the farm Wagenmakersvallei,
oxen every year to retain his licence.
and many years afterwards the sons of the
But there came a period when all the white farmer, Dirk van Schalkwyk, found the skulls
trekboers were driven out by the Bushmen. It and bones. These remains were then given
was not until early last century that the first proper burial.
permanent settlers moved in and took the risk
As a village, Fraserburg only passed the
of Bushman arrows. Some paid heavily for
century mark a few years ago. It was in 1851
their courage.
that forty-two members of the Rev. Colin been in South Africa for forty-five years, and
Fraser's congregation met on the farm was a white-bearded patriarch, nearly a
Rietfontein and decided to build a church hundred years old, when O'Haire met him.
there. That was the period when members of Feres had married a Hottentot, but his wife had
the Dutch Reformed Church were honouring died.
their Scottish ministers by naming new villages "He was blind and very deaf, but his intellect
after them.
was unimpaired," O'Haire recorded. "He lived
The original Rietfontein homestead survives in a twig hut, and food was sent to him daily
among the houses in Fraserburg village. It was by the farmer he had served as a shepherd.
a tranquil place after the defeat of the Feres had been religious in his youth, but he
Bushmen, with only the ordinary events of had never met a Catholic priest since his
South African life to disturb the routine from arrival in South Africa. He wept when I made
time to time. I found a record of an old farmer, myself known and I heard his confession. Just
Swarts, and his ten-year-old son being killed before I left next day he died."
by lightning during the early years of the It was so cold in the winter of 1869 that ice
village. remained on the Fraserburg dams until midday,
The isolation of the Fraserburg district in the although the sun was shining. Sheep perished
eighteen-sixties impressed the Rev. James in thousands during the inevitable droughts,
O'Haire, a Roman Catholic priest who and in 1884 the distress was so severe that four
travelled the agterwêreld in search of scattered coloured people starved to death.
members of his flock. On a lonely farm to the "Fraserburg was on the road to nowhere, and
north of the village O'Haire discovered a for that reason it missed - or escaped - various
Belgian named Francis Feres. This man had
forms of excitement," an old resident explained They say that Fraserburg without its pepper-
to me. Nevertheless, this remote village played box would be like Cape Town without Table
a, noteworthy part in the development of the Mountain. This odd landmark is a six-sided
Afrikaans language. It was there that a law stone building, twenty-eight feet high, with. a
agent, an Englishman named H.W.A. Cooper, six-sided tower on the dome of the main
wrote a series of farmers' letters in a pioneer structure. It has one door and one window, and
form of Afrikaans, and these were published in an arrow-shaped weathercock on the summit.
the "Volksblad". There is no doubt that this Fraserburg's first resident minister, the Rev.
effort as far back as 1870 provided some of the Carel Bamberger, designed the peper-box, and
inspiration which led to the movement for the it was built in 1861 by a clever Bastard artisan
adoption of Afrikaans as a written language. named Adam Jacobs. The tiny building served
Cooper used the pen-name of "Samuel as town hall, while fruit and vegetables were
Zwartman", and published one pamphlet displayed on the stoep. There were some
entitled "Kaapse Schetsen". criticisms of this unambitious effort at the
Most of the North West Cape villages share a time, however, for it was alleged that the local
family resemblance in which corrugated iron authorities had spent £110 more than their annual
roofs and windmills are prominent features. income on a "so-called town house" while dams
Fraserburg, however, is distinguished by a and street repairs were needed urgently.
piece of architecture which has no twin A bell in the pepper-box tower announced the
elsewhere. This is the celebrated "Peperbus" - opening of the market and also tolled the curfew at
the "pepper-box" on Market Square in the nine each night when coloured people had to be
middle of the village. indoors. The constable who rang the bell com-
plained about his nightly climb into the tower, and
so the bell was taken down and hung between Farmers in the Fraserburg district have long dreamt
stone pillars beside the pepperbox. Long after the of diamonds. Back in the early eighteen-seventies a
curfew was abolished, Fraserburg people set their hunter named Dirk Burger shot a Pou and
watches by the nine o'clock bell. discovered a diamond (valued at £74) in the crop.
Many a bustard was brought down after that
Once the Fraserburg magistrate used the pepper-
episode, but the flesh of this fine game-bird was
box as his office. It became the village library in
the only reward. Prospectors searched a number of
1866, then the town clerk's office and later the
farms without success shortly before World War I;
church office. Polling for municipal elections took
yet in 1918 another find was made. This time a
place there, and now it is lit by electricity and used
coloured shepherd picked up a white diamond of
by the school board. No wonder there was a public
outcry some years ago when it was proposed to about four carats on the farm Goedeverwagting. It
fetched over £100, and a diamond rush again
demolish the historic pepper-box. Its defenders
seemed possible. The experts, however, decided
declared that it was the "heart of Fraserburg", and
that it must have been brought by a bird from the
this monument was saved.
alluvial diggings.
Fraserburg has another local peculiarity, the
damvakansie custom. At a meeting of the town
council in 1899 it was decided that a public holiday Sutherland, a typical, century-old North West Cape
would be declared on every occasion when the village with broad streets and pepper trees, is the
town dam overflowed. When the new dam was capital of the Roggeveld Karoo. It was named after
built in 1918 the custom was continued. Three the Rev. Henry Sutherland, who arrived in South
times since then the town clerk has paid a personal Africa at the same time as Colin Fraser of
call on the heads of all business houses and Fraserburg.
notified them of the holiday.
Until a few years ago Sutherland was officially their herds and flocks to find the plains
rated as the coldest place in the Union, but I covered with wholesome food for the animals.
believe this honour has gone to Belfast in the Troops of ostriches and wandering antelope,
Transvaal, by three decimal points of a degree. also driven from the heights, shared the repast.
Nevertheless, you will find Sutherland every "Long-separated friends and relations see each
bit as cold as Dawson City or Vladivostock on other again, are neighbours for a time and
certain winter nights. The village is nearly five enjoy a life of quiet and content," Lichtenstein
thousand feet above sea level, and there may wrote. "Sheep are never lost, no ox or cow
be a hundred nights a year when the tempera- falls down the precipice; cattle feed secure
ture falls below freezing point. Snow lies six from the lion, tiger, hyena, since there is no
feet deep in the drifts, and you may have cave where they may hide." After about a
trouble on the run to the railway line at Matjes- month of this idyllic life the flowers faded,
fontein, eighty miles away. However, the streams dried up, and the Roggeveld people
regular winter snowfall makes it possible to returned to their heights. They went
grow tulips profitably, if that is any conso- reluctantly, the sheep lingering to feed on the
lation. succulents.
Lichtenstein found it cold in the Roggeveld Lichtenstein pointed out that rye (roggen in
during November, and pointed out that the Nederlands) was not cultivated in the
cattle had to be taken to the lower altitude of Roggeveld. The name referred to a species of
the Great Karoo in winter. It was a memorable grass resembling rye, which the colonists
picture this traveller drew of the Karoo as a called wild rye. Thunberg also mentioned the
flower garden, with the Roggeveld colonists wild rye growing in abundance.
descending from the snowy mountains with
Yet when South African botanists in recent farmers in the district remember the days when
years searched for the wild rye of the this wilde rog was plentiful.
Roggeveld, they had great difficulty in locating Only twelve miles south-east of Sutherland
it. Apparently the tasty and nourishing wild rye village is a rare sight in South Africa, an extinct
had been almost exterminated by the cattle of volcano. This is Saltpetre Kop, a conical hill
the district. Russian and Swedish scientists nearly six thousand feet above sea level and one
have been searching the globe for wild thousand feet above the dreary plain. My friend
perennial plants to use in crossing experiments Denis Woods, who never misses an unusual
with ordinary grain varieties. The wild rye, lost climb, visited this isolated relic of ancient
and forgotten since Lichtenstein's day, became eruption and noted the satellites scattered round it.
important. "Only the fitful moan of the wind disturbs the
Mr. H. Jooste, school principal in Sutherland., still, silent wastes," Denis recorded. "In the
took part in the search and forwarded a number summer all is blackened, grim, forbidding in the
of samples to the University of Pretoria. There shimmering heat. A good winter's snowfall covers
is a wild barley in the district which is easily it all in a thick mantle."
confused with wild rye; but at last Mr. Jooste To the west of Sutherland village lie the
found a plant on Mr. W.A. Booysen's farm Roggeveld mountains. There, before the great
Voëlfontein which the experts identified as the drought of the early nineteen-thirties, lingered a
original wild rye. few troops of the rare mountain zebra. They were
Wild rye looks very much like cultivated rye. shot off by hungry bywoners and farm labourers,
It grows to a height of four feet or more, with for they were in poor condition owing to lack of
thin stalks and delicate ears. Only the oldest grazing and were easy victims. It was tragic that
such a need for food should have arisen; tragic,
too, that the last of the species in the district sent into these cooler regions," Lichtenstein said.
should have vanished in this way. "Open and standing empty, it gave welcome
shelter from the wind that blew over the
Mr. Bernard Carp of Cape Town, leader of many
mountains. Four fragments of rock formed a table,
natural history expeditions, went in quest of
and we set out our cold provisions, wine and
survivors in 1950. He was informed by a farmer
bread. Our tents were frozen in the night."
named Cloete that the last known mountain zebra
had been shot in 1934 - an old stallion which had
been running with the mares and donkeys on As a contrast with Lichtenstein’s wanderings in
Cloete's farm. It became too rough for the farm the Roggeveld, it is interesting to recall that the
animals and was shot when it entered the kraal isolation of the Sutherland district was
one night with the mares.
responsible for South Africa's first air mystery. I
Cold and lonely the Sutherland district can be, have reason to remember this episode, for I had
with its memories of the wild past. The spirit of it been flying in the airliner that went missing, and I
can be found in Lichtenstein's narrative, almost accompanied it on its last flight.
especially in his account of a night spent at It was in February 1920, a time when thousands
Tondeldoosfontein (the spring of the tinder-box of South Africans had never seen an aeroplane.
plant), one of the old Kruger farms. This machine, a wartime Handley-Page bomber
"On the highest point of this widespread, desolate fitted with passenger seats and windows, was the
mountain plain we found under the shelter of a first twin-engined aircraft to be flown in the
broken natural wall of rock a small hut, a Union, and it was named "Pioneer".
herdsman's abode, while tending his master's I flew round the Cape Peninsula and as far as
cattle at the dry season of the year, when they are Saldanha in the "Pioneer" with Major Henry
Meintjes and Lieut. C.W. Meredith at the Meintjes told me the story. He climbed almost to
controls. Then it was announced that the the "ceiling" of his primitive air liner to clear the
"Pioneer" would carry passengers and mails from Hex River mountains, and soon ran into cloud. He
Cape Town to Johannesburg, a flight that no one preferred cloud to sharp mountain peaks, so he
had yet accomplished. Major Meintjes was in flew high and blind until he knew from his dead
charge of the attempt, with Captain C.J. Venter as reckoning that he had left the mountains astern.
second pilot and five members of the Handley- Remember that in those days he had no weather
Page staff on board. Mrs. Meintjes was the only reports to help him and no radio to guide him
woman passenger, but three Cape Town business towards his destination.
men paid one hundred pounds a head for the By the time the "Pioneer" had emerged from the
privilege of taking part in the historic flight. clouds Meintjes had lost his way. He had hoped to
All along the route people gazed into the sky to follow the railway line, a trick all the early pilots
catch a glimpse of South Africa's first air liner. relied upon, but his compass had been affected
Farmers waved from the Paarl vineyards and the and when he looked down he saw only the
orchards of Wolseley. But beyond Ceres people unfamiliar wastes of the Roggeveld. Meintjes
waited in vain. "Pioneer" had vanished. When the knew that he would have to land and discover his
air liner failed to arrive at Beaufort West, the first position before the petrol gave out. At last he
fuelling station, the authorities became anxious. decided that it would be unsafe to continue the
For three days there was silence. Broadcasting search for the railway line. He chose an open
was unknown. There were no other aeroplanes stretch of veld and put the "Pioneer" down neatly.
capable of searching the huge area of karoo Soon a farmer approached the air liner. He did
involved. The fate of the "Pioneer" became the not seem greatly surprised, and possibly he
great topic of conversation throughout the Union. was a humorist, for he asked one question: "Is
the war over?" Meintjes was able to reassure sheep; skaapbos and karoobos, brakbos and
him on that point. From the farmer Meintjes gannas, blomkool and Bushman grass.
learned that he had landed on the farm The man who chose the present Calvinia site
Blaauwheuvel, forty-five miles from Suther- for his farm was a Van Wyk, and the
land. Very few farmers owned motor-cars at homestead he built just over two centuries ago,
that time, and the nearest petrol was in Suther- Akker en Dam, stands unchanged on the edge
land village. It was a Sunday morning. The of the town. With walls four feet thick and
petrol did not reach that remote farm until the low, heavy beams, it may well last for another
Tuesday evening. Only then did the stranded two hundred years. Lichtenstein stayed with
airman know that the deep anxiety about their Field Cornet Abraham van Wyk in this house
disappearance had been allayed. Meintjes very early last century.
crashed later at Beaufort West. No one was
injured, but the "Pioneer" never reached The largest estate in the district at that time
Johannesburg. was owned by Jacobus van Renen, a romantic
character who had taken part in an attempt to
Calvinia's old name was the Hantam, a
salve the Grosvenor's treasure. Van Renen was
Hottentot word meaning "land of uintjies."
a wealthy man, a capable artist and expert
Several varieties of these nutty little bulbs are
horse-breeder. It is believed that a Bushman, as
found in the Hantam mountains. White settlers
an act of gratitude, showed Van Renen a safe
reached the Hantam through the Olifant's River place to keep his horses near a spring on the
valley before the middle of the eighteenth Hantam mountain summit. Other farmers
century. They were not so much interested in suffered from raids by Bushmen, but Van
uintjies as in the great variety of shrubs for
Renen kept an excellent stud, including an
Arabian horse valued at three thousand Calvinia where travellers needed an armed
rixdollars, and only lost a few colts which were escort. Fifty years later it would have been
pulled down by hyenas. difficult to have collected half a dozen
Bushmen in the whole area south of the
Lichtenstein noted that meat was the main food
Orange River. However, I do remember one
of the Hantam, for it was cheaper than bread.
fine, pure-blooded little fellow named Kanna
Every herdsman ate a sheep a week, and three
who ended his days in Calvinia. Like many
or four sheep were killed daily for a household
other wizened, apparently aged Bushman, he
of twenty people. Van Renen grew some wheat
was said to be a centenarian. I suppose Kanna
and many vegetables, and he had six hundred
was at least seventy when he passed away.
peach trees in that remote district. The farmers
were pleased to see such a high official as It was in 1851 that the "new Hantam village"
General Janssens, and brought presents of was named Calvinia. An early magistrate
game and other items of food which were named Truter took advantage of Calvinia's
courteously given and thankfully received. The remoteness by entering into business on his
visitors were surprised to find so much good own account. He wound up estates, handled the
breeding and civility among people living in a legal affairs of the farmers and accepted fees -
"dry and solitary country, fit only for the until a Parliamentary committee of inquiry put
feeding of cattle, and half-encircled by some of a stop to these activities.
the wildest among the savages of the Calvinia became a metropolis every nagmaal.
neighbouring districts." In October 1878, for example, there were five
Indeed it was a long time before the Bushmen hundred wagons and Cape carts and six
raiding came to an end. Even in the eighteen- thousand people in the little village. A bazaar
seventies there were areas to the north of in aid of the Dutch Reformed Church brought
in £1,900. It was estimated that the trekboers contrast with the grey karoo vlaktes which can
visiting Calvinia spent £20,000. This cluster of be seen from the heights in the district.
houses in the shadow of the Hantam mountain Early in this journey into the "land of begin
was the only village in the largest district in again" I mentioned the place names, as queer
the colony. as any you will encounter in South Africa. In
Today, of course, Calvinia is no longer the Bokveld there are still many names of
regarded as an isolated outpost. Hundreds of Bushman and Hottentot origin, while the
tourists drive up from Ceres or Clanwilliam Afrikaans names recall vividly enough the
during those years when the spring wild glamour and the freedom and the dangers of
flowers appear. Calvinia has its own karoo the adventurous past. Bloedsuiersfontein
garden, thousands of tons of rock and soil makes me wonder what sort of bloodsucker
displaying the vygies, euphorbias and aloes of operated there. Red-my suggests a cry for help.
the district. Oorlogskloof was the scene, no doubt, of a
battle with a Bushman clan. Brandewynvlei
All this time I have been approaching the
has a pleasant sound. Lys-se-kloof was the
oldest settled district in the North West Cape.
home of an old coloured woman named Lys
This is the Bokveld round about Nieu-
who clung to that lonely place with a few head
woudtville, thirty-eight miles west of Calvinia.
of cattle for years after her husband's death.
To the south are the Warm Bokkeveld and the
Warmviool is the one that still baffles me.
Cold Bokkeveld. This is the one and only
Why was a farm named "hot violin"?
Bokveld, a favoured stretch, with its rainfall of
fifteen inches. It has been called "the Boland
of the North West". Certainly it forms a
 CHAPTER 19 vegetables the crops are gigantic; thirty-pound
FORGET THE DRY YEARS cauliflowers and ninety-pound watermelons.
ONCE there were visionaries who expected to Men have been taking chances with the flood
see the North West Cape producing millions of waters of the Sakrivier and its tributaries for a
bags of wheat every good season. If this gamble century and a half. The farming system you see
had been successful, South Africa could have here is that of the Nile delta and the plains of
had the cheapest bread on earth. India, but in the North West Cape they call it
the saaidam system, the "sowing dam". When it
You may find it hard to imagine mile after mile
comes off, one bag of seed will cover eight
of wheat flaming across a Karoo landscape. Yet
acres. Green wheat turns a darker green, and
I have seen the Sakrivier valley looking more
then the earth is alive with waving gold. There
like Manitoba than anything I had expected to
are many hazards, but while the flood waters
see in such places as Bakoond, Tontelbos and
flow the wheat usually flourishes and the
Kotjieskolk. Perhaps the great experiment was
saaidam farmer remains happy.
carried out too soon; but when weather
forecasting achieves greater accuracy the Queer rivers you find in this dry country. They
Sakrivier area may still become South Africa's rise in the Roggeveld and Nuweveld mountains
granary. - the Fish, the Riet, the Renoster and Sak - and
wander northwards over the sloping table-land
In a good year, no other district can grow such
to join the Hartbees and finally the great Orange
rich wheat. One wheat plant has been known to
River. But these streams that flood across the
produce five hundred ears, up to nine inches in
Williston, Calvinia and Kenhardt districts often
length. If you try asparagus or fruit or
have no well-defined channels. The map which
was accurate last year may be hopelessly
misleading next wet season. One at least of levels for this sort of irrigation, and soil which
these rivers did not exist when the first white will yield marvellous crops if it is well soaked.
settlers entered this territory. The Sakrivier may No matter how long the droughts may last, there
vary in breadth from a few yards to ten miles. are always fish in the pools and dams and mud of
Sak means, in this sense, "to sink into the these rivers. When a pool is pumped dry, sacks of
ground". The Sakrivier has that tendency; the fish are taken; fish called sandvis, weighing up to
water soaks in as the river flows down the nine pounds. On many a Sunday the volkies are to
valley. At one place, near Onderste Doorns, there be seen along the banks fishing with dough or
is a vloer, a dead level surface like a ballroom, worms on their hooks.
where the river becomes a vlei covering more Mr. W.B. Gordon, director of irrigation in the
than two hundred square miles. It is only in the Cape early this century, appears to have been the
flood season from December to April that the "discoverer" of the Sakrivier saaidam farmers.
rivers spread out in this way, forming huge sheets He wrote an official report in 1904 in which he
of water a few inches deep. They bring with them declared that on arrival at the Cape he had been
millions of tons of fine silt from the plateaux, assured that the flood water irrigation system did
immensely fertile, so that the saaidam farmer not exist anywhere in the country. Yet he found
never has to buy a bag of fertilizer. many successful saaidam farmers during his tour
The saaidam is simply a low embankment of North West Cape. The farmers, he said, were
thrown across a flat valley or plain to delay the intelligent and experienced, and only needed a
flow of flood water and ensure sufficient moisture railway to send their produce to market. Gordon
in the soil for the germination of a crop. One good recommended further surveys, as he thought there
flood is enough; no further rain is needed. Almost were hundreds of thousands of acres suitable for
every farm in the Sakrivier valley has the right saaidam irrigation. He was one of the visionaries.
The first white settler on the Sakrivier was a who made a great impression on London
missionary, the Rev. Johannes Kircherer, from congregations. When Kircherer returned to
Holland. He reached Cape Town in 1799 and South Africa, however, he left the London
there met Floris Visser, a pious border farmer. Mission Society, which had been supporting
Visser persuaded Kircherer to open the Sakrivier him, and became a Dutch Reformed Church
mission and gave all the practical help that was minister at Graaff-Reinet.
necessary. He raised a public subscription, bought
Meanwhile a farmer named Christian Botma
sheep and cattle, and gathered many outcast
had remained in charge of the Sakrivier
Bushmen and Hottentots on the mission site. The mission. Botma was an enthusiast, a man who
station was called Blydevooruitzig or "Happy was prepared to make great sacrifices for the
Prospect", thirty miles north-east of the present cause. Lichtenstein, who visited the mission,
Fraserburg village.
described him as "a quiet orderly personage,
One of the Krugers of the Roggeveld escorted not a man of many words." However, the
Kircherer to the spot. A small church was built, mission had not prospered. Botma had grown
with a stone pulpit; and a parchment stretched wheat and vegetables - the first Sakrivier
over a gap in the wall served as a window. wheat crop - but the cattle kraals were in ruins
Kircherer was one of the first white men to make and wild Bushmen had carried off the station's
a sympathetic study of the Bushmen. He found flocks. Lichtenstein summed up: "The
it difficult to preach to them, however, as there missionaries seemed wholly to forget that man-
was no efficient interpreter. kind were destined to work as well as to pray.
Kircherer was a restless spirit. In 1803 he Such an institution bore in itself the germs of
its own downfall. Such was the universal sloth
decided to visit England and raise money for
and negligence that no one could remain here
the mission. He took with him three Hottentots
but with great reluctance and from strong Andrew Bain, magistrate of Calvinia and son
necessity." of the Bain who built Bain's Kloof.
So the mission failed and the lonely gorge of Andrew Bain gave the farm to his son Donald,
the "Happy Prospect" was abandoned. In the and Donald Rain told me of his struggle to
seventies of last century, however, wheat was make saaidam farming pay. He had mules,
grown again in the Sakrivier valley. This time scrapers and ploughs in 1906, but the sunbaked
it was due to the enterprise of a Mr. Jacobus soil yielded reluctantly. Bain could see the
Nel van der Merwe, who started work at possibilities. He looked out over huge areas
Tontelboskolk and built the pioneer saaidam which could be irrigated by the flood waters.
system there. He taught his sons the difficult But he knew that the enterprise called for
art of floodwater irrigation, with oogmaat (eye- capital.
measurement) as the guiding principle. The old
Twee Riviere is one of the lonely farms of the
man lived to see ten thousand acres at
vast district, yet Cape Town business men
Tontelboskolk under irrigation. heard of the marvellous wheat crops -
One of his sons, also "Koos Nel", became marvellous when the rivers flowed - and came
owner of the farm Twee Riviere at the junction to see the scheme for themselves. In 1909
of the Sak and Fish rivers, about one hundred Donald Bain sold out to a company called Zak
and twenty miles from Carnarvon. "Koos Nel" River Estates, and became general manager of
built a larger and more elaborate saaidam the ambitious undertaking. He was then twenty
system on this strategic farm than even his years of age, and married. Before long the
father had attempted. Early this century "Koos company had bought farm after farm along the
Nel" sold a portion of Twee Riviere to Mr. river, and Bain was responsible for a total area
of more than one hundred thousand morgen. system at Twee Riviere alone. And as early as
The great gamble had started. 1911 it looked as though the most glowing
forecasts would be justified. Flood water and
For a quarter of a century that company fought
weather were favourable that year. Bain reaped
hard to produce wheat on a scale South Africa
more than sixteen thousand bags of wheat, a
had never seen before. In the early days before
yield of four point four bags to the acre, and of
World War I the directors would rail their
thirty-five fold of seed used. But the following
motor-car to Carnarvon, and then set out
year there was no crop. By 1914 the company
adventurously across country, with two
had increased its holdings, and nearly ten
chauffeurs to deal with the breakdowns.
thousand acres were seeded. This was a
Sometimes the journey to Twee Riviere (three
hours run from Carnarvon today) lasted magnificent effort, yet the crop did not reach
ten thousand bags. One expert after another
eighteen hours. But they had faith in their car
was called in to solve the mystery, but it
and in the wheat project which was costing
remains a mystery to this day.
thousands and which later cost many more
thousands of pounds. Donald Bain studied every soil manual he
could find and gave much thought to the
About one-quarter of the company's land was
problem of brak, the harmful salts brought to
capable of irrigation, along a river frontage of
the surface by irrigation. California also has a
eighty-four miles. Bain built a control dam
brak problem, and. among the experts who
with sluice-gates near the Twee Riviere
homestead and five dams of various sizes for visited the Sakrivier farms were men with
sowing wheat and lucerne. Whole families Californian experience. The company wrote to
Cairo for guidance in saaidam problems.
were engaged, more than a hundred men,
women and children, to work the saaidam
Everything possible was done to run the huge locusts, green fly and crickets all levied toll on
estates on scientific lines. the estates; and expert advice sometimes
proved costly. But in the final analysis, the
Mr. A.F. Stephen, a director who first visited
entire project depended on seasonable flood
the scheme in 1912, told me that brak was not
water, and failed because too often the flood
the main hazard. When the flood waters
water did not arrive. Those who have watched
arrived the wheat grew; and there were years
the flooding along the Sakrivier never forget
when he saw mile after mile of water spread
this dramatic spectacle. One day you see
out over the land.
saaidam after cracked saaidam baking under
"Some years were encouraging," recalled Mr. the sun But everyone is alert, for the warning
Stephen. "I remember a record crop of forty has arrived, great masses of turbid water are
thousand sacks of wheat. With such results, it known to be on the way. Every man on the
seemed foolish to abandon the scheme. There many farms patrols the miles of dam walls; one
were years when I saw what might have been a hundred and sixty miles of walls are guarded
hundred thousand sacks of wheat in the fields; day and night so that weak points may be
and soon afterwards I would drive up there strengthened and "breaks" prevented. They are
again and find most of the wheat as dead as always looking for the tell-tale gaps called
mutton. I could hardly believe my eyes. Rust, haasbekke and the holes made by moles and
the fatal wheat disease, which was supposed to rats.
be unknown in the North West Cape, had done
Sometimes you can hear the rushing waters
its work."
when the oncoming wave is still ten miles
Life blood of the Sakrivier farms is flood water away. Then the flood crashes against the first
at the right time. Frost and intense heat, dam, the massive embankment blocking the
river. You can feel the shock as the wave Figures for this remote area do not go back
recedes and returns to mount against the dam. very far. Donald Bain, in 1923, reported: "I
If the dam holds, the waters run out on both have examined the meteorological records for
sides along the sloepe which distribute the the past forty years and find that we have gone
water to many farms. through only what we can expect to experience
in the future."
This is the time when the sluice gates are
opened and each saaidam is filled in turn. The Two years later Bain gave up the struggle and
cracked earth has become a shallow lake. left to earn a living as a desert guide and hunter
Sometimes a gale of wind sweeps waves across in Bechuanaland and South West Africa. 6
the dams, and then signal lamps wink in the Another decade passed, and the company
darkness and men hasten to points that are decided to abandon the great experiment; but it
threatened. was not until 1944 that they sold their farms
along the Sakrivier. During thirty-five years
Weeks pass, the water soaks in thoroughly and
there the company had not only grown the basic
is run off as seeding time approaches. The soil
is ploughed and sown, but sparingly, so that
growth will not be retarded by the density of
6
the grain. Sometimes it is possible to reap His successor was the late Mr. E.F. Bacon, a
several crops without reploughing or re- civil engineer as well as an experienced farmer.
sowing. Sometimes the Sakrivier is a farmer's He was a Buddhist by religion. Mr. Bacon
paradise. controlled the brak successfully and under his
energetic management the succession of serious
Did an unfavourable weather cycle prevail
losses was checked; but the dreams of great
during the period of the company's effort?
wheat crops were never realized
wheat crop, but had also tried oats, barley, maize started. In good years, when the flood waters
and other cereals, lucerne and fodder grasses. sweep past Twee Riviere, the wheat grows as it
They had planted orchards of apples and pears has always done, mile after mile of wheat
and stocked their farms with sheep, cattle and flaming across the Karoo landscape. Yet it seems
horses. They had also operated a network of that lucerne may prove to be a more profitable
trading stores. crop, and many thousands of bales are reaped
nowadays. Lupins are planted, too, to feed the
"The life story of the estates is one of fine
sheep.
promise, great hopes and high endeavour,
persistently dogged by ill fortune; of increasing Forget the dry years. It is a landscape with a
struggles with the vagaries of a climate, often ill- peculiar magic for some people. I am thinking
tempered, but carrying rich gifts in its hands in especially of Donald Bain, man of many
its kindlier moments," declared one of the adventures, who suffered so many setbacks there
directors at the annual meeting of shareholders during his youth. Shortly after World War II, and
when it was decided to wind up the enterprise. not long before his death, I met him in a city
"Nature, however, has not shown, so far, many street, and asked: "What next? "
soft moments for the estates, and it is a matter "I'm going full circle - back to Sakrivier, back to
for sad reflection that such an outstandingly fine my first job," Bain replied, smiling. He had been
human effort has had to face defeat at the hands roaming the lonely corners of Southern Africa
of forces which lie beyond mortal control. " for a long time, but there was peace of mind in
Today the line of river farms worked for years his voice and I could see he was looking forward
by companies are again owned by individual to settling down in the homestead at Twee
farmers. There is another Koos Nel van der Riviere which held so many memories for him.
Merwe on the farm which his great-grandfather In spite of all that had happened, Donald Bain
remained one of the Sakrivier visionaries to the within the borders of Namaqualand. He speaks
end of his days. his own Afrikaans dialect; and at one time he
regarded himself almost as a member of a
CHAPTER 20
separate race.
HOME OF STRANGE TALES
There is work for all in Namaqualand today, but
NAMAQUALAND was my favourite run during
it was often a land of famine not so many years
the years when I could sit all night at the wheel
ago. William Charles Scully, poet and
of a fast car without feeling the strain.
Namaqualand magistrate, once remarked that if a
Nowadays, whenever I pass into that vast and
white man were to be left naked in parts of the
varied district of granite and sand, aloe and
country on a hot day he would be roasted to
kokerboom, I renew my youth. Namaqualand is
death as effectively as if he were a heretic and in
the home of strange tales.
the power of Torquemada. "Yet those flaming,
Thanks to the flowers, Namaqualand is no longer quivering, barren tracts are ready, at the bidding
the unknown corner of the Cape Province. I of the first soaking rain cloud, to spring to life in
knew it before the run to Springbok became a tender verdure and wealth of dazzling, glowing
fashionable week-end trip in the spring flower petals," wrote the poet. "It is like the everlasting
season. I met the Namaqualanders before they springing of hope in man's tortured but
were accustomed to seeing strangers every day. indomitable spirit."
And I admired them for their intense love of a
So to appreciate the miracle of the spring flowers
part of South Africa which fills some people
in Namaqualand you should have a memory of
with dread. Your true Namaqualander regards
that burnt-out land in the merciless summer heat
himself as an exile if he has to earn a living
or the agonizing winter days when the west wind
elsewhere. He will make great sacrifices to work
cuts through a leather jacket. It can be a land of
shade less trees and mirage where the scorched postcards, and a more dazzling series would be
veld burns up through the soles of your shoes. So hard to imagine. Again in 1940 and 1941 there
cold are some winter nights that it is wise to were good displays. More than a thousand
drain the radiators of cars standing in the open. visitors passed through one hotel in
Rain comes only after years of ordeal. Rain Namaqualand during August and September
brings not only the flowers but new life to all 1941. Since then, 1950 satisfied the tourists
Namaqualand; and nowhere else in South Africa and 1954 was a really brilliant year.
are the contrasts so sharp. It is worth driving up the long "Diamond Road"
When spring throws her colours lavishly over from Cape Town to Namaqualand when the
Namaqualand you gaze upon a botanist's dream flowers are out. But make sure they are out.
of paradise. Every year the people hope that the Seldom is there anything to see until early in
baked wastes will become a vast Persian carpet September. And make sure you have
of scarlet, mauve and gold. You cannot rely on somewhere to sleep. Someone called on me the
it. Memorable flower seasons may follow one other day to ask what sort of equipment he
another; or there may be a long interval of should take on a Namaqualand expedition. I
years. told him that all he needed was a full-sized car.
The days when travellers perished of thirst in
I know an hotel-keeper at Springbok ("capital"
of Namaqualand) who has been there for thirty- this wilderness are over. There is a bar about
every forty miles along the route to Springbok,
five years, and who has noted only five superb
wild flower seasons. This hotelkeeper had a set and a garage. Baby cars have to be nursed off
of colour photographs taken during the the track in Namaqualand, and even on some
stretches of the main road. But the country is no
phenomenal spring of 1939 and sent them to his
brother in New York. They were printed as
longer hazardous except, perhaps, in the most Namaqualand most famous flower is the large,
remote corners near the Orange River. brilliant orange and black gousblom, a daisy
Many people are vague about Namaqualand larger and more gorgeous than any daisy you
geography. Citrusdal and Clanwilliam usually have seen in your life. Sheets of gousblom,
mile after mile of gousblom are found on the
provide moderate spring wild flower displays,
but they are not (as some imagine) in valley floors or open flats during a good
season. Smaller varieties of gousblom are seen
Namaqualand. You cross the border into
in many colours. The arctotis, for example, is a
Namaqualand at the Doorn River bridge near
more delicate flower. Some have silvery pink
Klaver; and the flower country is much farther
north. Still, it is only a day's run, less than four petals. Every shade from white to deep orange
hundred miles, from Cape Town to Springbok. may be observed.
On rocky hills or mountainsides are the
Garies in the Kamiesberg is about the southern
mesembryanthemums that most of us call
limit of the flowers that transform mountainside
vygies or sour figs. They, too, blossom in a
and veld into a botanical wonderland.
wide range of colours - scarlet, blue, purple,
Leliefontein, the old mission of the Rev.
pink or flaming yellow. Vygies seem to give
Barnabas Shaw, stands in a wild flower reserve.
the signal that spring has come to
These are the high sierras of Namaqualand, and
Namaqualand, for when they cover the veld in
at Leliefontein you are up five thousand feet.
September the desert kaleidoscope mounts in
You may find snow on the mountains and the
grandeur day after day.
flowers growing in such glory that it is like
sunset on the ground. Here are proteas and As you drive northwards through the
heath, and the lilies that gave the old mission its mountains to Springbok you may see that
name. weird tree aloe, the kokerboom, growing
beside the road. This was the tree from which make the run to Port Nolloth. Klipfontein is the
the Bushmen made their quivers. Springbok is finest spot in all Namaqualand for spring
the centre for side-trips eastwards into flowers. During the season of 1934 I met a
Bushmanland, north to Klipfontein, to famous Canadian botanist there who had come
Steinkopf, to the copper mines, to missions, all all that way to collect seeds and succulents.
transformed by the tapestry of flowers. That year he was lucky. There, too, I watched
Hugo Naude painting some of his finest
Nearly always the finest flowers are off the
landscapes. He found inspiration in the
main roads. Spektakel, the old copper mine
Namaqualand spring. Years ago the Cape
twenty miles west of Springbok, has often been
Copper Company ran a free train to
clothed in flowers. Dry little Steinkopf has a
Klipfontein whenever the flowers came out.
mission garden with a great collection of
That was a picnic their employees never
succulent plants; stapelias, euphorbias, plants
forgot.
that mimic stones and tortoises and
pincushions; plants that famous botanists have When you push into the lonely country
travelled across the globe to examine in the between O'Okiep and the Orange river there is
land of their origin. a ghastly sea of sand called the Koa Valley - a
nightmare stretch where many a car was
They have pulled up the narrow-gauge railway
abandoned in the old days. Seldom does the
that enthralled me when I first went to
Koa Valley share in the spring resurrection.
Namaqualand, and the station at Klipfontein
(where the toy train stopped for lunch) is in But in 1939 this howling desolation was
ruins. But the enormous gum-trees are still covered so thickly with a solid mass of flowers
that for stretches of five miles you could hardly
there; and perhaps there are nights when
ghostly copper trains with Cornish drivers still stick a pin between them. That was typical of
the unpredictable Namaqualand springtime. The still dominates Namaqualand, and most farmers
flower seasons are so temperamental and so still pack up their mat houses and trek to the
patchy that you can only seek local advice and veld where rain has fallen.
drive forth hopefully. This is still the land of candles and sheepskin
Spring is a sudden event in Namaqualand, and it rugs; a land where only the rich have kitchens
may be cut off like the snapping of a and all the rest cook in iron pots within a
technicolour film. During the early August vuurskerm of bushes, this is the land of such
flower season of 1935, for example, a pioneer families, as the Steenkamps and
sandstorm came roaring over the countryside Mosterts, the Engelbrechts and Dreyers, the
with the east wind. Curving sheets of flowers Coetzees and Esterhuizens. Some of them have
that were like rainbows one day withered the owned the same farms for five or six
next. A perfect spring, however, finds most of generations.
the Union's leading botanists revelling in My favourite map of Namaqualand is a canvas-
Namaqualand's plant life and seeking the rare backed folder more than fifty years old. It is a
succulents while they are in flower. While they large-scale map, showing the seventeen-
last, these flowers form South Africa's most thousand square miles of the Union's largest
magnificent spectacle. district; revealing the salt pans and sandflats of
the coast and the great Kamiesberg range
Namaqualanders love these contrasts. They love splitting the country from north to south. Here
all changes of scene provided they occur within are such contrasts as the icy Antarctic currents
their own borders. Their ancestors were that sweep the coast, and Goodhouse farm in
the Orange River valley - a place of precious
trekboers and transport-riders, the trek spirit
memories for me because of Carl Weidner's
hospitality, but still the hottest place in South became corrupted or, if they were difficult they
Africa. disappeared.
My old map brings out the drama and narrative Garies, a typical Namaqualand village, is an
value of the Namaqualand place-names. example of an original Hottentot name which has
Besondermeid or Klein Besondermeid remained. Garies is a species of grass from which
("remarkable little girl") near Steinkopf is the Hottentots made beds; though the name may
supposed to perpetuate the memory of a young have been chosen because of the gardens in the
girl who loaded her father's guns and helped to river bed; while a third explanation is that the word
rout a horde of Hottentot raiders. But if you means "full of milk". The village was unofficially
inquire more deeply, you discover a hill in the re-named Genisdal in honour of a school teacher of
vicinity bearing the ancient Hottentot name of a century ago. For some reason the Namaqua-
Kara Khois (Kara - to differ; Khois – a woman). landers preferred Garies.
The Hottentots fancied they saw in this odd- I came across other survivals. Garoo, the
looking hill a peculiar woman, and there is the real Hottentots called a spot where they encountered a
origin of the legend. The Namaqua tribe, of growling leopard. Kouroo was the place where
Hottentots who gave their name to the country they heard the rumbling of thunder; and
migrated northwards into South West Africa fairly Choachamma, the chattering of the baboon. Dr.
early last century. They left Hottentot names all the P.W. Laidler, while district surgeon, came across a
way from the Gariep ("river of the wilderness",
water-hole known to the Hottentots as Tkomtis, the
Orange River) south to Garies. Origins of
"Sorry Spring". He traced this back to a tragedy
Hottentot and Bushman names, however, are often
when an old man, lying down to quench his thirst,
controversial. It takes a linguist to spell and
overbalanced owing to the velsak on his back and
pronounce the clicks. So these names either
fell into the pool. His aged wife was unable to haul
him out and so he was drowned. In the valley north Namaqualand names. Down in the south there
of Anenous there is a koppie which might be spelt is a river where Hottentot tribes once fought a
Dheera Dau if you left out the clicks. That means battle, giving their war cry of "toro - toro"
"baboon blood". An old Hottentot clan made war (war! war!). The river is still called the Troe-
on the baboons, drove them into the koppie and Troe.
wiped them out. The early Portuguese navigators left one name
In the Richtersveld there is a long black mountain at least on the Namaqualand coast - Cape
known as Daie Loas, "dead fire", because the Voltas, south of the Orange River mouth.
Bushmen hiding there put out their fires on the Simon van der Stel and his men were the next
approach of the Hottentots. Many place-names in explorers from Europe to mark the
Namaqualand refer to fights between the Namaqualand map. They called the scene of
Hottentots and Bushmen. their copper prospecting Koperberg, and the
governor inscribed his initials on a rock. Some
Ukribip is a reminder that once there were
authorities credited Van der Stel with naming
elephants in Namaqualand. Many rocks show
Spektakel, twenty miles west of Springbok.
highly-polished corners where the great beasts
You can see the ocean from there in clear
rubbed their itching skins. Ukribip means
weather, and Simon is supposed to have cried
"scratching place". O'Okiep appears to be a
corruption of the Hottentot U-Geib, meaning a in delight: "Wat een spektakel!" However, it is
doubtful whether the expedition passed that
great supply of brackish water. Namies,
way at all. Spektakel is probably no older than
Nigramoep, Annenous and Brabies are not so easy.
1809, when Landdrost van der Graaff, brother
Goodhouse is really another Hottentot name - Gu-
of the governor, admired the view.
daos, the sheep ford. Kamma is the Hottentot word
for water, and this forms part of many
Buffels River, which flows (at long intervals) Namaqualand farm names are sometimes
past Spektakel, was undoubtedly named by extremely imaginative - 's Morgenshadu, for
Van der Stel's party. Bushmen informed them example, has a touch of poetry. Some are
that they had seen buffalo grazing on the river puzzling. Who was the Pedro of Pedroskloof in
bank. Grootmist, near the river mouth, the Kamiesberg? How did Meidjieskaroo gain
describes accurately enough the fogs that hang its name? Dansekraal is obvious enough, but
over this coastline for days on end. Farther what about Couragiefontein, Manelsvlei,
inland you come to Nababeep, a copper mine Juliesvlei and Pollyskloof ? In a land which
revived in recent years by American enterprise. can be dangerously thirsty it is not surprising
Nababeep is the Hottentot word for giraffe. A to encounter farms named Dooddrink, Bitter-
new "suburb" of Nababeep, built by the fontein, Cutwater and Bitterputs; and it is a
company for the mine workers, is known as relief indeed to reach Lekkerdrink at last.
"White City", the only American place-name Soebatsfontein has a grim story. Hendrik
in Namaqualand. Stievert, an exsoldier of the Dutch East India
Wherever you go there are reminders of Company, fell into the hands of Bushmen there
vanished animals. Hartbeesrivier, Leeuklip, in 1798. He implored them to spare his life
Elandsklip, Wildepaardehoek, Rhebokfontein (hence Soebatsfontein) but they showed no
and Blesbokkrans are farm names that speak mercy.
for themselves. I do not suppose the gemsbok Mesklip, in the Springbok area, is a shady place
has been seen at Gemsbokvlei for many years; under rocks where many travellers have rested.
but Wolfberg and Wolwepoort may still give According to legend, a Bushman sleeping there
shelter to hyenas. had a nightmare and thought someone was
attacking him. Still half asleep, he took up his
bow and arrow and shot himself in the foot. His one stubborn exception) broke up their homes
companion laughed so much that he had to wipe and the church and rebuilt the village at
away the tears. Unfortunately the companion Kamieskroon a few miles away. Shops, police
forgot that he was holding a knife, and injured and post office followed. But there is a charm
his eye. The knife was then usefully employed in about the kloof that windy Kamiesdorp does not
removing the arrow from the other's foot. possess, and I have always admired the dogged
Mesklip still tells the tale. character who stayed behind at Bowesdorp. Dr.
Cornish miners arrived in Namaqualand a Bowe, I may add, had a son Allan who opened a
century ago, but I can recall only one Cornish jeweller's shop in Moscow and designed some of
name off hand. That is Dick's Cutting, on the the famous Easter eggs, encrusted with jewels,
abandoned narrow gauge railway line between for the Tsars.
Port Nolloth and O'Okiep. Namaqualand's first road was the old transport
Bowesdorp, an almost deserted village, started road between Hondeklip Bay and the copper
mines. It was known as the Messelpad (masonry
out in life as Wilgenhoutskloof. When the first
road) because of the amount of difficult building
Dutch Reformed Church in Namaqualand was
which had to be done in the mountains. Often
built there in 1864 it was renamed Bowe's Ville,
after the popular Dr. Henry Bowe, the district there were six hundred convicts at work, under a
surgeon almost a century ago. (Dr. Bowe took French engineer. His initials, F.C., are still to be
seen carved on a rock at the roadside. Having
part in the ceremony and broke a bottle of
completed this simple memorial he shot himself,
whisky on a rock). Bowe's Ville gave way to
the reason being that he had a coloured mistress
Bowesdorp. There was not much water in the
narrow kloof, however, and the ministers and children, and his wife had arrived from
disliked the place. In 1924 the inhabitants (with
France to visit him. Namaqualand certainly has Only the mate remained to carry the tale of
its share of old tragedies. disaster to Cape Town.
Hondeklip Bay, of course, is no mystery at all. Mountains in Namaqualand have memorable
The famous "dog stone" stands on a rise above names. What could be more fitting than
the fishing village; a large boulder which Weeskind (orphan) for a solitary granite peak
resembled a sitting dog until a lightning flash in the Kamiesberg? Sneeukop and Kouberg
struck off the head many years ago. In the early emphasize the bitter winter climate. A mile
days of the settlement wild dogs prowled round from Kamieskroon stands the "Kroon" itself,
the "dog stone" and destroyed sheep. an 1,100 foot peak crowned with a huge cleft
Hondeklip Bay certainly has an appropriate rock. Locally it is regarded as a fearsome
name. climb, but a party of skilled mountaineers
reached the summit within an hour of leaving
In the harbour at Hondeklip Bay is a reef
the village.
marked on the chart as Yankee John.
According to legend, Yankee John was the Kamiesberg, the main range of Namaqualand,
name of a pirate ship which put into this is a corrupted Hottentot name of dubious
dangerous anchorage. While the captain and meaning. It may have been the "lion
mate were on shore - burying a treasure in the mountain", though there is a similar Hottentot
dunes, of course - the ship dragged her anchor, word referring to "gathering strayed cattle".
broke up on the reef and vanished. "Yankee Flaminkberg, Eselskop, Kokerbooms Hoogte
John. I'm coming!" shouted the demented and Tamboersberg are vivid enough. But I
captain, and raced into the surf and was wish someone would tell me how Jaloersberg,
drowned. This occurred long before any to the south of Garies, gained its name. A
settlement had been built round the little bay. jealous mountain must surely have its legends.
Engelsepunt is a sinister mountain in the Van when one water hole after another was dry. Yet
Rhynsdorp district. A murderer, who was an there have always been people who have found
Englishman, was pursued by the veldkornet happiness in the wide, arid spaces of
and a commando to the mountain heights. Namaqualand. In a far corner you will find a farm
There, when he refused to surrender, he was named Weltevreden.
shot dead.
Most tragic of all Namaqualand place-names is If you had asked me, twenty years ago, to name
Kinderlê near Steinkopf. More than a century the queerest character in Namaqualand I would
ago a smous arrived at Besondermeid from the have selected "Ryk Jasper" Cloete. Coloured
Cape with two wagons. The Hottentot parents people seldom manage to hang on to their money.
hurried away from their settlement to see what Rich jasper was an open-handed man, yet he
the smous had to offer. While they were away always had Kruger sovereigns to spend.
the Bushmen killed the old people and all the
children except two who were wounded and It was in Solomon Rabinowitz's store at Steinkopf
feigned death. Kinderlê, where the children that I met jasper and his retinue. Jasper was an old
were laid to rest in one huge grave, now has a man then, well over seventy; fat but dignified,
gravestone bearing the inscription: "Grave of quiet and intelligent. The white blood had almost
thirty-two Namaqua children murdered by died out in him. He was a Hottentot patriarch.
Bushmen." Rabinowitz whispered : "They call me King
Solomon of the Richtersveld, but there stands the
Out on the edge of Bushmanland is a spot
real Richtersveld ruler."
marked Moedverloren. I can understand
anyone losing his courage in such a place, after I have traced Jasper's ancestry for more than a
one of the long droughts, perhaps, or on a trek century and a half, to a white farmer Cloete, one
of the earliest Kamiesberg settlers. This pioneer sent to Komaggas and a reserve of nearly seventy
had a white wife and three young sons. When his thousand morgen was set aside there for the
wife died on that lonely farm he took a Hottentot Bastards and Hottentots.
mistress. In this way Jasper Cloete and his family became
Thus the first Jasper Cloete was born. When the prosperous. He encouraged hard-working
father died, Jasper was a married man with seven liberated slaves from the Cape to join the
sons, owner of cattle and small stock his father community; and their descendants, Fortuins,
had given him. His three white half-brothers Damons, Beukes, Adonis, are still there. Most of
forced him to leave the Kamiesberg farm, and the Komaggas people were wretchedly poor, but
jasper trekked away to the north-west in search of the Cloetes had stock and the most fertile land,
grazing. and they flourished.
He came to the oasis in a kloof called Komaggas Jasper Cloete the second remained at Komaggas,
("brown cattle waters") in the Komaggas but his son Jasper - the legendary "Ryk Jasper " -
mountains near the coast, and persuaded the moved away into the Richtersveld towards the
Hottentots he found there to sell him the place. end of last century. This wild corner, named after
There was some trouble when the distant an old missionary, is the hot country in the last
Hottentot kaptein heard of the transaction. great loop of the Orange River before it
Jasper's wife belonged to the clan, however, and reaches the sea. It is the home of the last pure
she arranged everything in her husband's favour. Hottentots south of the river, the very last
Jasper pleaded with the missionary Schmelen to primitive, Nama-speaking people in the Union.
settle at Komaggas. The missionary did so in They are still there, living on the milk of their
1829; and through his influence a surveyor was tiny herds of cows and goats. In the old days
some of them contrived to grow a little wheat
on the granite mountain-tops where rain Later, near the Orange River mouth, Scully
sometimes fell. Such brave efforts are too met "Ryk Jasper" again. Jasper had an ancient
strenuous for the present generation. They dig wagon, a mat-house and a number of goats;
out the edible roots like the Bushmen of old, and Scully noted that he wore good clothes and
and collect gum from the thorn trees along the had an air of prosperity. These two men, both
river. remarkable in their own ways, went off
springbok hunting together.
Kuboos is the "capital" of the Richtersveld
Hottentots, just a stone church and mission As the years passed Jasper Cloete's influence
house and a few mat-huts which these nomads in the remote Richtersveld became supreme.
carry round with them when they trek in search White men, apart from occasional prospectors,
of grazing. When the magistrate Scully paid an were seldom seen there. Sometimes the
official visit to Kuboos in the eighteen-nineties Namaqualand farmers sent cattle and sheep to
he found the coloured missionary Hein graze in the Richtersveld, however, and "Ryk
presiding over a Hottentot "Raad" of which Jasper" collected the grazing fees. In a land
Jasper Cloete was a member. without white officials, Jasper was the
A member of the congregation had been government.
flogged for adultery. It was an illegal Jasper moved to Lekkersing, another weird
punishment, but Scully felt that the culprit had little settlement in the Richtersveld hills, some
deserved the lashes and ignored his complaint. years before his death. The only stone
Scully was then entertained by the missionary buildings at Lekkersing are the church and the
to a Richtersveld banquet of coffee, rye-bread teacher's cottage. Jasper built himself a huge
and wild honey. mat-house, with a framework of hakiesdoring
wood from the river covered with long, plaited
rush mats. It is nothing unusual in one more mighty puff of smoke had come out of
Namaqualand for a rich man to live in a Jasper's mouth, the cigarette was finished.
matjieshuisie; many a wealthy white sheep At one time, Rabinowitz told me, "Ryk Jasper"
farmer prefers this type of dwelling to the most had always paid for his purchases in golden
solid farmhouse. sovereigns. According to several visitors, he had a
Some say that Lekkersing gained its name chest of Kruger gold in his mat-hut at Lekkersing.
when the acoustics among the rocks flattered When the Union left the gold standard, however,
Jasper’s deep voice. I think it was named jasper soon realized the difference in value
before Jasper’s day, because of the echo. between a sovereign and a pound note; and he
Lekkersing has a splendid, pure spring, in paid his debts in paper. Besides this gold, "Ryk
pleasant contrast with other Richtersveld drinking Jasper" owned large herds of sheep and goats,
places. It is a long way from Lekkersing to the cattle and horses.
nearest store, however, and when I met "Ryk Jasper Cloete died at Lekkersing in 1942 at the
Jasper" in Steinkopf he seemed to be stocking his age of eighty. From all parts of the Richtersveld
wagons for a siege. flocked the Hottentots to gather round the grave
He had barrels of wine on board, and I watched of "Vader Jasper". It was mysterious. They had
him buying cases of canned food, sacks of rice known the old man was ill, but the news of his
and potatoes, rolls of cloth, boxes of soap. death mush have reached the far corners by some
Rabinowitz offered Jasper a cigarette, and Jasper means known only to primitive people.
performed the feat which astounded everyone Today there is still a Jasper Cloete in the
who watched it. He lit the cigarette, inhaled Richtersveld, but he is an adopted son. "Ryk
deeply - and half the cigarette had gone. When Jasper" and his wife Maria had no children of
their own. Inevitably there is a legend that "Ryk Concordia was very much in the wilderness in
Jasper" never revealed the hiding-place of the those days, but the Von Schlichts lived well.
whole of his hoarded gold. There may be some Eight children were born there; the boys had
truth in that tale. "Ryk Jasper" was indeed a rich German tutors and English governesses taught
man. the girls. Miss Henrietta von Schlicht is the only
survivor.
"I can remember my mother describing the day
If there is anyone with older memories of
of her arrival in Cape Town - December 1, 1834,
Namaqualand than Miss Henrietta von Schlicht I
the day the slaves were freed," Miss von Schlicht
would like to meet that veteran. Miss von Schlicht
told me. "She often recalled the thanksgiving
will soon be a centenarian.
services in the churches and the scenes of
Her father, Albert von Schlicht, was a chemist rejoicing in the streets."
and mineralogist who landed in Cape Town from
There were hostile Bushmen in the desert round
Berlin in 1840 and looked round for adventure.
Concordia in the middle of last century.
He went to Namaqualand as a prospector and
Henrietta spoke sadly of her father's carpenter,
discovered the famous mine which he named
young Carl Schroder, who set out to visit his
Concordia. During one of his visits to Cape
parents at Fella mission and was killed by
Town, the young and prosperous mine owner met
poisoned arrows at a water-hole.
a Miss Langschmidt. She was a sister of the
German artist whose paintings of the Cape are The Hottentots were friendly. Albert von
now extremely valuable. They were married, and Schlicht had a large stock of genuine eau-de-
Albert von Schlicht built a fine stone mansion cologne in wicker-covered bottles; and for each
which still stands at Concordia. bottle the Hottentots gave him one sheep. Eau-
de-cologne became the favourite drink of the miners and built most of the present village. He
Hottentots. The Von Schlichts were never short had left Germany because he had a weak chest -
of meat, but they had to make their own vege- and also to avoid military service. "He loved the
table garden. life at Concordia, all of us loved it,"' declared
Apart from his work on the mine, Albert von Miss von Schlicht. "I remember the summer
Schlicht acquired a great repuation as a medical thunderstorms ... the heat was terrific, but none
adviser. He was always known as Doctor von of us minded it. I have been sitting in the sun all
Schlicht, and trekboers and miners travelled long morning. I have often wanted to return to
distances to consult him. Concordia, but no one would know me now."
Miss von Schlicht has vivid memories of the
Every year the whole Von Schlicht family
springbok that were shot in the streets of
trekked from Concordia to Somerset West for a
Concordia and turned into biltong. She saw the
month's holiday. It took twelve days each way in
springbok migrating in millions across
horse wagons. Henrietta remembers the nights
Namaqualand.
spent at farms during those journeys, the sweet-
flavoured farm bread, the stewed mutton, and the There came a slump in copper. Von Schlicht was
burning summer heat on the road. They also ruined; but the Cape Copper Company made him
spent short seaside holidays at Port Nolloth, four manager of the rich Spektakel mine not far
days by ox-wagon from Concordia before away, and the whole family moved into a new
railway construction started in 1869. Port home. "I was fond of riding in those days,"
Nolloth consisted of one shop and one house. recalled Miss von Schlicht. "Often I would
Wreckage from lost ships littered the beach, and leave Spektakel at four in the morning, reach
there was no jetty. During his years at Springbok at breakfast time, and go to a dance
Concordia, Von Schlicht brought out Cornish that night. Lancers, polkas, quadrilles; the
young people nowadays say those dances are Mrs. von Schlicht was placed in charge of the
dull, but we danced all night and rode back to Cape Copper Company's rest-house on the
Spektakel in the morning. " railway line at Klipfontein, between O'Okiep
and Port Nolloth. This was the half-way house
James Benjamin Bassingthwaighte, a young
I mentioned earlier, where the trains stopped
hunter and trader from Damaraland, settled at
so that passengers could have lunch. The first
Spektakel for a time in the early eighteen-
trains were drawn by mules; then steam
eighties and fell in love with Henrietta's sister
locomotives arrived and journeys became
Philipina. When he returned to the lawless
easier. Klipfontein is a remote spot, but the
country north of the Orange River he took
Von Schlichts always had company. Often a
Philipina with him as his bride. The
Bassingthwaightes 7 made history north of the whole Cornish cricket team spent the night at
the rest-house. Famous botanists, Bolus and
border.
Marloth, stayed there on collecting
Another copper slump resulted in the closing expeditions; and Dr. Peringuey of the South
down of the Spektakel mine. The smelting African Museum made it his base while
plant had been opened some time before the hunting lizards. Miss von Schlicht still
slump, and named after Henrietta von Schlicht. shudders when she thinks of some of the
But now the family had to move again. They specimens he brought in.
settled in Springbok, where Albert von
Violent dust storms sometimes upset the time-
Schlicht died a poor man.
table of the miniature railway. There is a
cutting at Anenous below Klipfontein; and
7
See "Lords of the Last Frontier" by Lawrence when these storms swept down on the line the
G. Green (Timmins). cutting would be filled with sand. Once a train
stuck in the cutting for hours until the plate- Two men of the commando, Van der
layers could dig it out. The passengers had Westhuizen and Van Heerden, opened a packet
lunch at five o'clock that afternoon at Mrs. von of dates they had bought at Steinkopf, and left
Schmitt's rest-house. the stones on the ground. Two date palms
arose beside the track. Some intelligent
As a child Miss von Schlicht learnt a little of
coloured person noticed that the soil was
the Hottentot language, and she can still count
suitable for dates, and planted more date
up to ten, with the authentic clicks. "I never
palms. Henkries is protected from sandstorms
learnt anything that was too much trouble," she
by mountain ranges. Only a few figs grew
says. "Perhaps that is one reason why I have
there in the past. There are two thousand date
lived so long. Sometimes I feel like a hundred,
though I have no ambition to live to be a palms now, and one day there may be twenty
thousand.
hundred. But I would like to see the desert
again after the rains, with high grass Henkries is hot and windless, and bees and
everywhere. Those were wonderful years when other insects do not pollinate the palms. This
I went riding out in the wilderness." must be done by hand. But already the date
crop helps to support several families. The men
who dropped those date stones so carelessly in
Namaqualand is the land of strange tales. Did the war of long ago are proud of the plantation
you ever hear of the dates of Henkries? This is they started.
a moist patch of two hundred morgen in the
Namaqualand is the land of strange tales. On
Steinkopf reserve. During the First World War
the banks of the Groen Rivier near Garies
a commando halted there to water the horses
stands a huge, smooth boulder bearing an
before pushing on to the Orange River.
inscription, a splay-armed cross, the words G.
Hoop and the date 1721. You will search the when he pulled it out he found nearly eighty
archives in vain for details of an official coins; twelve golden sovereigns, silver and
expedition in that year, but it is known that copper bearing Queen Victoria's head.
unofficial parties went out after cattle at that Oom Kootjie's mind went back half a century in
period. one jump. He was fifteen, the South African War
Just below the cross (so they say in was being fought, and British soldiers had come to
Namaqualand) someone found buried treasure. the farm and taken his father away with them. His
It was in 1918 that the treasure-hunters arrived mother had hidden the whole wealth of the family
secretly, dug a huge pit, and left the spot that day; various sums in different places. No
without a word to anyone. The late Dr. P. W. doubt she had lost or forgotten the tin box which
Laidler, historian and archaeologist, investi- her son found fifty years afterwards.
gated the affair on the spot. "The silence that Namaqualand is the land of strange tales. I knew a
enwraps the exploit suggests strongly that
doctor in O'Okiep who went blind ... slowly, year
something of real or supposed value was after year, so slowly that he developed new ways
found," reported Dr. Laidler. The hole made by of doing his work in the darkness. As his sight
the treasure hunters remained for a long time, failed he gained the queer sense that many old-
and the mystery remains to this day.
fashioned doctors possessed; he could smell many
Namaqualand is the land of strange tales. Mr. a disease as he entered the sick room. His touch
Kootjie de Klerk, a farmer in the Garies was magic. Sounds that never reached ordinary
district, was climbing over the wall of his old ears often told him all that he had to know. Year
stone kraal a few years ago when he happened after year the blind doctor remained as one of the
to notice something black under one of the beloved personalities of Namaqualand.
granite rocks close by. It was a rusty tin, and
Namaqualand is the home of strange tales, and for
me the charm of Namaqualand has always been
that most of those tales are true.

THE END
The index below is as it was in the original paper book but in this e-book the page numbers have all
changed and have therefore been removed. Otherwise the original index is left unchanged to display the
authors choice and readers should use their program’s search facility to locate the item.
Aberdeen Barkly, Sir H. Bowesdorp
Alheit, Rev. C. W. Barrow, Sir John Bowie, James
Aloes Beaufort West Brakbos
Amandelboom Becker, H. W. Brand, Dawid
Ant-rice Besondermeid Bread
Atherstone, Dr. J. Biltong Brink, J. W.
Auge, Johann Andreas Bleek, Dr. W. H. L Broken Toe (jackal)
Avantine (Bushman) Blom, Jan Brounger, W. G.
Baboon Boys Bokkeveld Buist, Col. H. J.
Baboons Bokveld Burchell, Wm.
Backhouse, J. Booysen, I. H. Burger, Barend
Bain, Donald Botany (Karoo) Burgerville
Bain, Thomas Bowe, Dr. Henry Bushmen
Buyskes, Johannes Connan, Peter Dlege, Johann
Calitzdorp Cradock Dodds, Rainie
Calvinia Cronwright-Schreiner, S. C. Douglas, Arthur
Camdeboo Cumming, Gordon Draghoender
Cango Caves Dabbs, WM Driedoring
Carnarvon Dart, Prof. R. Drought
Carnarvon (oil) Dassies Drury, Dr.
Carp, Bernard Davie, T. B. Du Plessis, Jacobus
Churchill, Winston De Aar Duerden, Dr. J. E.
Cloete, "Ryk Jasper" De Beer, Samuel Dynamite train
Coffee De Lange, Frikkie Easton, James
Colesberg De Rust Ecklon, Christian
Collins, Major De Wet, General Christiaan Engelbrecht, Rev. J. J.
Compton, Prof. R. H. Devenish, A. L. Engelsepunt
Concordia Dick's Cutting Erasmus, Nicolaas
Connan, J. G. Diviners Fairbridge, W. E.
Fences Gerotz, Veld Cdt. Hantam
Fitzsimons, F. W. Ghookoffie Harmsfontein
Flowers (NamaquaIand) Gibbons, Dr. Harris, Major Cornwallis
Fockea crispa Gill, Dr. Leonard Havers, A. J.
Food Gompou Heatlucote, Charles
Fraser, Rev. Colin Gordonia Hedgehog
Fraser, Sir John Gouws, Jurie Heidemann, Rev. J. C. F.
Fraserburg Graaff-Reinet Henkries
Frere, Sir Bartle Graaff-Reinet vine Herre, H.
Friedlander, Isaac Gray, Bishop Heugh, R. H.
Friedlander, Wolf Great Karoo Hex River
Gamkaskloof Great Karoo (explorers) Holman, Lt. James
Garies Grey, Sir George Hondeklip Bay
Garob Gunpowder train Hood, Wells
Gates Hanekom, Hendrik Hooivlakte
Genricks, Wm. Hanover Hook, Major D. B.
Houbok Karoo brawn Konstabel
Hugo, Frans Karoo criminals Korel (Bushman)
Hutchinson, Berks Karoo plants Koup
Hutchinson, Dr. J. Keegan, Mrs Kruger, Pres. Paul
Jackals Kenhardt Kuboos
Jackson, Albert Kersbos Kweekvallei
Joubert, J. F. Kinderlê Ladismith
Jupiter Kingwill, A. A. Laidler, Dr. P. W.
Kaaing Bult Kinnear, William Langeberg
Kabas Mountains Kleyn, Martinus Lankester, Sir Roy
Kalahari Kling, Rev. H. Latsky, Jan
Kambro Klopper, B. Latsky, Justus
Kameeldoring Koa Valley Laubscher, Oom Jurie
Kamiesberg Kohler, C. W. H. Lawrie, Miss Isabel
Kamieskroon Kokerboom Layard, Edgar
Kannemeyer, Rev. D. R. Kokot, Dr. D. F. Le Vaillant, F.
Leibbrandt, Rev. H. C. V. Makkadas train Moffat, Robert
Lekkersing Marais, Eugene Molteno, Sir J. C.
Leliefontein Marloth, Rudolf Moordenaar's Bosch
Lewis, Mrs. Ethelreda Masson, Francis Moordenaar's Poort
Lichtenstein Matjesfontein Muller, Izak
Ligter, Dirk McDonald, Hugh Munnik, Senator G. G.
Little Karoo Mealie bread Murray, Dr. Andrew
Livingstone, David Meiring, P. J. Murray, Rev. Charles
Lockyer, Charles Meiringspoort Murraysburg
Logan, J. D. Merriman, John X. Myburgh, Oom Piet
Louw, J.P. Mesklip Namaqualand
Loxton, A.P. Middelburg Nel, Veld Cornet
Luke Millais, John Nieuwoudtville
Maartens, H. Milner, Hotel North West Cape
Macartney, Govr. Moedverloren Nuweveld
MacOwan, Dr. P. Moffat, Mary Oeboeboegorra
O'kiep Prince Albert Russell, Dr. G.
Orange River Prince Albert Road Saaidam
Ostriches Pringle, Thomas Schietfontein
Oudtshoorn Pritchard, Col. H. H. Schoombiesklip
Pappe, Dr. L Protea syrup Schreiner, Olive
Paterson, Lt. Wm. Putzonderwater Schrijver, Isaac
Patrysfontein Rabinowitz, S Schwarz, E.H.L.
Pella Railway (Karoo) Scully, W.C.
Penrice, G. W. Reinet Huis Secretary Bird
Perderuiter, Damon Reynolds, G. W. Seven Weeks Poort
Pienaar, L.D.J. Richmond Sheep
Pierik, Jan ("Pierinkje") Richtersveld Shepherds
Porcupine Roe, W. Simpson, Dr. Wm.
Porcupine house Roggeveld Sivewright, Sir J.
Pretorius, Cdt. Louw Rose, Max Skoff (origin)
Prieska Rosyntjiebos Slangmeester
Snake stones Stock theft Tortoise (as medicine)
Snakes Stockenstroom, Landdrost Tortoise eggs
Sneeuberg Stormberg Tortoise soup
Soebatsfontein Stow, G.W. Touw's River
Somerset, Lord Charles Sundays River Toverberg
Southey, Col. Sutherland Trekbok
Spandau Kop Sutherland, Rev. H. Trektou
Sparrman, Andrew Swanepoel, G.J. Truffles
Spekboom Swartberg Tweedside
Spektakel Swartberg Pass Uintjies
Spooktrein Tassalletjies Ukribip
Springbok migrations Te Water Huis Van Der Merwe, J.N.
Steedman, A. Teutman, Hendrik Van der Walt, Cdt. Gert
Steenkamp, Veld Cornet The Hell Van der Westhuizen, Jasper
Steinkopf Thompson, George Van Heerden, Dr. J.A.
Stephen, A.F. Thunberg, Dr. Carl Van Jaarsveld, Pieter
Van Pletsen, J.S. Williams, E. H.
Van Reenen, Coetzee Williston
Van Renen, Jacobus Witblits
Van Wassenaer, J.W. Witgatkoffie
Velletjies, Klaas Wodehouse, Sir Philip
Venison Worcester
Vermeulen, Jan Yankee, John
Victoria West Zak River Estates
Von Schlicht, Miss H. Zeyher, Karl
Vosburg Zoar mission
Watt, Prof J. M. Zuckerman, Prof. S.
Wauchope, Maj. Gen
Weltevreden
Wernich, Mrs. H. J.
Wide, J. W.
Wild rye