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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028684243 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DT 756.W28 
 
 On the veldt In the seventies 
 
 3 1924 028 684 243 
 
ON THE VELDT IN 
 
 THE SEVENTIES 
 
ON THE VELDT IN 
 
 THE SEVENTIES 
 
 BY 
 
 LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
 
 SIR CHARLES WARREN 
 
 G.C.M.G. K.C.B. 
 
 OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE, KIMBERLEV 
 
 LONDON 
 ISBISTER AND CO. LIMITED 
 
 15 & 16 TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 1902 
 
Printed by Ballantvnb, Hanson &» Co, 
 London dr* Edinburgh 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I HAVE been requested from time to time (by 
 friends who are interested in the -welfare of South 
 Ajfrica) to give my views as to the condition of the 
 country with which I have been connected for so 
 many years. 
 
 It appears to me that I can best do this by first 
 gathering together the impressions I received some 
 five and twenty years ago, when my duties brought 
 me into intimate acquaintance with the peoples and 
 their varied interests ; and subsequently, if practi- 
 cable, by following up with further accounts showing 
 by our experience in the past how we may be 
 enabled to avoid or surmount difficulties in the 
 fiiture — difficulties which all, who know the country, 
 can clearly see ahead of us. 
 
 The bulk of the volume which I now place before 
 the public consists of extracts from my journals and 
 letters to my wife and children ; and the difference 
 of tone of thought and expression running through 
 the volume is due, in a measure, to the various ages 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 of those to whom the letters are addressed. This 
 will account for childish anecdotes and scraps of 
 natural history, interspersed about the book, which 
 I have retained by desire of those who have read 
 the manuscript. 
 
 CHARLES WARREN. 
 
 Ramsgate, 
 
 October 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 BOUNDARY LINE 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Capetown . . 1 
 
 II. Port Elizabeth to the Diamond Fields and 
 
 Bloempontein 9 
 
 III. KiMBEELEY TO BaMAH (ORANGE RiVER) . 23 
 
 IV. The Kimberley Baseline, and Boundary Line to 
 
 David's Graf . . . . . 38 
 
 V. David's Graf to Ramah . . . . 55 
 
 VI. Fredericksfontein Baseline . . 70 
 
 VII. Back to Mageksfontein . . . .86 
 
 Till. Tarantaal Kop and Platberg .... 104 
 
 IX. Adolf Erasmus' Farm 122 
 
 X. Completion of Boundary Line .... 138 
 
 DIAMOND FIELDS TO DELAGOA BAY 
 
 XI. Kimbekley to Pretoria 147 
 
 XII. To MiDDELBURG AND LydENBURG .... 159 
 
 XIII. To Spitz Kop (Gold Fields) and Pretorius Kop 174 
 
 XIV. To Dblagoa Bay .... . . 187 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 CAPETOWN TO KIMBEELEY 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XV. Capetown to Poet Elizabeth .... 205 
 
 XVI. To QUEENSTOWN AND KiMBERLEY .... 236 
 
 LAND SETTLEMENT, GRIQUALAND WEST 
 
 XVII. KiMBERLEY 259 
 
 XVril. David Arnot's claims and visit to Barkly 283 
 
 XIX. Visit to G-riquatown 316 
 
 XX. Waterboek's Claims 351 
 
 XXI. Settlement op Native Claims . . . .376 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Maps — Sketch-Plan of South Africa .... FrmtispUce 
 
 To face page 
 Grriqualand West . « 257 
 
 G-rahamstown 12 
 
 From a sketch by Lt.-6en. Sir C. 'Warren, 6.C.M.G. 
 
 The Cathedral and Bishop's House, Bloemfontein, 1876 . 22 
 
 (From a photograph) 
 
 The Orange River, South of Griquatown, 1825 .... 75 
 
 (From a sketch by Captain C. Wabken, August 30, 182S) 
 
 Camp of Survey Party, Fredericksfontein, 1876 .... 89 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warren, G.C.M.G.) 
 
 A Bechuana Dwelling, 1825 89 
 
 (From a sketch by Captain C. Warren) 
 
 A Typical Boer Dwelling 122 
 
 (From a photograph) 
 
 Looking Towards Worcester from Darling Bridge . . . 217 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warren, G.CJM.G.) 
 
 Bain's Kloof 219 
 
 (From a sketch bi/ Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warren, G.CM.G.) 
 
 Wolf's Kloof 219 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warren, G.CM.G.) 
 
 Grahamstown 238 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warren, G.C.M.G.) 
 
 Near Mouth of Coalmine 243 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Wabken, G.C.M.G.) 
 
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 To face page 
 
 Hotel, near Coalmine 244 
 
 IFrom a sketch by Lt.-Gren. Sir C. Wakren, Cr.CM.G.) 
 
 View of the Mouth of Coalmine 247 
 
 (^Fi-om a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Wabben, G.C.M.G.) 
 
 Dordrecht 260 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Wahben, G.C.M.G.) 
 
 View from Dordrecht 252 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Warben, G.CM.G.) 
 
 The Citadel, Bloemfontein 254 
 
 (From a sketch by Lt.-Gen. Sir C. Wabben, G.C.M.G.) 
 
 The Chief Mothibi and his Warriors, September 12, 1825 . . 354 
 
 (From a sketch by Captain C. Wabren, subsequently Major-Gen. Sir C. 
 
 Wabren, K.C.B., Col. 96th Kegiment) 
 
 A Street at the Diamond Fields, 1876 .... 369 
 
 (From a photograph) 
 
LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 FEOM THE 
 
 OEANGE TO YAAL EIYERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 In the autumn of 1876 I was engineer, for Works, 
 to the War Department small arms and gunpowder 
 factories, and felt that I was fast drifting into civil 
 life, while all my aspirations were in the direction of 
 a life of military activity. At this time I was 
 offered an appointment as engineer to harbour works 
 in Australia, at ;^95o per annum, and was consider- 
 ing the pros and cons when I received a communi- 
 cation from the Colonial Ofl&ce asking whether it 
 would be agreeable to me to undertake the duties 
 of Special Commissioner in laying down the 
 Boundary-line between Griqualand West and the 
 Orange Free State for her Majesty's Government 
 in conjunction with an expert from the Orange Free 
 State. 
 
 Here was the very chance I wanted ; I felt that 
 the work would exactly suit me, and closed with the 
 
2 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 offer. The Colonial Office was most considerate in 
 every respect ; all my requests were attended to 
 [C— 1814, July 1877] and on Oct. 13, 1876, I 
 received instructions as to my course of procedure, 
 which involved a triangulation, survey and beaconing 
 off of a long slip of ground through which the 
 boundary-line was to pass, from the Orange River 
 near Hopetown on the south to the Vaal River near 
 Fourteen Streams on the north, so arranged as to 
 include the Diamond Fields in British territory. 
 The subject of minor concessions of land was left 
 entirely in my hands, Lord Carnarvon informing me 
 that, while adhering to the general spirit of the 
 agreement with the Orange Free State, I might 
 consider myself at liberty, without sacrificing 
 material points, to make such concessions in minor 
 matters as I might consider fair and expedient, and 
 as might seem necessary in order to prevent dis- 
 agreement or controversy in the future ; and I was 
 further informed that Lord Carnarvon attached 
 quite as much importance to a settlement which in 
 matters of detail would be final and satisfactory to 
 both sides, as to the actual precision of the survey 
 work. My communications with the Colonial Office 
 ended with a kind letter from Lord Carnarvon's 
 private Secretary (now Sir Montagu Ommaianey, 
 Under Secretary of State) saying, " I cannot 
 sufficiently congratulate the Colony on obtaining 
 your services." 
 
 I received letters of introduction from my com- 
 manding officer (afterwards Col. Sir Peter 
 Scratchley, K.O.M.G.) who said : " I intend to send 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 3 
 
 a memo, about your services in the districts as a 
 slight recognition of my debt to you for the steady, 
 indefatigable way in which you have worked. As I 
 say to Sir Henry Barkly, I could not wish to come 
 across an abler officer or a better feUow." I also 
 received many letters of introduction to people at 
 the Cape, from my old friend Col. Anthony Durn- 
 ford (kiUed at Isandlwana) ; he had just returned 
 from the Cape after the Langalibalele episode, 
 where he was seriously injured in the shoulder ; he 
 ended his letter, " Good-bye, old feUow — if we never 
 meet again — God bless you ! " [We never did meet 
 again. He was one of the best of soldiers and truest 
 of friends, and died the death of a hero, j 
 
 The following account of my life on the boundary- 
 line is taken principally from my diary, and from 
 my letters to my wife and children, and I may 
 observe that the views I have expressed of the 
 people, whites and natives, were my first impressions, 
 which were modified somewhat as I remained longer 
 in the country and understood them more fuUy. 
 
 My staff consisted of two non-commissioned 
 officers E,.E. from the Ordnance Survey (Sergeant 
 Kennedy and Corporal Randall). 
 
 We left England in the Union ss. Danube 
 October 26, 1876, Our fellow passengers were not 
 numerous but very amusing. The principal parties 
 (who I came across subsequently) were two shikaris 
 going lion hunting towards the Zambesi (Colonel 
 Saltmarsh and Mr. Brooks) ; Messrs. Forges and Rube 
 on business to the Diamond Fields ; Mr. and Mrs. 
 Atwood of the biscuit-baking firm, Capetown ; two 
 
4 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Erasers, brothers, going to Basutoland ; a Natal 
 farmer, wife and son; Mr, Alexander, engineer; 
 many others, mostly ladies. 
 
 The most amusing certainly was M. Forges, he 
 evidently knows the value of money though he has 
 never known the want of it. He was the life of our 
 party, and I saw a good deal of him. He is not 
 naturally by any means a butt, but he often made 
 himself our butt for our amusement, and acted most 
 cleverly. On crossing the Line the Captain forbade 
 Old Neptune to come on board, so in lieu we got 
 up a charade, the word being given by Forges, 
 half English, half French, Don Quichotte (Quixote) 
 or donkey shot. Our engineer was turned into the 
 " Don " (Don Juan) and made to make love to two 
 or three ladies at one time ; the rehearsals were 
 some of the most inexpressibly funny scenes imagin- 
 able ; after much coaching, at which many of us 
 assisted, he became an adept. In the last scene 
 M. Forges was Don Quixote and shot me, a donkey 
 dressed up as a lion. I brought down the house 
 by an impromptu as I lay dead : pointing at 
 Forges in his grotesque costume — " Better a dead 
 lion than a live donkey." M. Forges was the more 
 amusing because there was so much ponderous 
 dignity mixed up with it, and while putting us for 
 ever on the grin he kept his own countenance severe. 
 At the time of crossing the Line we had boisterous 
 sports ; amongst others bear-basting, and I gladly 
 allowed myself to be swung in a sling and beaten 
 black and blue with knotted handkerchiefs for the 
 sake of seeing the- magnificent Forges going through 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 5 
 
 the same ordeal shortly afterwards, glaring at us 
 and looking very like being out of temper yet ever 
 keeping it under control. 
 
 We neared Capetown on November 20, anchoring 
 at 4 P.M. As we approached land during the day, 
 we were much impressed with the extraordinary 
 effect of the mirage on the sea-coast. The whole of 
 the barren sandy shore was transformed at midday 
 into a beautifully cultivated coast with numerous 
 lines of waterfalls running over into the sea. The 
 deception was most perfect, but at times the water- 
 falls resolved themselves into stretches of low sand, 
 and the rising ground behind disappeared. Table 
 Mountain was most striking in appearance, but was 
 looking parched and dry though the summer was 
 barely commencing. But at sea the temperature 
 was cold, and I was still wearing my overcoat when 
 we entered the harbour, and a sudden change to 
 sultry heat was experienced. This always does 
 strike people from our isles very much, owing to the 
 intensely cold water from the Antarctic Ocean 
 washing the shores of South Africa. 
 
 The harbours and surrounding buildings present 
 a very unfinished, unkempt appearance : the docks 
 seem very small for large vessels, and the strong 
 current sweeping across the entrance makes it 
 difficult for ships to enter, as the stern may be 
 swept against the jetty after the bow has entered ; 
 we ourselves very narrowly escaped coming in con- 
 tact with the wooden jetty. Capetown nestles 
 picturesquely under the mountain side, but thie 
 absence of trees is a great drawback, and the 
 
6 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 chaotic state of the foreshore detracts altogether 
 from our proper appreciation of the grand view 
 behind it. Hansom cabs abound in the streets, and 
 the drivers, mostly Malays (Moslem), wear the 
 Malay straw hat raised some inches above the head, 
 supported on a circular band of metal which fits the 
 head. The streets of Capetown are far too wide for the 
 limited amount of labour that the municipality can 
 afford to bestow on them, and the pavements or 
 footpaths on either side are appropriated by the 
 owners of the cream-coloured houses, and are used 
 as Dutch stoeps ; that is to say, they have seats put 
 across them, a custom very pleasant and even 
 necessary for the occupants, but causing the white 
 pedestrians who have to walk in the roadway to 
 utter many things. Probably the reply would be that 
 white people should ride and not walk like natives. 
 
 At the Custom House I had an amusing scene 
 with the chief ofl&cer. I was taking a silver pre- 
 sentation plate through to Major Lanyon, which 
 they insisted on opening though the invoice stated 
 exactly its nature. I felt sure that they would spoil 
 it with their rough hands, so I said I would rather 
 kick it into the sea than have any more bother with 
 it, and gave it a good kick. They gave in at once 
 and said it could be of no value if I could kick it, 
 and so I got it through without injury. 
 
 St. George's Hotel was stifling hot, but there were 
 neither mosquito-nets nor mosquitoes in my room. I 
 was much struck with the profusion of delicious 
 fruit and vegetables of great variety which the hotel 
 afforded. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 7 
 
 November 21. — ^After calling on Captain Mills 
 (afterwards Sir Charles MiHs, Agent-General for 
 the Cape Colony) I paid my respects to Sir Henry 
 Barkly, High Commissioner, who received me most 
 cordially, and told me that the arrangements for the 
 details of the boundary -line were left entirely to my 
 discretion, but that if I ever wanted any assistance 
 or advice he would be most hajipy to afford it. I 
 then called on General Sir Arthur Conynghame, and 
 on the following day visited the Astronomer-Royal, 
 Mr, Stone, and the late Astronomer-Royal, Sir 
 Thomas Maclear, relative to connecting the boun- 
 dary-line survey with that of the Cape Colony 
 Triangulation, and got valuable information from 
 than on various points ; but on visiting the Surveyor- 
 General, Mr. de Smit, I ascertained that the Cape 
 Colony Triangulation did not go farther inland than 
 200 mUes, and that therefore no junction could be 
 made. 
 
 Before leaving Capetown I dined with Sir Henry 
 and Lady Barkly at Government House, and there 
 met Admiral Sir William Hewett, the Flag 'Officer 
 of the Cape of Good Hope Station [imder whom I 
 subsequently served during the Egyptian War of 
 1882-3]. He was full of his recent visit to Natal, 
 and spoke in most glowing terms df one he had met 
 there — "a born soldier." It was on his road from 
 Durban to Pietermaritzburg that he met him, an 
 Englishman, driving a Cape-cai^t with six horses and 
 giving directions to the Kafir labourers on the road. 
 " The man was in plain clothes and doing civil duties, 
 and I did not ascertain his name, but I recognised 
 
8 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 him as a born soldier : his method of dealing with his 
 workmen was perfect ; they were drilled into order 
 and hung on his words as though he were a superior 
 being." This description interested me very much, 
 and I said, " That must be Colonel Anthony Durn- 
 ford, R.E." (subsequently killed at Isandlwana). 
 Sir William replied : " I don't care who he is : he is 
 a born soldier whoever he is." I was very much 
 gratified to find that Durnford should be so readily 
 recognised for his soldierlike qualities even when 
 doing the civil duties of Surveyor-General of the 
 Natal Colony. 
 
 Just before I left Capetown the verger of the 
 Cathedral came over to tell me that one of the 
 Sisters wished me to go over their Children's Home. 
 I do not know them, but I had met one of them in 
 the train and offered to take anything for them to 
 Kimberley : they are not, however, of the same order 
 as those at Kimberley. 
 
 I went over the Home. There are two kinds of 
 dress used by the Sisters, black and grey : I think 
 that the latter are novices. They have eighty-three 
 children in the school and are much in want of 
 funds ; there is also a refuge. There are no bed- 
 steads, for want of funds, and the children sleep on 
 the floor on mattresses. They are aU colours and 
 seem to get on very well together : many are 
 orphans. This organisation of Sisters must be very 
 helpful to the bishop. I cannot think why we don't 
 have something of the kind in Palestine ; it is very 
 like the German system. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 We arrived at Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay) on 
 Sunday morning, Nov. 26, 1876, after a forty hours' 
 run in the Danube. We stopped at Mossel Bay to 
 put down Sir John Coode, C.E., who is on a tour of 
 inspection to the several harbours. He seems to 
 have little hopes of doing any good there, but was 
 desirous of going on to the Knysna, where there is a 
 land-locked harbour, and at least fifteen feet of 
 water on the bar. According to all accounts the 
 •country about George and the Knysna is the most 
 beautiful in the world ; splen did forests, flowers, 
 •climate. You can ride through miles of red 
 geranium, you can shoot elephants (if you have a 
 permit), you water your horse every three miles at 
 the running streams. This is to be the harbour of 
 the future (according to current account) and it can 
 be so easily defended. With all these advantages I 
 liope Sir John Coode can push the matter, but his 
 instructions appear to be only regarding Mossel 
 Bay. 
 
 Algoa Bay is said to be most thriving port in 
 South Africa, 14,000 whites and 3000 Kafirs, but 
 from the sea it seems quite a small place with clean- 
 looking buildings ; the absence of trees is the 
 
10 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 most remarkable want. There is simply a wide 
 open bay with a surf of great violence and beach- 
 combers in strings on the shore holding hand and 
 hand, stretching right into the surf and bringing 
 goods and passengers on shore among them : a very 
 turbulent proceeding at times but a necessary eviL 
 They say that vessels cannot ride safely at anchor 
 in a south-easterly gale and have to cut and run. 
 
 From the sea the plains above the town look like 
 Clevedon in Somersetshire, but the coast-line is- 
 barren and rocky and contrasts strangely with the 
 brand-new houses ; everything looks so clearly cut in 
 this bright climate. 
 
 We were able to land in boats and put up at the 
 Phoenix Hotel where we got our coach tickets for 
 Kimberley. 
 
 Hearing the church bells going, I had just time 
 to change my clothes and make for a new plastered 
 building of cruciform shape ; a very ugly church 
 outside but the service conducted well, somewhat 
 ornate. A good choir of six men and fourteen 
 boys, and a decent organ. The minister had an 
 excellent voice and led the whole service, including: 
 the singing. The psalms and all responses were 
 chanted. The boys sang well and rather loudly, 
 but I should not have considered it diiferent to any 
 service at home ; I should say that it was a good 
 deal above our average. A good sermon on the 
 Second Coming ; no communion. I cannot say what 
 an effect it had, this first joining a service in church 
 with our people grown up in a colony ; what a bond 
 it is between us ! 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 11 
 
 In the afternoon I came m for a tough job. It 
 was very hot, but I felt restless staying indoors 
 and walked through the town into a fine church 
 and seeing a young man puffing away at the organ 
 bellows and looking at the last gasp, I offered 
 to lend a hand whUe he r^ested a bit ; after a time 
 the music did not cease, and the organ blower did 
 not come back, and I began to perspire very freely. 
 I did not like to incommode the people by ceasing 
 to blow, and gradually it dawned upon me that it 
 could not be a church of England that I was in. 
 Presently the people began to flock out, and they 
 all seemed to scrutinise me as much as to say, "You 
 are not one of us." However, I pegged away until 
 the organist stopped, and then I took a look in and 
 found it was a Roman Catholic Church, and bolted. 
 [I never met that young man, the organ-blower, 
 again, and I think he did not wish to meet me.] 
 
 In the afternoon I went with Forges and the 
 Frasers to see the gardens of Port Elizabeth. What 
 keeps striking me so much is the absence of trees, 
 otherwise the general appearance of the country is 
 like Cornwall. The houses all seem new and look 
 well with balconies and verandahs. I never realised 
 before that the ox is a majestic animal : I can under- 
 stand now why he appears on the standards of the 
 Children of Israel. The ox out here is a splendid 
 beast, walking with a freedom of step that I have 
 always ascribed only to the lion. As they draw the 
 waggons through the street they look as though 
 they were doing it of their own free wOl, for the 
 love of the labour ; they look absolutely independent 
 
12 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 and free. Above the town at the height of about 
 200 feet from the sea is a level plateau with coarse 
 grass. Here are an observatory, and a pyramidal 
 monument to Elizabeth Donkin who died in India in 
 181 5, and a cemetery and then the town gardens. 
 Oh, what a disappointment ! A pond of water and 
 some trees and flowers in a most unkempt condition, 
 quite melancholy to see. The trees are principally 
 fir and blue gums, and the flowers are petunias and 
 geraniums. There is wanting a little artistic skill, 
 and a good deal of labour to make these gardens pre- 
 sentable. 
 
 The Malays, who are Moslems, are dressed in nice, 
 bright, clean colours, and they inhabit their own 
 quarter of the town ; I like the look of them. The 
 Kafirs are scarecrows ; they wear our old clothes and 
 very bad ones too, instead of their national costume 
 (if they have one). What guys they aU look ! 
 What a lot there is to be done in this country, and 
 the dust is insufierable. Major Lanyon has 
 telegraphed to ask me to stay with him at 
 Kimberley. 
 
 Tuesday, Nov. 28. — We rose early and started 
 by train for Sand flats, over an undulating bush 
 country ; such a desolate scene. The veldt is quite 
 dry, and the; scrub or bushes have lichens hanging 
 down from them like beards, as though they had 
 been immersed in a sea full of sea- weed and the 
 water suddenly drained oif. A most melancholy 
 sight. Then by coach to Grahamstown where we 
 arrived in the evening. 
 
 The style of hotel accommodation up country 
 
o 
 
 > 
 a; 
 
 > 
 s 
 
 O 
 
 . / 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 13 
 
 would be amusing if it were not so singularly un- 
 comfortable ; it is cheap enough. Bedrooms which 
 have six to ten or more beds in them, and the 
 washing to be done in the open air in the back yard; 
 it reminds me of the Ventas of Spain, but not so 
 amusing. I cannot express my sensation regarding 
 the voyage up to Kimberley as anything else but 
 dreary in the extreme as far as outside circum- 
 stances, though being a merry party we were very 
 happy all together. 
 
 The very suUen look of the Kafirs disturbed me ; 
 so different to natives I have met in other parts of 
 the world. Everywhere else I have found the 
 native looking upon the Englishman as his friend, 
 but here the Kafir looks gloomily at us as his natural 
 enemy ; there is no greeting, no " Good morning." 
 How hateful all this is ! [At this time the discon- 
 tent had begun which culminated in the great rising 
 of 1877.] We passed through Cradock, Colesberg,, 
 the Orange Free State, staying for the night at, 
 wayside hotels, and reached Kimberley on Decem- 
 ber 4 early in the morning. What a dreary country 
 we have gone over, uninteresting in the extreme for 
 400 mUes ! I did not think it possible that there 
 could be 400 miles of such vacuity. 
 
 Imagine an uncultivated country with large plains 
 and only small flat-topped mountains ; without corn- 
 fields, without trees, without terraces or vineyards ; 
 without a single ruin or vestige of the past ; with 
 absolutely no history of any kind reaching back a 
 hundred years. A general scene of desolation, farm- 
 houses (or inns) 15 to 30 miles apart, with nothing 
 
14 LAYING THE BOUNDARY^LINE 
 
 to eat in them save bread and butter milk, and 
 meat — tough meat too. I wonder if I am becoming 
 a pessimist. 
 
 The rains take place in summer so that wheat 
 cannot thrive, and if rain by any chance does fall in 
 the winter the long grass rots on the ground and the 
 cattle starve ; moreover, the winter in the uplands 
 is said to be severe in the extreme. Yet with all 
 this I find the summer, in spite of its heat, extremely 
 pleasant. This is the same latitude as Gibraltar, 
 but the sun is not nearly so oppressive, and one 
 feels so wonderfully well — all alive ! 
 
 I have felt more cold than heat as yet, though it 
 is midsummer, and I have often had to don my over- 
 coat. 
 
 Yet here and there were objects of interest, the 
 great white-ant heaps, and the holes made in them 
 by the ant-bear with a long snout ; then two kinds 
 of merckats which inhabit cities on the route, and 
 also snake communities. The thorny mimosa is 
 almost in blossom, and the wild jessamine just out. 
 Yellow wild cats to be seen. They seem to milk the 
 sheep in this country : they have only one lamb 
 each and bear for six years. The stages average 
 1 6|- miles each, and our rate was 6|- miles an hour, 
 going for about i6 hours a day, temperature 85° to 
 90° F. during the day and cool, even cold, at night ; 
 the plateau of the Orange Free State is some four 
 thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 As I approach Kimberley and the western 
 boundary of the Orange Free State, where I am to 
 spend so many months, I must confess I see nothing 
 
OUANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 15 
 
 interesting or prepossessing in the appearance of 
 the country — miles and miles of nearly dead level 
 steppes, gently rising every few miles and culminat- 
 ing ^in flat-topped hills of iron-stone or trap, and 
 falling again and rising up to another range of flat 
 tops. The slopes so imperceptible that they can 
 only be detected at long distances. Here and there 
 •deep sluits or gullies in the shaly soil, running into 
 the Riet and Modder rivers, which are merely bigger 
 and larger gullies running through these nearly level 
 plains : with only a dribble of water in them except 
 in the heavy rains — ^then they are a fine sight, they 
 say, roaring torrents sometimes overflowing the 
 plain. 
 
 At th« junction of the Riet and Modder rivers we 
 <3ame to a large store, half tent, half corrugated iron 
 (Berry's), and after crossing the river we approached 
 the Diamond Fields, whose galvanised iron roofs and 
 walls shone brilliantly in the sunshine, a dazzling 
 whiter 
 
 I am glad to be over the journey, for it had its 
 inconveniences, though I enjoyed myself immensely. 
 The food bad, the accommodation bad, our Boer 
 hosts both insolent and grasping : they gave us the 
 bare necessaries of life, charged us as though we 
 were in first-class hotels, and treated us as intru- 
 ders. Owing to the dryness of the air, the bread, 
 said to have been baked in the morning, had to be 
 parted with a hatchet in the evening, and the beef 
 was too tough for mastication— had to be bolted. 
 
 We were highly amused with one of our 
 fellow passengers from Grahamstown, a vivacious 
 
16 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Afrikander Englishman, who laid down the laws, put 
 us all to rights and kept us amused. On getting ta 
 one of the Boer inns he disappeared as a passenger 
 and reappeared as the waiter of the inn under Boer 
 supervision, and a very good one too, most civil and 
 obliging, but no longer passing as the man of fortune 
 and means on his way to shoot big game in the 
 interior. I could see by his eye that he thought he 
 had scored. [Some months after I passed this house 
 and found this same waiter sitting on a stone, dull, 
 abstracted, and dejected, I tried to rally him with 
 no effect. Again I passed the inn and found he 
 was gone, a victim to consumption.] 
 
 Dec. 4, 1876. — ^We arrived at Kimberley on the 
 coach so early that there was no one from Govern- 
 ment House to meet me, and being a stranger to 
 Major Lanyon I put up at Mrs. Jardine's hotel to get 
 a wash and breakfast. [Here I made the acquaint- 
 ance of the kindest of landladies, and one of the best 
 of women, Mrs. Jardine.J Her hotel was a novel 
 building to me. An enormous eating-room with 
 very small single bedrooms opening out all round, 
 and in front the bar and sitting-room. Soon I was 
 discovered by Major Lanyon (afterwards Sir Owen 
 Lanyon). I was well wigged for not coming to him 
 at once, and he treated me most hospitably, as his 
 reputation is so to do. 
 
 Here I met my future colleague, Mr. Jos E, 
 de Villiers, Government Surveyor, who had come 
 over to meet me and carry me up to Bloemfontein 
 to pay my respects to President Brand, of the 
 Orange Free State. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS IT 
 
 Dec. 5. — Jos. de VUliers took me in his Cape 
 cart to his house at Boshof, over thirty-five miles ; 
 here I made the acquaintance of his wife, and on the 
 following morning we got up very early and drove 
 straight through into Bloemfontein, the whole dis- 
 tance by Boshof from Kimberley being 120 miles. 
 
 Thursday, Dec. 7. — I have paid a visit to Presi- 
 dent Brand and was delighted with him. I suppose 
 he would not be offended if I say that he seems to 
 be thoroughly English. We shall get on first rate 
 together I can see, he takes such reasonable views 
 of everything. He was glad to find that I had 
 authority to alter the line to a slight extent, as he 
 said I should find great difficulties with some of the 
 farmers, who were very wroth at being brought into 
 British territory, and threatened to shoot those who 
 laid down the line. The President seems to have 
 some difficult people to deal with in the Volksraad, 
 but he manages them so skilfully that they greatly 
 respect him, though they do accuse him now and 
 then of being too English. I think that they are 
 rather proud of him. 
 
 Dec. 8. — All about here say that the Orange Free 
 State and the Transvaal are to be the rich portions 
 of South Africa. People here are making their 
 fortunes in six to ten years. The proprietors of 
 this hotel have in succession made two fortunes in 
 ten years, and now a third is getting rich. Prices 
 are at a frightful pitch ; five shillings for a bottle of 
 Bass, one shilling for a slice of bread and butter and 
 cup of tea. At Jacobsdaal I had two cups of tea, 
 and they charged me sixpence each, but there are 
 
18 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 extortioners there, if anywhere. After all, however, 
 it is not much more than we have to pay at a rail- 
 way station at home, but the style and comfort are 
 very different. 
 
 They all boast about the Transvaal, there is no 
 end to their talk about it ; it is a real El Dorado or 
 Tom Tidler's ground, where gold and silver and 
 precious stones seem to be had for the asking. A 
 good farm of 6000 acres can be bought for ;^I50 
 (what is the title?), the climate is delicious, with 
 thunderstorms every few days in summer. I must 
 confess that even here it is "good enough" : though 
 we are near midsummer the weather is most agree- 
 able, water in bath quite cold and a fresh breeze all 
 day. 
 
 This town has more than doubled during the last 
 ten years, and is very thriving. When the railway 
 comes here it is to be the educational centre of 
 South Africa. Already it must have made its mark 
 in the minds of some, as a young Afrikander told 
 me on board ship that, next to Paris, it was the 
 most enlightened place on the face of the earth. I 
 have reason, however, to conjecture that the young 
 lady he is in love with was educated here, so no 
 wonder he cracks up Bloemfontein. 
 
 I can see in front of me convents, churches, a 
 cathedral, schools in all directions, and buildings 
 springing up : it is a pretty sight, and I give a little 
 sketch of it as I sit here. 
 
 I am on top of a small hill of ironstone about a 
 mile to the south-west of the town (or may we call 
 it a, city ?) ; it is 1 1 A.M., and as I look to the city to 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 19 
 
 north-east the sun shines in my face as we are in 
 the Southern Hemisphere, and is at mid-day due 
 north. Below me is the rifle range (hurrah for their 
 military instincts !) ; the Boers are excellent shots, 
 and are said to hit springbuck at 800 yards. Bloem- 
 fontein is in a hollow, basking in the summer sun, 
 for we are near Christmas. Forty to sixty miles 
 away, on the horizon are indications of mountains, 
 amongst others Moroko's Mountains (Thaba^ N'chu), 
 the centre of a native republic within a white re- 
 public, belonging to a great Barolong chief, with a 
 town of 10,000 men. 
 
 Around Bloemfontein and overlooking it are four 
 low hills, two to north about 400 feet above the 
 plain, and two to south about 200 feet above the 
 plain ; between them the road from east to west 
 passes. The southern hill to east sustains the 
 citadel, on which the Orange Republic flag is flying. 
 This fort is composed of a loose stone wall with two 
 old smooth-bores (24-pounders) mounted on iron 
 gun-carriages. Between the two southern hills is a 
 monument to "the brave" who fell in the Kafir 
 war, and on the southern slope of these hills are two 
 cemeteries, one English the other Dutch ; the latter 
 is nicely kept and has trees in it. 
 
 The city lies in the hollow between the northern 
 and southern hills ; on the west is a sheet of water 
 kept in by a dam, and near it is the fountain called 
 after Bloem, the first farmer (probably a half-caste 
 Griqua, I quote from my father's notes) who settled 
 here. The water in the dam is obtained from the 
 •occasional rainfall, which is conjectured to be about 
 
20 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 fifteen inches or more per annum. Beyond is a 
 pretty farmhouse surrounded by trees: cypress, 
 blue gum, where the Church of England Sisters have 
 a school, I believe. Next to the dam appears the 
 new House of Assembly for the Volksraad, and then 
 a succession of houses with galvanised-iron roofs 
 (gospel oak). Green trees are interspersed, cypress, 
 weeping wiUows (near the water), blue gums, pride of 
 India. Schools, churches, convents, stores, private 
 dwellings, succeed each other until the city is hidden 
 behind the hill. In the centre is a large square 
 where the market is held (please remember that I 
 am a stranger taking stock, and no doubt my 
 account is full of errors. I begin to be alarmed at 
 being questioned by next mail how many convents 
 there are, and to which Orders they belong). 
 
 A strong breeze is blowing, objects forty miles off 
 are easily seen, but there is also the mirage, sheets 
 of water in the distance, which are only streams of 
 heated air ; the mountains sometimes rise up in the 
 air, sometimes seem topsy-turvy, and they often look 
 like haystacks — huge haystacks — because they are 
 flat-topped, get larger as they go down, and then 
 suddenly, on account of the mirage, get smaller still 
 lower down. The earth is red, grass brown, but the 
 shrubs (Karoo) are green, so are the trees in the 
 town, especially the beautiful pride of India, whose 
 roots are so poisonous to other plants. There are 
 no trees to be seen about the veldt. A waggon 
 with sixteen oxen traverses the plain; horses are 
 feeding here and there. The wind hurtles over the 
 plain, cool and refreshing, but laden with dust in 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 21 
 
 the track where it crosses the oxen, insects busy 
 around, sleep is courting the eyelids, but a desire for 
 luncheon overcomes and causes a descent from the 
 vantage-point. 
 
 What a pity that paper, the sweepings of all the 
 stores of Bloemfontein, should be flying about the 
 veldt ! Acres of paper. Some of it seems to have 
 been here for years, careering over the plain, back- 
 wards and forwards with the wind, sometimes in 
 one direction, sometimes in another, but always 
 near, quite spoiling the environs. It would appear 
 as though every wrapper on every parcel reaching 
 this metropolis since its building had been wandering 
 about for years around. There must be a crusade 
 against this paper some day. 
 
 I inquired after Harry Stockdale, and hear that he 
 is partner with Hubbard, transport-riding between 
 this and Kimberley, and that I must have passed him 
 on the way driving his ox-waggon without recog- 
 nising him. I hear very good accounts of him^ and 
 that he is likely to do well. I have not yet met Sister 
 Henrietta, but have heard from her that, next to 
 going home, she would like to meet an old friend 
 from home. She is nursing somewhere about, and 
 I hope to see her soon : she is not yet in possession 
 of a hospital, that is to come. 
 
 I have been to a very pleasant children's party at 
 President Brand's and danced with the children, and 
 made acquaintance with Miss Trench, daughter of 
 the Archbishop of Dublin ; she is not a permanent 
 sister, only a grey lady, and goes home very soon to 
 take care of her father. I am dehghted with Mrs, 
 
22 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Brand, who made herself most pleasant ; she is an 
 Afrikander of good old Dutch family. She regretted 
 very much that the president's income (^5000 a 
 year, I think) could go such a little way in so 
 expensive a country, and that their hospitality had 
 to be curtailed more than they wished. 
 
 Sunday, Dec. 10. — I think I shall like the 
 cathedral people very much, they all seem so nice. 
 Bishop Webb preached a most impressive sermon, 
 and the services are well conducted. I lunched with 
 Mrs. Webb at i p.m., and met Mr. Gall [now Bishop 
 of Mashonaland] ; he took me over the theological 
 college west of the cemetery. The cemetery is in a 
 dilapidated condition, all except the wall. I made 
 the acquaintance of Archdeacon and Mrs. Croghan, 
 and of Canon and Mrs. M'Kenzie. AU are living 
 without competent servants, so far as I could judge : 
 the ladies doing the cooking, which was very good ; 
 I am sure that Kafirs could not cook so well. When 
 I called on the Croghans I had to thump at the 
 door, as there was no bell or knocker, and Madame 
 came out in her kitchen garments, and was very 
 merry over it. I think these people are very happy 
 so far removed from conventionalities ; at any rate, 
 they impressed me with their great hospitality and 
 intense energy in struggling against all difficulties. 
 
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CHAPTEE III 
 
 Monday, Dec. ii. — I returned to Kimberley by- 
 coach. Just before starting Major Lanyon (who 
 had arrived last night) came up and introduced me 
 to a fellow passenger, Bishop Jolivet, Vicar Apostolic 
 for Natal, who was right good company, full of 
 anecdotes, and most amusing. He likened the 
 springbuck to cheesemites, owing to the manner in 
 which they suddenly bring their legs close together 
 and then bound up in the air. He was open-mouthed 
 on the subject of the iniquities of the Church of 
 England in the Bloemfontein diocese. One of his 
 complaints is that our clergy dress in cassocks so 
 that you cannot tell them from Roman priests, and 
 that sisters have been introduced who look like 
 nuns, so that no one could tell the difference, and 
 that they have drawn off the Dutch girls from the 
 Roman schools and have ruined the Roman efforts in 
 Bloemfontein. The whole indictment appears to 
 show that the Church of England has been very 
 active and has been just in time to gain the day at 
 Bloemfontein. 
 
 Our coachman was a Malay. I did not recognise 
 this at first, but on one occasion when he got much 
 excited he abused the horses in choice Arabic swear 
 
24 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 words, which were very familiar to me. I started 
 a conversation with him, but his Arabic vocabulary- 
 was weak, and principally limited to language he 
 had acquired during a pilgrimage to Mecca, where 
 evidently the animals that carried him required a 
 good deal of coaxing and conjuring. 
 
 A concourse of the Eoman Church flocked out 
 from Kimberley, as we approached, in all sorts of 
 conveyances, and brought a carriage to meet the 
 bishop. He insisted on my getting in with him and 
 we drove into town in triumph. 
 
 In the evening I was asked to go to a theatrical 
 performance given by the Roman Catholic boys of 
 the town in aid of some charity. They drilled, 
 executed various manoeuvres and sword exercise ; 
 aU most capital exercises for boys, many of them 
 not more than seven years old ; then they acted in 
 a play entitled King Alfred and the Calces, reaUy 
 grotesque, and then a screaming farce which did not 
 seem very suitable for children ; they acted a dying 
 man and used strange oaths. It is very difficult to 
 select plays for children to act. 
 
 Next day, Tuesday, Dec. 12, I called on the 
 surveyor-general, Mr. Francis Orpen, and agreed to 
 visit the vicinity of the boundary -line with him as 
 far south as Ramah, as my colleague, Jos. de Villiers, 
 is engaged as a member of the Volksraad for several 
 days. With these two it is a case of Box and Cox, 
 they cannot meet together. They have come to 
 such cross-purposes that if they met there would 
 be an explosion. 
 
 Jos. de Villiers is a very able man and a good 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 25 
 
 surveyor ; he is thoroughly Afrikander Dutch in all 
 his views, and has insisted on the boundary -line 
 being brought in much farther to the west than 
 Orpen considers just. Francis Orpen is also a very 
 able man, a good surveyor and good mathe- 
 matician, and seems never so happy, they say, as 
 when he is in the midst of some abstruse problem. 
 Mowing clouds of tobacco smoke around him. I am 
 to be well inoculated with the pure English view as 
 an antidote .to all the poison of the Dutch view 
 which I shall imbibe when meeting and working with 
 de Villiers. But, so far as I can see, it all lies in a 
 nutshell, and presents few real difficulties, except 
 those imported into it by prejudice. 
 
 The work before us is to determine the precise" 
 position of Ramah, David's Graf, Tarantaal Kop and 
 Platberg, and to lay down beacons from point to 
 point. To do this we have to make a complete 
 triangulation of a strip of country 120 miles from 
 north to south between the Orange and Vaal Rivers, 
 to fix the latitude and longitude of some one point 
 in the triangulation, and to connect it with the 
 surveyor's farm triangulation in Griqualand West 
 and the Orange Free State. 
 
 Thursday, Dec. 14. — ^We started early in a Cape 
 ■cart and four horses driven by Mr. Orpen, towards 
 the Modder River and, strange to relate, we promptly 
 lost our way on the veldt. Mr. Orpen had got so 
 interested in his subject that he had taken a wrong 
 turning, and there we were, with the level veldt all 
 round us, and the surveyor-general of the colony 
 quite in a fix ; it was most amusing. We had to 
 
26 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 cross the Modder somewhere ; so he chose the first 
 drift, a very difficult one, where we were nearly- 
 capsized, and we out-spanned at a Boer's house on 
 the southern side of the river. He asked us to stay 
 for cofiee, and talked Dutch. Several Boers were 
 assembled there, and as it was my first entry into 
 real Boer society (otherwise than at an inn) I watched 
 the whole proceeding with intense interest. First I 
 was taken aback by the appearance of some of them ; 
 it rather took my breath away. They mostly had 
 on corduroy suits, of the very oldest and dirtiest 
 description, and veldt hats ; but one old patriarch 
 had a battered silk top-hat, and a rusty black suit 
 which became him down to the ground ; he certainly 
 was uniform in his appearance ; and yet this man 
 was described as very wealthy. The men spit about 
 in aU directions, and the house had a disagreeable 
 odour about it of sour milk, but we sat on the stoep.. 
 The whole place was horribly uninviting, and yet 
 some of the things were very clean. The milk-pails- 
 were polished up, and the brass fittings of various 
 objects were clean and bright. I am inclined to 
 think that many of their ^irty ways are due to 
 peculiarities of climate and the difficulties in getting 
 water and soap. I wonder if I shall ever like them ! 
 We went on to a wayside inn near Honing Nest^ 
 kept by Mimac, an old English soldier (45th Regi- 
 ment), such a contrast to the last place! Mimac" haa 
 done wonders ; dug a well, made a shower-bath, 
 planted a garden, and married a Dutch wife, who is. 
 not only an excellent cook, but who also keeps the 
 whole place exceedingly clean. She is an enormous 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 27 
 
 woman, too heavy to move about, and sits all day- 
 long regulating affairs from the kitchen. They say 
 that when Mimac takes her out for an airing he has 
 to haul her up into the cart by means of a derrick. 
 This house is forty -two miles from Kimberley, on 
 the road to Hopetown, and is a favourite place for 
 travellers to stop it, as the food is known to be 
 always well cooked, and the accommodation so com- 
 fortable ; it is only buUt of galvanised iron, and thus 
 very hot in the daytime, but then it is also very cool 
 at night. 
 
 Friday, Dec. 1 5. — After breakfast we started over 
 the veldt again, a very monotonous journey. The 
 only object of interest to be seen was a steep, rocky 
 hm in the distance, apparently of trap formation, 
 with a white streak flowing down one rocky side. 
 This I was told was a home of the vulture, and that 
 the white streak is from the droppings of these birds, 
 the accumulation of many years ; it is called Asvogel 
 Kop, and is near Honing Nest Kloof. I had won- 
 dered, when coming up in the coach, where these big 
 birds get away to at night. Their habits are an in- 
 teresting problem ; how do they gather together so 
 quickly when some animal dies on the veldt ? In a 
 few minutes you will see twenty, thirty, forty or 
 more birds, all congregating together. They tell me 
 that these vultures, on going out of a morning, mount 
 high up and divide the heavens between them ; and 
 that when one of them sees, from his vantage-point, 
 an animal fall down exhausted on the earth, he makes 
 his way there, and the others, seeing the movement, 
 close in and follow in the same direction ; and that 
 
28 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 this is carried on for hundreds of miles. This 
 does not quite explain the matter, unless some birds 
 are left aloft, on guard, to watch for the fall of other 
 animals. 
 
 To-day we only drove fifteen miles, and arrived at 
 a large farmhouse called Belmont, the property of 
 Mr. Wayland. It is the show-house in these parts. 
 Mr. Wayland has made the desert blossom as the 
 rose. He has constructed a large dam, which, though 
 at a very low ebb at present for want of rain, irrigates 
 his large garden and field. The house is of brick 
 and masonry, and there are a few creepers on the 
 stoep, but no garden close to the house. They are 
 particular in this country to select a dry erf for the 
 house to stand on, somewhat high up ; while the wet 
 erf, for the garden, must be at some distance below 
 the dam. They think that irrigation near a house 
 gives malarial fever, and this certainly was our ex- 
 perience in the Mediterranean ; and in the Lebanon 
 you will recollect that fever was always attributed 
 to damp ground near the house. 
 
 The result of this system here, however, is to give 
 rather a dusty, dreary appearance to the homesteads, 
 while the gardens may be beautiful and bright with 
 flowers. The garden here is large and well- watered. 
 Mr. Wayland received us as his guests in the most 
 hospitable manner ; he took us over his garden and 
 with manifest pride showed us hollyhocks, petunias, 
 periwinkle, tamarisk ; all kinds of stone fruit 
 (apricot, peach, plum), orange-trees, pomegranate; 
 all these he has planted himself All this out of the 
 sweat of the brow ; all the result of elbow urease. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 29 
 
 Mr. Wayland's father lives with him, and he has 
 three grown-up sons and two daughters, all in the 
 house, and also some guests besides ourselves. We 
 spent a very pleasant evening. 
 
 Saturday, Dec. i6. — We went this morning to 
 Eamah, on the Orange River, about twenty miles 
 from Belmont, at the southern end of the boundary- 
 line, but we first stopped at the house of Mr. John 
 Cron Wright, who gave us a good early dinner and 
 rode on with us. All about here think a great deal 
 about Cron Wright, and say he is the type of man 
 they want to farm in South Africa, a born leader of 
 men. He seemed to me just a sturdy Englishman 
 who would hold his own against any odds. I believe 
 that he was raised on a Mission Station, his father 
 having been a missionary in South Africa, and he 
 seems to be a most creditable product of the country. 
 Ramah is an old Mission Station for Griquas who 
 have now left the neighbourhood. I hear that there^ 
 are only 500 Griquas left, and that they live in huts 
 and tents very much impoverished. I am not quite 
 sure that I yet know the difference between a Griqua 
 and a Koranna, but I fancy that the latter are the 
 aborigines and that the Griquas are bastards, half 
 Dutch, half Koranna. I find that, in spite of the 
 bitter feeling between the Boers and English, the 
 latter are disinclined to talk about the early inter- 
 marriages between the Dutch and natives, for at 
 the present time the Dutch look with great horror 
 at such unions, and no half-caste children are ever 
 seen about the Dutch habitations. Still it seems 
 notorious that there are coloured de Villiers and 
 
30 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 white de Villiers, and so on through the various 
 family names, and that the white branches of the 
 family look down upon the branch that shows 
 mixed blood. As far as I can gather from my 
 father's notes made in 1825, the leading Griquas are 
 mostly Dutch half-castes. 
 
 Fancy ! there are nomadic Boers here, people who 
 live their whole lives in tents, and trek about from 
 place to place, as the spirit moves them, looking for 
 pasture for their flocks and herds. I thought at 
 first that they only went into tents for a season, 
 but I find that some of them have never lived in 
 houses, nor their fathers before them. What a 
 terrible life it seems for civilised people ! We paid 
 a visit to the Boer who now occupies the farm at 
 Eamah ; he has a wife and grown-up sons and 
 daughters all living in two tents and a waggon. 
 Everything about the (living room) tent was nice 
 and clean, there were chairs and the floor matted 
 with skins of springbuck. I cannot make out what 
 the girls do all day long, they seem to me to be 
 sitting in chairs doing nothing. The wife seems also 
 generally sitting down shouting out directions to 
 the servants and making coffee. I have seen a good 
 many Dutch interiors now. 
 
 Returning to Belmont we came upon several 
 droves of springbuck ; they always tried to head us 
 on whatever side they were ; and as they came up 
 to the road they each bounded clean across it as 
 though it were uncanny. One of the Waylands lent 
 me a Westley-Richards rifle, and instructed me how 
 to creep alongside the Cape cart so as to get a good 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 31 
 
 shot, but I was not fortunate, as they were beyond 
 500 yards. The Waylands said that if the buck see 
 the cart stop they get alarmed, but as long as it 
 moves on they think themselves safe, and do not 
 imagine that there is any one with a gun awaiting 
 behind it. The principle of getting near to the 
 springbuck when pursuing them, out hunting, 
 whether in a cart or on horseback, is based on the 
 liabit they have of always trying to head you. 
 When you come on them (say to your right front) 
 they will, as soon as they see you, endeavour to 
 cross over to the left, but moving away from you ; 
 then you begin to trend slightly to the left, and 
 they will describe a very large circle while you are 
 describing a small one ; and eventually you will, if 
 you are an adept and the ground is favourable, tire 
 them out and get shots at them under 500 yards, 
 when you may make sure of killing. Why do so 
 many animals seem to have the same desire to cross 
 over in front of you when there is no occasion to do 
 so — to wit, when you meet a fowl on the roadside ? 
 
 Sunday, Dec. 17. — We had prayers at 11 a.m:., 
 and in the afternoon started for Mimac's, where we 
 arrived at sunset, and put up there for the night, 
 arriving at Kimberley next day. 
 
 I had an amusing adventure at Belmont. The 
 tame male ostriches are at certain times horribly 
 vicious, and when they see a stranger they run at 
 him, strike out with the toe and tear him up ; safety 
 lies in lying down, then they cannot strike with the 
 toe, and can only trample on the body with their 
 feet until help comes. 
 
32 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 I was going out on Sunday morning with a dog 
 when I saw a cock ostrich come running at me; 
 luckily there was a little hill of ironstone near, for 
 which I made, and, reaching it in time, climbed on 
 to it just as the ostrich reached me. He could not 
 come up and I would not come down, and there I 
 sat with the dog, unable to move, with the ostrich 
 stalking round and round. Eventually one of the 
 Waylands happened to come out and saw me a 
 prisoner, but even he could not venture to help me, 
 and he had to call the driver of the bird, a little 
 Hottentot child, who looked about four years old. 
 This little mannikin, with a little whip, came up and 
 drove the bird back into his pen, from which he had 
 escaped. These birds are most obedient to their 
 little master, I suppose because they have obeyed 
 him since they were hatched. Of course, if you 
 threw a stone at the bird you could easily cripple 
 him by breaking his leg, but then bang goes ;C40- 
 
 The ostriches are kept on the farms for the sake 
 of their feathers ; the cocks are nearly black, the 
 hens are grey. They are ugly animals, and when 
 you see dozens of necks and no bodies over the top 
 of a wall, they remind you of a lot of hissing snakes. 
 One of the men told me that a short time ago a 
 cock ostrich had followed him and he had to get up 
 into a tree, where he remained tiU darkness came on. 
 
 In some parts they cut the feathers of the birds, 
 but about here they say they pluck them out when 
 they get loose. One of these birds is worth jC^-O to 
 ;^50, and each year his feathers can be sold for ^40, 
 so that they ought to be very profitable invest- 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 33 
 
 ments ; but accidents will happen to them ; some 
 stray away and some will break their legs in rising 
 up and must be shot. If an ostrich gets excited he 
 will jump over a wall eight feet high, but usually 
 he cannot get over two feet of wall. He is kept in 
 his yard by straining a couple of wires round the 
 boundary and then fastening reeds on to the wire ; 
 the ostrich sees the obstacle, and as a rule will not 
 attempt to pass it. 
 
 Mr. Wayland has a great number of these birds 
 on his farms, and they all look in good condition ; 
 they are not animals to make pets of. 
 
 I also saw at Belmont a dog that had been bitten 
 by a snake and was dying. His head was very 
 much swollen up, and he seemed to appreciate our 
 pity and sympathy, and knew that we were caring 
 for him. They say that dogs seldom get bitten by 
 snakes, and that it is quite exceptional for a human 
 being to be bitten, though the whole country 
 abounds with venomous snakes, particularly the 
 cobra. 
 
 There are about this country, paauw (large bus- 
 tards), koorhaans (a smaller bustard), snake birds, 
 cranes, and wUd duck ; plenty of turtle-doves in the 
 gardens. 
 
 Early in the morning before we left Belmont the 
 mule- waggon from Capetown outspanned, and I was 
 delighted to meet again my two assistants. Sergeant 
 Kennedy and Corporal Randall, safe and sound ; 
 and was enabled to arrange for their accommodation 
 on arrival at Kimberley. 
 
 From December 17, 1876, to January 17, 1877, I 
 
34 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 camped outside Kimberley on the veldt, measured a 
 base line there, got our waggon, oxen and horses 
 together, and organised our party ready to take the 
 field ; during this time Jos. de ViUiers came over to 
 help now and then, but was principally employed in 
 piling, i.e., in erecting huge stone piles on prominent 
 spots where we agreed to fix our trigonometrical 
 points. During all this time, being both experienced 
 surveyors, we never had a word of difference about 
 our work, and carried it on in entire agreement. 
 
 Monday, Dec. 25, 1876. — What weather for 
 Christmas, 101° F. in my tent when I entered it 
 this afternoon, but at the same time a dry wind 
 blowing, which kept me pretty cool so long as I per- 
 spired. Yesterday my coolie servant found a snake 
 in his bed, but I fancy a harmless one. I cannot 
 believe in Christmas in the middle of summer ; and 
 what can the unfortunate people do in mid-winter 
 with no Christmas interests to enliven the time. 
 They say it is cold here then and no means of 
 keeping warm at night. 
 
 The houses at Kimberley are nearly all of canvas, 
 corrugated iron or mud. The iron houses shine in 
 the sun like silver and, at a distance, the town has 
 a glittering, dazzling, appearance. When a thief 
 wants to rob a canvas house he just takes a knife 
 and makes a long slit — presto ! he is in the room. 
 It is very simple, but punishment is very simple 
 also. The diggers don't stand on ceremony with the 
 thief, and do not wait for a trial ; the thief, when 
 caught, just gets as much as he can bear — conse- 
 quently there is not much thieving in the housed of 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 35 
 
 this country. In I'espect to security of goods in 
 transit from one town to another, I think it is the 
 most orderly country in the world. You may see 
 boxes full of valuable property — wine, spirits, 
 eatables, all lying on the ground while the Kafir 
 drivers of the waggons are away or asleep or 
 drunk, and yet nothing is lost. 
 
 I was amazed to see the absolute security on the 
 way up to Kimberley. Again, more than a million 
 pounds sterling value of diamonds go home every 
 year in the letter-bags by the post-carts without any 
 guard, and yet there is no robbery. There have 
 been thefts of diamonds en route from Kimberley, 
 but all of an exceptional character. Even cattle- 
 stealing seems only to go on while there is war with 
 the natives. There is, however, a good deal of 
 diamond-stealing in the mines and illicit buying and 
 selling ; and hard things are said about several 
 known persons. 
 
 Tuesday, Dec. 26. — I am encamped about a mile 
 from Kimberley, close to our base line, which has 
 been used before by Mr. Orpenfor histriangulations, 
 so that we can connect up easily our several works. 
 I am hoping to see Mr. de Villiers this evening, 
 and then we shall begin to work together. I wish 
 we could be a little further from grog-shops, as our 
 servants are continually getting drunk. The task of 
 getting suitable servants is very difficult. They do 
 not seem to know what it is to work in an ordinary 
 way, and our survey work is hard and monotonous, 
 and involves keeping very irregular hours. We 
 have to be up usually long before daybreak, and we 
 
36 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 often cannot be back to dinner till long after dark. 
 Unless we can get the servants interested in the 
 work I fear that we shall be constantly changing 
 them, however good the wages are we give. The 
 Kafirs available are no good as house servants or 
 cooks, so I have got an Indian coolie (from Cashmir), 
 brought up at Calcutta as cook, he says ; all he 
 could do, however, was to blow up a fire, I have 
 taught him to bake bread (in our way), make an 
 omelette, poach eggs, and other little accomplish- 
 ments, and now I suppose he will want to go ; his 
 name is Nerada. 
 
 Food is wonderfully expensive, except meat,, 
 which is sixpence a pound. Cabbages are usually 
 IS. 6c?. to 2s. 6d. each, and I have heard of a cauli- 
 flower going for 25s., but that, no doubt, was a fancy 
 price. A bundle of green oats, two of which a mule^^ 
 can eat at a meal, is. 6c?. each. On the average I 
 should say that things are six times as dear as they 
 are in England ; and yet some things are cheap, 
 such as weigh little and are not bulky. It is the- 
 enormous cost of transport (30s. to 40s. a cwt.) that 
 raises prices, and the deleterious effect of heat on 
 so many classes of goods during the slow journey up 
 in waggons. 
 
 I don't think that we hear nearly so much about 
 the unquiet state of the country as you do in 
 England. We get very little reliable news here ; 
 but as to the news you get in England we do not 
 know where it is made up — on dit in Capetown ! 
 
 Major Lanyon went to the northern border last 
 week and brought back seventeen Bechuana 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 37 
 
 prisoners ; there were the most wonderful stories 
 afloat while he was away. First, that he had been 
 shot ; then that he was surrounded by lOO natives, 
 then by looo, then it rose to 10,000, and suddenly 
 it changed to news that he had surrounded them 
 all. It is a funny little state to have to govern ; the 
 people are fond of grumbling, but they are quite 
 loyal. There is talk about risings of the natives 
 around, but it only requires a little firm handling of 
 them and all will go well. They are treated by us 
 too much as though they were civilised, and are 
 quite spoilt ; on the other hand, I hear that on 
 some farms — Boers and English — they are flogged 
 unmercifully. It is difficult to arrive at the truth by 
 hearsay only. 
 
 The Kafirs make a lot of money at the mines, and, 
 as many of them come to work from places several 
 hundreds of miles up country north of the Transvaal, 
 they will soon know all about civilised life — but the 
 worst side of it. The white people generally, in 
 South Africa, have a strong feeling about the 
 inferiority of black people. The blacks are not 
 allowed to come into the white man's church ; I 
 suppose because of their odour. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Sunday, Dec. 31, 1876. — ^We are now busy measur- 
 ing our base line 3|- miles long, and de Villiers has 
 arrived to assist. This line has already been 
 measured previously by Mr. Orpen, and it is inter- 
 esting to find that the straight line he cut in the, 
 veldt twelve months ago has already become zigzag, 
 and wavy, probably from sheep using it as a path. 
 I will describe the situation of our camp, placed near 
 the upper end of our base line. We are on the 
 brow of a swelling hill, overlooking Kimberley and. 
 Old de Beers, right in the veldt, and around is 
 excellent pasture for our oxen ; it is principally 
 Karoo bush with a few blades of grass here and 
 there. It is blazing hot — yesterday whUe we were 
 computing in the waggon, which I use as an ofl&ce, 
 the thermometer ranged from 106° to 108° F., and. 
 the tilt of the waggon is double lined. By placing 
 over it a reed matting and another canvas cover we 
 have reduced the temperature to 92° F. at i p.m. 
 I am now writing in my tent, which is double lined, 
 with temperature 94° F., the wet bulb being at 
 64° F. I should say that the actual heat in the 
 shade is 92°. The air is wonderfully dry, and all 
 nature and art is cracking with the drought, even 
 my despatch box which withstood a summer at 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 39 
 
 Malta is so warped that I can lock it with difficulty. 
 There is at the same time a nice breeze, which, 
 though hot, makes one feel cool so long as perspira- 
 tion goes on, so that the more exercise one takes the 
 cooler one feels. On the right of the waggon is my 
 tent, on the right of that is the N.C.O.'s tent, and 
 again on the right is the Scotch cart where the 
 natives congregate, and in rear is the cooking-place. 
 The N.C.O.s have a bell tent ; I have a small rect- 
 angular tent of South African make, and a piece of 
 canvas is stretched over it from the waggon tilt. It 
 is about eight feet square, three feet six inches high 
 at the sides, and seven feet in the centre. The 
 ground within our tents is levelled and rubbed over 
 every morning with fresh cow-dung ; this is done by 
 a Kafir ; he brings in the dung fresh from the oxen, 
 mixes it with water, and with his hand rubs it over 
 the floor ; it dries quickly, and in a short time there 
 is a nice hard floor smelling sweetly of cattle ; a 
 smell obnoxious to fleas and other vermin. The 
 Kafir's remark when putting on the cow-dung was 
 amusing, " English people don't know how to do this ; 
 English people like to lie in the dust " ; he evidently 
 thinks that in England we live in tents and have 
 not yet learnt to put fresh cow-dung on our dusty 
 floors. 
 
 As I am writing, a fresh breeze has sprung up 
 which threatens to carry tent and all away, and 
 before I have completed this line it has subsided ; 
 there are a few clouds in the sky, in fact we are 
 expecting rain, as this is the rainy season. It is 
 quite a novelty to me to be expecting rain in th© 
 
40 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 heat of summer. I am sitting in flannel shirt and 
 trousers, at a deal table, and on it is my writing 
 desk, a plate of fly-paper, a Letts Diary, ink-bottle, 
 thermometer, box of dried figs, and a prayer-book ; 
 behind me at the inner end of the tent is my folding 
 bedstead ; a portable iron washstand and bath are 
 near the door, with clothes bag and bag for brushes, 
 &c., and along the sides are ranged three port- 
 manteaus. The flies and winged monsters were 
 here in swarms until I introduced fly-paper. The 
 water is so hard that I cannot keep my hands 
 comfortable; the skin gets so dry and ragged, and 
 broken, but my face has not suffered in any degree 
 as yet, though I see many flaming noses about, from 
 sunburn. 
 
 Monday, Jan. i, 1877. — I have had to put more 
 canvas on the waggon to reduce the heat. I do not 
 feel it myself, but I find that in computing our 
 calculations we get muddled when the temperature 
 is over 100" F.j and we have had several instances, 
 when the temperature is near to 106°, that numbers 
 have been given out or written down twice over from 
 the log-book ; so I have been obliged to make a rule 
 that if the thermometer registers over 100° F., we 
 have to. give over computing for the time, and we 
 have to knock off indoor work altogether during the 
 middle of the day while this gi-eat heat lasts, on this 
 account. 
 
 For myself I thoroughly enjoy this heat ; it is the 
 cold that I do not like. Just as I was writing this 
 a sudden gust of wind (in a calm) blew the waggon 
 tilt nearly inside out, and your letter went careering 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 41 
 
 over the plain, so I must shut up the tent on one 
 side, and now the tenaperature rises to 99°. 
 
 My Indian Coolie cook has just heard of the death 
 of his children in Natal, and goes off to-day, intro- 
 ducing another Indian in his place. His name is 
 Balagaroo, and he says he was a high-caste Hindoo, 
 •but that he can never return to India because 
 travelling over the water has taken away his caste. 
 I hope I shall be better off with him as he talks both 
 Enghsh and Kafir ; in fact he has quite a gift for 
 speaking, and uses the most recondite English words 
 in the most unexpected places. 
 
 My former cook had to talk to Kafirs in English 
 so broken, that I could not tell what he said, and I 
 doubt if the Kafirs ever understood him; no wonder 
 that most grotesque mistakes were made. I have 
 now a very composite party. Indians from Cash- 
 mere and the Deccan, Griquas and Zulus, all talking 
 in different tongues, and misunderstanding one 
 another. They managed, however, to get all most 
 gloriously drunk together last night in order to usher 
 in the new year, and keep the camp lively. 
 
 The result is that our oxen have got lost, and the 
 drivers have gone off with sore heads to look after 
 them in different directions ; losing cattle is quite 
 ^epidemic just now. Yesterday three parties, who 
 were searching the country around for them, came to 
 our tents to make inquiries. 
 
 My drivers have now returned, without the cattle, 
 .and both very drunk and noisy, so I threatened them 
 with the " sjambok " (whip), this was a word they 
 <;ould understand, and when they heard it they became 
 
42 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 quiet at once; the law, however, will not allow me t» 
 touch them. 
 
 At night we tie up our oxen to the waggon and 
 there they lie quiet, and do not make a noise, as did 
 the mules in Syria ; but I long to have some of our 
 Syrian muleteers here ; and even one of the most 
 inefficient dragomans of that country, for there is no 
 one who can act as a foreman to be got hold of I 
 suppose that any man worth his salt is engaged in 
 the diamond mines at high wages. 
 
 What a nuisance ! I find that my new cook, 
 Balagaroo, has never cooked anything but rice, so I 
 have made the dinner myself to-day, and the N.C.O.s 
 have pronounced it excellent. Minced beef with 
 milk, salt, pepper, onions and Yorkshire Relish added,, 
 and boiled twenty minutes. I find that little book 
 on cottage cooking most usefid. 
 
 So that you can better understand what we are 
 about just now I wUl give you a little tale of the- 
 early occupation of this country. 
 
 At the beginning of this century this country north 
 of the Orange River was known to be inhabited by 
 bushmen, but it was not supposed that they had been 
 here very long. Bushmen, however were supposed 
 to have been the first inhabitants of these parts ^ 
 they led a wandering life with no fixed homes, no 
 form of government, no tribal system even. They 
 were at enmity family against family. 
 
 The first immigrants into this country after the 
 bushmen were a tribe of Hottentots called Korannas, 
 who came gradually up through the country, driven, 
 in front of the white men, from Capetown way, and 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 4» 
 
 eventually settled at Griquatown (then Klaarwater) : 
 this was roughly speaking about 1770. Subsequently 
 they gave up Klaarwater to the Griquas, and settled 
 on the banks of the Vaal River about Klipdrift 
 (Barkley) and Mamusa (the Blomhof district) ; here 
 they met Bechuanas (Barolongs) journeying from the 
 north-east. These two races had a good tussle, and 
 the Korannas stuck to the river while the Barolongs 
 kept north of the Vaal. There seems to have been 
 some amalgamation, however, as the Batlepins (Be- 
 chuanas) are supposed to be a mixed race of the two. 
 
 Whether the Griquas are a tribe of Hottentots, or 
 only bastards, half Dutch and half Korannas, is un- 
 certain, but it seems certain that their leaders had 
 white blood. At the beginning of this century the 
 Griquas were living all over the western portion of 
 what is now the Orange Free State and Griqualand 
 West, the Korannas were at Mamusa, and the 
 Bechuanas at Taungs, and all over what is now 
 Bechuanaland. 
 
 In the year 1 800, Dr. Anderson commenced mis- 
 sionary work among the Griquas, introduced 
 agriculture, and established towns on the Colonial 
 system at Griquatown and Phillipolis; and after a few 
 years these people advanced so quickly in civilisation 
 that they are said to have appeared to be little 
 inferior to the up-country Boers. Some of them, 
 however, would not give in to civilised ways, and 
 fought against the town Griquas constantly ; these 
 malcontents lived in the hills near the rivers, and 
 were called Bergenaars. A few years after this, 
 about 1824, Boers began to trek across the Orange 
 
44 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 river, and took up land there, gradually dispossessing 
 the Griquas from the Phillipolis side, but they could 
 make no impression on those Griquas who were 
 living in what is now Griqualand West. 
 
 In 1835 there was a further influx of Boers across 
 the Orange Eiver (while another party of them 
 crossed over into the English settlement of Natal). 
 So much disorder now arose on the Orange River, 
 owing to the Griquas spiritedly holding their own 
 against the Boers, that in 1 848 the Orange River 
 Sovereignty was proclaimed under the Queen of 
 England. This comprised what is now the Orange 
 Free State ; but Griqualand West continued to be 
 native territory. Some of the Boers resisted and 
 were defeated at Boomplaats, and many of them fled 
 across the Vaal River, and there established the 
 Transvaal, or South African Republic ; which, under 
 the Sand River Convention of 1852, was recognised 
 as an independent state. 
 
 Those who remained in the Sovereignty were, for 
 the most part, loyal Boers, and they bitterly resented 
 our abandonment of the Orange River Sovereignty 
 in 1853. In 1854 the British Government notified 
 that it had no alliance with native chiefs, north of 
 the Orange river, except with the Griqua chief 
 Adam Kok, of Griqualand West. Thus the Boers of 
 the Transvaal, and of the Orange Free State (the 
 O. R. Sovereignty), became at enmity with us from 
 two very difierent reasons. 
 
 In 1870 diamonds were found on the Vaal River, 
 in ground belonging to the Griquas, but then in 
 dispute between three parties, e.g., the Transvaal,' the 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 45 
 
 Orange Free State, and the Chief Waterboer of the 
 Griquas. The Orange Free State assumed jurisdic- 
 tion over the diggers, of whom about 30,000 were 
 Europeans, and was quite unable to control them. 
 Immediate steps were required in order to keep 
 order at these diggings ; and consequently on Nov- 
 ember 7, 1 87 1, the whole of Waterboer's territory- 
 was annexed to the British Crown, under the name 
 of Griqualand West ; to this the Orange Free State 
 objected. 
 
 On October 27, 1871, the High Commissioner 
 issued a proclamation defining the boundary be- 
 tween the Orange Free State and Griqualand West 
 as running from the fountain at Ramah to David's 
 Graf, thence to Plat berg on the Vaal River. 
 
 A difficulty arose on the subject, because the sur- 
 veyors of the Orange Free State and Griqualand 
 West took diiferent views as to the positions of all 
 these named points, and consequently a considerable 
 strip of ground was in dispute, and some of it very 
 valuable, being diamondiferous. 
 
 After considerable negotiations extending over five 
 years an agreement was arrived at, and a line settled 
 on which included all the diamond fields about 
 Kimberley in Griqualand West, and as a set-off" it 
 was arranged that a sum of ;^90,ooo was to be paid 
 to the Orange Free State as soon as the new line 
 was beaconed off. 
 
 The points at issue wei^e narrowed down con- 
 siderably : as David's Graf was accepted as close 
 above the junction of the Modder and Riet rivers,, 
 and about the fountain of Ramah there could be no 
 
46 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 doubt. The farms of Gideon Joubert and Adolf 
 Erasmus cut by the line were to remain entirely in 
 the Orange Free State. 
 
 On August 5, 1876, the Cape Colony Ministers 
 were informed that the Cape Colony could co-operate 
 in three ways : ( i ) The incorporation of Griqualand 
 West as an integral portion of the Cape Colony; (2) 
 The association of the Province in a federation with 
 the Cape Colony ; (3) The payment to the Province 
 -of the customs duties levied in ports of the Cape 
 Colony upon goods consumed in the Province; at 
 the same time it was stated that there had been 
 representations from Griqualand West against in- 
 corporation with the Cape Colony. 
 
 On August 12, 1876, Lord Carnarvon proposed to 
 President Brand that the Orange Free State, whilst 
 retaining its own flag, should come into the British 
 Empire, and should as a consequence receive a 
 reasonable share of the federal expenditure defrayed 
 from the customs duties levied in the ports of the 
 confederation. 
 
 That is how the matter stands at present : and 
 here am I ready to lay down the boundary-line, 
 wiUy nilly, for many of the Boers on the line decline 
 to have their farms cut up into two countries : it 
 certainly is rather awkward for them, but it also has 
 its advantages ; to be able, in your own garden, to 
 skip across from one country to another. 
 
 Jan. 1877. — I may here insert an extract from the 
 journal of my father when on a shooting expedition 
 in these parts in 1825 : — 
 
 " 1825. July 9. — Left Vande Walts and crossed 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 47 
 
 the Swart river (Orange river) or Groote river, 
 passed by Huermans, where the school of Philhpolis 
 has been removed to. We were assisted, as far as 
 where Pretorius lived, by a Hottentot lad. 
 
 " Pretorius cultivated a good farm for the Mission- 
 a,ry Society, thirty morgan of corn-land. He let 
 his son, who could talk Korana and Bechuana, go 
 with us. Proceeded to Rama, where we stopped a 
 day to shoot sea-cows in the Swart river, which 
 we had been travelling down, though at so great a 
 distance from it as not to see it till we arrived at 
 Rama. 
 
 " We next went to the banks of the Mud river 
 (Cradock), where we came among what are called 
 the Burgonars, and passed a salt-pan. The Bur- 
 sonars are Griquas, and say that they came from 
 Swartland originally, from thence to Little Nama-^ 
 qualand, and thence to Griquatown, and then 
 scattered themselves over the country. At present 
 the old captains of the Griquas or Bastards have let 
 them join them, in consequence of quarrels between 
 them and Waterboer, and of the Government agent 
 wishing to make them prevent the Burgonars going 
 on commandoes against the Bojismen and other tribes 
 to steal their cattle. They have waggons, horses, 
 sheep, and imitate the Boers. Their captains have 
 very little power. They have, some of them, as 
 Adam Kok, good houses built in the same manner 
 as the Boers, but wander about, and live in huts 
 made of mats, which pack up upon a bullock and 
 serve as a tent. Cornelius Kok, the first captain, 
 received his staff from — [obliterated]. 
 
48 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 " The Griquas were (at the time of Lord Caledon, 
 who exercised authority over them) put under two 
 captains, Kok and Beam (Barends ?), who have con- 
 siderable tracts of country under them. Dam Kok 
 said, in telling his account "We are the Northern(?) 
 men." Their followers go to any vacant part and 
 there cultivate a little piece of land and feed the 
 cattle till the grass is gone, and then remove. We 
 went from the Mud River by the Val (Yellow) 
 River, another branch of the Orange River, through 
 Campbell (some farms and corn at Campbell by 
 Cornelius and Adam Kok), to Griquatown (Klaar- 
 water). We arrived on August 26. 
 
 " Before we came to the Mud River we found an 
 ostrich's nest and took twenty-three eggs." 
 
 Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1877. — Such a beautiful sunrise, 
 temperature, 68° F. We are still busy measuring 
 the base line ; we commence as soon as it is light, 
 and leave off when it gets dark, but we have to 
 knock off work for two or three hours during the 
 heat of the day. I have arranged that our natives 
 shall have a cup of coffee each if they are up in time 
 for it, at 4.30 A.M., and I have to be up myself to see 
 after them. We get our coffee at 5.15 a. m., and 
 the sides of the tents are rolled up at 5.30 a.m. I 
 have put the butter into a tub of water sunk in the 
 ground, as it gets spoilt by melting each day and 
 solidifying again each night. 
 
 De Villiers has gone away for a week, and has 
 left his light waggon in my charge. I thought that 
 our natives were the scum of Kimberley, owing to my 
 being a new hand here, but I find that de ViUiers' 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 49 
 
 servants are no better. They are idle, insolent, and 
 drunken, and are not kept in any systematic order. 
 I have been practising driving a team of four and 
 now of six horses in de Villiers' cart through the 
 veldt, over ant-heaps and through ant-bear holes. 
 
 Sometimes we nearly overturn, but straight away 
 we go, jolted in a most' wonderful manner. I am 
 really getting on as a driver. I have also been ob- 
 serving in very early morning, and late in evening 
 at some of our near stations ; it can only be done 
 just now for about ten minutes just at sunrise and 
 at sunset on account of the mirage. The taking 
 down and putting up the piles each time we observe 
 is quite a heavy piece of work and requires several 
 men. The pile is about eight or ten feet high, of 
 large iron-stone boulders, which have all to be taken 
 down before the instrument can be placed, and then 
 put up again after the observation. 
 
 Jan. 9. — I am longing to get away from the 
 vicinity of Kimberley, our servants are so drunken, 
 and my cook spends 30s. to 40s. a day on market 
 produce for our party, and the result when cooked 
 is small. 
 
 The country is (as far as we know) quite quiet ; 
 the news that you see in the papers is made up to 
 suit the several business people, diamonds, wool, &c. ; 
 you need not be in any alarm, I don't think that 
 there is any chance of a disturbance in South Africa 
 this year. [The risings commenced at the end of 
 1877.] There ought not to be any disturbances 
 about here for the natives seem the mildest I have 
 ever come across : I cannot understand how they 
 
50 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 can be so quiet and orderly. There are hundreds of 
 farmhouses perfectly isolated, and yet the occupants 
 can live with their doors always wide open, just as 
 we used to do in the Lebanon. I do not care about 
 the natives here, they are half-castes, and they are 
 savages. It is so ridiculous to make them wear 
 trousers instead of some loose robe or kilt ; directly 
 they get out of sight of the whites they off with 
 their trousers and throw them over their arms. 
 
 I have bought two saddle horses for £40. 
 
 Sunday, Jan. 14. — Just a chapter of mishaps 
 again, so I have time to write : horses, oxen, all lost, 
 drivers disappeared, and Balagaroo down with fever. 
 I dosed him weU, and he fell asleep and woke cured, 
 went into Kimberley to get clothes, and has come 
 back with a broken head which I have had to plaster 
 up. I have had to raise my wages to the drivers, 
 and am now paying £6 a month each, finding 
 them food, and expect to pay ;^io before I can get 
 decent servants ; these are, of course, quite excep- 
 tional wages, but it is a necessity as we are so near 
 Kimberley. The worst of it is the higher wages we 
 pay the more money they have to spend in drink. 
 This has been the hottest day we have yet had in 
 the wagon, 106° to 108° F. with double awning and 
 and matting overhead. 
 
 Wednesday, Jan. 17. — At last our work here is 
 completed, I am thankful to say, and we leave to- 
 morrow for the Modder Eiver. Sergt. K. got a bone in 
 his throat and went to see a doctor who gave him 
 an emetic, but he is so strong and healthy that he 
 digested it instead of disgorging it ; I think that he 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 51 
 
 had digested the bone also for he now seems quite 
 ■well. Corporal R. is still very unwell. 
 
 Thursday, Jan. i8. — Our waggon went on to 
 Scholtz Nek, about twelve miles south of Kimberley, 
 and I remained behind to receive a native out of 
 gaol to act as cook's assistant. He is an educated 
 Kafir. I do not know what his crime was, but the 
 custom at present here is to go to the gaol for 
 servants as they cannot be got elsewhere. I suppose 
 that some of the crimes may be serious. The Kafir's 
 name is Jim ; he walked alongside of me, and as 
 we passed through Du Toit's Pan he said he was 
 hungry and I let him go to a shop for food, but 
 I expect he also got drink, for he became very much 
 excited as I rode along, and at last said he would 
 bolt. I could only prevent his doing so by telling 
 him about the good food to be got in camp ; with 
 much trouble I got him to our camp and put him 
 with the rest of the servants. 
 
 I have now got an Indian cook called Sam, who 
 xeaUy does know something about cooking, and 
 Balagaroo does the housekeeping for myself and the 
 N.C.O.s. 
 
 De VUliers joined me here this evening and we 
 had a right good supper ofi" a paauw he had shot ; it 
 was a large bird, bigger than a goose. 
 
 Monday, Jan. 22, — Camp near David's Graf We 
 were busy two days at Scholtz Nek selecting points 
 and observing, and to-day we crossed the Riet and 
 Modder at the junction (Berry's), and are encamped 
 on the south side of the Riet river over against 
 David's Graf, close on to our boundary line. We 
 
52 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 shall be out all day taking observations and piling, 
 but as the drought gets more and more intense it i& 
 more and more difficult to observe : just about ten 
 minutes each morning and each evening, so that we 
 are in a complete difficulty. We want a morning 
 and evening observation at each place, and many of 
 these are miles from our camp ; thus we shall often 
 have to sleep the night out in the veldt at the foot 
 of the hill where we observe. 
 
 Friday, Jan. 26. — I have had great anxiety about 
 Corporal R., who has been in a state of collapse from 
 taking no nourishment. For two days he would 
 take no food cooked by the natives, and I have had 
 to prepare everything for him myself, and feed him 
 myself with a spoon. Dr. Dunlop has come on from 
 Jacobsdaal to see him, and has prescribed, and 
 I hope he will soon mend; I cannot do sick nurse 
 and get out to my work as well. Joos, the driver,, 
 has also been very ill, but castor oil and mustard 
 leaves have put him all right. 
 
 The rains do not come, and the drought is now so 
 severe that our waggon wheels broke down coming 
 here and we were much delayed on the road. In 
 very dry weather waggon and cart wheels have to be 
 soaked periodically, otherwise the spokes get loose 
 and the iron tyres come off. It is quite an ordinary 
 matter to have to shorten the iron tyre. This is 
 done expeditiously by heating the tyre in burning 
 cow-dung as though it were a blacksmith's fire. 
 
 There are Boers' tents all along the river just now,, 
 as the water has given out at nearly all the dams 
 and tlje cattle and sheep must have water to drink : 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 53 
 
 but the Karoo near the river is getting eaten up and 
 the cattle are wasting away. To-day several Boers 
 paid me a visit, and they all agreed as to the position 
 of the David's Graf of de Kok (the surveyor) and 
 Adam Kok the Griqua, and this happens to suit 
 exactly the genei'al position indicated in the agree- 
 ment between Lord Carnarvon and President Brand, 
 and as it just comes in between the two claims put 
 forward by the surveyors of either side, I think 
 there will be general agreement on this point. So 
 ■bne matter will be settled satisfactorily. 
 
 I have never felt better than I do here, the great 
 heat is most enjoyable, and it is pleasant being so 
 close to the river. Every morning I go down at 
 sunrise and find fowl to shoot of some kind. Snipe, 
 teal, and now and then a duck; and there are bustards 
 out in the veldt ; but without a good retriever many 
 birds get lost. We get enough, however, to supply 
 the camp. 
 
 Saturday, Jan. 27. — I think that the monotony 
 of living in a Boer house must be terrible. Nowhere 
 is the proverb so applicable of " eating to live " and 
 not " living to eat." The Boer about here lives in the 
 most miserable manner so far as food is concerned ; 
 his daily bread is fat mutton washed down with 
 milk. Some of them make bread, but they seldom 
 have any vegetables. The mutton is generally boiled 
 or roast in an iron pot with fat ; it is salted and often 
 high. The Boer sits down with his guests, the 
 plates turned bottom up wards; his wife and daughters 
 serve : he puts his hand to his forehead and says 
 grace before and after meals. There is generally on 
 
54 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 the table a soup tureen of fresh milk, a plate of 
 mutton and often some bread ; sometimes pumpkins, 
 which, with milk, are very good. There is usually 
 a chief seat in the room covered with a choice skin 
 on which the most honoured guest is placed. At the 
 early meal the lady of the house or tent comes into 
 the room and sits at the coifee table and serves. 
 There is a coffee pot of metal, slop bowl, dish for 
 washing up, cups and saucers of crockery. The 
 coffee is very fair. They never seem to have wine 
 or spirits in the house, and the Boer at home is a 
 teetotaler, but he never seems to refuse a glass 
 when offered it at any time of the day away from 
 home. 
 
 Late at night. — I must add a note. All nature 
 sings. We have had our first rain this evening after 
 months of drought ; a real downpour with loud 
 thunder; it has cooled the ground I can feel. 
 There is said to be no water between here and 
 Ramah, this year, so that we also are very anxious 
 about the rain coming, for otherwise we cannot lay 
 down the Boundary line throughout. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 Saturday, Jan. 27. — As we have no shops near 
 here I buy a sheep when we want meat, and have it 
 killed; we take off the skin and hang the sheep on the 
 waggon. I generally have the liver and kidneys 
 for breakfast, the N.O.O.s do not care for them. A 
 sheep lasts us two days, but if there is thunder 
 about we have to salt some ; the skin is laid down 
 in a hollow of the ground, wool downwards, and in 
 this hollow we put water, salt and pieces of meat, 
 and it is left there till it is salted ; we thus do with- 
 out a pickle tub. 
 
 I have been obliged to part with Balagaroo, he 
 did not keep things clean, and was too expensive, 
 and his accounts did not total up properly so that 
 there was a difference between us of two pounds 
 sterling. I proposed a compromise ; I offered to pay 
 him the two pounds provided I never should see his 
 face again, and to this he agreed, and off he has 
 gone. 
 
 [Some months after this, when in Kimberley, I 
 constantly saw flying coat-tails round the corners of 
 buildings as I went about, and one morning appeared 
 Balagaroo with two sovereigns in his hand, telling me 
 that his life was a burden to him, and that he would 
 rather pay up the money than be always running 
 
56 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 away. At this time I had quite forgotten about the 
 promise he had made. He seemed much relieved 
 when he found that I would not take the money. I 
 was very much pleased to find that Balagaroo had 
 so much good faith about him. J 
 
 I am looking out of my tent door, and this is what 
 I see. First some shrubs of Karoo, then Sam (Indian 
 cook) busy over our dinner : he has on a white 
 turban, a white waistcoat, and has a black face, 
 broad and pleasant. When he came to me a month 
 ago his turban and clothes were very dirty. On the 
 fire, of sticks from the river, are a few pots ; in one 
 is a chicken which woke me up this morning by his 
 crowing, in another are potatoes, and in another 
 rice ; the kettle is also at the fire as I have tea at 
 every meal. On the bushes are my bedding laid out 
 to air ; beyond are Karoo bushes, and beyond and 
 beyond till the eye meets the horizon. 
 
 When it is going to rain here in summer (accord- 
 ing to aU accounts) the clouds commence to coUect 
 together about 1 1 a.m. ; towards noon the heavens 
 are overcast, at 2 p.m. thunder is heard, at 3 p.m. 
 the storm commences, and at 5 P.M. it is all over, 
 the sky clear, and the ground fast drying up. Some- 
 times there are severe hail-storms ; stones the size 
 of pigeons' eggs. The sheep are kiUed by them, and 
 if you happen to be out on horseback you must dis- 
 mount, take off the saddle and hold it over your 
 head as your only safety. 
 
 No sooner has Balagaroo gone than a successor 
 turns up most opportunely — an Indian Coolie on 
 his way to the Diamond Fields, from Mauritius. He 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 57 
 
 looks clean and contented, his name is Emmanuel, 
 and he is a Roman Catholic. I struck a bargain 
 with him at once and think he will suit. 
 
 Sunday, Jan. 28. — I must describe our position 
 at David's Graf [this is where the right of the 
 British attack rested in the battle of Modder river, 
 1899]. We are in a vast plain of Karoo, flat as far 
 as the eye can reach, the ground is reddish and 
 sandy, the rivers (Modder and Riet) are deep guUies 
 or depressions in the land, thirty feet deep. Hills 
 'Of ironstone crop up here and there, from two hundred 
 to three hundred feet in height. There are no 
 mountains or valleys in this pai't of the country, 
 only hUls rising from the plain. There are no flowers 
 (at least none at present) although this is the rainy 
 season ; no ordinary flower can exist in this dry heat, 
 they would wither before sunrise. The only kinds 
 of plant that can stand the heat just now are those 
 like the Karoo bush which have leaves a quarter 
 of an inch thick, full of succulent sticky fluid, similar 
 to the ice plant [of course in gardens where there is 
 water, and shade, and where the air becomes moist, 
 it is very difierent. I have seen strawberry plants 
 growing in northern Griqualand]. On the banks 
 of the river Riet are the weeping willow, wild 
 tobacco plant and various shrubs that I do not know 
 by name. There is very little grass about and that 
 aU brown. 
 
 Here and there, miles apart, are the Boer farms ; 
 they are usually rectangular stone buUdings with 
 two or more rooms ; but they are often of mud, of 
 corrugated iron or of canvas. Sometimes these 
 
58 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 canvas houses are permanent, i.e., they are not 
 moved about as tents. Near at hand are the cattle 
 and sheep kraals, simply stone walls built in rect- 
 angles, in which the animals are penned at night ; 
 and close to are the beehive huts of the Hottentot 
 and Kafir servants. The dung of the sheep collects 
 in the kraals, and is cut into pieces like turf, dried 
 on the walls and kept for fuel. In the river ar& 
 duck, geese, crane, snipe and other birds ; I have seen 
 no sand grouse as yet. In the veldt are the paauw,. 
 the koorhaan and snake-bird. Yesterday I saw a 
 piece of ground on which were numbers of snake- 
 birds. There are plenty of snakes about, but I have 
 not seen many as yet, they do not bother us. Our 
 piling party has just brought in a small buck, only 
 weighing twenty-five pounds when skinned. One 
 cannot compare the natives of these parts with the 
 Arabs. The Griquas that I see are a miserable race 
 with yellow faces, high cheekbones, thin chins, and 
 light figures. They look fragile and unhealthy, 
 drink to excess, and are said to be fast dying out. 
 The peculiarity about these races is that the hair 
 grows on the head in rows of tufts like bushes in a 
 plantation ; little curling tufts, and the skull between, 
 is bald and oily. 
 
 The Kafirs I have seen about here are a suUen,. 
 scowling, discontented lot, who have been too much 
 petted and too much kept down ; English in one ex- 
 treme and Dutch in the other. They seem incapable 
 of doing a good day's work. The smell of their 
 locations is most disagreeable, a mixture of roast 
 beef and burnt sugar. I am only speaking of the 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 59 
 
 local Kafirs ; the Basutos and Zulus seem to be a far 
 better type ; but all that I have met with as yet do 
 their work with an Ul grace and are much inclined to 
 be insolent. So far I have got mine in order, but 
 they require constant looking after ; it is like wind- 
 ing up your clock and setting the hands every few 
 minutes. 
 
 Monday, Jan. 29. — I must give you some idea of 
 the method adopted in tracing the line, before 
 I leave David's Graf. It is about forty-three miles 
 from here to the fountain of Ramah, and we have to 
 trace a straight line between them over a very rough 
 country abounding in little hills of ironstone. 
 
 We have got on with our triangulation, and 
 joined it with that of Mr. Orpen, so that I know the 
 mean angle between a prominent hill I see some 
 mUes off and Ramah, but the difficulty is to set it off 
 on the ground so accurately that the line wiU cut the 
 fountain at Ramah. I am trying the following 
 method. I feel sure of the mean angular distance 
 from the prominent hill, so I am setting ofi" a point on 
 the boundary line about two miles south from here 
 over and over again with different theodolites, and 
 each time there is a little difference — an inch or two. 
 Then I am going to take the mean of all these 
 variations, and produce the line from David's Graf 
 through this mean point, and I am sanguine of cutting 
 very close to Ramah. Jos. de Villiers is very much 
 interested in the matter as the idea is new to him, but 
 he agrees in thinking it will come right if our calcula- 
 tions are sound. And if it does come right it will save 
 us a world of trouble, for otherwise we should have to 
 
60 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 trace a straight line as near as possible to the truth 
 and then on finding out the error on arrival at 
 Ramah we should take offsets all along this line 
 and trace a new line, rubbing out the original one. 
 There are so many possibilities ; our observations 
 and calculations may not be good, as they are still 
 unchecked, and the line itself may not be traced quite 
 straight. 
 
 Friday, Feb. 2. — Saltpan. I will give you some 
 notion of the pleasures of travelling in this country 
 on survey work. Over night on January 30 we got 
 ready for leaving David's Graf early in the morning, 
 intending to go out m different directions piling and 
 observing, and to meet in the evening to the south 
 at this saltpan. We did most of our packing before 
 turning in, but I kept our tents up, though our 
 bedding was stowed in the waggon. A great storm 
 of rain came on, the tent ropes required slackening, 
 and I got wet through in doing it. I turned in 
 again, and woke up thinking I was late and that the 
 sun had risen, but on going out found myself under 
 a brilliant moon at 2.30 A.M. At 4 A.M., the day 
 began to dawn and I woke all up. We found our 
 tents so wet that we could not pack them up, so we 
 had to wait till 6 a.m., when we breakfasted ; then 
 we got on our horses and left the camp ; I went 
 on towards a hill about as far as Midhurst is from 
 Brighton, and Booy, de ViUiers' servant, accompanied 
 me in a spring cart. The waggon had orders to go to 
 the saltpan past Mimac's. I only took with me a 
 piece of damper and water bottle expecting to get 
 to Mimac's for dinner. We drove and rode over 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 61 
 
 plains and low hills in direction of my hill till at last 
 Booysaidhe could not drive any longer over the rough 
 ground, and must find a road ; I told him to follow 
 me but on looking round found that he had gone a 
 long way round after springbuck, and I heard a 
 shot. I arrived at my hill at about 2 p.m., and 
 waited for Booy and cart for about two hours, and 
 then I heard a cooey and saw he had put up a flag 
 some distance ofi", on another hill. He would not 
 come over to me so I had to ride over to him and 
 found that it was the hUl he thought had been 
 pointed out to him by his master. I brought him 
 back with me to help me to signal, at the top 
 of the hiU, but when I arrived I found that he had 
 gone to bathe in a dam about a mile off. Fortun- 
 ately a Kafir boy was near who helped me and got 
 me some water. For two hours I signalled to David's 
 Graf (thirty mUes off), but got no answer, and at 
 last, at sundown, Booy came back from his bathe, 
 and just then I got a reply to my signals. I told 
 Booy that his master would whip him for his mis- 
 deeds and he grinned. On getting down from the 
 hiU our horses were gone ; strayed ; it was getting 
 dark and a storm coming on, lightning and rain. I 
 had finished my bit of damper and was hungry; the 
 air was hot and the rocks so hot I could not sit on 
 them. 
 
 Booy came back with the horses in about an hour ; 
 it was now very dark ; we inspanned and set off 
 towards Saltpan, guessing the direction, but there 
 was no road, and we could only judge our direction 
 over the veldt by the aid now and then of a flash of 
 
62 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 lightning. Right across country we went, over ant 
 heaps and into antbearholes, the cart first, and I 
 following ; every now and then I saw it go down 
 into a hole, and took warning ; twice we found our- 
 selves turning back again. Soon we saw a light in 
 front for which we made ; the rain was now falling 
 in torrents. In about half an hour we came to a farm- 
 house, where the light was, but the people could only 
 talk Dutch, so off we went again, and after three 
 hours (at 1 1 p.m.) we came to a house. By this 
 time we had not a notion where we were except that 
 we had been travelling pretty nearly in the right 
 direction. I knocked at the door till I woke up the 
 master and asked him for lodging. " Oh," said' he ; 
 " have you not seen your waggons, they are close by?" 
 I was delighted to hear a reply in English, and said, 
 " Give me some food ; I am famished ; I have had 
 no meal for seventeen hours." 
 
 On opening the door I was surprised to find that 
 I had got to Mimac's Hotel ; by great good luck we 
 had struck across the waggon road close to his house, 
 and by more good luck our waggon had been so 
 delayed that it had not gone so far south as Saltpan, 
 but had outspanned about twenty minutes south of 
 Mimac's. I got some bread and butter, and off we 
 went again, and at midnight arrived at our waggon, 
 where things had not been unpacked on account of 
 the heavy rain. Serjeant K. had only just arrived 
 from another hill, and de Villiers did not turn up 
 at all that night. As it was still raining we all got 
 into the waggon, under the tilt where there was room 
 for us to sit in a row, and there we sat wet through 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 63 
 
 till morning, the natives crowding under the waggon. 
 At dawn I had to get off, all ready booted and 
 spurred, and made for another hill, all in my wet 
 things, to signal and take observations. On returning 
 to the waggon to breakfast there was no meat to be 
 ^ot, as the Kafirs about asked too much for their 
 sheep. Fortunately I had shot a koorhaan which 
 we ate with some damper ; this is the kind of life we 
 are leading, though these mishaps do not, I am happy 
 to say, occur every day. Still, we are now often wet 
 through for hours, we take an -immense amount of 
 -exercise, and are in admirable health. 
 
 Saturday, Feb. 3. — These saltpans are curious 
 places, the beds of old lakes, each three or four miles 
 long, and only a few feet below the surrounding 
 ground. There is not salt here all the year round ; 
 it comes up after the rains and effloresces on the 
 surface ; but if there is too much rain it does not 
 come up properly. The farmers here have huge 
 metal pans or caldrons in which they put the dirty 
 salt, and they boil it down, skimming off the dirt. 
 I have not seen it done, but I know that this salt 
 often tastes of soap, and am told that they use the 
 same boUers for making soap, from some plant 
 (barrilla, I suppose) which grows near here, and 
 which is mixed in the caldron with animal fat. 
 Salt is very necessary for animals here, and a salt- 
 pan on a farm is a valuable appendage. 
 
 We are leaving for Con's Dam to-day. 
 
 Sunday, Feb. 4. — Con's Dam. At last I have got 
 a quiet Sunday ; we have had too much Sunday 
 working, but it could not be helped. Something 
 
64 LAYING THE EOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 untoward always seems to happen on a Sunday. 
 Last Sunday I had to send away Balagaroo, and 
 Emmanuel came in his place. He is a smart, well- 
 behaved man, and I thought that now we should 
 have peace amongst our servants, and for three days 
 things went well ; then came in Emmanuel crying 
 that Sam, the cook, had called him names, and he 
 must be off at once. Sam is a great coward, but he 
 finds one now that he can bully. I had to pitch into 
 Sam who says he wiU go at the end of his month, 
 but I doubt it. The drivers are now in good order, 
 I gave them each a nightcap of red wine last night 
 to show that I was pleased with them ; it does not 
 do to say so in words, it would make them proud 
 and useless at once. 
 
 Tuesday, Feb. 6. — Con's Dam. Our quiet Sunday 
 was suddenly cut short by the state of the atmo- 
 sphere allowing of our observing — for we have had so 
 much difficulty lately on account of mirage. Off we 
 went in two parties : Sergeant K. and I took the bul- 
 lock cart, and made for a point whence we could see 
 de Villiers at another point. We had to take the 
 observations at sunset, and then jpin de VUliers on 
 the boundary -line ; but after travelling till lo p.m. we 
 could get no road ahead and outspanned for the 
 night, lighting our fire and making supper. We 
 sleep on the ground now on waterproof sheets, as it 
 is getting damp from rain. We reached de Villiers 
 at 9 A.M. We have now got our line laid out for 
 forty miles, from David's Graf towards the Orange 
 river, but we don't know whether it is in the right 
 direction till we get to Eamah. We are on our 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 65 
 
 way to Zwinkspan, where our waggons have gone 
 on. 
 
 We paid high prices for milk to-day at a Dutch 
 farm, is. a pint, though the goats are brimming over 
 and the farmer cannot make use of it, and has no 
 market where he can sell it : but he refuses to sell 
 except at Kimberley prices. We certainly had 
 plenty of milk this evening, and I cannot think 
 where it can have come from, unless one of our boys 
 has been relieving the goats of a superfluity. Sam 
 says, " They are cruel monsters ; they have no kind 
 sympathy." Sam has made a new kind of damper 
 mixed with dripping, which I do not like : the plain 
 wholemeal damper made with water is very good 
 and digestible.. I cannot eat the white meal (or flour) 
 damper without butter, but the wholemeal bread 
 seems to be eatable by itself. 
 
 The rains are not yet properly come on, and 
 everything is yet looking brown, I hoped to have 
 seen it green by now. The tyres of our wheels are 
 stni loose, and we have had to put in wedges between 
 them and the wood. Some say that the wheels 
 ought to be saturated in salt water. 
 
 The owner of a farm we have recently left is a 
 comical and good fellow : he hails from Ireland, and 
 when he was younger and had nothing he was all 
 agin' the Government, and now that he has become 
 a wealthy landowner and employer of labour he still 
 holds the same views and inveighs against wealth 
 and against landowners, quite forgetting that he is 
 now one of the class he is so hot against. He has 
 had the most amusing encounters with Sergeant K., 
 
66 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 who is also an Irishman and Eoman Catholic, but 
 who has no sympathy with his views. In his wroth 
 
 comes to me and seems to imagine that we 
 
 hold the same views ; anyhow we seem to have struck 
 up a lasting friendship. 
 
 is a good type of the early settlers. He 
 
 occupied the farm Roode Laagte, and thus described 
 his position to me : "I have been in the army and 
 am a good royalist, I joined the Royal Engineers in 
 Armagh on the survey of Ireland in 1833, and took 
 my discharge and then enlisted in the 38th Regiment, 
 but though I passed the doctor I only stayed in the 
 regiment three months, for the general doctor in 
 Dublin rejected me on account of having crooked 
 legs, and I was discharged. Again I joined the 
 Royal Engineers on the survey till 1836, when I re- 
 enlisted in the 75th Regiment at Naas, and I pro- 
 claimed her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria in 
 Drogheda, I then joined the 91st Regiment in hopes 
 of remaining in this Colony, and served her Majesty 
 till 1845, when I got my discharge and came up to 
 the ' Sovereignty ' (now the Orange Free State) as 
 a hawker of merchandise, and I bought, through my 
 industry, six farms, and paid about ;^5000 for them, 
 one of which the Free State Government took away 
 from me on account of the miserable documents of 
 the Griqua proprietors, and now one has been taken 
 away by Mr. Stockenstrom (Judge of Land Court), 
 and given to a squatter Boer, he having built a hut 
 on it. I have a family of ten children, and it is 
 hard to lose my property which I have honestly 
 bought and paid for," 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 67 
 
 Tuesday, Feb. 6. — Zwinkspan. The country about 
 here is very desolate in appearance, possibly owing 
 to the unusual drought. I go up to the top of the 
 hill near where our waggon is ; it is a heap of iron- 
 stone 200 feet high : around I see a vast brown; 
 plain with a few iron-stone hills here and there, and 
 miles away I see two or three little white streaks 
 with green patches near them : they are the farm- 
 houses and verdure resulting from making dams of 
 Water. Somebody has said that South Africa will 
 never be worth anything until it is " well dammed." 
 It is quite true ; dams are wanted everywhere in the 
 west : there is not a tree to be seen for miles 
 •except the thorny mimosa (this however is a very 
 handsome forest tree when it is well grown). The 
 ■country looks a howling wilderness, and yet it pro- 
 duces well when care is taken ; and the sheep seem 
 to thrive on this dry soil, and are fit even in the 
 greatest drought if they can only get sufficient water 
 to drink. The difficulty with European plants is 
 the extreme heat by day and the frosts by night ; 
 this is fatal to so many kinds of fruit. There is no 
 grass in this part of the country this year ; I do not 
 know if there is ever much : the sheep, oxen and 
 ■horses live on the karoo bush and wild sage. I do 
 not think that any description can convey how truly 
 miserable the country looks just now. If I were put 
 down suddenly here I should say that I was in a 
 desert incapable of supporting anything but the 
 springbuck and wildebeeste, and yet there are plenty 
 of shops and stores about, and that is significant. It 
 means that there are people living about with 
 
68 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 produce to exchange. I keep saying to myself, 
 " This looks worse than the desert of Arabia," but 
 there are plenty of shops here and none there. 
 
 With all our sad surroundings we enjoy this life 
 amazingly, and are in wondrous health. Jos. de 
 VUliers and I only differ on one point in our work, 
 and that is the rate of progress. He says I must be 
 working piece work to wish to get on so fast. I can 
 see no credit to me in wishing to get through this 
 work quickly as there is so little here that can amuse 
 one ; the game is all away during the drought, and 
 there are no historical records of the past, and no 
 people whose manners and customs are worth ob- 
 serving closely. This is a new country and only 
 recently inhabited by man, and it bears signs of 
 enormous changes even in recent years. It cannot 
 be fifty years since it was the home of the 
 elephant, the sea-cow (hippopotamus), and the 
 lion ; evidently within quite recent years there were 
 lakes of water and valleys where the sea-cow could 
 wallow ; the Dutch names point to this. 
 
 An old naturalist told me that the domestic sheep 
 have altered the face of this country, and that for their 
 sake the tall grass and reeds were burnt down, and 
 thus the soil exposed to the sun and the rainfall 
 diminished. 
 
 I don't know how invalids are to get on in this 
 country if they are sent here, with the necessaries of 
 life so expensive, and good servants so exceptional 
 — they must wait for the railway. 
 
 Mr. Coryndon, lawyer from Kimberley, paid me a 
 visit and brought me some splendid muscatel grapes,, 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 69 
 
 grown on a farm near here ; and now what can be 
 said about this desert producing nothing ! All it 
 wants is elbow grease. He came concerning the 
 boundary line, and asked me to receive a deputation 
 on my return to Kimberley ; of course I shall receive 
 it, but it will be waste of time ; they are only seek- 
 ing their individual gain. 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 Thursday, Feb. 8, 1902. — Ramah. On leaving^ 
 Zwinkspan yesterday we outspanned for the night 
 in the veldt ; and while the dinner was being cooked 
 I heard a loud altercation among the servants, 
 something more than usual, and as I came up I saw 
 one of them with his arm raised holding something 
 that flashed in the firelight ; I ran in under his arm 
 and it came down with force on my shoulder, and 
 just saved Sam getting a knife in his neck. I 
 grasped his arm, the knife flew out of his hand, 
 and we all bound the culprit hand and foot. It 
 proved to be our Kafir Jim, whom I had got out of 
 the gaol at Kimberley. Now, what was to be done 
 with him? First, with the aid of Sergeant K., we 
 bound him to the waggon wheel, then we made a 
 straight waistcoat for him by sewing up the cufis of 
 the sleeves of his coat at the end, and putting it on 
 to him back to the front, then by sewing up the 
 front part which was now behind, his hands were 
 enclosed and he could not free himself We then 
 pegged him out, by fastening cords to his ankles and 
 wrists and securing the ends out in various directions; 
 all this time he was very suUen and kept muttering 
 that he would kill Sam. 
 
 I did not know what course to adopt as I was 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 71 
 
 many miles away from any magistrate, and I thought 
 the best plan was to make our way on to Ramah 
 where I had agreed to meet de Villiers, and to send a 
 messenger to Captain Marshall, the magistrate at 
 Langford, to tell him of the occurrence. On arrival 
 at Ramah, I was at a loss what to do with Jim 
 and de Villiers could give me no useful advice, nor 
 could the Boers living on the farm ; all they could 
 say was that if we were in the Orange Free State 
 we could (under Orange Free State law) flog him. 
 But this did not help me. What I was in fear of 
 was his murdering Sam, as I now heard that he had 
 been in Kimberley gaol for manslaughter. 
 
 I therefore made a little plan to get rid of Jim 
 which took me some time to explain to my friend 
 the Boer, at Ramah. I proposed to pretend to sell 
 Jim to the Boer, and then to hand him over in such 
 a manner as to allow of his running away, so that 
 his object would be to get away for fear of being 
 taken into the Orange Free State. So when it was 
 all arranged the Boer came over with me and we 
 had a bogus sale, the bargain lasting some time while 
 we discussed the merits of Jim. The servants realised 
 evidently that it was all a hoax but Jim took it 
 seriously. Eventually I agreed to accept half a 
 crown for him, and then asked Jim what he had to 
 say. He said that he thought he was worth at least 
 half a sovereign. We had just laid off the boundary 
 line here, and the Boer stood on the Free State side 
 and Jim alsohappened to beonthatside,but I released 
 him on our side. Then the Boer told him to come 
 on and they both walked together up the line, Jim 
 
72 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 gradually edging further and further away from the 
 Boer, and at last, when they were about thirty yards 
 apart, Jim took to his heels and ran his best. We 
 all set up a howl and pretended to run after him, but 
 he was soon clear away, and the servants looked 
 greatly relieved, as they were afraid of him : they 
 have now got drunk to celebrate the event. I can't 
 think where they get the liquor from ! 
 
 Saturday, Feb. lo. — I have done a foolish thing. 
 Last night it was cold and rainy, and I took pity on 
 the two drivers who had no blankets and gave them 
 one each ; to-day they are gone, blankets and all. 
 De Yilliers only laughs, as he says I might have 
 known they would go, I had been told not to make 
 presents as there is some superstition about it, and 
 it usually terminates with the recipients bolting : 
 but I did not think that the gift of a blanket would 
 have such a disastrous effect. It is a great nuisance 
 as we cannot inspan or drive the oxen ourselves. 
 From constantly going among them the oxen let me 
 come quite close to them, and even touch them, and 
 I know most of them individually, though at first 
 they seemed to me to be all alike, but I cannot look 
 after them, and they will not let any one else in our 
 camp go near them. However, no doubt some men 
 will turn up ; these people are like vultures and 
 always seem to know when a servant is wanting. In 
 the meantime I must get de ViUiers and the Boers 
 to help me. 
 
 I do not know whether the natives look upon me 
 as a doctor or whether they have discovered that I 
 sympathise with them in their afflictions, but they 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 73 
 
 are constantly coming to me for medical assistance. 
 Last night de ViUiers' servant Kookjes (who had 
 got a kick in the stomach^asked that I might doctor 
 him, his master having no objection, and I tried my 
 hand on him. It seemed a bad case and I was 
 rather nervous that he would not recover as he 
 appeared to have- acute inflammation, but castor oil 
 and mustard leaves and hot fomentations carried the 
 •day, and now he seems quite recovering, and actually 
 seems grateful. I don't think that the Dutch have 
 •quite the same views as we have about the Kafirs 
 being feUow creatures. I must confess that I have 
 a misgiving about the Koranna, being very low in 
 the scale, but the Kafirs, though idle and dissolute, 
 have reasoning faculties they can develop and can, 
 if they get the opportunity, educate themselves. I 
 have met a few decent Kafirs during the last few 
 days, who do not scowl at me and who do not seem 
 •discontented with their lot. Even this rascal Jim 
 who has just gone ofi" is immeasurably above a 
 Koranna and the lower order of Griquas, but I 
 am told there are Griquas equal to the more ignorant 
 Boers. 
 
 [Some months after this episode I met Jim at 
 Kimberley and he asked me for sixpence, which I 
 gave him. I said, " So you think that you were 
 worth ten shillings," He said, " If you had sold 
 me for ten shillings I should have asked you for a 
 .shiUing."] 
 
 I have got two boys as driver and leader for our 
 waggon, they are Kafirs, I think they are better boys 
 than any I have seen yet, and off they will go when 
 
74 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 we get near Kimberley. We have now laid down 
 the boundary hne for fifty miles from David's Graf 
 to the Orange river through Eamah, and I will try 
 to describe what we have done. In former days 
 there was a dispute between two Griqua chiefs, 
 Waterboer and Adam Kok as to their respective 
 lands, and the line from David's Graf to Eamah 
 fountain was agreed to in 1843, and subsequently 
 laid down by Surveyor de Kok, for the Orange Free 
 State in 1 859. I had already agreed with de Villiers^ 
 on the David's Graf of de Kok, and also that the 
 eye of the fountain at Eamah should be accepted as. 
 Eamah, at the point where Mr. Orpen had a trigono- 
 metrical station ; so that we had to lay down exactly 
 the same line as de Kok should have laid down. 
 There was a great advantage about this, as the 
 farms of most of the settlers terminated at this line. 
 We had found Mr. Orpen's triangulation very 
 accurate, and connected it with our own so that we 
 were enabled when at David's Graf to calculate the 
 direction of the line straight down to Eamah, and 
 laid out our line as already described. To our gi'eat 
 delight our trial line forty-three miles long, over a 
 succession of low hills cuts within a foot of the 
 trigonometrical station at Eamah, i.e., the error in 
 forty-three miles is less than four feet. This is a 
 result we had not ventured to make sure of, though 
 I felt very sanguine, and we can thus stick to the 
 line we have first laid out. During the tracing of this 
 line we have found that de Kok's old line is crooked, 
 and is in some places a mile or more out so that some 
 portions of the Orange Free State farms will fall 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 75 
 
 into Griqualand West ; this is not, however, a 
 matter of any moment. 
 
 The work now before us is the beaconing off the 
 line from here to David's Graf, and building the 
 beacons, the observing at several trigonometrical 
 points, and the measurement of a base line of verifi- 
 cation at Frederick's Pan. 
 
 The Orange river (about three miles from Eamah) 
 has been very low all this season ; the banks are 
 well wooded and lined with grass and Karoo bush. 
 The river runs in a great guUey, 300 yards wide and 
 60 feet deep, which it has cut, in process of time, 
 through the flat plain. Just now, the water is a 
 small stream connecting a few shallow pools, but 
 after heavy rains, in the Orange Free State and in 
 Basutoland, the whole gulley is water, running like 
 a miU-race. It is full of pretty little islands, at 
 present, but there is not enough water for boating. 
 It is dangerous to encamp on the bank, as the rains- 
 come down suddenly, and sometimes the guUey i& 
 filled up in a few minutes after heavy and sudden 
 rains up country. 
 
 Friday, Feb. 9. — We moved up to Frederick's 
 Fontein to-day, and commenced getting ready for 
 the measurement of the base line. We are now in 
 the Orange Free State on the borders of a pan, 
 about twelve miles north of Ramah ; it might be 
 called a frying-pan so far as the heat is concerned. 
 There are many of these pans (or dried up lakes) 
 about this part of the country, and consequently it 
 is called the Panneveldt. This one is more than 
 three miles long, and 600 yards broad, running 
 
76 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 nearly north and south ; the bottom is flat, and 
 as smooth as a floor, and looks like hard mud, 
 and it glares like snow (from the salt in it), and is 
 burning hot to the feet. At night it looks quite like 
 snow and crunches up under the feet. The ground 
 around is nearly flat, gently sloping towards the 
 pan, and is covered with Karoo bush, and a kind of 
 ice plant. To the east is a range of low hills about 
 200 feet above the plain, terminating in a peak to 
 north about 200 feet higher. These hills are all iron- 
 stone, and very disagreeable to walk on. The peak can 
 be seen on all sides up to 20 miles, and is therefore an 
 important trigonometrical point. At the southern 
 extremity is a spring of water, called Frederick's 
 Pontein, where we are encamped. The bed of the 
 pan is perfectly level for two miles up the centre ; 
 for about 600 yards at the south it is somewhat 
 rough, owing to the trampling of sheep going to 
 water, and ^at the northern end the pan bed is 
 grown over with low shrubs. 
 
 As a whole this pan presents the most perfect site 
 for a short base line ; there is nothing to be compared 
 to it in the British Isles. It is aU ready, no spade 
 work is required except at the northern end where 
 a few shrubs require removing. The dead level of 
 the pan may be realised by the fact that after a 
 thunderstorm the water lies on the bed in one long 
 unbroken sheet in calm weather at a uniform depth, 
 yet when the wind blows strongly and continuously 
 along its length, the water is blown to the leeward 
 ■end and heaped up there. If there is a sudden 
 change of wind the water will be driven in a wave 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 77 
 
 from one end to the other, the dry portion being now- 
 covered to a depth of two to three feet, while what 
 was recently covered with water is now left dry. 
 
 Jos. de Villiers states that about ten years agO' 
 this pan was fuU of water, and that the pan at 
 Boshof was empty ; that there was a very violent 
 storm with whirlwinds and water-spouts, and that 
 at the close of one of these atmospheric outbursts- 
 the Boshof pan was found full of water, and the 
 Frederick's pan was empty. He also told me several 
 other stories, current in these parts, of showers of 
 oranges, fishes, frogs, during these storms, and aftei" 
 what I have seen myself take place I can quite 
 believe them. I saw a small tent and some farm 
 implements taken up by a whirlwind a few days 
 ago, and dropped down again some yards off. 
 
 Monday, Feb. 1 2. — Yesterday (Sunday) we went 
 out in the afternoon to the house of a young Dutch 
 farmer (Mr. Hever) about an hour east of this. His 
 is one of four, and owns 10,000 morgen (20,000- 
 acres), a fourth part of the original estate which he 
 and three brothers inherited. At the low rate of 
 20s. a morgen, his land is worth ;^ 10,000, and valu- 
 ing his own dam, herds and flocks at ;^ 10,000 more,, 
 he cannot be worth less than ;^2o,ooo. He is con- 
 sidered here to be passably well off but not a rich 
 farmer. His house is in a nook in the barren hills, 
 and his garden is an oasis in the desert. In this, 
 country if you have water you have everything else 
 on your land. He has no fountain, only a weU and a 
 large dam, so large that its waters will last him three- 
 years, and he is independent of droughts. This dam. 
 
78 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 supplies all the cattle and sheep of the farm, and 
 irrigates a large garden ; there has been comparatively 
 no rain here for twelve months, and severe drought 
 ;still prevails, though heavy rains have fallen a few- 
 miles more to west, about Zwinkspan. 
 
 He speaks most feelingly of his emotion at seeing, 
 for several days past, heavy showers falling in all 
 directions around here, but none on his farm. Then 
 I think, " Oh, my base line ! if one of these showers 
 comes all our work will come to nought." His 
 garden is a melancholy instance of the drought ; the 
 trees are green enough from irrigation, but though 
 the peaches are splendid in appearance, they will 
 never get ripe. I tried several large juicy looking 
 peaches, but found them green and hard inside; 
 they want a little moisture in the air. 
 
 Fancy a country where rain only falls now and 
 then by accident. The pomegranate looked superb; 
 All things in a garden in this country must be irri- 
 gated ; grapes, figs, peaches, even grass. Nothing 
 will grow without water to the roots the air is so 
 intensely dry. 
 
 He told us many stories about the baboons 
 (bavians) about here. They live in the stony hills 
 and are immensely powerful, doing great damage 
 amongst the sheep, if they can get at them. They 
 pursue them, tear the hind legs asunder and suck 
 the kidneys, killing a great number, but do not 
 eat them. I don't think that they eat flesh. He 
 said that bavians do not usually attack human 
 beings, but that they take likes and dislikes, and 
 ■often they worry those they dislike. A farmer went 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 79 
 
 alone to see some friends near Frederick Pan, and 
 on his way there he fired at some bavians and 
 annoyed them. On his return he found them all in 
 a line hand-in-hand barring his way, and he was 
 obliged to ride back and get company to come with 
 him before he ventured to pass his enemies. He is 
 stiU much chaffed by his friends for having had to 
 run from the bavians. 
 
 To-day there is much electricity about, and when I 
 lift up the tent door it gives off sparks. When I 
 get into bed I see for a few seconds a circle of fire 
 around me ; the blankets all sparkle and crackle 
 when touched. It is quite astonishing sometimes 
 how everything crackles. I notice it most when I 
 suddenly undo blankets which have been folded 
 during the heat of the day ; then, as some one ex- 
 pressed it, we have thunder and lightning. All say 
 that this is the worst drought they have had 
 for many years past ; but is not this always said ? 
 In Europe, each year is said to be unusual in some 
 respect. 
 
 We have selected the exact line of our base, and 
 sunk stones at the northern and southern ends of the 
 pan, nearly three mUes apart, to mark the extremities 
 of the lines to be measured, and we have picketed 
 out the line and have measured part of it. Our 
 measurements are made with steel rods with rounded 
 ends butting on to each other. This I believe to be 
 a much more accurate method of measurement in this 
 climate than the most elaborate and scientific instru- 
 mental measurement. The only point is that the 
 rods must be the exact standard length. These rods 
 
80 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 I have made myself, and compared rigorously with the 
 Cape standard. They are painted white, and num- 
 bered I. , II. , III,, No. III. being painted black for about 
 one foot at either end to distinguish it from the other 
 two. The method of measuring is as follows : I place 
 No. I. in position, and Sergeant K. creeps forward 
 to the further end of it, and gently puts his foot on 
 it (the ground underneath being hard, solid, and 
 smooth) and remains there while II. and III. are 
 placed in position. A labourer brings forward No II. 
 and places it in position, Sergeant K. adjusting the 
 contact. I then place No. III. in line with I. and II. 
 and abutting on the latter, on the forward end of 
 which the labourer has placed his foot. After seeing 
 to the close contact of II. and III. I place my foot on 
 the forward end of the latter, mark the tally and 
 note the distance in the field-book, while at the same 
 time Sergeant K. makes a similar entry in his book. 
 This completes the first lot, then No. I. is released, 
 brought forward, put into position, and the operation 
 commences again. Thus two rods are always fixed 
 on the ground at one time, and there is no danger of 
 any slip, and the only error possible is due to in- 
 correctness in length of rods or an imperfect contact. 
 The laying down of twelve sets of rods, ten Cape feet 
 in length each, was found to take twelve minutes, 
 subsequently reduced to four and a half minutes, 
 and consequently we measured at the rate of 
 about 1500 yards per hour. These measurements 
 were made on February 10 and 12 ; the greatest 
 difference in any two measurements in the three 
 miles base was two and three-quarter inches ; a 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 81 
 
 discrepancy considerably less than occurs with 
 the best and most elaborate measurements with 
 scientific instruments ; and comparing very favour- 
 ably with the measurements of the Sahsbury Plain 
 and Hounslow Heath bases. Then steel rods were 
 compared before and after measurements wdth the 
 Cape standard rods brought up from Capetown. 
 
 [On August 1 8, 1877, General Cameron (Director 
 of the Ordnance Survey) writes : " Your two bases 
 compare capitally, quite as weU as the bases measured 
 by General Mudge with Ramsden's chain in the early 
 days of the survey. Deal rods did not give a good 
 result in this climate."] 
 
 One of our great difficulties in measuring the 
 base line, and in observing with the theodolite, was 
 the mirage ia parallax caused by the tremulous 
 vibratory motion in the atmosphere ; these pheno- 
 mena appear to extend throughout South Africa, 
 but the illusion differs ru different parts. When 
 travelliag up through the country, lakes of water 
 were constantly seen on either side of the road, which 
 reflected trees from their surface and had everv 
 appearance of reaHty. So much is this the case 
 that even when a country is weU known the deception 
 to the eye continues in fiill force, and owners of farms 
 have been known to imagine that a downpour of raiu 
 had filled up their pans, while they were actually 
 simmeriug with drought. On the other hand, cases 
 have occurred where farmers have believed they were 
 looking on a mirage, while a real pan of water, from 
 a recent-cloud burst, lay before them. 
 
 The hills up country are very much affected by the 
 
82 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 mirage, and assume the appearance of huge hay- 
 stacks, their bases diminishing towards the horizon. 
 
 During the heat of the day, a stick put up at the 
 distance of a mile, and viewed through a telescope, 
 appears like a wavy falling column of water glittering 
 in the sun, and a beacon at a distance of three or 
 four miles has the motion of a tongue or flame of 
 fire. 
 
 During a calm the motion on the horizon is un- 
 dulating and vertical, and the smooth, sharp outlines 
 of the hills become blurred, and resemble the in- 
 distinct inner edge of the moon's crescent at the first 
 quarter, but when the wind blows strongly the out- 
 lines of the hills have the swift onward movement 
 of waves or billows, and give the observer an uneasy 
 notion that his instrument is not firmly clamped, or 
 that the hUls are quickly and noiselessly gliding 
 away. The stronger the power of the telescope the 
 more apparent the motion, so that during the time 
 of mirage a good glass rather intensifies the diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 During a strong wind there is also a lateral re- 
 fraction, so that if a series of banderols are placed in 
 line, and again observed when there is no mirage, 
 some of them wiU be found to be out of line. We 
 took great pains to satisfy ourselves that this was 
 the case ; we found it out when laying down the 
 base line in the pan ; a banderol put up half way, 
 directly in the line of base during a calm, was about 
 three inches out of line when the wind began to 
 blow strongly across the line. 
 
 The phenomenon of the mirage seems to be in 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 83 
 
 some manner due to the extremely heated state of 
 the earth, while the superincumbent air is cool, 
 consequently there is a constant rush of heated air 
 from the surface of the earth, ascending through the 
 cool air ; but this does not account for everything, 
 and perhaps the dry electric condition of the air 
 may also be a factor. 
 
 Owing to the difficulty about the mirage, observa- 
 tion could not be taken during the day except for 
 an hour at sunrise and an hour at sunset before and 
 after the sun is on the horizon, and thus it is seldom 
 practicable to observe from more than one station in 
 a day. We drive or ride to a hill in the afternoon, 
 ascend it before sunset, and take as many rounds of 
 angles as the state of the atmosphere will admit of, 
 sleep anywhere at the foot of the hill, and go up 
 again before sunrise to complete the observation. 
 This is done without using tents or other covering 
 to sleep under, and though during dry weather it 
 is not disagreeable, on cold and rainy nights it is 
 most trying. Generally there is little wood to be 
 obtained, and the amount of cow-dung that can be 
 collected is scarcely sufficient to do more than cook 
 a cup of coffee. 
 
 It is frequently supposed that there is no mirage 
 after rain, but this was not our experience : we have 
 found it then so strong that we were prevented 
 observing, the surface of the ground had not cooled 
 •down. Apart from this mirage the air is extremely 
 clear, and objects can be seen for thirty to forty- 
 miles with ease ; but it is not, they say, always 
 practicable to distinguish objects when m wooded 
 
84 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 country, of which we have seen little or none at 
 present. 
 
 Last night Sam being no longer afraid of Jim got 
 drunk again, and we had more fighting. They are 
 a wearisome lot, and I wonder if they would be any 
 better if they could be whipped ; it seems the only 
 punishment suitable. What are you to do with 
 fellows who charge you ;^ioo a year and yet will not 
 do a fair day's work, or even half a day's work. 
 
 I can cheerfully recommend an excellent punish- 
 ment for any European who has offended. Set him 
 to measure a base line at Frederick's Fontein with 
 the thermometer over i8o F. in the sun. We can- 
 not touch the iron pickets with our bare hands, 
 they are so hot. I have had some very rough work 
 lately and feel all the better for it. 
 
 It is interesting to sit in a store and see the 
 natives come for their grog. Some of them buy beer 
 and stout, but the Griquas and Korannas usually 
 drink some kind of strong spirits. They must have 
 got used to a long course of drinking. This is how 
 some of them continue yet to give themselves a 
 shock with a small amount. The Koranna comes 
 into the shop and putting his shUling on the counter, 
 he receives in exchange a long tapering glass, very 
 thick glass, of fiery spirits. He puts his head back, 
 opens his mouth wide, lifts the glass as high over his 
 head as he can, turns it over, and pours the spirit 
 straight into his stomach without appearing to 
 swallow. 
 
 An amusing incident took place regarding the 
 young German assistant at this store ; he had evi- 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 85 
 
 dently something he wanted to get out of Mr. Orpen, 
 and asked me many questions about him, and con- 
 cerning his differences with Mr. de Villiers, which I 
 thought indiscreet, and I fenced them. Just then 
 de Villiers drove up to take me on to another house, 
 and the German asked him if he could take him also, 
 and on getting into the cart began to speak to de 
 Villiers as though he were Mr. Orpen ; he had evi- 
 dently mistaken the two. It was most entertaining; 
 he tried to ingratiate himself with the supposed 
 Mr. Orpen by running down Mr. de Villiers, who at 
 first was inclined to resent it, but I gave him a kick 
 and he let the German run on. After a little time 
 he began to think that Mr. Orpen did not respond 
 very readily, so I suggested he was flattering him so 
 much that I should not wonder if Mr. Orpen was to 
 pose as Mr. de Villiers, and then de VUliers began to 
 pretend that he was himself We dropped him at a 
 farmhouse looking very much mystified and uncer- 
 tain whether it was Box or Cox. 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 Friday, Feb. 23. — We have often been wet 
 through, but still the drought has continued. 
 Hitherto we have had almost constant blue sky 
 (except during a sudden storm), but lately clouds 
 gather together each afternoon, and often cover the 
 heavens, and again in the evening disappear. For 
 a day or two we saw lightning about, and it was 
 evident that rain was falling somewhere not very far 
 oif, and clouds began to form up by 9 a.m., getting 
 quite thick by noon ; signs of bad weather. About 
 1 P.M. yesterday as we were out piling, on a hill 
 some miles off, the clouds seemed to come down 
 around us, and we drove off as quickly as we could, 
 and then there was a great thunderstorm and a 
 downpour for some hours, a real heavy rain ; after 
 this it was comparatively cool. I was obliged to 
 sleep in my clothes, because my tent is of so frail a 
 description it might be blown to pieces at any 
 moment. It rained hard in the night and this 
 morning the clouds are all gone, but there are still 
 signs of rain on the horizon ; at 9 A.M. the clouds 
 gathered together again, and to the south they 
 appeared so very black that I concluded there must 
 be heavy rain at Hopetown. Nothing occurred here 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 87 
 
 till 4 P.M. when there were unmistakable signs of a 
 real storm coming on. 
 
 The scene was very beautiful — not the landscape 
 but the clouds. Looking south a long purple black 
 cloud extending from east to west, and below it a 
 fringe doubly black, which seemed to meet the earth. 
 At the outskirts of the fringe rain was falling, and 
 near the rain the clouds were quite green, and 
 further along they turned into violet, while to the 
 north there was bright blue sky, quite blue green in 
 parts, and fleecy clouds of all colours. In one direc- 
 tion to south-west was to be seen a red haze ; this 
 increased rapidly till we could see it was a dust 
 storm coming towards us. The highly coloured 
 condition of the atmosphere showed that there was 
 much electricity about. This red haze came along 
 with a hissing sound, and we had hastily to put up 
 our papers and close our waggon front. Hardly was 
 this done when the storm broke over us, knocked 
 over my tent and filled it with dust, carried away 
 all the loose kitchen utensils towards the pan — it 
 was ludicrous to see them all bowling off before the 
 wind — then several loud cracks of thunder, and the 
 lightning played round us in all directions ; not 
 forked as in England, but as a red hot piece of iron 
 waved about in the darkness. 
 
 We now saw that we were in for an up-country 
 storm, and made all fast, but just before it came full 
 on to us it sheered off again, and we only got the 
 fag end of it, but that was quite enough for us who 
 do not own the land. The track of these storms in 
 the heaviest portion is often very narrow. The rain 
 
88 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 came down in torrents, and the lightning was most 
 vivid ; the clouds jostled each other in the sky in 
 the most excited manner. Then there was a lull, a 
 curious cessation of all noise, and we crept out to 
 look around us. There, half a mile from us, was the 
 rain coming down in a sheet of water, and we could 
 hear the hissing of it as it fell, but with us it only 
 came down in spasmodic jerks. As evening came 
 on the rain closed around us and we were in the 
 thick of it again. I had taken the precaution of 
 digging trenches round our tents which I had pitched 
 on a little knoll, so there was no danger of our being 
 swamped out or carried away as sometimes happens. 
 The rain, however, penetrates through my tent, 
 which is now up again, and here am I sitting with 
 waterproofs over all my things, water dripping at 
 all points. I am eating hiltong (dried meat), for I 
 can get nothing cooked. There is another storm 
 coming on and I must leave off writing for a whUe 
 as we have to stand ready when the wind blows 
 strongly. Nine p.m. You wiU hardly realise it, but 
 in spite of the storm, this is the first night since I 
 left Port Elizabeth twelve weeks ago that I can sit 
 down comfortably and lazUy to write. Generally I 
 have so much to get ready for the morning, or have 
 to compute triangles, or am so dead tired that 
 I find it impossible to write. To-night there is 
 a tremendous change after the great heat, and 
 the thermometer is down to 63° F., almost cold. 
 This is due to the rain, and they say here that it 
 ought to have been like this during December, 
 January and February ; but this year has been an 
 
CAMP OF SURVEY PARTY, FREDERICKSFONTEIN, 1876 
 
 A BECHUANA DWELLING, 1825 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 89 
 
 exception. I am glad to find that I can stand the 
 heat so well. 
 
 Saturday, Feb. 24. — The heavy rain last night 
 has filled the pan, and it is now a sheet of water ; 
 fortunately we had completed all observations except 
 & minor one from the near end, to a new pile, and I 
 have had to go ofi" in a cart into the pan and put up 
 my instrument in the middle of the water. It was 
 difficult to find the sunken stone marking the end 
 of the base. They gave me the line from the shore 
 and I had to fish about for it. I suppose we ought 
 to be glad that the rains are so late as otherwise we 
 might have been swamped out while measuring and 
 observing in the pan. We have often got wet 
 through from rain, but now for the first time this 
 season the land is getting wet through. We have 
 nearly completed our work here, have put up a great 
 number of piles, and have been twice to Ramah, 
 putting up a line of beacons reaching down to the 
 Orange river. The only pUe we have had any 
 trouble about is that one just above our camp, in the 
 Frederick's-berg ; the baboons pull it down as soon 
 &s we put it up. We have tried several experi- 
 ments without success, even putting food (cakes) 
 about to propitiate these beasts, but they are of no 
 avail. At last we have hung up many pieces of 
 sheet iron which rattle together in the wind, and 
 this seems either to Brighten or please the baboons, 
 for they have now left the pile alone. 
 
 No dinner to-day again, nothing but biltong to 
 chew. The rains put our fire out. There is a place 
 under the waggon where the drivers and coolies can 
 
90 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 lie without getting very wet, but it is cheerless for 
 the poor creatures. It is now lo P.M. and the rain, 
 has settled down steadily for the night : looking out 
 of my tent I see by the flashes of lightning a snow- 
 white country ; the glistening of the rain on a white 
 chalky substance which churns up to the surface of 
 the wet soil. The gutters I dug round the tents are 
 aU running with rivulets of water, and the pan is. 
 getting quite full. But the Boers say it will be dry 
 again in a day or two as the soil is so thirsty. 
 
 I have not had time to shoot birds or beasts lately, 
 in fact just now you must go after the game a long 
 way ; it does not come to you except when the rains, 
 have made the grass and shrubs grow. I generally,, 
 however, get a koorhaan of some kind in going over 
 the veldt and de YiHiers knows where there are 
 sand-grouse on his side of the work. I really see 
 very little of de YUliers just now as we divide up 
 the work, and of course, with so much observing, we 
 are usually both sleeping on the veldt away from 
 camp, some thirty miles apart. 
 
 The Dutch people about here are dreadfully inhos- 
 pitable to us all ; they are just as disagreeable to- 
 de Yilliers as they are to me. They will not seU 
 their sheep or their milk, but rather let the milk 
 spoil or the sheep die. With thousands of sheep 
 around and barely enough food for them, they will, 
 not sell one. The Kafirs follow suit and are just as 
 bad. Palestine (barring the climate) is a charming 
 country compared to this ; far better to cultivate 
 and colonise. This country which used to support 
 hundreds of natives, now only supports one Dutch 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 91 
 
 family to every 300 square miles. It is lamentable. 
 Great hulking, able-bodied men, these Boers, they 
 sit on their hams from morning till night, and 
 scarcely stir except to abuse their Kafir servants. I 
 think I may be rather severe on them because in the 
 times of drought there is nothing they can do 
 but wait for the rain, being without resources. The 
 Kafirs when they are independent are even worse 
 and do no steady work. I long to see a good negro 
 or Nubian from Upper Egypt. In this country they 
 do not know what it is to work : lazy vagabonds. I 
 cannot get over paying six pounds a month to a raw 
 Kafir for idling his time away. 
 
 White children seem to be remarkably healthy 
 here ; the Dutch children are particularly vigorous, 
 but they become lethargic as they grow up. The 
 English children look more fragile. Each family, 
 Dutch or English, seems to consist of from ten to 
 fourteen children, and many grow up to maturity 
 and are not carried oif by infantile complaints ; but 
 in some families a large proportion die, as many 
 as fifty per cent. The Dutch people marry very 
 young, the girls at fifteen, and the boys at sixteen 
 to eighteen, so that a woman of thirty-five may have 
 fifteen to twenty children and still they cry they 
 come ! Once a year, and sometimes more. The 
 women seem to die very early and the widowers 
 marry again soon ; but it is not becoming to marry 
 within three months of the death of the wife. It is 
 quite an ordinary matter to find a second or third 
 wife in a Boer house. In fact the mortality among 
 wives is a continual theme of conversation. I think 
 
92 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 it due greatly to their taking little or no exercise, 
 and sitting over hot wood or charcoal aU day long in 
 winter. They put the brazier, protected by a 
 wooden grating, under the petticoat, and that 
 cannot be good for them. 
 
 Monday, March 5. — Salt Pan. We are now on 
 our way to David's Graf, completing our beacons as 
 we go along. 
 
 The horses of this country are mostly " sticks," i.e., 
 they get sulky, at times, and wiU not move when 
 they are put into a cart ; nothing wUl make them 
 move when they get into this obstinate condition, 
 they would rather be beaten to death. I don't know 
 if it is due to temper or low diet and poor condition. 
 The Dutch often get quite mad with them on these 
 occasions, and many are the horrid stories they tell 
 about their proceedings. Some of the things they 
 do are very cruel, such as jobbing knives, &c., into 
 the horses ; but there is only one remedy I have 
 heard of which has any effect, i.e., using hot things. 
 Sometimes they light a fire under the horse and then 
 it must move, and sometimes they put a hot egg or 
 potato under the taU. If this is done the animal 
 goes off in a hurry and possibly the cart is smashed 
 up, but the Boer does not think of all that when he 
 is enraged. 
 
 Some days ago when we left Boshof with de 
 ViUiers, the horses aU stuck one after the other in 
 turn, and we were engaged two hours without 
 getting on an inch. Eventually de VHliers out- 
 spanned and gave the horses a little food ; in half 
 an hour he inspanned again and they went off 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 9S 
 
 quietly, having apparently forgotten all about their 
 morning obstinacy. 
 
 I have two horses that have taken to stick, they 
 learnt it from those of de ViUiers, and they have 
 become a positive nuisance, as they stop in the 
 middle of a journey and have to be led. To cure 
 them I have yoked two oxen in front. The oxen 
 are patient, quiet animals, and go off at two miles^ 
 an hour and the horses must follow ; so I hoped to 
 teach the horses to give up sticking. 
 
 A few days ago, however, I was driving in the 
 spring cart when the horses suddenly stuck and re- 
 fused to move, and I had to wait for the oxen. On 
 putting them in front, one of the horses deliberately 
 leaned on the pole of the cart and broke it, turning 
 round to me with a grunt as much as to say, "There, 
 I have done that, what will you do next ? " I was 
 equal to the occasion and took the thick pole out of 
 the buUock cart and put it into the spring cart, 
 and then inspanned the horses, putting the oxen in 
 front and the cart behind. The horse again tried 
 the same trick, but the pole was too strong to be 
 broken by his weight, and off they had to go follow- 
 ing the bullocks. This they have now been doing 
 for two days and seem to be resigned to their fate 
 and have begun to pull all right again, the oxen 
 only being required in difficult places. 
 
 While things were in this condition I paid a visit 
 to a Boer, called Lubbe, who hates the English and 
 who had given out that he would shoot the first 
 Englishman he found on his farm, and that he would 
 have no boundary-line laid through it. 
 
«4 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 I appeared at his farm in my spring cart with 
 two horses and the two oxen in front, and this 
 strange arrangement seems somehow to have pre- 
 possessed him in my favour ; he was so tickled at 
 this method of curing sticking horses. He was 
 extremely civil, asked what he could do for me and 
 expressed his surprise at finding me so young. I 
 asked him what age he took me for and he said 
 twenty-three. Then I asked him what age he ex- 
 pected me to be and he said at least sixty-five. I 
 found that he had expected to see Major Warden 
 who was Land Commissioner in these parts years 
 ago under the Sovereignty, about 1850. We parted 
 great friends and his idea of shooting an English- 
 man has evaporated. 
 
 I must describe this salt pan. When we were 
 here a few weeks ago the bottom was dry and in- 
 crusted with a thin deposit of salt ; it is now a 
 sheet of water about a mile in diameter; on the 
 "western side where we are there is a feeble stream 
 trickling out of the shale. The banks of the pan are 
 only about ten to twelve feet high, and around is a 
 flat country slightly undulating. This plain runs 
 north and south for twelve or fifteen miles and is 
 a,bout three miles wide, the boundary line cutting it 
 in half. Two of the transport roads to the Diamond 
 Fields come through this place. They meet at the 
 spring and diverge again, one to Jacobsdaal and the 
 other to Kimberley. A little grass has come up 
 since we left. There is a farmhouse here and some 
 Kafir huts. There are two stone kraals where 
 cattle are penned at night ; beyond this there is 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 95 
 
 nothing whatever to be seen, not a tree or large 
 shrub as far as the eye can reach, above is all blue 
 sky and a cruel white sun. 
 
 A few days ago I lay down at the foot of a hill on 
 the bare ground, shortly after the first rains ; not a 
 blade of grass near me, all night long I heard little 
 ■clicks all about me, and at last I struck a light and 
 waited till I heard a click and then located it ; then 
 I found it came from a tiny blade of grass which 
 had been folded up in its sheath and had suddenly 
 escaped with a click. I am glad to have heard 
 grass actually growing. I wonder who invented the 
 term " spring up " as applied to grass, it exactly 
 describes the operation. 
 
 You ask me what we drink here, beer being so 
 expensive. People usually drink spirits, tea and 
 cofiee. French Brandy and "Square-gin" (Hollands) 
 are the usual spirits. I now and again drink Old 
 Tom or stout, the former 6s. to ys. 6d. per bottle, 
 the latter 2S. 6d. to 4s. a quart. There are no fixed 
 prices in this country. The inn-keepers seem to 
 charge what they please. 
 
 What a nuisance these Dutch farmers are with 
 their sheep ; I have been obliged to treat one of 
 them according to the law ; he refused to sell at a 
 time when we were quite without meat, so I said to 
 him, " Well, there is the money I shall give, now I 
 shall go and take one." Upon which he said with 
 great alacrity, " Let me select it, I did not know 
 that you were aware of our laws." It seems that 
 under the Roman Dutch law, there is some reasonable 
 ruling that folk need not starve if there is food all 
 
96 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 around and they have the means to pay, and that 
 those who have the food must sell. I don't know 
 if it is a written law, but it is quite evident that the^ 
 Boers look upon it as a law. The Boer seems quite 
 pleased now to let me have the sheep ; they are 
 funny folk. 
 
 I have had a little episode also with Van Eck ; he 
 objected to my observing from the hill over against 
 his house, without his permission ; but the reason 
 I did not ask him was because he had transgressed 
 the rules of Boer hospitality when I entered his 
 house. So I took advantage of the occasion and 
 pointed out his want of hospitality. 
 
 It touched him up and he is now most friendly 
 and insists on our staying to coffee. It seems to me 
 that these Boers are ready to make friends the 
 moment you can convince them that they are in the 
 wrong; I am getting a much higher opinion of 
 them. 
 
 "We passed through a tremendous storm yesterday 
 afternoon. Sergeant K. and I were walking along- 
 side the Scotch cart, when a terrific thunderstorm 
 came on, and the rain fell in sheets, and we could hear 
 it hissing as it fell some miles away. The lightning 
 came out of the ground to the east, went up in 
 irregular lines in the heavens, and then almost in- 
 stantaneously there were the same kind of irregular 
 lines darting from the clouds into the ground to the 
 west of us, so that it circled over us. Electric light 
 played about on the tyres of the cart wheels, and on 
 the barrel of the gun which I was carrying, so I put 
 it into the cart. Suddenly there was a flash and a 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 97 
 
 crash, and Sergeant K. fell over against me, and when 
 he recovered himself said that he could not see, and I 
 also had been blinded for a second or so. I- had now 
 to lead a blind man along, and this continued tiU we 
 got to where our camp was. Towards evening he 
 began to recover his sight, and this morning seems 
 pretty well ; but he will not go out observing for a 
 day or two. 
 
 They say that during these thunderstorms, when a 
 pan gets suddenly filled with water, fishes of large 
 size, several pounds weight, are found in them. This 
 is accounted for in two ways. Some fish, the Marsia, 
 have large heads with a small reservoir of water in 
 them, and when the pan dries up they burrow in the 
 mud and lie there in a state of coma till the rains 
 again fill the pan. The other way is, that when the 
 pan fills there is a certain amount of overflow water 
 which runs into the rivers, and that then the fish in 
 the rivers quickly ascend these streams and so get 
 into the pans ; but if this latter explanation were 
 -correct, we should sometimes find fish stranded in 
 the veldt on their way up. 
 
 Saturday, March 3. — On the line. A store- 
 keeper complained to me yesterday, " The Boers now 
 know the price of things so well, it is impossible 
 to deal with them," Few of the storekeepers buy 
 for cash. They are generally wool-buyers, and they 
 proceed as foUows : A Dutchman or a Kafir comes 
 with wool, and the storekeeper will not buy unless 
 he can get for jCso what he can sell for ;^ioo — say 
 he pays ;^30, on paper, the wool-seller wants stores, 
 ^nd coming into the store with the " good for " £^0. 
 
98 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 buys shirts, boots, implements, etc., here again the 
 storekeeper gets the value of ;^ioo for articles worth 
 ;^I5. The result is really a system of exchange in 
 kind. A man who has just set up a shop there — 
 there ! in this howling wilderness, not in any main 
 road, says he has taken in a month not less than 
 ;^ioo in cash ; and generally three or four people 
 come every day to buy. Where the money all comes 
 from it is difi&cult to say. With houses ten to twelve 
 miles apart a shop seems an absurdity, and yet they 
 do get plenty of custom, perhaps from the Kafirs who- 
 squat on the farms. 
 
 Thursday, March 8. — What a gipsy's life it is ; 
 sometimes we get wet through and cannot pitch our 
 tents ; then we stop our waggon in some dry spot 
 amid sheets of water and get a fire lighted. It is 
 very difficult to light a fire with wet wood in driving- 
 rain, with wet matches, but we generally manage it 
 between us, though sometimes the wind carries away 
 the lighted sticks as fast as they got hot. When 
 the fire is lighted then Sam puts the kettle on it 
 and we all crowd round in our wet things. I sit on 
 a barrel toasting my toes while the rain pours down 
 my back. Then we drink our tea and get some 
 pieces of sheep grilled, if we can, and aU get into the 
 waggon among the instrument boxes and pieces of 
 sail-cloth. We cannot take ofi" our clothes, not even 
 boots, on such occasions as we have to be ready for 
 all emergencies. A few flowers are beginning to 
 appear, and a kind of heather with a flower like a 
 violet. 
 
 I must stop to eat a cucumber : I have not seen 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 99 
 
 cucumbers for some weeks, and must eat this one at 
 once. Now I feel all the better. Vegetables are 
 such precious things in this country ; the Dutch 
 don't eat them, so they are difl&cult to get. A few 
 days ago at Zwinkspan there were potatoes growing 
 and the farmer sold us a few; it was delightful to eat 
 them again, we had not seen any for several weeks. 
 All we can get in this wilderness is sheep, whole 
 meal and a little water, and sometimes too much 
 water. I have not seen much of the little meerkats 
 which live in some parts of the country so I have not 
 been able to study their habits. There are very few 
 about here and those there are are very shy. They 
 are something like ferrets in shape, with long tails ; 
 some kind have rat tails, these can be tamed ; another 
 kind have fine bushy tails and are very wild. They 
 sit up on their hind legs like squirrels and look at 
 you when you whistle to them. One kind live on 
 herbs, and the other is carnivorous. They are pretty 
 things, and I should like to bring one home, but I 
 am sure it would not live. They gather together in 
 communities on the veldt, hundreds of them, in 
 burrows. 
 
 The white ants which make the big ant heaps on 
 the veldt are funny little reddish creatures ; they 
 have great big heads with long snouts, something 
 like that of a duck. If you break a little piece of 
 the ant-heap away they will come running up with 
 clay, and they line the edges of the hole and cover 
 it over in a few hours. I have put some ant-heaps 
 in the beacons, in hopes that the ants will make 
 them into huge nests. 
 
100 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 March 8. — Junction of Modder and Kiet rivers. 
 Here we are again near David's Graf after another 
 week of roughing it. It is impossible to describe 
 where we have been as we have been beaconing off 
 the boundary-line over a country where there are 
 no roads and the people are of the most primitive 
 kind. 
 
 Last night we were travelling through sheets of 
 water, and our waggon was constantly sticking in 
 the mud ; the country all around is a marsh just at 
 present. At one point the waggon sunk in on one 
 side and began to heel over. We had to put ropes 
 over the tilt and hold it up while we unloaded it, 
 with scarce a dry spot to put our things on. When 
 it was empty we yoked in the oxen again, dug out 
 the mud in front of the wheels, and all pushed 
 and bore on the spokes of the wheel together ; the 
 drivers called to the oxen by their names, brought 
 down their whips on them and yelled ; then with a 
 mighty pull and shove all together the waggon 
 emerged from the hole on to solid ground and we 
 packed in our things again. 
 
 To-day we are on the banks of a boUing seething 
 caldron, the Junction Drift (Berry's) and do not 
 expect to be able to cross over for two or three days. 
 Waggons and carts are lining the banks on both 
 sides waiting. One man crossed over to-day by 
 means of a raft, the oxen swimming, but they were 
 nearly drowned in the process. I have not lost my 
 oxen from straying for nearly a month, but those of 
 de ViUiers are often missing. It is very aggravating 
 just as you are about to start off on your business to 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 101 
 
 find that the horses and oxen are all off, probably 
 miles away. To-day a transport rider who was in 
 a hurry got a white man to go after his lost oxen ; 
 the man was absent an hour and charged fifteen 
 shillings for his time. It is like paying salvage. 
 The grass is getting very good now in places. We 
 are getting cucumbers and potatoes, quite a treat. 
 
 A farmer near the boundary, now a rich man, told 
 me his story. He was living in the Cape Colony 
 where he had two good Kafir servants, a waggon 
 and ten oxen and little else of value, but a very ex- 
 cellent wife. He trekked to the Diamond Fields in 
 the very early rush, and on arrival was out of money : 
 he took a claim and dug each day for diamonds, and 
 his boys went out on to the river banks and brought 
 in firewood in his waggon, which he sold to the 
 diggers, and thus for five months supported himself, 
 finding no diamonds. At last when he had only 
 jC^ I OS. left, he sold his waggon and oxen at Klip 
 drift (Barkly) for a few pounds, put up a shanty and 
 opened a canteen — a friend lent him ;^ioo with 
 which he bought liquor. When he had cleared ;^I5 
 he bought diamonds from the diggers and sold them 
 again for double the price he gave, and began daily 
 to clear from ;^5 to ^30. 
 
 In a month he paid off his debts, and with ;^250 
 went to Kimberley and set up a butcher's shop. He 
 got a careful Scotchman as butcher and a German as 
 salesman, a young man as clerk, three German boys 
 to drive the butcher's cart. His wife looked after 
 all this while he scoured the country foraging for 
 sheep and cattle at a low price. He soon acquired 
 
102 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 a reputation for selling good meat and drove a thriv- 
 ing business. He bought droves of cattle, picked 
 out the best for his shop and sold the rest to other 
 butchers. Thus his shop had always the best meat, 
 and he turned over ;^4000 a month. For five years 
 he worked in this way, and then, getting tired of 
 it, bought a good farm for ;^26oo. If he speaks 
 correctly he must be worth now at least ;^50,ooo, 
 and yet he lives in a corrugated iron house, his wife 
 slaving from morning to night, selling drink to the 
 natives, keeping an hotel and cooking, and his 
 children are growing up with the education of the 
 veldt. 
 
 This is a wonderful country, your butcher and 
 baker may be old school-fellows. There are Uni- 
 versity men in all kinds of very subordinate positions, 
 and the leading men are mostly practical men with- 
 out much education, who have raised themselves a 
 little, but have ideas. It gives one a notion of how 
 diiferent the positions of people would be in the 
 world if they owed their advancement to their in- 
 dividual merits apart from family influence, inherited 
 money, &c. But the time is too short for judging 
 of these things, perhaps in fifty years people would 
 settle down into places much as they do in the old 
 country. 
 
 Thursday, March 1 5. — We have crossed the Riet 
 and Modder rivers in safety, though the water is 
 still in flood. There seemed no prospect of crossing 
 at the Junction Drift, so I crossed the rivers one by 
 one. I took the waggons up to David's Graf, 
 where there is an old drift, disused for many years, 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 103 
 
 here the volume of the Riet river was not half that 
 at the junction. I emptied the waggon, successfully- 
 got it down the very steep side of the drift, dragged 
 it across and then sent the contents across on the 
 heads of the natives. Here for once they really 
 worked weU under great excitement; both the 
 Kafirs and Griquas seem at home in the water. We 
 were now between the two rivers on a tongue of 
 land that is sometimes flooded. 
 
 On the following day, March 12, we attempted to 
 cross the Modder river, and having a local farmer 
 to guide us, we were able to find the best part of 
 the drift without difficulty. We had to be pretty 
 certain of what we were about as we had seen what 
 was nearly a catastrophe at the junction on March 8, 
 when the river began to fill up. Waggons were 
 crossing when it began to rise rapidly and, as we 
 were looking on, a waggon stuck in the drift, two 
 spans were put on without any eifect, and it was 
 thought that the waggon would be swept down the 
 river. A third span however was added in time 
 and the waggon was successfully dragged up, but 
 was already swept a good deal out of its course. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 Thursday, March 15. — Magersfontein. We are 
 now laying down the line between David's Graf and 
 Tarantaal Kop (33 miles), and this we can do rapidly 
 as about midway the line cuts a kop (or summit of 
 a hill) in the neck near Scholtz Dam from whence 
 both points can be seen. 
 
 Whilst engaged here I received a letter from 
 Major Lanyon expressing anxiety lest a large 
 portion of the main road to Kimberley should lie 
 outside the boundary-line, and a deputation of 
 lawyers, bankers and farmers waited on me, connected 
 with the London and South African Exploration 
 Company, requesting that for their individual inter- 
 ests I would make a deviation from the line so as to 
 bring all their land into British territory. We had 
 a great palaver and many set speeches, but I could 
 not see my way to deviate from the line agreed on, 
 and would not admit that the owners of the land in 
 question differed in any respect from other land- 
 owners, merely because they were an influential 
 company with big people in England at their head. 
 I pointed out that if I gave in to them I should have 
 to give in to aU, and the boundary would run zigzag 
 in all directions, sometimes to east and sometimes to 
 west of the agreed-on line, without reference to the 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 105 
 
 interests of the general community, and that I in- 
 tended to do what I thought best for the community 
 in general, and act as nearly as I could in conformity 
 with the memorandum of agreement. In this matter 
 the onus of refusal fell on me because de Villiers was 
 quite willing to give a piece to the South African 
 Exploration Company if the Dutch on the other 
 hand could also get pieces. 
 
 People are very frank here in their speech, and 
 some of the deputation were not wanting in warmth 
 of language. Then the tenant of the farm we were 
 on got up and made a speech, " You have mistaken 
 your man, you won't be able to persuade him ; he 
 will carry out the work as laid down by Lord 
 Carnarvon, and will pay no attention to you or to 
 any one else except his own chief" On this they 
 rose to go, but are coming back again to try and 
 bring me to terms on Saturday, but by that time I 
 shall have beaconed off the line right through their 
 land, and shall be on the other side near Kimberley. 
 
 We are feasting on fruit and vegetables from the 
 garden, green figs, marrows and water melons, plenty 
 of milk, a very agreeable change ; the thermometer 
 now only rises to 86° in the waggon, and 90° in my 
 tent, so it is much cooler than it was. The sun is 
 shining brightly, and there are a few flowers to be 
 seen. The Boers, although they seem so poor, use 
 up the value of a good deal of money. One of them 
 said to me, " How is it you go about on horseback or 
 in a cart, we thought that a great gentleman like 
 you would have a carriage and four horses ; " he did 
 not seem able to realise that I had to keep within 
 
106 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 my allowance If I could, and that if I acted in the 
 reckless way some of them do I should soon be 
 poverty-stricken. I sent to Hopetown a few days 
 ago to get some " boys " (Kafirs) to work on the 
 beacons : they asked " Is he lately from England ? " 
 "Yes." "Ah!" said they, "then he too much 
 spring-buck ! " i.e., an Englishman could not accom- 
 modate himself to their lazy ways. 
 
 Major Lanyon is going down to the Cape for a 
 month's leave to meet Sir Bartle Frere. We hear 
 that the Transvaal has been taken over by Sir 
 T. Shepstone, that like Oliver Cromwell he walked 
 into the Volksraad and told the Volks that as they 
 would not govern themselves he would do it for 
 them ; this is only a telegraphic shave. [The 
 annexation was not proclaimed until April 12. J 
 
 I am really disappointed in this country, there is 
 so little to be seen ; people have little information 
 on any subject ; they live only in speculation ; but 
 I have no doubt that when I get home I shall have 
 plenty to say about the country. I wish, however, 
 that there were any real natives here ; the Kafirs are 
 all imported, so that I have not seen a single native 
 dance, or even a spear or a shield. I showed a very 
 old Kafir my father's sketches of the Bechuanas and 
 Oriquas when he was here in 1825, but he said there 
 have been never such people here in his time ; in fact 
 though looking old I don't think he is more than 55 
 to 60 years. 
 
 The Dutch people are splendid pioneers and should 
 go further north, they are not satisfied unless they 
 have about 10,000 acres to their farms; they are 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 107 
 
 too lazy to be thrifty ; they must live m a big waste- 
 ful style. I wonder what it will all come to. I don't 
 see how this country will ever support a large popu- 
 lation, and if the families continue to increase there 
 vpill soon be ten times the present number. 
 
 Sunday, March 1 8. — Alexanders fontein (five miles 
 from Kimberley). You see we are gradually creeping 
 up the line ; we shall go round Kimberley on its 
 •eastern side and then on to Platberg. I hope to be 
 at church on Easter Sunday. I have only been to 
 service three times since I arrived in South Africa : 
 Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Kimberley. 
 
 We are encamped on a spot where there is actually 
 grass, a nice flat spot near one of the fountains, 
 which, as a rule, are only dribbles of water from 
 shaly rock. I am expecting Major Lanyon out here 
 to see me to-day relative to changing the boundary- 
 line ; I hope he will not be very pressing as I see no 
 necessity to change it. I foresee aU sorts of disputes 
 arising if they should get it as they want it, but I do 
 not think that any change will be made, and I hope 
 to complete it about the end of March ; then one 
 month for calculations, and in May I hope to get 
 home. I may go round by the Transvaal, and I also 
 want to see Griquatown and the placfes where my 
 father was shooting elephants in 1825. 
 
 We hear that the Transvaal has been taken over 
 and that it is now British territory. I suppose the 
 •Orange Free State wiU soon follow and then this line 
 will be pretty well useless. 
 
 There are such impediments in the way of letter 
 Tvriting. This evening, for instance, thousands of 
 
108 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 moths have invaded my tent and stormed mjr 
 candle. They lie dying by dozens on the table and 
 the candle is so full of them that it will not giv& 
 proper light. 
 
 Little flowers are beginning to peep up out of the 
 ground, but the burning sun kills them off and the 
 cold at night prevents the growth of sub- tropical 
 plants that like a hot sun. 
 
 I believe that I am writing to you over and over 
 the same things, but in such a monotonous country 
 there is little new to say, except on the iniquities of 
 the Kafir servants, which are not usually interesting 
 to relate. I shall be very glad to get into a house 
 again where I can sit down quietly. In Syria I used 
 to delight in a tent and to hear the muleteers talking 
 over the affairs and laughing, and dancing and sing- 
 ing. But these people never laugh unless they are 
 drunk and then they generally end by fighting and 
 otherwise misconducting themselves. This is not 
 a place to come to unless you can get good 
 servants. 
 
 People have been streaming out here from Du Toits. 
 Pan to the hotel hard by, and have not given the 
 slightest sign of its being Sunday, but I must allow 
 that they have been very orderly. 
 
 The Exhibition is after all to take place at 
 Capetown, in fact, it has already commenced I 
 believe. I don't know what they will send from 
 here. The principal production of these parts is- 
 children ; the number in each family is quite astound- 
 ing. They ought to exhibit a few families of eighteen 
 to twenty each. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 109 
 
 Monday, March 19. — I am in Kimberley for the 
 ■day. An agitation has been got up in the Kimberley 
 papers that the traffic to the diamond fields will be 
 interfered with because a small corner of one of the 
 "transport roads is cut into the Orange Free State by 
 the boundary-line. This is absurd, as the roads are 
 only tracks which can be altered in a day if any 
 inconvenience arises. Unfortunately, however, some 
 officious officials at Jacobsdaal are actually exercising 
 jurisdiction over the road immediately on our laying 
 down the line and before it is completed or proclaimed, 
 a proceeding which, I am sure has not the sanction 
 of President Brand ; so I must go over and see him 
 to-morrow or next day ; this will delay us at least a 
 week, I fear. 
 
 Monday. March 26. — Macfarlane's farm, north 
 of Kimberley. I have just returned from Bloem- 
 fontein and only found my camp last night, after 
 some hours wandering in the veldt ; for it has been 
 ohanged while we have been away. I left Kimberley 
 on Wednesday 21, and picking up de Yilliers at 
 Boshof, arrived at Bloemfontein on Thursday night. 
 I had an interview with President Brand and found 
 that he had sufficient reasons for not wishing the 
 line to be changed, at which I inwardly rejoiced, as 
 I am convinced it is best for us as it is, and we shall 
 now be able to carry it out as originally agreed upon. 
 I presented to him a letter from Major Lanyon 
 regarding the doings of the Jacobsdaal officials and 
 he is wroth with them, and has sent an express telling 
 them not to interfere with the road, and at the same 
 time he assured me that the fact of the overlap of 
 
110 LAYING THE BOUND ARY-LINE 
 
 the road into the Orange Free State would not be 
 made a source of trouble in any way. He entirely 
 agreed with me that no deviation from the line as 
 agreed upon could be made to suit individual 
 interests, without causing discontent among the 
 landowners all along the line. I arranged at the 
 same time with him that on the completion of the 
 line, the beacons marking the boundary should 
 be pointed out and handed over by de Villiers and 
 myself to officials appointed from both sides, in order 
 that they might be formally taken over and pre- 
 served intact. He told me that he had written to 
 Lord Carnarvon to say that our work is nearly com- 
 pleted ; he is anxious to have the beacons finished 
 and given over before the Volksraad meets ; for 
 many of the members don't believe in the ;^90,ooo, 
 and think that the President has sold them. 
 
 I called on the bishop, who is very pleasant and 
 wanted me to come to his house for Easter, and to 
 give a lecture at that time on Jerusalem, but I must 
 defer this till the middle of April. 
 
 On Saturday we started in de Villiers' Cape cart 
 with four mules and got over about fifty miles; 
 sunset overtook us and we slept in the veldt. Next 
 morning, Sunday, we started early and arrived at 
 Boshof at 4 P.M. 
 
 On Monday de Villiers sent me on in the same 
 cart with two mules, with Booy as driver. I started 
 after breakfast taking only a piece of bread and 
 butter with me. Somehow the mules did not go 
 well, and at sunset we seemed to be miles away 
 from our destination ; I could tell by the hill-tops. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 111 
 
 Luckily the moon was nearly fuU, and we wandered 
 over the veldt getting our direction now and then, but 
 eventually lost our way. Some Kafirs assured us 
 that they had seen our waggons going north, but 
 they proved not to be ours. 
 
 Soon I heard in the distance some of Moody and 
 Sankey's hymns being sung very nicely, and, thinking 
 there must be an English farm near, I made for the 
 sound, and shortly came upon a Kafir kraal in the 
 hills, where the people were having prayers without 
 any white man near. After prayers they came and 
 talked, and gave us the direction of our camp where 
 we arrived at 1 1 p.m. and got some food : we had had 
 only one cucumber and some milk since breakfast. 
 I think better of Kafirs now that I have seen them at 
 prayers aU by themselves, there could be no humbug 
 about that. 
 
 De Villiers was to go on to Platberg from Boshof 
 and try to signal to me by means of a big flag, and 
 I have got a piece of looking-glass, and have arranged 
 to send hitn sun flashes by a code we have made out ; 
 the distance is over thirty mUes. There are rumours 
 of Kafir disturbances in the Bloemhof district north 
 of the Vaal river, and that the Boers have left their 
 farms and flocked to the Yaal, and that a mission 
 station had been burnt ; I believe that this is 
 partially true, and there is some disturbance (but 
 that it is entirely local) owing, I suppose, to some inju- 
 dicious action on the part of the Boers. Bloemhof is 
 a disputed territory lying between the Transvaal, 
 Orange Free State and Griqualand West, and perhaps 
 difficulties arise in consequences. Major Lanyon 
 
112 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 thought so little of the matter that he went off on 
 leave last Wednesday. In spite of the abuse of one 
 of the papers he is popular in the Province, and 
 there was a very good show of volunteers as a guard 
 of honour when he left ; he is ill, I think ; remains 
 of the Ashantee fever cling to him, and he wants a 
 little change. He very kindly told me to use his 
 house during his absence. 
 
 It is so difficult to realise that this was once a 
 well-watered country, and that there were large 
 game all around. The hippopotamus used to abound 
 in the Vaal river, and there are some still there 
 it is said. It is wonderful how in twenty to thirty 
 years this country has been cleared of i^s game and 
 wild beasts. The Boers have a saying that sheep 
 'drive lions away. That is to say, it is impossible to 
 keep sheep where there are lions, so that one or 
 other must go ; and sheep have the hel^ of man on 
 their side. I saw a jackal last night prowling near 
 a farm, the first I have seen. The wild animals here 
 are much more shy than they were in Palestine ; they 
 seem to know the range of a rifle. AH the Boers 
 have rifles, and shoot well. They are the best 
 pioneers to civilisation in the world, and the worst 
 civilisers. 
 
 Sunday, April i. — MacFarlane's farm. Easter 
 Sunday. I fuUy intended to have gone to church at 
 Kimberley to-day, but providence or my own inert- 
 ness has decided otherwise. In fact I did not care 
 for a nine-mile walk in a blazing sun in a frock coat 
 and black silk hat ; and I cannot go to church other- 
 wise, such is the law of society here. As to riding ! 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 113 
 
 my horse is said to have failed with horse sickness, 
 but I don't think that they know. Anyhow he is ill 
 and I have given him a " mealie mash " : to-day my 
 medicine seems to have cured him as I found him 
 feeding in the veldt all right. 
 
 The mealie is simply Indian corn. They are 
 much grown in this country as they do not mind the 
 summer rain. Green mealies are very good boiled, 
 as a vegetable. 
 
 I have just had a charming letter from George 
 Grove (Sir George Grove : Sec. Palestine Ex. Fund) 
 ending, "I shall picture you to myself with a cloth 
 round your middle, perspiring under a tree, and 
 waving my red primer (on Geography) round your 
 head to keep off the flies. Long may you live to be 
 happy and successful and may nothing happen to 
 interrupt our good relations." 
 
 Since I last wrote I have been to Platberg and 
 back again, and have been sleeping out in the veldt ; 
 it is very nice in some respects, but I do not like to 
 be more than two days without taking off my 
 clothes, it is so uncomfortable. Of course, when we 
 stop in the veldt we have all our clothes on, includ- 
 ing boots. The Boers in their houses sleep in their 
 clothes and put on clean ones on Sundays. They 
 are a very dirty set of people but capital advance 
 pioneers. I went to see Adolf Erasmus, late Com- 
 mandant General of the Orange Free State Army 
 in the Kafir War ; we had great fun together, and 
 became capital friends. He is forty-five years old ; 
 we have to cut his farm out into the Free State 
 under the agreement. He says that at one time the 
 
114 LAYING THE BOUND ARY-LINE 
 
 Kafirs took loo guns each day away from Kimberley 
 into the interior, and one day he says 800 guns 
 were taken (they go by his house) and now people 
 say that there are 50,000 stand of arms in Central 
 Africa taken from the Diamond Fields, so that if 
 anything disastrous happens hereafter, we have our- 
 selves to thank for having armed the Kafir. I 
 carmot myself see that we have any moral right to 
 allow these savages to thus arm themselves. At 
 present they are practising on the game and fast 
 exterminating it from Africa. 
 
 My poor nose is dreadfully sun struck and I put 
 zinc ointment on it to keep the skin on ; but it is 
 not nearly so bad as many noses I have seen in 
 Kimberley. I have so often to observe with no hat 
 on my head, with the sun flaming down on my 
 devoted nose. 
 
 Saturday, April 7. — North of Platberg near the 
 Yaal river. I went on to Kimberley for a few 
 hours on Monday and paid Sister Henrietta a visit 
 at the hospital. She is going home and will pay 
 you a visit. The hospital is a nice little buUding 
 with twelve rooms with two beds each, very com- 
 fortable ; but I expect awfuUy cold in winter ; they 
 have not tried it yet. The houses must be miserably 
 cold here in winter with firewood so expensive. 
 
 The natives were right about my horse having the 
 sickness : he seemed all right on Monday when I went 
 into Kimberley, but flagged on the road after a mile 
 or two, and I had to walk alongside of him the 
 remainder of the way, and he died during the night. 
 
 I am waiting now for my colleague ; it is possible 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 115 
 
 that our line may go many miles up the river 
 from here as it here makes a bend, and we may 
 strike as far north as Christiana, in the disputed 
 territory, claimed by the South African Republic, 
 the Kafirs under Mankoroane or Botlesetse, or 
 the old chief Waterboer. The latter I hear has 
 just been put in prison at Griquatown for liberating 
 a prisoner, revolver in hand. 
 
 There is scarcely any game about here, I expected 
 to find plenty. I don't know where it all gets to, 
 unless it is shot down. Three and a half years ago 
 there were lions prowling about here at night, now 
 they are never heard of. Five years ago there were 
 all kinds of large game. The facility with which the 
 Kafir gets a gun no doubt accounts somewhat for the 
 extermination of the game. This wUl do good in the 
 end, as when all the game is killed off the Kafir 
 must either work or starve, and when he is obliged 
 to work the country will be more settled. The 
 place where we are encamped now is the nicest spot 
 we have yet been in ; it is covered with a pretty 
 dwarf mimosa and looks like a baby park, but there 
 is no water just here and we must move to-day. 
 
 Bmiday, April 8. — The Dutchman living here 
 has told me that he finds water at the intersection 
 ■of two vertical walls of trap. He only finds it at 
 one of the four corners and could not understand 
 why. I showed him how the strata run here, and 
 how these vertical walls dam up the water on 
 one side ; he was delighted, as in future he wiU only 
 have to dig at one angle. He is a very practical 
 man and has made a nice garden, stocked it and 
 
116 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 walled it round. Near his house is a sluit of water 
 running to waste to the Vaal river. He might fill 
 a series of excellent dams with it. 
 
 He was very fiill of the history of a dwarf Koranna 
 woman on his farm who has a tail like a monkey six 
 inches long. She is a little woman three feet high, 
 called Cadija, she suckled her brothers though she 
 has never had a child herself She is now about 
 forty-seven years old, and her brothers, good sized 
 men, are about thirty. She is of feeble intellect, but 
 evidently very good, all her instincts seem towards 
 good. She has nothing of the savage about her 
 though all her relatives are very low. 
 
 He brought her to me and wanted to show me 
 the tail, but she was dressed like a European woman, 
 and was evidently of a retiring nature and did not 
 like being seen by strangers. I begged to be excused 
 looking at her. What I heard of her has given me 
 a new view of possibilities of elevating the Korannas. 
 
 We have still our cook Sam. He wanted to ga 
 last week but I asked him to stay another fortnight, 
 to which he has agreed. He asked for ;^2 to. 
 take into Kimberley ; he did not return and we 
 came on here without him. Last night he turned 
 up after a thirty-six miles trudge after us. He says 
 that he bought a coat at a shop for ;^i 5s., handing 
 the £2, and that the gentleman said he gave him 
 the change but did not do so, and that then the 
 gentleman took up a stick and hit him on the head, 
 (showing me a deep gash), and then sent for a 
 policeman and took him before a magistrate ; that 
 the magistrate fined the gentleman £\ for beating 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 117 
 
 him, but that he did not get back his 1 5s. I have 
 heard of such cases before. The other day our 
 Kafir William bought brandy for is. ^d., and ten- 
 dered a sovereign ; the shopman refused to give 
 back the sovereign or change and persisted in this 
 tiU Sergeant K. went and threatened to bring him 
 up before the magistrate ; of course, this sort of 
 thing occurs in the lower kind of shops. 
 
 There are plenty of snakes about, and I must tell 
 you what happened to me the other night. I was 
 asleep in my bed in my tent and woke up feeling 
 something cold fall on to my neck. I put my hand 
 up quickly to puU it off, thinking it was a centipede 
 or scorpion or snake, but the thing only fell further 
 down my neck at my back. I jumped out of 
 bed, threw off all my clothes, and gave myself a good 
 shake, but still the thing kept close to me, on my 
 back, wrigghng about. It felt very disagreeable, 
 and I wondered I was not stung. I could not reach 
 it with my hand, it seemed to elude my grasp. At 
 last I got hold of it, and found it was — my eyeglass. 
 I must have gone to sleep with it in my eye, and it 
 feU down my back, and then the string made it feel 
 as if it were something long sticking to my neck. 
 
 Now I will teU you of something that happened to 
 me to-day. I had just come down from a hill, and 
 had got into the bullock cart with the instrument, 
 and as it was starting off I began to drink some tea 
 out of a bottle. Just then the driver shouted, ' ' Look 
 out ! " and we drove through a thorn bush, which 
 caught my head and seemed to tear my hair off; 
 it was very painful, as the great thorns of the mimosa 
 
118 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 stuck into my skull and were dragged out again by 
 the motion of the cart. I felt also streams of hot 
 blood falling down over my head and hands, and 
 thought that I had torn open an artery. I did not 
 say anything, but when we had got out of the bush, 
 and I could open my eyes, I looked down to see how 
 much blood had flowed down, and found that it was 
 tea colour, and then I recollected that I had been 
 holding the tea-bottle of hot tea in my hands when 
 we got into the bush, and without knowing it, and 
 with my eyes shut, had tilted the bottle up and 
 poured the hot tea over my head, which I naturally 
 mistook for blood. My head, however, has been a 
 good deal torn by the thorns : there is no mistake 
 about them, and I shall have a sore head for some 
 days. 
 
 Do you know how a monkey eats a scorpion : he 
 quickly picks up the venomous creature with one 
 hand, while he nimbly picks off the tail with the 
 other, and then eats the body at his leisure. We 
 humans have lost all that quickness and rapidity of 
 action that belongs to wild animals. 
 
 I must tell you two stories I heard lately, they 
 may be old South African stories for what I know, 
 but they are new to me. 
 
 A man was driving his buUock waggon one dark 
 night along a road in the interior where there were 
 big game, but he was not fearsome, because he had 
 several large fierce dogs with him that barked at 
 everything they met. Of a sudden the oxen stopped 
 and, whip them as he would, they would not go on, 
 but as the dogs did not bark he did not think of 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 119 
 
 danger. His native "leader" called out that there 
 "was a mule lying in the road in front, and he went 
 forward and saw what he thought was a strange ox 
 lying in front of them. Getting angry at finding 
 his way stopped he rushed at the beast and gave it 
 a good kick, shouting " foot sook " (get away). Then 
 arose a majestic animal, which slunk with a roar 
 into the bush. It was a lion, just deliberating how 
 he could make his spring on one of the oxen, but 
 the sudden onslaught of the man so disconcerted 
 him that ofi" he went. When the driver went back 
 to his waggon he found all his brave dogs lying 
 skulking under the waggon, they could not bark for 
 fear. The moral of this story is to put a bold front 
 on matters, and dangers will flee away. I rather 
 distrust this story as improperly told. I don't know 
 how the lion attacks oxen when in a team, but I 
 rather doubt his jumping on to their sharp horns, I 
 think he is too careful of his skin for such a pro- 
 ceeding. Another version I have heard is that the 
 driver did not go up and kick the lion, but gave it a 
 good lash with his whip ; that seems to me more 
 probable. 
 
 Here is another story. Some Korannas when out 
 hunting came upon an elephant just as they were 
 passing a lion's lair. The elephant when he saw 
 them made after them, and they, in their alarm, ran 
 close up to where the lion was, and he also was dis- 
 turbed. Looking round they saw the lion running 
 also, with but not after them ; he was running with 
 them away from the elephant. After a time they aU. 
 got into a narrow path where there was little room. 
 
120 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 and by that time the Korannas had got so used to 
 the lion that one of them was bold enough to give 
 him a push and say " Give me more room to run." 
 
 Sunday, April 1 5. — Farm of Adolf Erasmus near 
 Platberg. We have now made great progress and 
 have nearly completed our work in the field, though 
 we have a month's work indoors. We have fixed 
 on a point at Platberg, and have done a good deal 
 of signalling at distances over thirty miles, with a 
 large flag, and with sun flashes (the heliostat). The 
 latter is a very simple instrument. It is a round 
 shaving glass bought in the market, with a little 
 hole scratched in the centre of the glass through 
 which you can see ; and the sun's rays are flashed 
 upon the end of a stick which is placed in line with 
 the station you want to signal to. It is far better 
 than the flag, but as we are south of Platberg it is 
 not always practicable to use the sun's rays in our 
 direction. We have had to run a line straight 
 through from Platberg to David's Graf (sixty miles) 
 though we require only a portion for the boundary- 
 line. The work has been incessant day and night, 
 and we have made very little use of our tents ; 
 carrying on the work from point to point, and 
 sleeping out in the open wherever it best suited us. 
 But now I am in a house and can write comfortably ; 
 a very nice house too and a Boer house. I am sure 
 you will think that I have quite changed my views 
 about the Boers when you hear what I have to say, 
 but they are not all like Adolf Erasmus. 
 
 His farm is just south of Platberg, and we have 
 made it our headquarters during the last ten days. 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 121 
 
 "We have become firm friends although he is said to 
 iDe so much against the English. It was on account 
 of his anti-English feeling that Lord Carnarvon 
 agreed to cut his farm into the Orange Free State. 
 
 We had a very ceremonious dinner in the middle 
 of the day when we first arrived at his house. His 
 wife was then ill in bed, but there were several 
 female relations who waited on us, and native 
 servants behind who kept the flies off" us with ostrich 
 feather fans. The food was principally roast mutton 
 and mQk, and the meat was cooked most excellently. 
 We seemed to hit it ofi" together in the most sur- 
 prising manner, and in the middle of the dinner 
 Mrs. Erasmus called out to her husband and con- 
 ferred with him. Next day when we had become 
 very friendly he told me that his wife had sent for 
 him to warn him of his behaviour. She said " that 
 man talks ' high English,' he is not the same as those 
 -who come here and talk 'low English,' you must 
 treat him properly." These people are so extremely 
 frank, they will tell you exactly what is said whether 
 it is pleasing or not. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Sunday, April 15. — It seems to me that Adolf is 
 quite a cut above the kind of Boers who sleep in 
 their clothes, and only put on clean ones on Sundays, 
 He has come out on the boundary-Une and has. 
 assisted us in various ways, lending his boys to put 
 up the beacons : he is full of stories, some of them 
 very hard on the English. 
 
 Adolf s house is of the usual type and consists of 
 three rooms to the front and three to the back, but 
 the centre room in front is the stoep with only a 
 roof, and open to the air. The centre back room is 
 the dining room (16 feet by 20 feet), and the two 
 side rooms (12 feet by 20 feet) are divided into two 
 each by a sort of temporary partition. There are 
 only windows to back and front, thus there are seven 
 rooms in all and also the stoep, but two centre rooms 
 have windows opening into the two front rooms. It 
 is all most inconveniently contrived. The two front 
 rooms are used for guests, one is the sitting-room 
 with doors opening from the stoep. I have one of" 
 these rooms ; it is very richly furnished with good 
 solid mahogany, quite a sight in these parts. The 
 bed is beautiful, very fine linen, and a lovely counter- 
 pane. Mrs. Erasmus is evidently a very superior 
 lady and housewife. You would hardly expect to 
 
z 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 12» 
 
 meet a grande dame brought up in the veldt, and 
 yet here you meet with her. She is one of the old 
 school ; does all her household work herself, and 
 looks after the servants with a watchful eye, and 
 when her work is over sits sewing on the stoep with 
 great dignity, never forgetting that she is a lady,, 
 and yet I think that she has been simply brought up 
 in some small house or tent, but possibly her family 
 have traditions of the past which have been handed 
 down. Some of the people in this country belong 
 to the best families in France, and there are also 
 some very good Dutch families here and there. 
 
 Adolf has 4000 sheep, the ewes will lamb in May. 
 Angora goats give wool at two shillings a pound, but 
 the sheep only give wool at sevenpence a pound. 
 The ewes bear six or seven times, and then are 
 fattened and given to the boys. The Cape sheep 
 give no wool, they are long-legged animals, and are 
 only fit for food ; they run fast and the tale is told 
 that some have got wild, below Griquatown and 
 herd with springbuck, and have learnt to spring in 
 like fashion. The Namaqua sheep are the same, with 
 longer tails. Some of the ewes have two horns,, 
 some more. He has seen a ram with eight horns. 
 The sheep are shorn about February 5, by Kafirs ; 
 some ten or fifteen years ago the Boers used to shear 
 their sheep themselves. Some farmers when hard 
 up shear their sheep twice a year, but this gives 
 very short wool. 
 
 The original size fixed on for farms in this country 
 was 3000 morgen, but by jumping land on either side 
 many of the farms have increased to 8000 and some to 
 
124 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 18,000 morgen. There are farms in the Orange Free 
 State of 25,000 morgen, and Hever's farm up Frede- 
 rick's Fontein was 40,000 morgen. There is in the 
 other direction a Umit to the size of a farm on which 
 sheep can be raised in health, so that the Free State 
 farms cannot be subdivided beyond a certain point, 
 and therefore the bulk of the children now growing 
 up must either trek or lapse into farm labourers. 
 
 The sheep like a finer grass than the cattle do ; 
 for example, the grass about Adolf Erasmus' farm 
 is good for sheep, the upper hilly sides beyond are 
 ^ood for cattle, but stUl good for sheep also. There 
 are several trees the goats like to browse on, and 
 also a little red flower. A small plant, smeUing like 
 coriander, is good for sheep and goats. The Vaal- 
 bush in summer is far too astringent to be eaten by 
 cattle and sheep, but in winter time when sweetened 
 by frost, it is excellent for cattle. There are not 
 hard frosts about these farms ; the sheep get fat in 
 winter. There is a bush here, the leaves of which, 
 when boiled, give a decoction good for fever. 
 
 Sunday, April 15.— There was a digger here 
 yesterday who was fuU of the glories of the bygone 
 days when the diamond fields were under the Orange 
 Free State. " Three and a half years ago there 
 w^ere 100,000 diggers, of whom 25,000 were whites, 
 these have gone home, now there are only 5000 
 whites. Made money ? Yes ! We had the dry 
 sortings, there were then only buckets not tubs. 
 Life was no object — road went through the mine, 
 waggon would go down, oxen followed — down some 
 seventy feet — Hurrah ! another man broken his 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 125 
 
 neck ! A tin bucket would come down on a man's 
 head. Hurrah ! Another man dead ! — A fifty carat 
 diamond found ! Hurrah ! Hurrah ! those were 
 jolly days under the Free State. I would sit in 
 the morning looking on and find some big diamonds,, 
 and say to my friends ' Come and have champagne,' 
 we would go and drink (we worked fifteen hours a 
 day) — another bottle ! — get drunk and leave the 
 sorting to the niggers — some of them were honest,, 
 and would bring in the evening several diamonds — 
 say to him — ' Boy, go and have a spree, and here is 
 ;^5 for you ' ! We had no gold in those days — pockets 
 full of notes — champagne 5s. a bottle — we cared not 
 for money — A poor fellow would come with nothing, 
 — Go into my claim, old fellow for the afternoon, and 
 take what you can get, and give me a share ! It^wUl 
 set you up. — We would then clear for certain ;^3000 a 
 week in a claim ; one week I did not drink, and, at the 
 end I had a capbox full of diamonds — in dry sortings, 
 we did not see the splints and small pieces ; they are 
 now in the great heaps, and belong to Government." 
 Talking of native labour, Erasmus says that labour 
 is so scarce because of the diamond fields ; there they 
 get huge wages and also the prospect of securing 
 diamonds. He pays only £^ 15s. a month to his 
 boys, so that I pay twice as much as he does, but 
 even what he pays seems to me enormous. 
 
 The Kafirs enter Griqualand West from the north 
 in droves, some of them have travelled more than 
 one thousand miles. They are thin and gaunt, 
 naked and abject when they enter ; in a few weeks, 
 they return, fat and saucy, with a gun, pack-oxen. 
 
126 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 and illicit diamonds : each man carrying an iron 
 cooking pot on his head. 
 
 I heard a good many different Boer views at 
 Adolf s house ; this is one : " England has done 
 what no other country has done — neither Fraiice, 
 America, Germany, nor Russia. She took her little 
 sons who wanted to be free, the Transvaal and 
 Orange Free State, gave them a piece of bread and 
 butter each and sent them off with her blessing. 
 Now she says, ' Give me of your bread and butter, 
 ■or I will take it by force,' now that they have 
 .Sugared it. Is this right ? Is this justifiable ? An 
 Englishman or White Afrikander goes to a chief and 
 says : ' Don't the Boers buUy you ? ' ' Yes, baas.' 
 'Then if you give me a farm, I will help you to 
 their land — sign this paper ! ' They sign the 
 paper, and the white man writes to Lord Oarnavon, 
 and gets the Boer land from the chief, and grows 
 rich." 
 
 " Why are the English going to fight the Boers ? 
 If necessary, we can bring twelve thousand men into 
 the field." 
 
 I asked why they should prefer to live in the 
 Orange Free State to Griqualand West. The Boer 
 replied : " I am going to trek across the line, so are 
 several other farmers. I shall lose ;C6oo by doing 
 so, there must be something to make me do this !" 
 
 Adolf says, " My Koranna servant came into 
 my house, insulted my wife, and would not go out, 
 I turned him out and gave him thirty-five lashefs, 
 a,nd was fined ;C8 in the Griqualand West Court." 
 
 Another Boer says, "Nigger gets drunk and you 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 127 
 
 refuse to pay him for that day ; he brings you up 
 before the magistrate, who tells him to be a good 
 boy in future, and makes you pay him for the work 
 lie has not done." 
 
 I had a most interesting walk over Platberg with 
 Adolf and Judge Barry (now Sir Michael Dirk 
 Barry). Adolf says that the Kafir servants will kill 
 an ox, hammer its lungs and intestines, and then , 
 bring them to the " baas," saying it has died of lung 
 disease, and so get its flesh to eat. 
 
 The Bushmen are hardly yet gone from here, but 
 they do not do any harm now. They formerly 
 occupied all this land, but now have migrated west, 
 though many of them have been killed. There used 
 to be numbers about, and there were severe fights 
 between them and the farmers. When the old ones 
 were killed the farmers took the young ones and 
 brought them up as servants. If their heads were 
 flat at the top with a protuberance at each side they 
 turned out badly. They seem to be a very plucky 
 little race, and will rather die than submit. Adolf 
 says that in his early days there was constant war 
 with the Bushmen. Whenever he went out as a boy 
 he was armed with bow and arrow to defend himself 
 against the Bushmen, and had to be constantly on 
 the watch against beiiig taken by surprise. 
 
 He gives me terrible accounts of the slaughter of 
 Bushmen, and says he will show me a plain near 
 Oliphantsfontein, where they were all driven to- 
 gether in a great drive into a valley, and there 
 shot down, and the children that survived were 
 distributed as servants. 
 
128 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 The Bushmen believe that the moon is an ox, which 
 grows fat and is killed, at fuU moon, and is gradually- 
 eaten up ; then out of its sinews grows a new moon. 
 They kill lions by putting up ostrich feathers in 
 the lion's path — he advances to attack, and they 
 shoot him with poisoned arrows, and run away until 
 the poison has taken effect. The poison that they 
 use is derived from three different sources and all 
 mixed together. 
 
 (i) From a root like an onion: this is to kill. 
 The skin of this root is very fine, like gold-beater's 
 skin, and is good to put on wounds and bruises. 
 
 (2) The second is the poison of the Cobra, to 
 kin quickly. 
 
 (3) The third is the juice of the Euphorbia : 
 and this is supposed to bring the poison back again 
 to the spot where the wound was made, so that the- 
 rest of the animal is fit for food. 
 
 The Bushmen make a whistle out of the leg of a 
 bird, and this one or other of them plays upon 
 all night, and the shrUl noise keeps the lion away. 
 When they sleep they do not lie down as we do,, 
 but they kneel and put their arms on the ground, 
 and rest their heads on their arms so that they cart 
 get up at once if there is danger. Strange to say, 
 they are good grooms and fond of horses, though 
 there were no horses in the country that the Bush- 
 men inhabited before the Boers came. 
 
 At Doornblicht, twelve miles from Alexanders- 
 fontein on the Bloemfontein road, is a collection of 
 Bushmen's drawings on the rocks, giving pictures of 
 animals, one of which is said to depict the unicorn. 
 
ORAKOE TO VAAL MvfiRS iSli) 
 
 My father^ iii his jout-nal of 1825, sajrfe, " Dii-k had 
 seen on some roeks near the head of the Vaal fiver 
 drawings of all the animals, and one iinicorri— the 
 head like a horse or mare, feet like a buck, horn 
 from the forehead. Other accounts agree with thi^, 
 that he is vety fierce, but that with riluskets he miay 
 be killed." 
 
 It is curious how general throughout South Africa 
 is the Story of Bushmen's picture of the unicorn, with 
 the horn growing Out of the forehead, thus materially 
 differing in a|)pearance from a Straight-horned buck. 
 
 Adolf teUs an interesting story of the head of the 
 family of de YiHiers residing in the Transvaal, who 
 possessed old fatnily docUrnents attesting his lineage 
 from the t)ucal family in France. He says that 
 when the male line ran out in France some years 
 ago, search was made in South Africa for the heir 
 and when found he was invited to go down to Gape- 
 town to exhibit his old family documents. That he 
 journeyed south aiid put up at Eraismus' house and 
 then went on for the next night to a farmi-houfe 
 some miles beyond : that one of the terrific storms 
 of the country came on, and the room where the 
 de ViUierS' chief was was Struck by lightning, aih'd 
 when they had come to their senses, de Villiers was 
 foUnd uninjured, but his box had been struck and 
 its contents reduced to ashes' : documents that had 
 been in the country two hundred years. He re- 
 turned to t&e Transvaal without visiting Capetown. 
 I saw a naked Kafir to-day tending ciattle, and his 
 only clothing was a torn umbrella to keep the sun 
 off. 
 
130 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 There have been locust birds about. I have 
 seen no locusts as yet ; they are said to come over 
 the Vaal river, but no one quite knows whence. 
 They commence tomove before they can fly — hopping. 
 In swarms they come, miles and miles of them. 
 When they get to the river, in they hop, and the 
 advanced party gets drowned, others come on quickly 
 until at last the dead bodies form a kind of floating 
 bridge, and over that the great army advances. 
 They move south, and eat up everything on their 
 way. When they come to a garden the people turn 
 out and make a great noise and sometimes succeed 
 in turning them to one side. But sometimes, when 
 the smell of the garden comes over them they turn 
 back, and in a few hours the garden is bare. 
 Sometimes a ditch of water will turn them on one 
 side. The locust birds come after them in swarms, 
 large and small ; these birds also come in their thou- 
 sands and fill the air. I was shown a spot where a 
 hail storm came on while the locust birds were in the 
 middle of a feast, and so many were kiUed that the 
 spot became white with them, and putrid for a time. 
 
 The locust birds frighten the locusts, so that they 
 aU scramble into heaps ready to be eaten up. When 
 they are not molested the locusts go hopping on 
 till it is quite dark, when they call a halt, and at 
 sunrise they move on again. It is said that two 
 years ago a strong wind blew swarms of them over 
 Namaqualand into the ocean, and that the tide 
 brought them back again, dead, and piled them up 
 three to five feet high on the sea shore. The people 
 could not go near them for weeks. Since then 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 181 
 
 there have been no locusts in the country to do 
 harm. I do not know how much of this is ex- 
 aggeration, but it seems to me quite probable. 
 
 The following curious superstition I frequently 
 heard mentioned all over the country, it is some folk 
 lore evidently. A snake with diamonds on his head 
 goes down to the river Vaal to bathe, leaves the 
 diamonds on the bank and forgets them, the miner 
 then comes up and finds them, A miner saw a snake 
 in the river Vaal with a ruby in his head. 
 
 Tuesday, April 1 7, — ^We had now fixed the posi- 
 tion of all our beacons, sixty in number, some large 
 and some small, and though some of them would not 
 be completed for a few days the boundary line was 
 quite ready for inspection and to be handed over. 
 Accordingly, it was arranged that this ceremony 
 should commence on the following day from the large 
 beacon near Macfarlane's farm. I heard to-day of 
 the proclamation of annexation of Transvaal on 12th. 
 
 Wednesday, April 18. — ^We assembled together 
 here in the morning, eight persons officially and five 
 who came for their pleasure. The officials were : 
 
 The two Special Commisioners (de ViUiers and 
 myself) 
 
 Orange Free State. — The Government Secretary, 
 Orange Free State, Mr. Hohne ; the Landrost of 
 Boshof ; several veldt Kornets for their] respective 
 wards. 
 
 Griqualand West. — The Acting Administrator 
 Griqualand West, Judge Barry ; the acting Sur- 
 veyor General; the Civil Commissioners of the 
 district. 
 
132 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Adolf Erasmus, the staunch Republican, whose 
 farm has been cut by agreement into the Orange 
 Free State, announced his intention of going all 
 round with us and carrying me along with him in 
 his own cart, to which I gladly assented. We first 
 went to Erasmus's house and stayed the night there, 
 and on April 20, we made a long day of it and 
 inspected and gave over all the beacons to the north 
 as far as the Vaal river, and we ascended Plat- 
 berg. 
 
 On 2 1st we started with fresh horses and visited 
 the beacons as far as Magersfontein, and on the 
 following day we got as far as Ramah, being met on 
 the way by the Landrost of Jacobsdaal and the Civil 
 Commissioner of Langford. We had still some 
 beacons to inspect which we had been obliged to 
 omit in consequence of hills intervening, and we 
 reached Jacobsdaal on April 24, where we finally 
 handed over the custody of the beacons, ready for 
 the proclamation of the boundary. Our indoor 
 work, however, will keep us some three or four 
 weeks more. 
 
 During the drive on the veldt we had frequent 
 races between the various Cape carts and in one race 
 our cart came into collision with the other, and 
 several spokes of one of our wheels were cut out. 
 The question then arose which was the aggressor; 
 which cart-owner should pay for the damage. The 
 general decision was that the cart that was lifted up 
 in the air on collision was the culprit. It is an 
 interesting point. The decision was based on the 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 1315 
 
 view that to collide, one cart must come up from 
 behind and that in coming up, the nave would Strike 
 the spokes of the forward cart and be lifted up in the 
 air somewhat. | Erasmus, therefore, got damages- 
 from his antagonist. I was much interested in the 
 discussion and settlement of a case by general opinion, 
 satisfectory to all parties, which, in England, would 
 probably have gone into a law-court. 
 
 We travelled a good deal in the night, by moon- 
 light ; we had to get over a good many miles ; about 
 300 miles in five days — or sixty miles a day. 
 During this night travelling Erasmus and I com- 
 pared the nursery rhymes in our respective languages 
 and found that there was a far greater similarity in 
 baby language than there is in adults' language. 
 Some of the more familiar nursery rhymes are almost 
 word for word the same. 
 
 [I have since tried to get these rhymes in "low 
 Dutch " but have failed in doing so ; in ordinary 
 Dutch this similarity is not so striking. It seems 
 to me that we have preserved our language in our 
 nursery rhymes more correctly than the Dutch 
 have. J 
 
 As an instance of the similarity of the two lan- 
 guages I may mention that on one occasion I found 
 Mrs. Erasmus conversing readily in Cape Dutch 
 with a Scots woman talking broad Scotch. 
 
 A word on the subject of our beacons and poles. 
 In out-of-the-way places they were usually placed 
 at a distance of three miles apart, and were made 
 large and strong so that there would be a difficulty 
 
134 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 in removing them, and so that they would not be 
 pushed down by herds of animals. Those in culti- 
 vated parts and near Kimberley were placed at the 
 distance of a mile apart, and were smaller in size, 
 about eight feet in height. They were thus placed 
 close together so that in case of disputed jurisdiction 
 there would be no difficulty in judging with the eye 
 the exact line of the boundary. 
 
 Some of the more important beacons were built 
 from thirteen to sixteen feet in height (of the largest 
 boulders we could get together), whUe in other cases 
 they averaged eleven to twelve feet in height, the 
 base equal to the height. 
 
 From Scholtz Nek to Tarantaal Kop opposite 
 Kimberley there are fifteen beacons in a line of 
 twenty miles, and owing to the gentle slope of the 
 ground, the top of one beacon reached nearly to the 
 base of the next, so that they look, from that high 
 point, like a straight line cut through the veldt, and 
 so beautifully regular, that when the Boers first saw 
 this line of beacons they exclaimed in Dutch 
 "Allemachte, Lord Carnarvon himself could not 
 have done it better." 
 
 It is curious how well Lord Carnarvon is known 
 among the Boers ; no other Secretary for the Colonies 
 has been known in the same manner. 
 
 For several days now we were busily engaged 
 indoors calculating angles and plotting our work, 
 
 Saturday, May 5. — I went on an excursion with 
 Mr. Alexander Bailie to visit a Kafir head man and 
 landowner in the Barkly district, a Fingo named 
 Piet Manzana, as I wanted to see what a real Kafir 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 135 
 
 was like. I look upon all the Kafirs and Griqtias I 
 have met with as mostly scum, and unfit to be 
 classed with the people of any tribe. Piet Manzana 
 is a go-ahead fellow, and possesses a nice farm 
 which he has stocked, and he has made a good dam. 
 His farm arrangements seem quite equal to those of 
 the Boers. We drove up to his Kafir establishment 
 consisting of several round huts, in a compound sur- 
 rounded by a stockade. The ground within this 
 area was scrupulously clean and would have put the 
 yard of any white farmer to shame ; but then a 
 white farmer does not have the assistance of several 
 wives. Each wife occupies a hut with her family. 
 We had our food with these Kafirs, and everything 
 was most clean and comfortable and well cooked. 
 The huts are divided into rooms or compartments, 
 and one of these was allotted to us to sleep in. I 
 was particularly warned that the hearth was sacred 
 and that I must not spit on it. Our supper was a 
 roast chicken and sour milk, no bread or other fari- 
 nacious food and no vegetables, 
 
 I saw the process of roasting the fowl and took a 
 lesson. One of those large three-legged cast iron 
 cooking pots was put over a wood fire with a little 
 water in it, and into this the fowl was put and well 
 steamed ; as the water evaporated the oil from the 
 fat fowl ran down and took its place and with this 
 it was basted, and after a time the fowl began to 
 get brown and came out nicely roasted and beauti- 
 fully tender. They said that the toughest fowl is 
 made tender in this manner. 
 
 There were several doUs in the establishment, one 
 
136 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 of which Manzana presented to me. The following is- 
 the account obtained for me by Mr. BaUie : When 
 a girl arrives at the age of puberty she takes a piece 
 of wood conical shaped with the point cut off. This 
 she decorates with different coloured beads, and a 
 face is made by fastening a small dish of metal about 
 the size of a shilling on to the wood. Hair is made 
 out of coarse black and dark grey thread. Thia 
 doU she calls by the name she intends for her first 
 born. 
 
 There is a tradition that if anything untoward 
 happens to the doll her child will die young. If the 
 doll is handled by an alien without payment being 
 given its head will fall off, or the beads all loosen and 
 come away. This is an omen of ill to a child whose 
 pj-ototype, so to speak, it is. When money is paid to a 
 girl for seeing her doll it is fastened in the hair of the 
 doll, until a certain amount has been acquired, after 
 whichthe money goes to the girl's mother, who is called 
 the doll's grandmother. When the girl marries, the 
 doll is produced at the feast, and each guest pays a 
 sum for handling the doll ; all the money thus 
 collected is paid to the bride's mother. 
 
 When the babe is born the doll is stripped of its 
 beads, and ornaments are made with them for the 
 newcomer, who also robs the image of its name. If 
 the doll's name was masculine and the child be a 
 girl the nearest feminine for the doll's name is used, 
 and vice versd. The wooden part of the doU is 
 returned to the girl's mother, who hides it in a kraal. 
 If the child thrives particularly well the wood may 
 be. decorated for another daughter. Should the girl 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 137 
 
 prove barren the doll is returned to the mother, 
 who decorates some other grandchild or relative 
 with the beads and destroys the wood. In former 
 years the dolls were not made of wood but of beads, 
 only. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Monday, May 7. — I gave a lecture at Kimberley 
 on Jerusalem to a crowded audience, and Judge 
 Barry, the acting administrator, to my surprise, said 
 that I had gained the hearts of the Boers in the 
 Province. From that time to May 1 5 I was at Boshof 
 with de Villiers, completing the calculations and 
 making duplicate plans of the country about the 
 boundary line. 
 
 Tuesday, May 15. — We both proceeded to Bloem- 
 fontein to hand over our plans, and were asked by 
 the President to meet the Volksraad at the annual 
 official dinner. At this time there was a very strong 
 anti-English feeling amongst the Volksraad in con- 
 sequence of the annexation of Griqualand West to 
 the Crown, and in consequence of the recent pro- 
 clamation annexing the Transvaal; and there was 
 some hesitation about proposing her Majesty's health 
 at the dinner coupled with the toast of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, for fear that the person who 
 responded would be unfavourably received ; hearing 
 of this I begged that matters should proceed as in 
 former years, and engaged that if I had to respond 
 the members of the Volksraad would not receive 
 me unfavourably. By this time I had several 
 very firm friends in the Volksraad, and a great 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 139 
 
 number also know of me in one way or another, 
 and I felt sure that there would be a favourable 
 reception of the responder to the toast. As a result 
 the toast was received with acclamation, and I was 
 greeted most pleasantly when I responded, and there 
 was great cordiality for the time. 
 
 The Boers were immensely tickled when I ex- 
 patiated on one of the principal produce of their 
 country of which nothing ever was said, but is 
 vvrorth all the gold and diamonds in the world. I 
 enlarged on this subject, growing more and more 
 glowing over it, until I explained that the produce 
 of what they ought to be so proud was the children 
 they reared. They were delighted. 
 
 On the following Saturday I was asked to attend 
 the examination of the boys at the Free State Grey 
 College, and was again called on to speak, and the 
 boys cheered immensely. I have asked for them a 
 holiday on the Queen's birthday, so that they may 
 have a pleasant recollection of that day. It is all so 
 instructive, because when I started on the line I was 
 told that there were most rabid Boers along it who 
 would shoot any Englishman who attempted to lay it 
 down, and when we gave the line over these same 
 Boers told the Free State Secretary that they had 
 learnt more about matters, and would as lief live on 
 the British as on the Free State side. AU that was 
 wanted was full ventilation of the subject. I had 
 been arguing with the Boers fur four months, and 
 had helped to rub aside some of their prejudices. Of 
 course it was in a great measure due to my happen- 
 ing to make such good friends of de Villiers, Adolf 
 
140 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Erasmus, and the Boers generally on the line. They 
 were all plain-spoken folk, and a little plain-speaking 
 did a great deal of good. I cannot help thinking 
 that the meeting of the Boers with a soldier lik& 
 Sergeant Kennedy had its effect. He is a man in a 
 thousand. 
 
 On May 4 I had written to Sir Bartle Frere (who 
 had arrived at the end of March as High Commis- 
 sioner) stating that I proposed to go to Natal by way 
 of Pretoria, and then (if he did not wish to see me at 
 Capetown) by steamer to Zanzibar and Aden to 
 England. In reply I received a telegram desiring me 
 to come round and see him on my way to England, 
 instead of going home by the East Coast of 
 Africa. 
 
 Saturday, May 19. — ^We finally handed over to 
 President Brand for his signature our plans of the 
 boundary line, and they were forwarded to England,, 
 and so our work was concluded in five months' 
 incessant hard work. 
 
 Monday, May 21. — I returned to Boshof to stay 
 with Mr. and Mrs. de Villiers, after taking leave of 
 many good friends in Bloemfontein, a truly hospitable 
 community, and after saying good-bye to the de Villiers 
 and their little boys, who were my great friends, I 
 proceeded to Kimberley to arrange for the N.CO.s. 
 and their instruments, &c., going down to Capetown 
 en route for England, Avhile I made my way through 
 the Transvaal to Natal or Delagoa Bay^ as circum- 
 stances might determine. 
 
 I had by this time ascertained that Colonel ^A. 
 Ihirnford had returned from England to Natal and 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 141 
 
 TVould be glad to see me; he wrote (May 12) from 
 Natal : 
 
 " I am. here. I have been up the Cape Frontier 
 to Pretoria, back, and up again I go in two days 
 with Sir A. Cunynghame ; I am alive again thank 
 Ood [he had been smashed up in a railway accident]. 
 Oome here, dear old feUow, and I shall be delighted 
 to see you. My house is yours, if I am not here use 
 the place, servants, &e. I command in Natal pro 
 t&m., and as the General is inspecting I am full of 
 work. No fighting, alas ! I pushed up to Pretoria 
 to reconnoitre before the country was proclaimed, 
 but Peace everywhere." 
 
 The Legislative Council of Griqualand West sent 
 me a vote of thanks for the speedy laying down of 
 the boundary hne, which was presented to me by 
 the Administrator, engrossed on beautifully illumi- 
 nated vellum. I also received, in conjunction with de 
 Villiers, a unanimous vote of thanks^ at the sugges- 
 tion of President Brand, of the Orange Free State 
 Volksraad, for the able manner in which the work 
 had been done. 
 
 On May 31 , Jos. de Villiers writes on the subject 
 of the confederated scheme of incorporating the 
 Orange Free State in the South African Con- 
 federacy. 
 
 " The Confederation Bill of Lord Carnarvon was 
 also discussed, the discussions were very interesting, 
 and although we do not as yet like to give up our 
 independence, Lord Carnarvon's scheme was admired. 
 A resolution was passed acknowledging in friendly 
 terms his good intentions and regard for South 
 
142 LAYING THE BOUNDARY-LINE 
 
 Africa, and expressing the desire of the Free State 
 to work together with the British Government for 
 the welfare of South Africa." 
 
 Sir Owen Lanyon has often been blamed for not 
 adopting a sufficiently conciliatory action to the 
 Boers in the Transvaal ; the following will show that 
 his intentions have been much misjudged. May 15, 
 1877. "I think you are quite right as to not 
 pressing the question of the line of road further. 
 And I think in the present state of aifairs'we ought 
 to do everything in our power to conciliate the 
 Boers, and try to alter their prejudices against our 
 rule. For this reason I shall be very grateful to you 
 if you will give me a memo, as to what you think 
 should be done about dealing with the farms all along 
 our line, and indeed any hint as to the Land Question. 
 I think it would tend to raise a strong feeling of dis- 
 content and uneasiness were we to raise any question 
 as to the extent of farms now, and I am going to 
 recommend that it should not be done. 
 
 " I write to say good-bye, for I fear I shall not be 
 able to meet you before you leave South Africa. 
 
 " Though as an Imperial officer and Conunissioner 
 your work was irrespective of the Griqualand West 
 Government, still there were some questions which 
 required mutual agreement, and I cannot allow you 
 to leave without thanking you for the cordial and 
 ready co-operation which you have accorded to me." 
 
 It was a great satisfaction to me to be able to 
 report in conclusion of my work that not only was 
 there a great access of cordiality with the Boers of 
 the Orange Free State, but that also I had received 
 
ORANGE TO VAAL RIVERS 143 
 
 the greatest assistance for the British side of the 
 line, from Mr. Orpen, our Surveyor General, and from 
 all our Government officials, and I expressed my sense 
 of the cordial assistance I have received from Major 
 Lanyon and the officers of his Government, which had 
 greatly facilitated the work I had in hand. I had 
 to thank his honour President Brand for his 
 kindness and assistance on all occasions, and I could 
 not omit to mention the most friendly attitude of 
 my colleague, Jos. de Villiers, with whom I have 
 never had the slightest difficulty or disagreement. 
 Of the non-commission officers, my subordinates, 
 Sergeant K. and Corporal E,., I was enabled to speak 
 in the highest terms. Major Lanyon on receiving 
 my memorandum, wrote to the High Commissioner : 
 
 " I think it due to Captain Warren to record that 
 in all our transactions together he has ever shown 
 great cordiality, and has readily co-operated in 
 matters which were connected with the Province. 
 
 " Captain Warren has been singularly happy in his 
 relations with the Dutch farmers, and has, by his 
 kindly manner, done much to conciliate those who 
 live along the boundary line. It is not in my province 
 to report on Captain Warren's performance of his 
 duties, but I think it would be wrong if I were not 
 to express my thanks to him for the very able and 
 energetic way in which he has carried out his work, 
 and for the moral assistance he has rendered to the 
 Griqualand West Government." 
 
FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 TO DELAGOA BAY 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 I HAD made all my arrangements for returning to 
 England vid Natal and Zanzibar when a telegram 
 arrived at Kimberley from Sir Bartle Frere desiring 
 me to come round to Cape Town to see him before 
 I returned to England. This was not, however, to 
 interfere with the trip to Pretoria, which Ravenscroft 
 and I had settled on. He was going to Ceylon to 
 take up the post of Auditor-General, on promotion 
 from a similar post in Griqualand West, and we 
 were to determine at Pretoria whether we should go 
 on to Natal or attempt to catch the steamboat at 
 any other point on the coast. 
 
 The journey from Kimberley to Pretoria (300 
 miles) is now (1877) usually made by travellers by 
 means of Cobb's coaches (Messrs. Green and Erasmus), 
 which run once a week. 
 
 A seedy old vehicle was available for our convey- 
 ance on the afternoon of May 22, 1877, but its 
 wheels and leather slings were in good order — the 
 main subject for serious consideration in a long 
 journey through the veldt. 
 
 Ravenscroft and I had secured the back seats, 
 and when the coach drew up at Government House, 
 towards sunset, we found the front seats occupied 
 by three passengers, leaving us and our rugs scarce 
 
148 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 room to wedge in, until the jolting of the road had 
 well shaken us down. 
 
 For some weeks past, previous to the proclamation 
 of annexation of the Transvaal to the British Crown, 
 the coach had gone and returned nearly empty, but 
 now the change in the government of the country- 
 was working other changes, and there was a general 
 move in the direction of Pretoria. 
 
 Our fellow passengers were all going up to take- 
 advantage of the new state of affairs. One was a 
 manager of the Standard Bank of South Africa, in 
 charge of boxes of gold to open up a branch bank at 
 Pretoria ; another (M. Nelmapius) was an ex- 
 manager of the Gold Fields and Delagoa Bay Boad, 
 ruined during the Transvaal wars, and returning ta 
 Pretoria, hoping to persuade people to assist him in 
 re-establishing his line of transport ; the third was a^ 
 Potchefstroom merchant, eager to resume business, 
 on a more extended scale. 
 
 Ten hours' drive through Griqualand West (with 
 occasional excursions on to the borders of the 
 Orange Free State) brought us to the Vaal River, 
 where the pont (a wooden pontoon) was to ferry us 
 across. This pont, since the demarkation of the 
 boundary-line, has fallen into Griqualand West from 
 the Orange Free State. The owner, an Englishman 
 I should say, expressed great satisfaction at the 
 change, and stated that, since the carrying out of 
 the Orange Free State Boad Ordinance, much 
 through traffic had been turned aside into Griqua- 
 land West, in order to avoid the heavy Free State- 
 transit dues. 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 149 
 
 The owner lives on the northern bank of the Vaal, 
 in native territory, but it was claimed as part of the 
 Transvaal before annexation, and was protected by 
 ■Griqualand West. He possesses one farm, and was 
 loud in his complaints against great land speculators 
 of Christiana, whom he accused of obtaining many 
 farms from the native chiefs by unjust means. 
 
 A few miles' drive over a flat country brought us 
 into the district of Bloemhof about daybreak, and 
 at 7 A.M. we arrived at Christiana, on the western 
 bank of the Vaal Biver. Here the people for the 
 most part appear to speak English ; they are said to 
 be much interested in land speculations, and accused 
 ■each other, in private, of taking very unfair advan- 
 tages of the native chiefs in furthering their own 
 interests. Some delicate questions regarding the 
 titles to farms at the south-west corner of the 
 Bloemhof district will probably shortly arise. Con- 
 tinuing our journey, we arrived at Bloemhof on the 
 afternoon of May 23 — a straggling little town of 
 about thirteen houses, rather larger than Christiana. 
 The people speak Dutch and English, and expressed 
 great satisfaction at the change in the government. 
 At the next stage we found a young man very ill 
 from the effects of the water in the neighbourhood, 
 which is supposed to contain earthy matters : as he 
 was obliged to drink this water Ravenscroft gave 
 liim the small pocket-filter we had brought with 
 us. 
 
 Proceeding over some most uninteresting and flat 
 country (bleak and dismal in its winter garb), we 
 arrived at Maquasie Spruit at about 10 p.m., having 
 
150 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 travelled thirty hours without intermission except to 
 change horses. We were somewhat behind time on 
 account of the absence of horses at several of the 
 stages. At some stations they had all died of " the 
 sickness " ; over eighty horses in all are said to have 
 died this season along the coach line, and had not 
 yet been replaced ; this amounted to about one- third 
 of the whole number of relays. 
 
 The severity of the horse sickness in the Transvaal,, 
 unless means are taken to overcome it, will be a 
 serious obstacle in the way of quick travelling in 
 future years. It seems probable, however, that the 
 mortality among the horses of the coach proprietors 
 would not have been so great had they been properly 
 tended and fed. We heard it frequently asserted,, 
 though we have no means of ascertaining the truth, 
 that the farmers who contracted to keep the horses 
 ready at the various stages could not be depended 
 upon, and that they both used the coach horses for 
 their own private purpose, and sold part of the 
 forage received for their food. The stages varied 
 from twelve to twenty-five miles, according to the 
 positions of the farmhouse and without any reference 
 to the condition of the road. 
 
 At Maquasie Spruit there was no accommodation 
 beyond a store, and a room where the traders, three 
 brothers Leask, lived. They, however, did every- 
 thing to make us comfortable, and gave us good 
 sleeping space along the long counter of the store, 
 where we rested contented for the night, lulled to 
 sleep by the loud patter of heavy rain upon the iron 
 roof Most of the stores throughout this country 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 151 
 
 are built of galvanised corrugated iron (Gospel Oak 
 Iron Works, Brady). 
 
 At Kimberley it is unusual for rain to fall in mid- 
 winter ; there the rainfall is about ten inches per 
 annum ; but we are now getting into a country 
 where the annual rainfall is more than double that 
 of Kimberley. The Queen's birthday was ushered 
 in with much rain and strong wind, at which some 
 Boers shook their heads and pronounced it a bad 
 omen ; but we assured them, whenever we got an 
 opportunity, that it was a vigorous effort of nature 
 to wash out the bad traces of the Republic. 
 
 In spite of the heavy weather, it did not require 
 much persuasion to induce the loyal Leasks to bring 
 out a large union-jack from their store and sacrifice 
 it to the elements in honour of the occasion. There 
 were guns of all sorts, " elephant-shooters," &c, in 
 store, and these we took out and loaded, and on the 
 hoisting of our national flag we ranged ourselves in 
 line — eight in all, viz., five passengers, one of them 
 an Austrian (M. Nelmapius, ex-road director), whom 
 we constituted an Englishman for the day, and the 
 brothers Leask. On the left stood the coach-driver 
 with his horn. At the word of command we fired a 
 feu de joie with our eight guns, the driver blew a 
 blast, then hats off, and three hearty cheers for her 
 Majesty, echoed by the Kafirs looking on. 
 
 The brothers Leask refused any payment for the 
 use of their guns, gunpowder, &c., and on our 
 departure fired a volley in our honour. We left 
 amid their cheers, answered by counter cheers from 
 our coach. 
 
152 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 In the afternoon we arrived at a very diminutive 
 village called Klerksdorp, where Dutch is principally 
 spoken. Here the village sports had been spoilt by 
 the heavy rain. It appears that here and elsewhere 
 it has long been the custom in the Transvaal to 
 have a holiday on May 24, though how the custom 
 arose we did not precisely ascertain. 
 
 Late at night we arrived at Potchefstroom, the 
 largest town in the Transvaal, the centre of 
 commerce. Here there appear to be about 1500 
 people all told. Here again the weather had inter- 
 fered with the day's festivities, but yet there had 
 been general rejoicings. The hotel was very full 
 and accommodation uncertain. The town is well 
 watered, and surrounded by trees and gardens ; 
 fever is sometimes prevalent, as it always will be in 
 the tropics where there is irrigation of the soil close 
 to the habitations. 
 
 Starting at 10 a.m. May 25, we passed over the 
 same monotonous low flat country, swelling here 
 and there into rounded hills. Boer houses, dotted 
 at intervals of about twelve miles, with more green 
 about them (trees and shrubs) than is seen in 
 Griqualand West, but yet shockingly bare and 
 desolate, it being mid-winter. 
 
 The Dutch people expressed their sorrow at the 
 downfall of the Republic, but yet agreed that it was 
 good for trade. At the farms where we changed 
 horses they were always most civil, but they would 
 only give us the food they considered we ought to 
 eat ; and in one case, when the good lady gave us 
 bean soup, and we were rash enough to ask for 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 153 
 
 coffee to follow, she rated us soundly for our 
 gluttony and impudence. It was amusing to find 
 that, although we had to pay heavily for our food, 
 we were to treat the Boers as though we were their 
 guests, and were not permitted to ask for what we 
 liked ! Fortunately there was usually bil tong (beef 
 or buck dried in the sun) available, which is very 
 palatable and goes a long way. 
 
 We continued our course over high land, the 
 road in many parts being most excellent. The 
 weather was very cold, so that our rugs and karosses 
 were barely sufficient to keep us from suffering. 
 The bank manager had brought a bad cold into the 
 coach, which attacked the passengers one by one, 
 and had just reached my right eye when we parted. 
 
 On the night of the 25th we arrived late at a 
 farmhouse, and found great difficulty in gaining 
 admittance. The farmer was away on the high 
 veldt, and had left a dismal young man to keep 
 house, made still more sour and doleful through 
 having lost our relays a few hours previous. We 
 accepted all his ill-humour as playful sallies, but it 
 was all to no purpose ; he refused to get us any 
 coffee, and left us to stretch our limbs on an old 
 table and settee in the large room of the house, 
 all the furniture being away with the farmer and his 
 family. 
 
 May 26. — On rising early we found that he had 
 recovered his temper and the horses, and was 
 graciously pleased to permit us to shake hands with 
 him on leaving the house. 
 
 Our journey yesterday and to-day was much 
 
154 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 retarded from want of relays ; some of the horses, 
 had to run through two stages, and were much done 
 up, being scarce able to crawl. 
 
 We now met several Boers returning from 
 Pretoria, where there had been great rejoicings and 
 a military function ; they all stopped the coach and 
 shook hands with us, declaring it was a pretty sight 
 they had witnessed. The Review, they told us, had 
 taken place on May 25, on account of the rains on 
 the 24th. 
 
 They pitied the poor soldiers very much, going 
 against the Kafirs ; they would never return to their 
 native land. If they (the Boers) could not withstand 
 the Kafirs, what would the red-coats do ? On care- 
 ful analysis of their feelings and sentiments, we 
 came to the conclusion that their general impression 
 was that five British soldiers were about equivalent 
 in warfare to one Boer. 
 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone had been too successful 
 in his arrangements in taking over the country, and 
 therefore they were highly indignant with him. 
 Why had he caused no bloodshed ? If a few men 
 (Boers) had been killed, then they would have had 
 a grievance, but now they had nothing they could 
 urge against him and the British Government. A 
 hundred Boers ought to have withstood the advance 
 of the British troops, and have lost their lives in the 
 attempt if necessary. Then it would have been 
 urged that the annexation was contrary to the will 
 of the people, but now they could say nothing. It 
 was remarked that not one of these good people 
 seemed to think that he individually should have 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 155 
 
 been one of the gallant hundred ; each had some 
 good excuse in his own mind for not fighting. The 
 general sentiments seemed to be that they wished 
 to have the good results of the British rule in the 
 country and at the same time a valid excuse for a 
 good grumble, but that Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 
 with his thoughtful arrangements, had unjustly 
 deprived them of their grumble, and prevented the 
 bloodshed they were so anxious for. 
 
 When we arrived within twelve miles of Pretoria 
 the country gradually changed in appearance and 
 became hilly ; shortly we saw the pretty little 
 capital, nestling among hills, embosomed in green 
 gardens and trees ; a decided contrast to the brown 
 surroundings. 
 
 The little square was full of people ; many of 
 them were Boers from distant farms, discussing the 
 proceedings of the previous day. Our coach made 
 for the Masonic Hotel, and as we drew near we 
 heard a somewhat shrill voice with an American 
 twang shouting out, " Landlord, landlord, the best 
 room in the house for my friend Captain Warren ! " 
 I had no idea who my friend was, but as we pulled 
 up the host came forward and said that, owing to 
 the intervention of a friend, he had arranged to 
 clear out two rooms for Bavenscroft and myself, the 
 former occupants being doubled up into other rooms. 
 Knowing how difficult it is to get accommodation 
 in South African hotels, we were thankful for what 
 we could get, but I had an uneasy feeling about the 
 identity of my friend, and soon found out that he 
 was no other than " Ikey Mo ! " a South African 
 
156 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 celebrity of some notoriety, whose acquaintance I 
 ■had sedulously avoided all the time I was at the 
 Diamond Fields. Luncheon was just ready, and on 
 being shown our places at a very crowded board we 
 found ourselves sitting opposite to " Ikey," who in a 
 loud voice ordered a magnum of champagne. When 
 it arrived he asked us to pledge him in a glass, 
 which we could not avoid, being indebted to him for 
 our rooms, and then he announced, in a tone 
 intended for the whole company, that he had now 
 succeeded in making my acquaintance ; that he had 
 noted that I had invariably avoided being introduced 
 to him when we had met at Kimberley and in the 
 Free State, and that he had made up his mind to 
 break the ice somehow, and now it was done. We 
 were thus installed before the whole company as his 
 acquaintances, but we made a compact between us 
 that we would draw the line at cards, and that 
 nothing should induce us to play any game with 
 him, as he was an inveterate gambler, and usually 
 won large sums of money. As a sequel, however, 
 he behaved very well towards us, never proposing to 
 play with us, and Ravensoroft got some useful 
 information from him about curing birds' skins. 
 
 Some of the most amusing stories current in South 
 Africa were centred in " Ikey " — all the cases where 
 a Boer had attempted to best an Englishman or 
 American. The case of the ready reckoner was one. 
 A Boer and Ikey were settling an account when 
 Ikey calculated it up to his own advantage. The 
 Boer at once opened a ready reckoner and proved 
 Ikey to be wrong. Ikey pointed to the first page 
 
TO DEL AGO A BAY 157 
 
 and said, "You fool, this is last year's ready reckoner, 
 you should get one for this year ! " The Boer 
 collapsed. 
 
 It is also asserted that Ikey was boasting of his. 
 father's position in California, and stated that he 
 was a " timber merchant " ; but, on being pressed by 
 those who knew something about the subject, he 
 was obliged to admit that the timber consisted of 
 lucifer matches. 
 
 We shortly discovered that the host of th& 
 Masonic Hotel was a malcontent, and that many of 
 his guests shared his views, and in consequence of 
 some of his proceedings his hotel was " out of 
 bounds " to the troops. It was suggested to us that 
 we might change to another hotel, but we thought 
 that the admixture of two loyal subjects in the 
 general society of the hotel would have no bad effect,, 
 and we therefore retained our rooms. 
 
 The band was playing in the square, and the good 
 folk of Pretoria appeared to appreciate the presence 
 of the military. The storekeepers seem to have been 
 driving a flourishing trade in side-saddles and riding- 
 habits. 
 
 During the afternoon we were presented to Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone, who most kindly asked us ta 
 make aU use of Government House during our stay 
 in the capital of the Transvaal. We breakfasted 
 and dined there next day, and made the acquaint- 
 ance of Colonel Brooke, R.E., Military Secretary, 
 and Mr. Haggard, Private Secretary. Government 
 House is a nice house with large rooms still showing 
 vestiges of the two balls given on May 24 and 25^ 
 
158 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 The gardens abdut are charming, the houses covered 
 with creeping shrubs ; amongst others I noticed a 
 Palestine creeper we used to call the snail, from the 
 appearance of the flower. There are roses and 
 oleanders in the gardens, plenty of water running 
 in furrows through the streets. The people seem 
 very quiet ; most of them are conscious that the old 
 Transvaal Government had no money to go on with, 
 and that British rule is better for their pockets; 
 but yet many of them are anti-English, and there 
 were some murmurs against President Burgers. 
 
CHAPTEE XII 
 
 We had, on starting from Kimberley, intended to go 
 down from Pretoria and embark at Durban, but Mr. 
 Nelmapius had told us so much of what he had done 
 on the Delagoa Bay road, and how all his efforts 
 had come to grief through the breaking out of the 
 war with the natives, that we became fired with 
 desire to see this road, and ascertain to what extent 
 it would be made available in the future as a means 
 of communication between the gold-fields of Lyden- 
 burg and the sea-coast ; we therefore set to work to 
 obtain information on the subject. Mr. Nelmapius 
 had told us that his company had cut a road through 
 the bush and erected houses at various stages, but 
 that his stagekeepers had been murdered by the 
 Kafirs, and the houses plundered and damaged. He 
 described the road as going through the heart of the 
 " lion veldt " and through the " tsetse-fly country " ; 
 he also considered it was rather early to venture 
 down just yet, on account of the fever which had 
 been raging at the Bay all through the autumn. 
 We found that Mr. Thompson, Agent of the Union 
 Steamship Company, had just arrived from the Bay 
 by New Scotland, and that he had suffered severely 
 from the fever, which he described as very active 
 down there, but he thought that we might venture. 
 
160 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 as, having lived so long at the " Fields," we might 
 consider ourselves more or less " salted." We also 
 paid a visit to Mr. Moodie, the Portuguese Com- 
 missionaire of the projected Delagoa Bay Railway. 
 He appeared to be sanguine as to the prospects of 
 the railway, and gave us much valuable information. 
 Having now made up our minds to go down to 
 Delagoa Bay, the question arose whether we should 
 proceed by Lydenburg or by New Scotland : it all 
 hinged on a question of time and transport ; we 
 were bound to reach Delagoa Bay on the morning of 
 June 12, so as to catch the steamer to Natal, and it 
 was necessary to be certain of the speed of our 
 conveyance. The first difficulty arose in getting 
 any kind of conveyance to Lydenburg; the post- 
 cart had left and there were no private conveyances 
 to be hired. The landlord of the hotel offered to 
 sell us a dog-cart and two horses for ;^i40, and the 
 sub-post contractor offered to send us to Lyden- 
 burg (i8o mUes) in his cart with post-horses for ;Cao, 
 but afterwards repented and asked for more, but 
 would not say how much. We were on the point of 
 buying horses to ride round by New Scotland, when 
 we ascertained that a waggon was just about to 
 start, in which two wardens of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church were about to proceed to a conference in 
 Lydenburg. This exactly suited our requirements, 
 and it only remained to ascertain whether they would 
 take Englishmen. A French Afrikander, M. Franck, 
 who had already engaged a seat, undertook to 
 introduce us, and we were accordingly inspected by 
 them, and they appeared satisfied that we were not 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 161 
 
 so rough a lot as they had expected. Either 
 influenced by our mild appearance, or by the prospect 
 of our fares, they struck a bargain at once. We 
 were to pay ^16 for our two seats. 
 , Accordingly, at 2 p.m. May 28, we started in 
 company with M. Franck, an attorney of Lydenburg, 
 formerly in the French navy, and a right good fellow. 
 We said good-bye to pretty Pretoria, with its 
 hospitable people, its red and white houses, guna- 
 trees, melons, and oleanders. On our way out we 
 were shown the snug little cottage lately occupied 
 hy President Burgers. 
 
 Our waggon was drawn by six horses ; we accom- 
 plished sixteen miles the first stage, and obtained 
 tea at sunset at the house of Mr. Botha, described 
 as being most anti-English. He was, however, most 
 civil to us, but did not discuss political matterife. 
 Thirteen miles further brought us to Prinsloo's farm 
 at 9.30 P.M. ; the moon was up, .the man abed. It 
 was necessary to awaken the proprietor, who was 
 also represented by M. Franek as being very anti- 
 English. Dogs dozed on the stoep, and on our 
 approach crouched down and whined in fear of us. 
 This strange proceeding of dogs in the Transvaal we 
 noticed frequently, though in the Orange Free State 
 they are very combative and guard the homesteads 
 most faithfully. The only answer I could get re- 
 garding this difference of character was that in the 
 Transvaal there is much animal food for the dogs, 
 and that they get lazy and obese. This does not 
 seem to be a valid reason, because eating animal food 
 is generally supposed to make animals fier<ier. It 
 
162 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 may, perhaps, be due to the fact that dogs here are 
 subject to a sickness similar to that which attacks 
 the horses, sheep, cattle, &c., and that they con- 
 sequently lose their vigour, and seem to lack that 
 great energy on the approach of strangers usually 
 exhibited by watch-dogs elsewhere. The Prinsloo 
 homestead is a specimen of many we visited in the 
 Transvaal. A square building with stoep on one 
 side, on to which the great room (twenty-five feet 
 square and twelve feet high) opens, with small rooms 
 about ten feet square on each side. A rough boarded 
 ceiling in the big room, with a hole left in it, reached 
 by a loose ladder ; on these boards are deposited the 
 farm produce and stores, such as forage, mealies, &c. ; 
 some of the houses are much smaller, and the mealies 
 hang down close to the heads of the occupants. 
 One of the prettiest interiors I have seen was in 
 looking into a kitchen through a fringe of mealies 
 and tobacco-leaves. On the large hearth three 
 children were sitting in the gloom around the fire, 
 which was flickering up, and rays from the sun shot 
 down the chimney upon the heads of the children 
 and an iron pot. The kitchen was otherwise quite 
 dark, there being no window. 
 
 The Boer, when aroused out of sleep, was not very 
 agreeable, but he had no desire to quarrel with us, 
 but rather with our two conductors, the church- 
 wardens, who desired him to turn his horse out of 
 hia stable in order that theirs might be accommo- 
 dated and safely housed from the frost. This 
 scarcely modest request rather startled him, and he 
 declared it evident that the wardens were not ac- 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 163 
 
 customed to travel, but yet he was good enough to 
 comply with their request. He gave us beds in a 
 little room, in which we slept wrapped in our karosses. 
 
 May 29. — Oak-apple Day, which we celebrated 
 by giving our churchwardens English water (other- 
 wise " Old Tom "), and thus making Englishmen of 
 them, to their great enjoyment. One of them was 
 a teetotaler ! Left at 6.30 a.m., continued our 
 monotonous journey till we arrived, after thirty 
 miles, at the homestead of Mr. Muller, " very anti- 
 English," said M. Franck, " whose brother is one of 
 the leading men in the Transvaal." A house ad- 
 joining is used as a trading store by an Englishman, 
 Mr. Hodson. The Boers were not at first inclined 
 to be very sociable, but soon got over their shyness, 
 and one English-hater was quite won over by 
 M. Franck pretending to mistake him for an 
 Englishman ; he came over and cut up some tobacco 
 for us. 
 
 We were all so absurdly ceremonious that no one 
 ventured to ask when food would be served, or even 
 whether they were going to give us any, and having 
 had no food since a very early breakfast, we became 
 hungry and threw ourselves on the mercy of Mr. 
 Hodson's storekeeper (Mr. Hodson lives at another 
 farm). He gave us some tea and rusks, but as he 
 also fed when the MuUers chose to feed him he had 
 nothing ready. He was a very superior young man, 
 who improved his- leisure hours by reading Shake- 
 speare, and had hitherto escaped the disease which 
 so often attacks persons leading a sedentary life in 
 this country — viz., constant tippling. At last, at 
 
164 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 9 P.M., supper was announced, and we appeared in 
 the Muller saloon and found there the table spread 
 and a large tub ready for washing our feet. The 
 grandparents first had their feet washed, and then a 
 few others, and at last, when it was brought to us, 
 the water was black, and we were red with anxiety 
 to avoid the ordeal. We managed to escape and 
 settled to our supper : chops, biltong, and mealies. 
 Our friend the young storekeeper was absent, and, 
 forgetful of him, we finished nearly all that was on 
 the table. The younger members of the family now 
 crowded round to eat up what was left, and our 
 fi-iend, on coming in and finding things so, got the 
 toothache and went supperless to bed. I applied an 
 electric band to his face, after which the pain disap- 
 peared ; but I was doubtful whether it was ordinary 
 toothache, or pain at our seeing the manner in which 
 the Boers treated him, who was so much above them 
 in manners and education. Mr. Muller had offered 
 to provide beds for us, but we preferred to sleep in 
 the store of our friend. On parting with Mr. MuUer 
 and his family we had, of course, to pay for our food, 
 which payment was accepted in a gracious manner, 
 as tribute from inferior mortals. 
 
 We had much conversation with Mr. Muller, and 
 were amused with his remarks. It was apparently 
 the opinion among his friends that the British 
 authorities were already quite tired of their task of 
 governing the Transvaal, and likely soon to clear 
 out again, at which they seemed more sorry than 
 pleased, their only strong objection to the British 
 being the fear that the Kafir would be placed in a 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 165 
 
 higher position than the Boer, a very commonly 
 expressed fear. They are quite aware of,, and quite 
 touched with, the idea that they would now make 
 money more securely than in former days. They 
 had great talk over a paragraph in one of the papers, 
 in which it was represented that, at the time that 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone was annexing the Trans- 
 vaal, Lord Carnarvon was writing to President 
 Burgers (through the Governor of the Cape) about 
 the confederation of the Transvaal with the British 
 States, and this they construed to mean that the 
 Administrator of the Transvaal was acting in opposi- 
 tion to the wishes of Lord Carnarvon. I explained 
 that Sir Theophilus Shepstone had been sent up 
 with discretionary powers, in conjunction with the 
 €i-overnor of the Cape, to annex the Transvaal if its 
 demoralised state actually required it, and that Lord 
 Carnarvon had written the letter in question on the 
 supposition that perhaps the Transvaal had re- 
 deemed its position and had not required annexa- 
 tion. This seemed like a new light to them ; it 
 was so difficult for them, unassisted, to believe that 
 the British Government could be acting for the 
 good of the country and not for its own aggrandise- 
 ment. We had passed two swarthy little men on 
 the road, who arrived in the evening to stop near 
 the homestead under the trees. They came into 
 the store to buy spirits, tea, &c., and we were 
 amused to see how the storekeeper persuaded them 
 to buy many things they had not thought of, among 
 other things, pocket-handkerchiefs at a shilling 
 each, because they would find them so useful, and 
 
166 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 he had no paper to wrap up their tea in ! I recog- 
 nised their language as Spanish when they con- 
 versed among themselves, and followed them out and 
 spoke to them. They were delighted to speak to me 
 in their native tongue, and said they were deserters 
 from the Spanish navy, and were migrating from the 
 Diamond Fields to the gold region. They expressed 
 themselves much surprised at the system at 
 Kimberley, where all people, English and foreigners, 
 were treated alike regarding the claims, and said 
 that in Spain foreigners would not have the same 
 liberty, to which I would not dissent. 
 
 We heard it stated this evening that the whole 
 export of the Transvaal is only 10,000 bales of wool, 
 a few hides and feathers, less and less every year. 
 
 The homesteads certainly seemed to us more 
 English in appearance than any we had seen in the 
 Old Colony and the Free State, and English is far 
 more generally spoken. The Boers for the most part 
 seem to have come from Natal ; they are very talka- 
 tive, and before the annexation wasted their time in 
 discussing politics, especially the women; but now 
 they are quiet. We heard much of the tsetse-fly, 
 that it is just like a house-fly, with three white lines 
 on its body, and that two or three wiU kill an ox, and 
 that they don't bite in a strong wind or at night ; 
 others asserted that it takes about forty to fifty bites 
 to kill an ox. 
 
 I here made friends with a Boer in an odd way. I 
 was seated in a little room with a door divided half- 
 way down as in stables, and a Boer came to have a 
 talk, standing outside and leaning on the half-door 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 167 
 
 and spitting into my room in all directions. When 
 I could no longer bear it I asked the Boer if he 
 would not like to come inside, which he accepted as 
 a compliment. I then asked him to go on talking, 
 but leaning on the half-door so as to spit outside. 
 This affronted him very much and he went off in 
 dudgeon, but subsequently came back and made 
 himself very agreeable, but took care not to spit 
 into the room. I concluded that the natural love of 
 justice which so strongly affects the Boers forced him 
 to consider the situation and conclude that I was 
 within my rights in asking him to spit outside the 
 room. 
 
 May 30. — Started before breakfast, and passed 
 over a rolling plain ; arrived at Middelburg (Nazareth) 
 in the afternoon. A mean little town. We put up 
 at the Hotel Burgers, which one of the party pro- 
 posed should be called Hotel Bugs, from its filthy 
 condition ; vermin of various orders were careering 
 over the tables and chairs. The landlord was an 
 easy-tempered, slovenly Boer, who left everything to 
 some dirty Kafir helps. 
 
 We heard that an interesting affair was coming off 
 that afternoon before the magistrate : that an Eng- 
 lishman had been fighting on the side of the Kafirs 
 in the late war and had killed some Boers, and on 
 his appearance here had been set upon by three men 
 of the name of Coetsee, and had been severely 
 beaten. We inquired whether he had shown any 
 resistance to the three men, and were told that he 
 had tamely submitted. Upon this we asserted con- 
 ifidently that he could not be an Englishman. On 
 
168 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 arrival at the magistrate's! office we found that the 
 man's name was Vilgion, and that we were right in 
 supposing that he was not an EngUshman, We were 
 also surprised to hear a reckless charge made by some 
 o£ the Boers that the Kafirs under Sekukuni had 
 been instigated and assisted by British officers. We 
 suggested that they should not bring such charges. 
 unless they could in some way substantiate them. 
 To' this they willingly assented. 
 ' Oranges horn, the country about Pretoria were 
 here selling twelve for a shilling ; this did not say 
 much for the fruits of Middelburg. Since leaving 
 Pretoria we have scarce seen a tree until arriving 
 here ; nothing but rolling plains. 
 
 Ravenscroft bought a rifle (a Westley-Eichards) 
 feom a Boer for £16. The man, to .prove it, put up 
 a bottle a/t a hundred yards, and knocked it over a/b 
 the first shot. 
 
 Fortunately for our comfort in the hotel, we had a 
 packet of flea-powder, with which we sprinkled our 
 little chamber, karosses, &c., and, thus protected*,, 
 slept peacefully. 
 
 ''■■■ Man/ 31. — Our departure was delayed by one of 
 our horses falling lame ; our churchwardens had ta 
 buy another, and we consequently did not start till 
 9 AiM. We were now getting into the country that 
 had been overrun by the Kafirs, and drove over 
 rolling plains until we arrived at the house of 
 Mr. Wheeler for lunch. Mr. Wheeler and his wife 
 are from Berkshire, and bring their English tidy ways 
 into the Transvaal. It was refreshing to see a house 
 clean and comfortable after those of the Boers, and 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 16<> 
 
 the eggs and bacon they gave us were so good that we 
 ate double rations this morning. Mr. Wheeler and 
 his wife were rather below the middle height in 
 England, but their sons had grown up tall, as young 
 men do in this country, one six foot six inches we 
 were told. They had not left their homestead during- 
 the war, and the Kafirs had not molested them. 
 Mr. Wheeler said that he had paid £<^ los. war-tax, 
 a cow, and three muids of corn, and his sons had been 
 out on commando for several days. He was very 
 decided on the necessity for taxing heavily unoccu- 
 pied farms, so that the owners should either reside 
 on them and cultivate them or sell them. He had a 
 large garden under irrigation. 
 
 On leaving his house we came upon crowds of 
 wilde-beestes and blessboks. 
 
 I shot a large blessbok through the heart, but we 
 were so loaded up in the waggon that we could only 
 carry away the hind-quarters. It seemed a shame 
 to leave good food to waste in the wUdemess, so we 
 did not shoot any more, but contented ourselves 
 with shooting at paauws (large bustards) at long 
 ranges, many of which were flying about. 
 
 Bavenscroft, who is very handy and neat, took 
 the tail of the blessbok and slipped the bowl of my 
 pipe (presented to me by Adolf Erasmus) into it, so 
 that when smoking I appear to have a long pointed 
 black beard. 
 
 We now took our line over the direct road to Ly- 
 denburg, a road which had been abandoned during 
 the war on account of the Kafirs, and which was now 
 just coming again into- use. We amused ourselves 
 
170 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 by exciting the fears of our churchwardens by sug- 
 gesting every black object was a Kafir, and they 
 levelled heavy jokes at us in return. Towards even- 
 ing we began to descend the steep incline into the 
 celebrated Steel Poort, and passed a smashed waggon 
 on the road. The valley of the Steel Poort reminds 
 me of the Plain of Esdraelon. We crossed a running 
 spruit (brook) three times, and then darkness came 
 over us, and we stumbled along and had much diffi- 
 culty in preventing overturns several times. After 
 losing our way and picking it up by help of a lantern, 
 we arrived at a store kept by Madame F. Couris, on 
 the north side of the valley. Here we arrived at 
 7 P.M. and were hospitably received by Mr. Jeffries, 
 the storeraan, who spread us out some blankets on 
 the counter and gave us supper. We conversed 
 about the projected railway to Delagoa Bay, and he 
 asserted it would not pay. 
 
 The churchwardens came in and had some strong 
 water, and on leaving they asked how much to pay, 
 and looked dreadfully blank when they were told 
 eight shillings. The storekeeper thought they were 
 asking the price of a new bottle, as he was giving 
 them their nightcap free out of friendship. It is 
 evidently the difference of language that in a great 
 measure causes the constant misunderstandings 
 between Boers and English : in this case the Boers 
 got quite angry and abusive until we explained the 
 mistake. 
 
 June, I. — A sharp frosty morning. The view up 
 the Steel Poort is one of the finest pieces of scenery 
 I have seen in South Africa. We were up at day- 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 171 
 
 break, and drove on about a mile to the bomestead 
 of Grobler, a Boer ; here we inspanned a span of 
 oxen to drag our cart up the steep incline, rising 
 about 1400 feet. On arriving again on the high 
 veldt, we inspanned our horses and proceeded, and 
 at midday we lunched near the ruins of a farm, 
 burnt and plundered by the Kafirs. The Steel Poort 
 is said to be a break in the Delagoa Bay range. 
 
 The case of Grobler during the last war is one of 
 those which show that the Boers of the Transvaal have 
 not degenerated to the extent generally supposed, 
 and that they are often possessed of great personal 
 courage. The Kafirs say that in defending their 
 homesteads they are like tigers. He did not leave 
 his homestead during the war, and his windows are 
 still blocked up with brick. M. Franck gave the 
 following account of him : The Kafirs, amounting to 
 over a hundred, came and drove off" his cattle. M. 
 Grobler, on hearing this, called for his horse and 
 started off with his two young sons, one of them 
 quite a boy. He is a short heavy man, and can ride 
 with difficulty. On coming within long range of the 
 Kafirs he commenced firing, and so continued to 
 pursue, the Kafirs returning his fire. But he had 
 accuracy of aim on his side, and after knocking over 
 sixteen Kafirs the remainder fled, and he brought 
 back his cattle in triumph ; after that he was no 
 further molested. 
 
 In conversing about the resources of the Transvaal, 
 M. Franck observed that there are 20,000 whites in 
 the country, and that they can put 6000 men in the 
 field. Making all allowances for the young men in 
 
172 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 the country, the proportion cannot be correct, unless 
 the number of children in the families are very much 
 less than in the Orange Free State, where in house 
 after house, and tent after tent, ten to twelve 
 children may be found. In the Free State they say 
 they can put 12,000 men in the field on an emer- 
 gency, and this I do not doubt. 
 
 We proceeded on through a rocky country, where 
 there had been various engagements between the 
 Kafirs and the Boers, and where a fort had been 
 erected by the latter. Towards evening we passed 
 another ruined farm, where several Kafirs had con- 
 gregated for the night ; they were on their way down 
 to the Diamond Fields, and had passes fi-om the 
 Landdrost of Lydenburg. One rejoiced in the name 
 of "Englishman," and seemed very proud of it. 
 Darkness closed in on us while we were still on the 
 road, and we were obliged to outspan far firom any 
 inhabited part, near some water. We searched for 
 cowdung (our usual fuel) with little success, and had 
 barely enough fire to make some hot cofiee. All along 
 we had lived iu very modest style, sometimes only 
 one meal a day, sometimes only old bread, for we 
 could get very little food on the road. Steaks of 
 meat grilled on a stick over the fire and eaten in our 
 fingers were often our only food, but this was a feast. 
 We laid our karosses down in the high grass and 
 slept soundly, waking at dawn with our beards nicely 
 frosted over, and our limbs somewhat nvmab from the 
 cold. 
 
 June 2, Saturday. — We started at daybreak, and 
 in consequence of the roughness of the road, our good 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 173 
 
 friends the churchwardens forgot to sing their morn- 
 ing hymn at sunrise, and thus deprived us of the 
 pleasure of joining in. We did not fail to remind 
 them of this, and asked them in lieu of it to join in 
 a hymn with us — " God save the Queen." To this 
 they readily assented with a good grace, and now we 
 declared them to he duly constituted Englishmen. 
 At 8 A.M. we arrived at a homestead that had been 
 put in a state of defence, the house forming part of a 
 square, composed of a thick stone wall, about one 
 hundred feet a side ; in this the cattle were kept at 
 night. There were fourteen men in this kraal during 
 the war, and the women told us they were ready to 
 help, as they could both load and fire the rifle. They 
 lamented that the Kafirs had not attempted to assault 
 the place. One of the family had been in a kraal 
 with his cattle, and had killed seven Kafirs and 
 driven away the rest when they assaulted the place. 
 All these good people were about to start for Lyden- 
 burg, for Nachtmaa.1, but waited to give us some 
 coffee and bread. We arrived at Lydenburg at 
 noon, putting up our baggage at the oflS.ce of M. 
 Franck. We took a hearty farewell of our church- 
 warden friends, and they announced their intention 
 of getting two Englishmen to go back with them, as 
 they had found us such good company and so 
 remunerative a cargo. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII 
 
 We have had rather a rough time during the past 
 week on our journey from Pretoria, feeding just as 
 we could, for we only got three or four good meals 
 at the Boer houses. We passed several houses 
 burnt down during the late war, and aU the rest 
 were still barricaded to resist attack. It was great 
 fun and very inexpensive, our living for six days 
 having cost only about 25s. each ; but then we lived 
 a good deal upon bread, and had some biscuits with 
 us when we started. It is very easy to spend a 
 fortune in food if you choose to. A bottle of gin 
 costing 2S. at Capetown here costs 8s., and other 
 things in proportion ; a quart bottle of beer costs 5s., 
 and stiU more at the gold-fields. It is curious how 
 long we can do without food in this country. This 
 morning we have not yet breakfasted, and yet it is 
 1,30 P.M., but we had a little coffee and bread at a 
 farmhouse. It was very interesting to hear the 
 various accounts of occurrences during the late war ; 
 some of the Boers appear to have behaved with 
 immense pluck, while others proved themselves 
 abject cowards. We have been through part of the 
 lion veldt without seeing any lions ; they are said to 
 be rather shy of showing themselves near the high- 
 way. We noticed, however, that in the ruined 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 175 
 
 farmhouses where the Kafirs slept they always had 
 rows of little fires all round them, to protect them- 
 selves fi:om the lions. The general impression is 
 that the lion goes for the Kafir in preference to the 
 white man, but he only then does so when he is very 
 hungry. We were told of one case where there 
 were several white men and Kafirs secure within a 
 strong stone wall, and a lion sprang over and carried 
 off a Kafir before they could shoot him ; but this 
 was considered a very exceptional occurrence. 
 
 We expected to see beautiful scenery in the 
 Transvaal, but since we have left Pretoria we have 
 scarcely seen a tree until we got to Middelburg ; the 
 country has been one succession of rolling plains, 
 quite brown or black where the grass has been 
 burnt. I have not seen the great richness of this 
 country so much talked of, and there are always 
 such extremes, great heat or great cold ; but stUl it 
 seems a healthy country for a healthy person. One 
 thing we have noticed — ^the grass seems to grow 
 higher than it did further south. 
 
 We were now anxious to arrange for our journey to 
 DelagoaBay,butforsometime could not settlewhether 
 we would go by Pilgrims' Rest or Spitz Kop. Reliable 
 information was difficult to obtain, but eventually we 
 decided in favour of the road through the Spitz Kop 
 gold diggings. The people shook their heads and 
 said the road had not been opened to Delagoa Bay 
 since the war, and that the fever was raging violently 
 still. The idea of being the first to open up the road 
 had a certain charm about it, and as to the fever, we 
 declared ourselves " salted." M. Franck most kindly 
 
176 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 instructed his son to ride about and see after men, 
 horses, &c. We were advised by some to take 
 horses, by others donkeys ; others said buffaloes 
 would carry our things, and one man wanted to sell 
 us a waggon and sixteen oxen, as it would be so 
 comfortable at night, and we might sleep well raised 
 above the ground! We had, however, set our affec- 
 tions on a Scotch cart, and decided that four oxen 
 should drag our goods, and that we ourselves would 
 walk. After much bargaining, we finally arranged 
 to buy a Scotch cart for ;Cso; a cart sound as to 
 its wheels and shaft. A Griqua lad now appeared 
 upon the scene ; at least we took him for a lad, but 
 he afterwards told us that he was more than fifty 
 years of age. This boy said he knew the road per- 
 fectly, and we engaged him, but we afterwards 
 found that he had never been along the road. His 
 name was Peat. We also engaged two of Sekukuni's 
 Kafirs, very raw boys ; one named Little BUlee, and 
 the other Elijah. Little Billee proved to be very 
 foolish, but Elijah afterwards saved one of our oxep 
 by giving it some food he was carrying for Peet, 
 much to Peet's indignation. 
 
 Captain Marshall Clarke, E..A., the new Civil 
 Commissioner, was away on tour, and we were 
 received and looked after by Mr. Roth, the Land- 
 drost, a well-educated Africander. He proposed we 
 should take up our quarters in his house, but we 
 only accepted his invitation to dinner, and camped in 
 an empty room in the old barracks while we made 
 our various preparations, so that we could make 
 a fair start when we were ready. 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 17f 
 
 During the day I met with an Irishman, who 
 proved to be the famous Captain Aylward of Fenian 
 notoriety and filibustering renown. I came across 
 him casually in the street, and before we had been 
 conversing ten minutes, we had entered into a dis- 
 cussion as to the texture of angels' wings ! Ravens- 
 croft came up during the discussion and introduced 
 us to each other. I had heard of the prominent 
 part Aylward had taken in the revolution at the 
 Diamond Fields some two years ago, and was much 
 struck with the frank manner in which he related an 
 account of the disturbances, and he gave Ravens- 
 croft some valuable information, which he noted. 
 He also described some comical scenes which he had 
 witnessed on the committees of the Fenians when he 
 was engaged with them. He has the same extra- 
 ordinary rapidity of thought and fluency of tongue 
 that I have noticed only among a few ; among others 
 Emmanuel Deutsch and Richard Burton ; and he is 
 certainly one of the most amusing persons I have 
 ever met. He had taken command of the Lyden- 
 burg filibusters on the death of Von Schlickmann,' 
 ^nd now appeared to be in a quasi state of command 
 •of the volunteers of Lydenburg — at least so we 
 •understood it ; but, in the absence of Captain Clarke, 
 we could not be quite certain. He says that the 
 Transvaal cannot develop ; that there is no great 
 wealth in it ; no corn, no feathers, no ivory ; that he 
 had been quite deceived as to the wealth of the 
 country, and would now return to Cape Colony. He 
 stated that he had been brought up for the Roma,n 
 priesthood against his will, and that this had wrecked 
 
178 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 his life. He has been most anxious to assist us in 
 every way. 
 
 We were aSked to supper or dinner at the Land- 
 drost's, and having taken an early and light lunch 
 we hoped to get it at seven o'clock. Mrs. Both was 
 evidently doing the cooking, but was also much 
 (jccupied in conversation, and kept us highly amused; 
 but We were hungry, and eight, nine, ten, and 
 eleven o'clock struck, and still no signs of dinner, 
 though the rattling of plates and the savoury smells 
 whibh came from the kitchen told us that there was 
 jd.enty of food coming. At last, at midnight, when 
 we were quite famished, a most sumptuous repast 
 was spread out for us— «oup and mutton alnd hare,, 
 and a curry, and plenty of vegetables, sweets and 
 coffee — quite a feast. We then smoked and played 
 cards ; at least some did. We got away as early as 
 we conveniently could after the first square meal 
 since leaving Pretto-ia. 
 
 Lydenburg is reaUy a very pretty little town, 
 with of course the usual square, in which the waggons 
 of the Boers are outspanned. Water runs through 
 the streets, and there are pleasant green hedgerows 
 around the outskirts of the town. The elevation is 
 about 4350 feet, about the same as Kimberley, but, 
 owing to the pro:«imity of high mountains near, and 
 also being in a lower latitude, and there being a 
 greater rainfall, the climate is quite different. 
 
 Sunday, June 3. — We had much difficulty in 
 getting oxen, but at last succeeded; two large oxen 
 in the ighafts and two small Kafir oxen in front ; they 
 cost with their yokes £40, so that the turn-out 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 179 
 
 complete cost ^70. We were anxious to get off 
 as soon as possible, for fear our boys would get 
 drunk or our oxen stray. Accordingly we atarted 
 at 7 P.M. for $^pitz Kop, and succeeded in losing our 
 way at tbe outset. After various guesses at the 
 truth, we happened to strike the right path, and 
 fotund ourselves, about 9.50 p.m., at the mill of Mr, 
 Curtis, only a short distance out of the town. We 
 asked permission to stop a few hours at his house, to 
 which he willingly acceded, and cooked us a beef- 
 steak. He said that the war had nearly ruined him,^ 
 and that, if he had not had an English assistant, he 
 could not have continued his business,, ; the Boers 
 and Kafirs are so idle and thriftless. He had been 
 in New Zealand, and thought the wealth of the 
 Transvaal far inferior. He said that the Transvaal 
 chmate was Irery enervating, and that be was losing 
 his energy ; that if troops came up they must bring 
 their own corn, as in consequence of the war there 
 was not now sufficient corn in the country to support 
 the people. He gave us directions as to our road -^ 
 how, after passing the "Devil's Knubkels," we were 
 to ^0 up a hill like the wall of a shouse, and were to 
 take care in various places that our cart be not 
 precipitated into the valley below. 
 
 ■Monday, June 4. — ^Up at midnight and off at 
 12,30 A.M. The moon having now risen, we took 
 our road up hill, for several miles to the east, and 
 got into a dense fog ; smelt a strong odour which we 
 took to be malaria, but which we found afterwards 
 to be the smell of a jackal, quite different . from the 
 smell of a fax. 
 
180 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 On resuming our journey, and skirting round by 
 the southern side of the " Devil's Knuckels," the 
 darkness suddenly disappeared, and it was as light 
 as day, our shadows being thrown strongly on the 
 ground to north. On looking south we saw a 
 magnificent meteor not far above the horizon ; it 
 only lasted for a few seconds, and then left us again 
 in darkness. (We subsequently heard that it burst 
 over Kokstaadt, in Griqualand East, some five 
 hundred miles south of us, and that it was also seen 
 from Port Elizabeth way, looking north-east.) 
 About sunrise we found ourselves on the hills at 
 the top of the range, and were intensely cold. We 
 made some coffee and cut a slice of bacon, and then 
 commenced our descent of the Drakensberg, a most 
 disagreeable operation. Boad there was none ; we 
 went down mountain passes that looked like broken 
 staircases; we trussed up the wheels of our cart 
 with many reims (leather thongs), and then, four of 
 us holding on behind, we let the cart go down, 
 bounding from rock to rock, and nearly carrying the 
 oxen with it. Fortunately the rocks are not slippery 
 but of a sandy nature. Quartz abounds in these 
 parts. 
 
 After winding about the bare hiUs for some time 
 we came, at 6 a.m:., on a stream of water and break- 
 fasted. Here Peet succumbed to the chill we had 
 got during the night, and lay down with congestion 
 about the kidneys, and refused to go on. We had 
 no mustard, so I put a strong pepper plaster on the 
 parts affected, and dosed him with castor-oil and 
 aconite, and put him into the cart. -He said the 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 181 
 
 aconite did him good, and during the day recovered. 
 The Kafirs had never been with oxen before, and 
 ■without Peet w^e should have been in a difficulty. 
 
 After a few more mUes we emerged upon the 
 steep eastern side of the Drakensberg (about 6700 
 feet) along a road cut on the face of the rock. 
 Here the scenery was very fine, the mountains 
 breaking down to depths of 3000 to 4000 feet, and 
 the river Sabie flowing at the bottom amid much 
 verdure. The hills themselves were brown, but here 
 and there covered with trees, and the deep kloof 
 filled with fine timber. Our course lay over a suc- 
 cession of ranges gradually falling towards Spitz 
 Kop, a conical hill in the distance, and to get at 
 this point without descending too far the road 
 doubles on itself in several places and has consider- 
 able ascents. Some of our descents were of the 
 roughest character, with the wheels trussed up ; 
 nothing but the strongest carts or waggons could 
 stand the shocks they must get. We had expected 
 to arrive at Spitz Kop at an early hour in the 
 afternoon, but it was soon evident that the distance 
 given to us was incorrect, and that Spitz Kop must 
 be at least thirty-five miles from Lydenburg. 
 After we had been travelling seventeen hours our 
 oxen began to flag, and we ourselves were very tired 
 from our exertions in trying to prevent our cart 
 pitching over into the valleys below, but we were 
 anxious to get to some house for the night and 
 pressed on. Darkness overtook us, and at last we 
 saw a light in front of us, and about 8 p.m. got near 
 it ; the lights began to multiply, and we thought 
 
1&2 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 we were getting to some new Kafir kraal or to a 
 busk fire; 
 
 As we neared the lights; however, we saw that 
 they came from many houses, and our surprise was 
 great when we heard the people talking En^ish. 
 We had come on to thte Spitz Kop (4050) Gold 
 Diggings, which we did not know were now being 
 worked. Daring the whole day we had not met a 
 single individual, either black or white, as the Spitz 
 Kop folk keep up their communications with 
 Maemac and Pilgrims' Rest. We were delighted to 
 put up our traps in a little room at the store and 
 Converse with the diggers. They had many of them 
 come from Australia, and were not impressed with 
 the wealth of the Transvaal, and many of them 
 would willingly go back. There were some thirty 
 diggers here. Several of them had been out shoot- 
 ing in the veldt before the war. As to lions, they 
 all agreed on one point, you might meet a dozen of 
 them in a day or you might: meet none ; it is all 
 uncertain, sometimes the country is full of game, at 
 other times no game is to be seen ; you must follow 
 it like the lions if you want to find it. 
 
 They said that they were making no money to 
 save ; practically, they made on an average about 
 twenty-five shillings a day, but with gin eight 
 shillings a bottle and all other things in like pro- 
 portion, they were only just able to rub along. 
 They also said that the gold-fields here would never 
 be very productive, because the water has to be 
 brought up to the quartz or the quartz taken down 
 to the water. 
 
TQ DELAGOA BAY 183 
 
 Jime s. — -We were greeted this morning, " Good- 
 tHPiaung, boys ! Are you oiF prospecting ? Ifiyow 
 will wait a few days a lot of us will join you, and 
 we wUl liav« a jolly time together." We ewphko-ed 
 to the friendly diggers that we had to go off at 
 once, otherwise we should have been: charmed ; to 
 haa^e seen more of them. 
 
 We left the store at 8 a.m. and went oyer the 
 heights, leaving Spitz Kop to the right (4700) aiod 
 arrived at Niekerk's farm (4200) at io,a,M'. T\m 
 is the mQst outlying homestead to the east, and was 
 abandoned during the Kafir war. Mr. Niefeerk 
 spoke most feelingly of his losseSj and was glad of 
 the change of government. Here were the hutS'Of 
 a fewmore diggers. Our road from this point ha^ 
 not been traversed for some months^ and was, tlmmr 
 fore difficult to find. We got as many partioulajis 
 as we could jfrom Mr. Niekerk. 
 
 We saw one buck, out of range, the only one we 
 saw to-day, and we had seen but one yesterday. 
 As we had come dependent for our meat on whast 
 we could shoot on the rgad,, we were rather djg- 
 a|)pointed at the scarcity of the game. 
 
 At 2 P.M. we arrived at the highest point of t^bie 
 second range (5050), from whence the hills break 
 down into undulating country and the " mjddljs 
 veldt " {i.e., the plains lying between the highjande 
 and the coast). We had now a fine view of; the 
 country, and saw some odd-looking, conical peaks 
 in the distance southrcast, which proved toibe the 
 hills about Pretorius Kop. We had now agaifflt to 
 lash up the wheels of our cart and let it slidei d<jwii 
 
184 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 the steep steps, and in about an hour had descended 
 1 200 feet into a comparatively warm country. After 
 several ups and downs among the undulating hills 
 of the middle veldt, we passed some wild plantains 
 in a kloof and came upon the remains of a station 
 house plundered and burnt. The sun having now 
 set, we went on to a rocky slope and outspanned and 
 tied up our oxen. We lighted a large fire, as we 
 were now in the lion veldt, and watched by tarns- 
 all night, the Kafirs being so tired that they could 
 only sleep. They were peculiar in their night dressy 
 i;he night was cold, but yet they stripped stark 
 naked and toasted one side by the fire, while the 
 other must have been near freezing-point. Their 
 skins seemed very tough — during the night hot 
 embers and sparks fell on them, and the outer skin 
 must have been burnt, yet they never flinched. We 
 only heard jackals around us this night. 
 
 June 6. — We hoped to get to Pretorius Kop this 
 day and started early ; our path was most undefined^ 
 and wound in and out among the hills, gradually 
 falling to the south-east ; we found much wood here 
 and there and tall tambookie grass. There was very 
 little food for the oxen. We walked on in front 
 looking for game, at about three and a half miles 
 per hour, and the oxen kept up well with us. At 
 2 P.M. we began to descend through a dense forest, 
 and came upon a beautiful stream of water about 
 ten yards wide. Here was grass for our oxen, and 
 we waited an hour and bathed and fed. Starting 
 again about 3 p.m., we found the heat had much 
 increased, as we had come down 2 500 feet, and were 
 
TO DEL AGO A BAY 185 
 
 now only about 1800 feet above the level of the sea. 
 The oxen now showed signs of lameness, and we 
 were anxious to get on to a house at Pretorius Kop, 
 where we might make ourselves secure, but it was 
 to no purpose. We trotted the oxen through the 
 tail grass and thickets at five miles an hour, and ran 
 ourselves behind the cart, but though we made great 
 haste we were still far from the Kop at sunset, and 
 in a very disagreeable thicket full of tall grass,, 
 where it was so dark it was no longer safe to be 
 without a light ; we turned ofi" to a thorn-tree and 
 made preparations to stay there for the night. 
 
 Our anxiety was lest the sudden attack of lions 
 would frighten our oxen and cause them to break 
 away and leave us alone with the cart. We com- 
 menced burning the taU grass around us, at least 
 seven feet high. It was obstinate and would not 
 burn rapidly this evening, however, we cleared a 
 space about thirty yards around us, and brought 
 together thorn bushes (mimosa) and logs of wood^ 
 and when aU was ready we lighted two fires, one of 
 which was to be kept up by Peet and the Kafirs 
 and one by ourselves. 
 
 The oxen we tied up to the trunk of a tree, under 
 which we had placed ourselves. We had only 
 collected just enough wood for the night, and by 
 daybreak had burnt up every piece of our temporary 
 kraal available. We were not molested during the 
 night, though there were lions in the vicinity of 
 the camp. 
 
 At daybreak Peet was lazy and refused to get up, 
 although we had cooked our breakfast, and con- 
 
186 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 sequently he had his blanket dragged from under 
 Hm* He got up in a rage and said, " I'm d*-™— di if 
 I don't leave you in the lurch," and proceeded off 
 into the wood. It was an awkward moment, as it 
 is customary for boys to leave travellers in this way 
 in moments of irritation, and oxen are dil&eult 
 animak for strangers to manage. The only method 
 is to treat them as children ; so, without takiQg 
 any notice of his rage, I shouted out casually that 
 we had left some coifee for him from our break&st, 
 but this had no effect, so I had to humour the- little 
 man. " But if you don't look sharp your toast mil 
 get cold." Coffee and sugar and toast was more 
 than he could resist ; he came back, ate it up^ and 
 nothing more was said about the matter till we 
 were on the other side of the Komati River, when 
 we considered ourselves at liberty to tease Peet 
 about his desire to leave us, but he was then so 
 frightened at the lions that he would have stuck 
 to us manfully through all diflBculties. 
 
CHAPTEE XIV 
 
 June 7. — We started off again, traversing the high 
 grass reaching far above our heads, and got very wet 
 in the process ; the grass was so thick that Bavens- 
 croft and I, walking side by side in the cart-ruts of 
 the old road, could not see each other through the 
 three feet intervening. 
 
 On oui- right, on emerging from the grass, we saw 
 ^ome most singular rocky spikes sticking up out of 
 the plain. They seemed to be of trap, which had 
 made its way straight up through the sandstone and 
 then been left above when denudation had taken 
 place. 
 
 We arrived near Pretorius Kop station at 9 a.m. ; 
 there is here a house in ruins in which we saw signs 
 of life. On approaching cautiously we found here 
 some Europeans, assistants of Mr. Hud, the botanist, 
 engaged in collecting specimens. They had donkeys 
 with them, and had come over from Pilgrims' Best. 
 This station is about sixty-five miles from Lyden- 
 burg. Here we struck the road made by Mr. Nel- 
 mapius from Pilgrims' Best to Delagoa Bay. 
 
 The water here is in a pond, very dirty and brown. 
 As we were breakfasting under a tree some Kafi.rs 
 came up on their way from Natal to their kraals ; we 
 ^ve them some mealie-meal and tobacco, and they 
 
188 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 were very civil ; one of them remained with, us all 
 day and pointed out the road. We were now in the 
 bush veldt, the habitat of the tsetse-fly, and passed 
 over rounded hills amid much wood. The Kafirs 
 were just beginning to bring goods up to the Gold 
 Region from their kraals, and we met strings of 
 them. They usually saluted us with " Yes " or 
 " Good-bye." We were told we should find much 
 water further on. I went on with our Kafir to look 
 for it, but found only a dry gully. This was rather 
 a blow to us, as we did not know where we might 
 find water again, and the Kafirs could give no informa- 
 tion. Just then we met a string of Kafirs, and 
 Peet's rugged old-young face beamed with joy. One 
 of them had some bang ! 
 
 Peet said that spirits made him drunk and stupid, 
 but bang made him happy. I asked him how much 
 would make him drunk, and he said one pipeful, so I 
 earnestly asked him only to smoke half a pipe at a 
 time. We were in doubt what the effect might be 
 on him, but we thought, under the circumstances, 
 we must let him smoke it. His system of smoking 
 was very peculiar, and I never saw it practised else- 
 where ; it approached to a religious ceremony. 
 
 The bang was made into a paste and put into a 
 bowl on a straight pipe inserted into a horn full of 
 water, the hand was placed over the horn, and the 
 smoke sucked out of the pipe through the water. 
 When his mouth was full of smoke he took in a 
 saucerful of water, and then placed a stick upright 
 in the ground ; against the top of this he put his 
 mouth and let the water from it trickle down the 
 
TO DEL AGO A BAY 189 
 
 stick, while he expelled the smoke horizontally from 
 his mouth. Then he opened his mouth wide, gave 
 three loud coughs without closing his mouth, and 
 the ceremony was over. 
 
 After this we started on, and shortly before sun- 
 set arrived at an old station house called " The 
 Lions Spruit," where the station keeper, Hart, was 
 murdered by the Kafirs during the war. It was 
 surrounded by trees and thickets. In a spruit hard 
 by we anxiously searched for water, as our oxen 
 were perishing for thirst. At last we found a little 
 in the sandy bottom ; Ravenscroft had fortunately 
 observed an old demijohn in the house unbroken, 
 and this we took down with us and filled, and gave 
 the oxen to drink out of a mackintosh. 
 
 This occupied us till sunset, when we put our oxen 
 into a strong wooden kraal, which we secured, 
 leaving the Kafirs with a fire, while we ourselves 
 went into the room where poor Hart was murdered 
 and barricaded the open windows and made a fire, 
 after sweeping out the interior, which did not seem 
 to have been touched since the murder took place. 
 We were very much fatigued and unwell this evening, 
 from the complete change of climate, and quite 
 unable to take regular watch. I was sleeping with 
 my rifle at my side, when I was suddenly roused by 
 seeing the barricade of the window tumbling in on 
 me and a large animal in the middle of it. I sprang 
 up and brought my rifle to bear on him, and was just 
 going to let off when the animal laid hold of the 
 muzzle of my rifle and begged me not to shoot him 
 just yet. It was Ravenscroft ! He had got up, and 
 
190 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 ill passing to the fire had knocked down the barri- 
 cade and tumbled in amongst it. 
 
 JuneS. — We were up at daybreak, and got more 
 water for our oxen, and then started oft' through the 
 bush veldt ; there was very little game to be seen, 
 one large animal, probably a giraffe, which disap- 
 peared among the trees. About midday we met twa 
 white men coming up from Delagoa Bay, the first to 
 open up the road from the sea since the war. They 
 were both in miserable health from the fever and 
 could barely totter along ; they had Kafirs with them 
 to carry their baggage. We gave them some tea and 
 food, and saw them off on their journey, which looked 
 to us rather hopeless. One of them could eat nothing 
 at first, he seemed simply to wish to lie down and 
 die; but we had some Worcestershire sauce, and 
 made him a stiff, glass with some water, and when he 
 had drunk it off he sat up and would eat quite 
 hungrily. I know of nothiaig better than Wor- 
 cestershire sauce to give an appetite when recovering 
 from fever. 
 
 Towards evening the country became greener, the 
 woods resounded with the songs of birds, pleasant 
 and agreeable, quite different from anything we had 
 heard at the Cape ; buck were seen sporting about in 
 all directions, and we shot what we wanted to^ eat -^ 
 we were evidently approaching water. About sunset 
 we arrived at the Crocodile Eiver, about eighty 
 yards wide and three feet deep, with a hard sandy 
 bottom, the banks fringed with reeds. We crossed 
 without difficulty, we ourselves sat in the cart with 
 our feet in the water, as we were advised to keep as 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 191 
 
 near as we could to the splashing of the oxen and 
 shouting of the driver and Kafirs. On the east 
 bank we found some old houses belonging to the road 
 company, and close by was a Kafir kraal. We put 
 our cattle into one Kafir hut and crept ourselves 
 into another, and passed a quiet night, though we 
 heard lions near at hand at intervals. We were 
 here only 450 feet above the sea, and on the road 
 made by Mr. Nelmapius from Pilgrims' Rest to 
 Delagoa Bay, which we had struck at Pretoiius Kop, 
 The ruling gradient of this road is very gentle, the 
 whole faU to the Komati River being only 1850 feet 
 in forty-seven miles. 
 
 The ground passed over consisted of a succession 
 of rounded hills with a fall to the north-east, with 
 gullies about ten feet deep, at intervals of about 
 one mile. 
 
 June 9. — There are plenty of large game about 
 these parts, but none came across us, probably owing 
 to the present influx of Kafirs, arising fi:om the 
 change in the government of the Transvaal, which 
 causes a sudden development of trade. On speaking 
 to the Kafirs here it was difficult to ascertain 
 whether they had any clear idea as to the change 
 in the government, but they knew very well how 
 much was a shilling, and how much it would buy. 
 
 We started early, and at midday came upon 
 Englishmen bound for Pilgrims' Rest ; they seemed 
 in prfetty good health, but gave a bad account of the 
 fever at Delagoa Bay. They were accompanied by a 
 string of Kafirs carrying their luggage. At sunset 
 we arrived at the Komati River, of about the same 
 
192 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 size, but with more water, than the Crocodile River. 
 Passing to the east bank with safety, we came to 
 a store of Mr. Nelmapius, which had been closed 
 during the Kafir war and had not been plundered. 
 We here stopped the night in some smaU huts ; 
 there were plenty of lions about, and we had to 
 keep up good fires, but we felt much better and 
 slept well in our turns. 
 
 June lo. — We were now in the thick of the tsetse- 
 fly country — a thick bush veldt — but we did not see 
 anything of them, probably because there was a fresh 
 wind. We constantly came upon the fresh spores 
 and droppings of lions, but they themselves did not 
 come in our way. We now began to ascend the 
 Libomba range, about 300 feet in height, weU 
 wooded, and at i p.m. passed the boundary stone 
 separating Transvaal and Portuguese territory | m |, 
 and we commenced descending until we arrived at a 
 Kafir hunters' kraal in the bush. They asked us to 
 remain near them, and we out-spanned under a thorn- 
 tree and lighted our fires near it ; the Kafirs also 
 kept up their fires during the night. They amused 
 us by mocking the cries of wild beasts during the 
 early part of the evening. The lions made much 
 noise about us, but we were now getting accustomed 
 to them and would scarcely take the trouble to keep 
 up our fires well lighted, but when they did get low 
 and we were blowing them into a blaze it was dis- 
 agreeable to think that there was one near ready to 
 make a spring. The Kafirs were very friendly and 
 exchanged presents of meat ; they were delighted to 
 look at our guns. They are now weU armed from 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 19a 
 
 Delagoa Bay, and are rapidly thinning the game 
 and driving it away. 
 
 June 1 1 . — We were now in the great plain sur- 
 rounding Delagoa Bay, and had to push on, so as to 
 reach the Bay by night, as our steamer was ex- 
 pected in the morning. 
 
 We passed on rapidly through the veldt with only 
 two oxen, two being worn out and driven behind us,, 
 aiid at breakfast-time came on some hunters (Kafirs), 
 who gave us some palm-wine. This was quite fresh,, 
 but it rapidly fermented and soon it became so 
 intoxicating that we thought we had better throw it 
 away, for fear our boys might get hold of it. At 
 midday we came upon what appeared to be intermin- 
 able Kafir kraals and mealie-grounds. We wanted 
 water for our oxen, but were told we must get leave 
 from the chief. This delayed us some time, but. 
 eventually we watered our oxen and pressed on, but 
 now we lost our way among the several Kafir paths,, 
 and at last were obliged to hire a man as guide. 
 Many of the Kafirs could talk a little English, but- 
 none Portuguese. 
 
 When night came on we found ourselves in a wood 
 with some water and grass ; our guide tried to 
 persuade us to stay here for the night, and our 
 boys did not like going on with only a lantern, 
 but we had to meet the steamer. 
 
 Starting again at 8 p.m. we went through the 
 thick bush, and about 9 p.m. found ourselves in an 
 awkward position, with our oxen and cart stuck in a 
 spruit of bitter water. There had apparently been 
 a road here once, but it had all sunk in the morass. 
 
194 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 and nothing now remained but soft mud, about three 
 feet deep. The oxen were very much alarmed in 
 walking on it, taking it for a quicksand. It took us 
 about an hour to get our cart out of its difficulties, 
 and then only by laying down some timber in the 
 mud. We now proceeded, and we all whistled 
 together, as the natives seem to have an idea that a 
 lion will not come near the sound, but it was amus- 
 ing to notice that every now and then, when there 
 was a roar near, the whistling became a quaver for 
 a moment. At midnight we came to a Kafir kraal, 
 and there found a Portuguese trader. He with his 
 Kafir wife most kindly gave us some tea and cake. 
 She was dressed in five calico pocket-handkerchiefs 
 stitched together, two in front and three behind ; it 
 made rather an elegant dress. Although the trader 
 lived among the Kafirs, he did not know anything 
 of their language, and made no attempt, to learn it. 
 At first he refused to speak to me, but eventually 
 we got on easily, I talking Spanish and he Portu- 
 guese. None of the Kafirs here, except the trader's 
 wife, could speak Portuguese, but many knew a 
 little English. 
 
 The trader told us there was a very dangerous 
 bridge in front of us, and advised us to cross it in 
 daylight. However, we hired a Kafir to point out 
 the bad places, and passed it in safety, but with a 
 very small margin. We were now travelling by 
 night in a heavy dew, wet and cold and huiigry, with 
 our boots covered with malarious stinking mud of the 
 bitter spruit, so we took a little quinine to ward off 
 the fever. About 3 a.m. we came to the entrance of 
 
TO. DELAGOA BAY 196 
 
 Lorenzo Marquez, guarded by a sentry, who was so 
 astonished at our appearance that he lost his bayonet, 
 and was some time before he found it stuck some- 
 where in his clothing. 
 
 He stopped us and inquired whether we had 
 -cargo, which led us first to suppose that he in his 
 sleepy condition had mistaken us for a ship drifting 
 in at the land-gate ; an ox-cart was evidently so 
 unusual a spectacle. 
 
 The sentry called the officer of the guard, who 
 was equally astonished at our arrival ; but he, with 
 great presence of mind, said he would go and inform 
 the governor of our arrival (3 A.M.). 
 
 He accordingly disappeared behind a house for a 
 little while, and then returned, announcing that we 
 might enter. 
 
 "We asked him for the Hotel Fernandez, upon, 
 which he took us up to the first large house and 
 began to beat the door violently, and then took us to 
 the back of it, and wanted one of us to jump over 
 the wall. We thought there might be a dog on the 
 other side and declined. After knocking for half an 
 hour the proprietor appeared, announcing, " This is 
 not the Hotel Fernandez; this is the Dutch Factory." 
 This took us aback, and we fervently apologised for 
 waking him up ; but he seemed rather to like it, and 
 Tsindly explained where the hotel was, and asked us 
 to call upon him in the morning if we wanted 
 anything. 
 
 We proceeded down the street, ankle deep in sea- 
 sand, and found the hotel. Its door was badly 
 fastened, and after a little struggle gave way, and 
 
196 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 we found ourselves in the dining-room, redolent with 
 garlic. We were very tired and made our beds on 
 the table, leaving our boys to shift for themselves. 
 At daybreak the servants were greatly surprised to 
 find us, as no ship had come in, and strangers from 
 the gold-fields were almost unknown ; they go up but 
 they don't come this way. Our first care was to 
 know whether our cart and oxen could remain in 
 the street, and the Kafirs keep up a fire and cook 
 their meals in the middle of the thoroughfare. To 
 this there was no objection. 
 
 Our arrival created some excitement in the place ; 
 it was only the third vehicle which had come down 
 from the Gold Regions, and we were the first people 
 down since the war. That we should have brought 
 our oxen through the tsetse-fly country seemed a 
 marvel to them, and we were even congratulated on 
 not losing our Kafirs. 
 
 There are about six stores in Delagoa Bay and 
 about fifty Europeans, for the most part married to 
 Kafir wives ; in this matter so strikingly different to 
 the Dutch people in the high veldt, who have a 
 horror of a Kafir wife. There was very little chance 
 of selling our cart, for there were several carts therfr 
 that had not been used for years. Our oxen, after 
 much bargaining, we sold for ;^20, thus losing ;^20 
 on them. They were to be cut up for butcher's 
 meat. 
 
 There is very little going on in the Bay, and the 
 imports must be very small, except in firearms. 
 Many thousands of rifles, we are told, are sent up 
 annually to the Kafirs. 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 19T 
 
 The railway plant lies fretting on the beach. I 
 calculated about twenty-four miles of single rail, but 
 the storekeeper informed me there were forty miles 
 of it. 
 
 A party of engineers sent out by the Portuguese 
 Government on a three years' commission are now 
 at Delagoa Bay, engaged in erecting workshops, 
 barracks, and draining the marsh around the town. 
 At spring- tides the sea- water washes over the low- 
 lands to the west of the town, and sweeps over the 
 marsh, keeping up a disagreeable effluvia, to the 
 effects of which is attributed much of the severity of 
 Delagoa fever. The engineers have already suc- 
 ceeded to a great extent in keeping the water out. 
 They are also engaged in making a road across the 
 marsh, and find the Kafir labour difficult to manage. 
 The Portuguese seem to keep themselves aloof from 
 the other Europeans. 
 
 The Kafirs outside the town do not seem to be 
 governed in any way by the Portuguese, and are 
 said to be very treacherous. We found them uni- 
 formly civil and obliging. We were particularly 
 told at Lydenburg and elsewhere by the Boers to 
 show that we considered them to be dogs, otherwise 
 we should lose their respect ; but this course we did 
 not consider desirable. We sat down among them, 
 fed with them, and joked with them, but always 
 found them most deferential. 
 
 There is now a considerable influx of Kafirs from 
 Delagoa Bay to Capetown, the steamer Natal, 
 by which we left for Capetown, carrying sixty of 
 them. 
 
198 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 Regarding the road from the Gold Regions, it i& 
 evident that Mr. Nelmapius and his company have 
 done much work, cutting a path through the bush 
 veldt and erecting houses. The whole distance from 
 Lydenburg is about 165 mUes, but the portion from 
 Pretorius Kop to Lydenburg is unfit for any kind 
 of vehicles. The road, however, from Pretorius 
 Kop to PUgrims' Rest is said to be passable. 
 
 In the deep kloof of the mountain sides there is 
 much timber between Lydenburg and Spitz Kop,. 
 but it is difficult of access. From Pretorius Kop to 
 Delagoa Bay the bush veldt extends, with more or 
 leas dense forests of hard and soft wooded trees ; 
 these trees do not grow to any size, being seldom 
 more than five feet in girth. Several varieties of 
 the mimosa-tree abound, some with the most lovely 
 seeds, which rapidly fade in a few days. The wood 
 might be made useful as log timber for the road 
 through the marshes, though not so well adapted to 
 this purpose as pine-trees. It would also be sufl&- 
 cient for the supply of ftiel for a line of railway for 
 many years, provided the trees are properly thinned 
 instead of being cut down en masse. 
 
 The Delagoa fever appears to be of a bUious 
 remittent type, and is ascribed generally to the 
 malaria from the swamps near Lorenzo Marquez. 
 The intensity of the fever may be due to these 
 causes, but as the same fever prevails in some of 
 tlie hill districts of the Transvaal, it is possible that 
 the true cause of this fever may be found elsewhere. 
 
 The tsetse-fly is said to follow the game, and if the 
 Kafirs continue their present use of firearms, not only 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 19& 
 
 the fly but also the game will be exterminated in a 
 few years. Should this take place, one bar to easy 
 transit between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal will 
 be removed ; but even at the present day it seems 
 that the tsetse-fly country, which is said to be 
 eighteen miles broad, can be passed through at times 
 without great danger. Two of our oxen were said 
 to have already been down to the Bay and back 
 again from Pilgrims' Rest, and the four oxen arrived 
 at Lorenzo Marquez without apparently having 
 suffered in any way, although we had to drive them 
 nearly forty miles on the last day. They accom- 
 plished the 165 miles in eight days, giving an aver- 
 age of twenty-one miles a day. 
 
 During this journey we passed for about 500 miles 
 through the Transvaal, and thought that the account 
 of its wealth had been exaggerated. A land where 
 horses, cattle, sheep, and fowls die suddenly of an 
 incurable disease cannot progress very fast. The 
 seasons are also most uncertain and the people 
 indolent. A great influx of British might stir up 
 the country, but otherwise I cannot understand how 
 it is to develop suddenly in the manner so often 
 forecast. 
 
 The distances approximately are as follows : 
 Leydenburg to Spitz Kop, 35 miles ; Spitz Kop to 
 Pretorius Kop, 30; PretoriusKop to Lion's Spi'uit, 17 ; 
 Lion's Spruit to Crocodile River, 1 5 ; Crocodile River 
 to Komati River, 1 5 ; Komati River to Libomba 
 Bounds, 10; Libomba Bounds to Lorenzo Marquez, 46; 
 a total of 168 miles. 
 
 Their heights above sea-level are : Lydenburg> 
 
200 FROM THE DIAMOND FIELDS 
 
 4350 feet ; Top of Pass, 6700 ; Spitz Kop Diggings, 
 4050 ; Pass, 4700 ; Nickerk's Farm, 4200 ; Top of 
 Pass, 5050 ; Elver, 1 500 ; Camp near Pretorlus 
 Kop, 2100; Lion's Spruit, 1350; Crocodile Eiver, 
 450; Komati River, 250; Libomba Boundary, 450; 
 Lorenzo Marquez, sea level. 
 
 Railway. — As regards the prospect of a railway : 
 Looking to the expenses of such works in other 
 parts of South Africa it does not seem probable 
 that it would be constructed under ^12,000 a mile. 
 Assuming that the distance to the high veldt will 
 in no direction be less than 1 50 miles, the cost would 
 not be less than ^1,800,000, but ;^3,ooo,ooo is not 
 too high a sum to allow, keeping in view the nature 
 of the work. The maintenance expenses over a line 
 which passes for 40 miles over a swamp, and for no 
 miles continuously ascends to a height of 7000 feet 
 will be very great. There appears to be no prospect 
 of such a line paying for several years to come ; but 
 that it would materially help and hasten the develop- 
 ment of South Africa there can be no doubt. At 
 the present time progress is very much retarded for 
 want of iron and timber at reasonable prices. 
 
 The Natal, Union Company steamer, arrived on 
 June 12, and left with us the same day, and we 
 arrived at Durban on the morning of the 1 5th. We 
 had the usual disagreeables of landing, on account of 
 the bar to the harbour. We got deluged with 
 water, and my pocket-book with various notes got 
 wet through ; and here I learnt an important lesson, 
 as all the notes, written on prepared paper with 
 metallic pencil, vanished as the sea-water penetrated 
 
TO DELAGOA BAY 201 
 
 "to them. The scenery in the harbour of Natal 
 reminded me of the Menai Straits without the 
 mountains behind, and without the beautiful green. 
 
 We went out to see the sugar and coffee plan- 
 tations, but we were not impressed with any sign 
 of progress. The service was carried on by coolies 
 from India, and as they came back from their work 
 there were columns of men coughing in a terrible 
 manner, as I had never heard a body of men cough 
 before. Evidently the climate does not yet quite 
 suit them. 
 
 Durban is not paved; there are good shops, but it 
 is disagreeable to have to proceed down the street 
 knee-deep in sand. (Shortly after this Durban was 
 properly paved.) Embarking on board the Natal 
 on the 1 6th, we arrive at Capetown on June 25, 
 on our way to England as I supposed, but another 
 visit to Griqualand West was in store for me. 
 
FROM CAPETOWN TO 
 KIMBERLEY 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 June. 26, 1877. — I arrived at Capetown and had 
 bespoken my passage home for the following day, but 
 went to see Sir Bartle Frere before paying for my 
 ticket, I found that he wished to see me at once, 
 and in our interview he said that I had been so suc- 
 cessful in my work in Griqualand and O.F.S., and 
 had pleased both sides so well, that he thought it 
 advisable that I shotild return to Kimberley as Special 
 Commissioner on the Land Question, to arbitrate 
 between the farmers. He said that Major Lanyon 
 had stated that I was the only person competent to 
 do the work in a satisfactory manner, and that it 
 would be work highly appreciated by the Home 
 Government. I replied that I knew the kind of work 
 it would be, that I could see that the chances were in 
 favour of failure, and that I did not desire to under- 
 take work in which I could have no authority of 
 any kind, but depended entirely upon my getting 
 antagonists to mutually agree to give up some of 
 their claims. He said I must look upon it as a duty, 
 as aU progress in that country — Griqualand West — 
 was at present arrested owing to the greater number 
 of farms being in some manner or another in appeal 
 against the recent Land Court judgments, and that I 
 might be quite sure that if I arranged matters so that 
 
206 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 titles for the land could be given out, the Home 
 Government would mark their appreciation of the 
 work. 
 
 I did not feel in the least convinced, and asked that 
 I might have a few hours to think it over, fully- 
 intending to go to England ; but when I called on 
 Lady Frere I found that all my plans must be given 
 up and I must sacrifice myself for the good of the 
 ^tate. She pointed out so clearly what I ought to do 
 and settled it all so firmly that I felt I must give in. 
 I was Sir Bartle's first selection, and there was no one 
 so suitable for the work. Next day I called again on 
 Sir Bartle Frere, and he said that he had already by 
 that mail written to Lord Carnarvon asking for my 
 services, complimented me highly on my past services 
 here, and said that they wanted for this work on the 
 land question " a man with a backbone." I could not 
 now resist Sir Bartle Frere, having been reduced to 
 submission by Lady Frere, and agreed to go up on the 
 understanding that the work did not take more than 
 six months, and so far the matter has been settled. 
 I have felt quite desolated for some hours but I must 
 accept the appointment. 
 
 June 28. — Ravenscroft goes home by this mail and 
 «on to Ceylon ; we have been great friends and I hope 
 that he wUl go down to see you and teU you all about 
 me. He is a right good fellow and is very much 
 liked all round. 
 
 July 4. — During the next few days I started the 
 two N.C.O.s and our baggage to Southampton, 
 bid farewell to Bavenscroft, who said he would see 
 after them on landing, and I did various services for 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 207 
 
 Sir BartleFrere, writing up an account of my journey 
 to Delagoa Bay through the Transvaal, and trying to 
 get rid of a malarious sore throat contracted there. 
 I lived at Government House, sleeping at the hotel ; 
 and Lady Frere, feeling that she had the responsibility 
 of keeping me in South Africa, said that she must do 
 her best to make up for it. And certainly they have 
 all succeeded in making me feel quite at home ; noth- 
 ing can exceed their hospitality and kindness. Lady 
 Frere must have been a wonderful help to Sir Bartle 
 all through his career. Even now she finds time to 
 copy her husband's despatches for him, and I found 
 her sitting down to copy out for him the forty-one 
 pages of my journey to Delagoa Bay. She would 
 have done it had I not proposed to do it myself. One 
 of the pleasures of being at Government House is 
 that the Freres make you one of the family and you 
 have to take up your duties of doing something for 
 the commonweal. Lady Frere finds me plenty to 
 do, and I do it with right good will ; it is a pleasure 
 to do anything for her. 
 
 My luggage has gone off by mistake with Ravens- 
 croft's from Natal to Zanzibar and Aden, and I am 
 stranded here with only a travelling suit. I have 
 bought the best suit of " reach-me-downs " I could 
 find in Capetown and have been measured for fi'ock- 
 coat and evening-dress, &c., but my "reach-me-downs" 
 seem to meet with universal ridicule. Now why is 
 this ? No one seemed to laugh at the old ragged 
 clothing I came down in from Natal. Arthur Barkly 
 has made a sketch of me (giving the price in large 
 letters on each visible garment), and he sums me up 
 
208 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 at about 1 4s. 6d. This priced sketch has got a place 
 in a young lady's scrap-book, and I shall have to live 
 up to it. I have had a most amusing encounter with 
 Mr. Merriman. Just before dinner I was standing 
 on a chair in Government House in my " reach-me- 
 downs," doing something to the gas-lamp for Lady 
 Frere when Mr. Merriman came in dressed for dinner. 
 I got down at once to shake hands with him, but he 
 promptly put his hands behind his back, thinking^ 
 no doubt, that I was the gas-man who owned his 
 acquaintance in some political manner, but who 
 had no business to be on easy terms with him in 
 Government House ; subsequently he was very 
 amiable. 
 
 I begin to realise how much there is in T. Carlyle's 
 " Sartor Resartus." 
 
 July 6. — I gave my lecture on Palestine yesterday 
 
 afternoon in the library, Sir Bartle Frere in the 
 
 chair. There were about 300 present — people very 
 
 attentive and appreciative. I made a point of the 
 
 fact that discoveries are all in accordance with the 
 
 Bible, as an idea has got abroad that this is not 
 
 the case. 
 
 July 7. — I have just returned from Simonstown 
 
 where we had a pleasant visit. I went with Lady 
 
 Frere and party in the Spider, a very light vehicle 
 
 drawn by four horses, with a Malay driver. We left 
 
 yesterday at about 11.30 A. M. The distance is 
 
 about twenty miles — the wind blowing a gale. 
 
 After the first five miles we drove through a 
 
 beautiful country ; of course, it is moderately beautiful 
 
 about Capetown with Table Mountain (3800 feet 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 209 
 
 high) towering above us, but the dust is so great and 
 the stinks are so prevalent that the beauty of the 
 spot vanishes before them. 
 
 After passing Mowbray we came upon groves of 
 pines, on rounded hills, underlying the mountain, 
 with great bushes of succulent plants glittering like 
 the golden yew. Almost aU the wild plants are of a 
 succulent nature, with thick stalks like large mosses. 
 They are beautiful when in flower, only the stalks 
 are so thick that you cannot put many in your 
 hand at one time. After about an hour we came 
 on a sheet of water covered over with lilies, and in 
 the distance to north-east the mountains rose in 
 peaks nice and sharp against the sky. 
 
 Then we emerged upon the shore of the great Bay. 
 to the east, which makes Table Mountain a Peninsula, 
 The air here was quite brisk and the sea roaring and 
 foaming in great breakers on the rocky beach, and 
 right away overhead the mountains go straight up in 
 cliffs and precipices, covered with bushes bright 
 yellow and white. It is totally different from any- 
 thing I have seen before at the Cape ; more like 
 Catalan Bay, Gibraltar, on a large scale, without the 
 stretch of sand of the neutral ground. Cork Bay is 
 a lovely spot with a delightful cemetery, to which I 
 took a great fancy. Here I said I would like to 
 have my winter grave — I don't think that it would 
 look so weU in summer. 
 
 Soon we arrived at Simonstown, the habitat of 
 the navy, and we were hospitably put up at Ad- 
 miralty House by Mrs. Sullivan. The Admiral is 
 away at present on the west coast. The house is 
 
210 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 large, with a hall in form of a cross, looks on to the 
 sea, and has a private jetty ; altogether most com- 
 fortable. We all went for a walk to see a fort 
 which is being built here to protect the dockyard ; 
 it is being put up in a hurry. We seem always to 
 be doing things in a hurry. It has suddenly been 
 discovered that both Simons Bay and Table Bay 
 are defenceless, and that on war being declared with 
 any sea Power, they could, in the absence of our 
 fleet, walk off with our Governor-General and 
 the Admiral from Capetown and Simons Bay, and 
 burn all our coal. It is so odd that it should be left 
 to Sir Bartle Frere to find this all out ; I suppose 
 that it always has been well known and often 
 brought forward, but that Sir Bartle Frere is the 
 first person of any influence who has forced it on 
 the attention of the Government ; he seems to think 
 of everything. 
 
 We have now in Simons Bay, the Flora (British), 
 and three Dutch ships of war. We drove home to- 
 day. 
 
 July 9. — To-day — Sunday — we went to the 
 Cathedral and the Dean preached. The steamer 
 African arrived from Port Elizabeth with Sister 
 Henrietta and Miss Trench, and I was sent by Lady 
 Frere to ask Sister Henrietta to stay at Government 
 House, but she could not come, and only paid a 
 visit in the afternoon. Lady Frere is perfectly 
 charmed with her, and says she is the most beautiful 
 person she has ever seen. Miss Trench is staying 
 jbere, and they both go to England on Tuesday. 
 
 The Bishop of Capetown and his sister Miss 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 211 
 
 Jones lunch here to-morrow: I hke them very 
 much. He is tall and stately, over six feet three 
 inches I think, and looks very young for a bishop. 
 
 I am getting some children's books for the Boer 
 children to read and look at ; they have no books 
 and no toys, and no amusements, and I think that 
 if I get some books showing how children amuse 
 themselves in England it may help to inform them. 
 I must get books also for my little friends the de 
 Villiers and Erasmus. 
 
 I have been looking into our South African history 
 since I have been down here, and find that we have 
 not far to go back. Towards the end of the seven- 
 teenth century there were scarce 600 white colonists 
 in South Africa, principally discharged soldiers, 
 sailors, and officials of the Dutch Government, but 
 not aU Dutch. They seem to have been an insub- 
 ordinate set, and they resented the rigid iron rule of 
 the Dutch Government. About 1688 the French 
 Huguenots commenced arriving from Europe, driven 
 out by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They 
 had been expatriated on account of their love of 
 liberty of conscience, and they were not the people 
 to be merged in the inferior classes of colonists they 
 intermingled with. The Dutch Government stamped 
 out the French language, but the French Huguenots 
 engrafted their ideas on the other colonists and 
 supported them in resisting the grinding oppression 
 of their Government. By 1770 the colonists though 
 they numbered little over 10,000, were occupying 
 the country as far as the Great Fish River, and some 
 of them had got beyond the limits of the Government 
 
212 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 rule. Eventu&,lly, when the Government followeiS 
 them there, they became so exasperated that, in the 
 Graaff Reinet and Swellendam districts, they broke 
 out into open revolt and declared themselves a free 
 Republic. While things were in this condition {1795} 
 the Cape Colony came under the control of Great 
 Britain, and these border farmers had to be reduced 
 to submission by means of a military expedition. In 
 1 803 the Colony reverted to the Dutch Republic, and 
 in 1806 it again became a British possession; but the 
 border farmers were stUl dead against the Govern- 
 ment, and transferred all their hatred from the Dutch 
 officials to the British. 
 
 The British Grovemment had to consider a very 
 intricate problem in which several races, European 
 and native, were involved, and it was decidedly 
 despotic in its rule. 
 
 Missionary societies, principally the Moravian and 
 the London Missionary, arrived at the end of last 
 century, and were followed up by other British, 
 German, and French societies. These all taught 
 " the brotherhood of men," black, white, and yellow ; 
 and this doctrine was repulsive to the border farmers 
 who looked upon the native tribes as the Israelites 
 looked upon the heathen tribes of Palestine — a 
 people to be dispossessed and slaughtered. 
 
 In 18 1 5 five border farmers were hanged for high 
 treason at Slachter's Nek, and this execution seems 
 to have never been forgiven. Why it should have 
 raised up such never ending bitter hostility it is 
 difficult to surmise, because in those days the 
 penalty of death in our own country was meted 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 213 
 
 out for horse-stealing and other crimes short of 
 murder. 
 
 After this the liberation of the Hottentots in 
 1,829, and the emancipation of all slaves (about 
 39,000) in the colony in 1834, was considered by the 
 Boers as specially levelled at themselves, particularly 
 as our Government took no steps to secure that the 
 compensation should be paid into the hands of the 
 rightful claimants. 
 
 The great trek of the border Boers from the 
 ■Graaff Reinet district took place in 1 836, and with 
 their wives and families and waggons and cattle 
 they crossed the Orange and Vaal Rivers and also 
 descended into Natal. 
 
 From that time to the present moment there have 
 been great vicissitudes in the history of the colonists. 
 Now we have exercised a vigorous policy, and now 
 we have let everything slide. At the present 
 moment we are on the top of the wave. All South 
 Africa is British, and we have only to get the 
 natives quiet ; but they seem to be in a state of 
 unrest, far and wide. 
 
 It is said that Sir Theophilus Shepstone only 
 prevented a disastrous incursion of the Zulus into 
 the Transvaal by suddenly declaring the country to 
 be British territory. 
 
 There are many difficulties and the solutions are 
 not very clear. The British Government has not 
 seen with the same eyes as the Governors they have 
 Bent out, and two of the best and most far-sighted — 
 Sir Benjamin D'Urban and Sir George Grey — have 
 been censured and recalled. 
 
214 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 The giving of a full constitution to the Cape Colony 
 so prematurely is a very doubtful blessing to the 
 country, and the extraordinary conduct of Mr. 
 Froiade last year in stumping the country and falling 
 foul of the Cape Ministry and the Governor, while 
 posing as speaking for the Secretary of State, has 
 done a world of mischief. 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere was sent out here specially to 
 confederate the several states, and was sanguine of 
 doing so on arrival, but I think that he begins to 
 be doubtful of its possibility at present, there are so 
 many adverse factors ; if only Mr. Froude had not 
 put everybody by the ears the States might have 
 learnt to pull together. 
 
 The great difficulty is the Customs' dues. The 
 Cape Colony and Natal take them all and the 
 Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Griqualand West 
 get nothing. This is the crux. 
 
 The Cape Colony should never have been given a 
 constitution without limiting its power over the 
 Customs' dues. It can have no moral right to the 
 dues sent in transit, but it takes them nevertheless. 
 Of course then it does not wish to confederate, 
 when by confederation it loses the Customs' dues of 
 the interior states. 
 
 Then again many on the eastern side of the Cap© 
 Colony want to break off from the west and form a 
 separate state, and petitions have been sent in to the 
 Secretary of State on the subject. 
 
 So here we are in a very difficult position. 
 Confederation was proposed first in 1858, and fell 
 through until Lord Carnarvon took it up again in 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 215 
 
 1874 and sent Sir Bartle Frere to carry it out, 
 thinking it would take two years to accomplish. 
 But now there is another cry — unification from. 
 Capetown. I don't yet know what it means, but 
 I do not like the look of it ; it seems like a Dutch 
 counterblast. I shall have plenty of time to go into 
 this question when I get to work on the land ques- 
 tion at Kimberley. 
 
 July 10. — I have now met most of the principal 
 people of the land, at Government House, and have 
 heard politics discussed from many points of view. 
 Mr. Molteno, the Prime Minister, seems to be a very 
 solid personage, full of decision. He is, however, 
 aged and feeble of gait, but he has a determined eye,, 
 when he takes off his blue glasses and lets you see 
 it. He is very ably assisted by the Government 
 Secretary, Captain Mills, who is a mine of informa- 
 tion, and has no narrow prejudices. I like him 
 immensely and think that he is a very creditable 
 product of our army system, for it is said that he 
 has risen from the ranks. The Government here 
 are fortunate to have such a man. Mr. Merriman is 
 clever, and has a name for ability in debate, but for 
 an Englishman he seems somewhat Colonial in his 
 views, and rather conveys to me the idea that I am 
 an intruder on the scene. I suppose I have become 
 an upholder of Griqualand West, for I feel that 
 the Cape Colony Ministry do not seem to 
 take any great interest in its welfare, and it is, 
 such a relief to turn to Sir Bartle Frere and hear 
 his broad sympathetic views on South Africa in 
 general. 
 
216 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere has a most remarkable knowledge 
 of South Africa for three months' residence in one 
 corner of it, and is constantly astonishing me by 
 telling me things about the country that I don't 
 know and ought to know. 
 
 I don't think that he is at present think- 
 ing much about Confederation as a near thing; 
 he has got his eye all at once on four points which 
 require care and attention, viz., the Transvaal, 
 Griqualand West, Natal, and the Eastern Province ; 
 comprising the greater portion of the country, and 
 there are elements of difficulty if not of danger in 
 each. The native unrest to which I have often 
 alluded seems to be growing apace, and it is difficult 
 to see what it may lead to. 
 
 There are so many rumours of native risings in 
 various directions that it gives a spice of excitement 
 to our doings even if it be all untrue. There is 
 nothing explicit, only hints from old stagers, who 
 know the natives. Major Lianyon has started a 
 volunteer corps at Kimberley and Du Toitspan with 
 great success, and has kept the natives in bounds 
 to our north. Whenever I see the Kafirs they seem 
 to me to be very sullen and discontented, but it may 
 be their manner only. 
 
 Lady Frere has asked me to send them word as 
 to what I see as I go through the country to 
 Kimberley^ and I am to branch off to the east in the 
 direction of Queenstown to learn what I can. I 
 think in this manner Sir Bartle Fi-ere knows so much 
 about the country ; he gets contributions from every 
 •direction. 
 
o 
 
 t- 
 o 
 z 
 
 5 
 o 
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TO KIMBERLEY 217 
 
 July 12. — I went to see the South African Ex- 
 Mbition, which Sir Bartle Frere remarks is an 
 -exhibition of foreign products. The only Colonial 
 products I can see are a case of wine, nicely got 
 up on the outside from High Constantia (Van 
 Heenan), and two cases of native woods ; one from 
 British Kafiraria and the other from Potchefstrom 
 ■(Forsmann), but neither showing off the wood in any 
 measure equal to its capabilities. They evidently 
 -do not yet know how to show off their native goods 
 to advantage. 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere wished me to go to Worcester 
 •and see the Hex River Railway which has gradients 
 of I in 40, and rises 3500 feet. I was also to see 
 Bain's Kloof beyond Wellington and report to him 
 on the prospects of the country. Captain Nixon 
 and I left in the afternoon, taking tickets for 
 Wellington forty-five miles off. We kept Table 
 Mountain in sight for about twenty miles, travelling 
 ■over a flat plain covered by the karoo bush on 
 which the sheep fatten, and getting nearer and 
 nearer to the bold mountain range that fringes the 
 passes to the Middle Veldt. We stopped the night 
 at the Fernandez Hotel, Wellington, where we met 
 two farmers (from England). One said he had 
 farms in the Colony and Transvaal and was going 
 to buy more, his brother has 30,000 morgen. Farms 
 pay much better here than at home. He said he 
 had lost in England during the last ten years ; that 
 he was paying thirteen shillings a week for labour 
 "when the farm-hands struck for sixteen shillings. 
 He and his farmer friends then locked them out 
 
218 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 and farmed themselves until they starved th& 
 labourers into submission. 
 
 Sunday, July 15. — We sent our bags by rail to- 
 Worcester and ourselves proceeded to walk by Bain's 
 Kloof so as to see the view. We were near the foot 
 of the range and took our course north-east up 
 a steep incline. We met many vehicles with Boers 
 coming in for the monthly service. There was some 
 fine scenery, the highest point being 2000 feet above 
 Wellington ; farm-houses were dotted about in all 
 directions. We lost our way but met a coloured 
 woman dressed in her Sunday best in European 
 clothes, with her two sons (Kafirs) dressed in broad- 
 cloth, and holding umbrellas, looking very important. 
 They spoke Dutch and told us our way, up a steep 
 valley through Bain's Kloof. Many wild flowers, 
 about, principally of the karoo-bush kind, with 
 succulent leaves, and here and there pelargonia; 
 one a relation to " Mrs. Pollock." We were now on 
 the high road, plenty of water in the valley below 
 and the sides of the hills dripping wet in many 
 places. The view back over the plain towards 
 Capetown was very fine ; no clouds, but a blue 
 mist on the hUls. We lunched at a stream where 
 were many ferns. The road winding round the 
 side of the mountain brought us at last to the top 
 of the kloof, 1500 feet above Wellington, where 
 there is a half-way house. Here we had a fine 
 view over the veldt and drank a glass of beer. The 
 road is well kept up, and many transport waggons 
 about. In descending we came on a valley shaded 
 from the afternoon sun, dripping with water, and 
 
1: 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 219 
 
 covered with beautiful ferns. The hills are mostly 
 of cold grey like those in Andalusia, but here and 
 there pure white. There is also much pure white 
 sand about, which must be very trying to the eyes^ 
 in summer. There are no cattle or sheep about, not 
 even goats, and no birds to be seen, no trees, and 
 the scenery though bold is dreary. 
 
 After fourteen miles we came to Wolfs Kloof and 
 four miles further to Darling Bridge. The deep 
 kloof here opens out into a .wide plain up which 
 the Worcester BaUway runs. On this side of the 
 bridge we stayed at the hotel of Mr. Tubbs, a 
 delightful old innkeeper, who got us dinner ready. 
 He and others were full of the railway, enough to 
 make one feel sad. The farmers don't use it, and 
 it goes nowhere and is of no use — this is the view 
 of those who lose by its success. There used to 
 be a bridge over the Darling Biver, but it had just 
 been tarred when a Kafir dropped a light from his 
 pipe on it, and it rapidly ignited and was burned 
 down. 
 
 The Government won't build another, as they 
 wish the railway used instead, and the farmers who 
 persist in using Bain's Kloof road are told they 
 may build a bridge themselves. Sometimes the 
 river is much swollen and then Mr. Tubbs sends a 
 horse over swimming, and a passenger lays hold 
 on to his tail. Quite recently there were nineteen 
 waggons waiting at Tubbs' house three days to 
 cross the river. 
 
 July 1 6. — A beautiful morning, clear and bright, 
 with blue haze on the mountains. Walked across 
 
220 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 the river ankle deep, and then across the plain or 
 Vega, amid beautiful flowers of the " everlasting " 
 kind, different to any I have seen before, also 
 beautiful yellow marigolds. Plenty of water about 
 and one snipe. Lost our way and took some 
 sketches. A plain running east and west, and 
 mountains 2cxdo feet high on either side. Passed 
 a farm with many ostriches, and arrived at Bride 
 River station, a forlorn house like Noah's ark 
 except that it will not float when the rains come 
 down. The stationmaster in broken shoes, said that 
 the broad-gauge trains would go forty miles an hour, 
 but that this narrow-gauge line of three feet six inches 
 could only go thirty miles an hour in safety, and 
 usually goes fifteen miles ; that the train goes fastest 
 down hill, and he winked when he said this. He 
 also could not see the use of the line. Arrived at 
 Worcester at 2 p.m. 
 
 Austral Hotel, where we found a pleasure-party 
 come to see the line — Mr. Ebden and his daughter. 
 We all went together to see the Rhenish Mission 
 School. This is a church and school, originally 
 started by the Germans, but working on its own 
 account under the parent school of Ceres, near here. 
 Dr. Estler, the pastor, received us and took us to 
 see what he called the Hottentot children, but they 
 actually seem to be half-castes, day children, of 
 Malay, Kafir, and Hotteutot descent. We heard 
 150 children sing two English hymns very nicely. 
 The old pastor has been here since 1835, and has 
 done much. He has 400 in the school, and his 
 church holds 1 500, but there are usually not more 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 221 
 
 than 900 present. School very clean. Ventilated 
 by large holes in the wall at top and bottom. The^ 
 mother-language of these children is Cape Dutch^ 
 but they are taught as much English as they will 
 bear. 
 
 In connection with this Rhenish Mission I here 
 quote from my father's journal of 1824, showing^ 
 what was being done in these parts fifby years 
 ago. Genadendal is about 20 miles south of 
 Worcester: 
 
 "November 4, 1824. — Left Rivier Zonder Einde 
 7 A.M. and arrived at Genadendal about 10.30 a.m. • 
 road easterly. The first part of the road is over a 
 high hiU, very bad, and then through frequent 
 rivers, good pasture, better for horses than for 
 cattle. 
 
 "Saw five reibocks, who came within shot with 
 ball, looked at us and run away, Genadendal is a 
 pretty place lined with fruit trees for some dis- 
 tance ; small Hottentot kraals and nice gardens. 
 A man took our horses and carried our luggage to 
 the place set apart for strangers. We went 
 towards the dining-room of the Moravian mission- 
 aries, but on our way, hearing a noise like a school^ 
 walked into a house. The schoolmaster was very 
 civil, and we heard the children (mostly Hottentots 
 with a mixture of European blood) repeat their 
 lessons, which they did together in a sort of song. 
 We dined at twelve o'clock in the missionaries' 
 hall, and met with five sisters and three brothers, 
 the chief was gone away some distance. They sang 
 a grace, and we ate a good dinner. After dinner 
 
222 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 we walked with the schoolmaster, who told us 
 several things about the institution. That it was 
 founded in 1737 and discontinued after five years, 
 but revived again in 1792 upon a larger scale. 
 One of the wives (or married sisters) having died, 
 the missionary expected another from Germany, to 
 be chosen by the Society — a female he had never 
 seen ; yet I hear these people are happy in their 
 married state. The garden in which we walked 
 was large and well supplied on one side with vines, 
 and the other with all sorts of vegetables and fruits. 
 Lately they had extended the walks, planting oaks 
 on each side, as far as a little farm at some dis- 
 tance. They have everything of their own — a mill 
 which the schoolmaster attends to — cattle which 
 another brother attends to — the garden, care of the 
 wine, strangers' house, &c., for another — four alto- 
 gether. The sisters take it week about to look after 
 dinner. The houses are pretty good, built of clay 
 and cow-dung. The Hottentot kraals are at some 
 •distance and in all directions. 
 
 "We had tea at 2 p.m. and supper at 6.30 p.m., 
 went to church after that, when my friend the 
 schoolmaster officiated. We all sat down during the 
 service, which consisted in several verses being read 
 out and sung, then either a prayer or lecture extem- 
 pore, then more singing and out. The church was 
 -large and built of brick, the men sat on one side, 
 the women on the other, and the missionaries and 
 -ourselves at a place raised above the rest, where 
 the officiating schoolmaster, miller, &c., stood. 
 'There was a small table on the opposite side for 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 223 
 
 communicants. The Hottentots sung very well, and 
 I was pleased. One of the missionaries seemed 
 highly delighted with the English Government, 
 because they were allowed a bell, which the Dutch 
 would not permit. 
 
 " They manage these Hottentots by teaching them 
 gratuitously and allowing them gardens to cultivate, 
 and as they are under their own management, 
 having no veldt cornets, if the Hottentots do not 
 conform to the will of the chief missionary, ' totty ' 
 is marched out of his possessions. They have a 
 factory for knives, Hottentots are the workmen, 
 and some of the females work patterns beautifully 
 on cambric and muslin. I understand that the 
 missionaries have bought the land ; they have 
 another establishment upon the same plan near 
 Caledon now beginning, and another for lepers." 
 
 July 1 6, 1877. — The house built by Lord Charles 
 Somerset is now used by the magistrate, and the 
 gardens are in decay, but there are many roses. 
 Water runs through the streets of the town, and 
 irrigates the avenues of blue gum and stunted 
 oak. 
 
 Several railway officials were at dinner, and they 
 told us about the line ; it is going up the Hex 
 Valley, and thence across the Karoo plains to 
 Beaufort West ; the rails are first laid down right 
 through the river beds, so as to push forward the 
 railway plant and building materials as rapidly as 
 possible, and the bridges are built at leisure. 
 
 The sleepers are of Baltic fir, creosoted ; rails 
 forty-five pounds each. Country wood has been 
 
224 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 tried ou the line, but it comes more expensive 
 than imported wood, it is so hard. 
 
 The reduction in cost of carriage will be enor- 
 mous, two shillings and sixpence per hundred- 
 weight to Beaufort West, 300 miles ; farmers will 
 begin to use the line when it pays them. The only 
 advantage of the three feet and six inches gauge is. 
 the economy in getting round curves ; but this is a 
 great matter in a hilly country. 
 
 July 1 7. — Taking some sandwiches with us, our 
 party started at daylight this morning, from the 
 station, on trollies with awnings of canvas, which 
 sheltered us from the sun. Our course lay east 
 along the valley of Worcester. This valley is quite 
 flat and six miles wide, and the mountains rise pre- 
 cipitously on each side to 4000 feet. Soon we 
 plunged into a valley from whence issues the Hex 
 River, coming down from the Middle Veldt. Our 
 course lay on the east side of the valley, and the 
 views were fine. 
 
 A very sunny day, rather frosty, with a blue haze 
 covering the hills, so that the distances came out 
 splendidly, each hill having a different shade of 
 blue ; the blue is the half opaque colour of quinine 
 and water in a soda-water bottle. The rocks are 
 cut most sharply, some of them all ragged, as though 
 there had been some grand convulsion of Nature 
 here. They appear to be Sedimentary (Devonian 
 and Silurian), uptilted at an angle of thirty degrees. 
 Those we went through were principally shale, with 
 here and there basaltic or trap outcrops. Our path 
 became steeper and steeper until we ascended 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 225 
 
 gradients of i in 70 ; and then on the side of a hill 
 we came on gradients of i in 40 to i in 50. The 
 slope up which we went would have been steep even 
 for a carriage (the steepest gradient for a stage coaoh 
 is I in 30). At 10 A.M. we arrived at a station in 
 the Middle Veldt, forty miles from Worcester, 2800 
 feet above it. From here to Beaufort West, it is 
 karoo, an undulating country — the line will reach 
 there in two years. At present the cattle from 
 Beaufort West are driven all the way, 300 miles, to 
 Capetown, and no use is made of the railway. 
 
 We are told that at the McGirds' farm, he had 
 ceased to grow root crops for his sheep because he 
 had so much corn, and could not find means to bring 
 it into Capetown, where they are importing corn, and 
 yet he is only thirty miles from the coast. Still the 
 Boers will not use the railway, because they say 
 they have their waggons and oxen. A hundred and 
 fifty miles by rail costs (for goods) one shilling and' 
 threepence per hundredweight and by waggon eight 
 shillings. 
 
 We came down in our trollies at about twenty 
 miles an hour — in some places at the limit of thirty 
 miles an hour — and we realised that a heavy train 
 must be kept in hand. 
 
 In the evening there was a most interesting con- 
 versation about the prospects of South Africa. A 
 farmer from Basutoland described it as all under the 
 plough, while about Worcester it is all karoo, gravel 
 and stone and bushes. What I wanted to arrive at 
 was whether the difference was due to the people or 
 the soil and climate. It seems to be due to both. 
 
226 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 July 1 8. — Returned to Capetown. 
 
 July 19. — Sir Bartle Frere introduced me to 
 Mr. Arnot, recently Waterboer's agent in Griqualand 
 West. He states that he claims about thirty-six: 
 fai'ms, equal to nineteen miles square, or 361 square 
 miles. The farms are about 3000 morgen each. 
 His case is now in appeal. Eskdale was given to 
 him by the Land Court freehold, but the Crown has 
 appealed. Several persons also have got theirs 
 freehold, and the Crown has not appealed ; why is 
 this inequality ? 
 
 Arnot's case does not look very bad on the surface, 
 as he cannot get any high rent on farms which are 
 only worth about ^200 each. 
 
 I have arranged to go to Kimberley, vid Port 
 Elizabeth on July 21. 
 
 The Governor and Lady Frere gave a ball to-night^ 
 in honour of the 24th Regiment, and I assisted in 
 the decorations. 
 
 There were a great many Dutch officers present 
 from the war-ships. Some< of them are staying in 
 the house. They talk English, but confuse some of 
 our words. For example, instead of saying that 
 they had brought their portmanteau or bags, they 
 said they had brought their " reticules " with them. 
 They said that they could not understand Cape 
 Dutch, and thought it more difficult than English. 
 There were only 200 people present on this occasion. 
 Everything admirably managed, and no crowding. 
 
 I was surprised at the nice dresses and good looks 
 of the people of Capetown, and the good taste 
 shown in dress. There was one lady, however, with 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 227 
 
 a glaring orange-coloured dress (I suppose a republi" 
 can colour), and all the auburn-haired men took refuge 
 near her and danced with her. The contrast made 
 their hair look quite black. 
 
 The Sergeant-at-Arms came in his official costume, 
 like a Court dress of 200 years ago, and he danced 
 in the old-fashioned style, like a cork bobbing up 
 in water. His wife is greatly smitten with 
 the idea of going to Greece and Palestine, but 
 does not care about seeing Europe generally. She 
 was charmed when I told her that the pass at 
 Bain's Kloof is beautiful, she could scarcely believe 
 that I was not joking. English people abuse the 
 country so much. 
 
 I have been doing all I can to ventilate the subject 
 of torpedoes to protect the anchorage of Table and 
 Simon Bays, and am writing home to Grossman about 
 it ; it requires pushing, but people do not recognise 
 the importance of the matter. 
 
 Golonel Walker has promised to come up to visit 
 me at Kimberley when I have finished my work, 
 and then go with me through native territory and 
 Damaraland to the sea coast in Portuguese territory. 
 July 21. — On board the steamer Nubia. I have 
 parted with the Freres with very great regret. I 
 am dehghted to have work under Sir Bartle Frere, 
 he makes us all enthusiastic about the country. 
 
 July 21. — My left hand neighbour is named 
 Rhodes, a young man from England who has been 
 working at the diamond-fields, and shooting in the 
 Transvaal and gold-fields. Strange enough, he is 
 weU versed in all the questions I am about to examine 
 
228 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 into. He is strongly of opinion that agents to native 
 chiefs should not be allowed — that is to say, people 
 who go and gammon the chiefs, and get them to 
 grant them tracts of land. But he goes very far ; 
 it seems difficult to be certain when a man has acted 
 honestly, and when he has cheated in such matters. 
 He also thinks that one cannot get at the real views 
 of the Boers by speaking to them, because they say 
 different in public ; but I say that their words in 
 private are their true views, and that what they say 
 in public are the views they put forward in defer- 
 ence to public opinion. 
 
 Dr. E a minister of the Dutch Church in- 
 troduced himself to me, and talked of Palestine. 
 In a loud voice he said that the power of that 
 painim full of pride, the Pope, had been lowered 
 to the dust, and that the false prophet must 
 follow, and that he was reading Josephus. 
 
 July 2 2, Sunday. — We stopped at Mossel Bay, 
 but our forty tons of cargo must wait till to-morrow, 
 no work on Sunday. 
 
 July 22,. — Mr. Forsmann, Consul-General for 
 Portugal, talked of Delagoa Bay. The Portuguese 
 are going to do as much as possible for their posses- 
 sions along the east coast, in building, draining, and 
 opening out the ports, and they will not be willing to 
 sell any portion. He is a Swede, and dislikes the 
 Hollanders. There is plenty of wood in the Trans- 
 vaal, and at one time it paid him to send it to 
 Kimberley. He tried to float it down the Vaal 
 River at the freshets, but the natives are too lazy 
 to do anything, and he lost money. Coal is found 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 229 
 
 in the bed of the river, fourteen miles above Potchef- 
 stroom, and brought down and sold there at five 
 shillings a bag, say fifty shillings a ton ; at this rate 
 it might be got to Kimberley at ;^5 a ton, but the 
 natives are so idle. He said that he and Moodie 
 and Lievert were the original concessionaires of the 
 Libomba Railway ; that they humbugged him, and 
 Moodie went to Portugal, and got a concession, but 
 could not commence the work. Now Portugal has 
 advanced ^20,000 for the railway as far as the 
 boundary line, as a national undertaking. It seems 
 to be as much in a muddle as most things are in 
 South Africa. 
 
 I here give notes from my father's journal con- 
 cerning the country near George, Mossel Bay, and 
 the Knysna, which is considered so beautiful. I 
 mentioned the subject of making use of Knysna 
 Harbour in my letters describing my first voyage 
 to Port Elizabeth. 
 
 "November 12, 1824. — Georgetown. Stopped at 
 Mr. Kuys'. We went to see the institution supported 
 by the London Missionary Society. Mr, Anderson, 
 who was at the head of it, talked of the Hottentots 
 being asked to take a chair, and being equal with the 
 farmers, and seemed to expect grants that would set 
 aside the laws of the country. He said he had built a 
 church of considerable size (the stonework was all 
 finished and roofed) for 600 R. dollars, having got the 
 Hottentots to work gratis. 1 do not like this institu- 
 tion so much as the Moravian one at Genadendal. 
 Here the Hottentots were not instructed in anything 
 useful, though Mr. Messer, who had been there 
 
230 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 before, had taught one or two useful employments 
 and had cultivated some places that were now going 
 to ruin. 
 
 " Mr. Kuys lives quite in the European style, and 
 is well informed, having been eight years in Holland 
 during Napoleon's government. Major Forbes and I 
 agreed to separate, as I wanted to see the Knysna, 
 and to meet again at veldt cornet Sondays'. 
 
 "November 13. — Set off from George Town 
 6.30 A.M., passed the River Kaymanskappen, gave the 
 horses a roll at Captain Harker's, and proceeded to 
 Mrs.Tunbridge's, about ten hours from George on same 
 horses. The guide carried my saddle-bags on his 
 horse. From George I passed through a beautiful 
 country, and after crossing the Kaymanskappen River, 
 inost beautiful, and as I proceeded I found it like 
 English park scenery, the valleys and sides of the 
 hills covered with fine forest trees. I heard the 
 rivers running in glens where they could scarcely be 
 seen for the quantity of foliage. The mountains in 
 the distance put me in mind of Wales, and of great 
 height, and the tops of the trees peeping out of the 
 glens and appearing above the level looked like' 
 English hedges. I found it very difficult to travel, 
 and had to walk a considerable part of the journey. 
 I passed deep valleys, through which rivers ran, and 
 which were thickly covered with the finest trees, 
 under whose branches a man on horseback could not 
 find room to pass. I once heard a loud crackling in 
 the wood, which I thought might proceed from wild 
 buffaloes. 
 
 " Mrs. Tunbridge, whose husband has been dead 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 231 
 
 about six weeks, lives in a pretty cottage, so clean- 
 and quite English ; flowers neatly tied up. The house 
 inside is ornamented with birds and several animals 
 stuffed by her late husband, who had been very clever 
 in that way. The contrast between this cottage and 
 the hovels of the woodcutters, or even the houses of 
 the Boers, at once brought to mind the superiority 
 of the country inhabitants of England over the rest 
 of the world generally. This beautiful-looking 
 country is covered with sour grass, which grows 
 aU the year round, and by being burnt periodically 
 and by cattle feeding on it improves considerably. 
 Cultivation has not been carried on here so much as 
 in other places, probably owing to those persons who 
 have lands employing themselves in cutting wood, 
 which is much more profitable. The forests are open 
 to everybody, but a duty is exacted by Government 
 for cutting. This is the finest country I ever saw, 
 having wood and plenty of water, and I should think 
 very capable of anything, though perhaps not warm 
 enough for wine ; but on the other side of the ridge 
 of mountains I hear there might be good wine. 
 
 " The Knysna, from so many advantages and from 
 being central, if the Port were not so difficult, would, 
 I think, become the capital of Southern Africa ; but 
 as long as the trade to India is carried round the 
 Cape, the largest harbour is likely to have the 
 largest town. The trees here which grow to timber 
 are the stink wood and yellow wood. The former is 
 considered much more valuable, and is so named 
 from the smell which it emits, which is very un- 
 pleasant ; but by being exposed to the air wears 
 
282 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 away, though by violent rubbing or sawing it can 
 I believe, be again produced. The depth of the 
 valleys in which the rivers run is so great as ta 
 render it most difficult, if not impossible, to irrigate. 
 There was very little cultivation attempted, and 
 very little, if any, corn. 
 
 1 "November 14. — Left about 10 a.m., and had to- 
 wait for some time at the Knysna Ford, which I 
 crossed, and arrived at G. Rex at about 3 p.m. Sent 
 on baggage with guide to veldt cornet Van Harston 
 to order horses for the next day, and went myself, 
 accompanied by one of Mr. Rex's sons, to see the mouth 
 of the Knysna. I took a sketch of the river at the 
 ford, and after crossing it a little distance further on 
 had a most beautiful view of it all the way down to 
 where it runs through a great mountain, which 
 seems cut through, and a gap made for the river ta 
 get out. 
 
 " I wish I had sketched it, as I had no such view 
 afterwards. When I went down with Mr. Rex's 
 sons to see the mouth I heard the passage was 220 
 yards across, though it does not look a stone's 
 throw, from the immense height of the mountains. 
 
 " There is a lighthouse on the higher part of the 
 mountain near tbe mouth. Ships of 300 tons have 
 been in this river, and larger would find water 
 enough ; and I was told, except on particular occa- 
 sions, the passage is easy enough, though it looks 
 dreadful. But from the story of the Emu, which 
 entered about eight years ago (the first ship that 
 had attempted it), and stuck upon a sunken rock at 
 the entrance, and was afterwards driven ashore by 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 23a 
 
 an eddy wind and wrecked, it seems the eddy wind 
 must always be dangerous. The rock goes by the- 
 name of the ' Emu Rock.' When once in the 
 harbour it is quiet as a mill-pond, and there is 
 plenty of room. I supped and slept at Rex's, 
 who was not at home, being on his road to Cape- 
 town. He has an English schoolmaster. His- 
 house, in the usual style of Boer houses, has an 
 exceedingly large hall, and was well furnished. 
 Several large plate glasses occupied the vacant 
 spaces along the wall. Rex is an Englishman, 
 formerly a lawyer, and, whether from the name or 
 otherwise, is said to be a son of George III. 
 
 "November 15. — Left Rex's about 6 A.M., and 
 passing Yan Harston's, arrived at Sondays' at 6 p.m. 
 The country passed through was beautiful and still 
 wooded, and inhabited by men of the 60th Regiment 
 (Germans), who had become woodcutters on being 
 disbanded. Their huts at different distances along 
 the road, and the number of trees felled, shows that 
 great quantities of wood must be exported ; but 
 there was no great show of affluence among these 
 people ; their huts were generally poor. The road, 
 or rather the way, from Yan Harston's across the 
 Paard Kop to Sondays' is scarcely passable on horse- 
 back ; in some parts it is even difficult to lead a 
 horse. There are immense ridges of hill to pass 
 that succeed each other like waves. The veldt 
 cornet Yan Harston let me have four horses ; twa 
 were led a quarter of the way, and then the two w& 
 rode turned back." 
 
 July 24, 1877. — Arrived at Port Elizabeth^ 
 
234 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 Phoenix Hotel, and paid ;^i8 for ticket to Fields 
 by next week's mail. 
 
 Harris says tlie breach-combers (Kafirs) get six 
 •shillings a day here, whUe in Natal they get six- 
 pence a day ; they only want to buy a gun or an 
 ■ox and then be off. 
 
 There is money hoarded all over by the Kafirs. 
 Plenty of game in the bush here — five guns will 
 bring in one hundred buck in four days. 
 
 Rhodes and I went up to the club. It is far 
 better than that at Capetown, and has a room to dine 
 forty persons. I was introduced to Mr. Stocken- 
 strom, late judge of the Land Court at Kimberley. 
 He told me much about the subject, and we talked 
 on the education of the Boer. He is a Swede by 
 ancestry. His grandfather was killed by Kafirs 
 between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown and his 
 father was Landrost of Graaff Reinet, and afterwards 
 Lieut. -Governor of the Eastern Province, and was 
 created a baronet — ^the only South African baronet. 
 He says the English officials in former years used 
 to insult the Afrikanders in every way they could, 
 but now they are more like gentlemen. He is only 
 thirty-three years old and is leading barrister in the 
 Cape Circuit. A big man, of great physical powers, 
 I think, but he has dim eyes and is inclined to be 
 deaf. 
 
 He says, that in his time, twenty-five years ago, 
 there were no schools in the Colony except at 
 Capetown, where only the three Rs were taught, 
 that the Boers could not afford to send their 
 children to school, and that it was owing to his 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 235 
 
 father having a private income that he could be 
 sent. As it was he was obliged to travel 450 miles 
 to Capetown, and then only got the three Rs, but 
 he afterwards went to school in England, and 
 travelled on the Continent. He is supposed to be 
 very anti-English. He says that Burgers (late 
 President, Transvaal) was son of a Boer and that 
 his father, seeing that he was a smart lad, sent him 
 to school, which much improved him, but his brothers 
 are all regular Colony Boers. Stockenstrom says 
 that the Presidency of the Transvaal was ofiered to 
 him twice, but that he would not accept, the first 
 time Burgers offered to go as his secretary, but he 
 persuaded him to go himself. He says Burgers' chief 
 fault was being over sanguine and expecting that 
 the Boers would follow him blindly. 
 
 My father passed through Graaff Reinet in 1824 
 and thus speaks of Stockenstrom the parent ; 
 
 "April 19, 1824. — Stockenstrom, the Landrost, a 
 very superior man. This town has prospered under 
 him, and is beautiful, having lemon-trees planted 
 on each side of the street by which the water passes. 
 About 1 800 persons in it, who live on the produce 
 of the gardens, and sell their wine to the Boers up 
 further in the country. There is not water for more 
 houses (360) than the town now consists of 
 
 " There is a press for all Government orders, and 
 a library, to which Stockenstrom has lent almost all 
 his books, and a school and large church." 
 
CHAPTEE XVI 
 
 July 25. — Started with Rhodes by rail to see 
 sheep-washing at Uitenhage, the market-garden of 
 Port EUzabeth, over a marshy country. One of the 
 passengers told us that he was on a farm where there 
 were seventy ostriches, and that each ate as much 
 stuff as an ox. Another said land was worth ;;^5 
 an acre about Port Elizabeth, and only two shillings 
 and sixpence an acre up country. 
 
 We had letters of introduction from Mr. Jones to- 
 masters of woolwashing establishments which fringe 
 the river or stream — there are now ten of them.. 
 They can each wash one and a half bale of wool 
 per hour, and can work night and day if required. 
 We went to the Phoenix works, where there is new 
 machinery. Wool comes down from the interior in 
 all its dirt — in bales 450 lb. weight. This is opened 
 and put into a teasing machine, in which process 
 much of the dry dust is extracted. It is then 
 dropped down a funnel into a hot-water tank for a. 
 few moments ; this sets free some ammonia and 
 potash in the wool and cleans the wool when it 
 is in the cold water. If it is left too long in the 
 hot water they say that the ammonia and potash is 
 washed out and the wool is not cleaned. The hot 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 237 
 
 water is kept full of tiie greasy matter which is sup- 
 posed to be good for the fleece ; then a fork is inserted, 
 and takes the wool into a long funnel through which 
 cold water is running, and after that these forks 
 push it on until it is clean, and it is pitched out on 
 to clean boards. It is then put into the wringing 
 machine used for wringing clothes and is thus 
 partially dried, and after this it is put in the open 
 air upon a bed of pebbles from the river. It takes 
 about twelve hours to dry. It is then put back into 
 the bales and only weighs 200 lb., having, lost 2501b. 
 in dirt. The mills are only at work during the wool 
 season. Some wool is washed up country to save 
 cost of carriage, but is not washed thoroughly. The 
 iron bands are put on at Port Elizabeth. 
 
 Returned and dined at the Club. Stockenstrom 
 was next me, and talked a great deal, repeating 
 much that he had. said yesterday. He was most 
 anxious to assure me that he had not been prejudiced 
 against the English in his Land Court judgment, and 
 that all the abuse of him was unmerited, and there 
 can be no doubt, I think, that his proud blood has 
 been aggrieved by many supposed insults from 
 
 English people. " Those Dutch ! " is so often 
 
 said thoughtlessly, just as he kept saying to me, 
 without being aware of it, " those English," putting 
 an unmistakable stress upon " English." 
 
 July 26. — ^The hotel bills are about twenty shiUings 
 a day. Fourteen pounds extra luggage by train and 
 coach cost £1 15s., about two shillings and sixpence 
 a pound. 
 
 At Sandflats we left the train and took coach to 
 
238 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 Grahamstown. Passed through scrub where there 
 is said to be a troop of fifty elephants. 
 
 A passenger said that the native washerman puts 
 all the light articles into the leg of a pair of drawers 
 or sleeve of a shirt and beats the lot on a rock, which 
 accounts for the bagginess of one side now and then. 
 Wood's Hotel, Grahamstown. An amusing con- 
 versation between two men, one wanted ten shillings, 
 the other gave him a bill at one month to sign for 
 ;^20, but he would not sign for more than ^lo. I 
 suppose there was something more than ten shillings 
 behind the business. 
 
 July 27. — Grahamstown is prettily situated among 
 hills with many trees, and reminds me of a diminu- 
 tive Cheltenham. Stockenstrom lives here, and 
 came to see me. 
 
 Went for a walk and looked back on the town 
 between two hiUs. It is very pretty, an old wall 
 and cottage in the foreground flanked by blue gum 
 trees ; the cathedral appears beyond, and cypress 
 and blue gums around. The hills are all about the 
 same height and the town is in a basin. 
 
 Went on over the undulating veldt, the wind 
 blowing softly and the air light and balmy ; very 
 few flowers. Soon I came to the railway works. 
 They are getting on very slowly, and have two long 
 tunnels to Alicedale to complete before the railway 
 can be opened, on August 25, by Sir Bartle Frere. 
 I returned and then went to see the Botanical 
 Gardens, which are well kept on the side of a dry 
 hill ; plenty of English flowers. I went to see the 
 curator, Mr. Tidmarsh, to ask him about the Prickly 
 
o 
 > 
 
 X 
 
 > 
 
 s 
 
 O 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 23» 
 
 Comfrey, which I had been told would shoot its roots 
 down fifteen feet, through a hard, dry soil, to water. 
 He said that this plant's qualifications were delusive, 
 that it will only grow in marshy ground, and that 
 he has three roots which have not had a leaf for 
 three months, and that if it will not thrive in the 
 dry weather it is no better than other plants. He 
 said that the town is planting 20,000 trees per 
 annum on the sides of the hills, principally pine-trees, 
 and showed me several which would get on well. On 
 an average a pine will, here, become a fine tree in 
 ten years. The difficulty is to get them to start ; 
 you cannot just put them in as you like, but must 
 put the soil round about the roots from where it has 
 been growing. I bought two dozen selected ever- 
 greens for Kimberley, to be sent by coach. 
 
 Stock enstrom brought Marsdorp to see me ; I 
 hear that the latter is a fair-minded man and likely 
 to get on at the Bar. 
 
 On my return I found a telegram from Rhodes to 
 say he had missed his coach. He has one brother 
 in the Royal Engineers and one in the Royal 
 Dragoons. He is going to join me at Queens- 
 town, and we shall go to look at some Kafir kraals 
 together. He can speak a few words of Kafir 
 language. 
 
 July 28. — Saturday. Started in coach for Queens- 
 town. Our party consisted of Mr. Frost, M.L.A., 
 another passenger, and a little Kafir girl from some 
 missionary school. There were some strong remarks 
 about allowing a Kafir in a coach, but as it was only 
 a little girl I think every one was rather ashamed of 
 
240 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 saying much, Mr. Frost spoke much about farming. 
 He says that you put two sheep to a morgan in the 
 eastern provinces, but only one sheep to a morgan in 
 the west. Eight sheep equal one ox on pasture. 
 The sheep are always kraaled at night, and if this 
 could be dispensed with they would thrive better 
 because of not having to make a journey from the 
 feeding-ground in and out again ; also the droppings 
 would then be distributed. Some farmers are be- 
 ginning to enclose with wire fencing. The difficulty 
 of not kraaling is the mixing of the flocks. 
 : The white folk in South Africa are very much 
 down on the coloured people. I do not think that 
 in the whole of South Africa there is a single black 
 man in any high position. Not even a shopkeeper 
 or innkeeper. There are no native merchants as 
 there are on the west coast and at Gibraltar. 
 The native must not rise here. I was told to-day of 
 a Kafir who had been educated and sent to America 
 where he became a minister and dressed in black 
 clothing. When he returned here after many years 
 no white person would treat him civilly and he was 
 obliged to doff his black dress and return to his kraal 
 and dress in blankets and yellow ochre. 
 
 We passed through a bush country of succulent 
 plants, the Euphorbia everywhere ; in the distance 
 it looks like part of the rocks ; it may have suggested 
 the seven-branched candle-sticks. The Kafirs are 
 all dressed in corduroy of yellow ochre colour. 
 Passed the great Fish River, about the size of 
 the Modder River, and arrived at Fort Beaufort. 
 The great Fish River was proclaimed the eastern 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 241 
 
 boundary of the Colony in 1788 and continued so 
 till 1 8 19. 
 
 Put up at a very respectable hotel, the ladies of 
 which were all got up for a performance at the 
 theatre (Palmer's troop) ; we went also after dinner 
 — an excellent performance. 
 
 This seems to be one of the few parts of the 
 colony that have histories. We travelled over the 
 battle plains of the Kafir wars of 1846 and 1852. 
 I saw the place in the hills where Colonel Fordyce 
 was killed. The scenery is not very interesting and 
 is void of trees and shrubs ; scrubs here and there 
 in the kloofs and valleys. The grass all burnt 
 brown by the winter cold — in summer it gets 
 burnt by the sun — and often it is burnt black by 
 fire. From 18 19 to 1847 the country between the 
 great Fish River and the Keiskama was called 
 the Neutral Territory, and many of the old forts 
 remain tUl to-day. 
 
 July 29. — Put ofi" with a post-cart ; four passen- 
 gers, a great crush ; a lady, with a flaxen wig, 
 behind — how the cai't did jolt her wig about, poor 
 thing, she looked most miserable, it sometimes came 
 over her eyes. 
 
 After racing along the flat with four horses we 
 came upon hilly country and passing the Kat River 
 arrived at a well cultivated country, a happy 
 valley, in a basin formed by hills of the Katberg. 
 We rose 3000 feet through a pass ; the Katberg 
 looked very fine with clouds resting on the summit, 
 and snow all round it, about 1000 feet down, but 
 not very thick. Fortunately' there was no wind, 
 
242 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 otherwise it would have been very cold. About 
 lo A.M. we arrived at an hotel where we breakfasted. 
 This is a beautiful spot where married couples come 
 for their honeymoon ; in spring it must be lovely. 
 The kloofs and valleys on the south side of the 
 Katberg are covered with trees, the scenery is very 
 fine, but certainly not the finest in the world, as 
 stated by one of the passengers. The road at an 
 easy gradient leads up the steep side of the moun- 
 tain among groves of trees, yellow wood, sneeze 
 wood, iron wood. Gradually it got colder and 
 colder until we got out and walked. The lady with 
 a wig said she had been snowed up three years ago 
 for eight days on the summit. Here we found a 
 toll-bar and house, the inmates sitting shivering. 
 We got to the summit (forty-three miles) at 
 noon. On the northern side the slopes are quite 
 difierent, the grass quite brown and not a shrub 
 to be seen. We descended into a great valley, 
 where Queenstown lies. 
 
 I was desired to admire this road over the Katberg 
 as the best engineered road in the colony, and 
 certainly if it is for the sake of seeing scenery we 
 ought to be grateful to the engineer, but why it 
 should go over the top of the mountain is to me a 
 mystery. It was suggested that as any one 
 could make a road over the level, the most 
 difficult and lofty route was chosen to show the 
 skill of the engineer. 
 
 Mr. Frost said that the usual age for marriage 
 among the Boers is twenty for the man and 
 sixteen for the girl; that a couple had lately 
 
as 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 o 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 243 
 
 married whose united ages were twenty-seven, 
 fourteen and a half for the boy and twelve and a 
 half for the girl. 
 
 We arrived at Queenstown at 6.30 p.m. ; here 
 I met Captain Spalding, D.A.A.G., from Pretoria 
 on his way to Capetown. He said that typhoid 
 fever had broken out among the troops there 
 from drinking bad water. He had come through 
 Kimberley. 
 
 July 30. — Queenstown, 7 a.m. Hard frost but 
 beautiful air. A great straggling village of 1200 
 people, built round a square or market-place in the 
 form of a hexagon with six streets radiating from it 
 — a very awkward shape as the principal houses are 
 aU corners. Prowled about and found a young 
 nursery of trees planted near a sluit (water-course) 
 from which it was irrigated. It is brought out from 
 the river above a rapid, and goes round part of the 
 town. Town well- wooded. Every street has an 
 avenue of trees, irrigated from the sluit^ — blue gums, 
 acacia, oaks. The grass wUl not keep green in 
 winter, even when irrigated. Inquired about coal 
 in the neighbourhood, and was first shown some 
 from the Stormberg — wretched stuff. Then I went 
 to see some from the fields near Dordrecht, and 
 found it much better. Got most varied opinions 
 about this coal-field and found that I must go myself 
 and see it. No one even knew the distance the field 
 was — some said thirty-five miles, others said sixty 
 miles. Mr. Davis agreed to send me there in a Cape 
 cart, for £2 a day, and deposit me at Dordrecht 
 on Friday, where I had agreed to meet Khodes. 
 
244 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 A bank clerk told me that the shops in Queens- 
 town were, many of them, closed, owing to the war 
 scare, but a lawyer said it was due to over-trading. 
 
 A farmer told me that the Kafirs are much more 
 respectful and under control in Natal than in the 
 Cape Colony; but he said they are often flogged 
 here and seldom bring up their masters before the 
 magistrates. 
 
 My father came along this same road from 
 Grahamstown in 1824, and I here give extracts 
 from his journal : 
 
 "December 20, 1824. — Left Grahamstown with the 
 Commissary Johnston, two Hottentots of the Cape 
 Infantry with led horses, and a servant, on the 
 20th (day of the Eclipse), and arrived at Myers' 
 on the Fish River, which we crossed, and stayed all 
 night, making a fire, and sleeping on the ground in 
 the Neutral Territory. 
 
 "December 21. — At 3.30 a.m. set off for the Taka 
 Post, and arrived about 2 p.m., direction N.N.E., 
 thirty-five miles. Saw several hartebeests, and fired 
 at the springbocks, without number, and some 
 quagha (wild asses). Left the Neutral Territory, 
 which is close by, and joined by a mountain to this 
 place. Lions are frequently seen on this route. 
 Captain Massey commands the Taka Post with a 
 troop of Cape Cavalry, There is plenty of wood 
 and timber. 
 
 "December 22. — Left about 2.30 p.m. for Konep 
 River, fifteen to twenty miles, but did not arrive 
 till very late. Captain Massey had sent on his tent 
 and troop- waggon and when we arrived we found 
 
,.„ ,« .^v. 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 ? 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 245 
 
 supper all ready for us. Massey and I parted from 
 Johnston and the doctor ; they saw a lion. 
 
 "December 23. — Got up early to beat for the lion, 
 which had been seen not above 150 yards from 
 where we slept, but could not find him. The quagha 
 that was lying near this place where the lion was 
 had been eaten up. We then tried to find guinea 
 fowl, but did not succeed in killing any, though we 
 saw some of them, and then returned to breakfast. 
 About 2 P.M., we set off, and arrived at the Kat 
 River, at about 6 p.m. Fort Beaufort, an old station, 
 about a mile from us. Saw plenty of hartebeests, 
 quagha, and springbocks. The country good. 
 
 " December 24. — Set out for Fort Wiltshire about 
 6 A.M., and arrived at noon. Passed through a 
 country covered with grass and the Mimosa. We 
 found on our arrival that the Kafir fair, which lasts 
 three days, was nearly over, that being the last 
 day ; but we saw enough. Beads are given in 
 exchange for oxen, hides, and for anything they 
 have. The fair is conducted under Captain Murphy, 
 who commands at the fort, with two companies of 
 infantry. Fort Wiltshire is calculated to hold 1 50 
 men, cavalry and infantry, is built on a slope, and 
 is quadrangular, having four bastions, one at each 
 comer, with an i8-pounder iron gun. The walls 
 eighteen feet high, and a ditch. The barracks roofed 
 with tiles, some with loop-holes, others with windows 
 on the outside. The barracks are the walls of the 
 place, except at the bastions." 
 
 ; JuT/y 2)Q} ^^77-- — Interesting conversation at dinner 
 about the squabbles over water and the wasteful 
 
246 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 system of the Municipality, I said that in some 
 countries (India, &c.) the water runs under the bed of 
 the river when the bed is dry ; a lawyer said that the 
 same is the case with this river. It is dammed up 
 here and there, but runs just as strong underneath 
 and breaks out again lower down. The farmers 
 complain that the natives steal cattle and sheep and 
 drive them into Kafirland, the border of which is 
 close by. They talk of putting up a wire fence 
 along the new railway to stop this wholesale 
 marauding. 
 
 In the spring the town is often flooded with 
 water from the hUls. All the plain will grow corn^ 
 but some parts which used to grow two crops will 
 not now grow more than one a year without rust 
 getting into the oats, &c. The cattle disease is said 
 to come as the crops ripen and to be in the air. 
 Fowls die suddenly (sunstroke) ; goats will not live 
 here, and cattle will not live if taken from here to 
 the coast; some have taken to penning in their sheep- 
 and feeding them on root crops in winter — ^the sheep 
 suffer so much from being driven to and from the 
 kraals. The manure of the sheep is much wasted — 
 thousand of tons. It all collects in the kraal ; in 
 wet weather the sheep are up to their necks in it, 
 and in dry weather it sometimes burns for months. 
 Iron telegraph poles are required where there are 
 grass fires. There is any amount of water obtainable 
 at Queenstown. 
 
 Jvly 31. — Set out for coal-fields in spring-cart at 
 7.45 A.M. Country very rich soil ; cultivated and 
 irrigated everywhere. The Kafirs are in Govern- 
 
X 
 H 
 E> 
 O 
 
 S 
 
 M 
 
 X 
 H 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 247 
 
 ment locations and forced either to work or to trek. 
 At Schoolplaatz there are mealies (Indian corn) 
 everywhere, and plenty of Kafirs ; the better class 
 of the Kafir farmers dress and live juat like Euro- 
 peans, but their herds are like savages, with nothing 
 on but a blanket of Venetian red, the same colour 
 as they put on their bare skins. Arrived at the 
 house of Mr. Hart, formerly a Dragoon. He has 
 two well-dressed daughters who live in a nice sitting- 
 room ; I asked if Cinderella was cooking our food in 
 the kitchen, but they had never heard of her and 
 the joke was lost. They would not take any pay- 
 ment for their hospitality, and I gave them one of 
 Marcus Ward's fairy tales, with which they were 
 dehghted. Mr. Hart told me of some Bushmen's 
 drawings on rocks close by on the way to the hotel, 
 so I took a Kafir guide and trudged off, sending the 
 cart round by the road. 
 
 Naked Kafir boys were dancing together in a 
 most absurd manner, jumping according to some 
 ceremonial. I was told that this was a sign of war 
 impending. 
 
 We came to a rocky scarp with a smooth face 
 where were the bushmen's marks. I was fairly 
 astonished at these though I had seen so many 
 others before. They are all painted on the rocks 
 and are the most perfect representations of animals 
 I have seen in the country. I don't think that there 
 are a dozen white people in South Africa who could 
 do as weU. There are red, brown, and black Kafirs : 
 buffaloes, antelopes, ant-bears, not merely of one 
 colour, but coloured or shaded with marvellous 
 
^ I 
 
 OB a. 
 
 ^ t 
 
 M I 
 
 pq 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 249 
 
 accuracy ; brown buck with white belhes, white 
 buiFaloes, tawny animals. I copied some of the 
 hunting scenes in a hurried manner. One bushman 
 with his bow and arrows was quite a picture. 
 
 Leaving the spot at 3.30 P.M., I went over the hill 
 and arrived at the hotel at four o'clock. Here there 
 were many Kafirs and a witch doctor who could tell 
 the future by looking at his assegai. .^^30 had been 
 stolen out of the shop till in May, and they had just 
 
 4 }^^Hn 
 
 BUSHMAN'S MARKS 
 {Fi'om a sketch by the Author) 
 
 got a clue and had arrested a Kafir, and taken him 
 before the magistrate. I sketched the house. There 
 is one little boy in the family, Georgie Venter, and I 
 delighted him by showing him pictures firom Marcus 
 Ward's book — ^father and mother both German. I 
 have to-day heard that there is coal close to this house, 
 and I am to look at it in the morning. Since coal 
 has been found about here wood has come down from 
 ^5 to £2 10s. a load, and dang from ^3 to ;^i los. 
 Dutch are trekking into Griqualand East, and farms 
 formerly worth ;^50 are now fetching ;;^400. Women 
 servants (Kafirs) cost 15s. a month and food. 
 
 August I. — Up early, but the Kafir who knew the 
 
250 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 position of the coal-field kept me waiting till 9.30 A.M. 
 The hotel people would not take any money, but 
 aaked for a sketch of the house, and I gave Georgie 
 " Puss in Boots " by Marcus Ward. 
 
 Passed over an undulating plain till 10.7, then up 
 a hiU till 10.20, down a very steep pass till 10.50, to 
 a shop just building, then again over hUls till 12.30^ 
 when we arrived at an hotel. A pleasant-looking 
 white boy came and helped us to outspan, and told 
 me to go into the little house. I found myself in a 
 well-furnished room; a man was playing on the piano, 
 and a woman was sewing. The man tried to make 
 me' out to be one of his friends, but failing that 
 subsided, being German, and left his wife, who was 
 English to conduct the conversation and get me 
 some food. He then began to tell me his plans. 
 He is well educated and seems to know the customs 
 about; but is going to leave the place because he 
 cannot stand the cold in winter. He says that 
 cattle-stealing among the Kafirs generally results 
 from faults on the farmer's side. The Kafir agrees, 
 for a sum of money to work — one day he is lazy 
 and the farmer docks his pay — the Kafir does not 
 forget this, and months after steals his cattle in 
 revenge. He says that if the Kafirs are fully paid 
 they never steal, unless indeed they are beaten. 
 He seems to consider them very easy people to get 
 on with, and says that his horses and cattle are 
 among them, and that he never loses any. He 
 calls the Dutch a very industrious race in this 
 part of the Colony, but thinks that they do not 
 like to be governed by law, and that the magistrates 
 
^ IH \ 
 
 \ \: 
 
 ' w. 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 
 "*^ '? 
 
 » 
 
 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 251 
 
 and veldt cornets are afraid to administer justice 
 equally because if they do they become unpopular 
 among the Dutch and are at once removed. He 
 thinks that the manner in which the responsible 
 Government acts is very sad. It is keeping the 
 country back very much. He also referred to the 
 usual story of sudden deaths among the Dutch. 
 He would take no payment, and I delighted them 
 both by giving them the " Sleeping Beauty." 
 
 We arrived at the coal-fields in the afternoon. 
 The rocks here, as in other parts adjoining, 
 lie nearly horizontal, but they are of sandstone 
 and fret away into curious shapes, of which I took 
 a sketch. On turning a corner we came upon the 
 tents of the exploring party. I went up to a big 
 man, who shook hands without letting me introduce 
 myself; he proved to be Mr. North, the coal- mining 
 engineer. He took me over the coal-mine, and asked 
 me to stop the night at his tent, which I gladly 
 assented to. The coal was found by Mr. Fergusson, 
 a farmer. He has been here twenty-one years, and 
 won the Government award of ^50 for the best 
 sample of coal (fifty sacks) within a given time. He 
 took the fifty sacks into Dordrecht and secured his 
 money. 
 
 The coal crops out on the side of the hill, and is in 
 horizontal layers, about eight feet thick altogether, 
 separated by thin bands of shale. The mine is on 
 Government land, and is now worked by the Govern- 
 ment — is eight feet square, and goes in about fifty 
 feet, dipping slightly to the west. The coal is sold 
 at the pit mouth for ;^i los. per ton ; carriage to 
 
252 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 Dordrecht costs 1 5s. per ton. Mr. North introduced 
 me to Mr. Dunn, the geologist, and Mr. Norton, an 
 assistant. He has lately (July 20) had a grand 
 function here — a Kafir dance at which 2000 were 
 present and took part. I am very sorry to have 
 missed it ; I want to see these functions and judge 
 whether they are religious ceremonies. Alas ! the 
 old Kafir customs are fast dying out, and there are 
 so few records of them worth having. 
 
 This coal burns well. There is a pile of it on the 
 veldt burning brightly. We dined at sunset and 
 played whist till midnight, and I had a most 
 interesting conversation with Mr. Dunn about my 
 favourite subject, geology. He seems rather dis- 
 gusted with his treatment by the Colonial Govern- 
 ment. I think they are rather brutal unless you 
 snap your fingers at them. His terms are £2. 2s. a 
 day and travelling expenses (say ^150 a year), 
 small enough for an accomplished geologist in all 
 conscience. 
 
 He hails from Australia, and has been over 
 Griqualand West and the Transvaal. He says that 
 the diamond-fields about Kimberley (the dry 
 diggings) are old volcanoes with the tops cut off 
 by denudation. If this is the case there may be 
 diamonds in any volcano if we go deep enough. 
 
 August 2. — Up at daybreak and sketched the 
 coal-mine from two points ; breakfasted and left the 
 camp before noon. Passed a house where the owner 
 was very sanguine about the coal, and expected soon 
 to be a wealthy man : I hope so too. It will be 
 a grand thing to get good coal for our steamers. 
 
!0 
 O 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 D 
 
 X 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 25a 
 
 Arrived at Dordrecht at 5.30 p.m. A miserable little 
 village on the side of a hill without trees, and 
 with no water near. A poor little hotel, and every- 
 thing speaks of poverty and want of enterprise. A 
 few more English about here would transform this 
 country. 
 
 August 3. — After breakfast went out and found 
 that there is water in a stream in a kloof above the 
 town, and estimated that it would cost ^250 to 
 bring it into the village. This I crammed into the 
 heads of all I could speak to ; but everything is dead 
 and flat here just now — war scare. Made a sketch 
 and waited for coach, expected at i p.m. 
 
 Begone dull care ! Palmer's theatrical troop has 
 arrived suddenly, the village is transformed, and full 
 of music and talking. After all, Dordrecht can be 
 noisy, not to say rowdy. 
 
 I am delighted to see the coach coming up ; glad^ 
 very glad to see Rhodes again, Mr. Bradford (M.L.A. 
 for Dordrecht), and four others. I got into a back 
 seat, when an excited individual came up and said, 
 "You have my seat, sir ! " I said blandly, " I shall 
 be most happy to give it up to you," and moved the 
 required number of inches to my right; more excite- 
 ment and bluster — but I took no further notice of 
 the stranger, who evidently expected the whole seat 
 to himself. Then the driver came and pointedly 
 made a pleasant remark to me, addressing me as 
 Captain Warren, upon which my truculent neighbour 
 (evidently a swashbuckler) collapsed and spoke not 
 another word for hours. 
 
 Our route lay over a^brown country, and ther& 
 
254 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 was little to see until we arrived at Jamestown, a 
 miserable village of red-brick houses, built by Mr. 
 Bradford. I was busily engaged, however, in such 
 a funny manner. Rhodes who sat opposite to me, 
 was engaged in getting something up by heart, so I 
 offered to hear him. It was the XXXIX Articles 
 of our Christian faith. We got on very well until 
 we arrived at the article on predestination, and 
 there we stuck. He had his views and I had mine, 
 and our fellow passengers were greatly amused at 
 the topic of our conversation — for several hours — 
 being on this one subject. Rhodes is going in for 
 his degree at home, and works out here during the 
 vacation. 
 
 An Australian keeps the hotel. Mr. Green, the 
 engineer of the Orange River Bridge is here and 
 
 knows at Sheffield. A very intelligent farmer 
 
 told us a good deal about the diseases of the animals 
 in the country. The sheep suffer jfrom parasites 
 about the liver, and so long as they only stimulate 
 its action they grow fat, but when they get too 
 numerous the sheep pine away and die. 
 
 August 4. — Started at 6 A.M., and descended 
 1000 feet, arriving at Aliwal North to breakfast. 
 Here Green and another left us, and Rhodes and I 
 had more room for carrying on our arguments. 
 
 Near the road, about half a mile out of Aliwal, 
 are two hot springs, situated in very springy, turfy 
 soil ; they are always bubbling up sulphureous gas. 
 The waters are quite warm, more than tepid ; people 
 come here and bathe. The waters are carried into 
 the town to irrigate the trees which are now being 
 
X 
 m 
 
 n 
 
 > 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 z 
 
TO KIMBERLEY 255 
 
 planted about. The hotel is very decent, and the 
 towns will soon look well. 
 
 The Orange B/iver is very empty just now, and 
 we drove over the drift (ford) without difficulty. 
 There is a water-mill on the north side of the river. 
 Our road now lay over a very dry country, the grass 
 being much sparser than further south. At night 
 we arrived at Smithfield ; where there is only a 
 small and poor hotel, and being Saturday night it 
 was crowded with loafers. 
 
 August 5. — Up to 6 A.M., coach quite full; and 
 Rhodes and I did not get on very far in the Articles. 
 Passed a small town where there was an auction 
 going on, and dined at a farm where there was roast 
 sucking pig — a Sunday dinner. Arrived at Bloem- 
 fontein at 6 P.M. 
 
 After washing and supper I walked up to Bishop's 
 Lodge, and found the Bishop, Mrs. Webb and a 
 large party, aU looking well and Cyprian much 
 grown. 
 
 August 6. — Took a sketch of the citadel. Got 
 the top seat outside, and went on to Boshof 
 There has been an indignation meeting relative to 
 the Raad ; the people want to reduce the pay 
 and numbers of the members so that they would 
 cost ;^i092 per annum, instead of ;^6ooo, but they 
 will not succeed. 
 
 Went to see old Mr. Bain, who got out of bed 
 and talked a long time. He said he had been 
 looking out for me all the week. He is a great 
 gardener, as great as Solomon, at any rate with 
 regard to South Africa. He says that the poplar- 
 
256 FROM CAPETOWN 
 
 tree suits the soil far better than does the blue- 
 gum. His great scheme of supplying Kimberley 
 with fresh vegetables has not succeeded. He ought 
 to have made his fortune over it, but unfortunately 
 he cannot get middlemen to sell the things from 
 house to house at Kimberley. He sends no end 
 of vegetables there at reasonable prices, but there is 
 no sale, although everybody wants vegetables. 
 
 August 7. — Saw George Paton at Bain's Vley, 
 and breakfasted at Harvey's. He has brought 
 water out, conducts it in canvas pipes and ducts, 
 and grows water cresses ; most enterprising. His 
 garden is a sight. 
 
 Arrived at Kimberley, and put up at Government 
 House ; so glad to see Major Lanyon again, after 
 a rather monotonous journey in the coach, but 
 much relieved by Rhodes' company and the 
 XXXIX Articles. 
 
22- 
 
 25" East Longitude 
 
 Cambrmh i ^-fi tj 
 
 'W *'-'^ - -a , < -, 
 
 ^!K.'*"^^ 
 
 ■ /■•-.I 
 
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 ^£>tijum'3 
 
 /-, 
 
 '\ 
 
 X 
 
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 K 
 
 / 
 
 to 
 
 
 tj 
 
 j^i^e 
 
 w 
 
 
 or 
 
 
 t. 
 
 "i,r™,_.c^ 
 
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 „<;.y^- 
 
 /? 
 
 
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 DIAGRAM 
 
 ;'.X ,'f\SoItpun 
 
 * I iShovffina eipproM.i7fn:itfilu the ocneeal 
 
 cfiidslons under' nJ/ir/t iai^^ haveMetn 
 cTabnedmerifiorifd in the reports ef^ 
 ; N^/ Captain J^rren. 
 
 ••^jS / f /^ ^ Orewpf Free State titles 
 •JmotftM^ 0- J \3.AIbemion. yranti from. Miicrhoer 
 ,''0»''«'«'f« ft"» JS-JLandi ^ranfieet Sy several cAiefs 
 
 /_ (cJakma cv€riajc^my)^tx { Chief h/aier6oer 
 
 V Janoe /%itMhi. 
 
 f^i* I.cmt/ tnSji /ifpi/i/tc 
 
 Jim^foem 
 JCats /da'ftnrieis 
 ^Aidam. Ao/c a otAeris 
 IP CfimpD^iI.€tntis . c/aimeaijfCor^fitij /Cok an J 
 ( Orcthye J^rce S/ate 
 
 C Total amount or tonci re^opime/tt/ect fo natives 
 (in farms) on CampbelfLancfa ^Ao^ — ii,>ck A- «*. 
 V:7^ef<a^ grants fyyit/am AhJi ™*/— ^'™' 
 
 & Jizn^ Motfyiiu. 
 recoTn mended ]3 Lancfs ffranted &y yV /v^i/kr^oer 
 
 fn on* ilock I 1 Totat amouni qftanart^mmfncht^fvnattfcs «jt<ww» 
 
THE LAND SETTLEMENT OF 
 GRIQUALAND WEST 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Wednesday, August 8. — Major Lanyon has most 
 hospitably put me up until I can look about me, and 
 see how I am to dispose of myself. I cannot hear of 
 any rooms vacant anywhere at present. In the 
 meantime I must busy myself in getting an office 
 and a secretary or clerk. 
 
 I find that there are several men who wish for the 
 job, but there is only one that I think very suitable 
 and he is at a very low ebb just at present. I plump 
 for Mr. W. P. Hutton, he looks just the man for the 
 work. He has been clerk in a magistrate's office, 
 has a good knowledge of Cape law, and wants to 
 have a try at the work, and I have taken to him. 
 I do not know what has brought him up to the 
 diamond-fields, but I fancy that he is some near 
 relative of Judge Stockenstrom, and of our Attorney- 
 General, Mr. Shippard (who are brothers-in-law) ; 
 but if I cannot always take exactly the same view 
 as Mr. Stockenstrom has done, it will be all the better 
 that I shall have had the advantage of the views of 
 his relative before coming to a conclusion ; we are 
 going to look out for an office. 
 
 August 9. — They have found me an office in the 
 Government buildings close to the offices of the 
 
260 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Administrator and of the Surveyor-General. It is 
 a good-sized room, some thirty feet square, with 
 mud walls and a high-pitched iron roof (insufferably 
 hot, no doubt, in summer). They are going to ceil 
 it for me with canvas, and when furnished with two 
 tables, four chairs and a cupboard I shall be complete. 
 The floor is of mud and wiU require fresh cow-dung 
 over it at least once a week. I shall have the roof 
 whitewashed as soon as the heat comes on, but 
 I hope to have completed the work long before 
 Christmas. 
 
 I must recollect that my position in regard to 
 the Administrator is now changed. When on the 
 Boundary Line I was an Imperial officer, independent 
 of the Administrator ; now I am a Colonial official, 
 and though independent of aU other Colonial officers 
 am directly subordinate to Major Lanyon, and must 
 be careful to remember that our positions are now 
 changed when I meet him on official matters. 
 
 My secretary or clerk, Mr. Hutton, teUs me that 
 he was registrar of the land court under Mr. Stocken- 
 strom ; I am in luck. 
 
 August lo. — I have no instructions as yet and 
 shall have none for a long time, though I know 
 pretty well what to do ; still I must have something 
 definite to work on. After conferences with Major 
 Lanyon it has been settled to refer to Capetown, and 
 we shall get no reply tiU the end of the month ; in 
 the meantime I must work out some lines on which 
 to regulate my action. 
 
 I think that the following will be absolutely 
 necessary if I am to avoid endless litigation in the 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 261 
 
 future : I shall not propose or initiate anything 
 (if I can help it) in connection with personal claims. 
 I must insist on the applications coming from the 
 people who have claims so that they cannot afterwards 
 repudiate the arrangement. To do this they must of 
 course know what I am ready to recommend, so that 
 their applications may be made out accordingly. But 
 my recommendations are reviewed by the members of 
 the Executive Council, consisting of the Administrator, 
 the Judge of the High Court, the Attorney-General, 
 and the Treasurer ; and eventually are approved by 
 Sir Bartle Frere. I shall have thus in each case to 
 talk the matters over with each of the Executive 
 present in Kimberley, and ascertain their respective 
 views, for they do not all think alike. It will be a 
 weary business, but it is my only chance of success. 
 
 So my general line will be as follows. I must 
 first study the case and see the claimants, find out 
 what is the least they will accept in lieu of all claims 
 (of course their attorneys will be with them) ; 
 then I must see the members of council one by one 
 and ascertain what they will agree to, and then I 
 wiU see Major Lanyon and find out what he will 
 approve of, and then I must consider the whole 
 subject over in the light of all these views and come 
 to a conclusion as to what I can in equity recom- 
 mend. 
 
 Although it is, after all, a compromise in every 
 ease, not an arbitration, and though my freedom 
 of action is very circumscribed, yet I must keep in 
 view what is fair and just and shall not recommend 
 anything that I do not feel is quite fair to all parties 
 
262 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 I do not like the business in the least, it seems so 
 very laborious and likely to come to nothing, but I 
 see no better way out of the present difficulties. 
 
 In the first place I cannot imagine what there is to 
 induce the people to come to me, especially as it wQl 
 dock the fees of the lawyers. I think that I may 
 be sitting day after day in my office without any one 
 coming to see me. Supposing aU the lawyers agree 
 to advise their clients to hold aloof, and stick out 
 for their fuU claims, what am I to do then? If 
 the lawyers do aUow their clients to come to terms 
 they wlU deserve well of their country, for it must 
 be at a great prospective loss to themselves. I 
 can picture Mr. Hutton and myself sitting day after 
 day in the office waiting for claimants and twiddling 
 our thumbs. 
 
 Hurrah ! This is a good omen for the future ! 
 The mining people (I don't know who they are) are 
 going to ask me to report upon aU their squabbles 
 in the Kimberley mines. That shows that there is 
 no objection to me. 
 
 It will be fun. I hear that one of the members 
 of the Mining Board always comes to the meeting 
 with a pickaxe, which he lays down on the table in 
 front of him ready for any emergency. I shall find 
 myself in a hornet's nest when I begin to look into 
 their affairs and mete out judgment. This is quite 
 different to the Land Claims ; it is a case of arbitra- 
 tion, and I shall not take it up unless I can ensure 
 that they wiU abide by my decision. 
 
 August II. — I am going to devote all next week 
 to a study of the Land Question ; it requires such 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 26B 
 
 careful consideration ; land has been given out by 
 so many different authorities, and they are not all 
 of the same account. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, before I can proceed 
 with my work I have a very difficult matter to 
 tackle. I have to make good my own words. When 
 on the boundary line I assured the Boers that they 
 would be treated justly in Griqualand West, and 
 now I find myself a Griqualand West official and 
 must show the Boers by my own dealings with them 
 that this is the case. Yet here at the outset is a 
 difficulty. They say that their land titles have 
 been impounded in the Registry Office, and that a 
 quit-rent of £5 per 1000 morgen is being charged 
 on all farms, no matter what the original warrant 
 may have said. I don't know whether this really 
 has been done and I am not going to inquire, it is 
 quite enough for me to know what the Boers say, 
 and I am writing in to the Government to say that 
 I wish to be enabled to assure the Boers that their 
 surmises are not correct, as it is impossible for me 
 to commence work until they are in possession of 
 their title-deeds, and are charged according to the 
 original "briefie." In some cases the titles were 
 given out under the British Sovereignty at ;^i per 
 1000 morgen, and it is absurd to charge five times 
 the original amount on our own British titles. 
 I don't know in the least whether this has actually 
 been done by our Government, but the Boers think 
 it is so, and I cannot deal with them or commence 
 my work until this matter is cleared up. 
 
 Saturday, August 19. — I have had a week's hard 
 
264 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 work, reading up and talking, and am gratified to 
 find that in the meanwhile my two bugbears have 
 been removed — the Boers can obtain their title-deeds 
 on application to the Registry Ofl&ce, and their quit- 
 rents are to be charged on the original " briefie " 
 and not on the rate laid down by the New Ordin- 
 ance, which is only to apply to lands given out in 
 the future. Major Lanyon, to whom I referred the 
 matter, tells me that my observations and pro- 
 posals are quite reasonable and that he approves of 
 them. 
 
 I have had interviews with the leading attorneys 
 retained by the litigants. There are over 220 cases 
 in appeal before the High Court, and these involve 
 nearly all the lands in Griqualand West, so that 
 there can be no progress in land business until they 
 are settled. The attorneys are Messrs. Smuts, 
 Haarhoff, Buyskes, du Toit, Manby, &c. 
 
 To my surprise they seem all ready to confer and 
 see what can be done for their several clients, to 
 enable them to compromise and keep things put of 
 court ; though Mr. Haarhoff says that if compromises 
 are effected it means a loss of about ;^20,cx30 to the 
 legal profession during the next ten years ; but on 
 the other hand it will stimulate business in land and 
 the prosperity of the country. It is quite evident 
 that, even lumping the Griqua claims into batches, 
 I shall have from 300 to 4CX) cases to inquire into, 
 and some cases, such as those of Waterboer and 
 Arnot, involve the examination of very voluminous 
 correspondence. 
 
 I have been reading a little pamphlet lately 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 265 
 
 published by "An old Colonist" on the South 
 African Conference, and have discussed the subject 
 with Rhodes and various fellow passengers on the 
 way up from Capetown. I have not found any 
 very definite views, for there are embarrassing 
 questions which lead to dilemmas of the most prickly 
 description. Incidentally it throws a good deal of 
 light on my present business. 
 
 I think that all agree that the Conference was 
 proposed by Lord Carnarvon mainly for the purpose 
 of pushing confederation ; but on the subject of 
 confederation itself there seem to be many opinions 
 with mighty differences. The real crux, I think, is 
 the matter of customs dues ; the Cape Colony do 
 not want to give them up (for articles in transit to 
 the interior), but are afraid of Natal doing so and 
 thus drawing the shipping from the Cape ports to 
 Natal. 
 
 The " Old Colonist" is (he says) a resident of the 
 Eastern Province, but he does not go in for separa- 
 tion. He is very much annoyed with Lord Carnarvon 
 for having proposed a conference without first bring- 
 ing the suggestion before the Free Parliament of 
 the Cape ; but Lord Carnarvon in his despatch of 
 July 15, 1875, points out that the Cape Colony is 
 only one out of several states, and that "her Majesty's 
 Government are alone in a position to invite com- 
 munities, wholly independent of each other, to meet 
 and confer." Undoubtedly Mr. Froude has raised 
 a great number of difficulties which cannot readily 
 be surmounted for a long time. Lord Carnarvon 
 is found fault with in this pamphlet for having 
 
266 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 suggested that both the Eastern and Western Pro- 
 vinces of the Cape Colony should be represented in 
 the conference ; but in his despatch (July 15, 1875) 
 he has already given us his reasons for so doing, viz., 
 that Mr. Molteno himself in 1871 moved a resolution 
 that the Colony should be divided into three or more 
 provincial governments, and also that petitions for 
 the separation of the Eastern and Western Provinces 
 had been received at the Colonial Office more 
 recently. 
 
 The " Old Colonist " seems to think that the great 
 difficulty in the way of confederation is the different 
 lines of policy adopted towards natives in the Cape 
 Colony and north of the Orange River; and the 
 supposed insolvent condition of Natal. He says 
 that the great objection to English law on the part 
 of the people of the Transvaal and the Orange Free 
 State is that in questions of human right it allows 
 of no distinction of colour, and that they would not 
 change their native policy for the sake of conformity 
 with the Cape Colony ; that the Cape Colony 
 has settled its relations to the aboriginal races 
 upon a basis of justice and reason ; that there 
 is not one law for the black and another for the 
 white, but that Hottentots, Kafirs and Bushmen 
 have been encouraged to adapt themselves, within 
 the limits of their capacity, to a certain degree 
 of civilised order maintained by one supreme law ; 
 in many parts of the Cape Colony the coloured 
 population are thoroughly domesticated : and that 
 the Colony is not in want of any instruction or 
 advice from the Imperial Government on the 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 267 
 
 subject. He considers that under the laws of the 
 Cape Colony the natives are gradually acquiring 
 property and are becoming both from a commercial 
 and social point of view an important element in 
 the settled population. 
 
 He points out that the native policy of the 
 Republics presents the most significant contrast to 
 that of the Cape Colony : the natives being treated 
 as an inferior caste, their crimes being dealt with 
 by exceptional penal legislation, their property and 
 mines also being under serious disabilities. He con- 
 cludes by stating that there must be a physical 
 and social preparation for confederation before it is 
 politically possible, and that this is now going on. 
 This pamphlet was written (of course) before the 
 annexation of the Transvaal, and I am very glad 
 to see this native question raised In so distinct a 
 manner, as I have often been struck by the difficulties 
 of treating the native justly, both under British law 
 and under the Orange Free State law. As to the 
 Cape Colonial law, I cannot accept the rosy view of 
 affairs taken by the " Old Colonist." The law may 
 be the same for all, but the magistrates are subject 
 to dismissal if they do not please, and I don't believe 
 that in the administration of the law it is the same 
 for the white man as the coloured population, what- 
 ever the theory of the subject may be. In fact, 
 paradoxical as it may appear, there can be no doubt 
 that if justice is to be done to the natives you must 
 protect them. 
 
 I think that some of the speeches on both sides 
 in the Cape Parliament on the subject of the 
 
268 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 proposed Conference (on Nov, 12, 1875) are most 
 interesting and instructive. 
 
 Mr. Molteno accuses the Imperial Government 
 of assisting to raise the Separatist controversy 
 of the Eastern and Western Provinces, and states 
 that the sending out of an Imperial agent (Mr. 
 Froude) to arouse the whole country against the 
 Ministry was destructive to responsible govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Jacobs (the Attorney-General) points out that 
 the proposed object of the Conference is to secure 
 uniformity of treatment of the natives ; but he 
 justly points out that natives require different 
 treatment according to their degree of civilisation. 
 He then uses a very odd argument against con- 
 federation. If you want to keep peace, you must 
 prevent union among the natives. If the natives 
 see all the European nations around them combining 
 together they will say, " What is this for ? Why 
 should not we do the same thing ? " 
 
 He says that you cannot adopt a hard and fast 
 rule towards the natives. You cannot, for instance, 
 treat the Tambookies of Queenstown in the same way 
 as the Hottentots at a mission-station : you must 
 have different systems. " They must he gradually 
 taught and brought under the influence of our law." 
 It does not do to free them too suddenly ; you must 
 gain an influence over them by degrees, that was 
 Sir George Grey's policy. The natives prefer our 
 laws in the main, as they see that they are more 
 just and equitable than theirs. Nothing is so danger- 
 ous in native matters as change : you must work by 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 269 
 
 degrees. This is very diiferent to the view of the 
 law as tonatives taken by the " Old Colonist." 
 
 Mr. John X. Merriman says that the spirit of 
 separation of the East and West is not dead but 
 slumbering, and has woke up at the cry about a 
 Conference : he himself would never vote for the 
 Colony being split up into provinces ; he quotes from 
 an article in the Eastern Provinces Herald in which 
 it is said that " the two provinces are separated 
 by diversity of interests and modes of thought ; and 
 by that want of sympathy which must necessarily 
 exist between a young, rising, vigorous community, 
 such as ours, and a slow, unenterprising people like 
 that inhabiting the sister province, people ' standing 
 upon the ancient way,' and content to advance no 
 further than their fathers or forefathers before them. 
 In the one province the Dutch preponderate, in the 
 other the English." 
 
 Mr. Sprigg, with his knowledge of the proceedings 
 of our House of Commons, takes his stand upon 
 Magna Oharta, and declares that the Constitution of 
 England is (with a limitation) the Constitution of 
 the Cape Colony. He says that their constitutional 
 rights have been infringed by the course followed by 
 the Secretary of State and his agent, Mr. Froude ; 
 that the Crown can only address the people through 
 its own servants, the Ministry. 
 
 He then goes into the difference between the 
 Queen's Government and the Imperial Parliament, 
 the latter meaning the Crown, the Lords, and the 
 Commons. He states that the power of Imperial 
 Parliament is so great that it can do anything except 
 
270 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 make a man into a woman ; but that the Queen's 
 Government, acting through the Secretary of State, 
 has no such power. He denies that the Imperial 
 Government has the power to withdraw the Consti- 
 tution of the Colony, but allows that the Imperial 
 Parliament has that power. 
 
 As a result of considering all the speeches, I have 
 come to the conclusion that Mr. Froude has greatly 
 injured the prospects of Lord Carnarvon's scheme 
 by his conduct of affairs, and that the Ministers of 
 the Cape Colony have taken advantage of this to 
 postpone confederation sine die. They do not wish 
 to lose the customs dues of the interior yet awhile, 
 they fear the recrudescence of the agitation for 
 separation of the Eastern and Western Provinces, 
 and they think that the Imperial Government wish 
 to withdraw all British troops (as they have done 
 in other Colonies) : leaving the great native question 
 to be grappled with by the confederated States, 
 with Natal almost submerged by the Zulus and in 
 financial difiiculties. They also do not see their 
 way to uniformity of treatment of natives throughout 
 the States of South Africa. 
 
 At the bottom of all the questions I can see cus- 
 toms dues — disposal of lands — treatment of natives; 
 but above all this, the Cape Colony Ministers think 
 of the supremacy of the Cape Colony in South 
 Africa, and of Capetown in the Cape Colony. 
 
 This is made clear by Mr. Molteno's letter to Lord 
 Carnarvon of October 2, 1876, on the subject of 
 confederation. He considers that the unification of 
 South Africa would be most satisfactorily effected by 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 271 
 
 the gradual annexation of the minor colonies and 
 states to the Cape Colony, and he does not favour 
 confederation. There is, to us in Griqualand West, 
 the greatest difference between the two, as we are 
 an English community and in the Cape Colony the 
 Dutch vote preponderates. 
 
 I am afraid that whatever I do on the land 
 question of Griqualand West will meet with no 
 favour at Capetown ; the Cape Colony wants the 
 lands of Griqualand West, without the native claims 
 being settled, unless I greatly misunderstand the 
 statements in the House. 
 
 The question which now arises is : Is it better for 
 Griqualand West to become one of the confederate 
 states or to be absorbed by the Cape Colony ? The 
 two alternatives have been put by Lord Carnarvon to 
 the Cape Ministers, and it requires thinking over. 
 
 I have now gone over the Land Court judgment of 
 Griqualand West, and note the following points to 
 guide me. 
 
 The Attorney-General (Mr. Shippard) addressing 
 the Land Court on behalf of the Crown and in the 
 interests of the native chiefs and people, seems to me 
 to come to conclusions which very much favour the 
 Boer squatters on land, i.e., that if a white man 
 squats on land it belongs to him, but if a native lives 
 on land, even on which his forefathers before him 
 have lived, he has no rights to that land. And 
 where does the half- civilised Griqua come in ? He 
 is just as white in many cases as the darker Boer 
 and quite as much civilised, yet he must be classed 
 among the blacks and have no rights to land. 
 
272 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Mr. Jacobs, the Attorney-General of the Cape 
 Colony, has enunciated a juster view. Mr. Shippard 
 speaks of espousing the cause of the natives ; let 
 us see what it is that he says on their behalf. 
 
 In the first place he dismisses the Bushman as 
 living in a perfectly savage state (on locusts and 
 wild honey) under the shade of bushes, and ineligible 
 for ownership of land. In this I quite agree ; the 
 bushman (untU he takes up civilised ways) must 
 retire before the white man. The two cannot live 
 together independent one of the other. 
 
 Then he refers to the Hottentots (including the 
 Griquas and Korannas) and the Bechuanas. He 
 allows that the Griquas are a mixed race — the 
 offspring of Hottentot women by Dutch Boers — and 
 says that their original settlement was Piquetberg 
 in the Cape Colony, but asserts that Griqua usages 
 as to land are precisely analogous to those of all 
 other primitive races, although there is so much 
 evidence to show to the contrary. He then con- 
 siders what are the rights of the native chiefs and 
 inhabitants, what are their private rights and what 
 are the Crown rights in the province ! He allows 
 the native tribes only tribal rights and no territorial 
 sovereignty, the habits of the people being nomadic. 
 He considers that the idea of holding land in 
 severalty is inconceivable and that neither the chief 
 nor the people can alienate the tribal lands over which 
 they roam. So far I entirely agree with him, for a 
 purely savage people that has made no progress 
 towards civilisation. He considers that all the pre- 
 tended alienation of land in this province must be 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 273 
 
 struck off the list of claims at a blow, and that the 
 original tribal lands become therefore part of the 
 Crown lands of the province, on the understanding, 
 of course, that due provision will be made first and 
 foremost for the original dwellers in that land. In 
 this I quite agree except that we must recollect that 
 native tribes may gradually become civilised, that 
 the Griquas were in that condition of transition and 
 had actually begun to hold lands in severalty before 
 the diamond-fields were discovered, and that certain 
 promises regarding land were made to the Griquas 
 on our annexing Griqualand West. 
 
 He then proceeds to propose isolated and detached 
 native locations for the exclusive cultivation of the 
 natives, with also exclusive rights of certain com- 
 monages. He considers that these locations should 
 be wedged in between the farms of white settlers so 
 that the natives may learn to be civilised. He points 
 out that if a native acquires a title to a piece of land 
 or a farm he only sells it to the canteen-keeper, and 
 spends the proceeds in drink. In this I concur, 
 except that I hear of great exceptions being taken 
 by colonists and by the missionaries to isolated 
 locations jammed in between the white settlers ; 
 this matter I must examine into. 
 
 He then points out where the natives should be 
 located : 
 
 The first duty of the Government is to establish 
 locations at Boetsap, Campbell, Sifonels and other 
 places. He considers that about half of the ground 
 between the Hart and Vaal Rivers should be reserved 
 as native locations and that Janje Mothibi is 
 
 s 
 
274 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 entitled to lands about Likatlong. He considers 
 that the alleged grants of land by Waterboer and 
 the so-called North Albanian Reserve should be 
 dismissed. 
 
 So far it is all very good for wholly uncivilised 
 nations, but now comes the Dutch view, namely, 
 that European squatters on land, with the licence 
 of the Chief, had no rights of any kind so long 
 as the country remained in native hands, but that 
 on the advent of British supremacy the conditions 
 of life were altered, and that, having occupied 
 land for a long time, these white squatters can 
 claim possession by prescription, and are entitled 
 to the land, and that by these means only the borid 
 Jide colonist gets anything, and the speculator can 
 profit nothing. 
 
 He considers that occupancy by Europeans con- 
 stitutes a title good even against the Crown in 
 such a country as this, but it must be bond Jide 
 occupancy before October 27, 1871 (date of annexa- 
 tion). 
 
 With regard to the Chief Waterboer, he trusts 
 that his private lands will be secured to him, and 
 that the Government will treble or quadruple his 
 present very inadequate pecuniary allowance. 
 
 The difficulty to me is that on annexation, under 
 this theory, the European comes to own land he 
 never did own, and from a squatter he becomes a 
 landowner, while the native who did own the land 
 becomes less than a squatter. This is not the way 
 to elevate or civilise the natives ; this is not the way 
 to gain their confidence or to do them justice. The 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 275 
 
 native evidently requires some protection which 
 British law does not secure. 
 
 The judgment of Mr. Stockenstrom delivered in the 
 Land Court on March 1 6, 1876, covers a large number 
 of subjects and is generally considered as being given 
 from a very Dutch standpoint. I am only going 
 to note those particular points which aifect my pro- 
 ceedings as Commissioner in trying to come to a 
 settlement of the various claims disallowed, for of 
 course all the allowed claims hold good. 
 
 Mr. Stockenstrom commences by stating that he 
 finds that the same pieces of land had, in many 
 instances, been granted or sold to difierent in- 
 dividuals by the representatives of different tribes, 
 each tribe claiming that the land in question be- 
 longed to it, while Waterboer claimed to be regarded 
 as the sole lawful lord of the soil, and pointed to the 
 fact that the British Government had taken cession 
 of the country from him as an unanswerable argu- 
 ment to his contention that his grants alone were 
 valid. Mr. Stockenstrom, therefore, proceeds to 
 give an outline of the historical questions, which I 
 shall very briefly allude to. 
 
 (a) At the date of annexation of this territory in 
 1 87 1, Janje Mothibi and a portion of his tribe of 
 Batlapins (Bechuanas) were living at Likatlong (near 
 the junction of Vaal and Hart Rivers), while other 
 portions were scattered in small villages and kraals 
 on both banks of the Hart River in this Province, along 
 the north bank of the Vaal River as far as the 
 present town of Barkly, and in three large kraals 
 under head-men Sogo, Sitlogome, and Siffonel, on 
 
276 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 the west side of the Vaal River towards Campbell : 
 and, while occupying these positions as their head- 
 quarters, they also had outlying gardens and cattle- 
 posts in various parts of the country which they 
 used at the proper season of the year, and they had 
 been in possession of and had used these lands for at 
 least thirty years. 
 
 (&) The north bank of the Yaal Eiver, from 
 Barkly to Fourteen Streams, was occupied by 
 Korannas, intermixed with a few Batlapins, and 
 about half a dozen white farmers, who had taken up 
 their residence in these parts with the consent of 
 the natives. These Korannas resided near the 
 bank of the river and had no boundary between 
 themselves and the Batlapins, who, indeed, denied 
 that the Korannas had any claim to land north of the 
 Vaal Biver, except at Mamusa (outside and to the 
 north of this province). [Mamusa is now Schweizer 
 Reneke.J 
 
 (c) With the exception of the places mentioned 
 above the whole of the province west of the Hart 
 and Vaal Rivers was occupied by Griquas or those 
 who admittedly claimed under them, 
 
 {d) The rest of the province, i.e., that part lying 
 east of the Vaal River and north of the Vetberg 
 line, was occupied by persons holding Orange Free 
 State titles, while the land south of the Vetberg 
 line as far as the Orange and Vaal Rivers, was held 
 by lessees and grantees under Waterboer. 
 
 (e) In addition to these divisions, the land be- 
 tween the Hart and Vaal Rivers had been 
 divided up and sold in 1870-71 by Theodore Doms, 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 277 
 
 an agent for Janje Mothibi, while a great portion of 
 the same country had also been sold and granted to 
 various persons by Barend Bloem, who called him- 
 self paramount chief of the Korannas, and others 
 again claimed the same lands under grants from Jan 
 Bloem, father of Barend Bloem. Others again 
 ■claimed the same lands under grants of Barend 
 Barends (a Griqua chief of Boetsap), and there are 
 further claims to the same lands under grants which 
 Waterboer had recently made. 
 
 (/) To the north-west of the Vaal River are 
 grants of Cornelius Kok, Captain of Campbell, which 
 were ignored by Waterboer. 
 
 (g) On the Vetberg line the farms of Orange Free 
 State and Waterboer titles encroached on each other. 
 
 Mr. Stockenstrom minimises the Griqua claims : he 
 goes back to the beginning of the present century 
 and quotes the statement of the Rev. Mr. Anderson, 
 that they were then " a herd of wandering naked 
 savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase — their 
 bodies daubed with red paint, their heads loaded 
 with gi'ease, with no covering but a filthy kaross, 
 without knowledge, morals, or a trace of civilisation." 
 
 Under the missionaries they gradually became 
 civilised, and the Judge relates that in 1822 Captain 
 Andrew Waterboer began to issue written " re- 
 quests " or certificates for farms to prominent 
 members of his tribe. 
 
 He considers that Barend Barends and Cornelius 
 Kok were independent chiefs exercising as full 
 control over their subjects as Waterboer ever did, 
 and that they were chiefs over tribes, and not over 
 
278 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 territories; that about 1825 Waterboer, Cornelius 
 Kok, and Adam Kok were the head men respectively 
 of Griquatown, Campbell, and Philippolis, and that 
 in those days boundary lines between tribes or sec- 
 tions of tribes were unknown ; that in later times the 
 missionaries had taught the natives the advantages 
 of a more settled mode of life, and that it became a 
 recognised principle among them that the waters 
 flowing from a fountain and the lands under cultiva- 
 tion should be reserved for the exclusive use of the 
 persons who had opened the fountain, and cultivated 
 the land, and that on the abandonment of the land 
 they forfeited their rights and the property reverted 
 to the general community. 
 
 Under this ruling it might have been expected 
 that the Judge would have awarded lands which 
 had been in occupation of natives for a long time, tO' 
 them in some definite manner, if he did not choose ta 
 consider that a native could be awarded land in 
 severalty. Let us see what he has done ! 
 
 The Surveyor- General tells me that the Judge has 
 allowed 164 claims based on Orange Free State titles 
 to Europeans, and thirty-six grants of Waterboer to 
 Europeans and a few natives, but that he has dis- 
 allowed nearly the whole of the native claims under 
 Waterboer grants, amounting to 223. Many of 
 these so-called native claimants are old Griqua 
 Councillors who to all appearances are quite as 
 civilised and have quite as much white blood as 
 many of the coloured Boers. 
 
 The Judge recommended locations to the Korannas 
 according to their wants, and to the Batlapins at 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 279 
 
 various places where they now are living, and to 
 certain Griquas at Campbell he awarded farms or 
 lands under grants from Adam Kok, which were 
 repudiated by Waterboer, but as to the claims of 
 the bulk of the Griquas under Waterboer there 
 seems to be a general disallowance, and no re- 
 commendation even for locations, except an opinion 
 that Griquas who had no " requests," and therefore 
 no locus standi in the land, and who could show long 
 occupation of land, should have allotments made to 
 them in proportion to the number of their stock and 
 the value of the improvements made by them. 
 
 It may be said that there is no intermediate point 
 between holding lands in severalty and in locations 
 for natives, but the missionaries have shown that 
 the Government could avoid issuing saleable title- 
 deeds to natives, who might be induced to sell the 
 lands, by giving them leases for a certain number of 
 years to be renewed from time to time. In the case 
 of the Griquas, however, the promises of the Govern- 
 ment seem to be distinct — that they should have 
 their lands in severalty. 
 
 My perusal of the judgment of the Land Court 
 does not lead me to think that substantial justice 
 has been done to the original owners of the ground, 
 the Griquas. The Judge had a very difficult task 
 to perform, and he carried it out with great ability, 
 but it seems to me that according to the principles 
 enunciated the lands claimed by Waterboer and his 
 councillors on old certificates were either private lands 
 or tribal lands, and should have been awarded to 
 the people, so far as they required them, if not in 
 
280 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 severalty at least as tribal lands. But here comes 
 in the difficulty about our law, whether British or 
 Eoman Dutch : there is no modification of it for 
 half - civilised people Hke the native tribes here 
 about. Either the land belongs to them in severalty 
 or it does not belong to them at all. 
 
 In addition to this, we took the country over with 
 distinct promises that the rights of the natives 
 would be respected, but these promises were not put 
 in a concrete form before the Land Court of Septem- 
 ber 7, 1875, and were not considered except to be 
 dismissed as undetermined. 
 
 My business is to see that substantial justice is 
 done to all claimants to land in Griqualand West 
 so far as my recommendations are of any avail, but 
 I must be very sure of my grounds for recommend- 
 ing. 
 
 I have been given two books to read which are 
 said to be respectively the antidotes one to the 
 other : one is by Captain Lumley, called "Adamantia," 
 and the other is by Messrs. Orpen and Arnot, and is 
 called " The Land Question of Griqualand West." 
 They are both mines of information and will be 
 most useful to me, but they are both rather inclined 
 to advocate the absorption of the native lands. The 
 question of justice to the natives is scarcely con- 
 sidered enough, and yet from even a utilitarian 
 point of view it must be worth while giving the 
 natives enough land to live upon and to expand in, 
 otherwise we pay for it in the end. 
 
 The missionary records show that during the first 
 ten years of this century the Griquas advanced in a 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 281 
 
 remarkable manner towards civilisation. Mr. Ander- 
 son speaks of four square miles at Griquatown being 
 covered with corn and barley, and of the congre- 
 gation at that time numbering 800 people. The 
 statements as to the advanced condition of these 
 people may be understood from the fact that in 
 1 8 14 the Cape Colonial Government ordered Mr. 
 Anderson to send to the Cape 20 Griquas for the 
 Cape Regiment. 
 
 Mr. Moffat in his book published in 1842 speaks 
 of the great advance of the Bechuanas and Griquas 
 in agricultural pursuits as early as 1828, and of the 
 farming operations in those days at Kuruman. 
 
 The view taken by Sir Harry Smith in his 
 despatch of January 20, 1851, is that which appeals 
 to an Englishman as being more in keeping with 
 justice ; he says : " The great principle by which I 
 was guided was that all the inhabitants, white and 
 coloured, should continue in possession of the farms 
 and territories occupied by them at the date of my 
 proclamation — the great principle which guided 
 me was, as I have already stated, not to disturb, 
 hut clearly to define the existing occupation; and 
 my arrangement has consequently improved the 
 condition of all." Had our Government gone on this 
 principle on annexing Griqualand West, I should 
 not be here to-day to try to bring matters to a 
 peaceful conclusion. 
 
 There are thus two views as to treatment of the 
 natives : the English and the Dutch view : and if 
 you draw a line from Ramah on the Orange E,iver 
 to the north, about 10° westerly, about the direction 
 
282 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 of the boundary line and produce it till it reaches 
 the Limpopo, you will find two kinds of civilisation- 
 In the east that of the Boers — Dutch in its origin ; 
 to the west that of the native tribes, influenced by 
 the missionaries, and English in its origin. Hence 
 we see the reason of the antagonism between the 
 Dutch and the missionaries. So long as the Cape 
 Colony was a Crown Colony there was a balance of 
 interests between Dutch and natives carefully held, 
 but now that the Cape Colony has a constitution, 
 the natives are nowhere, and even the Crown Colony 
 of Griqualand West is detrimentally affected owing 
 to the influence of the Cape Colony, exercised 
 through the Governor, who is also Governor-in-Chief 
 of Griqualand West. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 August 20. — My first report is on the subject of the 
 Diamond Concessionaires to whom Waterboer (when 
 he consented to give over Griqualand West to Great 
 Britain) gave farms in lieu of their concession. 
 
 These claims were disallowed in the Land Court 
 and an appeal was lodged. The provincial govern- 
 ment, feeling that the claims were valid, approached 
 the claimants with a view to a compromise, and at 
 the time I arrived matters had so far advanced that 
 it only remained for me to settle the quit-rent with 
 them. This has given me a good deal of occupation 
 and it is fortunate that I have heard the views of 
 English, Dutch, and Natives on the subject con- 
 stantly during the last six months when on the 
 boundary line. 
 
 The system is as follows : — In the Cape Colony, 
 whatever the quit-rent on a farm may be, the farm 
 holder has the option of paying the surplusage off 
 and reducing the quit-rent to ;^i per 1000 morgen 
 by capitalising the whole quit-rent at i6f years 
 purchase. In this province, however, for some 
 reason unknown to me, it has been settled, or pro- 
 posed, not to reduce the quit-rent below £^ per 
 1000 morgen, and this acts detrimentally on all 
 
284 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 purchases of land. Under Ordinance 3 of 1874 
 Crown lands are sold by auction on lease, and 
 farms are put up at an upset rental. Every lessee 
 can convert his lease into a perpetual quit-rent 
 tenure at a price to be agreed upon, on condition 
 that for every ;^ioo purchase-money there shall be 
 paid a perpetual quit-rent of £1 per annum. Thus 
 supposing a 3000 morgen farm is rented at 
 £t per 1000 morgen the upset price, it could be 
 converted into a perpetual quit-rent farm for ;^300, 
 and the quit-rent would be ^6 for the farm or £2 
 per 1000 morgen. If the farm were to sell for ;^3000 
 the quit-rent would be ;^20 per 1000 morgen. It is 
 evident that such a system acts detrimentally against 
 the Government obtaining any high price for a farm, 
 and dissatisfaction is widespread on the subject. 
 
 The Boer can raise money to buy a farm, but he 
 cannot pay annually a high quit-rent, and it is found 
 by experience that £\ per 1000 morgen is the most 
 he can readily raise in each year on his farm, though 
 of course he has great value on his farm in kind. 
 The result is that Boers are not willing to buy lands 
 in Griqualand West under the present system, as in 
 case they could not produce the money in cash they 
 would be liable to be sold up, and their property 
 disposed of by auction at a nominal value. 
 
 I have got to work my way out of this dilemma, 
 I am told that in the Orange Free State the farmers 
 are allowed to pay their taxes in kind when the 
 cash is not handy, and that this was one of the 
 difficulties which led to our giving up the Orange 
 River Sovereignty. Our system of government does 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 285 
 
 not admit of such elastic treatment, and we have 
 come to loggerheads with farmers by ruthlessly selling 
 their property by auction at nominal values. At the 
 present time the whole revenue of the Orange Free 
 State is only about ;!^ 100,000 per annum, very 
 little more than that of Griqualand West, and yet 
 they have no difficulty in governing that vast area 
 under their system of government. It is painful to 
 contemplate the loss that has accrued to this 
 province from instituting such a grasping policy in 
 land matters as that shown in Ordinance 3 of 1874, 
 and disclosed during the proceedings of the Land 
 Court ; for the prosperity of the province the lands 
 ought to have been settled right off; for even if the 
 Government had lost a little in one way it would 
 have made it ten times over in getting in quit-rents 
 and in settling the country. During the last five 
 years it has become more or less a desert, and all the 
 money there was has gone in fees to the lawyers. 
 
 My second report concerns the claims of Mr. 
 F. Orpen, the Surveyor-General, and members of his 
 family. He was surprised at my taking his claims 
 so early, and evidently expected that I should let 
 them wait ; but I told him frankly that I should so 
 often come to him for advice and assistance, that I 
 felt it would embarrass him if he had to advise while 
 his own claims were still unsettled. He thinks that 
 I have shown great confidence in him and is much 
 gratified. 
 
 He belongs to a branch of the Orpen family living in 
 South Africa, and his brothers hold various Govern- 
 ment positions of trust in the Cape Colony and are 
 
286 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 shrewd, long-headed men of business, with the 
 reputation of being honest and frank in their 
 deahngs. He himself is well read on many sub- 
 jects, he thinks things out and is a very agreeable 
 companion. I think that he first brought to my 
 notice the several conditions of civilisation, though 
 I may have read about them in Darwin's or 
 Lubbock's works. 
 
 (i) You have the nomadic hunter who requires 
 extensive lands to live on, and who roams at will 
 having no fixed lands he can claim. (The Bush- 
 men come under this.) 
 
 (2) You have the cattle- and sheep-farmers, 
 some nomadic, who require at least 3000 morgen 
 for a farm. The Boers come under this head for 
 the most part. 
 
 (3) You have the tillers of the soil who can live 
 on four or five morgen of irrigated land. There are 
 many natives under this head. 
 
 The natives generally come under (i), (2) and (3). 
 They cultivate lands, and they keep cattle and 
 sheep, and they hunt. 
 
 Now considering our native tribes and their lands 
 generally, the only true view to take is to allow them 
 the lands they have cultivated with a margin for 
 expansion, to allow them the grazing lands they are 
 using, again with a margin, and these lands should 
 be inalienable, because British law gives no protec- 
 tion to the natives. 
 
 As to the hunting-lands, and surplus other lands, 
 arable and pastoral, the Government can sell them 
 as Crown lands to farmers as they are wanted. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 287 
 
 But there are two matters which particularly 
 concern Griqualand West where the natives are 
 in many instances nearly civilised. First we must 
 have respect to the private lands of those natives 
 who held them in something approaching to severalty, 
 before the annexation, and secondly we must do 
 something if possible, where lands cannot be given 
 in severalty, towards giving individual native farmers 
 land approaching in tenure to a farm though at the 
 same time inalienable. Some of the Griquas are too 
 civilised to place on locations, and yet the law only 
 recognises, as yet, two kinds of tenures. 
 
 August 28. — It is very nice weather here just 
 now ; cold, frosty mornings, but sometimes a blinding 
 dust all day around Kimberley. 
 
 I have been staying hitherto with Major Lanyon, 
 but now he is expecting several guests, and a bed- 
 room has been found for me near my office, for I 
 cannot find rooms convenient in the town. I am to 
 take my meals at the Queen's (Mrs. Jardine's) Hotel, 
 excepting luncheon, which I am to take at Govern- 
 ment House so as to keep up our correspondence. 
 
 My little room is an adjunct (mud and iron) to 
 the offices, and is just large enough for my bed and 
 trunks, &c. ; it is lined with canvas, and colonies of 
 mice seem to be lodged behind the canvas walls. An 
 odd thing happened to me last night; I had 
 sprinkled the bed with Keating's flea powder and 
 was asleep when I heard a loud sneeze close to my 
 ear. I struck out but only hit the wall, and then 
 lighted a match and found nothing ; so I lay on my 
 bed and listened, and then heard mice running about 
 
288 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 in the walls and a far-away little sneeze now and 
 then ; so I came to the conclusion that a mouse had 
 got on to my pillow and had poked his nose into my 
 ear and then was suddenly taken with a sneeze ; it 
 sounded quite loud so that it must have been right 
 in my ear. A mouse came to see me this morning 
 before I got up and ate some bread and butter on a 
 plate on a chair by my bedside, and bolted each time 
 I winked my eye at him. 
 
 Cecil Ashley arrived here on Saturday from Cape- 
 town through native territories, and General Sir 
 Arthur Cunynghame is expected here to-day from 
 Pretoria, with his A.D.C. He has been shooting in 
 the Transvaal and Orange Free State. Then the 
 bishops of Capetown and Bloemfontein are also ex- 
 pected, so that we shall be quite in the world ; Sir 
 Bartle Frere is also expected if there is quiet in 
 Kaffraria. There is to be a ball here to-night at the 
 theatre, which I am anxious to be present at ; we 
 have heard so much of the balls at the Diamond 
 Fields in the early days, but I fancy the oddities 
 attendant on them have all passed away. 
 
 August 31. — I have now received instructions as 
 Special Commissioner to investigate and report upon 
 the claims to land and the settlement of the Land 
 Question of the Province. My duties are to inquire 
 into, report and advise upon : 
 
 {a) The land claims of the ex-Chief N. Waterboer, 
 of his agent, David Arnot, of the Diamond Conces- 
 sionaires, and of alleged grants of land by Waterboer 
 and purchases of land from him. (Though not 
 specified this naturally includes all native claims.) 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 289 
 
 (b) Whether a compromise can be effected as to 
 appeals along the Vetberg Line ; what are the rights 
 of the Berlin Missionary Society to the Pneil lands ; 
 and extent of land to be allowed in excess of the 
 nominal areas specified in O.F.S. titles. 
 
 (c) The amount of quit-rent to be charged on 
 Orange Free State titles and titles issued by the 
 Provincial Government ; cases which came before the 
 Land Court where exceptional consideration or 
 indulgence have been claimed ; claims which did 
 not come before the Land Court. 
 
 (d) Questions regarding the alienation of land 
 for townships, locations, commonage, and other public 
 purposes ; and generally all questions relating to 
 the lands of the Province. 
 
 It will be observed that my duties are threefold. 
 
 (i) To endeavour to compromise and settle the 
 various complications arising out of the disputed 
 judgments of the Land Court. 
 
 (2) To advise and make recommendations on those 
 cases of which the judge would take no cognisance, 
 as he considered them matters for the Government 
 to decide upon. 
 
 (3) To make recommendations about individual 
 claims on which the judge had only given general 
 judgment ; for example, in the case of allowed farms, 
 to determine their extent and quit-rents. 
 
 Upon the question of ultimate quit-rent on farms 
 I have made an immediate report, as I found that 
 I was hampered in my recommendations without 
 some ruling on the subject. I found that the upset 
 prices for rental of dry farms in the Province 
 
290 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 do not as a rule exceisd £6 per looo morgan, 
 and yet that claimants would be willing to 
 accept, in lieu of their claims, farms at from £^ 
 to ;if6 per looo morgen provided they might 
 capitalise the excess above ^i per lOoo morgen 
 and pay down the cash. So that here is an oppor- 
 tunity of settling claims and getting farms off our 
 hands and the country occupied at something near 
 the upset prices. I have, therefore, proposed that 
 all gi-antees may have the option of capitalising their 
 quit-rents over and above /^i per looo morgen at 
 1 6|- years purchase ; and I have been told that this 
 will be approved and that I may proceed on this 
 understanding. 
 
 Under this ruling the lands of this Province wiU 
 be obtainable on as advantageous a footing as those 
 of the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, and 
 many claimants will take farms for their claims at 
 something near the upset price. I can see my way 
 now to settling the claims in a very short time. The 
 Dutch are extremely litigious and, I thought at first, 
 very unreasonable, but I can see. now the difficulty 
 they have in readily getting cash to pay their quit- 
 rents. They are also very slow thinkers compared 
 with townspeople, and require time to think over 
 simple things. Yesterday a Boer came to me and 
 when I explained to him a very simple matter he 
 said, " I am dumb " ; his attorney then tried to 
 explain but without success, so I said, " Let him 
 think over it and come again." To-day he has come 
 and is quite satisfied ; he only wanted time to think 
 the matter over. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 291 
 
 September 3. — I went to Barkly on Saturday with 
 Mr. Shlppard, our Attorney-Greneral : he is small 
 and compact, and is very genial and. clever. He has 
 considerable classical knowledge, and is a pleasant 
 indoor companion, but has not studied nature on 
 his legs or from the back of a horse : we have a 
 great number of subjects on which we can gossip, and 
 the native question is one on which we can always 
 beguUe an otherwise weary hour, for we do not 
 ■quite agree in the matter. 
 
 We went in a four-wheeled cart, leaving at 3 p.m. 
 and arriving at Barkly at 6 p.m. At the half-way 
 house some question arose relative to deaths from 
 drowning in the Vaal River, where there are weeds, 
 and some one gave me a clue to this matter. He 
 pointed out that when a man is drowning he clutches 
 at anything and pulls at it, and that where there 
 are weeds he pulls at them and puUs himself to the 
 bottom. 
 
 Barkly, originally the centre of the Biver diggings, 
 is now quite a small village ; the watering-place 
 and Sunday resort of Kimberley. If the country 
 were green it would be a very pretty place : but 
 even a rapid river winding around rocks and islets 
 need not be pretty when the grass is burnt black 
 and the trees leafless or dead. August here corre- 
 sponds to April at home, and our trees here ought 
 to be now in leaf, but there has been no rain (to 
 speak of) in these parts for many months ; some 
 say for a year, and the country is very desolate ; 
 something like the Saharah. 
 
 I am Mr. Shippard's guest ; we put up at the 
 
292 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Masonic Hotel, and after dinner we went to lodge, 
 where W. Brother Past-Master Warren was received 
 with honour ; afterwards we adjourned to supper at 
 the Masonic Hotel, and I had to make a speech as 
 guest of the evening. All the towns in this country- 
 seem to have Masonic Hotels, and a large proportion 
 of the people seem to be Masons, and many of them 
 very good Masons. For the first time I think I have 
 heard the word "blooming" used as a universal 
 adjective. I heard a man behind me relating a 
 history of a lion hunt, and he got off his blooming 
 horse, and caught up his blooming gun, and took a 
 pot shot at the blooming lion, and hit it in its bloom- 
 ing eye. I was quite fascinated by the constant use 
 of the adjective, and showed so much interest in the 
 story that the man he was telling it to came up 
 and brought me into the circle, and I heard the 
 word " blooming " used about forty times before the 
 history was complete. My friend who introduced 
 himself is Bradshaw, Inspector of the Police, and I 
 think an excellent man for the rough work they 
 have here ; I have quite taken to him. They some- 
 how get very excellent men out in these parts : I 
 seem always to be stumbling on good men, who have 
 their whole hearts and souls in their occupations. 
 
 Shippard suggests that I should run for President 
 of the Orange Free State next election, as I get on 
 so well with the Boers, but I say that the pay is 
 not enough, and I propose to run for native chief 
 vice Mankoroane and Botlesetse, and offer to take 
 him with me as my native agent, at which he makes 
 a very wry face. 
 
OF GRIQU ALAND WEST 298 
 
 I saw the Mounted Constabulary at Barkly, it is 
 ■composed of all sorts and conditions, but they have 
 to bring good references ; among them I saw young 
 Wryford, who came out from England in the 
 Datiube, seeking his fortune ; he was prancing 
 about on a half broken-in horse. I think a year 
 or two in the Constabulary may be a very good 
 prelude to life in South Africa for a young fellow 
 before taking up farming or other occupation : he 
 gets an insight into things at a small expense, and 
 has time to look about him for a job. 
 
 I dined at the house of Mrs. Green last week to 
 meet Sir Arthur Cunynghame ; we had a very merry 
 dinner, and the General was most amusing, with first- 
 rate stories. 
 
 I like Mrs. Green very much. She has two sons 
 and a daughter, and I can talk to her of you and 
 the children and feel that I have a sympathetic 
 audience. She is German by birth (the Countess 
 von LUienstein), I think that her father was in the 
 German contingent, and came out here to take up 
 a grant of land after the Crimean War. Her 
 husband is a digger and landowner, and (as the 
 local Vanity Fair puts it) " once bred horses and 
 ruled a Sovereignty." He was the last British 
 Resident of the Orange River Sovereignty, and was 
 a big man in those days. He was in the Com- 
 missariat years ago, and was in the China War of 
 1842 with my father ; he is now very asthmatic, 
 and often has to sleep in his chair sitting up. 
 
 I find it difficult to get on quickly with the land 
 claims, as one matter hangs on another. The ex-Chief 
 
2»4 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Waterboer is ill (drunk), his agent is iU, and by some 
 oversight the former has given a general power of 
 attorney to some other attorney, so that the whole 
 matter is at sixes and sevens. 
 
 S&ptemher 4. — I have completed David Arnot's 
 case and sent in my recommendation. He asked 
 for 360 square miles on the Orange River, 360 square 
 miles on the Vaal River, and 800 square miles in 
 Batlapin territory. I have, however, succeeded in 
 reducing his claim to so low a limit that even Mr. 
 Shippard thought it too low, till I pointed out that 
 it was Arnot's own proposal. I cannot think why 
 people want farms in this country, they look so un- 
 inviting. 
 
 David Arnot was an attorney in good practice at 
 Colesberg, making (he says) ^2000 a year. He 
 sometimes looks like a Griqua and sometimes like a 
 European, but at all times he looks shrewd, and has 
 his eyes open. He is really a clever man, of great 
 ability though of a speculative turn of mind. It 
 seems probable that he considers that he is partly 
 of Griqua descent, as he has devoted his life as 
 their champion against the Boers. We must not 
 lose sight of the fact that he has made his mark in 
 stemming the tide of Boer aggression. 
 
 Probably there are few cases in South African 
 history where political and i-ace feeling has run 
 higher than in that involving the land claims of 
 David Arnot. 
 
 In the year 1867, when the Republican States on 
 the Vaal and Orange Rivers (strongly supported by 
 the deadweight of the Dutch party of the Cape Colony) 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 295 
 
 were ousting the natives in all directions from 
 their lands, David Arnot appeared upon the scene as 
 champion of the Western Griquas, whose lands (in 
 what is now Griqu aland West) were being wrested 
 from them day by day by the onward progress of the 
 immigrant Boers of the Orange Free State and 
 Transvaal. 
 
 Arnot's antagonists pretend to formulate motives 
 for him in thus taking up the wrongs of Nicholas 
 Waterboer and his Griqua subjects. Self-interest, 
 self-preservation and self-aggrandisement may be 
 very human motives, but they may stimulate a man 
 to exertions in a good cause as well as in a bad one. 
 There is nothing on record to show that Arnot's 
 motives were less honourable than those of any other 
 of the English, Dutch and Griquas who engaged in 
 land controversies on this outskirt of civilisation, 
 and even if he did obtain concessions of large 
 slices of the Griqua lands, yet there is no doubt 
 that it was payment for work of vital import- 
 ance to the Griquas. He succeeded by his exer- 
 tions in arresting the onward progress of the 
 Boers, and probably saved the Griquas from 
 utter destruction as a native state, and from losing 
 all their lands and becoming merely servants of 
 the Boers. 
 
 He negotiated with Waterboer, and in 1867 
 banded together a party of British colonists from 
 the Eastern Province with whom he migrated to 
 the south-east corner of Griqualand West (named 
 Albania) to establish a living wall of English flesh 
 between the Griquas and the Boers ; and he thus 
 
296 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 became the recognised Agent of the Griqua Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In carrying this out he (with the sanction of 
 AV'^aterboer) expelled from their lands in Albania 
 the few Griquas who were living there. There 
 is nothing contrary to civilised customs in doing 
 this for the good of the State. It is a matter 
 of everyday life in England to be ruthlessly expelled 
 from our houses or our lands by landlords, railway 
 companies, or municipal authorities on receiving ade- 
 quate compensation in return. These Griquas were 
 to have got compensation in the shape of other lands, 
 and Waterboer and Arnot ought to have taken care 
 that they were recompensed, and pacified. They, 
 however, were not all recompensed at the time, and 
 there arose in consequence a bitter feeling among the 
 Griquas against the English which has not yet been 
 removed, and they say hard things of them, and 
 liken them to the Boers. Arnot has shown in this 
 matter that, whatever may have been his feelings 
 as champion of the Griquas as a nation, he did not 
 hesitate to sacrifice individual interests in his pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 Arnot had no sooner taken up his duties as Griqua 
 Agent than mutual recriminations commenced 
 between him and the President of the Orange Free 
 State, owing to the continual encroachment of the 
 Boers westward, and reprisals ensued. This dis- 
 turbed condition of afiairs only ended when the 
 British Government annexed Griqualand West in 
 1 87 1 . In the transactions connected with the neces- 
 sary arrangements for handing over the territory 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 297 
 
 to the British, David Arnot was employed by the 
 Governor, Sir Henry Barkly, in collecting evidence, 
 and brought upon himself the odium of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Orange Free State and of the Dutch 
 party in the Cape Colony. Now that these matters 
 are past, these bitter personal feelings might well be 
 buried in oblivion, but the present state of politics 
 at the Cape will not allow of this, and the party 
 referred to appears to desire to see Arnot stripped, not 
 only of the vast possessions which he claimed, but 
 also of the comparatively small property that has 
 been awarded to him by the Land Court. 
 
 Promises were made to Arnot by the Governor 
 in 1 87 1 and 1872, concerning his claims, and no 
 reference was made as to their submission before a 
 Land Court for adjudication. Sir Henry Barkly 
 even went so far as to offer to Arnot the whole of 
 the Southern Reserve (360 square miles) as a gift, 
 and he declined the offer merely because he wished 
 to get the Northern Reserve first. 
 
 After waiting for four years, Arnot's consternation 
 must have been great when, in July 1875, he 
 received intelligence that his claims must be 
 submitted to a Land Court, and that Court to be 
 presided over by a young Dutch barrister (Mr, 
 Stockenstrom) whom he had hitherto looked upon as 
 one of his most determined antagonists in the Cape 
 Parliament on the side of the Republican States, 
 and who, in taking over the duties of judge, would 
 only leave the atmosphere of political strife for a 
 while, and then return to it. 
 
 The result of the submission of his claims was 
 
298 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 that he was publicly stigmatised by Mr. Stockenstrom 
 as a person on whose word no reliance could be placed, 
 and the whole of his claims were disallowed except : 
 (i) the farm Eskdale ; (2) the rents for life of the 
 Albanian Reserve ; (3) the claim against the late 
 Griqualand Government for services rendered. 
 
 David Arnot appealed against this decision, and 
 has claimed before the Supreme Court : (i) the farm 
 Eskdale with mineral rights ; (2) the Southern 
 Reserve (360 square miles) in freehold with mineral 
 rights ; (3) the Northern Reserve (360 square miles) 
 in freehold with mineral rights ; (4) the farm 
 Clydesdale on lease ; (5) ten farms between Hart 
 and Yaal Rivers ; (6) ;^iooo per annum pension for 
 services. 
 
 He also claims 800 square miles for Batlapin 
 services beyond this Province, with which I have 
 nothing to do. 
 
 Arnot relied on the promises of Sir Henry Barkly 
 which were in writing and very explicit, as for 
 example : " You will not doubt that your claims will 
 be dealt with very liberally, only do not let them 
 stand in the way of present progress," and again : 
 "I quite admit your claims are special, but perhaps 
 on that very account it is more than necessary not 
 to single them out to deal with before those of 
 othei-s." 
 
 On Feb. 8, 1872, Mi-. Sou they, the Administrator 
 of Griqualand West, wrote to Arnot : " As regards 
 yourself, I take it you will be safe everywhere," and 
 this he says in his certificate of August 3, 1877, was 
 written by authority of the Governor. 
 
OF GEIQUALAND WEST 299 
 
 Thus Mr. Aruot appeared before me with a case 
 which (in spite of the Land Court decision) could 
 not equitably be controverted, because he had the 
 promises of the Governor. 
 
 It was not my business, however, to say how 
 much he ought to have had under those promises ; 
 it was for me to find out the least he was prepared 
 to take in lieu of his claims, and to endeavour to 
 keep them down as low as practicable ; of course the 
 cost of an appeal would be brought into the balance. 
 
 First he agreed to abandon his claim to mineral 
 rights, and then his claim to have everything in 
 freehold. 
 
 Then he abandoned all claim to the Northern 
 Reserve (360 square miles) and ten farms for his 
 Griqua services ; and eventually his claims were 
 narrowed down to Eskdale, Clydesdale (on lease), 
 the Southern Reserve and his pension. This is little 
 more than was awarded by the Land Court. 
 
 As regards Eskdale I agreed to recommend that 
 it should be a quit-rent farm, with " quit-rent 
 remitted " endorsed on the title. 
 
 With regard to the Southern Reserve I had to 
 study the views of the lessees, and consider what 
 they would each of them accept, and in view of 
 their interests, I agreed to accept Mr. Arnot's offer 
 to take the Southern Reserve on such terms that it 
 is actually giving the rents to him for 23 years, 
 with the proviso that the tenants may, at any time, 
 pay them off to him in a lump sum, and secure the 
 farms to themselves, paying thereafter an annual 
 quit-rent to the Government of ;^i per 1000 morgen. 
 
300 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 If we estimate it in value it may be taken that 
 the Southern Reserve, as offered to Arnot by Sir H. 
 Barkly was worth ;^3 3,000, the value of the award 
 of the Land Court (rents for Arnot's life) is ;^ 16,000, 
 and the value of present agreement is ;^2 7,650. 
 
 With regard to Arnot's pension for services to 
 the Griqua Government, the amount settled by 
 Waterboer was ;^85o per annum, but I suggested 
 Ji 500 per annum on the joint lives of himself and 
 Mrs. Arnot (as I don't thmk he will have much to 
 leave his wife) : to this he has agreed. 
 
 Thus I hope this very difficult question, involving 
 a great portion of the land of Griqualand West, 
 will be settled, and the case taken out of appeal, 
 but first I have to negotiate with the tenants of 
 some thirty farms, who are hot against Arnot, though 
 why I do not know, for if he loses they do not 
 gain anything. It seems to me that the bare fact 
 of paying their quit-rents to a Griqua is obnoxious. 
 There are three or four of the tenants, however, who 
 admit that Arnot's claims concerning Albania are 
 just. It is extraordinary how all this business of 
 Arnot's has been mismanaged from the beginning : 
 for I hear that the law expenses will be so great 
 that his fortune will be nearly swallowed up, and 
 that he will be a poor man, whereas if he had 
 received the value of his claims even as now limited 
 at the time of the annexation, he would have been 
 a rich man. 
 
 It seems aU owing to the Cape Colony being now 
 able to interfere in these matters on the Dutch side. 
 In former years, before the Cape Colony was given 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 301 
 
 a Constitution (1872), there was a balance of power 
 between English, Dutch, and native interests : now 
 it is all on one side. 
 
 We must take care to secure his pension so that 
 he cannot sell or otherwise hypothecate it. 
 
 Sir Arthur Cunyinghame has met with a good 
 reception; he was last at Kimberley when he quelled 
 the rebellion in June 1875. 
 
 We have had a field day with the Volunteers at 
 Du Toitspan. It has opened my eyes as to their 
 capabilities. In England we are inclined to think 
 so little of Volunteers. Lanyon does these 
 things so well ; he has a natural aptitude for such 
 matters, though of course the experience he gained 
 as A.D.C. to the Oommander-in-Ohief, Jamaica, is 
 useful to him. 
 
 We had a good show of Volunteers, mounted and 
 foot, Du Toitspan Hussars, Kimberley Light Horse, 
 and Griqualand Infantry, aU in resplendent uniform. 
 They performed nothing but parade movements, 
 but their precision was excellent, and when they 
 advanced in line to Sir A. Cunyinghame, with 
 Lanyon at the head, and gave him a general salute, 
 it was done so well that I felt quite proud of our 
 little Province. I don't know what they can do in 
 the field, but if diggers, who are supposed to be 
 under no control, can disguise themselves as soldiers 
 with such good effect on parade, I think they have 
 the chance of doing well also in the field. I am 
 getting quite provincial in my sentiments. Sir 
 Arthur made a speech, and not a little one. He 
 worked up his subject and piled on compliments 
 
302 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 one after another till we all felt glowing with pride 
 at the prowess of the Province. I cannot think how 
 many years Sir Arthur said he had been a general 
 officer, but it seemed to vary from fifteen to twenty- 
 five, and during all that time he had seen nothing 
 equal to this display. 
 
 No doubt Sir Arthur must have been many years 
 a general, for I recollect him just about twenty years 
 ago, and I thought him then an old man, but I 
 was only fifteen and my ideas of age were not in 
 perspective. It was on the Horse Guards Parade in 
 1855-6, when the Queen gave the Crimean medals 
 away, and I attended to see my father receive his 
 medal. I knew Sir Ai'thur's son as a cadet at Sand- 
 hurst, and when he introduced me to his father he 
 was most kind to me and got me a good place from 
 whence I could see the ceremony, and took a lot of 
 trouble about it. I have had a very happy recollec- 
 tion of him ever since. 
 
 The speech of Sir A. Cunynghame reminds me of 
 an incident down at Capetown, told me by the 
 C.B.A. There was no Field Artillery in South 
 Africa, and orders came out to extemporise a Field 
 Battery out of a Garrison Battery ; a somewhat 
 difficult operation, as drivers are small men, and the 
 smallest Garrison gunners are very big fellows. The 
 horses to be obtained here are small, scarcely over 
 fifteen hands at the most. The C.E,.A. was very 
 busy trying to get the battery into shape, and was 
 schooling great, immense gunners disguised as 
 drivers, mounted on very small horses, round the 
 inner square at the Castle, with every now and then 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 303 
 
 a driver sprawling on the ground, when Sir Arthur 
 took it into his head not only to inspect the per- 
 formance but also to make a speech. As he went on 
 speaking his enthusiasm rose and he declared that he 
 had never seen anything so well done for years ; this 
 made the C.RA. (who has a high standard of per- 
 fection for Artillery) very angry, and he burst out 
 with exclamations that he had never seen anything 
 worse, until suddenly it came over him that he was 
 finding fault with his own men on an inspection 
 parade, while the G.O.C was commending them ; 
 and he escaped as best he could from his false 
 position. 
 
 On another occasion, the C.R. A. found himself 
 saying things he would rather have left unsaid. Sir 
 Arthur Cunynghame had had a difference of opinion 
 with him as to the nature of the field gun to be sent 
 out from home, and had gained the day. These 
 guns arrived at the Cape, but were lost in a ship- 
 wreck at Saldanha Bay. On hearing of this, Sir 
 Arthur Cunynghame sent for the C.R. A. and said he 
 was sorry to tell him that the new guns sent out 
 had been lost ; the C.R. A., who did not like the 
 class of gun, burst out with " I am delighted to hear 
 it." 
 
 One very good point about Sir Arthur is that such 
 things can be said to him without his taking offence : 
 he bears no malice. 
 
 We have had a grand Masonic Ball in the theatre 
 in honour of the General, and we have all (who can) 
 come out in uniform. I had no idea that so many 
 ladies could be got together ; some came from afar, 
 
304 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 and I met many friends from Bloemfontein. What 
 strikes me most, in seeing the men in evening 
 clothes, is the brick-dust colour we are all tanned by 
 constant exposure to the fervid sun and keen winds, 
 quite a rich mahogany. The ladies mostly seem 
 to keep their complexions, and there is a fine con- 
 trast. 
 
 I have been sitting in a box with the General ; 
 we take it by turns to attend on him, and he has 
 been telling me again about his notable expedition 
 in 1875 to quell the insurrection in Kitnberley, 
 and has been pointing out a few of the most prominent 
 rebels, who are now some of our most loyal people. 
 It is a queer subject this question of rebellion : it is 
 the Colonial Office that they have rebelled against, 
 not the Crown. They are loyal enough to the 
 Crown, but they resent that incessant change of 
 policy of our Colonial Office due to party govern- 
 ment. When they were attached to the Orange 
 Free State they belonged certainly to a Dutch State, 
 but they were masters of the situation and did what 
 they liked. 
 
 Sir Arthur tells me that the rebellion was due to 
 the claim of the diggers to be able to " wallop their 
 own niggers," but this is too epigrammatic. Alfred 
 Aylward, the Fenian, told me at Lydenberg of 
 many other reasons, which I have also heard spoken 
 of since I have been here. It had certainly to do 
 in many ways with natives, but they were 
 at this time kept out of their lands, and were 
 consequently very discontented and uppish, and at the 
 same time they were being supplied with arms at 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 305 
 
 the Diamond Fields which made them think they 
 were on a par with the white man. 
 
 The General, though old, is very active and ener- 
 getic and a little impatient at times. He gets u^ 
 at unearthly hours in the morning, and shouts 
 for Coghill to take telegrams to the office : quite 
 forgetful that the telegraph office is not open 
 so abnormally early. He is a very cheery old 
 gentleman. By-the-bye, it is not F. "Williams but 
 Frank ViUiers who wrote to you when I was away. 
 He was formerly in the Colonial Office, and is now 
 Acting Colonial Secretary, and (as he should do) 
 admires Major Lanyon exceedingly ; he is a most 
 loyal officer, and is very able, conscientious and 
 painstaking. I see a good deal of him, and in order 
 that our conversation may not get monotonous we 
 agree to differ on almost every subject except on 
 business — on that we quite agree. He takes the 
 desponding side and I take the sanguine, rosy view 
 of matters, and we discuss the Province each from our 
 own point of view. I find the position rather difficult 
 to keep up. For example, when, after a dust-storm, 
 an official letter was lost and we had to get a rake 
 and scratch over the chairs and tables in search of it, 
 I found it difficult to think of anything pleasant to 
 say : for everything was red with dust, including 
 our clothes, and the soup certainly had a reddish 
 hue. 
 
 I like Major Lanyon immensely ; he is so sensible. 
 There are many points on which we do not quite 
 agree, but in business matters he will always talk 
 over a subject as long as you like until it is quite 
 
 u 
 
306 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 exhausted, so that even when you do not come to a 
 conclusion just as you wish you yet feel that the 
 subject has been fully considered. There are people 
 here who do not like him, and one of the newspapers 
 is down on him very much, but I think that on the 
 whole he is very much liked. 
 
 Hehas just beenoffered the appointment of Colonial 
 Secretary in Jamaica with ;^2000 a year and has 
 ■declined it ; it is a stepping-stone to a good governor- 
 ship, but he is entitled to a good governorship for 
 his work here. He is much put out about the 
 offer (though this appointment is only ;^i 700 a year), 
 as a slight upon himself and on his position as 
 administrator. I don't agree with him and tell him 
 that he wants a blue pill and a black draught. 
 I have strongly advised him not to resign or do 
 anything rash, as he is too good a man for the 
 country to lose on such a point of etiquette. 
 It is much better both for himself and the place 
 that he should stick to his seat. 
 
 I do not know why my appointment here has 
 not yet been approved of officially, as Lord Carnarvon 
 has done so privately. Ravenscroft tells me that he 
 had very much approved of Sir Bartle Frere's keeping 
 me on. 
 
 September 18. — I don't think I should care to take 
 up the survey of the Cape even if it were offered to 
 me, unless under some strong inducement — it leads 
 to nothing ; the work I am doing now is much more 
 to my taste. I have succeeded in allaying a good 
 deal of the bitter feeling on the Land Question. 
 
 I dine at the Queen's Hotel every evening with 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 807 
 
 Mr. Feltham, manager of the Cape of Good Hope 
 Bank, and Mr. Gordon, diamond merchant. We 
 have a little room not too far from the kitchen. 
 
 Last night I gave a dinner party to Feltham, 
 
 Gordon, Mr. Cecil Khodes, Mr. Paton, and Mr. 
 
 Attorney-General Shippard. Cecil Rhodes is a digger, 
 
 water contractor, stand holder, undergraduate of 
 
 Oxford, and what not ; his father was Vicar of 
 
 Bishops Stortford (near Waltham Abbey), he came 
 
 out here for his health some years ago, and, having 
 
 a very long head, made money when from 17 to 20 
 
 years of age, went to Oxford to take his degree, and 
 
 is now on leave here looking after his contracts. 
 
 He goes to Oxford to-morrow. He is reputed to 
 
 have originally brought up an ice-making machine, 
 
 and when he found it would not pay to make ices, 
 
 he turned it into a diamond-sorting machine ; this 
 
 merely indicates that he is accredited with a long 
 
 head. Mr. Paton is a farmer with land claims which 
 
 have been pretty nearly settled in a satisfactory 
 
 manner ; he lives just now near Bloemfontein. 
 
 I generally breakfast at 8 A.M., lunch at 1.30 p.m. 
 with Major Lanyon, and dine at 6.30 P.M. at hotel. 
 I cannot afford to give many dinner-parties, this one 
 to-night will cost ;^i5 ; prices here are awful. 
 
 September 24. — I am just now on the horns of a 
 dilemma. Major Lanyon has asked me if I am 
 willing to undertake more land work in the Trans- 
 vaal, and by this mail I have received a letter 
 from General Cameron (Ordnance Survey) asking if 
 it would suit me to undertake the survey of 
 Natal. I would much rather do work which deals 
 
308 THE 1.AND SETTLEMENT 
 
 with individuals than with things ; I prefer having 
 to do with human nature, it is so much more in- 
 teresting than inanimate objects. Fancy spending 
 ten years of your life on a survey plan, which a 
 terrier dog can worry into jimps in a jiffy. This 
 country is terribly monotonous for survey work, 
 there is so little new to see or learn compared with 
 the rest of the world. I like a country which has 
 a past history, and where there is more animal 
 and vegetable life get-at-able, and where there is 
 an interesting people. Of course there is an im- 
 mense deal to see in South Africa in places, but 
 not on tops of hills where the survey beacons will 
 be. I don't like to refuse a good offer, but I 
 should prefer the land work in the Transvaal. 
 
 Diamonds are looking up just now, and every- 
 body in a good humour. I am having a very 
 pleasant time here, plenty of hard work and every- 
 body very jolly. 
 
 The Bishops of Capetown and Bloemfontein 
 have been here some days, they have both come 
 splendidly to the front about the confessional ques- 
 tion, and everybody ought to be satisfied. The 
 clergy all dined at Government House last night, and 
 we were a very merry party. We talked of going 
 home at Christmas vid the Holy Land, tramping 
 right through Africa from end to end. The idea 
 arose from some Dutchmen who trekked off north 
 some months ago to Palestine, hearing that it was in 
 that direction. I don't know what has become of 
 them. The other evening I was walking in the 
 square with the two bishops and the Administrator, 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 309 
 
 when the latter asked me why I had put on evening 
 dress. I replied, " To give an air of respectability 
 to the party," before I had considered my environs. 
 My surroundings were highly tickled at the remark, 
 and threatened to report me to Lady Frere for 
 treating them all so disrespectfully. 
 
 T have written to Sir Bartle Frere, saying that I 
 would rather not undertake the Natal survey, and 
 Major Lanyon has also written suggesting that I 
 should go to settle claims in the Transvaal, with a 
 salary of ;^ 2000 a year, and to pay my own expenses. 
 
 We have just been indulging in a fine spectacle. 
 Two bishops and an Administrator, aU jammed 
 in a two-seated cart. They are all big men, 
 averaging over six feet each in height, and they 
 each looked extremely uncomfortable, but very 
 orthodox in their best clothes : they are all going 
 to the wedding of Canon Doxat of Barkly, to Miss 
 Merriman, daughter of Bishop Merriman of Grahams- 
 town, and sister of Mrs. Barry (the judge's wife). 
 It is to be a very gi-and wedding for this country, 
 and Lanyon entertains the bishops at the Barkly 
 Hotel to-night. 
 
 September 25. — The two bishops and Major 
 Lanyon have returned at 5 p.m. this evening and the 
 former left again at 6 p.m. for Bloemfontein ; they do 
 not waste time. They were ravenous, having had 
 no breakfast or lunch after the service. They 
 breakfasted at 9 o'clock, had a ftiU church service 
 taking nearly two hours, then cake and wine, and 
 arrived here famished. 
 
 Our bishops appear in church in the usual dress, 
 
310 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 but our A.rchdeacon wears a garment like that of a 
 Greek Patriarch, which pleases some people and 
 amuses others ; there is a certain amount of 
 incongruity in this country between fine dresses and 
 the surroundings. 
 
 The services used to be held at Barkly in the 
 canteen, and on one occasion in the middle of the 
 service the minister saw a smile gathering on the 
 faces of those turned towards him, and looking round 
 found he had displaced a black board put up as a 
 screen, and there was now visible in large letters 
 " Free and Easy to-night. Grogs free." 
 
 We have a trouble in Kimberley about the con- 
 fessional ; one of the curates has been preaching 
 about it with great vigour and has given offence ; 
 the Archdeacon supports him, and consequently 
 (Allan Webb) the Bishop of Bloemfontein has been 
 appealed to. I, for one, was asked to write and tell 
 the bishop how decided people were here on the sub- 
 ject : indeed I have seldom seen people more of one 
 mind, and it seemed to me that if irmnediate steps 
 were not taken there was danger of schism arising. 
 
 A deputation met the bishop on Saturday and on 
 Sunday he gave out his views. 
 
 In the morning the Bishop of Capetown opened 
 with a good wholesome sermon on unity and charity : 
 Bishop Webb preached in the evening. He 
 said that in the early days of the Church various 
 kinds of confession had been in use, and that the 
 Church, as it progressed, had found it necessary to 
 alter its forms : that the Boman Church had a 
 special form of private confession which was found 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 311 
 
 to be attended, at times, by great evils and that at the 
 Reformation " we Protestants " changed this for a 
 form more in keeping with the jules of the early- 
 Church ; that the Wesleyans had also their special 
 forms, which did not suit us. He then went on to 
 say that he had not the good fortune to belong to the 
 society of Good Templars, but that he had no doubt 
 that they exercised the power of absolution from 
 certain faults committed by various members against 
 their rules, and that it was the absolution of the 
 whole body given through one of the members of 
 the executive : such he said is the absolution of the 
 English Church. All that the English Church 
 enjoins as absolutely necessary is a general con- 
 fession of the whole congregation, and an absolution 
 given to the whole congregation, given not by 
 the priest alone, but by the Church through the 
 priest in the name of God. Then he went on 
 to say that in certain cases where people felt 
 troubled in their minds the Church allowed them 
 to come to the priest to confess privately and 
 enjoined the priest to accept such confession; but es- 
 pecially enjoined that the priest was not to recommend 
 people to come, but only to take their confession if 
 they required it. He then went on to say that 
 regarding children, the only people who should look 
 after them were their parents and legal guardians, 
 and that if any priest in his diocese did otherwise 
 he would look into the matter ; much more he said, 
 but this, so far as I understood him, is the gist of 
 his decision, and I thought it a most satisfactory 
 conclusion, and so did most of the congregation, 
 
312 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 but I hear that some people went away with the 
 impression that he had sided entirely with the 
 curate ; some people are so prejudiced against all 
 things reasonable. 
 
 Tuesday, September 25. — Office all morning with 
 lawyers and land agents. I am arranging a trip to 
 Griquatown to look into Waterboer's land claims, 
 and Villiers and Cecil Ashley would like to come 
 also. 
 
 I can go just now as there is a lull in some of my 
 inquiries regarding the Mining Board in conse- 
 quence of the action pending between James v. 
 Atkins, which comes off on Thursday. 
 
 Mr. M. came to tell me that he had paid ^37 to 
 an agent for taking out his Land Court judg- 
 ment, which actually costs ;^io 12s. 6c?. The 
 little etceteras which we are accustomed to at home 
 are here like Lord Dundreary's tail wagging the dog. 
 People seem to be geese to go to the lawyers but 
 perhaps they might do worse if they acted for 
 themselves. 
 
 I heard a good story to-day of one lover of roses 
 purloining the rose cuttings of his friend, but it 
 hinges on the personal traits of character the trans- 
 action brought out, and the two persons are highly 
 amusing characters. A place is really much more 
 amusing when the people are not drilled into one 
 monotonous uniformity ; here people allow their 
 eccentricities to come out conspicuously and I vow 
 it is vastly amusing. Sometimes I am reminded of 
 Goldsmith's writings, " She stoops to conquer," &c. 
 I am sure that Goldsmith must have had the good 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 313 
 
 fortune to meet very original people ; I don't 
 remember where he lived. 
 
 You will wonder at my speaking of roses in this 
 dry place but we really have water here in small 
 quantities, and there is plenty at the bottom of the 
 mine, which has to be pumped up ; but much is 
 required in washing the diamonds. We only want 
 water in plenty for Kimberley to be made quite a 
 green oasis ; as it is, a great number of people grow 
 plants about their stoeps and produce very nice 
 flowers, and our roses are not to be despised. The 
 judge is a great gardener. My servant, Chi'istian, 
 often gets me a small bunch of flowers for my little 
 room. Many creepers grow very well here and 
 Major Lanyon has one growing aU over the 
 verandah of Government House shading the Admin- 
 istrator from public gaze. If everything else 
 concerning Lanyon grows dim to me in the future I 
 am sure that I shall always recollect his love to his 
 verandah creeper. Every day, after lunch, he 
 devotes about half an hour to this plant, cutting off 
 dead leaves, putting the shoots into vacant places, 
 &c., and sometimes as a treat he allows me to assist 
 him in training it, and then we talk of home ! 
 Griqualand West does not belong to that half- 
 hour. 
 
 Last night, Tuesday, September 25, Feltham and 
 I gave a farewell dinner to Gordon : Lanyon, Villiers, 
 Shippard, and two others were present. It was 
 not as amusing as they usually are ; Lanyon was 
 evidently tired. We got on to several subjects on 
 which A. has extreme views, although he always 
 
314 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 expresses these in an agreeable manner ; but it 
 induced other people to express theirs more forcibly 
 than is necessary ; I have always endeavoured since 
 I have been here to tone down the angularities of 
 the extremists. Life is too short for so much con- 
 troversy ; what I strive for is conversation. 
 
 Wednesday, September 26. — I had much work 
 arranging matters with farmers and also seeing 
 about our contemplated journey. 
 
 No oxen to be found on account of drought. At 
 last Mr. Haarhoff (attorney) offered me six mules 
 for 30s. per diem, and to pay the driver and boy. 
 I closed with him at once, and arranged that they 
 should be near my ofl&ce at noon on Thursday. 
 Went and talked the Waterboer difficulties over 
 several times with Lanyon and Villiers to be quite 
 sure of my footing. Dined at Jardine's with Feltham 
 and the judge, the latter talked a good deal about 
 the Mine in favour of companies and said that it was 
 better for the community that the poorer people 
 should be forced out ; to this I could not agree and 
 said that in my opinion it was a most suicidal 
 arrangement — that the Government said that the 
 Mine might borrow but would not allow them the 
 means or facilities for doing so, and that if they 
 could borrow ;^50,ooo at once {i.e., the amount of 
 one year's revenue) they could go on swimmingly — 
 but that if they were not allowed to borrow, the 
 claims of many people would lie under the reef and 
 never get cleared, and that then people would become 
 insolvent. I said that the Government ought either 
 to give the Mine proper power to borrow, or else to 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 315 
 
 borrow for them, which they could easily do at 
 6 per cent. 
 
 Feltham said that the effect of the establishment 
 of companies would not reduce the work of the 
 banks, but I think it would, and I think that I 
 rather convinced him that it would. Our conversa- 
 tion then turned on the feasibility of getting 25 to 
 30 per cent, on capital put out to interest. Feltham 
 said that 6 per cent, in England was far better 
 than 25 per cent, out here. We then were told 
 that a bank had just lost ;^20,ooo on one venture 
 in diamonds. It had arisen in this way. The 
 letter of credit brought out by a customer said that 
 the parcels of diamonds must be sent direct to 
 House A, but the policy of the Bank stated that 
 the Bank parcels must be sent direct to House B. 
 Accordingly, the manager sent the parcel for A to B 
 to be distributed. All went well until diamonds fell 
 suddenly, and then House A would not accept the 
 parcel because it had come through B instead of to 
 A direct. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Thursday, September 27. — Very busy getting all 
 ready for our departure, drew £/[o from the bank. I 
 wanted both Ashley and Villiers to be my guests on 
 the journey, but they preferred to share along with 
 me. It took all day to get things ready, and the 
 mules appeared at 5 p.m. ; such funny little things, 
 more like donkeys, but very strong : they have 
 lately taken Captain D'Arcy down to Fauresmith 
 so I felt happy about them, I went up to Govern- 
 ment House to say " good-bye," and dear old Lanyon 
 gave me no end of advice as to how I was to act 
 on the veldt, forgetting that I was a veteran in 
 such matters : he was exceedingly kind and wanted 
 me to take his own stores ; I took a few to pacify 
 him, but I had bought nearly everything that was 
 wanted. 
 
 The waggon is on springs, and has seats. I 
 arranged the order of our going so: first six 
 mules. Then little Charley Orpen (6 feet 3 inches 
 in height, I should say) and a Cape boy (post-boy), 
 then Villiers, Ashley, and myself, then our baggage. 
 On the back seat were Rufo (Ashley's Italian servant) 
 and Christian (my Indian servant). We started at 
 6.45 P.M., Orpen (son of the Surveyor-General) taking 
 
THE LAND SETTLEMENT 317 
 
 the responsible duties of driver ; and he drives well 
 too. We had hardly gone five minutes along the 
 Barkly Road when a trace broke, and the mules 
 turned round up a steep hill of debris. The boy 
 tumbled out and turned them just in time ; we were 
 nearly over. After getting safely down again we 
 went on along the road, in the pitch darkness, and 
 nearly drove over a man asleep beside a waggon. 
 
 At the half-way house, ten miles from Kimberley, 
 we foraged our mules. A German keeps the house, 
 a pleasant little man, who has only been eighteen, 
 months away fi-om Germany : he says he gets about 
 1 50 per cent, on all he sells. For instance, beer at 
 IS. 9c?. he sells at 4s. He was very talkative and 
 agreeable, and showed us photographs of pictures in 
 aU the art galleries of Europe. He pays ;^i los. per 
 annum, to some Berlin society, and gets about forty 
 photographs a year. He comes from Hanover, 
 was in the Franco-German war, and was wounded 
 three times. He is still a soldier, and can be 
 recalled at any time when his country goes to war. 
 He said that he could not keep a canteen in Ger- 
 many, it would not be respectable. He does not 
 intend to return till he makes his fortune. To his 
 mind a fortune is ;^2000, which would give him 
 ;^ioo a year, and with this he said he could keep a 
 carriage (pony shay ?) ; but he also said he began to 
 like the country, and thought he might stay, his 
 reason for liking it being that the people are more 
 free here than in Germany. I asked him about the 
 the Pneil (German) Mission Station hard by, he 
 said that they did not do much, that Mr. Kallen- 
 
318 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 berg is not a minister, but merely a business man, 
 ■who finds money for the Mission by making the 
 natives work, selling their goods and collaring the 
 proceeds. He thought that these natives (Korannas) 
 cannot be christianised. He seemed to think very 
 little of the missionary efforts of his own country- 
 men, but then as a patriot he kept saying that the 
 English were just as bad. He told us a good story 
 about a native parson, who said that the black people 
 are the sheep (in the parable about the sheep and 
 the goats) because of their woolly hair, and that the 
 white people are the goats because they have straight 
 hair : other stories he related, about the missionaries 
 telling the natives that they were better than the 
 white people ; but these are mere stories, without 
 foundation : the missionaries are not so foolish. 
 
 There was a German assistant who was on matri- 
 mony bent. He takes in the Matrimonial News 
 (German), and had some photographs of young 
 ladies, and had fallen in love with one of them ; at 
 least with one side of her face, and was writing to 
 Germany to say that if the other side came up to 
 sample she may come out and he will marry her. 
 He evidently was of opinion that she might possibly 
 have a big scar on the other side of her face. 
 
 As we were baiting, a party came in from the 
 river diggings (Barkly), and one of them came up 
 to me and asked if I would like to see a parcel of 
 river diamonds he was taking to Kimberley, worth 
 ^1300; and out of an ordinary piece of paper he 
 produced a lot of diamonds, great and small. The 
 largest weighed 20 carats, a beautiful white stone. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 819 
 
 shaped exactly like a bull's-eye loUypop. He proved 
 to be Mr. Litkie, jeweller, of Kimberley. He said 
 he had at his house a stone of 52^ carats, the best 
 stone ever found, worth over ;^2000, and asked me to 
 come and see it when I returned. We inspanned 
 as the moon rose at 11 p.m., and arrived atBarkly 
 at 2 A.M. After crossing the Vaal river by the 
 pont, we knocked up the hotel people, got some hot 
 coffee and went to bed. 
 
 Friday, September 28. — Up at 7.30 a.m. I met 
 and talked to the Civil Commissioner, 0. Campbell, 
 on land matters. While we were talking some 
 persons were throwing bamboos at each other over 
 our heads ; anywhere else I should have called them 
 lunatics. At 1 1 a.m. we went across Barkly com- 
 monage, and along the Vaal river till we arrived at 
 where the Hart river falls in from the north. The 
 Vaal running nearly west just here. 
 
 The country that we are now passing through 
 about the Vaal river was, in 1870-2, alive with dig- 
 gers, thousands of them were working in these river 
 diggings ; but now (since the dry diggings have been 
 established about Kimberley) it has lapsed into its 
 former solitude, though here and there are a few 
 diggers earning a precarious living. 
 
 This country is knee-deep in land claims, aU in 
 appeal against the Land Court judgments, and I 
 must compromise in every case, as if even one set of 
 appeals remain the ground cannot be given out. 
 
 The most troublesome claims are those of titles 
 from Theodore Doms, because they extend all over 
 the country between the Hart and Vaal rivers and 
 
320 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 are really worthless, but yet there is a qualified 
 judgment in their favour according to money paid, 
 and after other claimants have been satisified ; but 
 the difficulty is that other claimants cannot be 
 satisfied until these claims are got out of the way. 
 I have been asking Mr. Campbell to arrange an 
 interview with the Rev. W. A. Robinson, who claims 
 no less than 48,000 morgen {i.e., 16 farms, or 144 
 square miles), with a view to my coming to terms 
 with him. He has actually paid £2>?>S in hard cash, 
 so that I think he will be entitled to at least six to 
 eight thousand morgen ; but we shall see what he 
 will take. 
 
 The claims to this land under South African 
 Republic (Transvaal) titles have all been disallowed 
 by the Land Court, and are not in appeal, so that I 
 can easily dispose of the claimants by referring them 
 to Pretoria for redress : they wiU get nothing from 
 us ; they are bogus claims, but still I heard that 
 they were passing at Port Elizabeth as five-pound 
 notes when I passed through. 
 
 Crossed the Hart river and arrived at Likatlong 
 (about 2.15 P.M.), formerly the residence of Janje 
 Mothibi. Here Greef lives, a land agent with an 
 unfortunate name, as it is common to say that aU 
 who come to Greef go to the bad. Greef has evidently 
 native or Maltese blood in him, and has some very 
 good points. I have heard of his doing kindly actions 
 to people in distress, and I cannot help liking him a 
 little. Likatlong is now a native reserve, there are 
 a few trees here, and water gushes out in several 
 places from the limestone rocks, and no doubt in 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 321 
 
 many other places it could be induced to come. We 
 found a green patch of grass and here we lunched. 
 A white Kafir was brought up for us to look at, he 
 evidently has some disease or want of skin, only a 
 portion is white, and he said that the white part of 
 him cannot stand the sun's rays as the black part can. 
 
 We went to Janje's house, a tumbledown hut, 
 with an enclosure, he is at Kuruman just now. 
 Some time I must give Janje's pedigree, but I do not 
 yet feel certain whether he is the hereditary chief of 
 the Batlapins or not, it is difficult to understand 
 this with their first wives and adopted children. 
 We then went to the police-station, and the field- 
 comet gave us watercresses, which grow weU about 
 here ; then on to Greef s house, a small stone hut. 
 He complains bitterly of Mr. Ashton of the London 
 Missionary Society, and says that he cannot get on 
 with Janje, that Janje always wanted to leave 
 Likatlong, but that Mr. Ashton prevented him 
 because he (Janje) keeps the people there. Wheels 
 within wheels. No doubt Mr. Ashton will have a 
 good reply to all this, and I believe that he does 
 what he thinks best for the native, and is thoroughly 
 disinterested; but he often acts without much 
 judgment. 
 
 Janje's son, Luka, is a wild fellow, who hates the 
 English. Janje himself does not like law or order, 
 and does not wish to be under any government, 
 [This same Luka was one of our most determined 
 antagonists in the rising of native tribes in 1878, 
 and fought weU and fiercely. He was conquered 
 and captured by our troops,] 
 
822 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Greef says that these people will not grow any- 
 thing in the irrigated soil — that the Almighty must 
 give the rain for crops, and that they cannot take it 
 from the gi-ound. This is a curious idea, and must 
 be looked to when I go back. There is something 
 behind it all. In other parts Kafirs do not disdain 
 irrigated land. Greef showed us the church, which 
 the missionaries never completed (and where his pigs 
 are now), also their old houses and gardens, and 
 graves. It is all very melancholy to contemplate, 
 and somebody is very much to blame, it would seem. 
 The fruit-trees are in full blossom, but the houses 
 are broken down, the walls overturned, and the 
 graves untended. I feel rather sick at it aU. I 
 propose that a police-station may be made out of 
 the old mission-house, that the police attend to the 
 garden, trees, and graves, and that the people be 
 persuaded to work. There are now only 200 on 
 the location, and Greef states that it would hold 
 2000. I consider that the missionary society should 
 be called upon to put their premises in order, or else 
 give up all claim to the use of them, and that the 
 fountain in the garden should be opened up. We 
 went to see the schoolmaster, an old Batkpin; I 
 complimented him on the neatness of his house, and 
 chaffed him about a large lanthorn, in which I 
 thought he put naughty children. These people 
 don't make much of Christianity at present, but the 
 time is coming. 
 
 It is painful to see the condition of this place, 
 The location should be put under Government super- 
 vision, with an honest native protector, and the land 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 323 
 
 should be marked out as erven and given to the 
 natives, on condition that they irrigate and cultivate 
 the soil. There are large extents of valuable sowing 
 lands here which for the prosperity of the province 
 should at once be put under cultivation. The ground 
 is in many parts so well watered that Greef remarked 
 that it was too wet for cultivation : it certainly 
 produces beautiful watercresses. 
 
 I do not feel certain that Likatlong should not 
 be given out as a township it is so well watered, and 
 the natives are so few : but towns wiU not spring up 
 until the farms are occupied. It is all like to " the 
 House that Jack built." 
 
 The case of Greef is an instructive one. What- 
 ever may be his faults he certainly has strong claims 
 for consideration from the Government, for he held 
 his position as a British subject in stemming the 
 advance of the Orange Free State on this country, 
 at a time when he could have made much money by 
 changing his views. 
 
 Likatlong has been occupied by the Batlapin tribe 
 since 1825, when Andries Waterboer gave Mothibi 
 permission to take up his abode here, after having 
 been harried out of Kuruman by the Bergenaars ; 
 here they were under the eye and care of Waterboer. 
 
 Mothibi himself left Likatlong and did not return 
 till 1840, when he found a man called Kars in 
 possession, who, according to Batlapin laws, ought 
 to have given up the fountain, but according to the 
 law of Kars' tribe, he was in lawful possession ; and 
 Janje Mothibi, not daring to dispossess Kars by force, 
 requested Greef to buy Likatlong for him (in Greef s 
 
324 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 name), promising to repay him and take Likatlong- 
 himself. Greef bought Likatlong (it is said for 
 ;^45o), dispossessed Kars, and then called upon Mot- 
 hibi to repay him : but Mothibi had no cash, and the 
 cattle he offered were deemed insufficent. So a 
 quarrel arose. Greef considered that Janje had 
 broken his compact, and claimed Likatlong as his 
 own. 
 
 An appeal was made to Waterboer, who decided 
 that Greef must leave the country on payment by 
 Janje of some cattle in lieu of Likatlong ; eventually 
 the matter slid on till it came up in the Land Court. 
 Mr. Stockenstrom decided that Waterboer placed 
 an excessive value on the cattle offered to Greef in 
 order to please Janje, and decided that ;^220 was 
 due to Greef, and recommended him for a grant of 
 land, not only in lieu of this sum of money, but 
 also, I apprehend, for his summary ejectment from 
 Likatlong. Judging from others of the judge's 
 recommendations this may mean io,cx)0 morgen. 
 These are not all of Greef s claims. Some years 
 ago he produced a letter from Waterboer regarding 
 land at Campbell, which was stigmatised by the 
 Colonial Secretaiy at Capetown as a forgery, and 
 he consequently suffered in reputation till the 
 opening of the Land Court, when his letter was 
 decided to be genuine. 
 
 I am informed that if this matter is not settled 
 up with Greef it will cause trouble, as he may sue 
 Mothibi, and call upon this Government to support 
 the sheriff in enforcing execution, a course which, 
 politically, would cause much inconvenience, as 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 325 
 
 Janje Mothibi is a chief, exercising some personal 
 influence within and beyond the confines of the 
 province. 
 
 Mr, Greef proposes to compromise with the 
 Government in full settlement of all claims, and 
 asks to have six farms in all, 18,000 morgen, at 
 an average of jCa for 1000 morgen. Taking the 
 upset prices of the farms at ;^5 per 1000 morgen, 
 this is equivalent to giving Greef ;^350, and this 
 proposal I am ready to recommend, provided the 
 land is not near to Likatlong, and provided it is near 
 a magistracy, so as to avoid squabbles in the future. 
 
 I am going to recommend Janje Mothibi a farm at 
 Likatlong of 3000 morgen, and as the rest of the 
 land wlU be Batlapin locations, he will be in the 
 midst of his people, and will, I hope, be comforted. 
 
 At Likatlong the Vaal river, after trending rather 
 northerly of west, now suddenly makes a sharp 
 turn and runs for seventy miles SSW., till it 
 joins the Orange river. At ten to fifteen miles 
 distance on the west of the Vaal is the great 
 mountain wall or Kaap escarpment, leading up 
 some 800 feet to the higher tableland of Griqua- 
 town and Kuruman. The space between the Kaap 
 and the river vale is for the most part a thick bush 
 of thorny trees, interspersed here and there with 
 well-watered oases, whei'e farms and locations have 
 been established. There are the old locations of 
 Sogo, Setlagomi and Sifonel. The wall of the Kaap 
 is broken here and there by ravines or gullies, up 
 which waggon tracks have been made. The most 
 remarkable of these is that which leads to the 
 
326 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 townships of Campbell. We left Likatlong at 4 p.m. 
 and went down the Vaal river to Welford's farm and 
 store, where we found a madman, and then on to 
 Langedraaihoekfontein, where we outspanned near 
 the Vaal river, and went to bed ; or rather lay down 
 on our rugs. The country all about here is very 
 bushy, but parched up, and the leaves of the bushes 
 are burnt up. But still the mules can find some 
 food though we give them a bundle of oat-straw 
 each. I slept very fairly on an old tent, and water- 
 proof in the open ; but the mules made much noise 
 in the night kicking each other. We had tried to 
 pitch tents, but the ground was too hard to get the 
 pegs in, so Ashley and VUliers occupied the waggon, 
 They both had toothache from colds, which usually 
 come on when first starting on an open-air expedition. 
 
 Satxi/rday, September 29 (Michaelmas Day). — I 
 woke at 5 a.m., it was cold but not frosty, gave an 
 unearthly yell outside the waggon, which brought 
 out its occupants, and then a series of yells in the 
 ear of Rufo before he would awake. He had made 
 a comfortable bed ; first, clothes and a rug ; over all 
 a water-proof sheet, three edges of which were 
 weighted down with stones, through the free end 
 he had crept into his den. 
 
 We started at 6 a.m. over a bush country towards 
 the Kafir location of Sogo, on the Vaal river. From 
 here the Kaap range seemed to break away opposite 
 to us, and there was a line of hills running east and 
 west, stretching towards Barkly, the Vaal river 
 running through a gorge, but not a deep one. We 
 walked on in front and shot a bird, and then over 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 827 
 
 monotonous country, with a very cold wind, till at 
 last we reached Sogo, at 1 5 miles ; it is a Batlapin 
 village, Kafir huts, no white person lives here. 
 The huts are circular and surrounded by stockades, 
 or inclosures, just like those in my father's pictures. 
 Men and women trooped down to see us, but we did 
 not get much information from them. Potted lobster 
 for lunch, and then we sat and smoked on the banks 
 of the Vaal river. It is really rather pretty, the 
 banks are thirty feet high and covered with trees, 
 a kind of willow. Kafir women were washing clothes 
 at the water edge, and a pig bathing on the opposite 
 side, about seventy yards across. We left at 3. 30 p.m. 
 and trended away from the river south-west 
 towards the pass leading up to Campbell until at 
 5.45 P.M. we met the waggon of Virtue, the son of 
 old Virtue, who has a farm near Barkly. This son 
 has bought a farm between Griquatown and Daniel's 
 Kuil and has built a house there. He gave .^350 
 for the farm to a Boer who gave ;^6o for it to the 
 original owner, a Griqua : farms are rising in value. 
 [In July 1900, I passed this farm, after defeating 
 the rebels at Farbers Put and Campbell, and this 
 young Virtue, now become old Virtue in his turn, 
 turned out with the Union Jack to welcome us, and 
 the ladies of the family brought out fruit to greet 
 us with : we had scarcely met for twenty-four 
 years.] 
 
 I had a talk with young Virtue, he says that 
 farmers are coming up fi-om Beaufort West and 
 buying land about Griquatown. 
 
 We arranged to stop here till the moon rose, and 
 
328 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 at sunset went to get a shot at a bushbuck, but saw 
 nothing, though we afterwards learnt that there 
 were Koodoo about — a kind of buck rarely met 
 with in this part of Africa. 
 
 We made a nice fire with bushes and had mutton 
 chops for supper ; through some mistake we did not 
 awake at the right time and consequently did not 
 inspan till 6 a.m. 
 
 Sunday, September 30. — We went on through 
 bushy country and then gradually approached the 
 pass until we came to the first fountain, issuing out 
 of the limestone rocks at the foot of the hills. Here 
 we found gi-een trees and birds in them singing 
 merrily, all in the wilderness, the first time I have 
 heard them really singing. Birds without song is 
 one of the accusations against South Africa. It 
 was delightful to sit and listen to them and feel 
 that the accusation is untrue. We took our guns 
 and went after Namaqua partridges, but only saw 
 them in the distance, at present we know not their 
 manners or their customs. 
 
 There is plenty of water oozing out about here, 
 but only one real fountain, which gushes from the 
 limestone rock, just as they do in Palestine. All 
 around is limestone, a long range which in the 
 distance is something like the appearance of the 
 chalk range of the Surrey hills. The trees here are 
 green, a sure sign of the proximity of water. 
 I believe that water might be made to run all over 
 the plain below, and that the farm might become 
 very valuable : it belongs to a Griqua who has a 
 hut and waggon hard by. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 329 
 
 We started after breakfast and went up the pass 
 till we saw Lower Campbell in the distance, lying 
 in a break in the hills ; above it is Upper Campbell 
 connected with it by a bad Kloof road, which we 
 shall avoid. The difference of level is 300 feet or 
 more. As we approached Campbell we found green 
 bushes and saw a few green trees. The township 
 clusters around a series of fountains rising in the 
 Kloof and running towards the valley below. 
 
 We drew up our waggon at the house and hotel 
 of Ekmann, a Dane, married to a daughter of 
 S. Sindon of Dover Farm. Helsinger, a law 
 agent, formerly servant to the judge, seems to be 
 an important personage here, and paid us a 
 visit. Ekmann invited us to lunch, and we asked 
 him to dinner. I went off with C. Orpen to 
 see the springs : there are four good ones in 
 Upper Campbell, already allotted. The water 
 comes out of the ground over a large level space, 
 surrounded by hills, and the level erven, of great 
 extent, are irrigated in all directions. We saw 
 fig trees, pomegranates, in fuU blossom, and oats 
 growing for forage. There ai-e only about six houses 
 in Upper Campbell ; that occupied by Ekmann 
 seems to have been sold to Sindon by Waterboer. 
 Boven Campbell is just above. I went to see Janje 
 Griqua there who lives in a mud hovel at the top, 
 above the spring. He was one of Waterboer's coun- 
 cillors and has rather a pleasant face. He claims 
 land and we had a long talk. He said that the old 
 Griquas used to work hard, but that the rising 
 generation are worthless ; will do nothing. They 
 
330 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 probably get spoilt by going to the Diamond Fields 
 where they take to drink. Then we returned. 
 
 There is a store as well as hotel here, and a bath 
 in a tent. A thunderstorm broke over us just as 
 I was in the bath, and I had a shower bath into 
 the bargain ; for the water poured through the thin 
 dry canvas roof. When canvas is very dry, heavy 
 rain seems to fall straight through, without wetting 
 the threads or closing up the pores. 
 
 After lunch we walked down through Middle 
 and Lower Campbell, and found the remains of the 
 old Mission Station; the widow of the last missionary 
 living in the church ; it is all rather melancholy to 
 see ; the mission grounds lying waste and the 
 people gone away ; and all the result of the progress 
 of civilisation. 
 
 The name of the missionary was Bartlett ; he first 
 married a native woman (a Griqua) (N.B. — It is very 
 difficult to say where coloured Boers end and 
 Griquas begin). There are sons and daughters in 
 the first family ; he then married a Dutch woman, 
 and again brought up seven or more sons and 
 daughters. I could not distinguish one set from the 
 other, but they all seemed most respectable and well- 
 brought up. The widow was living in the one 
 large room, the church, a very pleasant old lady ; 
 she talked Dutch to me while I talked English to 
 her. She said there had not been such a drought 
 since 1862, when all the springs at Campbell failed. 
 The road from Middle to Lower Campbell (which we- 
 avoided coming up) is very rough, like limestone 
 steps, and on each side are hedges. It is like a wady 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 831 
 
 in Palestine, the first place like Palestine, I have 
 seen in South Africa. There is everywhere the 
 appearance of a drying up of the land. 
 
 We found only a few huts down here, inhabited 
 by Griquas, Jasper Abraham and Abraham Kok; 
 the latter is a very old man, nephew of old Adam 
 Kok : he clamis an erf here. 
 
 We went to visit Jasper Abraham, who was lying 
 full length on an easy chair in the verandah of his 
 hut. He is a fat old man, formerly a councillor of 
 Waterboor, and supposed to be very rich. Among 
 natives fatness is always supposed to accompany 
 riches. He would not get up to greet us, and we 
 had some conversation on the point : he said that a 
 white man would not shake hands with a Griqua, 
 and so the Griqua refused to get up and greet the 
 white man. I said that I could not do business with 
 him whUe he behaved in so inhospitable a manner ; 
 this touched him up, and he rose, and I shook hands 
 with him, which seemed to afiect him very much. 
 I believe that these old Griqua head-men are 
 more proud even than the Boers : and with the 
 Boers pride is a great factor in their character. 
 
 His sons were out hunting ostriches in the desert 
 beyond Kuruman. He said that he had had two 
 farms in Albania, and had been turned out by the 
 English settlers there, and that Waterboer had given 
 him two farms near Campbell in lieu, but had 
 omitted to give him any documents, and that his 
 claims had been disallowed in the Land Court. He 
 spoke most disrespectfully of the Government and of 
 the Land Court, and seemed to have no trust in 
 
332 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Europeans. I was obliged to check him several 
 times. He seems -a sturdy old fellow, and more 
 straightforward than most Griquas I have met. I 
 could not promise to do anything for him, but said 
 that it would be all looked into at once. In front of 
 his house was a large erf (sowing ground) lying 
 waste, this, he said, he had been turned out of by 
 other claimants. These lands seem knee-deep in 
 claimants, and they all prevent each other using them, 
 and so nothing is done. Really things would be 
 better under a less civilised government, as then 
 the dominant party would get the upper hand, and 
 the land would be cultivated, even if the rightful 
 owners were ejected ; but under our splendid system 
 of government the lands lie waste altogether, and 
 the only persons who thrive are the lawyers, who 
 will soon get hold of all these properties. 
 
 Darkness came on and we groped our way 
 back, and arrived at the hotel at 7 p.m. The land- 
 lord dined with us as our guest, and we had to ask 
 him every now and then to get up and open a bottle 
 of beer for us, which he did with alacrity. The half- 
 caste land-agent kept coming through our dining- 
 room every few minutes, as though he hoped to be 
 invited to feed with us, until he was asked to go 
 round, and then he went to the bar and talked at us 
 in a loud tone of voice. 
 
 These Campbell land claims are very troublesome, 
 as the Land Court has taken a different view of the 
 matter to the Government, owing to the Orange 
 Free State having put up Cornelius Kok and his suc- 
 cessors as chiefs independent of Waterboer. The real 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 333 
 
 condition of aifairs does not make much difference 
 now as I have only to see what can be done to 
 remedy the injustice done to the natives in so many 
 ways ; but the case is instructive. 
 
 Campbell was originally discovered by Andries 
 Waterboer in 1805, when on his way back from the 
 Bechuana country, and was named Knovel Valley ; it 
 then possessed a number of excellent fountains, far 
 more than they are at present, so far as I can 
 judge. 
 
 In 181 1 these lands were taken possession of in 
 the name of the London Missionary Society, by 
 Mr. Janse, Mr. Burchell, Adam Kok, chief of Griqua- 
 town, and many of his people. Shortly after this 
 Short Adam Kok and a party of Griquas started 
 agricultural pursuits here, as an out-station of 
 Griquatown, and in 1 8 1 3 the name was changed to- 
 Campbell, after Mr. Campbell the missionary. 
 
 At this time there was one Bushman and his family 
 living on the spot, October Bailie, and Adam Kok 
 paid him 1 50 dollars to clear out from the fountain. 
 In 1824, Andries Waterboer placed Cornelius Kok in 
 charge of Campbell as sub-captain, and this was ap-^ 
 proved at Capetown on Waterboer's recommendation. 
 In 1834, when Adam Kok, as chief of Philippolis 
 made his territorial treaty with Waterboer, he re- 
 ceived back from Waterboer the 150 dollars he had 
 paid. It was not until the time of Nicholas Waterboer 
 that Cornelius Kok began to sell farms surreptitiously 
 to the Boers. 
 
 In 1820 thei:e were no less than 800 Griquas at 
 Campbell, There are now very few, though there 
 
334 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 are thirteen good fountains and several hundred 
 of morgen of excellent erven subject to irrigation. 
 It is one of the best-watered places in Griqualand 
 West and is a desirable spot for a township. 
 
 Having this in view I am making arrangements 
 to give the place about 10,000 morgen as a com- 
 monage, and to set free for public use the greater 
 number of the fountains. In all this I have to 
 arrange that persons who have valid claims to 
 ground at Campbell shall receive farms in lieu, 
 only keeping their erven. 
 
 I am also recommending that 100 water erven 
 should at once be surveyed and beaconed off for the 
 use of the Griquas and other natives living in the 
 neighbourhood, and that in aU cases where fountains 
 have not been enclosed, the owners shall have only a 
 first servitude on them, so that the townspeople may 
 water their cattle at them. This provision seems 
 necessary in order that in case the population in- 
 creases private persons may not have the power to 
 retard progress by cutting off the water-supply. 
 
 There are twelve cases in appeal, and compromises 
 can now be effected with all. 
 
 The greatest trouble is the absurd cost of the 
 survey of the erven, I should put it down as not 
 more than 5s. an erf at the most, but the inspection 
 charge is over £2. Verily surveyors can make their 
 fortunes in this country. 
 
 Monday, October i, — Got away at 7.30 a.m. for 
 Griquatown (36 miles) through a good deal of bush, 
 and eventually came out on a limestone plateau and 
 bare veldt. The day was windy, the birds very wild. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 335 
 
 and we shot nothing until arriving at the fountain 
 halfway, where Namaqua partridges come to drink : 
 we got some of them, and they were very good to 
 eat. Villiers was dreadfully desponding at the 
 desolation we had met, and wished he had never seen 
 it ; we knocked his hat over his eyes and hit him 
 with sticks until he turned on us in wrath and 
 retaliated, making us flee before him, and after that 
 he was more sanguine about affairs. 
 
 Arrived at an outspanning place at 1.30 p.m., 
 when we had food and went after spring-buck, but 
 could not get near them. We were lured on after a 
 hare, then a koorhaan, and then a paauw, until we 
 were nigh being lost and found our way back with 
 difficulty. 
 
 I had a trial of skill with E,ufo, the Italian, in 
 making an omelette. I chose this day for the trial 
 because there was a very cold wind blowing strongly. 
 E-ufo began to make his omelette in orthodox 
 manner, and no, doubt it would have been excellent 
 had he been indoors ; but he did not calculate on 
 the effects of a cold wind : the result was something 
 like leather, to his great mortification. Then I took 
 my turn, screened off the wind with my body, and 
 kept a plate over the eggs until I turned out a fairly 
 good omelette to the surprise of aU. Rufo was com- 
 forted later on when I explained about the effect of 
 the wind and allowed that in a house he could beat 
 my poor efforts. We now went on over the bushy 
 veldt, plenty of scrub, and then bush again, and at 
 last saw Griquatown in front of us with a line of 
 purple hUls beyond. 
 
336 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 We were not prepossessed with its appearance ; 
 it lies in a valley, and consists of a few brick and 
 stone houses, a desolate and forlorn-looking place, 
 without trees or gardens that we could see. As we 
 got nearer, however, we found some signs of progress 
 in a cutting in the rock at least ten feet deep to 
 conduct water to the erven which are, however, at 
 present quite dry. 
 
 The Civil Commissioner and others came out to 
 meet us. There are very few persons here, and aU 
 except the officials, are living on the land question 
 and the litigation that has ensued since the Land 
 Court was held. There are Mr. Roper the C.C. 
 and wife, Mr. Hinton, Mr, du Toit, and Mr. Manby, 
 attorneys and land agents. Mr. Scholtz was here to 
 buy farms. The Dutch have just made Griquatown 
 their Nachtmaal centre, and consequently the town 
 must grow. There were forty Dutch waggons here a 
 few days ago. The Dutch are fast taking up farms in 
 all these parts. It is reported that about a month ago 
 ;^6 5,000 was brought up for the purchase of farms, 
 but that it all went back again when the intending 
 purchasers found out the high rate of quit-rent at 
 present charged on the dry farm, viz., at least ;^5 
 a thousand morgen. I am hoping to get this 
 excessive rental reduced, particularly because, under 
 the Crown, it must be paid in cash, and even wealthy 
 farmers cannot get hold of cash though they may 
 have plenty of kind. 
 
 We put up at the hotel or store of Harrison 
 Brothers, general dealers, and dined with the Ropers ; 
 a very pleasant evening. It was curious to 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 337 
 
 see in this out-of-the-way place the Civil Com- 
 missioner when walking out, dressed as carefully as 
 though he were walking up Bond Street ; there is 
 something incongruous in this amid aU the desola- 
 tion and penury around ; but the Griquas do want 
 an example set them in dressing neatly. 
 
 It is difficult to give correctly the very early history 
 of Griquatown ; it goes back to the heroic ages of 
 the country. 
 
 I believe that over one hundred years ago this 
 country was entirely unoccupied except by Bushmen 
 and wild animals, such as hippopotami, elephants, 
 rhinoceros, buck of all sorts, and lions. In those days 
 the grass grew high and stiff, tambookie grass, and the 
 sun never reached the soil, consequently the ground 
 never got really dry and heavy rain feU periodically. 
 There were swamps and vleis in all directions, 
 and the sluits, now dry, used to run constantly. 
 AU the traditions of the natives point to this. The 
 Molopo, now usually dry, was then a flowing river. 
 
 Then came up the Koranna, and they brought 
 sheep with them. Now sheep cannot live amongst 
 high grass ; they want short grass or bush. The 
 result was the burning down of the tall grass near 
 the dweUing-places and the substitution of gi-ass 
 or bushes that sheep could live on. Then the sun 
 got at the soil, and a general drying-up process 
 commenced. 
 
 Griquatown is now a melancholy sight. You can 
 see how the fountain has been cut down lower and 
 lower — until at last it is about fifteen to twenty feet 
 below the surrounding soil, and a deep trench has 
 
»38 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 been cut so that the water may reach the erven 
 below. 
 
 Major Lanyon has asked me to instruct the Civil 
 Commissioner to get the erven laid out according 
 to the survey, and at a cost of ;^2 2s. each erf: it 
 seems to me a prohibitory sum, but the law lays it 
 •down. 
 
 Why cannot they just peg out the erven in rect- 
 angular allotments as we do at home ? The whole 
 could be surveyed in a morning, and the cost would 
 be nominal, but then the surveyors must earn their 
 daily bread, and I suppose this is a matter on 
 which they make. 
 
 Tuesday, October 2. — Up early : rain and mist, 
 a most unusual occurrence and quite a Godsend to 
 the country ; it wUl put every one in good heart. I 
 called on the Civil Commissioner and, with him, 
 went to see the ex-chief Waterboer ; he lives in a 
 good house, near the Courthouse : it is badly 
 furnished. He does not now drink to excess, as 
 he formerly did, but his swollen eyelids tell tales 
 of former days, for he has been a hard drinker. His 
 father, Andries, was said to be a pure blooded 
 native, and some think a pure blooded Griqua, 
 w^hich seems impossible as the Griquas are said to 
 be half-castes. The Surveyor-General says that 
 Andries was a Bushman ; and this again seems im- 
 probable, as he was an exceptionally gifted man of 
 great force of character, more like a very able white 
 man. His son Nicholas Waterboer, the ex -chief 
 looks like a Griqua : he has good features, his white 
 ■curly hair growing in tufts, and a white beard. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 339 
 
 He was very pleasant and haughty and dictatorial 
 and talked as if the whole country still belonged 
 to him, and as though he would settle everything 
 with a wave of the hand ? I was obliged to tell 
 him that he had handed over his country, was 
 under British rule and must come to terms soon or 
 he would be ruined by those who were lending him 
 money, and that my object was to settle matters with 
 him so that he might have something to live upon. 
 I told him, however, that I could not go into details 
 with him unless he gave up his claim to Daniel's 
 Kuil, where he claimed 100,000 morgen, worth about 
 ;^ 1 0,000 (about thirty-three farms or 300 square 
 miles). Daniel's Kuil is one of the three farms 
 awarded to Waterboer by the Land Court, but the 
 Crown has appealed against the judgment and there 
 are other claimants to portions of the lands. It is 
 one of the best watered pieces of country in the 
 province and is required in the future for a 
 township. I have no doubt myself that it is not 
 part of the private property of Waterboer but was 
 bought by him territorially, i.e., his father bought 
 the goodwUl of the Government from another 
 chief 
 
 We had a long talk over the matter and he said 
 that he must consult his sisters, but I showed him, 
 that I had his sisters' consent to abandon the claim ; 
 then he said that he must consult Klaas Kruger, 
 one of his old councillors ; so I agreed to wait until 
 the following day. He does not like giving up 
 Daniel's Kuil though I feel sure that he knows that 
 it is not his private property. AU these people 
 
340 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 so far as I can judge, like to retain vague and 
 sentimental grievances and cannot be happy without 
 them : grasping at the shadow and leaving the 
 substance. At the bottom of Waterboer's senti- 
 ment regarding Daniel's Kuil is his inability to 
 realise that he is no longer paramount chief of the 
 land. But the matter must be settled, otherwise 
 the land agents will collar everything and Water- 
 boer will be a pauper in a very short time. 
 
 Waterboer has three sons and aU drink : Andries 
 who is in the house now is less addicted to drink 
 than the others. 
 
 After lunch the Civil Commissioner came over 
 and talked about Waterboer's claim until 5 p.m. 
 when he took us for a ride to the outspanning place, 
 which is said to have been proposed by the Sur- 
 veyor-General. It is five miles from Griquatown. 
 I am lost in astonishment and cannot imagine what 
 they are all driving at. They are aU at cross pur- 
 poses down here ; I cannot think that Mr. Orpen 
 can have proposed an outspanning place so far off 
 from the township. The rocks below the town are 
 almost picturesque and when it grows they can be 
 made to look very pretty, but it will be a long time 
 before Griquatown prospers. 
 
 We dined with the Ropers and during dinner a 
 telegram was received forwarded from Kimberley 
 saying that there was war on the Kafir frontier, and 
 that Ashley must go off by October 10: so our 
 expedition to Kuruman is knocked on the head, 
 though it is only fifty miles from Daniel's KuU, for 
 which I hope to start to-morrow. I fear now that 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 341 
 
 Sir Bartle Frere will not be able to pay us his 
 intended visit till there is peace again. 
 
 There is a good fountain near here called Uit Kyk 
 where there should be plenty of erven as the water 
 can be brought out ; it is a thousand pities that all 
 erven are not at once sold and cultivated : people 
 would go ahead here if the Government would only let 
 them, but who is responsible for the mismanagement 
 about here I cannot say : I am sure that Lanyon 
 wishes to push matters foward. 
 
 The land claims of Waterboer are perfectly 
 enormous, and far beyond anything he can have 
 any right to, comprising as they do all the best 
 watered places in this part of the province. Arnot's 
 claims on the other hand were mostly dry farms. I 
 rather stick at the question of private rights to 
 water in such a dry country : I think that there is 
 naturally a servitude on all the springs for out- 
 spanning, &c. 
 
 I have, however, to look to the promises made to 
 Waterboer by the British Government and not to his 
 actual rights, and under those promises I think he is 
 entitled to about thirteen farms. The worst of the 
 matter is that Waterboer is not fit to look after 
 his own affairs. His lands ought to have been put 
 into commission at the very beginning : now it will 
 be difficult to save much for him out of the wreck 
 of his claims, as he has plunged so frightfully into 
 the hands of the land agents and money-lenders. 
 I hear of the interest on some of his debts exceeding 
 greatly the original sum lent. I can see no rosy 
 side to this business. 
 
342 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 The locusts swarm about this country at times, 
 though I do not see what they can find to eat : in 
 the distance their flight looks like the dust of many 
 horsemen or cattle moving quickly. I heard a story 
 about a farmer near here ; for six weeks he and his 
 family fought the attacks of locusts on his garden and 
 beat them down the well. At last the wind changed, 
 the locusts vanished, and the family breathed 
 freely and said "We are safe, we shall have all 
 our fruit in consequence of our exertions." A few 
 hours after a hail storm came up and destroyed 
 everything in the garden. It seems to me that the 
 stories here abound in moral lessons ; I suppose it 
 is so when there are so many people with primitive 
 ideas. 
 
 October 3.--— Up rather late and find no signs of 
 Klaas Lucas on whom Waterboer relies, so I have 
 been asked to wait till the afternoon. The Civil 
 Commissioner cannot understand the town plan of 
 the erven made by the Government Surveyor, he 
 does not know where to mark the road in conse- 
 quence and he asked me as a surveyor to assist him. 
 Of course the surveyors ought to mark off every- 
 thing on the ground ; but they say that they are not 
 paid for doing so, and consequently the CivU Com- 
 missioner is left with a plan only intelligible to the 
 initiated. I couldn't find on the plan a single object 
 existing on the ground except some of the outside 
 beacons, and it was difficult to get a starting-point. 
 Eventually the Civil Commissioner showed me a 
 heap of stones in the corner of the proposed market 
 square, which proved to mark the central road; and as 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 343 
 
 soon as I recognised one point I could ascertain by- 
 measurement where the other points were. I had 
 to pace yards and I do not think that he Hked strid- 
 ing along beside me, doing nothing but hold the 
 plan. I pegged out the road for him, and he im- 
 mediately sent convicts to bridge over the sluit and 
 make the road secure. I then pointed out the several 
 erven to him, and ascertained that the land agent 
 knows aU about them, and can say who are the 
 claimants, so I asked that he might be sent for ; but 
 the Civil Commissioner said that he did not speak 
 to the agent and that if he came he would have to 
 go. I suppose it is incidental to such a place that 
 private quarrels are brought into public affairs. 
 
 Mr. , who is a land agent to the Griquas, has a 
 
 son here who keeps a canteen, and his office is next 
 to the bar, and the natives complain that instead 
 of getting their lands they only get drinks, boots 
 and jackets ; it may be much exaggerated, but it is 
 a matter for Majoc Lanyon to see into. I went to 
 see the gaol ; it is a miserable two-celled place fit 
 for about twenty prisoners at the most, but they 
 often have to put fifty prisoners in it ; the women 
 are separated. The sentences are mostly long, 
 and those cases should be sent to Kimberley 
 gaol. There are never any white prisoners kept 
 here. 
 
 After going round to see a Griqua claimant, 
 Mr. Manby an attorney came up and spoke about 
 the condition of Waterboer and said that the agree- 
 ment I would accept was liberal, and Mr. Mitrovitch 
 (a Russian from Malta) also said that Waterboer 
 
344 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 must come to terms and that he would go and see 
 him. Beautiful drizzling rain. 
 
 At lunch time Mr. Harrison came rushing in to 
 say that the sisters of Waterboer had come to terms, 
 as though it were an affair of state ; and all about 
 the streets of the little place, people, white and 
 coloured, were talking it over ; it was most enter- 
 taining. At about 2 P.M., Mr Harrison came to say 
 that Waterboer had had too much drink to see me 
 and asked if I would put off my journey : I gave 
 him tiU 9 A.M. to-morrow. 
 
 October 4. — Klaas Kruger has not come and Water- 
 boer is not really drunk but wants to gain time. 
 
 In the afternoon I went with Villiers over the 
 erven of the town and on to Lieuw Kuil to show him 
 the absurdity of the proposed outspanning place. 
 Moreover they want to put the outspan on the soft 
 ground fit for erven instead of on the hard limestone 
 close by. The oxen can be taken to drink at Lieuw 
 Kuil. Villiers quite agreed; the difficulties all 
 seem to arise from the private local squabbles. 
 
 Griquatown is a wonderful place for gossip and 
 yet so many are not on speaking terms with each 
 other. Now that the people begin to know us they 
 have told us some of the stories others have told of 
 us. I dare say they make them up themselves, but 
 they amused us ; but some of the stories have 
 evidently been believed. For example Mr. Harrison 
 asked us more than once if we did not wish to have 
 a bottle of spirits always on the table, and was con- 
 stantly apologising for the poorness of their apart- 
 ments ; this arose they say from their having been 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 345 
 
 told that we were so particular and very easily 
 offended. We were told some ridiculous stories 
 about our behaviour to Major Lanyon at Government 
 House, in crabbing at his good fare ; and the con- 
 versation was aU told so circumstantially. Among 
 other things we were told that some one just arrived 
 here from Kimberley had said : "You will not like 
 Captain Warren, he is so particular. He goes into 
 Major Lanyon's office with his hat on the back of 
 his head, sits down in a chair and says : ' Your 
 stationery is bad, I cannot write out of a pewter 
 inkstand — ^you must bring me a glass ink-bottle and 
 proper paper and pens or I shall throw up the matter 
 and go home to England.' " I cannot think how 
 they can have believed such rubbish — but here, 
 though people are always making up stories, they 
 seem to believe anything they are told ; they 
 don't look upon the stories merely as so much 
 chaif. Lanyon will be amused when he hears of the 
 manner in which we are supposed to communicate 
 with each other. 
 
 Thursday, October 4. — Klaas Kruger has not 
 turned up, so Waterboer is going on without him, and 
 at 9 A.M. appeared in our little sitting-room at the 
 Hamsons, supported by Mr. Manby, attorney. Just 
 then Klaas Kruger arrived and Waterboer must 
 needs go out to see him and there the business 
 seemed likely to end. I therefore had the waggon 
 packed to show that we were going, and at last 
 about II A.M. Klaas Kruger and Waterboer came 
 and said that they would agree to anything I pro- 
 posed : so Mr. Manby sat down and wrote out a 
 
346 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 draft of the whole matter : in the middle of it 
 Waterboer complained of a pain in the stomach and 
 went out : so we had to send a councillor with him 
 to see that he did not get drunk. He came back 
 after a time all right, and then he got a pain in the 
 leg and must have some wine. At last at i p.m. all 
 the proposal was written down, agreed to by his 
 councillors, and signed by him and his attorney. 
 Before leaving there was an amusing mistake owing 
 to one of the stories about our always requiring two 
 servants to wait on us : when it was explained the 
 Harrisons laughed heartily, and we parted good 
 friends. The fact is that we are accustomed to do 
 things for ourselves, but the white people about here 
 are so proud and conceited that they will do no 
 menial act on any account, and they have imputed 
 to us (in an intensified degree) their own failings in 
 this respect. I thought that after pegging out all 
 the Griquatown erven for the people, in company 
 with a lot of convicts, the people need not have 
 believed the stories as to our being so sentimentally 
 fastidious. 
 
 We started at 2 p.m. ; the roads very nice from the 
 recent rain ; went north for several hours, and at 
 5 P.M. outspanned in a lovely country, shot some 
 pai'tridges and Koorhaan for dinner, went on at sun- 
 set, till we could distinguish the road no longer, and 
 slept in the bush. 
 
 Friday, October 5. — Up at sunrise : the mules 
 very thirsty, there being no water about ; went on 
 to Jacobsfontein, the only fountain between Griqua- 
 town and Daniel's Kuil : there we had a good 
 
OF GRIQU ALAND WEST 347 
 
 breakfast,- and shot a hare which was standing 
 up at the end of the road dazed by our appearance. 
 Went to shoot partridges, but they are too wild at 
 this time of day. Went on over a bushy country 
 where water may be found, and came to Daniel's 
 KuU at 5 P.M. The natives here are burning the 
 bush to drive out the white man ; there are real live 
 Bushmen about here with poisoned arrows, but they 
 are seldom seen, they keep out of sight. 
 
 Got down and walked up to the farm, Oude 
 Plaats, where there is a beautiful spring of water 
 issuing from the limestone rock. Here we met 
 Mr. Chapman, the purchaser of the ground. He 
 has enclosed about four acres, and planted a thousand 
 vines and many fruit-trees ; then we walked on to 
 the fountains of Daniel's Kuil, and very voluminous 
 they are. There are acres and acres of erven well 
 watered : much might be made of this place. We 
 came on snipe in the marshes, but our guns were not 
 handy. We came to a fountain where a black field- 
 cornet, Flemming, lives ; and then on to the house 
 of Mr. Burness, field-cornet in the Barkly district ; 
 here is a fine fountain. Mr. Burness asked us in 
 to supper and showed us the lands he is cultivating, 
 called Taka ; they belong to Jood, and he cultivates 
 all and gives Jood half the produce ; these Griquas 
 will not now cultivate anything themselves. 
 
 Mr. Burness, his wife and brother, live in a little 
 shanty, and trade with the interior : this used to 
 be the high road to Kuruman through Hardcastle 
 and Griquatown. He had heard no news for more 
 than a month, as there is no post to Daniel's Kuil. 
 
348 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 We had a very interesting conversation ; he says 
 that he never sees any Bushmen about. He thinks 
 that the land agents are getting the lands of the 
 natives, and wants something to be done on their 
 behalf. I asked if a government agent or protector 
 of natives could do it, and he said "Yes." I must 
 see to this. He wanted very much to have a piece 
 of ground to cultivate himself. 
 
 Daniel's Kuil was one of the places occupied very 
 early in this century, it was under the rule of the 
 Griqua chief, Barend Barends, who seems to have 
 exercised independent control up to 1822. But after 
 that, in consequence of the incursions of the Man- 
 tatees, and the pillaging of the Bergenaars, it came 
 under the dominion of Andries Waterboer, as para- 
 mount chief; and in 1834 he bought Barend Barends 
 out. He actually bought Daniel's KuU for a mission- 
 station. I consider that he did not buy the actual 
 son, but only the goodwill of the Government. 
 
 Saturday, October 6. — Left at 9 A.M., and traversed 
 a good country, past Cook's fountain. Much rain 
 has fallen. We passed a village of Griquas, and 
 arranged for a span of oxen to take our waggon 
 down the steep road of the Kaap, next morning, and 
 went on till 8 p.m., when we outspanned and slept on 
 the ground. 
 
 Sunday, October 7. — ^The oxen did not turn up, 
 and we had to go down a very i steep and rugged 
 descent with our little mules, till we came to a 
 beautiful park-like piece of scenery. We shot a 
 good many partridges near the fountain at the top of 
 the Kaap. 
 
OF GRIQU ALAND WEST 349 
 
 We arrived at Likatlong at 3 p.m., where we met 
 Greef, Bailie, assistant surveyor, and Sam Edwards, 
 who are engaged in laying out Kafir locations : the 
 latter is taking up work as a sort of protector of 
 natives, and is the best man that could be got for 
 such a post ; only give him the necessary power.. 
 The natives have absolute confidence in him, and so 
 have all Europeans : he has a wonderful reputation 
 for doing what is right, willy nilly. 
 
 We arrived at Barkly at sunset, and found the 
 hotel full, so that we had to pitch our little tents, 
 outside : we supped at the hotel. F. Orpen, Frank 
 Green and Minton came to see us. 
 
 Monday, October 8. — Started at 7 A.M., crossed 
 by the pont, shot partridges on the way, and arrived 
 at Kimberley at 1 1 A.M. 
 
 At the halfway house there is a charming little- 
 parrot or love bird, which likes to have its head 
 scratched, and a delightful rat- tailed meerkat, which 
 rolls itself up into a ball and likes to be petted. 
 
 On our way in we passed Mr. J. B. Bobinson and 
 his bride. We learn that the Kafir war is going on 
 nicely, and that Kreli is being driven from pillar to 
 post, but our news is not worth much. Ashley leaves 
 by coach to-morrow. 
 
 I had an amusing interview with a claimant this 
 afternoon, named Thomas Cox. He wants a farm 
 because he led the Volunteers at the "jollification " 
 at Cawood's Hope. I suppose that was in April 
 1 87 1, when loyal subjects of the Queen were banded 
 together to oppose the Free State Commando of one 
 thousand men sent by President Brand to defend the- 
 
350 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Free State rights against the mounted police sent to 
 the dry diggings by the British magistrate. The high 
 contending parties were in grim earnest, but I fancy 
 that the diggers thought that the ftm was got up 
 for their own amusement. I get such strange arid 
 interesting versions of the doings in those days that 
 I only wish I had time to write them down. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Monday, October 9. — Waterboer's case seems a 
 hard one. If he had come to this country and 
 squatted on these lands as a half-caste Boer they 
 would have been awarded to him. If he had gone 
 into the Orange Free State he could have held land, 
 for many of the Boers are coloured. 
 
 Before stating how I have arranged for settling 
 Waterboer's claims I must note down a short account 
 of the condition of the Griquas continuing from what 
 I said on January i (page 43). 
 
 The older Cornelius Kok, captain of the Griquas, 
 was confirmed in his appointment by Lord Caledon 
 early in the century, but his son Adam (Dam) Kok 
 actually acted as chief at Griquatown, where the 
 Griquas, instructed by the missionaries, settled 
 down to cultivate the ground. Dam Kok, however, 
 soon tired of civilised life, and about 18 19 he left 
 Griquatown with a band of discontented followers, 
 and resorted to plunder and rapine, living in the hills 
 about the Orange and Vaal rivers, and acquiring the 
 name of Bergenaars. 
 
 In the meantime a very remarkable man, named 
 Andries Waterboer, was advanced to the ministry of 
 the Griquas by the London Missionary Society. He 
 
352 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 was reputed to be a full-blood Hottentot, but 
 from his great ability and indomitable energy he 
 may be supposed to have had white blood. He was 
 appointed chief of the Griquas when Adam Kok 
 abdicated, and his appointment was recognised by 
 the Governor in 1822, when a political agent, 
 Mr. Melvil, was sent to Griquatown to reside with 
 him and support him. 
 
 In 1823 Andries Waterboer (at the request of 
 Mr. Moffat) took command of a force from Griqua- 
 town (accompanied by Mr. Melvil) and marched to 
 the assistance of the Kuruman mission against an 
 invasion of the powerful and savage Mantatees, whom 
 he routed utterly. 
 
 I give some account of this period from my father's 
 journal in 1825. 
 
 "July 9, 1825. — Lived with Melvil, at Griquatown, 
 the Government agent, who gave us an account of 
 the differences of the Bergonars. Only one mis- 
 sionary here, a very old man, Mr. Sass, a German : 
 several tolerable houses, but the place deserted for 
 want of grass, &c. Andries Waterboer, the captain of 
 the town. I heard from Mr. Melvil that a little lower 
 down, the Orange River might be turned from its 
 course and water a considerable country. Also that 
 in crossing the country between Beaufort and the Ax 
 river there was a plant very much like a reed, which 
 had some silky fibres which make very good thread. 
 
 "A considerable number of Koranas and Bechuanas 
 come and reside here. The Koranas are very much 
 in the same state as the Bojismen. The country 
 very poor just now, and nothing to be got ; a great 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 353 
 
 deal of iron in the stone. I heard an account of an 
 expedition to Sibonel, one of the chiefs of the 
 Barrolong natives. 
 
 " Six hundred of his cattle were seized by the 
 Griquas because Mr. Broadhurst's (the missionary) 
 house had been plundered, supposed by the Griquas 
 to have been Sibonel himself, and not the Mantatees, 
 and they considered they had a right to punish the 
 affairs of another nation. What are now called the 
 Bergonars are different from the Hartoneers, having 
 been joined by two old captains. Kar's place be- 
 longing to a Griqua, now called Daniel's Kuil, 
 halfway between Griquatown and the Souree, will 
 produce about two hundred muids of corn this season 
 unless fail by ill-luck : fondness of the Griquas for 
 dress, waggons, horses, &c. : debts to the Boers for 
 thes articles. Bechuana servants and Bechuana 
 house at Griquatown. 
 
 "Arrived at Souree (considered five days from 
 Griquatown), on the Kuruman River, on Sunday, 
 September 5, 1825, and departed on Thursday, 
 September 9. Heard from Mr. Moffat, who travelled 
 a considerable way in the interior to the Bamwaketze 
 (called by Campbell Wanketzens), of whom Makabba 
 was king, about the regular state of the country, 
 the age and superior knowledge of that king, his 
 death by some Mantatees after fighting for some 
 time ; Melinda, said by Campbell to be the capital 
 of his country, is the name of his father. Kunan, 
 or Chunang (now Kunana), the capital of the Barro- 
 longs, is called by Campbell Mashow, and the king 
 Kossei; Kossie, or "king" in Bechuana, and Mashow 
 
354 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 his name. Campbell's geography is totally in- 
 correct. 
 
 "Went to the town of Letakoo, and found it 
 deserted ; it is built in circles, enclosing kraals. 
 
 "Arrived at Tourtham on Sunday the 12th, after 
 travelling a little to the eastward of south. Here 
 we found poor Mateebe, who had been driven from 
 old Letakoo by the Mantatees, and from New 
 Letakoo by the Koranas, assisted by some Griquas, 
 Jacob Cloete, and Nicolas Diver. He says he could 
 not fight against muskets, and does not know what 
 to do ; was pleased to hear of the order in the colony 
 prohibiting Griquas from selling cattle ; he has no 
 horses — has only a bush to live under and not many 
 followers. 
 
 " Customs that differ from Kafirs on the east 
 coast : the Bechuanas live in cities, and have out- 
 posts for their cattle ; build better houses ; can sell 
 cattle without asking permission from their chiefs : 
 dance more like Europeans : sibelo (a sparkling 
 stone) used for the hair instead of red clay ; cultivate 
 beans ; fight in their carosses ; their shields smaller; 
 their carosses with the hair on ; dress with more 
 decency and cover their person ; the language 
 considerably different. 
 
 " A great number of Koranas with the Bechuanas ; 
 some, indeed most, carry the bow and poisoned 
 arrows. They are of copper colour. Conversed 
 with Mateebe by means of Dirk, an interpreter sent 
 by IVJj?. Moffat, who spoke Korana ; gravity and 
 time taken to reply ; news on both sides first said ; 
 chiefs collected, and conversation about Mantatees ; 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 355 
 
 a Bechuana said that he had heard of the Mantatees 
 from his father, but that they had remained quiet 
 for a considerable time afterwards. They conquered 
 some of Bechuanas, and spread in different large 
 bodies over the whole country, and killed Mackabba, 
 and about the same time were beaten by the Griquas 
 in their attempt on Letakoo. 
 
 "Account of the action by Mr. Moffat ; firing and 
 running until they had killed most of the chiefs of 
 the Mantatees ; how desperately they fought, one 
 succeeding another, throwing out bodies of troops to 
 surround the horses of the Griquas ; Moffat's escape : 
 weapons — a circular piece of iron fastened by a 
 short stick to them, a battle-axe, very much curved, 
 short assegais ; always rush on ; some wore the same 
 ornaments as the Kafirs. 
 
 "Sunday, September 19. — Returned to Griqua- 
 town. 
 
 " Tuesday, September 21. — Dr. Philip arrived. 
 Heard that Waterboer was set up by the missionaries 
 with power equal to the old chiefs, and attempts at 
 making him greater ; old Dam Kok bamboozled out 
 of the captainship. Left Griquatown, Saturday 28. 
 Passed Hard Castle, Asbestos Mountain, Groote 
 River, farms of Old Fortun. Koranas are a remove 
 above the Bojismen, having cattle. Passed by 
 several salt fountains and rivers ; arrived Sunday, 
 October 3, 1825, at Lang Valley. Bastards with 
 cattle ; they wander about as the grass grows and 
 water lasts, between this and Namaqualarid." 
 
 In 1 824-5 the Bergenaars plundered the Bechuanas, 
 tinder Mothibi, on the Hart river and captured their 
 
356 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 cattle: upon thisWaterboer attacked the Bergenaars, 
 captured the cattle, rescued the Bechuanas, and took 
 them under protection. Adam Kok was subsequently 
 induced by Dr. Philip to give up his wandering life 
 and settle about the mission-station of Philippolis, 
 in the country north of the Orange River about 
 Fauresmith, what was then called East Griqualand. 
 He was acknowledged chief of Philippolis by General 
 Bourke in 1825. 
 
 The Griquas, at this time, were called the 
 Makoods {i.e., the civilised) by the Barolongs, and 
 the territory Waterboer ruled over was identical with 
 the present province of Griqualand West. As an 
 instance of the custom of buying and selling lands 
 in those days is the fact that in 181 9 Adam Kok 
 purchased the Campbell Springs from October Bailie, 
 a Bushman, for 1 50 rix doUars, and that A. Waterboer 
 paid this sum back to Adam Kok in 1834. 
 
 In 1834 the Governor entered into a treaty with 
 Andries Waterboer, under which the latter engaged 
 to protect the Colonial border from Kheis to Eamah. 
 In 1837 Andries Waterboer agreed with Adam Kok, 
 of Philippolis that the Griqua territory should be 
 divided into Western and Eastern Griqualand, 
 Ramah being the point of separation. 
 
 Up to this time the territories north of the Orange 
 river were entirely under the Griquas, subject to 
 British influence ; but about 1834-6 the rebel Boers 
 commenced the " great trek," and flocked over the 
 Orange river into the Philippolis district, and the 
 Griquas were unequal to keeping order. In con- 
 sequence of the troubles that arose, the Governor 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 357 
 
 in 1 846 entered into a treaty (the Maitland Treaty) 
 with Adam Kok, in which his absolute dominion 
 of East Griqualand was acknowledged : but his 
 territories were divided into two parts : those that 
 could be sold to Europeans and those that were 
 entirely reserved to Griquas. 
 
 Shortly after this (in 1 848) Cornelius Kok, sub- 
 captain at Campbell in West Griqualand, who had 
 been for some time at variance with Waterboer, began 
 to sell lands in West Griqualand to Boers, or else 
 allowed them to squat on land, north of the Reit 
 river. In this year, in consequence of the troubles 
 made by the Boers in Adam Kok's territory the 
 British sovereignty was proclaimed over the country 
 between the Orange and Vaal rivers, but West 
 Griqualand remained as before. 
 
 Andries Waterboer died in 1852, and was succeeded 
 by his son, Nicholas, a young man who showed no 
 signs of the ability or individuality of his father ; he 
 was recognised as chief of West Griqualand by the 
 British Government, but no formal treaty was made 
 with him. 
 
 In 1854 the Orange River Sovereignty was aban- 
 doned and the Orange River Free State (Republic) 
 established in its place. After this the Boers 
 began to overflow into West Griqualand, squatting 
 or buying land from Cornelius Kok or other Griqua 
 or Koranna occupants, contrary to the Griqua laws. 
 In 1863 David Arnot appeared on the scenes to 
 champion the Griquas. and in 1867 the English 
 settlement of Albania was started to act as " a living 
 wall of flesh against Boer aggression." 
 
358 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 Shortly after this diamonds were found in the 
 Vaal River, and in 1870 there was a rush of thou- 
 sands of whites and natives to the Diamond Fields, 
 who required a strong hand to keep them in order. 
 
 In 1862 the Griquas of East Griqualand were 
 removed by the Government to Nomansland (now 
 Griqualand East, near Natal) so that they not only 
 sold their lands but got others in their place. 
 
 The following points are to be observed in the 
 history of the Griquas. 
 
 Though they were treated as independent native 
 tribes by our Government, yet they were looked 
 upon as being sufficiently civilised and competent 
 to keep order amongst the Boers who came amongst 
 them. 
 
 Their system of government was modelled on that 
 of the Dutch ; they had a Raad, and Councillors, 
 they laid down their boundaries, and sold their lands 
 between themselves, like white men. They were 
 organised to all intents and purposes as half-caste 
 republics, recognised and supported by the British 
 Government. 
 
 Although the life of the lower orders was tribal, 
 yet it is quite certain that the life and rule of the 
 chiefs and their council and of the more civilised was 
 territorial. From the earliest times they had terri- 
 torial boundaries, wherever they were required, and 
 alien tribes coming within those boundaries came 
 under the rule of the Griqua chiefs. On this 
 account Andries Waterboer had under his rule, 
 Batlapins, Barolongs, Batlaros, and Korannas ; and 
 these people disposed of their lands, one to the 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 359 
 
 other, giving cash or cattle, though their laws forbade 
 them to sell lands to white men. 
 
 When the province of Griqualand was proclaimed 
 British territory (October 27, 1871) by cession from 
 Nicholas Waterboer, he was made most distinct 
 promises as to his lands being confirmed to him, and 
 an adequate pension befitting his rank. He was 
 to have his lands at once, and a quieting procla- 
 mation was issued which clearly implied that all land 
 claims put forward by Waterboer and his council were 
 to be confirmed. 
 
 The delay in the issue of titles was not, at first, 
 due to inactivity on the part of the Provincial 
 Grovernment. Waterboer went off to Nomansland 
 and did not return tiU 1873, when he sent in lists 
 of the farm claims, signed by himself and coun- 
 cillors. 
 
 A land commission was appointed in 1875, of 
 which Waterboer was a member, and he gave much 
 trouble by his inertness and inebriety. This Com- 
 mission beaconed off several of the farms he 
 claimed, but had issued no land certificates, when 
 there was a change of policy (possibly due to the 
 influence of the newly established representative 
 Government in the Cape Colony) and a Land Court 
 was established. Had the duties of the Land Court 
 been restricted to the land east of the Vaal and 
 Hart river they would have comprised all the 
 claims in which Orange Free State titles were in- 
 volved, and no particular hardship would have been 
 entailfed upon the Griquas : but unfortunately the 
 claims of Waterboer and the Griquas were submitted 
 
360 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 to it also and were for the most part disallowed and 
 are now in appeal. 
 
 As to the nature of the promises of our Govern- 
 ment to Waterboer and the Griquas there can be no 
 doubt, as Mr. Richard Southey (who was Colonial 
 Secretary at Capetown at the time of the annex- 
 ation and was afterwards Land Governor of Griqua- 
 land West) has stated on several occasions that the 
 intention was to give the Griquas the farms allotted 
 to them on Waterboer's lists, and to allow them 
 to sell their farms if they wished to do so. The 
 Land Commission above alluded to was initiated by 
 Mr. Southey to enable the Griquas to acquire the 
 lands they claimed. 
 
 N. Waterboer's position is this. In 1871 the 
 Government promised to him his private property 
 {as stated by him) at once, and a handsome fixed 
 salary befitting his rank. 
 
 The Land Court judgment of 1876 gave him four 
 farms. He has had to borrow ;^i090 to pay for 
 his expenses in the Land Court. He has had to 
 sell his farms, in prospect, in order to live, as his 
 temporary allowance made to him has only averaged 
 ;^500 per annum. 
 
 In 1876 he paid ;C6oc)0 to David Arnot to bring 
 his case before the Governor-in-Chief. 
 
 I find that the value of Daniel's Kuil, which has 
 been awarded to him, is about ;C 10,000. I have, 
 therefore, now made a proposal which will satisfy- 
 all parties, the value of which is, exclusive of his 
 pension, about ;^ 14,000. 
 
 The values of the various proposals are as follows : 
 
OF GRIQUALAND west 361 
 
 On April 31, 1877, he asked for lands to the value of 
 j^46,cx30. On June 6, 1877, 'the Executive Council 
 offered him to the value of ;^ 2 6, 000, and Mr. Southey 
 proposed ;i^35,ooo (including Daniel's Kuil). I have 
 recommended all the farms (13) claimed by him, 
 (except Daniel's Kuil) and a pension of ;^iooo per 
 annum on himself and ;£500 on his wife after him, 
 if she survives, and the value is ;^2 5,000. 
 
 Most of the farms are already sold by him. The 
 Attorney-General and Council think my recom- 
 mendation a very good solution and Major Lanyon 
 has approved ; so this difficult matter is settled. 
 
 Tuesday, October 10.^ — Adolf Erasmus has paid 
 me a morning visit, his coming is rather an event 
 for him. When I used to stay with him, he often re- 
 marked that if he paid me a visit in Kimberley in his 
 Boer clothes and " veldt-schoons " (uiitanned leather 
 shoes) I should be ashamed of him and give him 
 the cold shoulder; and when he arrived he again 
 aUuded to this. I was delighted to see him and 
 took him first to the house of Judge Barry, with 
 whom he became acquainted when we were laying 
 down the boundary line. The judge and I are 
 great friends, and I was sure he would welcome 
 Erasmus : he lives in a little bungalow in a street 
 hard by, quite a small house (such as they mostly 
 use at Kimberley ; mud and iron and canvas), with 
 a verandah covered with creepers and a diminutive 
 garden facing the street. He is an enthusiastic 
 gardener and is trying what he can do to establish 
 a public garden in Kimberley, and has made a dam. 
 
 He welcomed Erasmus in Kimberley style, viz., 
 
362 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 by opening a large bottle of Champagne ; and there 
 we all stood in the hot sun sipping " fizz " and 
 pledging each other and our respective countries, 
 before 1 1 a.m. It was no compliment to Erasmus 
 for me to tiake him to the hotel, so I ascertained if 
 he would be welcomed at Government House — I knew 
 he would — and then I took him to see our principal 
 tin buildings at Kimberley, and discussed the pros- 
 pects of his getting a farm in Griqualand West, 
 for he is hot upon doing so, though his own farm was 
 cut out into the Orange Free State because he was 
 so anti-English. At lunch time I took him over to 
 Government House and presented him to Major 
 Lanyon, who received him most hospitably, and we 
 joked about his getting a hot joint instead of a 
 cold shoulder, for the Boers love plain speaking. 
 He was immensely pleased with his reception and 
 complimented Major Lanyon very much on the 
 prospects of farmers in Griqualand West, and was in 
 excellent humour. 
 
 I volunteered to accompany him some distance 
 out of Kimberley, in his four-horse cart, as he is not 
 so well acquainted with our ways and customs. As 
 we drove through the outskirts we came near a com- 
 pound without any adequate barriers and Erasmus, 
 in spite of my expostulations, insisted on driving 
 right through it, as it was a short cut, and soon we 
 found ourselves among the fowls of the establish- 
 ment, which were scattered right and left. This 
 brought out the owner, a highly irascible gentleman, 
 who was justly enraged at our proceedings, and used 
 language which produced voluminous replies from 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 363 
 
 Erasmus. The Dutch and the English views of 
 ownership were trotted out, and Erasmus shouted 
 out that the English were continually coming up to 
 his house through his fowls. Fortunately they did 
 not get to blows though they were getting on that 
 way, and when I got an opportunity I asked the 
 householder if he had had his dinner yet, He looked 
 surprised and said, " No." " Well, you see, we 
 have had ours ! " At this he burst out laughing, and 
 let us go through without more ado. When we 
 were on the road again Erasmus said to me, " What 
 did you tell that man to quiet him ? " I said, " I 
 told him we had had our dinner." I had to repeat it 
 before he got an idea in his head, and then he became 
 violently angry, flogged up his horses, and we bowled 
 away at a splitting pace ; then when we were out of 
 Kimberley he stopped, burst out laughing and said 
 I was right, and when we parted he was in excellent 
 humour again. 
 
 October 1 1 . — This morning I had another visitor. 
 Major Lanyon, just after lunch, came into my office 
 with a dubious smile on his face and said he had 
 brought another old friend to see me, and left him 
 with me. It proved to be my old Irish friend from 
 beyond Mimac's, and I soon found out why Major 
 Lanyon had passed him on to me. He was in a 
 highly excited state about his farms, abused the 
 Government, the Land Court, and the world in 
 general, and evidently looked upon me as a friend in 
 whom he could confide ; but his business was not 
 with me it was with Major Lanyon. I saw no 
 prospect of calming him ; he wanted repose and 
 
364 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 quiet, and there was only one easy chair, an old deck 
 chair, in the whole of the Government offices, and 
 that was in Major Lanyon's office, for visitors. So, 
 as it was near lunch-time, I said there was a much 
 more comfortable chair for him to sit in in Major 
 Lanyon's office, and there I took him and sat him 
 down, and in a trice he was fast asleep and snoring. 
 Then I repaired to Government House, and was 
 assailed with questions as to what I had done with 
 my friend, and why I had not brought him in to 
 lunch. I smUed enigmatically and told Major 
 Lanyon that he would no doubt see him again. 
 When I met Major Lanyon in the afternoon and 
 asked him after my friend I thought that he was 
 at first a little bit short and cross with me, but he 
 soon warmed up with his subject and told me that 
 on his arrival at his office, one of the clerks had 
 awakened our friend too soon, and that an animated 
 conversation had ensued — Connaught against Ulster. 
 And Connaught got so vociferous that he had to be 
 led away. 
 
 Tuesday, October i6. — Anthony TroUope has 
 arrived here, and has given us great entertainment : 
 I like him immensely. He is writing about this 
 country, and I hope wUl prove to be an antidote to 
 Mr. Froude : at any rate his views cannot be quite 
 the same, for he will take the trouble to see various 
 sides of humanity. He is a dear old man, fuU of 
 contradiction, and very snappish when he chooses, 
 but most good-hearted : he has a wealth of human 
 kindness welling up out of his rugged nature. 
 
 We had heard of his masterful ways and inclina- 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 365 
 
 tion to seek amusement in jokes upon his com- 
 panions, and we got an opportunity of delivering a 
 thrust upon him very early in the day. 
 
 On his way here (to Government House) in the 
 post-cart his portmanteau, containing his manuscript 
 on South Africa, dropped out, was left on the road> 
 and was brought in subsequently intact. Here 
 was our opportunity. We professed doubts about 
 his getting it again, the probabilities of the contents 
 of the manuscript appearing daily in a broadsheet 
 of the local paper, and succeeded in putting Mr. 
 TroUope into a frenzy of excitement. He turned 
 on Major Lanyon ferociously and said hard words of 
 post-carts, drivers, governments, and finally of 
 Administrators, till at last I let him know it was all 
 a hoax, and that his precious manuscript was safe ; 
 whereupon his wrath fell on my devoted head ; but 
 in the middle of his anger he burst a-laughing im- 
 moderately. 
 
 He has a white beard, a rugged red face, and is 
 highly peppery, but he is as good as gold, I am sure. 
 
 We have been at war ever since we met, and 
 have been making fun of each other. My last story 
 about him has made him very irate. I represented 
 him as coming weary and faint into Kimberley, 
 suffering from pains inside from too long fasting, 
 that wB prescribed a hot bath for him, and that he 
 got into a large bath filled with water, but neglected 
 to put an elbow in first to estimate the temperature. 
 No sooner was he in full length than he found the 
 water too hot, and being too faint to get out, had to 
 shout out for assistance. Upon which we all ran in. 
 
366 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 and as the readiest means of helping him, turned the 
 bath over on one side and landed him on the floor. 
 
 This story was so nearly correct that he has been 
 engaged in hitting out right and left whenever he 
 gets an opportunity, and as he has a very ready 
 tongue, he has kept our party uproariously merry. 
 I have been to three parties since he has been here 
 to meet him — the Lords', the Matthews', and the 
 Barrys' — and he has kept us alive. He goes on 
 to-morrow to Bloemfontein, and expects to be in 
 England on January lo. He has asked me to come 
 home in the same steamer with him, and perhaps I 
 may be ready to do so. I should like it, for he is so 
 exceedingly amusing and original. 
 
 He tells us that at home he rigorously writes four 
 pages of the novel then in hand early in the morning 
 before breakfast : each day the same amount. I 
 asked him if his characters were to him alive and had 
 wills of their own, but he would not allow this. They 
 were all strictly under his control. He seems in 
 this respect just the opposite of Walter Besant, who 
 told me several times about the lively action of his 
 characters, who come before him, and act and talk 
 quite irrespective of his control. He said that some- 
 times for minutes even up to an hour, they would 
 talk on such trivial matters that he would not write 
 them down, but had, all the same, to wait, for they 
 would not skip what they had to say. I have asked 
 other novelists and dramatists and I fancy that 
 Besant's mental pictures are not peculiar to himself, 
 but that they belong to one of the phases incidental 
 to certain minds. TroUope has nothing of this sort. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 367 
 
 he laboriously works out aU his details ; he places 
 himself high — he classed himself the other day with 
 Lever, Thackeray, and Dickens, as the exponents of 
 four styles of writing. Putting on one side the 
 writings, so far as the authors go, I should infinitely 
 prefer Trollope to any of the others. I have read 
 my report on the Kimberley mine to Trollope and he 
 likes it. 
 
 It is reaUy getting very hot and dusty and the 
 drought continues — always drought. It is curious 
 to see a dust storm coming up ; like a rain storm, but 
 all red from the fine sand in the air. Every now and 
 then there is a whirlwind, which is called here a 
 " devU " ; it meanders about and gathers up all within 
 its reach — tents and even tin houses. 
 
 I cannot think what has come over this country 
 since the beginning of the century. We have all 
 sorts of authentic accounts that in the early days 
 there were fine springs at Griquatown, that the 
 Molopo was a mighty river, and that all the country 
 of Bechuanaland was well watered ; and one proof 
 is the existence of trees. Young trees cannot grow 
 readily in this dry air. Some people say it is the 
 sheep that do it : the burning of the tall and rank 
 grasses that protected the soil from the sun. How 
 is the rain to be wheedled back again ? Can the 
 sheep be restricted to parts of the country, and can 
 parts be given up to forests and long grass so as to 
 protect the soil ? Around Kimberley our land has 
 been denuded of trees to feed the six hundred furnaces 
 attached to the steam engines used at the mines. 
 
 It is amusing to find that some of the stories now 
 
368 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 current in this country are similar to stories told 
 over a hundred years ago by South African travellers. 
 For example, Kolben tells a story of a Hottentot who 
 was brought up entirely amongst white people from 
 childhood, and who threw off his clothing directly 
 he saw brother Hottentots in their karosses. Again, 
 the story of a snake with a carbuncle or diamond in 
 his head is an old story found last century at Samos 
 in the Levant. I find that there was a tribe of 
 Chiri-griquas in South Africa early in last century, 
 so that, after all, the Griquas may not be merely 
 half-castes, though their head men certainly are. 
 
 Thursday, October 25. — I have completed my 
 report for the Kimberley Mining Board, and it has 
 been printed in full in the local papers. I had to be 
 very severe all round, and one of the newspapers 
 compares my report to a torpedo^ blowing up 
 everything in its vicinity. The leading articles, 
 however, in all the papers are most complimentary. 
 The Mining Board have sent me two hundred 
 guineas for my services, which the Government 
 allow me to receive. I am offering ;^5o to the 
 Society of Arts for a prize essay on diamonds, if 
 they will undertake the business. 
 
 The first thirty of my land recommendations have 
 come back from Sir Bartle Frere approved. 
 
 Saturday, October 29. — To-day Major Lanyon 
 asked me if I would be inclined to take the duties of 
 Colonial Engineer here, in charge of the Mine, at 
 ^2000 per annum with a seat in the Legislative 
 Council : of course, this was only to know my mind 
 and not a definite proposal. I said, after having 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 369 
 
 inquired into the disputes now raging over the Mine 
 that I did not think that I could accept it. He said 
 that he would only ask me to undertake it for 
 six months. Evidently my report on the Kimberley 
 Mine is appreciated. 
 
 I am now taking up several matters to arbitrate 
 on, but they are all cases in which one side is 
 represented by the Government, the other side 
 consenting to my decision. 
 
 Sunday, November 4. — I am sitting at the 
 open window of my little room, writing a Masonic 
 lecture to be given next Thursday, but I must 
 stop a while to tell you what I see out of my 
 window. 
 
 My room lies at the back of the Government Offices 
 and I look out upon an unenclosed yard. I see a few 
 corrugated iron houses, like those at the gun-cotton 
 works, Waltham Abbey, one tall gum-tree in the 
 distance, and one little gum-tree about ten yards 
 off. There are a few ivy creepers spreading over 
 the iron buildings, and a few tufts of weeds grow 
 here and there, for this month corresponds to May 
 with you, the sun is shining brightly and I am 
 sitting in my shirt sleeves. 
 
 It is Sunday morning, and the beUs have not yet 
 begun to ring for service, everything is quiet. All 
 I hear, now and then, is the crowing of a cock 
 or the buzzing of a fly. 
 
 As I look up I see three figures in the yard, an 
 Indian woman and two little girls pulling up weeds. 
 The woman has her head tied up, but the children 
 have theirs surrounded by most glorious masses 
 
 2 A 
 
370 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 of matted jet black hair. They have funny ragged 
 clothes on, made of bright coloured cotton pocket- 
 handkerchiefs, and silver bangles. They are picking 
 up a morning salad. At first I thought that they were 
 gipsies. Their hair being long and straight distin- 
 guishes them from the curly headed Kafir children. 
 They have no business to be about this yard, and 
 when they saw me they were much alarmed, and 
 the woman went quietly away, but the children 
 looked up and when they saw I was not angry they 
 
 smiled so sweetly and reminded me of so that 
 
 I would not tell them to go away, and they went 
 on picking up all the weeds they could find. Poor 
 little things, they are coolies from India, and their 
 parents have probably come up from Natal recently. 
 
 You would laugh if you saw them dressed up 
 in pocket handkerchiefs. They are quite covered up, 
 for the coolies here do not go naked as the Kafir 
 children do. A handkerchief in front and one 
 at back over the shoulders, tied in at the waist, 
 and then two or three to make up a skirt. 
 
 And where do you think some of the people live ? 
 They live in houses made of jam pots. They take 
 the tin jam pots, beat them out flat, fasten them 
 together and sheet over their houses with them ; 
 and then you see a bright silver looking house, 
 glowing dazzling in the sunshine. 
 
 I have had a meerkat given me, with quite a long 
 tail, and I am to take it home for you all. 
 Mrs. Barber who is very fond of animals, and very 
 kind, is taking care of it for me. I went to tea with 
 her the other evening and she gave me some nice 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 371 
 
 <5akes and I ate a good many. Then some more 
 visitors came in, and I went away, and while she 
 was feeding the meerkat she looked up to them and 
 said, " Bother that brute Warren, he does eat such a 
 lot." Of course, it very soon came round to me that 
 Mrs. Barber had called me a brute because I ate 
 so many of her cakes. I took it as one of the usual 
 stories afloat, but when I next saw her I told her what 
 had been imputed to her. At first she was very in- 
 dignant, but suddenly she said, " But now I recollect 
 I really did say it. I call the meerkat ' Warren,' 
 and was abusing it for eating so much." 
 
 Yesterday was Guy Fawkes day, and some Cape- 
 town Boys went round in masks playing the fiddle, 
 -and the fool, and they had a guy tied on to a horse. 
 
 Tuesday, November 6. — I have sent in my report 
 on Waterboer and have now to settle the Griqua 
 claims and the Vetburg line, and that is about aU, and 
 I hope to leave Capetown for England about the 
 middle of December, unless some new work is sprung 
 upon me. Next Thursday I give a Masonic lecture, 
 and some time I have to go down to Griquatown 
 again to help Major Lanyon about some trouble 
 outside my land business, though connected with it. 
 I am often called on to assist the Executive Council, 
 because I have got intimately acquainted with many 
 things in examining into land matters and con- 
 ferring with everybody. 
 
 The drought here has partially broken-up and 
 we have had fine showers, but nothing like the rains 
 in the Mediterranean. 
 
 I have not got any ostrich feathers yet, I do not 
 
372 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 want to buy anything of that sort with uncertain 
 prices till all my work is done. I should like tO' 
 get some diamonds here, but do not like to buy 
 them. The other day I was looking at some large 
 parcels of diamonds, when the owner took out a 
 funny looking broken piece and wanted me to keep 
 it as a specimen ; I don't suppose it was worth thirty 
 shillings, but I refused, and am glad I did so as I 
 find that I should in some way have broken the 
 law to have taken it without a licence. 
 
 November 6. — I am much disturbed about affairs 
 in the Griquatown district ; so many letters are 
 coming to me from various quarters giving different 
 aspects of the case, and putting blame here and 
 there, but they all point to great discontent and 
 disinclination on the part of the community to pull 
 together and work for law and order. 
 
 The matter does not really touch on my affairs 
 and yet it does seem absurd that I am to right the 
 natives in their claims to land, and that they are to 
 lose their property again for debts contracted before 
 British law came into the country and when there 
 were no means of enforcing payment. 
 
 These terrible back debts of the Griquas alarm 
 me. Even so far back as fifty years ago they must 
 have been a difficulty, for my father mentions the 
 " fondness of the Griquas for dress, waggons, horses, 
 &c. ; debts to the Boers for these articles " : and 
 now we are assisting the Boers (and British traders 
 too) to come down upon these people for debts con- 
 tracted when they had no means of enforcing pay- 
 ment in full. Why ! of course the debts have been 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 373 
 
 ^iled on ! I have asked whether the magistrates 
 cannot be empowered to compromise these claims by 
 the debtors compounding for three or five shillings 
 in the pound, but the majesty of the law must not 
 be interfered with, and I had better stick to my 
 own business. I am sure that Lanyon is sympa- 
 thetic, but he seems to be nowhere in front of the 
 law. 
 
 The resident magistrate says that he is acting 
 strictly in accordance with our law, and is guided by 
 an opinion of the Attorney -general. Yet some of 
 the rates of interest for back debts are so exor- 
 bitant (15 to 20 per cent, or more) that in many 
 instances the interest far exceeds the debt, and 
 I have seen one heavy bill against Waterboer which 
 was quite a small sum when originally contracted, 
 some sixteen years ago : I feel sure that such debts 
 should not be enforced in full against these people. 
 Something must be done to remove the present 
 toiioion, and I am after asking Major Lanyon to go 
 down to Griquatown himself to look into matters. 
 I have asked that something may be done in the 
 interest of the natives concerning their back debts 
 and the enormous rates of interest charged. I am 
 told that Waterboer's liabilities do not amount to 
 more than ;£3000, but I fear that much heavier claims 
 have yet to come in. 
 
 Then again there are the enormous survey ex- 
 penses for erven, no less than £2 2s. for each allot- 
 ment, though they are simply rectangles on plan, 
 and are not marked out in detail on the ground. I 
 propose that the expenses should not be more than 
 
374 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 five shillings an erf, but the Surveyor-General says 
 that the charges are in accordance with Ordinance 
 20 of 1874, and Major Lanyon can see no way 
 out of the difficulty, as the survey has been mad& 
 and must be paid for. 
 
 It is mortifying to notice the change that has 
 come over our dealings with native tribes since the 
 Cape Colony has had responsible government- 
 (December 1872). In the time of Sir Harry Smith 
 (1851) the Griquas of Adam Kok's territory were 
 permitted to seU their lands to the Boers, and with 
 the money in their pockets they were given new 
 lands (1863) which they possess in Griqualand East 
 to this day. They got more than they were entitled 
 to, but they had to give up their lands under 
 pressure. Now the Dutch view prevails. 
 
 In Waterboer's countiy the Griquas, under their 
 laws, were not permitted to sell their lands— but 
 here comes in the anomaly : Cornelius Kok, a sub- 
 captain of Waterboer, ignored these rules and the 
 Griquas sold their lands in his portion surrep- 
 titiously and these sales the Land Court upholds as 
 valid : but the natives who have stuck to their lands 
 in Waterboer's country and who have abided by 
 their laws, have had their land claims disallowed 
 on the plea that they are nomads, and all their 
 lands become Crown lands ; so that actually accord- 
 ing to this Dutch view, the only property a native 
 can have in his land is when he parts with it. 
 
 There ought to be a very high and responsible 
 official to protect and look after natives on behalf 
 of the Crown ; for after all the Crown has to " pay 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 375 
 
 the piper " in the end, and unfair treatment of the 
 natives leads to expenses. I suppose that the High 
 Commissioner really is the protector of natives on 
 a large scale, for his authority goes beyond the 
 Colonies, but he has no money to spend on such 
 matters outside the Colonies, and in the Cape 
 Colony he has no direct control over the natives 
 except in Basutoland : and he has no assistants for 
 the work and no legal adviser except the Attorney- 
 general put in by a Boer majority. 
 
 Here is a subject for " Notes and Queries." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Monday, November 1 2. — My office is now very full 
 of people each day, I am so chock full of work, that 
 the lawyers have to arrange their times so as not all 
 to come together. A funny misunderstanding with 
 one of them arose a few days ago. He had made a 
 mistake which I corrected and then he observed, 
 " We live and learn ! " I completed the quotation as 
 I have always heard it, " and die fools at last ! " 
 upon which he became huffy, and our negotiation 
 did not prosper. Next day one of the others said 
 that he was much offended because I had called him 
 a fool, and when I explained that I had only com- 
 pleted his own quotation they were highly amused. 
 He soon appeared quite mollified and ready to com- 
 plete our business. 
 
 A skating-rink has been started in the theatre, 
 and we are to have it once a week, in future, for 
 skating. At present we are all novices, and I have 
 been tumbling about for two hours, getting possession 
 of my legs, which are not so much under control as 
 they would be on the ice. The judge and I are 
 learning together, as we are both equally inefficient 
 in this branch of skating. 
 
 Monday, November 19. — A telegram came to-day 
 
THE LAND SETTLEMENT 377 
 
 from the Governor : " When will Warren have his 
 report on Land Question completed? Can he be 
 induced to go to the Transkei or Transvaal ?" 
 
 So the war is over, I suppose, as the Transkei is 
 where the fighting has been lately, and my work 
 would, I unagine, be to settle the country. I don't 
 think that I should care to take work under the 
 responsible government of the Cape, I am sure it 
 would be difficult; I don't know their views on 
 native questions, or perhaps I do. I have replied 
 that if it is land business I should prefer the 
 Transvaal. 
 
 I start to-morrow for Langford near Hopetown, 
 to get some porcupine hunting and canoeing on the 
 Orange Eiver, and to settle some land questions ; of 
 course, I put business last. 
 
 Tuesday, November 24. — I have been away for 
 a week at Langford, and returned in the post cart ; 
 sitting for seventeen hours on top of the post bag 
 containing your letters to me, and unable to get at 
 them. Such circumstances must sometimes lead to 
 highway robbery. 
 
 Captain Marshall, the Resident Magistrate at Lang- 
 ford, asked me to go down there and stay with him 
 whilst I negotiated with the Albanian reservists 
 about their farms in the Arnot Reserve. 
 
 He is a nice old man ; was in the Cape Mounted 
 Rifles and rose from the ranks, and is an honour to 
 his corps. He is quite a soldier of the old school, 
 prim, square shouldered, methodical, honest and true- 
 hearted. He keeps tremendous order in his district, 
 and is very much liked, I think. 
 
378 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 I have had much trouble with the Reservists : they 
 came to my office and were disagreeable and seemed 
 to think that I was a Government official whom they 
 could sit upon. I just let them know that I only 
 did business with those who were willing to come 
 to some understanding, and it ended by my 
 turning one of them (Mr. Fincham) out of my office. 
 He wrote a rather violent letter to the newspapers 
 stating that if I came down to his farm he would 
 hunt me like a porcupine on a moonlight night. 
 He is a sporting fellow, I knew, and only had got a 
 wrong view of things, so I thought I would have 
 some fun with him. His sons also must be sporting 
 young fellows (the eldest only twelve years old). 
 They went out crow shooting the other day, came 
 across a wolf, and, equal to the occasion, they shot 
 him, and skinned him and brought his skin home. 
 
 I started on Tuesday for Langford in the post cart 
 and arrived near Mr. Fincham's house, Witteputs, 
 about 3 o'clock in the morning, on a brilliant moon- 
 light night. I went over to his house and knocked 
 until he came out ; he looked very much surprised 
 to see me at that hour. I said that I understood 
 that he wanted to hunt me as a porcupine on a 
 moonlight night, and that I had come over so that 
 he might have an opportunity of carrying out his 
 threat. After some little conversation he said that 
 he only intended to convey that he would fight for 
 his rights till he had not a shred on his back. I said 
 that I did not intend to go into his land claims at 
 3 o'clock in the morning ; I came to be hunted, and 
 wanted him to make good his promises. After much 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 37» 
 
 presvsure he declined to hunt me, but asked me in to 
 have a drink, and then we became good friends, and 
 I had an early breakfast with him, or a late supper, 
 as the case may be. 
 
 He showed me various things in his sitting-room 
 and on the window there hung a " waxplant " which 
 has beautiful waxen-looking flowers, but a real live 
 plant. 
 
 [In August 19CX), I passed the same house, and 
 went in by the back entrance and asked to see the 
 waxplant ; it was some time before I could make 
 them understand what I wanted, but at last the 
 lady of the house realised what it was, and took me 
 into the sitting-room and there was a waxplant in 
 the window just as it had been some twenty- three 
 years before ; so much for continuity of custom. I 
 then told her how I had had my supper with Mr. 
 Fincham a quarter of a century before ; she told 
 me that she was daughter of Mr. Fincham, and 
 that her father had been dead some years.] 
 
 On arrival at Langford I saw all the Reservists 
 individually but refused to see them in a body. I 
 saw them one by one, and took Mr. Fincham's case 
 first, as he was one of the most tenacious of his views. 
 It did not take us long to settle matters now we 
 understood each other, and then the others, finding 
 their spokesman had given in, soon came to terms, 
 except rich old RostoU, the pont keeper, who said 
 that nothing would ever induce him to pay rents to 
 Arnot. Then I said, " Capitalise at once, and you 
 can pay to the Government." That was a way out 
 of his difl&culty and he has given in too. 
 
380 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 It is a very important matter, as now the greater 
 part of the differences between the English and Dutch 
 are pretty well settled, and I shall have only the 
 native claims. 
 
 Mr, Fincham was so pleased with the issue of 
 everything that he sent his spring cart for me and 
 carried me in triumph part of the way back to 
 Kimberley. 
 
 I have had a charming stay at Langford ; there 
 were no porcupines, but a delightful canoe with a 
 sail. The Orange River just now is very low, and 
 there are streams in it as rapid as in .the Medway, 
 and here and there still, pretty pools of water. The 
 wind comes down the bank in gusts, and makes sailing 
 somewhat dangerous. Just on the last day Iwas caught 
 in a squall, upset, and down I went in about five 
 feet of water. The sheets, which are just pieces of 
 whipcord, twined round my ankle, and I was dragged 
 under with my head below the surface. I had 
 to get down and unfasten myself, and then, after a 
 very long breath, got up to the surface much relieved. 
 Then I dived down to try to get the heavy metal 
 ballast out of the canoe, but failed to do this ; it will 
 require another man to help. It must be done at 
 once in case the river were to come down. I had no 
 difficulty in swimming and wading to shore. Captain 
 Marshall had prognosticated that I should be cap- 
 sized by a gust of wind, and seemed rather pleased 
 than otherwise. He tells me that the springbucks 
 sometimes pass the Orange river in vast multitudes, 
 and when the river is strong they reach the other 
 bank exhausted ; then the farmers knock them on 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 381 
 
 the head with sticks and there is a great slaughter. 
 They kill them for the skins only, a great part of the 
 meat is wasted, there are not enough natives about 
 to eat it all. 
 
 Griqualand West has been treated differently to 
 other parts of South Africa. Elsewhere the Europeans 
 have taken up land, and when they are settled down 
 they have their farms surveyed at their leisure, but 
 here the farms have been surveyed by the Surveyor- 
 General en hloc, and every one taking up land must 
 pay for the survey. The cost is about ;^io per 
 looo morgen. 
 
 There are very great advantages attendant on this 
 arrangement. The farms are all made nearly of one 
 uniform size, never much less than 3000 morgen and 
 seldom more than 4000 morgen. There is no conflict 
 about boundaries, and thus litigation is eliminated 
 in that respect. Again, there is no question 
 about titles, and in buying and selling all that is 
 necessary is to transfer the land in the Registry 
 Office, so that legal expenses are reduced to a 
 minimum. 
 
 On the other hand, it may be some years before all 
 these farms are sold, and in the meantime the farm 
 beacons may become lost, and farms may be bought 
 on paper which cannot be found on the ground, for 
 there are often no very prominent features on the 
 ground for miles. 
 
 Time only will show whether this system now 
 adopted is a good one, but if the lands could be taken 
 up at once there can be no doubt of its advantage. 
 Under the Boer system of taking up land there may 
 
382 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 be litigation as to boundaries on all sides and some 
 farms are often of enormous size. 
 
 The way in which farms are taken up are as 
 follows : the immigrants select their homesteads at 
 convenient spots some four or five miles apart and 
 then there is an " inspection," when a man rides out 
 from the homestead east, west, north and south at 
 a foot pace each way for half an hour ; this is 
 supposed to give a farm of about three miles square, 
 or 3000 morgen (nine square miles). 
 
 The lands of these several farms sometimes overlap, 
 but more often they do not, at first, and there is vacant 
 land in between, which the farmers " jump," shifting 
 their beacons year after year, until at last their 
 respective beacons overlap each other and there is a 
 squabble and a lawsuit. 
 
 The difficulties connected with the Vetberg line 
 did not turn out to be so insurmountable as might 
 have been expected. There were 39 farms in dis- 
 pute, 17 under Orange Free State titles and 24 
 under Waterboer's Albanian leases. They were all 
 in appeal, as their boundaries overlapped, and they 
 all seemed to be guaranteed by Proclamation 72. 
 It is true that the judge of the Land Court had 
 laid down a rule that the Orange Free State titles 
 should take precedence of all others, but it was 
 generally supposed that this judgment would be 
 upset on appeal, because Waterboer was recognised 
 by the Crown as the Paramount Chief, and the most 
 that can be said for the Orange Free State titles 
 is that the farms were bought surreptitiously from 
 Griquas who had no power to sell, or had been 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 383 
 
 "jumped " without sale ; and the only real claim 
 that could be advanced was occupancy. In fact 
 preference could only be advanced for the Orange 
 Free State titles because that Government had been 
 the stronger, and had crushed out the tenants of 
 Waterboer. In this the ancient law of "might is 
 right " had been followed. The Griquas turned out 
 the Bushmen, the English of Albania ousted out 
 the Griquas, and the Boers have turned out the 
 English. And the judge of the Land Court up- 
 held the latter action. The judge recognised both 
 sets of titles, but the British farm claims were to be 
 subject to prior claims of the Boer farmers under 
 Orange Free State titles. 
 
 I found that the greatest antagonism existed 
 between the two parties, and that a system of 
 mutual annoyance had been persisted in to such an 
 extent for so many years, that the British and Boers 
 could not even meet together to discuss their affairs 
 without danger of coming to blows. 
 
 It was hopeless trying to induce them to make 
 any mutual concessions, as both sides had their 
 boundaries guaranteed by the British Government, 
 and it seems equitable that the Provincial Govern- 
 ment should give land elsewhere to recompense those 
 dispossessed on either side. After all, so far as 
 monev value is concerned, the land in dispute is a 
 very small matter, nothing compared to the loss of 
 quit-rent and impoverishment of the people from 
 their lands being in the hands of the lawyers for so 
 many years. 
 
 I found that while the Boers seemed to be most 
 
884 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 tenacious as to their boundaries, the British were 
 disposed to be content with a land equivalent at a 
 reasonable rental elsewhere. The Boers were pay- 
 ing £i per looo morgen on their farms, while the 
 British were paying ;^5 per lOOO morgen on theirs 
 in Albania, but the Boers were willing to pay the 
 higher rate for any overlaps beyond the Vetberg 
 line ; so we have settled the matter on these lines, 
 all except one case which must go on to appeal 
 because the land was awarded by mistake to the 
 mortgagee. 
 
 December 3. — The Natal Survey has turned up 
 again : I have received an oflBcial letter from the 
 Colonial Secretary of Natal oifering it me, and I 
 have declined it. I see in the papers that Albert 
 Hime, the Surveyor-General, stated that he knew 
 me personally to be a good purveyor, as I had sur- 
 veyed underground Jerusalem. The papers must 
 have mixed up what he said. Of course I did a good 
 deal of reconnaissance work in Palestine and surveys 
 above ground, but in underground Jerusalem my 
 survey work was principally grubbing about in 
 narrow conduits and channels with a candle, com- 
 pass, and tape, which is scarcely a qualification for a 
 trigonometrical survey. It was nice, however, to see 
 Hime's references to me ; I missed meeting him 
 when I passed Durban, and he has written to say 
 that he cannot come to visit me here as he is so busy. 
 
 December 1 1 . — I expect to get Sir Bartle Frere's 
 instructions as to my work in the Transvaal next 
 week ; he says that I may go to England for a 
 month, but Lady Frere does not like the idea ; and, 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 385 
 
 indeed, if all those troubles go on here and in the 
 Transkei I cannot go, for if I am not employed in 
 settling land matters in the Transvaal I ought to be 
 ia Transkei, which does not seem to be quiet yet. I 
 expect to leave Kimberley for the Transvaal about 
 the new year. 
 
 I am going to Griquatown with Major Lanyon 
 on a special business which I have brought to his 
 notice ; it is not about my land question, but it is 
 about the manner in which natives are treated in the 
 Griquatown district. 
 
 December 1 2. — I have had an ominous letter from 
 Lady Frere : it is very nice, but it is a blow to 
 my hopes of getting home soon. She says that 
 she is very anxious to know what I shall decide 
 on, and is fully sure what it is, for that knowing 
 the dijB&cult work Sir Bartle Frere has had I 
 must think every one who can assist him in his 
 great work in this country ought, if possible, to 
 aid ; she knows that his great desire will be to 
 keep all the good and able men he can ! " We saw 
 Mr. TroUope last week, and he seems to have greatly 
 enjoyed his tour — ^you and he seem to have made a 
 mutually pleasant impression on each other." 
 
 December 20. — We have returned from Griqua- 
 town. We were to have attended prize-giving at 
 the High School at Barkly on our way back, but on 
 arriving at Likatlong we found the Hart river in 
 full flood, and had to wait for two days in the hot 
 sun on the bank doing nothing. Thermometer 104" 
 to 106° F. in the shade, and very little shade there 
 was. At last I felt that I could remain idle no 
 
 2 B 
 
386 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 longer, and announced my intention of swimming 
 across with my clothes on my head, and walking in 
 to Barkly to procure a raft for bringing over the 
 Administrator. I had just made my preparations 
 when we found the river was commencing to fall, and 
 in a few hours it was fordable again : it rises and 
 falls most rapidly. 
 
 I cannot say much about our visit to Griquatown, 
 I was disappointed with the results. We went there 
 in order that things might be put straight, but I do 
 not think that very much was done. The subject 
 bristles with difficulties. As the child says, " The 
 world is hollow and my doll is stuffed with bran ! " 
 
 This expedition to Griquatown was not so amusing 
 as the last one. There were only two of us ; the air 
 of South Africa is charged with combustibles just 
 now, and we were both thinking a good deal. 
 Joseph Orpen, the surveyor, has made remarks about 
 the native questions which are not pleasant ; he 
 knows the tribes in Basutoland and on the Eastern 
 frontier very well, and he does not prophesy smooth 
 things. 
 
 One of the questions which Lanyon and I have 
 discussed a good deal is that of the responsibility 
 that rests upon subordinates in times of crisis, and 
 we differ a good deal. 
 
 We agree pretty well on the military side of the 
 question : that you cannot, as a subordinate, go far 
 in expostulating, however absurd and ridiculous your 
 orders may seem to you to be — you must simply 
 carry them out to the best of your ability. 
 
 But in civil matters it is different : but even here 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 387 
 
 there are limits. In one direction, if you simply 
 carry out orders you become a mere machine, and are 
 of little use to your superiors ; in the other direction 
 you may discuss matters to such an extent that you 
 become a nuisance to your superiors. Our dis- 
 cussion lay between these limits. Is it better to be 
 more nearly a machine or more nearly a nuisance, 
 and though neither of us feels very certain of 
 our grounds, yet Lanyon inclines rather to the 
 " machine " side, while I incline to the " nuisance " 
 side ? 
 
 Of course so much depends on your position ; we 
 both agree that the higher you are up the less you 
 can act as a machine. 
 
 For example. Suppose that you are an Adminis- 
 trator, and see that the line given you from the 
 Colonial Office is injurious to the country and likely 
 to land you in difficulties ; how often may you bring 
 this matter forward and get rebuffed ? And are you 
 at liberty at length to say that you cannot carry out 
 a policy that you believe to be injurious ? Then 
 again, in matters with your Attorney-General. To 
 what extent are you bound to take his advice on 
 legal matters, if you do not agree with it ? As a 
 question in point. Ought Major Lanyon to push 
 on the annexation of Griqualand West to the Cape 
 Colony if he considers it detrimental to the welfare 
 of South Africa ? There cannot be a doubt that the 
 Colonial Office (or rather, say the Government) wish 
 to get rid of it. To what extent ought the Adminis- 
 trator to advise the Colonial Office that annexation 
 is not expedient? I feel that Lanyon does not 
 
388 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 lie on a bed of roses just now ; there are so many- 
 thorny points. 
 
 I hope that I have settled the Griquas' claims in 
 a satisfactory manner, but it seems to me to be 
 a most complicated subject. I think it doubtful 
 whether they had the slightest idea that the Chief 
 and councillors were making a cession of that 
 portionof Griqualand West lying west of the Vaal and 
 Hart rivers ; I believe that they were not at any 
 time asked their opinion in open Raad, and that they 
 actually for several years after the cession were led 
 to suppose, both by Waterboer and his councillors,, 
 that this portion of the territory had not been given 
 up ; that Waterboer still remained the chief of the 
 Griquas, and that the rule of the British Govern- 
 ment at Griquatown was an encroachment on 
 Waterboer's authority, and in contravention of the 
 agreement. To such an extent did the idea prevail 
 that even after the sitting of the Land Court in 
 1875, Waterboer still held his courts at Griquatown 
 (close to the magistrate's office), and was in the habit 
 of giving out farms at ten shillings each to any natives 
 who were foolish enough to apply for them. I think 
 that the dislike of the Griquas to the British 
 Government is in a great manner due to this 
 deceitful conduct of Waterboer. 
 
 In dealing with the land claims of these people 
 I have taken the two lists which Waterboer put in 
 before the Land Court, signed by himself and his 
 councillors, and have recommended every Griqua 
 claimant a farm. These claims amounted in all ta 
 about 200, and I found that there was a quit-rent on 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 389 
 
 them of ;^5 per looo morgen ; this seemed to me to 
 he too high, and after consulting with the Executive 
 ■Council as to what they would approve of, and with 
 the attorneys of the Griquas what they would 
 accept, I have recommended all these farms at 
 jCs per lOOO morgen, I am, however, of opinion 
 that for the prosperity of the country these quit-rents 
 should be reduced to ;if i per looo morgen as soon as 
 practicable. It seems to me that the simplest method 
 would be to pass a Bill through the Legislative 
 Council, reducing the quit-rent on the land through- 
 out the province to ;^i per looo morgen from January 
 I, 1878, provided the owners agree to certain condi- 
 tions regarding occupation and improvements some- 
 what similar to those already in force on some of 
 the farms in Natal and the Cape Colony, and under 
 such arrangements as wUl ensure the farms being in 
 the hands of hondfide farmers, and not in the hands 
 -of speculators who have so much to do with the land 
 question of Griqualand West. 
 
 In addition to these claims before the Land Court, 
 about 170 claims have been sent to me, and for 
 which no proof of former occupation can be shown ; 
 they are said to be based on so-called "Burgher 
 lights " of the individuals, but the applications seem 
 to me to have been arranged as a land speculation 
 by enterprising persons, one of whom I found had 
 entered into an agreement to receive ;^20 on every 
 farm, should the land be granted. 
 
 As I have no power of a court to sift the validity 
 of the claims I have recommended locations to be 
 granted at once to all these persons, of the ground 
 
390 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 on which they are now living, with the intention 
 that if they are found to be incUned to industrious- 
 habits, and desirous of improving their lands, it will 
 be for the consideration of the government whether 
 hereafter they are granted to them. I have also 
 recommended that the natives who have no claims 
 to farms may at once be awarded locations sufficient 
 for their use ; and also, having in view the fact that 
 many of the natives to whom farms are awarded will 
 certainly sell them, that locations should be reserved 
 for them as soon as they have spent their money 
 and have become destitute. 
 
 I have further recommended that any Griqua who 
 has no farm awarded to him shall have a water erf 
 allotted to him. 
 
 This, I think, will entirely remove aU prospect of 
 grievance on the part of these natives. 
 
 The following account will give some idea of the 
 condition of land in Griqualand West ; a reference to 
 the maps will show the distribution. 
 
 A morgen is a little more than two acres. 
 
 White settlers occupy all the land east of the Morgen 
 Vaal river except the Pneil Mission 
 
 Station 1,568,000 
 
 White settlers west of Vaal River . . . 616,000 
 
 Total lands occupied by white settlers . . 2,184,000 
 
 Total lands of Griqualand West .... 5,696,000 
 
 Lands available for natives, (kc 3,512,000 
 
 Morgen 
 Lands recommended as farms to 
 
 natives 803,000 
 
 Native locations — recommended . 660,000 
 
 1,463,000 
 
 Unoccupied lands, available as Grown Lands 2,049,000 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 391 
 
 The total permanent native population in Griqua- 
 land West is estimated at 2 i,ooo, and allowing about 
 ten natives on each white farm, and thirty more on 
 each native farm, we account for about 10,000 natives, 
 leaving about 11,000 to be provided for. Of these 
 about 7000 had been already located between the 
 Vaal and Hart rivers. The locations seem, then, to be 
 more than sufficient, but there are plenty of unoccu- 
 pied lands should more be required. At present 
 the locations are not nearly occupied to their full 
 extent. 
 
 I very much doubt whether British law is suitable 
 to native tribes in a transition condition. You may 
 say that we are usually successful in our treatment 
 of natives, but I think that that is due to the British 
 man and not to the British law. An Englishman 
 has individuality and strikes out a line for himself 
 and can thus cope with difficult native questions, but 
 saddle him with an Attorney-General m native 
 affairs and he is a lost man. 
 
 I much doubt whether our people realise what 
 sterling qualities many of the Hottentots and 
 Griquas possess ; we look upon them as drunken, 
 lazy, insolent vagabonds : and so they are now. But 
 how much of aU this is due to our own teaching ? 
 Some of the old-established colonists speak in the 
 highest terms of these people as servants and farm 
 assistants, so long as they are kept away from drink ; 
 but they say that our administration of British law 
 has injured them. They are not fit for the full 
 liberty of action which our law allows, and, conse- 
 quently, they get into all kinds of difficulties. The 
 
392 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 liberty and licence on the Diamond Fields is also 
 answerable for mucb. 
 
 Like many other half-civilised people they speak 
 the truth in a certain way, and they keep their pro- 
 mises. In fact, in some respects they are far more 
 truthful than we are, particularly as to a bargain. 
 They always expect the European rigidly to keep 
 to his side of the bargain however they may in- 
 fringe on their side. This is to be expected as they 
 look upon Europeans as a superior race. 
 
 Half the difficulties which occur with Hottentot 
 servants arise from a misunderstanding on this one 
 point. A native agrees with you to work at a cer- 
 tain rate of pay per diem. He gets drunk, loses 
 a day, and you fine him one or more days' pay. 
 This he resents, and he watches his opportunity of 
 paying you out for what he considers a breach of 
 the agreement. The result is that you, in the end, 
 lose ten times as much as you would have done by 
 overlooking his fault. 
 
 All the people I have met, who have been suc- 
 cessful with their natives, are of the same opinion. 
 They overlook their faults if they possibly can, but 
 bring the faults home to them in some kindly way ; 
 for these people can be touched by kindness. 
 
 Moffat gives some notable instances of the happy 
 results of kindness /after faults have been committed, 
 and he was looked up to by the natives. Colonel 
 Anthony Durnford has the same faculty for acquiring 
 influence over natives by kindness. They recognise 
 at once when kindness proceeds from strength of 
 character and when it proceeds from weakness. 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 393 
 
 It is hopeless, with the present condition of Uberty 
 at our Diamond Fields, to better the natives about 
 here, but it is quite possible to see that with just laws 
 and a highly positioned native protector we might 
 again have faithful native servants and farm assis- 
 tants. 
 
 After all, the very thriftless condition of the 
 Oriqua proceeds from a virtue — hospitality ! 
 
 A true Griqua wUl share his last crust with his 
 friends, and when his friends are numerous and lazy, 
 his last crust is very soon reached, 
 
 I begin to doubt these small locations : yet so much 
 is said in favour of them that I feel I do not know 
 enough to rely on my own judgment. We shall 
 know better a few years hence when we compare the 
 Griquas of Griqualand East with those of Griqua- 
 land West : for the systems adopted in the two 
 cases differ essentially. 
 
 December 25. — This is Christmas Day. A queer, 
 unearthly kind of Christmas it is for us all ; a public 
 holiday it is supposed to be, but we are all so busy 
 with work that the public offices are open as usual ; 
 the rumours of war are giving much extra work. It 
 is abnormally hot, but just for an instant yesterday 
 it reaUy did look like Christmas, for a thunderstorm 
 came on and for a few moments the ground was 
 as white as snow, covered with large hailstones, 
 and the air full of whiteness. But soon it was all 
 gone and a seething hot-house vapour arose, a con- 
 trast to the dry heat we are accustomed to. I think 
 everything is wrong just now ; I am getting tired of 
 Griqualand or am out of sorts. I was looking at the 
 
394 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 photographs to-day, and trying to get the children 
 to smile as usual, but they all looked glum. I think it 
 is this native business that is affecting us all, it begins 
 to assume serious proportions, and we do not know 
 where it will not turn up next or what preparations 
 to make : so I shall be glad to be at active work 
 again, and to do something to help to stem the torrent. 
 At present I am completing my report on the land 
 settlement here, which, I am glad to say, is nearly 
 completed. There are a few tags to gather in. 
 
 I have had a nice letter from Sir Bartle Frere, 
 and he has forwarded me a copy of a letter he has 
 sent to Mr. Sargeaunt about my services here, and re- 
 garding my future work in the Transvaal. 
 
 " King William's Town, 
 "December^, 1877. 
 
 " My dear Mr. Sargeaunt, 
 
 " Captain Warren has nearly finished his 
 work in Griqualand "West, and I have asked him 
 before he returns to England to see you and Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone, and to explain to you the 
 work he has been doing for us, first between Griqua- 
 land West and the Orange Free State, and latterly 
 in unravelling the tangled web of land settlements 
 in Griqualand West. You can have little idea of 
 the mess in which Lanyon found everything relating 
 to land and land tenures, when he took charge of 
 the province, nothing was certain, nothing was 
 settled, no one was safe, no one could make himself 
 safe, or secure a good title, and this after vast 
 expense in Land Commissions and Land Courts. 
 Lanyon saw what was wanted, but he had not time 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 395 
 
 to do it himself, and was naturally anxious to have 
 it done before he made over the province to the 
 Cape Colony under whose rule there was little 
 prospect of an early or a just settlement. 
 
 " He satisfied us that Captain Warren would 
 do what was required splendidly and well, and he 
 has more than fulfilled the expectation formed when 
 Lord Carnarvon appointed him, and at very small 
 expense compared with the benefit his settlements 
 will confer on the security and value of the land 
 property in the province, and on the public revenue 
 at the same time. 
 
 " He will tell you himself what he has done and how 
 and why he has done it. He seems to have the 
 very rare talent not only of securing the confidence 
 of his official superiors in the honesty and thorough- 
 ness of his work — which is not an uncommon quality 
 in the Royal Engineers — but of gaining the confi- 
 dence of all, white and black, with whom he has to 
 deal, which I find is a very rare quality indeed in 
 this country. So you will not wonder my thinking 
 that he is the very man for Sir Theophilus Shepstone 
 if he can get Lord Carnarvon to appoint him to 
 report on and settle land claims in the Transvaal 
 and leave to you a fair Public Revenue from your 
 lands without disgusting the landowner, and to give 
 the enhanced value attaching to your titles without 
 filling the pockets of land-sharks and -jobbers at the 
 
 public expense. 
 
 (Signed) " H. B. Frbre." 
 
 December 27. — "It never rains but it pours." 
 The London and South African Exploration Com- 
 
396 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 pany, through their manager, Henry Webb, have 
 now written to ask me to give my professional 
 opinion as to the best mothod of working the Du 
 Toits Pan and Bultfontein Mines, for future 
 guidance, and inquire if I can find time to make a 
 full report thereon, especially as to the present system 
 of working on the edge of the reef ; and what restric- 
 tions in this respect should be imposed, if this method 
 is as injurious as they believe it to be ; also what 
 plan I would recommend as a basis to work upon in 
 the formation of internal and external roadways. 
 I have replied that I cannot say what I may be able 
 to do at the present moment, but that probably in a 
 fortnight I shall know what my movements are to 
 be, and that at the present I am just finishing my 
 land report and too busy to take up anything 
 extra. 
 
 - December 3 1 . — I wrote to you last mail in a very 
 hipped style, finding fault with everything ; I hope 
 this time to be a little more reasonable, but the 
 weather is very hot and there are no conveniences 
 here to make the hot weather enjoyable. We have 
 to shut our windows to keep out the dust storms, 
 and the very candles by which we write bow down 
 with disgust at the heat. To-day I saw a row of 
 candles aU ready for night use and they had curved 
 over till the wicks were downwards ; they looked 
 very comical. 
 
 To-morrow I go with Major Lanyon to Barkly to 
 see the river diggings for three days' outing, and 
 come back for about two days — and then I shall 
 have completed — but what next ! There is another 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 397 
 
 view of affairs. If volunteers go from here I shall 
 go with them ! 
 
 I suppose that I have made some good progress 
 here in my settlements, as a few nights ago Feltham 
 told me that some people wanted to know if I would 
 be insulted if I were asked to take charge of the 
 Kimberley Mine at ;^3000 per annum. I said that 
 I did not care to think about it as the work was not 
 to my liking. 
 
 Janua/ry i, 1878. — I have heard from Ravenscroft 
 dated Colombo, November. " I wonder if you would 
 care to come here for the purpose of opening out 
 the ancient cities of Anaradharpona and PoUinarniva. 
 Something in this direction has been done by the 
 Government architect, but it wants carrying out on 
 a large scale. I was speaking to the Governor 
 on the subject and I said that if the work was to be 
 thoroughly done, we ought to obtain the services of 
 a man like yourself — he said yes ! but I fear his 
 price wiU be too high. I replied that if the work is 
 to be done at all it would be found cheaper, and of 
 course more satisfactory, to employ a thoroughly 
 good and competent man than to potter on with one 
 who is not thoroughly competent." 
 
 Janua/ry 3. — I have had an interesting tour with 
 Major Lanyon round the river diggings, about Barkly. 
 Their glory has departed, but the diggers would not 
 be behindhand in welcoming their Administrator, 
 and he has been received with triumphal arches, and 
 cheers and drinks, as befitting the reception of a 
 popular Governor. He has made a great many neat 
 little speeches, and it has all gone off well. 
 
398 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 We went down some of the claims : they are just 
 shafts in the boulder soil adjoining the river and 
 remind me of my shafts at Jerusalem ; but these 
 are not dangerous, though some of them are forty 
 feet deep. It seems to me that they are groping 
 in the dark, and that the only methodical method 
 of examining the ground would be to turn it over, 
 commencing at one point, going right along the 
 river bank. Some miners also want to turn oif the 
 river and dig in the bed ; no doubt that wiU be 
 done some day. But the whole question is whether 
 the river diggings will pay now that diamonds 
 are found so much now readily in the matrix itself 
 at and around Kimberley. No one yet seems to 
 know where the volcano is situated from which the 
 diamonds of the river diggings have been brought. 
 
 Our constant topic of conversation is now the 
 prospect of a native rising in the Eastern Province, 
 and I hear many opinions ; of course, we have the 
 Imperial view and the Dutch view, and I am bound 
 to say that many English take the Dutch view, 
 because they think that a Colony ought to settle its 
 own aifairs. But they want to direct their own 
 native policy and then fall back upon British troops 
 as soon as they are in difficulties. If aU the people 
 were English it would be a different matter, but at 
 present it is the Boer riding the British hobby with 
 his own spurs. 
 
 So long as the Cape Colony was a Crown Colony 
 it was easy to prevent ourselves drifting very far 
 into unknown difficulties, but what are we to do 
 now with responsible Government ? It stands to 
 
OF GRIQUALAND WEST 399 
 
 reason that the Colonial Government would not go 
 so far in experiments on the natives if they had not 
 British troops to help them, and if they really had 
 to pay for the cost of the war. It seems to me quite 
 certain that they would be more careful in their pro- 
 ceedings if they were entirely responsible. But as it is 
 at present they benefit by war. Troops bring money 
 into the country, and when the war is over they 
 get the native lands. 
 
 It is a difficult millstone to see into ; but this 
 I can make out : (i) When the British Government 
 has to pay for the cost of native wars and furnish 
 the troops, it ought to be allowed the principal part 
 in the guiding of the native policy. (2) The lands 
 which are acquired at the end of the war, should be 
 available for British immigrants, for they have been 
 paid for with British money. (3) When the native 
 policy is directed by the responsible Government the 
 whole cost of the war ought to be defrayed by the 
 Colony. 
 
 Janumry 7. — The war cry is " over the Border ! " 
 At last my uncertainty is over. For the last month 
 I have been longing to go south-east, but I thought 
 my duty was towards the Transvaal ; now, however, 
 my Transvaal land business is postponed indefinitely, 
 and I am told ofi" for military duty as a volunteer, I 
 am thankful to say. The war is not over after all : 
 very far from over many suppose, and our little pro- 
 vince of Griqualand West is going to the assistance of 
 the Cape Colony. A mounted volunteer corps called 
 the Diamond Fields Horse is to be raised, and I am 
 to be Commandant. We take over several of the 
 
400 THE LAND SETTLEMENT 
 
 volunteers from the Du Toit's Pan Hussars and 
 Kimberley Light Horse, but very few of our men 
 are mounted as yet, and we pick up our horses on 
 the way down. Captain D'Arcey has gone down to 
 Fauresmith to buy horses for us and we march 
 there on foot. 
 
 My land settlement is all complete except the 
 report and that still requires about ten days' work. 
 It is a very lengthy report of about 26,000 words, 
 exclusive of the tables, schedules, maps, &c., and 
 together with my reports on each case will, if ever 
 published, make a Blue Book of at least 200 pages. 
 
 This settlement ought to have been made in 187 1, 
 when the province was first annexed ; if that had been 
 done the native claims would now be a matter of the 
 past and the country would be fuUy occupied ; as it 
 is we have some discontent, which no adjustment 
 can now rectify. Anyhow things have been put on 
 a proper footing. I am seeing Major Lanyon 
 and the judge as to some berth for my clerk, 
 Mr. W. H. Hutton. He has assisted me splendidly 
 and would make a most valuable public servant, 
 just the kind of man wanted here. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Algoa Bay (see Port Elizabeth) 
 Anderson, Dr., 43, 277, 281 
 Arnot, David, 226, 280, 294, 360 
 Ashton, Rev. Mr., 321 
 Aylward, A., 177, 304 
 
 Baboons (see Bavians) 
 
 Bailie, A., Mr., 134 
 
 Bain, Mr., 255 
 
 Bain's Kloof, 217 
 
 Balagaroo, 50, 55 
 
 Barber, Mrs., 371 
 
 Barend Barends, 277 
 
 Barkly, Sir Henry, 7, 297 
 
 Barkly West, 291, 319, 349, 397 
 
 Barry, Sir Jacob D., 131, 309, 361 
 
 Baseline, 79 
 
 Bastards, (see Griquas) 
 
 Batlapias, 275, 278, 321 
 
 Bavians, 89 
 
 Beohuanas, 19, 275 
 
 Belmont, 28 
 
 Bergenaars, 43, 355 
 
 Bishops, 210, 255, 309 
 
 Bloem, Jan, 277 
 
 Boers, 26, 29, 53, 90, 162, 242 
 
 Boshof, 138 
 
 Boundary line, i, 59, 74 
 
 BoOTke, General, 356 
 
 Brand, President, 17, 109, 138 
 
 Burgers, Mr., 235 
 
 Bumess, Messrs., 347 
 
 Bushmen, 272, 333, 347 
 
 Bushmen's marks, 249 
 
 Cadija, 116 
 Camp, 35, 51 
 Campbell, 3 
 
 Cape Colony, 215, 271 
 Capetown, 5, 205 
 Cameron, General, 81, 307 
 Carnarvon, Lord, 46, 134, 165, 
 
 Ceylon, 147, 397 
 
 Christiana, 149 
 
 Civilisation, 332 
 
 Clarke, Captain Marshall, 176 
 
 Climate, 54, 56, 67, 77, 86, 89, 96 
 
 Coal, 251 
 
 Confederation, 141, 214 
 
 Con's Dam, 63 
 
 Coode, Sir John, 9 
 
 Cooks, 41, 135 
 
 Cow-dung, 39, 172 
 
 Cron Wright, Mr. John, 29 
 
 CrooodUe River, 190 
 
 Crown lands, 273 
 
 Cunynghame, Sir Arthur, 288, 
 
 301 
 Customs dues, 214, 265 
 
 Daniel's Kuil, 339, 346 
 
 David's Graf, 25, 57 
 
 Delagoa Bay (see Lorenzo Mar- 
 
 quez) 
 De Vniiers, Jos., Mr., 1 7, 24, 48, 
 
 85, 141 
 Diamond fields, loi 
 Diamonds, 35 
 Dolls, 136 
 
 Doms, 'Theodore, 319 
 Dordrecht, 253 
 Drakensberg, 181 
 Dreary country, 13 
 D'Urban, Sir Benjamin, 213 
 Durnford, Colonel Anthony, 3, 8, 
 
 140 
 Dutch (see Boers) 
 
 2 C 
 
402 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Eastern district, 214, 266, 269 
 Edwards, Mr. Sam, 349 
 Erasmus, Adolf, 120, 361 
 Erf (Erven-pl), 323, 336 
 
 Farmers, 66 
 Farms, 336, 381 
 Feltham, Mr., 315 
 Field cornets, 131 
 Fincham, Mr., 378 
 Fish River, 240 
 Flowers, 313 
 Food, 55, 105 
 Fort Beaufort, 245 
 Franck, Mr., 160, 161 
 Fredericksfontein, 75 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, 206, 216 
 Frere, Lady, 207, 384 
 Froude, Mr. J. A., 214, 265 
 
 Gall, Rev. Me., 22 
 
 Genadendal, 229 
 
 George, 229 
 
 Gloomy Kafirs, 13 
 
 Gold regions, 148 
 
 Grahamstown, 338 
 
 Green, Mrs., 293 
 
 Greef, 320 
 
 Grey, Sir George, 213, 268 
 
 Griqualand East, 249 
 
 Griquas, 29, 44, 58, 279, 287, 295, 
 
 327, 333: 356, 372, 391 
 Griquatown, 336, 386 
 
 Haarhopp, 264 
 
 Hart River, 275 
 
 Haggard, Mr., 157 
 
 Hever, Mr., 77 
 
 Hewett, Sir William, 7 
 
 Hex River, 217, 224 
 
 History, 29, 42, 211, 244,267, 275, 
 
 295. 333, 351 
 Hohne, Mr., 131 
 Hotels, 12, 16 
 Horses, 92, 93 
 
 Hottentots, 43, 213, 220, 272, 391 
 Houses, 34 
 Huguenots, 211 
 Hutton, Mr. W. H., 260, 4C30 
 
 Ikey Mo ! 155 
 Instructions, 288 
 
 Jacobs, Mr. (Attorney-General), 
 
 268 
 Jacobsdaal, 109 
 Jardine, Mrs., 16, 287 
 Jolivet, Bishop, 23 
 
 Kafirs, 13, 58, 106, iii, 125, 169, 
 
 246, 321 
 Karoo, 56 
 Kars, 323, 353 
 Katberg, 242 
 Keiskama, 241 
 
 Kennedy, Sergeant, 33, 140, 143 
 Kimberley, 17, 109 
 Klaarwater (see Griquatown) 
 Klipdrift (see Barkly) 
 Knysna, 231 
 Kok, Adam, 44, 53, 74, 278, 333, 
 
 351,355 
 Kok, Cornelius, 47, 277, 278, 333, 
 
 Kohiati River, 191 
 Korannas, 84, 337 
 Kreli, 349 
 Kuruman, 331, 340 
 
 Land, 390, 399 
 
 Land Commission, 359, 394 
 
 Land Court, 297, 394 
 
 Langford, 378 
 
 Lanyon, Major, 16, 106, 305, 357, 
 
 397 
 Leask, the Brothers, 151 
 Libomba, 192, 199 
 Likatlong, 320 
 Lions, 189 
 Locations, 273 
 Locusts, 130 
 London Missionary Society (.see 
 
 Missions) 
 Lorenzo Marquez, 195 
 Lubbe, Mr., 92 
 Lydenburg, 178 
 
 Macfarlane's Farm, 109 
 Magersfontein, 10 
 
INDEX 
 
 403 
 
 Maitland Treaty, 357 
 Malays, 6, 12, 220 
 Manby, Mr., 336, 345 
 Mantatees, 354 
 Manzana, Piet, 134 
 Maquasie Spruit, 150 
 Marshall, Captain, 377 
 Merriman, Mr. John X., 208, 
 
 269 
 Meteors, 180 
 Middelburg, 167 
 MUk, 65 
 
 Mills, Captain, 6, 215 
 Mimac's Hotel, 26, 62 
 Mining Board, 262, 368 
 Mirage, 81 
 Missions, 29, 318 
 Modder River, 1 5 
 Moffat, Dr., 281, 353 
 Molopo Eiver, 337 
 Molteno, Mr., 212, 268 
 Moodie, Mr., 160 
 Moravians, 212, 221 
 Moslems, 6 
 Mossel Bay, 229 
 Mothibi, Janje, 275, 320, 354 
 Muller, Mr., 163 
 
 Nachtmaal, 336 
 Natal survey, 384 
 Native disturbances, 49 
 Native policy, 267, 274 
 Natives, 279, 286 
 Neutral territory, 241, 244 
 Nelmapius, Mr., 148 
 Nixon, Captain, 217 
 
 Okange Riveb, 75 
 Orpen, Mr. C, 316 
 Otpen, Mr. Francis, 
 
 285 
 Ostriches, 31 
 Oxen, II, 41 
 
 Panneveldt, 75 
 Philip, Dr., 355 
 Philippolis, 43, 278 
 
 24, 280, 
 
 Pilgrims' Rest, 1 57 
 Platberg, 25, 113, 139 
 Port Elizabeth, 9, 233 
 Portuguese, 194 
 Potchefstroom, 1,52 
 Pretoria, 155 
 Pretorius Kop, 187 
 Protector of natives, 375 
 
 QUEEKSTOWN, 243 
 
 Quit rents, 263, 289 
 
 Railways, 68 
 Rain (see Climate) 
 Ramah, 25, 45 
 Randall, Corporal, 52 
 Ravenscroft, Mr., 147, 397 
 Responsible Government, 252 
 Reserve, Abanian, 298, 382 
 Rhenish Mission, 220 
 Rhodes, Cecil J., 227, 234, 253, 
 
 307 
 Roman Catholics, 11, 23 
 
 Saltpan, 63, 94 
 
 Sargeaunt, Mr., 394 
 
 Scratchley, Sir Peter, 2 
 
 Servants, 60, 68, 70 
 
 Sheep, 95, 112, 367 
 
 Shepston, Sir Theophilus, 106, 
 
 i54> 213, 395 
 Shippard,Mr. (Attorney-General), 
 
 271, 291 
 Sifonel, 325 
 Simons Bay, 208, 210 
 Sisters, 8, 21 
 Slachter's Nek, 213 
 Smith, Sir Harry, 374 
 Southey, Mr. Richard, 360 
 Spitz Kop, 179, 182 
 Sprigg, Mr., 269 
 Springs, 328, 337, 354, 367 
 Stockdale, Mr. H., 21 
 Stockenstrom, 234, 359, 275 
 Steel Poort, 170 
 Storms (see Climate) 
 
404 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Taka Poet, 244 
 
 Tambookie grass, 337 
 
 Tarantaal Kop, 25 
 
 Transvaal, 18, 107, 152, 171, 320 
 
 Travelling, 60 
 
 Trollope, Mr. Anthony, 364 
 
 Tsetse-fly, 196 
 
 UlTENHAGE, 236 
 
 Unification of South Africa, 215 
 
 Vaal Eivek, 390 
 Vetberg line, 382 
 Villiers, Mr. F., 305, 313, 316 
 
 Von Schlickmann, 177 
 Volunteers, 216, 301 
 
 Water, ii; 
 
 Waterboer, Andries, 44, 74, 277 
 
 333, 352, 357 
 Waterboer, Nicholas, 288, 295,324, 
 
 338, 3S9, 382 
 Warden, Major, 94 
 Warren, Captain (1825 A.D.), 46, 
 
 229,244,345,352 
 War, 247 
 Wayland, Mr., 28 
 Webb, Bishop, no, 255, 310 
 Wool, 236 
 Worcester, 218 
 
'£-(srm/'X'/4'jX'&K:;'fm'»iSi:»x:-, 
 
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