-v

nfna

Colony

JY

MA. Bryden

This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in
cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You
may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for
any purpose other than for scholarship, research,
educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You
may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy
(or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes.

KLOOF & KARROO:
SPORT, LEGEND, AND NATURAL HISTORY
IN
CAPE COLONY.

w
N

<y
a pi

<
H
PC

Ou
DH
WWH

KLOOF^KARROO SPORT, LEGEND, AND NATURAL HISTORY
IN
CAPE COLONY,
WITH A NOTICE OF THE GAME BIRDS, AND OF THE
PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE ANTELOPES
AND LARGER GAME.

H. A. BRYDEN,
hi
Member of the South African Committee.

LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO
AND NEW YORK: 15, EAST 16* STREET.

AU rights reserved.

PRINTED BY

THOMAS

POULTER AND SONS, LIMITED,

6,

ARTHUR STREET WEST,
LONDON BRIDGE,
AND

GLOBE

WORKS, RUPERT STREET,

"

m-0 mg beav Sttttfe
gl Qebicate tJje«e page*.

PREFACE.

These sketches and reminiscences — for they profess to be
nothing more — have been written at odd times, and amid
the press of other work. Yet I may hope that for those
whose eyes now turn eagerly to South Africa some slight
amusement, perchance some information, may be found
within these pages.
To me the scenes of which these pages treat were
profoundly interesting. To have wandered in the footsteps
of Paterson and Sparrmann, of Le Vaillant and Barrow,
of Burchell and of Campbell, and to have compared the
wonderful fauna of their day with the fauna of the
present ; to have sojourned among the primitive up-
country Boers, and heard their old-world lore and legend,
and noted their quaint customs ; all these were experiences
of never-ending charm. m
In addition to the chapters on sport and natural
history, I have endeavoured to indicate in the chapters
headed A Karroo Farm, The Boer of To-day, and The
Future of Cape Colony, some of the present aspects of
colonial life. The Cape has for too long been a neglected
and forgotten Colony, far too, thinly settled by our own

PREFACE.

flesh and blood. Even now, during the rush of Europeans
to the Transvaal gold-fields, and beyond, the Old Colony
is left behind unnoticed and unknown. This is not as it
should be, for the Cape, with her millions of acres of
good land now lying dormant and useless, her undoubted
mineral wealth just beginning to be discovered, and her
magnificent climate and scenery, surely deserves a better
fate. Here, indeed, lies a country only now awaiting the
presence of British capital and British blood to prove
herself capable of supporting thousands upon thousands
of our overcrowded population. The Cape has never
yet had a fair chance. In my judgment, after many a
disaster, many a bitter disappointment, the time has
come when, having borne the burden and heat of the
day, that chance should be given to her. Recent gold
discoveries in the Colony, and the tardy appointment of
a Geological Department, may tend greatly to hasten
such a consummation.
In the chapter on the Present Distribution of the
Antelopes and Larger Game, I have been at great pains
to bring my researches down to the most recent date,
and with that object I have, since I left the Colony, been
in constant communication with friends and correspondents
in various districts.
I have to thank Dr. Sclater, Fellow and Secretary of the
Zoological Society, for permission to make use of the
Society's Library, and obtain drawings (from the works
of Dr. Andrew Smith and others) of some of the Cape

PREFACE.

game-birds ; and I am indebted to Miss Ellen Barnes
for her careful execution of these drawings. Similarly I
have to thank Professor Flower and Dr. Giinther, of
the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, for
permission to photograph certain of the antelopes — the
gemsbok, the bushbuck, and the vaal rhebok — in the
collection under their care.
To Mr. T. Haig-Smellie, C.E., a skilled amateur
photographer, my thanks are also greatly due for his
excellent photographs, from which these animals have
been reproduced, and for three views of Cape scenery
at pages 5, 405, and 420.
The Frontispiece faithfully reproduces a photograph of
a true zebra, captured two years since in the mountains
of Achter Sneeuwberg, near Graaff Reinet, and is note
worthy as being the first portrait from the life of a mature
wild true zebra (Equus zebra).
I am indebted to Mr. W. MacAlister, of the firm of
Wm. Dunn & Co., South African Merchants, for the use
of the head of a springbok — the most perfect example of
a springbok ewe I have ever seen — from which my
pictures of this antelope have been photographed and
reproduced. Portions of this book have already appeared as articles
in the Field newspaper ; other portions in the St. James's
Gazette, the Globe, Home Work, and the Surbiton Review.
I have to thank the Editors of these papers and magazines

PREFACE.

for their courteous permission to republish here. The
story in Chapter XL, A Secret of the Orange River,
first appeared in a slightly condensed form in Chambers's
Journal; and my thanks are similarly due to the Editor
of that magazine for permission to reprint in these pages.
In conclusion, let me say to those sportsmen who think
of exploiting the Cape, let not your motto be " slay and
spare not," but rather, when possible, spare the rarer and
nobler game now daily becoming more and more scarce.
Remember that you may exterminate, but you can never
restore. The fauna of South Africa have, during these
last hundred years, after the peaceful sleep of long
centuries, had a terrible awakening ; it is high time they
obtained some respite.
Procure necessary specimens, or meat for your camp
if you will ; but remember always that the game animals
yet remaining to those once crowded wilds, are far more
beautiful, far more useful in life, than they can ever be in
death. Happily, before it is too late, preservation is
coming to the rescue, and even the Dutch colonists begin
tardily to acknowledge its necessity.

H. A. BRYDEN.
November,

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
A Cape Cart Journey ... ... ... ... ... ... i
CHAPTER II.
Across Camdeboo to Naroekas Pookt  49
CHAPTER III.
Klipspringer Shooting  67
CHAPTER IV.
Life on a Mountain Farm  77
CHAPTER V.
The Zebra in Cape Colony   99
CHAPTER VI.
A Race with a Kaffir  112
CHAPTER Vfl.
Vaal Rhebok Shooting  125
CHAPTER VIII.
A Sporting Saunter  138
.CHAPTER IX.
Birds of Prey in Cape Colony  146

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.
An Unlucky Day  ^G
CHAPTER XI.
A Secret of the Orange River ... ... ... ... •¦• 166
CHAPTER XII.
The Fall of the Elephant ... ... ... ... ... 210
CHAPTER XIII.
Springbok Shooting  220
CHAPTER XIV.
A Karroo Farm ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 235
CHAPTER XV.
A Morning Ambuscade on Witteberg ... ... ... ... 265
CHAPTER XVI.
The Present Distribution of the Antelopes and Larger
Game of Cape Colony ... ... ... ... ... 280
CHAPTER XVII.
The Game Birds of Cape Colony ... ... ... ... 305
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Boer of To-day... ... ... ... ... ... ... 324
CHAPTER XIX.
The Rise and Fall of Upingtonia ...  347
CHAPTER XX.
The Legend of Jan Prinsloo's Kloof ... ... ... ... 356

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXI.
The True Unicorn  386
CHAPTER XXII.
The Extinction of the True Quagga (Eguus Quagga) ... 393
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Future of Cape Colony  404

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

i. The True Zebra (Equus Zebra) (from the only
photograph of a wild zebra in existence) ... Frontispiece.
2. A Cape Cart and Mountain Scenery ... Facing page 5
3. View near Van Staden's Kloof ... ... ,, 17
4. A Meerkat (Pencilled Ichneumon) ... ,, 55
5. Head of a Klipspringer Ram (Oreotragus
Saltatrix) ... ... ... ... ... ,, 70
6. The Vaal Rhebok (Pelea Capreola) ... ,, 133
7. A Troop of Ostriches  ,, 159
8. Head of a Springbok Ewe (Gazella
Euchore) (Profile) ... ... ... ... „ 222
g. Head of a Springbok Ewe (Full-face) ... ,, 228
10. The Dam at Riet Fontein ... ... ... ,. 241
11. Flock of 1,800 Angora Kids... ... ... ,, 244
12. The Bushbuck (Tragelaphus Sylvaticus) ,, 300
13. Game Birds of Cape Colony, i. ... ... ,, 308
14. Game Birds of Cape Colony. 2. «... ... ,, 319
15. The Gemsbok or Oryx (Oryx Capensis) ... ,, 388
16. View from Back of Table Mountain ... .. 405
17. View of Devil's Peak, near Cape Town... ,, 420

KLOOF AND KARROO
SPORT, LEGEND, AND NATURAL HISTORY
IN
CAPE COLONY.

Chapter I.
A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

A FEW years since I travelled with two friends
from Port Elizabeth up country to Graaff
Reinet and thence across the Karroo Plains
to a mountain farm in the Witteberg, a range west of
the Zwart Ruggens district, where we afterwards
sojourned. This journey was performed with a Cape
cart and a pair of horses, assisted for part of the
distance by a buggy and two other horses. Upon
our way we encountered scenery of never-failing
magnificence, execrable roads, and occasional odds
and ends of shooting — foretastes of the pleasures
afterwards to come. To three young fellows fresh
to South Africa, the journey and its incidents were
replete with untiring charms. Since that time the
railway systems of the Cape have been greatly ex
tended ; but the Colony has so vast an area that
even now a great portion of the travelling has to
be accomplished either by Cape cart, on horseback,

KLOOF Anu KAiinuu.

or by post cart or ox-waggon. The simple annals
of our trip may therefore be not uninteresting to
those who would care to know how progression by
road is yet managed in the Old Colony. I think the
majority of Cape travellers take little heed of the
innumerable attractions that lie ready to the eye
and hand of even the most ordinary lover of nature.
The endless varieties of bird and flower and animal
life in this country, possibly, have small charm for
the traveller only desirous to reach his destination
by the helter-skelter of the post cart, or the dull
routine of the railway. But they exist in plenty by
every roadside of the Colony for those who would
seek them. No hedge, or wall, or fence mars the wild
beauty of the landscape as you travel, save here
and there near a farmstead, an ostrich camp, or
cattle kraal. The terrain lies open around you, as
the sky above ; you halt when you like, proceed
when you like, in unrestricted freedom, and you
may take your meals as you do your pleasure, under
the broad canopy of heaven. After a prosperous
voyage from Dartmouth to Cape Town and thence
to Port Elizabeth (Algoa Bay), we stayed at " the
Bay," as it is colonially called, for a few days, making
inquiries as to the whereabouts of Naroekas Poort,
the farm whither. we intended to journey. We had
expected letters which should acquaint us with the
means of reaching our destination, but having
arrived a mail before we were expected, these letters
had not come down country, and we experienced
much difficulty in finding out exactly where we had
to go to. We knew that Naroekas Poort was some
where in the direction of Graaff Reinet, and deter
mined, therefore, to make that town our first point.

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

After many inquiries we at length encountered at
dinner at the hotel a young Afrikander * who was
returning to Graaff Reinet, where he lived- We
soon learned that he had a good Cape cart and
pair of horses of his own, and that he had further
bought from some hard-up colonist a buggy and
another pair of horses ; and after some little bar
gaining — for I am bound to say that the average
Afrikander is an exceedingly keen hand at a deal —
he agreed to take us to Graaff Reinet for £$ a-piece,
this sum not to include such food and lodging as
we should require on the four days' journey that
lay before us. Our bargain struck, we lost no time,
but arranged to start the next day, and in the
meantime we were fully occupied in separating our
light baggage from the heavy. The space allotted
permitted each one of us to take a light portman
teau, a rug and mackintosh, as well as a rifle, shot
gun, and ammunition. In addition to this we carried
a long coaching-horn and a banjo, and it is due to
these instruments to state that they conduced in no
slight degree towards the success of our trip. With
the posting-horn, until in an evil hour it perished
miserably, we awoke the echoes of many a bushy
kloof, many a rocky krantz, and many a stern
mountain as we passed by. Merrily it trumpeted
our advent to the accommodation-houses where we
outspanned at night, and as blithely heralded our
departure. With the banjo we charmed the inmates
of many a lonely farmhouse in our wanderings, and
even the stolid Boers unbent before the unwonted
strains of this humble but ever-welcome instrument.
* An Afrikander is a person born in South Africa, of European parents.

KLOOi

/injy iv.wv.iv v<yi

The remainder of our heavy luggage we left behind,
to be forwarded to our ultimate destination at the
earliest opportunity.
All travellers by road from Graaff Reinet to Port
Elizabeth, except the transport riders, as the ox-
waggon carriers are here called, outspan at Uiten-
hage, stable their cattle there, and traverse the
eighteen miles from that place to the Bay by means
of the railway. From Uitenhage to Graaff Reinet
by road is about 162 miles.
On a fine morning of South African spring, then,
we left behind us the busy town founded by the
sturdy settlers of 1820, and soon arrived at Uiten
hage, after passing Zwartkops, the favourite resort
of the Port Elizabeth youth, where exists a thriving
boating club on ' the banks of the Zwartkops River.
Uitenhage, which is situated higher up this river,
on the slope of a hill, we found to be one of the
greenest and prettiest towns in the Colony. The
Winterhoek Mountains towering behind it, and here
and there rising into lofty peaks many thousand
feet in altitude," form a magnificent background, and
the dark verdure of the dense bush veldt, with which
the neighbouring heights are clothed, is always a
pleasant relief to the eye. The river, unlike most
South African streams, is perennial, and the ample
water-courses which lead out from a fountain in the
neighbouring range and irrigate the town, the well-
grown trees lining the wide streets, the pleasant,
comfortable houses and spacious gardens, and the
roomy, old-fashioned hotel, all combine to render this
town a gracious and refreshing memory to the Cape
* The Cockscomb, the tallest peak of the Winterhoek, is about 7,000
feet in height .

y
oCD

<H
y
y
o

Qy,¦ai

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

traveller. A large wool-washing industry has latterly
sprung into existence at Uitenhage, and the place
has considerably increased in size and wealth. We
soon found our way to the hotel, had some luncheon,
got out the horses and traps, packed our luggage,
bade good-bye to two or three friends who had come
out from the Bay with us, and, with much blowing
of the horn, set forth.
The Cape cart is a typical and extremely
serviceable vehicle, having two wheels, a canvas tent
or tilt — open front and rear, and twoW!seats placed
one behind the other, which will accommodate at a
pinch four persons. All the passengers sit looking
to the horses, the hinder seat forms a locker, and
behind this is a swing board, as in a dog-cart,
whereon can be packed a reasonable amount of
luggage. To our Cape cart, which our Afrikander
guide, Mr. F  , drove himself, were harnessed two
of the best horses — a chestnut and a bay — I ever
saw in South Africa. Well-bred from imported
English sires, well-groomed — a very unusual thing
— and standing higher than the average Cape horse,
they pulled us gaily along throughout the whole of
the rough journey, and, indeed, proved altogether too
fast for the more sober pair that drew the buggy and
its fortunes. The Cape buggy — also two-wheeled — ¦
sports a hood which lets down S.nd is closed behind,
and only accommodates two passengers. We found
the two horses recently purchased with the buggy
hardy, useful animals, but terribly low in condition,
and literally covered with ticks. Evidently they
had been running on the open veldt, and had not
been groomed, and in consequence the ticks, which
abound in most parts of the bush veldt, had acquired

KLOOF AND KARROO.

a terrible hold. I have stood, after we had arrived
up country, for half-an-hour at a time pulling out
these loathsome pests from the skins of the poor
nags, each insect gorged and bloated with the blood
of its unfortunate victim, and yet scarcely seeming
to make any impression on their numbers. The
horses drained of their strength in this way lose
condition rapidly, and even die from the ravages
of these bloodthirsty tormentors. The Cape horse
is luckily a hardy and a willing animal, and although
we travelled to Graaff Reinet over frightfully rough
roads — if roads they can be called — at the rate of
forty miles a day, the more generous feeding and
treatment caused Sultan and Fairplay — as the old
nags were called — to improve considerably in con
dition and in pace, even upon the journey, and
afterwards when we had purchased them, they
proved good and faithful servants on many a
long day's trek. We fed our horses as usual on
oat-hay forage, and gave them as much as they could
eat. This forage was dear at the time, and cost
one shilling and sixpence a small bundle, conse
quently it formed a heavy item in our and our
Afrikander friend's bills, as we shared the expense
equally. We started at twelve o'clock. I remember the
day well, for one of those unpleasant hot north-west
winds, peculiar to the Cape at certain seasons, had
just begun to blow, and after we had travelled a
few miles we were enveloped in clouds of red dust,
which found its way into our eyes, hair, and ears,
and was most disagreeable. At the Cape it is the
custom to outspan or unharness every two hours or
thereabouts. The horses are then taken out and

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

knee-haltered, and straightway roll in the sand or
soil, after which they feed for half-an-hour, have
some water occasionally, if it be handy, and the
journey is then resumed. This is an ancient and
invariable South African custom, and, strange as
it may seem to the uninitiated, it certainly serves
its purpose admirably, and the long treks, day
after day, are by this means comfortably got over.
Distances at the Cape are always computed by
hours, six miles an hour in a cart being about the
average pace. Passing Prins's Kraal, about three
hours from Uitenhage, we outspanned at the farm of
some young Scotch settlers. Here, while the cattle
were resting, we had a splendid and most welcome
bathe in a deep and rocky pool hidden in the bush
veldt near the house. This was a rare luxury indeed
in Cape Colony, where a plunge and short swim, such
as we enjoyed, are in many places unheard of and
unattainable. How we revelled in the cool and
limpid depths of that pool, and how reluctantly we
quitted it ! While we dressed upon a flat ledge of
rock a hammerkop (hammerhead) came down to the
water, but swerved off on seeing us. This — the
Scopus umbretta of Gmellen — is a curious looking
bird, having plumage of a dark purplish-brown
colour, a crested head, and a longish black bill. It
belongs to the heron family, a»d feeds principally on
fish and frogs. It has, further, a jackdaw-like taste
for odd bits of metal, bright buttons, and such like
treasures, which it hides away in its nest. From
this farmhouse there was a fine view of the rolling
bush veldt country lying everywhere around. Just
as we had inspanned and were starting, our best
pair of horses, whose heads were left for a few

KLOOF AND KARROO.

moments, turned short round, and before any one
could reach them, bolted off down the steep hill
as hard as they could pelt. As we saw them
careering in the distance it seemed as if nothing
could avert a catastrophe, and we abandoned
all hope of seeing the cart again in any other
shape than pieces. The buggy, with two of us in
it, tore after the fugitives instantly, and after a chase
of fifteen minutes we discovered the cart and horses
round a corner of the road in charge of a Hottentot,
who had most providentially managed to stop them.
Giving the man a "tip," and congratulating our
selves on a lucky escape, we resumed our journe)'.
The dust and wind were simply indescribable, and
we began to think that if South African life was to
be judged by this first day's sample, we should
hardly enjoy it as we had expected. Happily our
fears were not thus realised, and many a lovely
day of perfect weather afterwards compensated us
for that miserable first day's trek. Occasionally,
however, the colonists are treated to these gentle
reminders. When the soft breezes of South African spring
time blow gently through the deep kloofs, where the
wild geranium, the heath, the iris, the lily, and
the yellow acacia, and many another fragrant flower
and bush bless the sunshine, and over the wild
mountain tops, where the long grasses wave hither
and thither at the zephyrs' bidding, or across the
Karroo's broad bosom, when, after the thunder
rains, the parched veldt springs, as if by magic, into
a carpet of dazzling colours, then, I grant you,
Africa is charming indeed, and you bless the days
and extol the climate in no measured strain. But

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

when the north wind blows fiercely, glowing hot
from its passage over thousands of miles of heated
plains, smothering you in clouds of hideous red
dust, then indeed you feel inclined to curse the day
you ever saw the country.
However, there was nothing for it but to grin and
bear the infliction. At our next outspan, Blaauw
Krantz (Blue Cliff), we picked up a Boer who was
making for the next accommodation-house, where
we proposed to stay the night. This gentleman rode
with us, and peppered us incessantly with questions,
which our Afrikander guide duly translated.
The ages and description of our parents, the
numbers and ages of our brothers and sisters, where
we came from, where we were going to, and what
we were going to do, what were our possessions in
land, money, and flocks — these and innumerable
others were the questions asked of us. But this,
as we soon learned, is an invariable Dutch custom,
not intended in any offensive spirit, and the newly-
arrived traveller will do well to yield good-humouredly
to the rather un-English catechism. The fact is,
the Cape Dutch are a simple and eminently patriar
chal people, who take a keen and even a ludicrous
interest in all matters pertaining to the family circle.
If you would win your way instantly to their good
graces, tell them you are the lather of a dozen stout
children. They will be enraptured, for the Boer,
himself uxorious to a degree, has an intense
admiration for large families and their parents.
Possibly this feeling is engendered out of Nature's
political economy, for South Africa is a vast country,
and sparsely populated.
We were now getting well into the Great Winter-

KLOOF AND KARROO.

hoek Mountains, and the scenery around us was
simply magnificent. Abruptly turning a corner of
the road we in the Cape cart came suddenly upon
a very fine tiger-cat, or serval (felis serval), the
boschkatte (bush-cat) of the Boers. This is one of
the most beautiful of the numerous tribe of the
smaller Felidce that haunt Cape Colony and annoy
the farmers, and is beautifully coloured in yellow
and black. The cat was, however, too quick for us,
and escaped into the dense wall of bush veldt that
lined the road, before we had time to shoot. Towards
evening, between Blaauw Krantz and Roode Wal —
our outspan for the night — we sighted three or four
brace of wild guinea fowl or pintados (Numida
mitrata) running along the road in front of us. We
at once pulled up, and one of our number — Bob —
charged his breech-loader, got out of the cart, and
softly followed them round a bend of the road, which
was here composed of deep sand. Very quickly we
heard the report of both barrels, and, driving on, met
the gunner carrying a dead bird. The guinea fowls
— always great pedestrians — would not get up, so he
had had a couple of long shots at them running, and
had luckily knocked one over at sixty yards. This
guinea fowl is plentiful in the densely-bushed country
near the Sunday and Fish Rivers ; it is an excellent
eating bird, bigger and handsomer than the tame
species, and may sometimes be secured towards
evening while roosting, as it does, out of the way
of wild cats and other enemies. This was the only
game we obtained this day, but the dust and wind
were much against sport, and travelling, as we were,
between high walls of dense prickly jungle we had not
many opportunities — such as we had abundantly

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

later on — of looking about us for a shot now and
again. At dusk, after a heavy trek through deep
sand, we arrived at Roode Wal, where there is an
accommodation-house. Here we had hoped to get
a good wash and some clear water to drink ; but
alas ! we found that in this dry season (for drought
prevailed just then) the dam containing the water
supply was all but empty, and the only liquid — a
villainous compound of mud and water — far too
precious for bathing purposes. We had therefore
to content ourselves with a dry rub — a miserable
substitute at best.
However, we were shortly provided with a very
fair supper and some English bottled beer, for which
we paid two shillings and sixpence a bottle.
Our friend the Boer shared the meal, and I
shall never forget his knife and fork play. He
was a huge, slouching fellow, with a shock of dull
light brown hair and heavy beard. His mouth
was simply cavernous in its proportions, and his
appetite what an old Cape traveller — Sir J. Alexander
— would have described as a ten-pound one. When
that Boer quits this earthly scene his epitaph
should be something like that found in a Scotch kirk-
yard, which ran thus, I think: —
" Here lies Jock Gordon
Mouth almichty and teeth accordin."
Supper over and pipes lighted, we strolled out for
a quarter of an hour to see that the horses were com
fortable for the night, and to have a breath of cool
air. The scorching wind had now fallen, and upon
the heights — bush-clad as to their sides, grassy as to
their crests — whereon we stood, the air was cool and

KLOOF AND KARROO.

pleasant, a blessed relief after our dusty and baking
trek. The night was still and marvellously clear —
" The moon
O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene.
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed
And tip with silver every mountain's head."
Around us lay the silent mountains. Far below us
rolled, under the silvery light of the moon, into dim
distance the vast mysterious-looking sea of dense
bush veldt, wherein to this day the fierce Cape
buffalo and the. mighty elephant find secure retreat.
In this primeval shelter, wherein old " Buffel," as
the Dutch call him, has couched his lowering front
from time immemorial, he is likely for man)' decades
to come to linger almost undisturbed. This region
is rich in Cape history. All this wild jungle country
was in bygone days the favourite lurking place of the
Kaffirs in their battles and forays with the Boers and
British. Amidst these bushy fastnesses the Hot
tentot and Kaffir rising against the Dutch farmers
began in 1798, at the time when the rebellious Boers,
under Van Jaarsveld, were in arms against the
British, then lately possessed of the Colon)'. Bands
of these two native races — usually implacable foes,
and seldom allied in arms — sacked, burned, and
devastated the frontier farms even as far as Lange
Kloof, the Knysna, and the eastern edge of the Great
Karroo. In much later years the Kaffirs have found
sanctuary in the unknown recesses of this bush
country during the numerous petty wars that have
vexed the eastern frontier of the Colony. Happily,

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 13
Kaffir wars may now be considered things of the
past. The density and impenetrable nature of this
wall of bush veldt unless actually witnessed can
hardly be realised. Forest fires will not destroy it,
and its thorny recesses are, to this hour, as absolutely
impervious to any but the hides of Kaffirs, buffaloes,
and elephants, as they were in ages long remote.
Our host told us that a few buffaloes are shot
here every year ; but it is dangerous work hunting
them in the narrow game-paths, and the brutes are
extremely cunning and dangerous. Every South
African hunter is aware that this animal is classed
amongst the three most dangerous of the big game,
the others being the lion and leopard. As often as
not in these thickets the wily buffaloes lie in wait for
and chase the hunter instead of being themselves
pursued ; and they take no end of stopping, not to
say killing.
Presently we went again within doors, and then
Frank produced his banjo from its case, and we
treated our Boer friend to an extemporised concert.
We knew a good many old glees and part songs, and
I am bound to say that the enthusiastic way in
which the usually unimpassionate Dutchman ap
plauded our humble efforts fairly touched the inner
most recesses of our hearts. When we had sung
" Oh, who will o'er the downs#so free ? " and " Oh,
wert thou in the cauld blast," the climax was reached,
and applauding nature could no further go. I firmly
believe that our little concert that night cemented a
life-long friendship between that Dutch Afrikander
and the British at the Cape. After " God save the
Queen," and pledging one an other in "soupjes"
of Cape smoke (i.e., Boer brandy), we parted for the

14 KLOOF AND KARROO.
night with mutual expressions of goodwill. There
was only one bed amongst our party of four, so we
tossed for positions — the lucky ones sleeping on the
bed, while the two others wrapped themselves in
their rugs upon the floor. The Dutchman retired to
a small room at the back.
At dawn next morning (cock-crow it is usually
called at the Cape) we were up, and after coffee,
inspanned and started. The change from yesterday
was complete. This morning, after the sun had
risen in ruddy splendour over the mountains, a
clear blue sky and a bright refreshing atmosphere
succeeded to the burning north-west blasts.
Departing with a salute from the long coaching
horn, we proceeded on our way, our Boer friend riding
with us for a time. The horse he bestrode was a
" tripplaar," and carried him with its singular ambling
pace as easily as an arm chair or a rocking horse.
The triple is a sort of shuffling canter on three
legs, peculiar to the Cape, and a horse that possesses
it commands a higher price than its fellows. The
whimsical Boers have singular notions of horse-flesh.
They despise mares, and will, if they can help it, on
no account ride them. What their reason for this is
I am unable to state, but the fact remains. We, in
this country, as often as not, prefer the mare to the
gelding, as being more willing, and of higher courage.
We noticed several curious birds this morning.
First, the blaauw valk (blue hawk) or chanting
falcon (Le faucon chanteur), as it is called by Le
Vaillant. This hawk has certainly a very peculiar
ringing whistle, but Le Vaillant invested it with
altogether fictitious attributes, pretending that it
sings for an hour at a time, night and morning. It

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 15
is a bold bird, and will on occasion attack and kill
snakes. The hawk, sweeping about the cliffs with
graceful flight, was soon far out of view. Next to
appear were some of the curious black and white
crows, the commonest in the Colony. This bird
(Corvus albicollis), the ringhals kraai (ring-necked
crow) of the Dutch, Le corbivau of old Le Vaillant,
is principally of a black or bronze-black colour ; the
back of his neck is white, and some white feathers
divide the breast and abdomen. The bill is white
tipped. He is a fine big fellow and a bold high
flyer, and he is by no means particular as to what he
eats, even finishing off weakly lambs and goats and
other unprotected prey. A near relation of this bird,
the bonte kraai (pied crow) of the Dutch (Corvus
scapulatus), is also pretty often seen, especially
about the high roads, where it is perpetually hunting
for garbage and offal. This bird, in addition to
a white patch upon the middle ofthe back, has a white
chest and stomach. Presently we saw and shot the
red fink, sometimes called the red grenadier grosbeak
(Ploceus oryx). These birds were just entering upon
their breeding plumage, which was sufficiently striking.
The male specimen shot was of a magnificent scarlet
upon the upper parts, as well as upon the throat and
under the tail. The rest of the body was of a rich
glossy black, patches of which* appeared also upon
the forehead and cheeks. The wings and tail were
brown. These birds were evidently flying towards
the Sunday River, which ran not far away, for they
are fond of damp situations.
After an hour's travelling through the mountains,
which presented to our view pictures of wild and
sublime magnificence, tempered, I am bound to say,

16 KLOOF AND KARROO.
however, by frightfully rough and uneven roads, we
reached Paarden Poort (Horses' Pass), a well-known
pass, or series of passes, that give exit through
the Winterhoek range. The road here is often
scarped from sheer rocks, affording very little space
between the towering mountain-side and the deep and
yawning precipices beneath. All . this day, indeed,
we toiled alternatively up heights eminently trying
to horse and oxen flesh (as the bones of many a dead
bullock bore witness), or down uneasy declivities
almost as perplexing. After an outspan for break
fast — hard-boiled eggs, ham, and some bottled beer
— we struggled onwards, until presently we began to
enter upon the noorse.. doom veldt (literally nurse-
thorn country), consisting of bushes of a tall cactus
which, like the euphorbia, exudes a milky juice on
being broken. Unlike the euphorbia, however, the
milk of the noorse doom is not poisonous, and forms
an excellent food for .cattle, sheep and goats, which
are all extremely fond of it. Care, however, has
to be taken that the long spines of the plant are
removed before animals are allowed to be fed
upon it. The sun shone brilliantly, but the air
upon these mountain ranges was clear and
wonderfully exhilarating.
" Jove ! what a day ; black care upon the crupper
Nods at his post and slumbers in the sun."
No cares, indeed, had we as merrily we drove
along — anon changing company by changing vehicles.
The roads were rough, the joltings and hangings
innumerable ; but what of that ? — we cared nothing
for such trifles. Everything was fresh and beautiful
— the sky, the air, the terrain ; every bird and beast

o „
O g
ri -°
y «

3
a.

¦A
>

fe:
f

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 17
and insect new and strange to us, though this ancient
land had produced their counterparts ages upon ages
back. All this ground that we were traversing is
classical. Barrow — that most accurate and trust
worthy of the old Cape travellers — passed through in
1796 ; others have preceded and followed him, and
yet, though long years have intervened since Barrow's
day, the country is in most respects unchanged.
It is true that the Eastern province since that time
has been often devastated by Kaffir wars, and has
witnessed a large influx of British colonisation
— I mean that wonderfully successful State-aided
Emigration Scheme of 1820. * The Algoa Bay settlers
have in these sixty odd years spread themselves over
the country, and carved out for themselves fair homes
and farms and good fortunes ; and the fierce Kaffirs
have been finally rolled back into their own peculiar
territory beyond the Kei. Port Elizabeth, Grahams-
town, and other towns have risen and prospered ;
but the land is so vast and still so sparsely populated
that you may yet travel, often for a whole day — aye,
even for days — without meeting a human being.
There are in the Cape Colony thousands upon
thousands of acres of rich land lying untouched that
might, with irrigation and cultivation, support a good
portion of that overcrowded population of which we
hear so much in England at the present day. In
particular, I would instance certain localities upon
the Sunday River in the Eastern, and upon the
Oliphant, Fish, and Zak Rivers in the Western
province, which are naturally irrigated, and produce
in this favoured climate astounding results in the way
of corn growing — crops returning a hundred-fold and

KLOOF AND KARROO.

more, and crops, too, that grow twice and even thrice
in the year from one sowing. Irrigation at the Cape
has a great future before it, and is now rapidly
coming to the front. Hitherto, to their disgrace be
it said, the colonists have been in the habit of
importing from ^300,000 to ,£500,000 worth of
corn each year — corn which their own country could
and should have readily produced.
Beyond a ramble or two for a short time at
outspans, during which we saw no quarry worth
mentioning, save a fine kingfisher, the Ceryle
maxima of Pallas, otherwise the A Icedo afra of Shaw,
which we secured by a small periodical stream wherein
a little water still lay. The largest, but not the most
beautiful, of the South African Alcedinidce, this bird
has a crested head, plumage of a blue-gray dotted
with white, stomach of a reddish colour, a white
chin, and black legs and bill. Its greatest length
is about eighteen inches, and its cry is loud and
somewhat strident.
At nightfall we reached an accommodation-house,
where we halted, having compassed forty miles of
rough and mountainous travel. Away again early
next morning — the third day of our trip — and on to
Jansenville, a village which we reached about noon.
Jansenville is a sleepy little place of about 400
inhabitants, named after an old time Dutch governor.
Most of the houses belong to Dutch farmers of the
Zwart Ruggens district, who only make use of them
when they trek in to Nachtmaal (Sacrament) with
their wives and families three or four times a year ;
for the remainder of the year the houses are shut up.
At the inn where we outspanned we saw for the
first time a Bushman, or rather woman — a diminutive,

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 19
yellowish brown, and very ugly little creature, whose
bare scalp showed plainly between the curious kinks
of wool — each kink separate — that grew sparsely
upon it. Undoubtedly I think these Bushmen were
the aboriginal possessors of South Africa ; but the
Hottentots, Kaffirs, and Boers have driven them, as
a tribe, almost completely from the Colony, and the
Kalahari Desert may now be considered their true
abiding place. A few broken septs, or remnants,
still wander about the little known banks of the
Orange River and in Griqualand West.
It has been the Boer custom to treat the Bush
men as creatures utterly undeserving of human
sympathy, as wild beasts of the field, to be shot
down and butchered without compunction. The
Bushmen, in their turn, have undoubtedly retaliated
mercilessly upon their oppressors whenever they
obtained the opportunity. But I am inclined to
think that these poor barbarians never had a fair
chance of redemption in the old days. In more
modern times, under British rule, they have proved
themselves excellent servants after their kind — active,
faithful, excessively sharp witted, and possessed of
infinitely more fire and spirit than the Hottentots.
The Bushmen in the Old Colony are now harmless
enough. As hunters and trackers they are simply
invaluable, and as herds excellent, and they make
good and very light-weight " after- riders," or second
horsemen. Between 1750 and 1760 the " Bosjes-
mans " — as the Boers call them — so far from raising
their hands against every man, appear to have
frequented the Colony openly and boldly, and to
have begged and pilfered, much as did the Kaffirs
subsequently. But they never appear at that time

KLOOF AND KARROO.

to have attempted the life of any person. Not,
indeed, until the Boers began with them their
invariable policy of enslaving the native races with
which they came in contact did the Bushmen turn
upon them. From that time until the middle of the
present century war has been incessantly waged
upon these miserable nomads, who in turn have
shown themselves implacable and desperate foes.
The deeds of blood that have been enacted by
Boers and Bushmen upon each other are almost
incredible in their savagery, and would fill volumes
if their history could be written. The ancient Boer
method appears to have been, after a foray upon
their flocks, or without that pretext if in need of
slaves, to raise a force of mounted men — a commando,
as it is called — to track the Bushmen to their lurking-
places, surround them, shoot down the men and
women, and carry off the children as captives. One
frontier Boer has boasted that he had assisted in the
death and capture of 3,200 of these poor wretches,
another of 2,700. In Barrow's time a Boer from
Graaff Reinet, being asked at Cape Town if the
savages were numerous or troublesome upon the
road, replied " he had only shot four," with as
much composure and indifference as if he had
been speaking of four partridges. Barrow himself
heard one of the Dutch colonists boast " of having
destroyed, with his own hand, near 300 of these
unfortunate wretches."
In their turn the poisoned arrows of the Bush
men not infrequently proved the death of the Dutch
and their families, and they became extraordinarilv
expert as cattle lifters. As a race, the tiny Bushmen
average only about four-and-a-half feet in height amon^

A CAPE CART JOURNEY.

their males and about four feet among their women.
In common with all the South African races their
primeval home would seem to have been in North
or North-East Africa. It is probable that the three
principal native races now inhabiting Southern Africa
originally dwelt somewhere in the direction of Egypt
or the Nile. Indications, whether in the case of the
Bushmen, the Hottentots, or the great Bantu race —
in which are included the Kaffirs, Zulus, Bechuanas,
Basutos, and others — point irresistibly to this con
clusion. The Bechuanas, even to this day, bury
their dead with their faces turned in the direction of
Egypt, and the huts of the Abyssinians bear singu
larly striking resemblance to those of the Bechuanas
and Basutos. Herr Merensky, in his " Beitrage,"
asserts that " Many of the usages of the Kaffir tribes
would seem to indicate an Egyptian origin or
influence. . . . the brown people who are painted
on the walls, as in battle with the Egyptians, or as
prisoner's, bear throughout the stamp of the Kaffirs.
Weapons — the form of the shield — of ox-hide, the
clothing, the type of race, are surprisingly like those
of South Africa."
Barth and Schweinfurth have found very similar
races to the Bushmen in North Africa. Herodotus
speaks of a race in that country using a language
apparently resembling their curious clicking of
speech. Barrow has well pointed out their strong
similarity to the Pigmys and Troglodytes of the
Nile ; and he further, with strong show of reason,
identifies them with some of the Ethiopian nations
depicted by Diodorus Siculus. The voices of these
Ethiops were shrill, dissonant, and scarcely human ;
their language almost inarticulate ; and they wore no

KLOOF AND KARROO.

clothing. These North African people, in defending
themselves, " stuck their poisoned arrows within
a fillet bound round the head, which, projecting like
so many rays, formed a kind of crown. The
Bosjesmans do exactly the same thing ; and they
place themselves in this manner for the double
purpose of expeditious shooting, and of striking
terror into the minds of their enemies."
As I gazed then upon the little Bushwoman
squatting in the blazing sunshine at Jansenville, I
could not but regard her with some feelings of
curiosity and interest. There is one feature I
should mention in this somewhat long digression
concerning these little people ; they have the most
beautiful hands and feet, small and delicately
formed. As a set-off, their forms are often not
remarkable for beauty, and their spines are singu
larly curved, giving them the outline of the letter S.
Another curiosity we noticed at Jansenville.
This was the most primitive billiard-room I suppose
to be found in any corner of the earth. Just behind
the inn was a large conical Kaffir hut. Into the
top of this hut a skylight had been fitted, and a
small billiard-table was placed in the centre, under
neath the light. How the table got there, and
whether the hut was built over it, and who were
the local Roberts's and Cook's that patronised it,
I know not. Perhaps the Bushman lady sometimes
took up a cue ! We had a knock-up for a few
minutes, but the table was not a perfect one,
and we soon quitted it. At Jansenville we had a
delicious bathe in the Sunday River, which runs by.
The river was very shallow, and did not admit of
a swim, but we lay flat in the swift current upon a

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 23
spit of sand, and for a short time were in a watery
paradise, after our long journey.
The Sunday River here is broad, and, as is the
case with all South African streams, when the rains
come, exceedingly deep and rapid. It is a thousand
pities that something more has not been done
towards arresting the terrific torrents of water that,
during the rainfall in this country, either rush head
long to the sea, or are dispersed and lost in sand
and soil. The series of plateaux that rise from the
littoral of the Colony into the interior in ever-
increasing altitudes are no doubt primarily the cause
of this waste of the all-precious element, but
" damming and blasting," as someone has profanely
observed, would do much to prevent this loss. A
good bridge — one of the few in the Colony — spans the
river here. Jansenville is not such a rising commu
nity as its position warrants. It seems that some
farmers named Fourie have the right to lead away
one-half of the water that flows by ; in this way
other farmers and villagers have been prevented
from irrigating their lands, and the growth of the
place has, in consequence, been greatly arrested ;
for without irrigation very little grain or vegetables
can be produced.
After but a moderate repast of tough mutton
chops, and a feed to the horse*, we proceeded, our
way lying for some time along the banks of the
river. Not far out of the village, on the other side
of the stream, grew some good-sized trees, and in
their branches we noticed four or five gray monkeys
gambolling. The opportunity was irresistible, so
we halted. Two of us snatched up our rifles, shoved
in cartridges, and took aim, the distance being some

24 KLOOF AND KARROO.

200 yards. I am not sorry to record that the bullets
missed their marks, but the amusing part of the
performance was the way those monkeys streaked
down the trees and vanished " tenites in auras A It
was astounding; lightning, "plain or greased," was
as nothing to the marvellous rapidity of their
descent. We were now well into the Zwart Ruggens
(literally black ridges) district— so called from the
dark, rough ridgy mountains that prevail here and
there. Presently we crossed the river at Staples
Drift — where lies a farmhouse — and soon after this
point we first found ourselves upon the verge of trie
open Karroo Plains.
Ever since boyhood I had been acquainted, from
the perusal of old books of travel, with the name of
the Great Karroo, and as I now looked from a rocky
eminence upon its eastern edge I could well imagine
with what feelings the early Dutch pioneers, after
toiling with heavy laden waggons and wearied oxen
for many and many a long day's trek through the
mountains, had at length, on emerging from some
poort * upon its western boundary, set eyes upon
the far rolling bosom of this mighty plain. Pro
bably some old-world " Voer trekker " first entered
upon this great desert — desert of mankind though
not of game — between the years 1670 and 1700.
What a prospect must then have been his ! This
huge tableland, standing 4,000 feet above sea-level,
was then, and for much more than a century after,
crowded with the most magnificent of fauna. The
eland, the gemsbok, the hartebeest, the bontebok,
wildebeest (gnu), quagga, blesbok, ostrich, and many
* Probably Karroo Poort was one of the first discovered passes from the
westward to the Great Karroo.

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 25
of the smaller antelopes, all abounded in extravagant
profusion, exactly as they had done for countless
ages, undisturbed save by a few aboriginal bushmen,
or wandering Hottentots, armed only with the
most miserable and ineffective weapons. The lion
everywhere stalked in lordly pride ; the ponderous
rhinoceros roamed far and wide ; and the elephant
wandered freely across from one grazing-ground to
another. Alas, how have the mighty fallen ! Most
of these noble animals have been improved from
the face of the earth in these regions. Truly, the
Boers of South Africa have, since their landing in
1652, enjoyed a good innings in this most wonderful
of game countries.
In the old days the journeys across the Karroo
were, in dry seasons, attended with frightful
sufferings to man and beast ; and many a hardy
Dutchman, many a span of stout oxen, have, when
trekking from one fountain to another, gone down
upon these plains to rise no more. Even at the
present day, when droughts occur, sheep and goats
perish in enormous numbers, and the farmers' flocks
sometimes almost disappear altogether. Pringle has
truly written of this parched plateau as
" A region of drought, where no river glides,
Nor rippling brook with osiered sides ;
Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount,
Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount,
Appears to refresh the aching eye :
But barren earth and the burning sky,
And the blank horizon round and round,
Spread — void of living sight or sound."
But it must not be imagined that the Karroo is
a sandy worthless desert. On the contrary, its rich
red soil, though baked and sun-dried by the

26 KLOOF AND KARROO.

burning sun, is capable of supporting a luxuriant
vegetation, and when the rains fall the withered
shrubs and plants instantly are transformed into a
blazing carpet of the most brilliant flowers. Water
and irrigation will some day work wonders upon
these parched plains.
Neither is the Great Karroo — which is 350 miles
in length, and has a breadth of seventy or eighty
miles — to be imagined as one huge expanse of
perfectly flat ground. On the contrary, it is studded
here and there with hills and occasional isolated
mountains ; and periodical rivers or water-courses,
dry for great part of the year, furrow its surface here
and there, their meanderings marked by the stunted
mimosas margining their banks. Geologists tell us
that this desert, which now sustains, in addition to
its indigenous springbok, mighty flocks of sheep and
goats, was once a vast lake, whose waters supported
the bygone saurians of a primeval period.
Water has in recent years been discovered at no
great depth from the surface in many parts of the
karroo, and windmills and wells are being utilised
with very excellent results. Coal, too, has been
found in large quantities in the neighbourhood of
Aberdeen, not far from Graaff Reinet.
We now began — upon entering open country —
to look about us eagerly for game, for in the
mountains and bush veldt we had not had much time
or opportunity to attend to such matters, in the
constant struggle of difficult and uphill travelling
This day we first saw the black koorhaan — one of
the magnificent bustards of the Cape. Of these
wily birds we secured two brace in the heathy
scrub with which the surface of the karroo is

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 27
covered. Here, too, we first saw the meercat, a
singular little animal belonging to the Viverrinse.
Its habits are somewhat similar to the prairie dog of
North America. It lives in colonies in underground
burrows, which honeycomb the veldt in places, and
render galloping rather dangerous to hunters. There
are two or more varieties ; those seen on this
occasion were little gray fellows who might be
noticed sitting up on their hind legs, just outside
their burrows, looking shrewdly about them. Upon
the approach of danger they dive headlong into
their holes with extraordinary rapidity.
Besides the koorhaans we were exceedingly for
tunate in the afternoon in bagging one of the noblest
birds in all South Africa — the paauw of the Dutch
colonists, otherwise known as the kori bustard (the
Otis kori of Burchell). This, as I suppose, the
finest bustard in the world, formerly abounded on
every open karroo of the Cape Colony, but is now
much scarcer. We sighted the paauw (literally
peacock — one of the absurd names of the ancient
Boers) shortly after an afternoon outspan, feeding
quietly some 300 or 400 yards away on the veldt
not far from some mimosa bushes, in and out of
which he wandered. Instantly we stopped the carts,
and Bob and I, taking our rifles, made a detour,
and then crept very cautiously "after him, stopping
as he emerged from shelter and making progress as
he occasionally became hidden. At length favoured
by the ground, we had arrived within sixty or seventy
yards, and, taking steady aim, fired. To our
intense satisfaction the huge bird fell forward, picked
himself up, fluttered twenty or thirty paces, and
then fell dead. Racing up to him we secured our

28 KLOOF AND KARROO.

prize, and found that by good chance both bullets
had struck him — one at the base of the neck, the
other through the wing and body. This was a
stroke of luck indeed, and after mutual congratula
tions we resumed our journey with spirits greatly
increased. During a stay of considerable length in
Cape Colony I only had the fortune to secure one
other paauw, though I saw half a dozen or more.
Our captive scaled twenty-six pounds that night on
being weighed, but these grand sporting birds run
as heavy as thirty-five pounds and forty pounds, and
in the interior even, I believe, more than fifty
pounds in weight. The flesh of this bustard is
delicious, and partakes of the true game flavour ;
and the bird is further distinguished from the rest
of its family by its faculty of putting on fat as
well as flesh, a quality in which most South African
game birds are rather lacking.
This was a day of new sensations to us, for in
addition to securing the koorhaans and the paauw,
we sighted a steinbok, one of the most dainty and
beautiful of the smaller South African antelopes,
as well as a pair of the curious secretary birds.
The steinbok which we caught sight of upon a
thinly-bushed kopje (little hill), quickly disappeared,
but the secretaries were for some time in view.
These extraordinary birds were descried stalking
solemnly on the flats about 200 yards away. We
stopped the carts, and had a good look at them
as they paced steadily hither and thither, occasionally
taking a short swift run in search of their prey
— snakes, lizards, mice, the young of hares and
game, eggs, and, indeed, almost any unconsidered
trifle they may happen on. This singular bird

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 29
(Sagittarius serpentarius) — Le mangeur de serpents of
Le Vaillant, the slang vreeter (snake-eater) of the
Dutch — long puzzled the most learned of bird
classifiers, but is now usually included, whether
rightly or wrongly, amongst the Falconidce.
Most people, howsoever little learned in orni
thology, know the secretary bird, and it is hardly
necessary to indicate at length its peculiar charac
teristics. It was anciently much cherished by the
Boers, who retained it in a semi-domesticated state
for the protection of their poultry-yards from snakes
and other vermin. At the present time, however,
it is only to be seen in its wild condition. At a
distance the bird looks of a bluish-gray colour, but
a closer inspection shows that the thighs, the longer
quills, part of the tail feathers, and most of the
crest are black. The crest consists of ten feathers,
and it is from this curious and distinctive feature,
and its fancied resemblance to a secretary's pen or
quill — stuck behind the ear — that the bird's name
was bestowed upon it. The secretary nests usually
in the thickest parts of the thorny mimosa, and the
eggs, invariably, as I am told, two in number, are
of a dirty white, lightly blotched with reddish-brown,
which becomes more thickly distributed at the
obtuse end. I was shown an egg later in our
travels, and only wish I could have secured it.
Perhaps the nearest approach to the secretary bird
is to be found in Jardines harrier (Circus Jardinii),
a denizen of the grassy plains that lie between
certain of the mountain ranges of Australia. This
bird, like its South African prototype, does not
perch upon trees, and as a rule feeds upon small
snakes and frogs, in search of which it quarters

30 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the ground much as does the hen harrier of our
own country.
Having sufficiently reconnoitred, and noted with
our field-glass the sage and stately secretary birds —
until, having somewhat too obtrusively attracted
their attention, they coursed rapidly away across
the plain — we resumed our trek, and once more at
close of day found shelter in an accommodation-
house, where, after supper, we discoursed sweet
music and song to an appreciative, if scanty,
audience. Next morning, soon after dawn, and the
invariable and ever-welcome coffee, we were indus
triously pursuing our journey over a dry karroo
country, broken occasionally by slight hills and shallow
valleys. In some of these undulations, among mimosa
and other flowering bushes, the tall aloes towered
aloft to a great height, glorious in their rich spikes
of flower, some blood-red, some of a lovely pink
hue. Many of the choicest wild plants of South
Africa were passed in this region — the bright-red
cotyledon, and many kinds of crassula and protea,
and others whose names I know not, while the
African briony, or wild vine, frequently clambered
luxuriantly over the brush.
Amid this wealth of flower life we noticed large
numbers of the showy sunbirds, sometimes also
called sugar or honey birds, which are found in
profusion all over this favoured land. So attractive
were they that we stopped once or twice to obtain
specimens— not a difficult matter— and were
successful in shooting half-a-dozen of these charming
birds. Amongst these we had, after a little com
panson, no difficulty in identifying the Nectarinia

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 31
famosa (Le sucrier malachitte of Le Vaillant), with
its rich green coat, black wings and tail, bright
yellow sides and lengthened tail feathers. Le
Vaillant's name, " Le sucrier," is an apt enough one,
for all these birds are passionately fond of " sweets,"
and obtain their sugary supplies from various flowers
— and in particular the proteas — by means of their
peculiarly long brush - tipped tongues. Another
specimen proved to be the Nectarinia violacea (the
Soui manga orange of Le Vaillant), a bird of truly
beautiful colouring. The head and shoulders are
wholly of a bright green, breast a rich violet, back,
wings, and tail dull brownish-green, the stomach of a
magnificent orange ; altogether a very notable bird,
even in this land of gorgeous, but too often songless,
feathered prodigies. The Nectarinia violacea is
decidedly scarcer than its congener the Famosa.
Another sun-bird shot during this journey, a day or
two earlier, was the Nectarinia afra, distinguished
by Le Vaillant as Le sucrier a plastron rouge. The
painting of this bird is striking. The breast, back,
and head are darkish green, slightly interspersed
with blue and bronze ; the wings and tail are
brown. At the foot of the breast there is a thin
blue ring, or band, and beneath that a much broader
one of red (the plastron), which nearly covers the
stomach, and there are brilliant side feathers of
yellow, as in Nectarinia famosa. We could not
sufficiently admire these striking birds, and presently
went on our way rejoicing. Later on they were
skinned and prepared in a rough way — sufficiently,
at all events, to preserve the plumage.
At mid-day, or shortly before, we outspanned for
dinner or lunch — which you will — at a farmhouse

32 KLOOF AND KARROO.
standing far out upon the flat and open karroo.
During the latter part of the morning we had seen a
good many of the black koorhaan (Eupodotis afra)
and heard their harsh grating call, and had shot one
from the road, as well as a brace of the vaal, or gray
koorhaan (another of the game-like bustards, techni
cally known to naturalists as Otis vigorsii), a bird
rather scarcer hereabouts than the ubiquitous black
species. These gray bustards we had noticed
running in the veldt not far from the road. Upon
approaching them they had, as we expected, squatted,
hoping, from the similarity of their colouring to the
ground and karroo vegetation, to escape detection.
Sidling round them in a circular movement, we
approached within twenty yards of the too-confiding
game, and then, as they flushed in sheer desperation,
we had no difficulty in securing the brace of them.
As we outspanned, Bob and I noticed some more
of the black koorhaan some little distance away upon
the plain, and in the unthinking ardour of the pursuit
of unaccustomed game, we cast aside the prospect
of dinner at the farmhouse, and, taking some
" biltong " with us, went after the birds, while the
others proceeded indoors to see what they could
have to eat. Walking across the heathy karroo
scrub, we cautiously hastened in the direction of the
nearest of the koorhaan, but, alas ! just as we
arrived within ninety yards, the artful rogues, which
had been previously running, got up and flew off
with noisy, scolding " craak," then dropped again
upon the veldt. These birds will often run for con
siderable distances, and after approaching them for
another quarter of a mile or so the same vexatious
tactics were repeated. We now altered our plans,

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 33
and I took a long sweep round, thus getting beyond
the game. Then we approached one another, and
this time the koorhaan, apparently flurried, or unde
cided by the new method of attack, got up well
within shot, and a bird fell to each of our guns.
We turned in another direction, and after a short
time a brace got up some forty yards off, of which
one was secured by Bob, while the other, which lay
a trifle more forward, was missed by myself.
Another miniature stalk or two resulted in one more
of the koorhaan being brought to bag, this time my
gun proving fatal. After this we sat down upon the
veldt, took out some biscuits, and prepared to dine.
We had some springbok-biltong with us, but, being
new to the Colony and its ways, were not quite
certain how to eat it. Biltong — salted and sun-
dried flesh — is a commissariat delicacy quite peculiar
to the Cape. As a food it is undoubtedly extremely
nourishing. It has the merit of remaining always
sweet and good eating, even in the hottest weather ;
it occupies very little space, and in many a frontier
commando and campaign of the Boers it has proved
a most valuable sustenance in long marches. It is
dark coloured — almost black looking — and is dried
nearly to the hardness and consistency of horn, and
it has to be cut with a sharp knife into very thin
wafers to be eaten.
Of all this, however, we were in crass ignorance,
and thrusting the curious looking stuff into our
mouths, we gnawed away at it with an energy worthy
of more tender viands. Our efforts were quite un
availing ; do what we would, we could not separate
or masticate the toughened flesh, and at last, after
sucking away for some time, we finished with aching 3

34 KLOOF AND KARROO.
jaws our dry biscuits, picked up the game, and
strolled disconsolately back to the halting-place.
Here we discovered our friends inspanned and ready
to start, and — to our further vexation — we further
learned that they had had a capital dinner of roast
mutton. " Just our luck ! " we muttered, as we hastily
swallowed some coffee, and, bidding good-bye to the
farmer, drove off. However, we had bagged two
brace of fine bustards — for the black koorhaan is an
extremely handsome game-like bird, and is excellent
eating — and we soon recovered our equanimity.
Indeed, upon these high table lands, especially in
the spring and winter, the atmosphere is so spark
ling, so bright, and so exhilarating, that the most
miserable of mortals could not long resist the magic
infection that attacks his spirits.
This afternoon we outspanned again at the farm
house of an Englishman, and went inside to partake
of the inevitable cup of coffee always proffered on
such occasions. I think I witnessed here one of the
most pathetic sights I ever saw in South Africa.
The unfortunate owner of the farm — he was only, if
I remember right, some forty years of age — was
rapidly losing his eyesight. Day by day his eyes
had grown dim and dimmer, until, when we passed,
he could with difficulty perceive the blessed light of
day. Here was this poor man, but a few years
arrived in the Colony, his entire capital sunk in the
farm, and that, I fear, not a very profitable one ; a
wife and five or six young children — the eldest,
I think, not more than ten years old — dependent
on his exertions ; his nearest neighbours, God help
him ! Dutchmen and unfriendly, with that most

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 35
indispensable, most precious possession — his eye
sight — passing away from him. I shall never forget
the gloom and sadness of that little household in
the wilderness, the despairing husband, the anxious
wife, the poor unkempt children, pursuing their
little games here and there with a sort of subdued
depression. They, poor mites, knew there was
something wrong, though what exactly they could
hardly tell. Truly a hard and bitter lot was these
poor people's. Comfort under such circumstances
was almost out of the question. We could only urge
the man to go at once to Port Elizabeth and see
an oculist, or at all events a doctor ; but I fear the
malady was too far gone for medical or surgical
assistance to be of much avail. Often since that day
have I thought of his family, and wished them well
out of their heavy affliction.
At our next outspan, two hours later, we knee-
haltered and turned loose the horses near a mimosa
grove in a charming valley, through which the bed
of a periodical river ran. One of the most interesting
and astonishing sights in the bird life of this country
is the extraordinary profusion of doves and pigeons
to be met with in many localities. Here among the
mimosa and other bushes there were many hundreds
of these beautiful birds. Frank, who wanted some
practice, wandered about, shooting here and there,
until he had obtained some eight or ten brace of the
pretty creatures, enough for a pie or two — it seemed
almost a shame to shoot them for so base a purpose
— when he desisted. Amongst his captures we
noticed that dainty little pigeon La tourterelle of Le
Vaillant (y£wa capensis), distinguished by its dark
red wing feathers, edged with rich brown, its glossy

36 KLOOF AND KARROO.
black head, throat, and chest, and its red bill and
orange feet. Here also were specimens of another
of the Columbidce discovered by the indefatigable
Le Vaillant, the Columba Le Vaillantii, commonly
called by the Dutch colonists the tortel duif. Upon
the neck of this bird, which is principally of a
grayish brown colour, the broad black half-collar,
fringed by a thinner ash-coloured band, charac
teristic of the turtle-doves, is at once apparent.
Here, too, was the sweet laughing dove of the
colonists, La tourterelle maillee of Le Vaillant, Turtur
senegalensis of Linnaeus, distinguished from its soft-
cooing cousins by its singularly human-like laughing
note. The noticeable features of this little beauty's
plumage are the peculiar black mail-like markings
upon the breast, the dark rufus-coloured shoulders,
and the nearly white stomach. But wandering a
little further afield to a stony kopje, we killed the
first buck of our trip. ' This was a handsome little
ram steinbok, which was shot in some straggling
covert by our guide and Frank. This most elegant
little antelope, notable among its fellows for its light
and beautiful form, its bright red cinnamon colour,
and its swiftness in the chase, is yet often very easy
to obtain ; for it has a most stupid habit, especially
in bushy cover, of stopping to stare at its disturbers.
The little ram shot on this occasion had almost
waited until the gunners were upon it, and had then
been easily shot at close quarters. Having fastened
up the steinbok upon the Cape cart, we drove
steadily on till nightfall.
Next morning we were early upon the road, and
after half a day's trek across the brown karroo
which here stretched everywhere around, bounded

.4 CAPE CART JOURNEY. 37
only in the distance by the great Sneeuwberg range,
we began to approach the first goal of our journey,
Graaff Reinet. Shortly before reaching the bend of
the Sunday River, which almost completely girdles
that town, and has to be crossed at a dangerous drift,
we passed a flock of ostriches, driven by a Kaffir boy,
marching along in stately procession. These birds
are frequently driven about — if at all difficult to
manage — with leather thongs passed round the chest
and under the wings ; they are then guided with little
trouble by two men. We had now to effect the
rough and difficult passage of the Sunday River,
whose bed, now that the water was low, showed
plainly the huge boulders and deep holes that beset
travellers crossing these drifts.
We could at length behold the quaint and
delightful town that lay before us basking in the
clear spring sunshine. Lapped in peaceful repose,
clad in verdure, backed by the towering masses of
mighty Sneeuwberg, beneath which it nestles, and
having an abundant water supply from the river as it
runs by, well has it been christened by travellers of
old " the gem of the desert." For to the wanderers
wearied by drouthy, baking, summer treks across the
burning karroos that everywhere encircle it, this, to
my mind, the most charming and#characteristic old
Dutch town in all South Africa, must have seemed a
veritable paradise.
At the drift (ford) of the river, before getting into
the town, the banks are extremely steep, and the
descent is a long and protracted one. Bob, who
was driving the buggy, let his horses have their head
a little too freely in making the descent. They
quickly degenerated from a trot to a gallop, and

38 KLOOF AND KARROO.

clattered down the hill, through the boulder-strewn
river, and half-way up the other bank in a rather
alarming manner, so much so that we were both
surprised at having been able to keep our seats in
the process. On these occasions the traveller's
feelings are very much those of a shuttlecock — if
shuttlecocks could feel — for they are almost ab
solutely helpless.
Just at this hill a heavy transport waggon, with a
span of fourteen fine oxen, took the drift from the
Graaff Reinet side. We had often met and admired
on our journeyings the old Cape waggons, with their
long teams of oxen, more even, perhaps, than the
teams (almost equally useful in their way) of mules
and donkeys that ply with lighter waggons upon
the colonial roads. But this particular waggon was
so well equipped, and the oxen were so comely and
in such good fettle as to arrest our attention. I
suppose there was a load of 7,ooolbs. weight at the
very least upon the waggon, but the great oxen were
so stout, and faced the long, steep hill so gallantly,
amid loud cracks of whip and lusty cries of the little
Hottentot that drove them, that we paused to watch
the stirring spectacle. It was a fine thing, albeit,
in South Africa, a sufficiently common-place matter.
The Cape oxen are in truth very different beasts
to those we are accustomed to see in England —
especially the high-shouldered Fatherlanders. Tall,
gaunt, and bony, they attain a mature age, and are
not slaughtered, as in this country, before they are
full-grown. Their strength is immense, and when
they like, and are in a mind to bend to the yokes
together, they can pull indeed. In the history of
South Africa the Cape oxen have played an all-

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 39
important part. Hardy and rugged as their Dutch
masters, their sturdy efforts have conquered for the
early pioneers the almost insuperable difficulties of
this wild country. Rugged mountains, dangerous
kloofs and poorts, rushing rivers, parched and
waterless deserts, all have succumbed before their
untiring and ill-requited exertions.
It is, indeed, not too much to say that but for
the patient ox the Boers would never have penetrated,
as they have done, to the uttermost recesses of
Southern Africa. But the ox has his bad qualities.
He is at times obstinate, ill-tempered, and trea
cherous, and with increasing age and much trekking
he becomes " as artful as a waggon-load of monkeys."
The Boers are extremely proud of their cattle,
though they often sadly ill-use them. It is the thing
with them to possess a span of oxen of even size and
colour, and yellow oxen are oftentimes the most
admired. Unless you know them well, however, the Cape
oxen are " kittle cattle " to deal with. I remember
well the first time I closely inspected a span, which
had been driven by a wandering fruit Boer up to the
outspan at Naroekas Poort, where I sojourned.
As the great gaunt fellows stood lazily looking
about them, I went up to one and patted him on the
ribs. Instantly he let out in froftt of him with his
near hind leg, caught me full in the centre of the
thigh, and sent me flying to earth. I really thought
for a moment my leg was broken, as, indeed,
it might have been, and it was more than a week
before I recovered the use of the limb. After that
salutary lesson I have always been more careful
in approaching strange oxen.

40 KLOOF AND KARROO.

We were quickly into Graaff Reinet, and out-
spanned at the comfortable, old-fashioned hotel in
the Market-square, where we enjoyed the unwonted
luxury of a bath and a good dinner of rump-steaks
and fried eggs — a standing dish in South Africa —
peach pie, and some excellent bottled beer. Then
we sallied forth to inspect the town.
Graaff Reinet, which takes its name from the
surnames of the then Dutch Governor, Van der
Graaff, and his wife's family — Reinet or Reynet —
was founded in 1784, and for very many years, until
Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth rose into emi
nence, was the principal, and, indeed, the only large
town in the eastern part of the Colony. The streets
are broad, well-kept, and laid out at right angles in
the prim fashion of the Dutch ; they are further
supplied with broad channels of clear water led out
from the Sunday River, and are beautified by rows
of trees — oak, syringa, orange and others, which
impart a delightful aspect and give grateful shade.
The houses are mostly old-fashioned, roomy, white
messuages, quaintly peaked and gabled after the
old Dutch manner, and lit up by sun-shutters and
windows of vivid green, and often covered with deep
and overhanging thatches. The vineyards, orchards,
and ample gardens add greatly to the beauty of the
town. The interiors are wonderfully good. The
rooms in these old houses are exceedingly lofty
and handsome; and of quite refreshing coolness.
The inhabitants number about 5,000, and are well
provided with churches, banks, shops, and hotels.
Indeed, I think we found the accommodation here
better than anywhere else in the Colony, with,
perhaps, one exception. In old days, when Graaff

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 41

Reinet was the capital of the Eastern province,
the quiet ebb and flow of its existence were quickened
and diversified by the advent of the trading waggons
from the far interior, loaded up with ivory, ostrich
feathers, hides, and other produce, and the market
place was then a brisk and strikingly picturesque
emporium. In those days it must have been a sight
indeed to see, as I have seen elsewhere, the great
waggons outspanned, their tilts worn and discoloured
from long journeying, or patched with green hide,
which had hardened in the sun to the consistency
of iron, and the worn oxen released from their long
and fatiguing trek from distant Transvaal or still
more distant Bechuanaland. Many a traveller has
started thence for the far interior. Captain Corn
wallis Harris, that most accomplished of South
African hunters and naturalists, whose magnificent
illustrated works will remain monuments for all time
of the splendid fauna of the country, set out from
here in 1837 on his expedition to the then unknown
and unexplored Transvaal, at that time held by the
fierce Moselikatze and his renegade Zulus, who
afterwards formed the present Matabele nation.
Gordon Cumming passed through more than once
on his way down country from those wonderful
shooting trips of his, his waggons loaded up with
many a heavy tusk of ivory and many a goodly spoil
of the chase. Barrow, Burchell, Campbell, and a
host of others, all have rested here.
We much enjoyed strolling about the quaint old
town, and were introduced by our Afrikander friend
and guide to his fine old Dutch house and to his
sister, a young lady to whose excellent singing and
playing we were several times charmed listeners.

42 KLOOF AND KARROO.
A notable feature in these old houses is the delight
ful " stoep " or raised verandah, where you may sit
or recline sheltered from the sun, and enjoy the
luxuries of tobacco and coffee in a calm and cool
repose. No better "loafing" or "lazing" place
was ever designed than the good old Dutch "stoep."
On reaching the hotel again we found the town
band preparing to practice for a forthcoming dance.
Listening to them and smoking were several people,
amongst them Mr. Pieter Maynier, familiarly called
by Graaff Reinetters, "Oom Piet " (Oom, or uncle,
being a term of affection in South Africa), a well-
known and respected gentleman, descended from
one of the old Dutch families. Fired by the
accustomed sound of dance music, we young fellows
began to waltz with one another. Presently " Oom
Piet " joined in, as well as others, and I am bound
to say that the old gentleman's trois temps was
surprisingly good — quite equal, indeed, to that of
many of our fleet-footed English girls. Finding this
slim, active old gentleman such a treasure in the
terpsichorean art, I wisely, if greedily, stuck to him
as a partner, and enjoyed a really good dance. It
was a strange freak of destiny to find oneself
dancing with the descendant of that old Dutch
Landdrost Maynier, of whom I had read in Barrow's
and other old books of travel. This Landdrost
Maynier was a character of note in the troubled
times at the end of the last century. When the
British took possession of the Colony, he was
appointed Resident Commissioner of Graaff Reinet,
then one of the four divisions of the Colony, and
rendered very important services to the English in
the Hottentot Rebellion of 1798, and in the Boer

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 43
rising under Van Jaarsfeld and Prinsloo about the
same period. At length our impromptu dance was
ended, and we finished up the remainder of the
evening — extended to a late hour — with some very
enjoyable singing.
Next morning we were up betimes, looking at
new horses, inquiring our route to Naroekas Poort,
and attending to various other matters that con
cerned us. Of course we went to see the morning
market, a great feature in every South African town,
where, from seven to eight o'clock in summer, or eight
to nine o'clock in winter, all kinds of produce are
put up and sold by auction to the highest bidder.
It is a singular and striking scene. In the market
place are to be found wool, angora hair (i.e., mohair),
corn, skins, feathers, vegetables, fruits, butter, ducks,
poultry, meat, tobacco, honey *-and other things,
often in great plenty and confusion. Round about
stand groups of people, interested and eager, or idle
and inert, as the case may be, of mixed nationalities,
British, Boers, Jews, — Hamburg and otherwise, —
Germans, Kaffirs, Hottentots, Basutos, Bushmen,
cum multis aliis. Here is a list of morning market
prices during the current year, from which it will
appear that the actual cost of living at the Cape is
by no means an extravagant item : —
*
GRAAFF REINET MORNING MARKET.
Almonds, 200 lbs., per lb., i£d. to 2d.
Apricots.
Angora Hair, 3,000 lbs., per lb., 4Jd. to gd.
Barley, 40 lbs., per 155 lbs., 5s. to 5s. 6d.
Beans, 200 lbs., per 100 lbs., 12s. 6d. to ns.
Beef, 2,000 lbs., per lb., id. to 2jd.
Brandy, per 16 gallons, 30s. to 35s.
Buckskins, 1,200, is. 3d. to 3s. id.

44 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Butter, 200 lbs., per lb., 4Jd. to gd.
Chaff, 8,000 lbs., per ioo lbs., gd. to is. 3d.
Ducks, 40, is. 3d. to is. gd.
Firewood, 40, per load, 15s. to 24s.
Fowls, 40, each, gd. to is. 2d.
Meal, 40, per 200 lbs., 12s. to 16s.
Mealies, 40, per 200 lbs., 5s. to 7s.
Oat-hay, 8,000 lbs., per 100 lbs., 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d.
Oranges.
Onions.Ostrich Feathers, 200 lbs., per lb., ios. to £g ios.
Peas, 200 lbs., per 100 lbs., 6s. to 8s.
Peaches (unpeeled), 200 lbs., per lb., ijd- to 2d.
Do. (peeled), 200 lbs., per lb., 4d. to 6d.
Pigs. Potatoes, 1,000 lbs., per 100 lbs., 3s. to 8s.
Pumpkins.
Quinces (dried).
Raisins, per lb.
Sweet Potatoes, 10, per bucket, gd. to is. 6d.
Sheepskins, 1,200, is. to 3s.
Soap, 100 lbs., per lb., 3d. to 4d.
Stinkwood.
Tobacco, 2,000 lbs., per lb., 2d. to 3d.
Tallow, 200 lbs., per lb., ijd. to 2d.
Walnuts.
Wool (unwashed), 6,000 lbs., per lb., 4d. to sjd.
Yellowwood, per foot, 3d. to 3^d.
Wheat, per 200 lbs., gs. to ns. A. B., Marketmaster.
At the time I write of, some items, such as
ostrich feathers or mohair, were higher in price, but
as a whole, this list fairly illustrates prices in recent
years. Various calls and matters of business occu
pied our first day. That evening a great musical
event took place at the Town Hall, for no less a
personage than Madame Anna Bishop — a lady well
known in Europe in the forties as a prima donna
and concert singer — was to appear. Of course we
attended on such an occasion. The hall was

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 45

crowded to the uttermost. Madame Anna Bishop
appeared, and, although of course her voice had
long since lost its pristine freshness, her execution
was faultless. The Graaff Reinetters were enrap
tured, and applauded with a quite astonishing
vigour. Madame Bishop was assisted by a Mr.
Lascelles, who played her accompaniments, and
himself sang " The Wolf," " Rocked in the cradle
of the deep," and other good songs at intervals,
with great effect. It was strange to hear this lady
— who forty years before had, with her singing,
delighted the contemporaries, I might almost say,
of my grandmother — in this far-away town in the
South African wilderness. I believe, at the time I
heard her, Madame Bishop was at least sixty-three
or sixty-four years old, yet (such are the inscrutable
ways of woman) she appeared upon the stage
apparently not more than middle-aged. Her dresses
(for we heard her a second night) and jewels were
unexceptionable, and we marvelled how she had pre
served the splendour of her apparel thus undimmed,
for she had but just completed a tour through the
Transvaal and Orange Free State, where travelling
is even more difficult, and roads are far rougher
than in the Old Colony. I suppose this indefatigable
lady, who in her youth had charmed every capital in
Europe with her magnificent singing, had seen more
of the world and sung in stranger places than any
other person known to fame. Besides securing a
European reputation in its day unrivalled, she had
sung in Tartary (at Kasan the capital), in all the
known cities and towns of North and South America
— crossing the Andes in this last country — and
in the Australias. I met this wonderful old lady

46 KLOOF AND KARROO.
afterwards at the Phoenix Hotel at Port Elizabeth,
at which town she was giving concerts. Since
that time, I regret to say, she has gone over to the
great majority.
We spent three very pleasant days in Graaff
Reinet, visiting, among other places, the well-
known Valley of Desolation, a ridge of rocks from
which huge basaltic pillars thrust themselves abruptly
skywards to heights of 300 and 400 feet, forming a
very striking spectacle. After inspecting a good
many horses and traps, we arranged with our late
guide for the purchase from him of his Cape cart
and the two older horses which had drawn the
buggy. For the Cape cart, which was a very good
one and nearly new, ^45 was paid, while the horses
cost £23 each. Experience afterwards taught us
that we had paid quite sufficiently for these appur
tenances of travel, the nags in particular not being
worth the money. However, in such transactions in
every land, and especially with Afrikanders, the
motto is caveat emptor ; and, as we had no adviser
at hand, we might have done worse, for both
cart and horses served us well and faithfully long
afterwards. We were almost sorry to leave Graaff
Reinet ; the rest and the quiet, old world calm of
the charming little town is very pleasant, and for
those in search of change and absolute repose I can
recommend no more suitable " outspan " for a time.
The place had a curious charm for me. As I stood
in front of the hotel, looking on to the Market-
square and the old-fashioned houses around, I could
see distinctly before my mind's eye many a bygone
incident in the history of the stormy past. I could
picture the arrival in the town, in 1796, of Mr.

A CAPE CART JOURNEY. 47
Barrow (afterwards Sir John Barrow, of the Admi
ralty), most diligent and observant of officials, at
that time private secretary to Earl Macartney, first
British Governor of the Colony ; then the approach
of the turbulent Boers — most of them the lawless
freebooters of Bruintjes Hoogte, leather-clad hunters,
armed with immensely long flint " roers " — in Van
Jaarsfeld's insurrection two years later, when they
lay encamped before the town for a month, at that
very Sunday River drift where we had crossed,
threatening to hang the Landdrost and garrison.
Then the forced march from Algoa Bay, upon the
road we ourselves had followed, of gallant General
Vandeleur, with his clean-shaven, queued, stiff-
skirted troops, and the retreat of the Boers before
them. Then the voluntary and courageous expedi
tion of Landdrost Maynier, unarmed, into the
Sunday River bush country to pacify the insurgent
Hottentots, at that time united in arms with the
Kaffirs, and wreaking vengeance upon their ancient
oppressors, the Dutch. Still later the risings of
Bezuidenhout and Hendrik Prinsloo, and that
fearful scene of execution of Boer rebels at Slaghters
Nek. Brave old Sir Andries Stockenstroom, the
fiery veteran, Sir Harry Smith, and many another
notable character, passed before me. All these,
and a hundred other moving irftidents and striking
figures of bygone times, came thronging irresistibly
to my imagination. The internal history of the
Cape Colony, of which so little is known even to the
colonists themselves, would, I am convinced, if
published, present one of the most striking, most
picturesque, and most exciting themes ever placed
before the reading public.

KLOOF AND KARROO.

We had learned from Mr. Piet Maynier, who
was acquainted with our future host and hostess,
the exact locality of our destination, Naroekas Poort ;
and, further, that we had come some distance out of
our way, and should have to partly retrace our steps,
for two days or more, in an oblique south-easterly
direction, across Camdeboo. We had also very
fortunately chanced upon a young English farmer,
travelling for a good part of this journey by the
same road. On the fourth morning, therefore, of
our stay in Graaff Reinet, once more we collected
our impedimenta, blithely blew our horn, and drove
out of the town.

Chapter II.
ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS
POORT.

WE were now to cross the ancient Hottentot
region of Camdeboo, which, forming the
north-east corner of the Great Karroo,
is so often referred to by old travellers, very
frequently in terms of anything but pleasure; for
droughts frequently prevail here, as in other parts
of the Karroo, and for long the Bushmen swarmed
here and proved exceedingly troublesome.
The karroo is, no doubt, for a great part of the
year exceedingly parched, and, to the outward eye,
arid and barren ; but old travellers have somewhat
exaggerated its terrors. At the present day, the
Karroo graziers feed enormous flocks of sheep and
goats upon its dry but nutritious and aromatic
herbage, and, as I have before pointed out, the
rains completely transform and revivify its vege
tation. Cattle and horses, too, do exceedingly well
upon the Karroo pasture. Old travellers too
frequently, I think, pointed to the dark side of the
picture, and omitted the brighter aspect. Here is Le
Vaillant's summary ofthis plateau land: — "We now
entered the dry and sterile plains of Carouw. The
earth, or rather sand, only bounded one way by
the horizon, is covered with rank unwholesome weeds,
and presents the mind with an idea of famine and
desolation ; here and there a few scattered spots of

50 KLOOF AND KARROO.
grass spring up reluctantly, offering our cattle a
scanty sustenance ; the other sides are bounded by
steep and craggy rocks, whose appearance is not
less dreary." This was the impression, doubtless,
of a traveller wearied and disgusted by a fatiguing
trek during great drought ; for the karroo is mainly
composed of rich soil, not sand, and, as I have
pointed out, the vegetation by no means consists of
"rank, unwholesome weeds." Still, I must admit,
that even at the present day karroo travelling in
summer and times of drought is exceedingly trying.
We jogged merrily along, under clear unclouded
skies, till we reached Hoog Kraal, on the Sunday
River, where we made our first outspan. Here we
breakfasted on ham, cold eggs, and cold tea, which
we had taken the precaution to bring with us in
Silver and Co.'s excellent vulcanite water-bottles.
These bottles, covered with felt, which, when
damped, renders the liquid within wonderfully cool
even on the hottest day, we found simply invaluable
in our hunting expeditions later on. As a proof of
their excellence, I may mention that I have several
times sent them out to colonial friends at their
particular request, since my return to England. It is
so difficult to get hold of a good water-bottle for a
hot climate, that I may be excused for referring so
particularly to these most excellent inventions. At
the water here we shot a brace of the pretty so-
called Namaqua partridge (Pterocles tachypetes), the
common sand-grouse of the Colony, which at early
morning and evening may be seen at streams and
fountains in very large numbers. Although a true
member of the sub-family, Pteroclince, or sand-grouse,
its shrill cry and flight very much resembles the

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 51
plover's. Yellowish-brown in colour, it is, like the
rest of its genus, distinguished by the chest bands,
which in this instance are first white, then reddish-
brown. Here, too, we first saw that fine eagle, the
Senegal eagle (Aquila senegalla), commonly known
in the Colony by its Boer name, coo vogel. I think
this rapacious gentleman must, like ourselves, have
been attracted by the Namaqua partridges, for
he appeared above us almost simultaneously with
the reports of our guns. Probably he had been
hanging about the vicinity for some time, waiting for
a fair chance of a stoop. These birds, which in
general appearance are of a reddish-brown colour,
are abundant upon the karroo, and are the
frequent attendants of shooting-parties, when they
not infrequently stoop and secure a wounded bird
under the very eyes of the gunner. On this
occasion the eagle had no chance of thus snatching
our game from us, and after wheeling about for a
short time well out of range, finally betook himself
off with bold and rapid flight.
We had expected to see springbok upon the
Camdeboo Plains, and we were not disappointed.
Towards eleven o'clock our guide pointed out to us
some whitish-looking specks upon the veldt, some
distance in our front. After proceeding a few
hundred yards farther, we could*just distinguish the
forms of the antelopes, but they were extremely
wild, and bounding like india-rubber balls into the
air for a few strides, stretched themselves upon the
karroo, ventre a terre, and were quickly far out of
sight. There were about two hundred of them, but
I suppose they had been recently hunted, and we
never had even a chance of a shot upon this our first

52 KLOOF AND KARROO.
acquaintance with them. On subsequent occasions,
however, we interviewed the springboks with much
more satisfaction to ourselves if not to them. This
day we saw a good many koorhaan of the black and
gray varieties, but as we were anxious to get on to
our destination, we left them undisturbed.
It was a glorious day, and we greatly enjoyed the
magnificent prospect around us. People speak of
the monotony of these plains, as if nothing ever
occurred to break the far-extending view. It is true
in one direction the terrain rolled without a break to
the horizon, but on our right flank the bold range of
the Camdeboo Mountains heaved from the plain in
magnificent grandeur. Nothing is more striking to
the new-comer at the Cape, than the marvellous
transparency of the atmosphere. Mountains that
appear about five miles distant, to any one freshly
arrived from the comparatively thick atmosphere of
Great Britain, are, more often than not, thirty or
forty miles away. For this same reason, rifle shooting
at long ranges is at first extremely disappointing ;
the buck that appear so close, are often four or five
hundred yards distant, and your bullets strike up
the dust far on the hither side of them. I think the
aspect of these mountains that border the Karroo
are even more striking and more beautiful to witness
than those seen in less flat regions. Their mag
nificence is intensified by the sharp contrast, and
whether you gaze upon them under the purple blush
of sunrise, or at noon when upon their brown sides,
seared and torn by wear and weather of centuries, or
by volcanic action, or both, you may pick out their
every cleft and furrow, even though you stand twenty
or thirty miles away, or watch them in the far-away

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 53
distance fading into a dim cloud of blue upon the
horizon ; or whether you see them bathed in the
soft rosy hue of evening, you are uncertain under
which of these changing and ever-glorious aspects
they are most beautiful. During the whole of this
day's trek — over forty miles — such is the translucency
and rarefaction of this perfect atmosphere, the most
prominent of the Camdeboo range, a bold mountain
standing out from its fellows, seemed almost as near
to us at close of day as when we passed it in the
early morning. One more note upon the splendid
air of these Cape uplands and I have done. It is
probable that few people at home are at all aware
of the capabilities of this climate as a means
of restoring invalids, and especially those having
consumptive tendencies. Here is a summary of
Karroo atmosphere by Dr. Hermann Weber. Its
notable qualities, he tells us, are as follows : —
1. Purity : comparative absence of floating matter.
2. Dryness of air and soil.
3. Coolness or coldness of air temperature, and great warmth of
sun temperature.
4. Rarefaction.
5. Intensity of light.
6. Stillness of air in winter.
7. A large amount of ozone.
To this list I would add :
8. Night-time nearly always cool— a ve^ important matter, in my
humble opinion, where invalids are concerned. For myself,
although by no means in need of the recuperative qualities
of the Cape climate, I can say that I never felt better at any
time of my life, than when enjoying the dry, pure, and
intensely exhilarating atmosphere of these Karroo regions.
We saw to-day a few black crows, a rather un
usual sight in this part of the Colony, where these
gentry are almost invariably pied, black and white.

54 KLOOF AND KARROO.
This was the korenland kraai (cornland crow) of
the Dutch, Corvus segetum of Temminck. In size it is
identical with the black and white varieties, the
bonte kraai (spotted crow) and ringhals kraai
(ring-neck crow), but it is more commonly found in
the Western province, where the agricultural farms
are more plentiful.
There is to be found upon the karroo, in addition
to the numerous game birds (always interesting to
the sportsman), a store of other birds, but little
noticed by the average passer-by, yet extremely
interesting to those who will take the trouble to look
for them. We had not much time, except at
outspans, to notice the smaller avi-fauna; but later
on, when staying upon these plains, we were much
interested in watching the wealth of feathered life
around. At one of our outspans this day, I shot
in a clump of doorn-boom (literally thorn-tree) or
mimosa bush, a bird of the woodpecker family, often
found in these regions. This was the Laimodon
unidentatus of the well-known traveller and naturalist,
Lichtenstein. Of a smallish size ; in colour, upon
its top, black, streaked with yellow, and having a rich
crimson forehead ; a stripe alternately yellow and
white extending over the eye to the back of the head,
and another white line down the side of the neck ; a
black gorget, a greyish stomach, and armed with a
strong black beak — this bird is always seen in pairs.
It is pretty readily capable of domestication, and is
often seen in the bushes or small trees near Karroo
farmhouses. Its cry consists of three notes, something
like "Poo-poo-poo." Doves, especially AEna capensis
and many other birds abounded in this mimosa bush,
and the schaapwachter (shepherd) of the Boers, a

A MEERKAT (Pencilled Ichneumon).

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 55
saxicola, and one of the most charming songsters of
the Colony, was often seen and heard. Meercats
were abundant, and a jackal once or twice might be
seen prowling in the distance.
The little grey meercat (literally moorcat),
commonly found on the Karroo, is, nowadays
occasionally seen about farmhouses, quite as tame
as an ordinary cat. The picture accompanying will
best demonstrate the peculiarities of shape of this
singular little animal. One of the Viverridae, and
known to naturalists as the Pencilled Ichneumon,
this meercat, as I have previously mentioned, lives
in colonies in burrows on the karroo. Its singular
forearms are evidently designed for burrowing, and
are really two sinewy little spades of flesh and blood.
I first saw one tame at Riet Fontein, where we
afterwards stayed. The little animal was made
a great pet of, and amongst the members of
the household it displayed the greatest affection.
Towards strangers it was not so friendly, and with
them it would sometimes display, and even use its
sharp little teeth. I remember a very ludicrous
instance of this hostility occurring. Vrouw Stols,
wife of a neighbouring Boer, came up to the house
for something ; while she stood talking at the door,
Kitty, the meercat, who had silently approached her
from behind, bit her sharply on the heel just below
the ankle. The good Vrouw, like all Boer ladies,
wore low veldt-schoons and no stockings, and the
sharpness and suddenness of the attack made her
leap into the air screaming vigorously. Then she
fled incontinently homewards, only to be brought
back again. When an explanation took place, Kitty
was scolded, and the stout Boer lady at length

56 KLOOF AND KARROO.
mollified. When stroked or scratched, and made a
fuss with, Kitty would utter a curious low, throaty
cry, as indicative of pleasure, as is the purr of a cat.
She was desperately afraid of vultures and other
birds of prey. Sometimes the children, whom she
often followed out of doors, would imitate the cry
of an aas-vogel (vulture). Instantly Kitty would
run, in the greatest alarm, to the nearest person for
shelter from her aerial foe, which she evidently
imagined to be meditating a stoop at her. I believe
my friends at Riet Fontein were among the first to
tame and domesticate the meercat. Their example
has been followed by others, and this entertaining
little creature now bids fair to become a universal
pet among Cape colonists.
With a few rough exceptions upon rocky undu
lations in the plains, our journey progressed
smoothly enough until nightfall, when we reached
the hospitable shelter of a large Karroo farmstead,
owned by two brothers — Englishmen. Here we
first witnessed one of the most remarkable and
striking sights to be seen at the Cape — the return
to kraal in the evening of the vast flocks of sheep
and goats that are daily depastured upon these
mighty plains. Near the house lay a great dam,
and at the accessible end of this dam the flocks, to
the number of many thousands, in charge of the
Kaffir herd-boys who tend them during the hot
hours of daylight — moving as they move, and
keeping watch, just as David did, for wild animals
such as jackals and the like — come to quench their
thirst after their long and waterless hours of pasture.
It is a most singular and impressive sight to English
eyes : then the refreshed animals pour quietly into

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 57
the kraals or enclosures for the night. After a
cheery evening with our guide and hospitable enter
tainers, we betook ourselves to rest, and, as bed
accommodation was scanty, I slept with Bob on
some empty sacks upon the floor, having, as usual,
lost the toss for beds. As is often the case in spring
upon these elevated plains, there was a severe
frost, and the cold was intense, although we were
enveloped in our thick bush rugs ; we were, there
fore, not sorry when morning and the welcome
sunshine again appeared.
The bright morning star, familiar to every
South African hunter and traveller, had not long
shot swiftly above the horizon, before we awoke
cold and hungry, but refreshed withal from our
slumbers. It may surprise many in this country to
know that nights are so cold and even exceedingly
frosty in the spring and winter of the Cape. Such
is, however, the case ; and upon the huge plateau of
the Great Karroo (3,000 feet and more above sea-
level), the second of the series of terraces which rise
in increasing altitudes from the Indian and Atlantic
Oceans to the Orange River and beyond, very severe
frosts are experienced, and even the springbok and
other game rise stiff with cold at these seasons.
We had a long day's trek before us, and having
partaken of coffee we inspannedtmr two good horses,
and were ready to start.
Meanwhile, one of our hosts was superintending
the unkraaling and counting out of the seemingly
countless flocks of sheep, which defiled in charge of
Kaffir herds, drinking as they went at the dam hard
by, for their day's pasture far out on the open and
apparently illimitable plains. These plains are

58 KLOOF AND KARROO.
sparsely covered with a growth of low scrub, in
appearance not altogether unlike Scotch heather,
and, except when the rains fall, their expanse pre
sents a brown and somewhat barren appearance.
When the rains come, the karroo, having naturally
a fertile soil, starts at the touch of moisture into an
immense and beautifully variegated ocean of flowers,
which, in turn, shortly disappears under the hot
African sun. Notwithstanding drought, the sheep,
goats, and ostriches of the Cape farmer flourish
exceedingly upon the parched herbage ; and were it
not for the ever-present difficulty and danger of the
lack of water, pastoral farming would be a calling
fairly free from care. Quite recently, wells and
windmills have been employed on these plains
with successful results, and there are people who
prophecy that one day the parched face of the
Great Karroo will smile under yellow crops of
corn. Undoubtedly irrigation and tree-planting have
a brilliant future before them in the Cape Colony,
which in years to come will be a great grain-
producing country. The kraals are here composed
of high walls of solid bricks, cut out of the enclosures
themselves, from the dung of the sheep, dried by
the sun, and hardened by the constant trampling
of thousands of ovine feet, almost to the con
sistency of kiln-dried bricks. This substance also,
under the Boer name of " mist," constitutes with
a little wood the principal firing of the Karroo
farmer. Bidding good-bye to our hospitable enter
tainers, we entered upon the rough track, called in
these regions a road, and with the earliest gleams
of morning light pursued our way. Almost imme
diately, amidst a blaze of ruddy gold, the sun-god

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT.- 59
rose in radiant magnificence sheer upon the plains,
which to the east stretched without a break to the
horizon. The range of mountains on our right flank,
which we quitted yesterday at mid-day, but which,
although forty miles away, appeared in the rarefied
atmosphere of this climate scarcely a fourth of
that distance from us, was tinted with hues of the
tenderest rose, fading here to warm brown, and there
to a soft purple. The air was bracing and exhilarating
to a degree, and for a time our coats and waistcoats
were still welcome. Presently, as the warmth
increased, we doffed these garments, rolled up our
sleeves, pulled forward our broad felt hats, and were
prepared for a hot day's travel. We had guns and
rifles ready, and after awhile, seeing a koorhaan not
far from the road, one of us jumped out and stalked
quietly up to the spot where it was last seen, while
we others in the cart moved quietly along. The
koorhaan is a wary and indeed a vexatious bird, but
on this occasion he was careless, and just as he rose
five and thirty yards away, with his harsh grating
cry, he was brought to earth again and quickly bagged.
The tedium of Cape travel is happily often relieved
by a little welcome sport on the way ; sometimes a
koorhaan, sometimes a brace of sand-grouse (Namaqua
partridge), or francolin, or guinea-fowl; occasionally
a springbok. Quickly we resumed our journey, nor drew rein
again till we outspanned for breakfast, two-and-
a-half hours from the farmhouse we had quitted.
The horses were unharnessed and knee-haltered,
when, as is their invariable custom, they had a roll
in the dust, and then proceeded to graze quietly upon
the veldt and the oat-hay forage with which we

60 KLOOF AND KARROO.
provided them. There was no water until four hours
farther on, so they had perforce to do without.
Meanwhile, we breakfasted upon sardines, springbok-
biltong, from which we cut thin wafers, and biscuits,
moistened with a little hollands (out here called
" square face ") and water. Pipes were lighted, and
in less than half an hour we inspanned our cattle
and started again ; upon the flat Karroo roads we
slipped merrily along, though here and there spruits,
stones, and dry river-beds shook us up. The sun
baked red soil of the karroo is, however, the best
travelling in the Colony, and differs widely from the
agonies of mountain trekking, which are not only
indescribable, but not to be imagined by users of
English roads. We had not proceeded more than
an hour, when, 300 yards in our front, a herd of fifty
or sixty springbok galloped across, and cleared the
road as they went in most beautiful style, each
antelope bounding over like an india-rubber ball.
Hurriedly we pulled up, seized our rifles, jumped
out, and blazed away at the retreating game. As
the bullets whistled past them, the springbok, not to
disgrace their name, leapt high in the air, ten feet
or more, arching their backs and unfolding the long,
snow-white hair that usually lies hidden upon their
croups. A singular and beautiful sight indeed ! Again
we fired, and this time the tell-tale thud proclaimed
a hit, and a hard one, for an antelope staggered, fell,
and shortly was secured ; a good shot, and a most
lucky one, at nearly 400 yards. We carried the dead
beauty to our cart, and again trekked with renewed
spirits. Onward we toiled over the parched and now
heated plains, outspanning at intervals of two hours

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 61
or so during the day, seeing no sign of human life or
habitation till late in the afternoon, when we reached
a store and farmhouse.
At this outspan we met a gentleman, with whom
we were afterwards better acquainted, Mr. David
Hume, son of one of the Algoa Bay settlers of 1820.
His father, also a David Hume, was the pioneer of
British enterprise in the territory now called Trans
vaal — then a terra incognita, held by the fierce
Moselikatse and his Amabaka-Zulu hordes. The
first expedition of this gentleman to that country,
undertaken in 1833, may be found marked upon the
map at the end of Cornwallis Harris's delightful
book, " Wild Sports of Southern Africa."
The elder Hume was also one of the earliest, if
not the first British trader and hunter among the
more northerly of the Bechuana tribes, as may be
noticed by his route marked upon Harris's map.
From Mr. David Hume, himself a great interior
hunter, and a mine of information concerning the far
interior, we obtained much interesting intelligence.
He had made several trips to the Zambesi. Upon
the last one, which he undertook in company with
two English officers, he had barely escaped with
life from the malignant Zambesi fever, to which his
two companions had unhappily both fallen victims.
The life of an elephant and "big game hunter in
those regions is, indeed, one of incessant hardship
and danger. And yet, such is its absorbing fascina
tion, that once bitten with the Cacoethes venandi, these
hunters will return season after season to renew
the perils and delights of the dim and dangerous
wilderness. At this place we parted with the gentleman

62 KLOOF AND KARROO.
who had guided us from Graaff Reinet, and now left
to our own devices once more, we inspanned and set
forth. We had before us a drive of between two
and three miles before reaching Swanepoels Poort,
where we should halt for the night. We got on well
enough — barring the increasing roughness of the
road — till dusk, when we had still some miles to
compass before finding shelter. We had now some
little difficulty in keeping to the rude track, miscalled
a road ; once or twice, descending suddenly and
without warning into deep spruits, we had terrific
shakes up, the cart all but capsizing. However, we
blundered along as best we could, until at length we
neared a light on the right hand. We were now on
the banks ofthe Plessis River, a Karroo stream, which
here runs through the narrow mountain gorge known
as Swanepoels Poort. The drift or ford here is one
of the most precipitous and dangerous in all the
Colony, and even in broad daylight has to be crossed
with great care. Of all this, however, we were in
blissful ignorance, and finding ourselves on the
brink of the river, we straightway prepared to cross
it, and attain the light we could see burning just over
on the thither side. As luck would have it, we took
the drift in the right place — otherwise we should
have tumbled cart and all over the high rock bank
into the river — and very speedily found the horses
scrambling and slipping down what seemed like the
roof of a house. Here we were in deep water,
through which we plunged, and then with a rush and
shouts of encouragement, our gallant nags scrambled
up the other steep and lofty bank. It was a most
unpleasant sensation on a dark night, and if we had
known what was before us, I don't think we should

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 63
have tempted Providence. In fact this is one of the
very nastiest and most dangerous drifts met with in
the whole of our journeys, and as Mynheer Stols,
the Boer to whose house we went, remarked to a
friend of ours a day or two after, " It could only
have been English umlungos * or drunken men who
would have taken the drift on such a night."
We at once made our way to the house, and to
our disgust found, after much trouble (for we could
then speak no Dutch, and the Boer who came to the
door very little English), that we had in the darkness
missed the Englishman's house, which stood on the
other bank of the river. Here was a pretty mess.
We had now to make that horrible crossing again,
and we didn't half relish the idea. However, there
was nothing for it ; if we wanted supper and a shake
down in comfort, we must return. This time I got
out and went to the near horse's head, and with a
good deal of snorting from the nags, who relished
the business as little as ourselves, a long sliding
flounder, a rush, and a scramble, we managed more
by good luck than judgment to regain the other
bank. For myself, I emerged from the operation
wet to the middle. However, we soon found Mr.
Boyce's house, and having outspanned, and seen the
nags stabled and fed, sat down to a comfortable
supper, and after a chat turned in. Our host, an
old 72nd man, was Field Cornet t of the district,
and gave us a good deal of information concerning
the neighbourhood.
* Umlungo is a very expressive Kaffir word, signifying a sort of gentle
manly know-nothing or green-horn.
t Field Cornet, a kind of deputy magistrate, who frequently acts as
postmaster, and undertakes minor administrative offices.

64 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Next morning, after discharging our reckoning,
we prepared to complete the six miles that remained
before reaching our destination in Naroekas Poort.
We crossed the drift, which in the morning light
looked even more ugly than we had thought it in
the darkness of the preceding night, and then went
up the pass that lay between two precipitous
and forbidding walls of mountain. This grim
Swanepoels Poort was, as we afterwards learnt,
one of the last strongholds of the untamed Bush
men south of the Karroo. Up in the rocks that
tower above it are their caves and fastnesses, and
there may yet be seen the remains of their pictorial
art — the strange presentments of the various beasts
of the chase. Swanepoels Poort, which gives access
from the Eastern Karroo, and the Eastern frontier of
the Colony, to the Western province, was formerly
on the main route of travel. The Bushmen,
perched secure in these mountain eyries, and
armed with poisoned arrows, were a constant source
of danger and annoyance to travellers passing
through ; and, moreover, they harried the flocks of
the neighbouring farmers incessantly. But one day,
about the year 1830, Sir Andries Stockenstrom,
Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern province, one
of the finest specimens of the colonial warrior and
statesman, and rightly created a baronet for his
manful and most eminent services in the old frontier
wars, as well as in time of peace, passed through
the poort with a considerable retinue. In his turn,
annoyed by the Bushmen marauders still lingering
there, he heard from a Boer living just outside the
pass of their many misdeeds. " Well," said Sir
Andries, "if you like to raise a commando and

ACROSS CAMDEBOO TO NAROEKAS POORT. 65
expel these robbers, I will procure you a large grant
of land within the poort." The offer was accepted,
a commando was raised, and the fierce Bushmen,
fighting grimly to the last, were, after great trouble,
all slain or expelled from the mountains that for
centuries untold had given them shelter. Bushmen
there are still in these parts, but they are at all
events semi-civilised and quite harmless, and they
now prove themselves the best of native servants,
as hunters, herds, and grooms.
With our coaching-horn we woke the slumbering
echoes of these grim defile as we passed blithely
if laboriously through, and then for the remaining
five or six miles we drove through some of the
wildest and most sublime mountain scenery in the
Colony. The gaunt and desolate masses of Witteberg
heaved everywhere around in solemn and rather
awful grandeur. Down in the valley, far beneath
us, ran the river, fringed with bush and thorn, and
here and there passing through groves of acacia.
It was a magnificent drive, marred only by the
frightfully rough travelling. Road there was none ;
long staircases of rock, down which we banged and
rattled, huge boulders sticking up here and there
in the middle of the track, and occasional deep
holes, made things more than lively for us; and
through all this had come our h6*st and hostess and
family, to take possession of their mountain farm.
Every stick of furniture, every plank of wood about
their house, all that made up their home, had come
over these six awful miles of mountain track.
Colonists at the Cape, especially they who pitch
their tents among the mountains, have some rough
experiences indeed. But at last, after one slight 5

66 KLOOF AND KARROO.
capsize, we reached the river-bed, and for the rest
' of the way up to Naroekas Poort (another moun
tain pass), where lay the house of our friends, we
fared well enough. Finally, twanging cheerily upon
the horn to let them know we were coming, we
drove up the last steep bit of hillside, and pulled
up in front of a good-sized, square, flat-topped,
single-storied house, where for some time to come
we were to sojourn. Our coming was unexpected,
and our welcome' more than a warm one. We
spent a long enjoyable day, receiving and imparting
news, and sat smoking and talking far into the
night.

Chapter III.
KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING.

I HAVE before mentioned that bedsteads, at all
events those of European construction, are
not so plentiful in the Colony as could be
wished. The cost of transport by ox-waggon from
the coast operates as an effective bar to the free
introduction of articles of luxury, and even of
necessaries, where the farmstead is remote, as is
usually the case. In the last few years the Cape
railways have done something towards remedying
this state of things, but even now the area of the
Colony is so vast that most localities, far from the
trunk lines, still have their household supplies
brought to them by the slow and expensive ox-
waggon. H's farm in Naroekas lay seventy miles
from the nearest village, or small town (Willowmore) ,
and upon our arrival there we found but three iron
bedsteads in the house. Of these, H. and his wife
made use of one ; the English nurse and the little
girl filled the second ; while Charlie H., our host's
brother, had possession of the third, which stood in
a large airy bedroom. In this room another bed
was therefore made up on the floor for two of us,
while the happy third member of our party — Frank
(who, at " odd man out," had won the toss for choice
of positions) — luxuriated in a half-share in Charlie
H's double bedstead ; whence, on opening his eyes

KLOOF AND KAKKUU.

next morning, he gazed contemptuously on Bob and
myself, grovelling in our lowly " doss."
We were awakened at six o'clock by Sallie, the
little Kaffir housemaid, who, entering noiselessly Avith
bare feet, brought us each the usual early morning
cup of coffee, without which no Cape colonist begins
the day. A cheery breakfast party was ours, three
quarters of an hour afterwards, and then, the inevi
table pipes being lit, we discussed the programme,
and it was settled that we should have a quiet look
round that day, and hunt klipspringer on the
following. Strolling out of doors,, we three visitors
once more gazed with curious and even wondering
eyes on the strange scenes that lay stretched before
us. Deeply set in the heart of the sombre yet
magnificent Witteberg range, our home and abiding
place for some months to come was a good example
of a remote pastoral farm in Cape Colony. The
name Naroekas, or Naroogas, is of Bushman origin.
Here, in a wild and sequestered valley, lived our
friends, who occupied a mountain farm of 18,000
morgen — about 36,000 acres. The farmhouse was
single-storied, roomy, square, and flat-roofed, and
was built of Kaffir bricks and whitewashed. It lay
on the mountain-side near a constant stream or
fountain, and overlooked the pass called Naroekas
Poort. The scenery around was of a wild and
savage beauty ; huge brown mountains, broken here
and there into thickly bushed kloof and ravine,
reared their heads on every side. Although quan
tities of lovely flowers and shrubs blossomed around
us, the poort, from its sombre desolation and lack of
human life, possessed a peculiar solemnity and
gloom, and even on a hunting expedition this feeling

KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING. 6g
could not be thrown off, until, after traversing many
a mile, one gazed at length upon the open and
far-extending Karroo plains. These rude hills had
for centuries sheltered the little Bushmen hunters,
the aboriginals of this strange land. In the old
days, the Bushmen had no doubt wandered far and
wide over the broad Karroo deserts, lords of the soil,
and of the mighty beasts of the chase, just as they
yet wander in the Kalahari and other game-
frequented plains of the African interior. In time,
however, the Hottentots had expelled the Bushmen,
and driven them to the mountains, only to be
themselves driven out by the Kaffirs, who, in turn,
after many a fierce struggle, yielded to the Boers
and to the British.
Grim and desolate as were these mountains,
savage though the prospect around us, never while
memory lingers can I efface the recollection of the
delightful days spent on that remote mountain farm.
Days of an existence, free, vigorous, and untram
melled ; of hunter's toil, arduous, yet full of enjoy
ment, and healthful to an extraordinary degree ; days
replete with never-ending charm and change, spent
amid a fauna and avi-fauna almost undisturbed, a
nature almost as rude and untamed as it had been far
back in the long centuries. It was an experience of
pleasure altogether unalloyed ; it is, and will be, a
memory for ever fragrant. The great kindnesses
received at the hands of our host and hostess, went
far to heighten the charm of a lengthened and most
memorable sojourn. We spent bur first day in
Naroekas Poort, in inspecting the horse and mule-
breeding establishment in a distant kloof, as well as
the flocks of Angora and other goats, and a few

70 KLOOF AND KARROO.
ostriches and odds and ends that made up the farm
stock. It was arranged that evening that we should
devote the next day to the klipspringers which
abounded in these mountains.
Although all the larger and most of the smaller
of the South African antelopes have been re
peatedly noticed and described by numerous
travellers, hunters, and naturalists — from Sparrman,
the Swedish naturalist, who made an expedition
to the Cape in 1772, downwards — the klip-
springer, from its diminutive size and the
inaccessibility of its habitat, has generally escaped
notice, or has called forth but few passing remarks.
The chase of the portly eland, the swift and
enduring gemsbok, both lovers of the parched and
open plains ; of the noble koodoo, and the rare
sable antelope of the mountains ; and of all the
goodly company of antelopes that grace South
African mountain, bush-veldt, and karroo, has times
out of number been extolled by enthusiastic hunters ;
but the klipspringer is, as a rule, little known to
Europeans. Even at the Natural History Museum,
and in the South African game trophy at the late
Colonial Exhibition, the specimens are, and were,
but poor. Le Vaillant, the French naturalist, who
travelled at the Cape in 1784, certainly makes some
slight mention of this antelope in his interesting
journey to the Namaqua country, and gives its Hot
tentot name of " Kainsi " ; but Cornwallis Harris,
Gordon Cumming, Baldwin, Livingstone, Selous,
Drummond, and, in fact, nearly every writer of note
upon South Africa and its feres natures, appear to
have seldom or ever shot this beautiful and singular
little creature ; and if it be mentioned, it is usually

HIpVD of a KLIPSPRINGER ram.

KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING. 71
either to notice that its hair is good for saddle
stuffing, or merely to include it in the ample
catalogue of the antelopes to be found between the
Zambesi and the Cape.
The klipspringer (Oreotragus saltatrix), or rock-
jumper of the Dutch Boer, sometimes also called
the klipbok (rock-buck), may be truly called the
chamois of South Africa, and in many points closely
resembles the chamois of Europe. It has the same
marvellous facility for the retention of its foothold
when leaping from one piece of rock to another,
and in its powers of getting about the most
precipitous and dangerous cliffs and mountain-sides,
it certainly has no reason to fear comparison with
its European congener. It will, when pursued,
boldly leap from the giddiest heights on to the
tiniest projection of rock, and its four hoofs will
rest easily on a piece of rock not bigger than a
large walnut. It differs certainly from the chamois
of Europe in its horns, which in the male are about
four inches in length, straight, and sharply pointed ;
the female being hornless. Its coat, too, is in its
way unique, composed as it is of a thick growth of
hollow, brittle hairs, and in colour giving as a whole
the appearance of a rich olive brown which fades to
grey underneath. The little klipspringer is sturdily
built, and in size is about on*k par with a three-
quarter grown lamb. It stands some twenty-two
inches high at the shoulder, and carries a beautiful
full head, well set upon its sturdy neck, and its eyes
are welh placed, soft, and melting ; its hoofs are
somewhat hollow and curiously jagged at the edges.
It is to be found on every mountain range in South
Africa, but only in the most inaccessible spots, and

72 KLOOF AND KARROO.
it is exceedingly shy. The slothful Boers seldom,
if ever, hunt it ; consequently its only foes are
British settlers, eagles, leopards (which abound
wherever the klipspringer is found), and an
occasional Kaffir or Hottentot.
When I first set foot in South Africa, I had
scarcely even heard of this charming antelope, but
in Naroekas I soon came to know and admire the
little beauty. On the following morning, after a
plentiful breakfast of goat chops and fry, honey and
coffee, we started away in quest of klipspringers.
There were four of us, and with us went Igneese, a
Kaffir from a kraal or location down the valley, the
best tracker and sportsman in the district, and a
good fellow to boot. Picking our way down the
rough stony hillside, we pass the little mealie and
oat " lands " in the alluvial soil near the river-bed.
Here we disturb, amongst other birds, a small flock
of wax-billed grosbeaks (Estrelda astrild). This
pretty little bird, common though it is, deserves
passing mention. The Boers know it as the roode-
bec (red-beak), and, especially the corn-farmers of
the Western province, are familiar enough with it,
visited as they are by enormous flocks. Upon the
back and top it is of a darkish brown colour, under
neath a paler brown, in both places variegated by
dark wavy stripes, and all over these prevails a most
singular roseate purplish bloom. The bill is of an
intense scarlet, which colour is also very notable in
the eye stripe, and down the chest and stomach."

* I have never seen their nests, but have often heard (and Mr. E. L. Layard,
in his interesting work on South African birds, confirms my informants) that
these birds nest in common, several using the same nest. When the united
families arrive, there must be surely sorrow and headaches among .the parents

KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING. 73
The ruddy-billed intruders we had thus disturbed
were, I suppose, searching for grains of comfort in
the tiny enclosures devoted to the scant crops of our
mountain farm. Now we crossed the bottom of the
valley, and, after a two-mile walk, reached the foot
of a mountain where we expected to find game.
Igneese had so guided us that the gentle breeze blew
in our faces, and we at once began the ascent. This
proved a very serious undertaking, for the mountain
side was here composed of crumbling rocks and
shingle, which were not only infinitely distressing, but
necessitated the greatest caution as we approached
a broad, bushy ledge, where our Kaffir first expected
to hit upon the antelopes. Three-quarters of an
hour's toil, however, found us well up the mountain
side, on fairly level ground, and not far from
the ledge I have mentioned. We now separated
and approached the cover in different directions,
forming a third of a circle. In five minutes more we
were in the bush, and very shortly, peering through
it with the Kaffir, I espied two pairs of handsome
little brown antelopes gallop rapidly from an open
space, where they had been feeding, and dive into
some bushes on the other side. We had no time to
fire, but immediately rushed after the klipspringers.
Two of them, which we followed, turned to the left
straight up the mountain, while the other pair went
judging by the noise, shrill, and twittering they themselves give forth. Con
cerning the nest itself, Mr. Layard observes, "the nest is a large structure,
composed of straw, grasses, feathers, wool, paper, rags, etc. It is often as
large as a stable bucket round, and with an entrance in the side. The interior
is a mass of feathers, and the eggs, from eight to fourteen in number, are pure
white and oval . . " Imagine a. nest common to half-a-dozen birds,
each capable of laying fourteen eggs, especially if the hatchings out are
coincident, as I believe they often are. The result must be surely appalling
even to these light-hearted creatures.

74 KLOOF AND KARROO.
right-handed, and were followed by the rest of the
party. After several minutes' desperate scrambling
up hill, through euphorbias, aloes, and thorny scrub,
and over boulders, Igneese and I stopped for a blow,
and took a cautious glance upwards. Instantly I
beheld, one hundred yards above, perched on a rock
which jutted abruptly from the mountain, one of the
klipspringers — the ram — looking eagerly round for
his enemies. I lost not a moment, but, with hasty
aim, fired ; and as luck would have it, I dropped the
antelope with a bullet through the middle of the
body, rather too far back from the shoulder. The
klipspringer toppled headlong from his rock, and in
breathless haste the Kaffir and I raced up to secure
him. Before we could get up, however, the quarry
was on his legs again, scrambling to denser coverts
for sanctuary, though in vain. The Kaffir cries in
Dutch "Schiet! schiet ! " ("Shoot! shoot!"), and
with the cry another bullet at thirty paces brings the
bok to earth again, and the Kaffir's knife soon ends
his struggles.
Meanwhile four other shots had echoed to our
right, and fifteen minutes afterwards the rest of the
party appeared with another klipspringer. We had
been unusually fortunate thus early in the day, for,
as a rule, these antelopes take an infinity of trouble
to find, and still more to secure. Then we pursued
our way, and reached the mountain top, which was
flat, and covered with long waving grass. In a
couple of hours more we sighted another brace of
klipspringers ; but this time, before we were within
range, they were springing up the mountain cliffs
like balls of india-rubber, and were soon far out of
sight. Descending to a hollow in the hills, Igneese

KLIPSPRINGER SHOOTING. 75
led us to a tiny waterhole, called Wilde Paard's
Fontein (zebra's fountain), where formerly large
numbers of zebras drank. These beautiful creatures
were, at the time I write of, alas ! reduced to a small
herd of eight or ten, which still lingered in the
remotest parts of the mountains in this locality.
Greatly to our disappointment, for the sun was hot,
and we were all athirst, this drinking place was dry ;
there had been a long drought, and the fountain now
held nothing but hard-baked mud. Retracing our
steps, we sought another part of the hills, and after
a long scramble and another tramp along the flat
grassy top of the mountain, we put up three more
klipspringers that were feeding among some huge
boulders littering the ground towards the edge of the
mountain wall. The antelopes were off and away
like lightning, and although Bob and Frank, who were
nearest, each emptied two barrels at a hundred and a
hundred and thirty yards, the odds were too great ;
the buck dodged in and out of the masses of rock in
the most marvellous fashion, and were quickly over
the cliff and far away.
It was a pretty sight, and we in the rear
thoroughly enjoyed it, much as we sympathised with
the rather exasperated gunners. Here we rested
and ate a morsel, dry though we were, and as luck
would have it, while looking down the hillside below
us, we espied some water standing in the deep
smooth fleshy leaves of a great aloe beneath. After
some trouble, we managed to convey the contents of
some of these leaves into the outside of the deep
crown of one of our broad-brimmed felt hats, and
thus partially slaked our thirst. Seated up here
on the edge of the mountain, we commanded a

76 KLOOF AND KARROO.
magnificent view of kloof and hillside. Away near
the cliff tops, an eagle or two could be seen sweeping
hither and thither with ever-searching eyes. Close
to us, on the right hand, hovered a stein valk (stone
falcon), (Tinminculus rupicolus), well known to Le
Vaillant as Le montagnard. This pretty little
kestrel greatly resembles our English kestrel,
indeed its habits are almost perfectly identical.
The reddish general colouring, the hovering flight,
the swift-dropping stoop, and the quarry it follows,
— small birds, mice, etc., are reproduced in "the
mountaineer," precisely as they appear in its
European cousin. The Boers call it as often
rooi valk (red falcon) as stein valk. Presently we
rose and resumed our tramp, with the result of
bagging one more klipspringer, and sighting in the
distance a herd of vaal (grey) rhebok (Pelea capreola) ,
another mountain antelope. As we retrace our steps
homewards, we pass through a kloof, where the
sinking sun lights up the rocks on our left most
gloriously, bathing them in the soft red, mellow glow
of African evening, while on our right everything is
in deepest shadow. Then, as we near home, we
pause to watch the beautiful Angora goats drink at
the pool below the house, the parting gleams of
daylight lingering lovingly on their snow-white silky
coats. Finally, after a twenty-mile tramp, just as a
Kaffir brings in the game on a pony, with which he
had followed us, we retire indoors to supper, after
wards to amuse our friends, as we had the Boers
and accommodation-house keepers on our travels,
with festive discourse on the banjo and a song
or two.

Chapter IV.
LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM.*

LIFE with the pastoral farmer in Cape Colony
goes very quietly, very regularly — some people
might even say something monotonously.
But, to the enterprising farmer in South Africa,
there is always plenty to employ the time ; fencing,
gardening, tree-planting, dam-making, well-sinking,
these and a hundred other things beyond the
ordinary pastoral routine, are for ever clamouring
to be attended to. And to the credit of the too
scanty element of British folk in the Colony, and in
great contrast to the more slothful, and, if you will,
slow-moving Dutch farmer, these improvements are
ever and increasingly going forward, transforming
barren spots in rugged mountain country or howling
desert into cosy habitations and smiling farmsteads.
Shut up in our lonely farm of 18,000 morgen (rather
more than 36,000 acres) amongst the mountains, life
runs quietly with us, it must be admitted. We are
goat-farmers, and feed our flocks upon the zuur veldt
(sour pasture) with which our rugged hillsides are
clothed. I say " we " for the sake of convenience,
for I, personally, and at present my travelling
friends, are visitors. Some of our goats are of the
ordinary kind, others are the beautiful Angoras —
shapely creatures, with long white silky coats, from
which is clipped the well-known mohair. The
Angoras, as a rule, however, thrive better on the
* This chapter was originally written in the present tense, and I have
thought it as well to print it in its early form.

78 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Karroo plains, where they are pastured in vast
numbers. We also breed horses and mules, which
thrive well in these regions.
At six o'clock each morning — earlier in the
summer — after Sally, our little Kaffir maid-of-all-
work, has brought to each of us, while in bed, the
matutinal cup of coffee, one of our number rises and
goes to the adjacent kraal to count the goats as they
issue forth in charge of their Kaffir herds to pasture
on the mountain veldt. N'quami, our groom, a long
lithe Kaffir from Galekaland, more commonly known
as John, has slaughtered at the back of the house
the goat which is each day sacrified for the needs of
our household ; and the kidneys, fry, and a chop or
two are grilled for breakfast. Honey, found in
abundance in the rocks around us, takes the place
of marmalade. Breakfast over, one or two of us
ride off to the broad shallow kloof, three miles
farther away in the mountains, where our horses and
mules are run, .under the care of Tobias, our Dutch
foreman. Another of us busies himself marking
goats ; whilst a third takes on his back a dead kid —
well primed with strychnine pills — meaning to deposit
it in a small kloof across the valley for the benefit of
one of the numerous leopards which infest our farm.
This is the only method of keeping down these night
marauders, which do cruel execution on our flocks
and foals. Then attention must be given to the
little patch of alluvial land by the dry river-bed,
where we grow sufficient grain for our wants, and
odd jobs have to be done. A gun or rifle is usually
carried ; for game, feathered and furred, is plentiful,
and is ever a welcome change from the monotony of
goat-flesh. Meanwhile, Mrs. H., our kind hostess,

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. 79
is busy, superintending the washing, cooking, and
other matters of domestic economy, as well as the
education of her little fair-haired girl, our pride and
delight. Kaitje, our cook, a yellow lady of mixed
race (Hottentot, Kaffir, and Bushman intermingled),
attends to the baking of our " cookies," cakes of
unleavened meal, which usurp the place of bread,
and which are baked — and capitally baked too — in
a hole in the ground, heated in the native fashion.
If we happen to be near the homestead, we take a
light lunch in the middle of the day, and at seven
o'clock we all meet for dinner ; after which we smoke
and chat, or read, till bedtime — usually about ten
. o'clock. If we do not make money fast nowadays,
we live in a rude plenty : meat in abundance is
ours ; dried fruits — quinces and peaches, excellent
when stewed — bought from the Boers who pass us
occasionally with waggon-loads of produce ; oranges
and grapes in season, from the irrigated farms of
Boers out beyond the poort, whence we emerge
from our mountain home ; and porridge of pounded
mealies and milk occasionally. Goats' milk we have
in plenty, but no butter or cream ; for cows and
oxen do not flourish upon our zuur veldt. Game
abounds with us. Our mountains support several
kinds of antelope — the klipspringer, rhebok of two
sorts, vaal and rooi (grey and sed), duykerbok, and
an occasional koodoo ; the latter one of the noblest
of the South African fauna, carrying magnificent
spiral horns, and weighing from 400 lbs. to 500 lbs.
Francolins and bustards and other feathered game
are also plentiful. A day's shooting forms a
pleasant break in the quiet round of our existence.
The chase of the beautiful antelopes that yet remain

80 KLOOF ANU KAKKVU.
to us, the varied splendour of our mountain scenery
— rich in glorious flowers — and a perfect climate,
are indeed our chief pleasures ; though, sad to say,
they hardly compensate to us (I speak from the
farmer's point of view) the lack of more sordid pelf.
" Our rocks are rough ; but smiling there
Th' acacia waves her yellow hair ;
Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less
For flowering in the wilderness.
Our sands are bare ; but down their slope
The silvery-footed antelope
As gracefully and gaily springs
As in the marble courts of kings."
Our home in Naroekas Poort is, as I have
before mentioned, a single-storied messuage, built of
Kaffir-made bricks, flat-roofed (as are most colonial
farmhouses), and whitewashed, and perched high
on the mountain-side, near a perennial fountain that
issues from the rocks above. The fountain in
South African farming is the mainspring by which
everything is set in motion, for without a permanent
water supply all else— the best veldt, the finest
pasturage — is of no avail. Usually, having had early
morning coffee, we stroll down to the angle of the
river, just where it bends suddenly and runs through
the poort. Here there is a deep pool, where, even
now in time of drought, we can always count on
getting a good plunge and a short swim. Just now,
the river being low, the water is brackish; when
the rains fall and the floods descend, it will become
fresh enough for a time, only, as it falls again, to
resume its salt savour. Sometimes, when the
drought on the karroo is very severe, the waters of
this river become so salt that the very fish perish
and are found floating dead in large numbers. These

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM.

fish are a kind of Silurus ; they wear long wattles,
like our English barbel, and are called by the
colonists, barbers. While we bathe, the baboons
living in the rocks around come as near as they
dare, and bark fiercely and angrily at our intrusion.
This they do morning after morning, showing no
softening of manners — no incipient sign of friend
ship. If, however, we have a gun with us, they are
very careful to keep at a respectful distance, and
behind shelter of their rocks, whence they quah-quah
more angrily than ever ; they are curious beasts,
and most mischievous. If the farmer lays unction
to his soul, and congratulates himself upon a more
than usually fine piece of mealies (maize), or oats,
or pumpkins, the odds are that one fine day he will
find that the baboons have paid him a visit, and
destroyed and torn up half his crop. Moreover, they
do this in sheer and wanton mischief, befouling and
destroying far more than they ever eat. For these
reasons the farmers are their sworn foes, and,
occasionally, as the only means of destroying them,
a party having, by the aid of a Kaffir or Hotten
tot, tracked them to their sleeping places (usually
large caves), will, by the aid of bull's eye lanterns,
shoot a large number at one time. I have only
assisted at one of these night forays, and I must
confess the business is not a pleasant one. The
brutes, lying in the far corner huddled together for
warmth, are bewildered and half- stupefied by the
lantern rays flashing in their eyes, and at the first
discharge usually a number are slain. Then there
is a rush for the entrance, and the stronger and
older baboons often succeed in running the gauntlet,
occasionally knocking a human foe off his legs, but
6

82 KLOOF AND KARROO.

seldom or never using their powerful jaws and teeth.
It is a fact that the baboons are far cleaner in their
habits than most people would imagine, shifting
their sleeping quarters from cave to cave as they
become foul or too much infested with vermin. Of
late years, in the mountains bordering on the karroo,
the baboons have developed a new and most trouble
some propensity. Some years back, some one
baboon having, by chance, come across the dead
body of a milch goat, discovered and extracted the
milk-bag (they are passionately fond of milk), and,
like Eve, " saw that it was good." His discovery
must have been quickly imparted to his fellows,
for the Karroo farmers began to find their milch
goats ripped up and slaughtered by these brutes
solely for the sweet and luscious milk. This
horrible propensity has grown to alarming proportions
on some farms, and hundreds of goats have been
destroyed in a season in this way. The baboons,
too, becoming accustomed to butchering, presently
turned their attention to the flesh, and will now
destroy kids, and, if they can manage it, goats, for
their flesh alone.* In these localities, a war of
revenge has been waged by the enraged farmers,
not altogether successfully, for the cunning simian
murderers are hard of utter extermination. The
Hottentots are full of amusing tales about the
baboon, which occupies a large space in their folk
lore. If you want a funny story, you may always
* There is a curious similarity in this modern development between these
murderous baboons and the sheep-killing parrot of New Zealand. In either
case the evolution has been co-incident with the increase of the flocks. The
methods are different — the result is the same. The baboon attacks the
goat's milk-bag, the parrot the sheep's kidney — through the back. Death is
effected in either case.

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. 83
get one from a Tottie, on the subject of these
creatures. Returning from our bathe, we have
breakfast, and then set about the work of the day.
Our farmhouse has not been long built — about three
years. It boasts four really good rooms, spacious
and lofty, besides a good kitchen. Owing to the
difficulties and expense of transport, our furniture
is plain and serviceable, and something lacking from
an ornate point of view. Our living-room boasts
a strong table, a plain sideboard, a bureau, eight or
ten strong Windsor arm-chairs, half-a-dozen pictures,
and a large chest or two. The ceilings are of deal ;
every inch of the timber of these and the flooring
has been imported from abroad, and brought hither
by ox-waggon from Port Elizabeth. Guns and rifles,
and the heads and horns of mountain antelopes,
help to adorn the bare walls, which are unpapered
and plainly distempered ; some cocoa-nut matting
completes the furnishing of the apartment. In one
corner lies a great pile of oranges. These we
procure from an occasional fruit Boer passing
with his waggon through the poort, and during
the day this corner, with its golden store, is
often visited by all of us. In another corner of
the room lies a neat pile of Boer tobacco, dark stuff,
twisted up into great rolls, weighing many pounds,
fastened together at the ends by pegs of bamboo.
From these twists we cut our supplies as wanted.
Tobacco is, happily for the Cape colonist, extra
ordinarily cheap. We pay from twopence to six
pence per pound for the commodity — ours averages
about threepence — and occasionally from the better
class of Oudtshoorn Boers, we procure a really
decent smoking article. You need to get accustomed

84 KLOOF AND KARROO.
to Boer tobacco, but the taste once acquired,
there is nothing to grumble at. Occasionally, from
the Bay (Port Elizabeth), we get, as an especial
luxury, a supply of American cake tobacco, which
costs from two shillings to three shillings per pound
for the very best quality. The window of this room,
which commands a magnificent view of the pass
straight in front, and of the tall mountains that
environ us, opens — as, too, does the principal bed
room — on to the stoep, or terraced verandah, the
lounging and smoking place of every African farm
house. . From the stoep, a flight of steps run down
to the mountain-side, hereabouts, and elsewhere
round the house, cleared a little of the stones and
boulders that litter the slope.
In the sideboard, and a cupboard of our host's
bedroom, are contained the few bottles of whiskey
and " French " (every Afrikander knows real Cognac
as "French" in contradistinction to Boer brandy),
which may be required for medicinal purposes, or
an occasional luxury. One more confession of this
spiritual kind. In the one large cupboard, which
is fixed into an angle of the wall of our dining-room,
and which I have omitted to mention previously,
stands a small cask of the best Cango, from which
we draw our very moderate supply of evening
grog. Cango, I may explain, is the best kind of
colonial-made brandy ; it is of a rich yellow colour,
is produced in the Oudtshoorn district, and when
matured, is really a very reasonable substitute for
the more expensive foreign liquors. The ordinary
Boer brandy a colourless, and, usually, frightfully
raw spirit, is a very different stuff, and has a most
peculiar and indescribable flavour of its own. It is

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. 85
procurable at the rate of from sixpence to one
shilling per bottle, and from its cheapness and its
alcoholic strength, is a baleful source of drunkenness
and injury, especially to natives, throughout the
Colony. We have no cellar, and thus our host is
compelled to keep his supplies of spirit within the
living-rooms, otherwise they would, I fear, not long
escape the attentions of the native servants about
the place. Coffee is our staple beverage, and
morning, noon, and night, accompanies our meals.
Our two native servant girls sleep in the kitchen,
curled up on the matting in front of the hearth.
They do not change their clothes for the night's
rest — nothing, I suppose, would induce them to.
Their costumes consist of nothing more than a
print gown — usually blue, spotted or chequered with
white, and the red and white spotted cotton hand
kerchief with which they hide their woolly pates.
When these garments are dirty, they are made to
change them, this is the utmost they can be
persuaded into. They wear no shoes or stockings,
and herein I think they are wise enough ; their soft
pattering footsteps make one annoyance the less in
their management. They are a great trouble to our
hostess, these black servants. Kaitje, although she
can cook very decently, is the emptiest-headed,
silliest, most tittering creature that ever cooked a
stew. If you but look at her she giggles, for no
earthly reason that one can discover. Occasionally
she sulks, and nothing can be done with her. Sally,
a young good-looking Kaffir girl from the kraal a few
miles away, is really not so bad ; left to herself, and
the eye of her good mistress, I believe she would im
prove vastly. But the sniggering Kaitje demoralises

KLOOF AND KARROO.

her a good deal. Occasionally, too, Sally goes on
strike, that is, an unconquerably lazy fit comes
over her ; she absolutely refuses to work, and will lie
underneath a bush at the back of the house for the
whole day slumbering in the sun. I suppose these
fits are but the natural outcome of centuries of a
savage existence; but they are very trying to the
mistress, especially when she knows that if she
dismisses the recalcitrant "slavey," she cannot
obtain a better substitute, and may probably fare far
worse by the change. In South African establish
ments, I am afraid it must be owned that the old
Boer methods of strong and frequent corporal
punishment are the only ones of much avail. It is
certain that the Dutch are far better served by their
native servants than are the British. On Saturday
Sally is allowed " her afternoon out," and proceeding
to the bosom of her kraal, returns next morning not
by any means improved.
John, the Kaffir groom, and the native herds,
sleep in some outhouses in the rear. Jackson, an
English mason and handy-man, at present engaged
completing the building of some stables, has a com
fortable shake-down in the building he is erecting.
One other person completes the establishment,
though he is, like Jackson, only a temporary hand ;
this is a Basuto, who is building stone kraals for the
flocks — hitherto principally folded for the night in
thorn enclosures cut from the Acacia horrida. This
Basuto is the merriest, most good-tempered, light-
hearted, steadily- working soul that ever owned a black
skin. He is, like all the Basutos, and many of the
Bechuanas, wonderfully skilled at his work ; and his
kraals, albeit they are built of the loose stones he

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. 87
finds around, are models of strength and symmetry.
All day as he works he sings loudly to himself. I
have promised him a pair of second-hand military
trousers, and he is almost too effusive in his
gratitude and affection ; yet I cannot help liking
the merry, good-tempered soul. We jabber together
occasionally, and laugh mutually over our lingual
difficulties. I gather from this Basuto that his
ancestors, a generation back, found their building
capabilities of great assistance in protecting them
selves from the attacks of Moselikatse and his
destroying hordes of Amabaka-Zulus, then ravaging
the Transvaal and adjacent territories.
In this and most other portions of Cape Colony
away from the southern timber belt, great timber
trees are unknown. In the bottoms of the valleys,
dense groves of mimosa (Acacia horrida) are found,
and in the kloofs and smaller ravines the wild olive
(Olea verrucosa), the kaffir plum (Harpepphyllum
¦caffrum), and very occasionally the cedar boom
( Widdringtonia junipemoides) , and the willow by the
rivers; but the English eye, scanning the average up-
country farm at the Cape, searches in vain for the
tall trees and spreading foliage of the Old Country.
Tree planting is, however, coming more and more
into vogue, and will effect great changes in this
respect. Our mountains possess a large variety of
bush and shrubbery ; there is a wealth of flowering
and fruiting shrubs. The goats find upon the
mountain-sides quantities of spekboom and other
fattening plants ; as for flowers, there is no limit to
them. Heaths, orchids, lilies, amaryllids, irids, wild
geranium, and pelargoniums, in particular, are to be
found in astonishing profusion. Aloes, euphorbia,

KLOOF AND KARROO.

and other cactus-like plants abound, and here and
there that pest of the Cape farmer, the prickly pear,
with its golden delicious-looking fruit, flourishes all
too well. The prickly pear, that Mexican marauder,
is not indigenous to South Africa, and no one
seems to know quite when it first made its appearance.
It propagates and spreads itself with alarming
readiness, and is most difficult of extermination.
The mellow-looking fruit is covered with a dense
growth ofthe tiniest, most silky-looking spikes ; and,
once the confiding stranger allows these to come in
contact with his skin, he is not soon likely to forget
their poisonous and insidious properties. If these
spikelets are scraped from the fruit, it can be eaten
without further trouble, but it is a disappointing
morceau, when all is said and done. Cattle and
other stock that once take to eating this fruit, as
they will do in time of drought, suffer frightfully ;
their mouths become literally masses of inflammation,
and death is not seldom the penalty. Upon some
farms, this baleful plant has spread to such an
extent as to make the land almost worthless, and
once it attains a stronghold, it is well-nigh impossible
of extermination, neither fire, poison, nor the knife
effecting its downfall. One of our great pleasures is
to ride up the long deep kloofs that pierce the
mountains, and inspect our horse and donkey-
breeding establishment ; this lies some miles away
from the house, and the stock wander over a large
extent of valley, ravine, and mountain. Much of the
lower parts of these hills is clothed with rooi-grass
(red grass), in which the rooi rheboks, following that
curious protective instinct of nature, find shelter and
feeding ground. Their cousins, the vaal (grey)

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM.

rhebok, are to be sought amid the long grey grasses
higher up the mountain. We have no lack of cattle
to ride ; if we want a fresh nag we have only to have
a few driven down and take our pick, and after a
week's grooming, the bush-ticks are cleared from
their skins, and they begin to present a decent
appearance. Sometimes we visit the Kaffir location,
or the Boers farming outside our mountain passes —
Swanepoels Poort in one direction, and Witte Poort,
our alternate exit, in the other.
" 'Twas merry in the glowing morn, among the gleaming grass,
To wander as we've wandered many a mile,
And blow the cool tobacco cloud, and watch the white wreaths pass,
Sitting loosely in the saddle all the while."
Following the Plessis River through our poort,
and riding some four miles alongside of its alluvial
bottom, the Kaffir kraal I have spoken of is arrived
at. Here, located upon some Crown lands, is a
considerable encampment of Amakosa Kaffirs, once
the bitter foemen of the colonists, now harmless
enough. These people, some sixty or seventy in
number, live much as they have always lived, in a
semi-tribal state. They have their petty chief, who
is a friend of our host and a very decent fellow, and
they live quietly enough, pursuing a lazy pastoral
existence, in which the womenfolk do most of the
hard work. It is a pity they won't work, but they
have the greatest repugnance to enter service with
the colonist, save now and then intermittently — a
few of them — as herds. Their huts are enclosed
within a ring fence of thorns, and their kraals are
near at hand. The chief's wife, N'Sana, a really
handsome well-set up woman, is often to be met
tending her husband's goats, her baby fastened at her

go KLOOF AND KARROO.
back, a blanket carelessly yet most gracefully folded
round her and over one shoulder. Occasionally they
have some assegai practice, and it is interesting to
watch them. Their powers of throwing this weapon
have been greatly exaggerated to my thinking : at
more than thirty yards it is odds on the moving
target, and beyond seventy even a stationary object
is pretty safe. The shaking, quivering motion they
impart to their spears before casting them, is very
curious. With the knobkerrie (knobstick) they are
wonderful shots, knocking over with ease a running
hare or a flying game-bird. The hunting grounds
of these people, once lords over much of this country,
are now greatly circumscribed ; they can only pursue
game upon their own lands, and it must be a sore
point I imagine for them, when they remember that
over these broad mountains, and the spreading plains
beyond, their forefathers once hunted the gallant
game wheresoever they listed. With Pringle's
Captive of Camalu, they might sing :
" O Camalu, green Camalu !
'Twas there I fed my father's flock,
Beside the mount where cedars threw
At dawn their shadows from the rock ;
There tended I my father's flock
Along the grassy margined rills,
Or chased the bounding bontebok
With hound and spear among the hills."
On the whole, however, these Kaffirs are
contented and happy, and some day in the future,
they or their descendants will doubtless become
more useful members of the social system of Cape
Colony. In the soft alluvial soil near the river, one often
passes the huge holes of the aard-vark, the Cape

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. gi
ant-eater. Indeed, more than one part of the road
itself has been occupied by the cavernous excavation
of one of these singular creatures. The aard-vark
never appears, except by the merest chance, in the
day time, but at night, when the moon is up, you
may sometimes, if you gang warily, happen upon
him as he demolishes the tall ant-hills, and with
long slimy tongue obtains his succulent supply of
food. It has often puzzled me to understand how
the aard-vark can live, as he undoubtedly does, for
hours together — if pursued — completely shut off
from the outer atmosphere. How does he breathe,
— how sustain life ? I once with some of our party
essayed to dig out an ant-eater, but after labouring
for an hour and a quarter on a hot morning, we
retired vanquished. The beast, with his wonderful
claws and legs, digs far faster than the human
delver. He will actually, if surprised, put himself
underground, while he is being approached, unless,
as very rarely happens, he is completely taken
unawares. Our Kaffir hunter, Igneese, brought us
in a dead aard-vark, which he had circumvented
and killed with a blow or two on the snout from
his knobkerrie. Cavernous as are the entrances
to their holes, they rapidly taper down and twist
off at right angles, and it would certainly puzzle
the most assiduous digger tnat ever ferreted an
English hedgerow, to reach the Cape ant-eater in
its earthy dwelling, even though he laboured from
morn till eve of a long summer's day. I only knew
of one instance of a successful digging out. This
feat was accomplished many years ago by my late
friend, Mr. J. B. Evans, on his first arrival in the
Colony. In all his undertakings, this gentleman

92 KLOOF AND KARROO.
was the most determined colonist I ever met with,
and very naturally his determination invariably
gave him success. In this instance he and some
native servants started digging at an aard-vark
about nine o'clock one morning. The animal, when
followed in this way, as it digs, blocks up the exit,
and with its strong feet pads and packs the earth
firmly behind it into a dense wall. When this
process goes on, as it did in this case for many
hours, and the animal is completely earth-bound,
it is extraordinary how it can exist apparently
without a suspicion of air. My friend and his
natives dug and dug, and the ant-eater pursued
his tactics, turning hither and thither yard after yard,
hour after hour, until in the end the persistence of
the attackers had its reward ; and about five o'clock
in the afternoon the aard-vark was dug out quite
dead. I suppose the lack of air and the fearful
exertions it had undergone had at last killed it.
The distance burrowed and dug was, if I remember
right, on this occasion, something like thirty-five
yards, measured along the zig-zags. The strength
of this animal — resistive, not aggressive — is
enormous. Two or three men may get a hold of
its tail and hind-quarters as it enters its hole, and
yet it shall escape them. The Boers of our district
have a legend, that a stout ox-reim (hide-rope) was
once fastened to the tail of a burrowing aard-vark,
and then tied to the tail of a horse, with the
idea of easily extracting the " earth-pig " like a
periwinkle from its shell. Sad to relate, the tail
of the ant-eater proved more sinewy and resisting
than the tail of the horse, and the latter came out
of the contest minus his caudal appendage. I will

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. g3
not vouch for the truth of this story, for the Boers,
like other people, sometimes allow their imaginations
to get the better of them.
Wandering along near the quiet river, often but
a chain of small pools, many rare and interesting
birds may be noted. The charming little plover
(Charadrius tricollaris) may be often seen, with its
greenish-brown coat, white forehead, and black
and white collar marks (two of the former are of
the latter colour), and white stomach.
The Kaffir crane and the Stanley or blue crane,
the common heron, the beautiful purple heron, the
hammerkop (Scopus umbretta), the bittern (Botaurus
stellaris), called by the Boers " roerdomp," are
seen pretty frequently. The blue rail (Rallus ccsru-
lescens), with its ruddy broAvn colouring, bluish-drab
breast, and black and white striped sides, a
bird nowhere very common in the Colony, was once
or twice shot during my stay.
The red-billed teal, smee eendtje of the Boers,
and the geelbec (yellow-billed) duck (Anas flavirostris),
are not uncommon, while very occasionally we
come across the big berg gans (mountain goose)
(Chenalopex esgyptiacus) , a magnificent fellow, whose
harsh noisy "honk" warns us of his whereabouts.
When secured with a charge of swan or buckshot,
this wild goose is a notable prizae. The painting of
his plumage is very fine. Greyish-red upon his
top and under parts, strongly marked between the
pinions with black, brick-red as to his wings, which
are further variegated with white and bright green
markings, black rumped, and further painted with
splashes of deep-red upon his breast and round the
eyes, and having a ruddy circle round the neck, one

g4 KLOOF AND KARROO.
cannot sufficiently admire the form and splendid
colouring of this noble bird.
Thus, with these and other wild fowl, too
numerous to catalogue at length, and the various
francolins and bustards, of which more hereafter,
we have good store of "feather," as well as "fur,"
with which to satisfy those cravings for sport
implanted in the breast of every one of us.
But stroll where one will about these quiet
valleys and over these rugged hills, there is ever
something to interest one. Of small birds ; of
the thrushes and starlings, larks, finches of
innumerable species, butcher-birds, shrikes, fly
catchers, warblers, swallows, buntings, cuckoos,
wheat-ears, colies, lories, honey-guides — which are
included in the great family of cuckoos — and other
varieties, we are for ever encountering some new
specimen ; and it would occupy all the time of a
professed naturalist, in a year or two of ardent
collecting, to enumerate and classify the many
beautiful feathered creatures we see around us.
A notable starling, the green spreo {Jidda phceni-
coptera), is often to be seen in large flocks ; its
colouring is very beautiful. The head, shoulders,
tail, rump, and upper parts of the legs, are of a
vivid bluish-green ; there is bright violet colouring
over the ears, and the shoulder coverts are decorated
with a showy stripe of red and violet. Once or
twice in our rides and walks we noticed the curious
orange-shouldered bunting, Vidua phcsnicoptera of
Swainson, sometimes also called the Kaffrarian
grosbeak. The male of this species is famous for
its immensely long tail ; his colour is black, lit up
by deep-red shoulder markings. The female and,

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. g5
I believe, the young male bird is yellowish-brown
in colour, has black wing-feathers, and is rendered
conspicuous by the brilliant orange shoulder-patches
from which the bird takes its name. Mr. Layard,
in his " Birds of South Africa," mentions the
difficulties the male bird of this species labours
under when he has donned his breeding plumage,
by reason of the inordinate length of his tail.
Children are enabled to run him down ; he cannot
fly against the wind, and in wet weather, knowing
his helplessness, he stirs not out of the bushes that
hide him. Moreover, the Kaffir children stretch
well-limed lines across the fields ; thus numbers of
these birds are snared by their tails becoming
entangled in the sticky lines. I have frequently
heard these statements verified by residents of the
Eastern province and Kaffraria. Here is one more
striking example of the troubles of matrimony, from
a male point of view. The male orange-shouldered
bunting, in his breeding plumage, no doubt, freely
admits to himself that, in his case, " marriage is a
failure." There are one or two families of Boers residing
like ourselves within the deep recesses of the
Witteberg. They are of the poorer class of Boer ;
their holdings do not extend beyond the usual
Dutch farm of a little over* 6,000 acres (3,000
morgen), and, buried in some far-off recesses of the
hills, their existence is even more isolated than our
own. Sometimes we have to call in upon them in
the way of business, sometimes we ride out to
Swanepoels Poort and see the one or two families
of Stols settled there. They are a strange, taciturn,
rugged race, but when you know them, and if you

KLOOF AND KARROO.

approach them in a proper spirit, you may obtain a
store of quaint information, grim legends, wild
beliefs, and a fund of old-world hunting stories,
handed down from their fathers, who at the
beginning of this century hunted the elephant,
rhinoceros, lion, and other great game that then
abounded in the Eastern province. Too often the
Boers are laughed at and ridiculed by the English
settlers, and in consequence, they usually shut up
like a knife when in their company. My friends
here and at Riet Fontein pursued a different course,
I believe a good deal to their own advantage in the
long run. The Dutch are better as friends than
enemies, and there is nothing to be gained by
treating them as an inferior and even a conquered
race — which latter they are not, nor ever were. Of
late years, since they have discovered their politiqal
power, and, too, since the Transvaal War, they have
become, even in the Old Colony, far more independent
and even assertive than formerly. The habits of
these strange people are wonderfully primitive. The
occupants of a neighbouring farmhouse in the
mountains are two brothers ; one of them is married,
but they have only one apartment, which is shared
in common by night as well as by day, by the
married couple and the single man. This is not an
isolated instance, or one thought at all extraordinary
among these simple folk. Father, mother, and
grown-up children not seldom share the same
sleeping room. In a subsequent chapter I have
given some account of the Boer of to-day, who, as
a matter of fact, resembles very much indeed the
Boer of 1789 or even 1689. It is possible, and
indeed I think highly probable, that the influx of the

LIFE ON A MOUNTAIN FARM. 97
mining element into the Transvaal will induce far
greater changes, and a speedier transformation in
life and thought among the Boers there than in the
Cape Colony, which for the present lies unnoticed
by the invading British element, in the rush
northwards to the gold-fields.
The Boers are superstitious to a degree. One of
the Stols's, living out beyond Swanepoels Poort, was
for some time driven almost out of his mind by what
he considered ghostly manifestations. At all times
of the day, and especially at meal times, stones,
dung, and other filth were thrown into his house ;
windows were mysteriously broken, strange noises
were heard, stones and garbage came flying on to the
table at meals, and yet nothing could be discovered
as to the origin of the manifestations. At last the
poor man became so worried and nervous about the
" spook," as he called it, that he went almost in
tears to our neighbour at Riet Fontein — the late
Mr. J. B. Evans — and implored his assistance as a
magistrate. Mr. Evans sent to the nearest town for
a policeman, whom he quartered at Stols's farmhouse,
rightly thinking that the perpetrator of these high-
jinks would be shortly discovered. For some time
the policeman watched in vain, so well was the
game played, but at length the culprit was unmasked.
The eldest daughter of the fafmer himself was
caught in flagrante delicto, and confessed that she,
and she alone, had wrought all this miserable
deception upon her own parents. Her punishment
at the hands of the enraged father was, I fancy,
pretty exemplary, and the ghostly visitations never
again returned. It is a curious thing that this
peculiar species of deception, more common at one
7

KLOOF AND KARROO.

time among English servant girls than perhaps
any other class, should have been thought of by
this quiet Dutch girl upon a remote South African
farm, who had almost certainly never heard or
read of any precedent for such conduct. In a later
chapter (xx.) will be found a Boer ghost story,
sufficiently thrilling in its nature, and firmly believed
in by the farmers of the district in which the scene
is laid.

Chapter V.
THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY.

THERE is apparently so much uncertainty as
to the present distribution of the larger wild
animals in Cape Colony, and so many
people appear to be sceptical as to the existence of
any game heavier than the springbok within its
present limits, that I am induced to write a few lines
upon a subject in which I take considerable interest,
collected partly from personal experience, and partly
from that of friends now residing in the Colony. To
begin with, I may mention that of all the magnificent
large game which have abounded within the Cape
Colony within the last century, the elephant, the
buffalo, the koodoo, the gemsbok, the hartebeest, the
zebra, and the leopard are the sole representatives ;
and, with the exception of the leopard, which is still
abundant, these animals are very seldom met with,
and only prolong a precarious existence in the
densest coverts, the remotest mountain tops, or, in
the case of the gemsbok, the most waterless deserts
of the western portion of the ©range River region.
The rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the
quagga, the lion, the black wildebeest or gnu, the
roan antelope, the eland, and other noble game, have
all been exterminated or driven out of the Colony at
a remote or near period of the last hundred years,
in proportion to the measure of their several means
of defence or escape. Thus the unwieldy rhinoceros

KLOOF AND KARROO.

and hippopotamus, and the defenceless giraffe, were
first exterminated, while most of the remainder have
only quitted the scene within the last generation.
I say that the hippopotamus is exterminated ; for,
although some are still to be found in the western
waters of the Orange River — the northern boundary
of the Colony — in the rivers of the Colony proper
they are undoubtedly extinct. I have mentioned in
a former chapter on Klipspringer Shooting that the
zebra (Eqinis montanus) still lingered in the wild
and remote mountains surrounding Naroekas Poort.
On the arrival of my friends and myself in the poort,
I was surprised to learn that a troop of zebras still
frequented this district ; and, further, that these
beautiful creatures were by no means of such
infrequent occurrence in the Colony as we had
imagined. My imagination was strangely kindled at
the news ; for I had believed that the true zebra
had, with its cousins the quagga and Burchell's
zebra, been long since exterminated or driven by the
tide of colonisation into the interior. Ever since
that time I have carefully followed the history of this
particular troop, and, as far as possible, of its
congeners in other parts of the Colony, and perhaps
the result of my observations may be useful.
I believe that nineteen people out of twenty have
a vague idea that the zebra is an animal confined
exclusively to the wide karroos and rolling plains of
Southern Africa.
The true zebra, the Equus montanus, Equus or
A sinus zebra, the hippotigris of the ancients, the
daow of the Hottentots, and the wilde paard (wild
horse) of the Cape Dutch, is purely and essentially
a mountain-abiding animal. It inhabits the most

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY.

remote and rugged ranges of the Cape Colony ;
and at the present time, though sadly reduced in
numbers and in the limits of its occurrence, it may
be found in the Sneeuwberg, the Witteberg and
Zwart Ruggens, the Zwartberg, and Winterhoek
Mountains, and one or two other localities in the
Eastern province. Quite recently a troop was
running on the slopes of the Cockscomb, the highest
peak (7,000 feet in height) of the Winterhoek.
The zebra, as all naturalists are aware, differs
widely from the zebra of Burchell (Equus Bur chellii),
(the bonte quagga of the Boers, the piitzi of the
Bechuanas), and from the quagga (Equus quagga) or
quacha of the Hottentots. In the first place, its
colour and markings are widely different. The
zebra's body colour is of a beautiful silvery white,
and the black markings are distributed more evenly,
and extend to every part except the stomach and the
inner parts of the thighs ; even the legs are perfectly
ribanded in black and white. Upon the light clean
head (with the exception of the ears, upon which the
black and white markings continue) the markings
change to brown, while the muzzle is of a rich
bay tan colour. The ears and tail are distinctly
asinine, while in both Burchell's zebra and the
quagga they are of the equine type. In height,
too, the zebra, which only averages some twelve
hands at the shoulder, is inferior by some six inches
to its congeners. Contrasting, therefore, the colour
and markings of the true zebra with the sienna body
colour and brown striping of Burchell's zebra, and
the reddish-brown of the quagga — whose stripings,
by the way, only extend to a little behind the
shoulders — and further noticing its distinctive

KLOOF AND KARROO.

asinine type when placed side by side with the
more equine look of the other two, wide differences
will be readily distinguished.*
The quagga and Burchell's zebra, too, are
essentially lovers of the wide and open plains,
while the zebra proper, as I have pointed out, never
by any chance leaves its mountain home, unless
possibly to trek from one neighbouring range to
another, and then only under cover of night. I may
remark here, that the quagga has only become
extinct in the Cape Colony within the last twenty
years, but Burchell's zebra must have disappeared
long previously. That the latter animal did exist
south of the Orange River in large numbers I have
little doubt, from the perusal of Lieut. Paterson's
very interesting "Journeys to the Country of the
Namaquas and to Kaffraria in 1777-8-9," for he
speaks of what was evidently Burchell's zebra being
met with in large numbers in the Namaqua country,
though at that time the animal was unconnected
with the name of Dr. Burchell.
The first appearance of the zebra in history
would seem to have been in the reign of the Roman
Emperor Caracalla, who caused to be displayed in
the circus an elephant, a rhinoceros, a tiger, and a
hippotigris. That it was rare even to the Romans,
those diligent collectors and wanton destroyers of
animal life, is certain, for there seems to be no
other mention of the " tiger horse " in the annals
* It is to be remarked that a rare variety of Burchell's zebra (Equus
Burchcllii — var : Chapmanii) , completely striped, even to the legs, has been
observed by Chapman and one or two other travellers in Southern Africa.
This variety is, however, distinctly scarce, although I believe occurring rather
more plentifully in Central Africa. A new variety of the true zebra (Equus
Grevyii), from Shoa, North Africa, was also established in 1882.

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 103
of Imperial Rome. Further, it would seem that the
zebra was unknown upon Egyptian monuments
before Caracalla's time. Considering that the true
zebra occurs in the mountains of Abyssinia, this fact
is curious, to say the least of it, and goes to prove
that Equus montanus has ever been a shy and
difficult animal to obtain. The name zebra would
seem to be of negro or Abyssinian origin, and is
variously derived from Zeuru, Zeora, or Zecora —
Abyssinian and Galla names.
Passing to more modern times, I find the first
mention of the zebra made by Tachard, a Jesuit
Priest, who touched at the Cape on his voyage to
Siam soon after the middle of the seventeenth
century. The early Dutch settlers called the zebra
indifferently wilde paard or wilde esel (wild horse
or wild ass), and the old world travellers fell into
some absurd mistakes in consequence. Tachard
gives a ludicrous wood-cut of these so-called wild
asses, which from the full stripings are evidently
intended for the true zebra. The stripings appear
all over the body, but the ears are hideously
misshapen, and more resemble cabbages or cauli
flowers than anything else. Tachard may have
seen a skin of the zebra, but his descriptions of
these wild horses and asses are best represented
in his own words. "There ate both horses and
asses here of extraordinary beauty. The first
have a very little head and pretty long ears ;
they are all covered over with black and
white streaks (here the true zebra is evidently
intended) that reach from their back to their
belly, about fbur or five fingers broad." From
this fairly true sketch, probably taken from a skin,

104 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Tachard passes into the realm of startling fiction.
" As for the asses," he says " they are of all colours.
They have a long blue list that reaches from head
to tail ; the body being like that of the horse full of
broad streaks — blue, yellow, green, black and white,
all very lively." Lively indeed ! the word is all too
poor for such magnificent colouring ! Tachard calls
his picture the zembra or wild ass, zembra evidently
standing for zebra. The tail of the animal
thus depicted is asinine and fairly typical of
the true zebra. Ten Rhyne, who voyaged to
the Cape in 1673, is nearer the truth when he
speaks of this animal as being streaked with white
all over. Kolben speaks of the Cape wild ass as one of the
most beautiful, well shaped, and lively creatures he
had ever seen, and he tells us that it resembled the
ass in nothing but its ears (here the true zebra is
surely intended). "His legs are slender and well
proportioned, his hair soft and sleek. There runs
along the ridge of his back, from mane to tail, a
black list, from which on each side proceed streaks
of white, blue, and chestnut colour, meeting in
circles under his belly. His head and ears, mane
and tail, are also adorned with small streaks of the
same colours. He is so swift that no horse can keep
up with him, and as he is hard to be taken he bears
a very great price." Kolben, although he sojourned
at the Cape from 1703 to 17 14, evidently knew the
zebra only by report, and like Tachard when he
condescends to particulars, flounders hopelessly out
of his depth, in his effort to impart local colouring.
His wood-cut gives the stripings all over the body,
but the portrait is evidently an imaginary one ; the

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 105
figure (although striped) is the figure of a cobby
horse, with a horse's mane and tail.
According to Tellez, the Great Mogul gave
2,000 ducats for a zebra. But Nanendorf relates
that the Governor of Batavia having sent one of
these animals (presented to him by an Abyssinian
Ambassador) to the Emperor of China, that monarch
sent the Dutch East India Company in return ten
thousand " Tael " of silver and thirty night gowns,
valued altogether at 160,000 crowns.
Such briefly is the lore I have been able to collect
concerning this most interesting, and even now,
almost unknown animal.
The first reliable portrait of the true zebra occurs
in " Brooks' Natural History," published in 1760.
In this curious old work (a copy of which I have by
me), full of errors though it is in many places, there
is a really striking one of Equus montanus. This
wood-cut appears to have been taken from a living
specimen at Kew, formerly in the possession of
Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III.
Although the picture apparently indicates the true
zebra, I cannot reconcile with it the description given
in the letterpress, which reads more like a description
of Burchell's variety. The author has, I think,
confused the varieties, and has taken Burchell's
zebra to be the female, and the true zebra to be
the male.
In the year 1887, a young but mature true zebra
was captured in the mountains of Achter Sneeuwberg,
in the district of Graaff Reinet, and was afterwards
photographed. I obtained, with some difficulty, a
copy of this photograph, which is here reproduced.
So far as I know, this is the only representation of

106 KLOOF AND KARROO.
a mature true zebra captured in the wild state, and
for this reason it is a curiosity. As a most faithful
presentment of a fine specimen of an animal, always
somewhat rare, and extremely difficult of capture, and
now fast disappearing from Southern Africa, it is
doubly interesting. I have to thank Mr. H. Roe, of
Graaff Reinet, for his permission to reproduce this
excellent likeness. Dr. Sclater, Secretary of the
Zoological Society, was good enough to show me, a
short time back, some photographs of zebras, from
the collections ofhis own and various foreign societies.
In one of the latter, I noticed with interest a portrait
of a new variety of the true zebra, obtained from
Shoa, North Africa, in 1882. This animal, mentioned
in the proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1882,
was sent alive by King Menelek of Shoa, as a present
to President Grevy, of the French Republic, and for
a short time lived in the Jardin des Plantes.
Although in some points, and especially in its
markings, different from the true zebra of South
Africa, it is, I think, undoubtedly a variety of Equus
zebra. In this animal, the markings are finer and
closer together than in the South African zebra, and
in place of the broad horizontal' bands running
across the rump and thighs to the flank and ribs, so
noticeable in the picture of the Sneeuwberg zebra,
the stripes are much thinner and finer, and, indeed,
vary but little from the other markings of the
body. A glance at the photograph of this new variety,
gives one the impression that the stripes are all but
absolutely even in width over the whole of the body.
The nose of Equus Grevyii is longer, more Roman in
type, and altogether uglier than in the South African

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 107
zebra, and the body and limbs are not so compact
and robust.
There is, in fact, a more " leggy " look about
the animal ; the leg stripes are thinner and more
numerous, and upon the top of the rump from the
end of the back to the tail, on either side of the black
list running down the centre, is a good sized space of
white ; this white space is absent in the true zebra.
The ears oi Equus Grevyii appear to be shorter than
in the South African animal. Beyond these points,
there is little difference between the zebra of Shoa
and of South Africa, widely sundered as are the
habitats of the two animals.
The ferocity of the zebra is even more remarkable
than it is in its relatives of the plains. The older
Boers can give numerous anecdotes, illustrating the
dangerous and savage nature of the animal, and,
except when taken very young, it is perfectly
untamable. In bygone days, when much more
numerous than at present, I believe a considerable
number of young zebras were captured by the Dutch,
and exported to Mauritius, where they were trained
to harness, and considered to impart an air of
ton to fashionable equipages. Pringle — an acute
observer and delightful prose writer, whose poems
on South Africa, its fauna, and its natural beauties
will live long after the last of the magnificent beasts
he describes have been swept away — mentions the
frightful injuries sustained by a young Dutch colonist
from the bite of a zebra. The Boer was hunting in
some mountains of the Graaff Reinet district, and
had forced a zebra to the very brink of a precipice ;
the desperate brute turned to bay, attacked his
pursuer with its teeth, and actually tore his foot

108 KLOOF AND KARROO.

from his leg, inflicting such a dreadful wound that
the Boer died within a few days. Mr. (afterwards.
Sir John) Barrow, too, in his excellent book,
" Travels into the Interior of Africa," published
early in this century, writes of a soldier who had
mounted a half-domesticated zebra in the Cape
Colony. The creature, after making the most
desperate attempts to get rid of its rider, at length
plunged over a steep bank into a river, and finally
threw the soldier heavily as it emerged. While the
man lay half stunned upon the ground, the zebra
quietly walked up to him and bit one of his ears.
clean off. The amusing Le Vaillant, in his "Journey
to the Country of the Namaquas," about 1784,
mentions 'having ridden a very fierce zebra, which
no other person could manage ; but in this particular
instance his veracity is, I think, open to doubt.
Interesting and instructive, and true to nature, as
are very many portions of Le Vaillant's works,
especially those pertaining to ornithology, some of
the adventures are undoubtedly a little over-coloured
by the vanity of the volatile Frenchman. But to>
return to the zebras of Naroekas Poort. I soon
learned that the small troop of eight or ten, then
running in the neighbourhood of our rugged pass,
confined themselves to the most inaccessible slopes
of the mountains, and that, except occasionally on
long hunting expeditions after rhebok, klipspringers,
and other shy game, they were never seen. I had
the greatest curiosity to behold these beautiful
creatures in their own wild fastnesses, and for
many days, while following mountain antelopes, I
looked far and wide for the richly striped wilde
paard. At length one day, when out alone with

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 109
Igneese, the Kaffir, I caught a glimpse of the herd.
I remember the day well. We had sallied out for
a day's rhebok shooting, on a distant part of the
farm, and after a long and unsuccessful tramp over
some of the wildest mountains, and through some of
the deepest and most lovely kloofs I ever saw in
South Africa, we came to an abrupt corner (" hoek "
the Boers call it) of a mountain, near to its summit.
Stealing quietly round a sort of pass, the Kaffir
suddenly whispered, or rather gasped, "Wilde
paarden ! " and I beheld, right in our front, and
rather above us, standing on a rocky platform, a
magnificent zebra, and a little beyond him six
others. The troop was about two hundred and
fifty yards distant, and for two or three minutes we
stood motionless, regarding them. My host strictly
preserved, as far as he could, these rare creatures ;
so, of course, shooting was out of the question,
though the light in the Kaffir's eye plainly showed
what his feelings upon the subject of preservation
were. After a pause, we moved very stealthily
forward, to get, if possible, a nearer view. In an
instant, the sentinel we had first seen had discovered
us, and at a wild, shrill neigh from him, the whole
troop took to their heels, galloped headlong over the
mountain top, and were quickly lost to view.
I had a fleeting glance at this troop on one other
occasion, and I think, if time had permitted, I
might have made closer acquaintance with them ;
but, shortly after, I left Naroekas Poort, in whose
gloomy yet hospitable recesses I had passed so
many happy days.
Since then I have heard occasionally from my
friends in the poort and its neighbourhood, and a

KLOOF AND KARROO.

few months back I wrote particularly to inquire of
the fate of the zebras, of whom mention had not
been made for some little time. In reply to my
inquiry, I was told that they had been reduced by
Boers and natives, who never spare, or attempt to
preserve, the lives of the rarer game of the Colony,
until one stallion alone remained, the last represen
tative of the striped beauties that from ages long
remote had so fitly graced these rugged mountains.
This stallion, finding himself the last of his fellows,
had joined a troop of horses belong to the breeding
establishment of my friends, that ranged far and
free on the hillsides, and for some time ran with
them. At length he became so accustomed to
consort with the mares, that he followed them in
all their wanderings, and finally suffered himself
to be driven with them from the hills into a kraal
or inclosure. It was then determined to keep him,
and endeavour, if possible, to domesticate him.
For this purpose he was lassoed and tied to a tree ;
but so ferocious and wild was he in the presence of
man, that the greatest precautions had to be
observed in approaching him, for his open mouth
and ever-ready teeth were always prepared if any
one ventured near. Every possible means was
taken to induce the zebra to feed. When captured
he was in splendid condition, and his coat shone in
the sun " like a well-groomed horse's," as my friends
expressed it. Herbage was brought from the
mountain tops where he had been used to graze,
and every conceivable food, equine and asinine,
was placed before him, but in vain — he steadily
refused to eat. Water he drank greedily, and would
dispose of three bucketsful at a time. At length,

THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY.

after three weeks of vain endeavours to tame the
magnificent creature, during which time he existed
entirely on water, he died. It seems a pity that
this noble brute should have been held captive so
long, for he was a mature animal, seven or eight
years old, and at that age it is impossible to tame
the zebra.
Not long since I met an old friend, a former
owner of land in the poort, who informed me that
quite recently a fresh troop of zebras had trekked
into these same mountains, where their spoor had
several times been observed. That they may long
remain with other zebras in the Colony to adorn
these ancient haunts will, I am sure, be the wish of
every sportsman and naturalist.

Chapter VI.
A RACE WITH A KAFFIR.

IT is a hot afternoon in Naroekas Poort ; the sun
plays steadily down upon the rough and broken
sides, strewn with boulders of every shape and
size, of the mountains that surround us ; upon the
white-washed walls of our flat-roofed farmhouse ;
upon thorn and shrub, spek-boom, prickly pear,
cactus, aloe, and Kaffir plum that grow around ;
upon the little lands of oats and mealies down by
the river-bed at our feet, and upon the kraals, some
built of thorn, others of stone, lying to our flank,
which at this time of day shelter only a few ostriches
(for whom a more spacious camp is being prepared),
who stalk hither and thither in foolish solemnity.
It plays, too, upon the grove of thorny acacia (Acacia
horrida) that clothes the bottom of our valley away
in the hot distance, and upon the tiny clear stream
— fontein we call it here — that trickles down the
mountain at our back, watering in its course the
small potato patch that has been won so hardly
from these sterile rocks. Nature lies silent in the
heat, the soft cooing of turtle doves and the song of
the merry Basuto, building us a new stone kraal,
alone disturb the repose. But why, the reader will
ask, is your habitation pitched amid such rugged
surroundings ? My answer is — we are pastoral
farmers, and these sterile looking mountains well
serve our purposes. Our wide acreage of mountain

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR. 113
and kloof of zuur veldt (sour pasture) affords excellent
grazing for goats, and is admirably adapted for the
breeding and rearing of horses. For this reason
are we settled in one of the most sequestered nooks
of the Eastern province.
Some of us have been marking goats in the kraal
all the morning, while two others have been to the
kloof across the valley, where a leopard has been
crying for many nights past. With them they took
a dead kid, into which had been deftly inserted, by
means of incisions in soft parts of the flesh, a
strychnine pill or two, intended for the benefit of
Felis pardus. Arrived at the kloof, they had deposited
the dead kid in a place where it was likely to attract
the notice of the leopard, and in all probability the
result would be the death of one more of these
fierce enemies of our colts and flocks. Leopards
are so essentially night-loving animals, that they are
by the merest chance encountered in the daytime ;
hence the colonial method of attacking them by
poison. Three years ago, when our host came to
Naroekas Poort, it happened one day that the
mason engaged in building the house was left alone
for some hours ; the walls had been erected, and he
was working on the flat roof. Chancing to look
down from his work, the man was astounded to see
a leopard saunter quietly dowfl the hillside and
enter the house by the open doorway. Like most
South African farmhouses, the dwelling consisted
of but one storey, and the mason lay as still as
death, for he was unarmed, and, knowing the
activity of the brute, he was uncertain whether it
might not scramble on to the roof if it caught sight
of him. After five minutes of breathless suspense,

114 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the leopard, having finished its survey of the empty
house, strolled out again and betook itself to the
mountain, no doubt pondering inwardly as to the
next piece of insolence that was coming to disturb
the hitherto unbroken solitude of its fastnesses in
the lonely poort. The mason was thankful when
some more of his party arrived on the scene, and,
needless to say, took care not to be left alone and
unarmed at the house until it was finished. The
leopard shares with the buffalo, at the Cape, the
unenviable reputation of being the most dangerous
animal to face when wounded. In this respect,
even the lion, farther up country, takes a
secondary place in the estimation of South African
hunters. Our hostess sits working on the stoep (verandah)
just outside the dining-room, her little three-year
old daughter is playing near her, and occasionally
trots out to us with some treasure to display. She
has no fellow-playmate ; her child sister lies buried
a little below the house, where a rude Kaffir brick
grave marks the spot ; for in such manner are Cape
farmers, far from civilisation, often compelled to
bury their lost ones.
As one gazes down the poort (or pass) in front
of us, one cannot help feeling that these huge brown
masses of rock that form the mountains of the
Witteberg have a peculiar savage charm of their own.
One's fancy wanders back to the time, not so many
years ago, when the lion's roar echoed through their
kloofs and kopjes, as the leopard's cry does even
now; while the fleet hartebeest (Alcelaphus caama)
and the lordly koodoo (Strepsiceros kudu), most
beautiful of all South African antelopes, with its

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR. 115
heavy spirated horns and rich striped skin, still
graced the scene. Alas ! that such noble and
interesting animals should have been pushed back
by the ruthless hand of man from these open valleys
to safer haunts and more secluded pastures. Yonder
in the valley is a pool in the nearly dry river-bed ;
it is called zee-koes gat (sea cows, or hippopotamus'
deep), but the hippos have long since departed ;
whether from the attacks of human foes or from lack
of sufficient water space, caused by that mysterious
desiccating process so common to this country, is
doubtful. The local names around us are mostly
Dutch, though a few of Bushman and Kaffir origin
still linger. I am not a thick-and-thin admirer of
the Boers ; but there is something in the strange and
moving history of their sufferings, struggles, and
wanderings in this land, in the quaint and uncouth,
yet singularly graphic, names they have bequeathed
to places and things, and in their simple Old World
customs, that has for me a curious interest. These
old names bring back to me scenes of long and weary
trekkings, of outspans and inspans, of vast herds of
game — now, alas ! sadly reduced — of desperate fights
with Kaffirs, and raids on Bushman hordes, too often,
alas ! sullied by deeds of unspeakable cruelty.
However, though one sighs fqjr the bygone days,
when this country was one vast game preserve —
game the noblest and the worthiest of the hunter the
world has ever seen — we must not grumble. There
are still plenty of the smaller antelopes, such as
rhebok (Pelea capreola), klipspringer (Oreotragus
saltatrix), duyker (Cephalopus mer gens), steinbok
(Nanotragus tragulus), and on the Karroo plains, not
far away, springbok (Gazella euchore) — with which to

n6 KLOOF AND KARROO.
amuse ourselves. As for francolin (here called
partridges), guinea-fowl, koorhaan, and the rest, we
can have as much shooting as we want amongst
them. To-day, being somewhat of an off-day, and
the warm sun of South African spring having a
rather somnolent effect, we are sitting after lunch
lazily smoking (except one of our number), and
wondering what is to be done. Shall we stroll down
to the pool at the bend of the river, half a mile
beneath, for a bathe, or shall we stick up a bottle or
two and have a little rifle practice ?
The two proposals are ended by the distant
rumbling of a waggon coming down the pass towards
the house. Up jumps everybody, for be it known
this is not an everyday occurrence, and in these
quiet regions anything passing by the road below
is an object of uncommon interest.
The waggon, as it rolls slowly along, anon
crashing over a huge boulder, or across a dry spruit
here and there, is soon made out to belong to Boers,
probably from the Orange Free State, coming down
country with produce.
The great oxen step out briskly as they catch
sight of a habitation, and the Kaffir fore-louper at
their head tugs at the reim by which he leads them.
A flock of sheep and goats, headed and driven by
Kaffir boys, accompanies the waggon, while a couple
of useful saddle-horses follow it. We walk down
the hillside to the road, and our host soon ascertains
that the Boers, who have trekked far, desire to
outspan for the night and rest the next day, and to
run their trek-oxen, sheep, and goats upon the
veldt ; and after a little haggling this is accorded to
them, in consideration of a sheep, which is forthwith

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR. 117
picked from the flock, and taken up to our own kraal
in charge of our Kaffir, John.
The Boer party consists of father, mother, two
sons, and a daughter. The paterfamilias is a tall,
loose-limbed, heavy man, of drabby-brown com
plexion, and sun-tanned, hay-coloured hair, and is
clad in broad-brimmed felt-hat, decorated with a
feather or two, short coat, flannel shirt, loose
trousers, and veldt-schoons made of soft, home-
tanned leather, with the hair outside. The sons are
much of the same pattern, and they all bear a heavy
somewhat sullen expression on their countenances.
The vrouw is a sunburnt, stout old lady, wearing
on her head a tight cap or kerchief, surmounted by
a large straw hat, and attired in a frock of heavy,
rough material. Her daughter is rather more
presentable, but is by no means of surpassing
beauty. Her we do not see much of, as she sits
far back in the waggon, shaded by the tilt. None of
the party are of the cleanest ; in fact it is a debatable
question whether Boers, from the cradle to the
grave, ever do indulge in the luxury of a bath —
on the whole, probably, the " No's " would have it.
Their cargo consists of oranges, dried peaches
and quinces, walnuts, Boer brandy, and Boer
tobacco. They appear by no means eager to
trade, and we have great difficulty in getting them to
open the great hide bags in which they keep part of
their stores. However, after sampling the brandy,
things become a little brisker ; we purchase some
200 oranges, a quantity of the tobacco at three
pence per pound, and some brandy and dried
fruits. Our host and his brother, as conversation
becomes more lively, and a little banter is

118 KLOOF AND KARROO.
interchanged, draws the Boers considerably, by
inquiring how their brethren in the Transvaal
are getting on against Sekukuni, Chief of the
Bapedi, who had lately defeated the Boer levies
sent against him. This is evidently a tender
point, and not at all appreciated, especially as
our Kaffirs snigger considerably when this topic
is introduced. They, too, have, by some mysterious
telegraphy, known only to the tribes, heard of
Sekukuni's successes in his distant mountains, and
there is no love lost between Boer and Kaffir, chiefly
owing to the bad treatment invariably practised by
the former to the latter.
But time is getting on and it is four o'clock, and
at half-past five we have an athletic event coming off,
which has aroused all the sporting instincts of the
immediate district. Not far from us is a Kaffir
kraal, and amongst its inhabitants one young man,
Segani, is renowned for his running powers. One
of our own party, recently arrived in the Colony, has
also acquired a reputation in England as an athlete,
and for the last few years has been, amongst
amateurs, at the top of the tree at distance-running,
more especially from half-a-mile to two miles. The
question arose whether the hardy Kaffir, inured to
mountain exercise and capable of running immense
distances, would be a match for the young English
man, who had proved himself able to run a mile in
four minutes twenty-eight seconds at Lillie Bridge,
and had gained many a prize on running path and
green sward. The Kaffirs were decidedly of opinion
that their champion could not be defeated, while our
party were equally confident of success.
Thus a friendly match was made for a race of

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR. ng
one mile, on the best part of the road near us, which
was pretty fair going for South Africa.
A mile had been measured out, and already the
Kaffirs could be discerned about half-a-mile away,
near the winning-post, discussing and gesticulating
in excited groups.
Our champion having donned the nearest
approach to running costume he can find, and
assumed a pair of canvas shoes which, luckily, he
has by him, is ready. Proper spiked running shoes
he has not, and indeed, on this occasion, they would
be of little use ; for though it is the best we can find,
the road is " far, far from "gay," and has a fair
number of stones upon its surface, and to spring
with spiked shoes upon these would be, to say the
least, unpleasant. John, our Kaffir groom, who
looks after the horses, slaughters our daily goat, and
does odd jobs round the house, is anxiously waiting
to accompany us to the scene of action. John, it
may be mentioned, is a tall, wiry Gcaleka, standing
six feet two inches, and has not long since arrived
here in search of work from the territory beyond the
Kei, commonly known as Kaffirland. He is not a bad
sort of fellow if he is rubbed the right way, but, like
most other Kaffirs, he considers himself a gentleman
(and so, indeed, many of them are), and likes to do
his work in his own way, and, it must be admitted,
at his own time. To-day, John is resplendent in a
complete suit of coat and trousers, and, moreover,
wears above his good-humoured face an old top
hat, recently purchased, in which he, no doubt,
expects to create an impression on the Kaffirs who
dwell in the adjacent kraal.
All being ready, we stroll down to the winning-

KLOOF AND KARROO.

post, where we meet the chief of the Kaffirs of the
district, who resides at the kraal before mentioned.
About forty other Kaffirs, the Boers recently arrived,
with a few Hottentots and Bushmen, make up the
" gallery." The baboons on the mountain-side
yonder, the mountain eagle hovering motionless near
the cliff tops, and the vultures soaring far away,
mere specks in the pale blue, evening sky, who
doubtless note our every movement, are the only
other spectators of this curious scene.
The Kaffirs are chattering at a great rate, and a
betting man, if he were present, would have no
difficulty in laying a good book against their pet.
The dark champion is not attired in the costume
sacred to Lillie Bridge or Fenner's Ground ; to
speak the truth his costume is very nearly nil. He
looks, as he always does, in hard condition, and
his brown skin bears that peculiar and splendid
polish that betokens in the Kaffir the best of health.
Three watches have been set at the same time ;
one of these goes with the starter to the starting-
post, another is held half-way, and the third remains
at the winning-post. These precautions are adopted
as we are rather curious to know what a Kaffir
really can do in the way of running. The respective
champions and starter then walk quietly along the
road till they reach the starting-point ; they are
unable to carry on the light and airy conversation
affected by our English athletes on such an occasion,
which but too often ill conceals anxiety and nervous
ness within ; for, to most persons, the few minutes
of preparation immediately before a race are very
trying moments indeed. They are accompanied
part of the way by about half the onlookers, who

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR.

stop at the half-mile mark, where there is a slight
bend in the road, and from whence they can
witness the start. It was agreed that the race
should be started by a rifle-shot fired behind the
runners. The Englishman has doffed his hat and
coat, and now stands ready in a light jersey and a
pair of old flannels cut down to just above the knee.
He is not so fit as he would be for an English
championship, for he has not done much running
lately ; but for the last month he has had any
amount of hard walking exercise while shooting
about the mountains, and is in excellent health.
The contrast between the rich chocolate colour
of the Kaffir and the white skin of the Englishman,
as they stand prepared, is striking ; as to physique,
there is not much to choose between them. Segani
stands about five feet eleven inches, weighs ten stone
seven pounds, and has splendid muscular development
about his chest and shoulders, and the dying sun,
lighting upon his gleaming skin, shows up these
features to perfection. Below, he is not quite so
well set up as his opponent, nor are his legs and
thighs so good ; but he is an excellent specimen
of a Kaffir, and his friends can put forth no stouter
champion. The Englishman stands six feet one inch,
weighs, in training, eleven stone ; though slim and
somewhat lean, he has broad shoulders, with plenty
of room for lung power, to which, no doubt, he owes
his staying qualities, and is well set up on excellent
clean-cut limbs.
The brother of our host takes up his position
behind the two whom he has placed on the starting
scratch. "Get ready!" he calls out; another
second, and the rifle cracks.

KLOOF AND KARROO.

Let us watch now what tactics will be pursued
by the runners.
Segani jumps off with the lead at a fair pace,
but to his opponent, who has made up his mind to
run a waiting race, it is but moderate, for he has
been accustomed to be taken along for the first
quarter of a mile in sixty seconds and less.
The styles of the two men are widely different.
The Kaffir holds his arms somewhat low, and runs
with a short stride, yet he moves easily and well.
The Englishman strides quietly some two yards in
the rear, with a free, machine-like action, and
makes good use of his arms. So they journey
for a quarter of a mile, when the Kaffir takes a
glance round, and seeing his adversary just upon
his heels, quickens up a little, evidently not quite
satisfied with the way things are going. However,
the second man shows no sign of coming up to him
until they reach the half-mile (time two minutes
thirty seconds), when the Englishman goes to the
Kaffir's shoulder, and runs stride for stride with
him for a dozen yards, just as a feeler. Segani is
not quite happy, but he increases his pace, and the
Englishman again drops back, with just the shadow
of a smile upon his face. He knows now exactly
what he can do with his man.
Both men, as they approach three-quarters of
the journey, can hear their partisans shouting in the
distance ; some of the Kaffirs follow at their sides
cheering on their champion. Ever since the half-
mile post, Segani has been trying to get away from
his man, and the Englishman in turn has been
pushing him hard every foot of the way. Look at
them now ; the Kaffir is in trouble, his anxious face.

A RACE WITH A KAFFIR. 123
and laboured breath proclaim it but too plainly ; he
has been used to trot all day about his native
mountains in his own way, but to be pushed hard
just beyond his pace in this fashion is a new
sensation to him, and evidently he doesn't much
like it. The Englishman is striding along as freely
as when he started, still a few feet in the rear.
Three hundred yards from home he suddenly goes
to the Kaffir's shoulder, and the real struggle begins ;
for thirty yards they race side by side, but it is soon
over. The Kaffir is beaten ; he is breathing hard,
and his legs feel like bars of lead ; and our champion,
drawing right away, and finishing at sprinting pace,
has won the race by seventy good yards, which, if
he had made his own running, he might have
increased to double the distance.
The mile has been run in five minutes, two
seconds, not bad time considering the state of the
road, which in many places is of a soft, sandy
nature, and utterly unlike an English highway.
The delighted English crowd round their cham
pion, eager to pat him on the back for having so well
defended the honour of the Old Country. As for the
Boers, who have stood in blank amazement at the
whole proceeding, they ejaculate, " Allemaghte ! vat
zoorten mensch ist de ? " (Almighty ! what sort of
man is this ?) and evidently canltot at all understand
why two people should take all this trouble for what
seems to them no profit. The Kaffirs, rather cast
down, gather about Segani, to know how his defeat
happened ; the poor fellow has done all he knew,
and in reality has made a very fair display, and was
simply beaten by a better man. After the race, our
host hints to the chief, that Segani's conqueror is

124 KLOOF AND KARROO.
perhaps a better man than he was taken for, and the
chief seems to be no little surprised when he hears
of the white man's achievements. It is now getting
dusk, twilight is of the briefest, and the warm red
light in which the valley is bathed will soon
disappear ; so we at once return to the farmhouse.
Our host has invited the chief, Segani, and one or
two others, to come up and have a " soupje," and
something to eat ; and, needless to say, the offer is
accepted with pleasure. In a short time the Kaffirs
are being regaled at the back of the house, and, from
their laughter, have evidently fully recovered their
spirits, Segani's voice being the loudest of all.
Presently they retire, after a gift of tobacco, and
after Segani has been presented by his whilom
opponent with half-a-crown, at which the Kaffir's
face beams with delight.
Then we re-enter the house to finish our own
suppers, after which, not the least pleasant of many
happy days in South Africa is completed over pipes
and grog, by an evening's chat and stories of
shooting, and of old days in the Colony. And so, as
good old Pepys hath it, to bed !

Chapter VII.
VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING.

IN the long and brilliant array of South African
antelopes, the vaal or grey rhebok (Pelea
capreola) has, like its fellow mountain dweller,
the klipspringer, for some reason or other, been
unaccountably neglected by hunters and naturalists.
Widely scattered though it is over nearly every part
of South Africa, affording as it does excellent hill
shooting, and possessing certain curious and indeed
unique characteristics amongst the antelopes, it has
yet been too frequently passed by unnoticed, in the
rush to describe the larger and nobler game of this
game-abounding country. From this unappreciative
category, however, Gordon Cumming must be
excepted, for, in his earlier days in the Colony,
before he passed on to the vast and then compara
tively virgin hunting grounds of his beloved limpopo
and the far interior, he describes the vaal rhebok as
affording him the nearest approach to Highland
deer stalking of any game he had encountered.
Cornwallis Harris, too, in his magnificent book,
descriptive of South African game, has a good word
to say for this shy and active antelope. Since the
year 1836, when the emigrant Boers, discontented
with British rule, shook off the dust from their feet,
and trekked into the then unknown wilds of the
territories now known as the Orange Free State and
Transvaal, the tide of colonisation has too often

126 KLOOF AND KARROO.
swept into those countries, leaving the Cape Colony
unnoticed and uncared for. The plains of the Free
State, and the high veldt of the Transvaal, which
when discovered were literally overburdened with
almost every description of game, provided easier
and more abundant shooting than the older Colony ;
and, in consequence, the game in those States has
been so harried, so depleted and exterminated, that
there is now in the Cape Colony itself better shooting
than in many parts of those sadly-abused hunting
grounds. The Cape Colony is an easy-going and a non-
assertive country, and has been so long accustomed
to hear of the brilliant shooting amongst the big
game of the far interior, that its own merits in the
matter of sport have been left unnoticed and unsung.
And yet it can still boast, amid some of its denser
bush-veldt country, and in the Knysna Forest of
the elephant, the buffalo, and the koodoo ; while, as
I have shown in a former chapter, the noble zebra
still adorns its mountains, in which the leopard also
is common. Many travellers, passing up country,
dismiss the old Colony with a sneer, or, perhaps,
admit that there are a few springbok on the flats.
These people, who follow the beaten tracks, and
stay only at the accommodation-houses, know
nothing of the deep kloofs, the wild mountains,
and untraversed karroos of many parts of the
Colony — places almost as primeval, as secluded,
and as little known even now as they were fifty
years since. To those who like a wild rough stalk
amidst magnificent mountain solitudes and sombre
kloofs, that even to this day know not the distant
bleat of the farmer's flocks, the chase of the rhebok

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 127
offers many attractions. In such localities, and
especially in the zuur veldt, or sour-grass country, the
klipspringer, the vaal and rooi rhebok, and the duyker
may be found in plenty. In bygone days, when the
plains of Cape Colony abounded with antelopes and
other game, I can understand that the timid and
retiring rhebok, with its modest garb, contrasting
poorly with the larger and more gaily painted of
the antelopes (such as the gemsbok, the eland, the
hartebeest, koodoo, and others), was left undisturbed
in its mountains ; but at the present time, hunters
cannot pick and choose so freely, and this antelope,
I repeat, can offer very excellent sport after its kind.
Like the klipspringer, of which I have written
previously, I first saw the grey rhebok near Naroekas
Poort. A few days after arriving there, I rode out
with my two travelling companions and our host to
a wide shallow kloof, some six miles distant, where
the latter had fixed the headquarters of his breeding
establishment for horses and mules. In this kloof,
and upon the mountains around, large numbers of
these animals ran in almost pristine freedom, and a
little Boer named Tobias Verwey, who lived there
with his wife in a small house, looked after them,
and kept down the leopards — very troublesome
neighbours — by the aid of strychnine, the only
effectual method of dealing with these nocturnal
marauders. On this day we rode first to Tobias's
house, with two zinc buckets carried by a Kaffir.
Now, little Tobias (for, unlike most Boers, he was a
little man), who was, I think, the most genial and
friendly Dutch Afrikander I ever met with, had a
peculiar talent, common also to Kaffirs, Bushmen
and Hottentots, for finding wild honey ; and as

128 KLOOF ANU KAKKUU.

there was an abundance of this delicacy in the rocks
around, he was directed, with the Kaffir, to fill the
buckets — a business, including the finding, of little
more than half-an-hour's labour — while we others
rode a mile or two farther into the mountains.
Accordingly we continued our way for a couple of
miles, until we reached a part of the kloof resembling,
more nearly than anything I can think of, the
commencement of the wild pass of Glen Lyon in
Perthshire, where the lofty frowning hills on the
right-hand side slope steeply down to the river
beneath. Just as we entered upon this grand bit
of scenery, having emerged from a small mimosa
grove that fringed a dried-up river-bed between the
mountains, our host, with the word " rhebok " on his
lips, pointed suddenly to his left ; and less than a
hundred yards distant a troop of six grey antelopes,
rather taller and slimmer-looking than fallow deer,
after eyeing us for a second, bounded away up the
rough and precipitous mountain-side as only rhebok
and klipspringer can. On this day, as we had not
come out on shooting intent, only one of our
number, one of my companions, carried a rifle, and
he, unluckily, had lagged a little in the rear. By
the time we had hastily called him up, the rhebok
were quite 300 yards away, and although he quickly
dismounted and had three or four long shots, the
antelopes escaped untouched. It was marvellous
with what free smooth strides they sailed away
obliquely up the long stretch of mountain, here
abouts covered with boulders, loose stones, and low
brush, and I suppose some 2,000 feet high, until at
length their diminishing forms vanished over the
mountain tops. Sorry as we were to have missed

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 129
obtaining a specimen and some venison, we were yet
well pleased to have set eyes upon a curious and, to
us, new species of the antelope tribe. Our host
having shortly finished inspecting his mountain
veldt in this locality, we turned our horses' heads,
and, after an hour's absence, reached Tobias's
house again. Tobias, his expressive black eyes
beaming with pride (I think the little man, from his
dark complexion and low stature, must have been,
upon his mother's side, like many other Boers, of
Huguenot extraction), was ready for us with the
two pails, each nearly filled with rich dark honey.
After looking at a few horses in the kraal near
the house, and learning that all was well with
such of the stud as we had not seen on our way
hither, we set off homewards, leaving Tobias and
the Kaffir to follow with the honey. Here I may
remark that the wild honey found in such
abundance in these mountains, and indeed all over
South Africa, though dark in colour, is as delicious
and well-flavoured as any I ever met with, and, as
may be imagined, it formed a staple luxury in the
somewhat attenuated list of our up-country fare.
It was not long after this that I made closer
acquaintance with the rhebok. One bright, clear
morning, a few days later, I started away from our
lonely farmhouse in Naroekas,* accompanied only
by Igneese, the Kaffir hunter of whom I have
previously made mention, to shoot over a part of the
mountains six or seven miles distant. The rest of
the party were either busied in another direction, or,
after a hard week's tramping about the hills after
klipspringer, duyker, and feathered game, were
inclined for a rest. I carried a Cogswell and
9

130 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Harrison -450 sporting rifle, while the Kaffir shouldered
a mixed weapon, of which one barrel was rifled
while the other carried shot. This Kaffir, Igneese,
was one of the best native specimens I ever met with ;
a good shot, an untiring walker ; and with powers
of tracking and finding game unequalled, he lacked
the noisy garrulity of some of his brethren. In
addition to these good qualities, he was a careful,
steady man, and possessed a good flock of goats
and some oxen of his own, and was, in fine, quite a
model Kaffir. We made an early start, and,
descending the hillside on which our farmhouse
stood, soon reached a path that led through the
grove of thorny mimosa (Acacia horrida) along the
bottom of the poort. We followed this path for a
couple of miles, until we arrived at a point where
two kloofs opened up into the mountains. Choosing
the right-hand path, we plunged into a lonely gorge
that led for miles into the heart of these rugged hills.
The kloof was of surpassing beauty. Above and
around us the mountains, clothed here and there
with dense bush and scrub, reared themselves on
either side to a great height, their dark brown crests
showing strikingly against the clear azure of the sky.
A tiny stream of pure water flowed by, while flowers
innumerable spangled the bottom of the valley.
Geraniums and pelargoniums flowered in wild beauty
and luxuriance ; many kinds of beautiful heaths and
irids pied the ground with brilliant hues ; aloes held
aloft their rich red spikes of flower ; whilst the
Kaffir apple, Hottentot cherry (aasvogels besjes, or
vulture berries, as the Boers call it), wilde pruimen
(wild plum), euphorbia, prickly pear, and many
another shrub, blossomed on every side. Hundreds

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 131
of ringdoves cooed softly around, while gorgeous
honeybirds, finches, and kingfishers, flitted from
bush to bush, or darted arrow-like down the stream.
The little rock rabbits (the coney of Scripture)
glided merrily about the surface of the rocks, and
here and there big rock pigeons bustled on fleet
pinions. The soft and quiet beauty of this kloof,
on that calm, warm morning, teeming as it did with
the life of birds and the luxuriance of flowers, was
a thing not to be easily forgotten. On such a day,
and amid such surroundings, the rougher and ruder
phases of South African life up country — and they
are not few — are easily forgotten and forgiven.
Presently, as we cross the sand bed of a dry
water-course, the Kaffir stops, and points to the fresh
spoor of a leopard, but explains that the night
marauder has long since retired to his mountain
den. A few years before, when my host first settled
in the poort, these animals were very numerous,
and committed great havoc amongst his colts and
flocks. From their nocturnal habits, they are very
rarely seen in daylight, so that war had to be waged
against them by, the use of strychnine concealed in
meat ; they are now somewhat less numerous and
less troublesome. Presently we strike again to the
right, and ascend the mountain ; it is stiff work,
indeed, and requires both lungs*and muscles to be in
good trim, which, happily, is the case with both of
us. Having traversed another kloof, and ascended
another hillside, we near the ground where we
expect to find rhebok. After half-an-hour's further
very severe climbing, during which time Igneese
was anxiously scanning the mountain-sides, and
searching here and there for spoor, we came upon

132 KLOOF AND KARROO.
fresh indications of our game. Keeping what win
there was well in our faces, we now hastene
cautiously forward, until in another mile we reached
a shoulder of the mountain-side. Here Igneese
again hit off the spoor, and very quietly we crept
through some bushes till we could obtain a better
view of the hill before us. At length, straight
in front of us, uphill some 700 yards distant, we
could see five rhebok, their grey forms showing so
indistinctly from the rocks amongst which they
grazed, that for some time I looked in vain. The
ground directly between us and them was so open,
that it was impossible to approach more closely
from our present position ; there was, therefore, no
help for it but to creep back, ascend the mountain
rather higher up, where the covert lay better, and
then stalk in as well as we could.
After an exceedingly long and careful stalk,
and by dint of crawling some 200 yards on our
stomachs, we had managed to creep to within
140 yards of the herd. To approach nearer,
without disturbing the antelopes, was impossible ;
so, after waiting a short time, in the vain hope that
they might graze towards us, and after motioning
to one another which side to shoot, we took steady
aim and fired.
The rhebok I had selected half fell to the shot,
but was quickly up again and struggling after the
rest uphill ; the Kaffir had missed clean, much to
his chagrin. The wounded buck only ran for about
a quarter of a mile, and we were luckily able to keep
it in view, and in a very short time Igneese's knife
put an end to its dying struggles. My bullet had
smashed the angle of its shoulder, and, after passing-

'-:¦¦

y
ocq
X
K
y<<>
w
a

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 133
nearly through the body, had run off at a tangent up
the neck nearly out at the skin on the off-side. The
bullet, hollowed at the top of the cone, had caused a
severe tearing wound, and the wonder seemed how
the antelope could have moved at all after such a
shock. To people accustomed to African shooting,
however, the extraordinary vitality of the antelope
tribe, and, indeed, of every kind of game, is familiar ;
and even when hit in apparently a vital spot, the
game will over and over again escape from the
hunter. One reason for this, as it seems to me, is
that in these parched and rugged wastes Nature
has provided an increased store of strength and
endurance, to enable her offspring to contend with
the many difficulties and dangers that they have
to undergo, whether they be attributable to waterless
deserts, fierce animals, or the merciless Bushmen,
Hottentots, and Kaffirs, who, through unknown
ages, have preyed upon the game that surrounded
them. We were now in the centre of the wildest part of
these mountains, and as the beauty of the prospect
around could scarcely be improved upon, I rested
a short while for lunch — some biltong and biscuit,
and a mouthful of Cango brandy. While we rested,
Igneese gralloched the rhebok, and I had time to
notice its proportions. The vaal, or grey rhebok
(Redunca capreola or Pelea capreola), Peeli of the
Bechuanas and Kaffirs, is, as its name indicates, of
a grey colour. It varies considerably from the rooi or
red rhebok, which is also found in these mountains
and in other grassy localities nearer the coast line,
more especially towards the eastern part of the
Colony. It stands at the shoulder some two feet six

134 KLOOF AND KARROO.
inches in height, and is in length about five feet.
The body is light and slender, the ears are long
and pointed, head smallish, while the horns are
straight, thin, and pointed, about nine inches long, and
annulated at the base ; the belly is white, or nearly
so. The female of this species is lacking in horns,
and is smaller than the male. The most peculiar
feature of this antelope lies in its coat, which differs
essentially from every other South African antelope,
and consists of a thick woolly fur, approaching very
closely to the texture of that of the rabbit, but softer,
finer, and longer ; the venison, although inferior to
springbok and some of the larger antelopes, is by no
means despicable, but it has the fault, common
to much South African game, of being somewhat
dry. Although as regards beauty this antelope may
not be compared with many of its congeners, it has
its good points ; when extended, it is a most
beautiful mover, and the nature of its habitat and its
shy habits will always render it worthy of the
sportsman's skill. I believe I am correct in stating
that there is no specimen of the rhebok in our
Zoological Gardens, nor am I aware that any
specimen has ever been shown alive in this country.
I do not think the vaal rhebok runs in troops of more
than eight or ten at the outside. I think eight was
the largest number I ever saw together ; oftener from
four to six were seen. The spot where we rested,
high up among these rude hills, was indeed desolate.
The foot of man but seldom treads these remote
regions ; a hunter now and again, or a few farmers,
perhaps once in a dozen or even twenty years,
beaconing off their boundaries, are the only human
beings likely to disturb the repose that reigns so fitly

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 135
here. This dead antelope has a certain charm in my
eyes. It is the representative of the matchless fauna
that imparted life to these solitudes long ages before
Van Riebeek and his sturdy Dutchmen set foot in
Table Bay ; long even before the little Bushmen
hunters possessed the land, or the Hottentots — the
Khooi-Khooin (men of men), as they proudly call
themselves — held sway, or the Kaffirs, pushing their
way southward and westward through the dark
continent, at length appeared upon the scene.
My musings were soon over ; we shortly resumed
our march, and tramped on for another hour without
seeing further traces of game, except a brace of
klipspringers, far out of range, and some francolins,
which we decided to leave in peace. At length,
after laboriously ascending and descending alternate
mountains and kloofs, whose crumbling and jagged
sides began to make us weary, we suddenly came
' upon a small troop of four rhebok, which had either
got our wind shortly before, or had heard our
approach through a kind of nek or dip in the hills ;
they were slowly cantering off below, and directly
in front of us, their long ears and somewhat stilty
legs making them look larger than they really were.
The distance was considerable — about 400 yards—
but Igneese and I both let fly at the retreating herd.
As I expected, I made a clean rhiss, but the Kaffir
was more fortunate, and wounded a bok on the left
hand. It was a difficult shot, and down a steep
mountain-side. Reloading as we ran, we followed the
now flying antelopes as hard as we could tear ; but,
clearing the rough ground as they did, apparently with
the ease and smoothness of a racehorse at exercise,
we stood no sort of chance with our fleet quarry,

136 KLOOF AND KARROO.
and they were soon far beyond ken. The bok
wounded by Igneese must have been very slightly
hit, for after searching and spooring about for
another hour, we were obliged to abandon pursuit,
and turned homewards, as it was now getting towards
three o'clock. Another soupje from my flask, and a
well-earned pipe of tobacco, and we were striding up
hill and down dale again until we had reached the
rhebok shot in the morning. It was too far home
to carry the whole carcass, so Igneese quickly
skinned the animal, and taking the best of the meat,
hid the remainder, which he intended returning for
early next morning.
The Kaffir having taken as much meat as he
could carry, we started homewards, having still a
longish march before us. As we descended a craggy
steep some way farther on, Igneese suddenly touched
me, and pointed to a deep thickly bushed hollow in
the kloof right below us; I shortly made out a dark
form, half hidden by the brush some 300 yards
beneath. The duyker, for such it was, had for a
wonder not noticed our approach, and I had time
for a steady shot. What with the distance, the bad
mark offered — for the bok was more than half
hidden — and the difficulty of shooting almost
perpendicularly down hill, I missed, however. This
antelope (Cephalopus mergens) is common in the
Cape Colony, and may be found in bushy cover, and
especially in such deep dark bottoms as I have
described. It stands about two feet high, is of a
dark brown colour (white underneath), carries short,
straight, sharp horns, four inches long, and is found
either singly or in pairs. Its Dutch name, duyker 
that is, diver or ducker — aptly describes it, for it

VAAL RHEBOK SHOOTING. 137
invariably dives or sneaks into the densest cover it
can find, and will even lie down in the hope of
escaping notice. The duyker is not a favourite with
most Cape farmers, who, I fancy, despise it for its
sneaking characteristics.
Again resuming our way, we proceeded supper-
wards. By the aid of the shot barrel of the weapon
which Igneese had carried, I knocked over a brace
of fine rock pigeons in the flower-spangled kloof we
had passed through early in the morning, and, just
before we reached Naroekas, a spring haas, or
jumping hare — one of the jerboa family — which was
hopping along in our front in the dusk of evening.
Our bag was not a great one, but the grand and
diversified mountain scenery, the pure air and long
rambling walk, and the sight of the rhebok and
other game, had amply repaid me for such fatigue as
had been undergone.

Chapter VIII.
A SPORTING SAUNTER.

M

Y ramble to-day is a solitary one, for my
friends are busied in other directions
around our mountain farm. Shouldering
only a shot gun, and leaving perforce behind me
our two sporting dogs — a retriever and setter, which
are only just recovering from the dire effects of
eating poisoned meat intended for leopards — I
saunter down the boulder-strewn mountain-side,
and direct my footsteps by a dry stream-bed
through a little forest of thorny mimosa. The
Cape winter has passed away, and the rich and
diversified flower-life of this often-maligned land is
approaching its best and bravest. The yellow acacia
bloom, fragrant with sweet scent, is beautiful to look
upon, and contrasts strikingly with the shrivelled
winter appearance of these trees. Amid the
branches, hundreds of ring-doves — the tortel duif of
the Boers — coo softly and soothingly in the pleasant
warmth. After a walk of two miles, I approach the
sharp angle of a mountain spur, whence two kloofs
or gorges run for miles into the hills. Choosing that
upon the left hand, as being the wilder and more
solitary, I move quietly under the sheer rocks, which
here run upwards like a mighty wall. Just as I turn
the corner, where I know the great rock pigeons love
to rest, I look upwards, and surely enough, thirty
yards above, on a rocky ledge, sit a brace of these

A SPORTING SAUNTER. 139
handsome birds ; they have not yet perceived me,
but directly I betray myself, they bustle off on strong
and noisy pinions. My gun is up, and with the
report, the nearer bird turns over in mid-air, and
falls heavily to earth, its fellow somehow escaping
the second barrel, much to my disgust. Below the
rocky cliffs, just where the pigeon fell, the wild
geranium, or pelargonium, grows in bewildering
luxuriance, and, being retriever! ess, I have some
difficulty, wading through the flowers, thick and
middle high, before I pick up my spoil ; at length
it is secured and I resume my march. The kloof
lying before me is here 200 yards wide, and is
shut in on either hand by dark brown frowning
hills, their sides here and there lit up by ruddy
splashes of lichen and the blood-red flower spikes
of the aloe. A stream of clear water, down which
I note the swift flash — mazarin-blue and red — of
a kingfisher, runs through. The rich bottom soil
is gay with flowering shrubs and bushes, and —
besides the pelargoniums, brilliant heaths, ixias,
gladioli, and other irids — amaryllids, orchids, and
other flowers, bewildering in their splendour and
their plenty, star the ground.
The flora of the Cape, perhaps the richest in
the world, seems created in truth but to blush
unseen. At home it is almost unknown, yet
English botanists, if placed in a South African
mountain kloof, or upon the boundless karroo,
would give their eyes and ears for the beauty
around them at certain seasons. Proceeding quietly,
in a few hundred yards, I come upon four or five
more pigeons, sunning themselves upon a rocky
krantz ; my powder this time proves straighter, and

140 KLOOF AND KARROO.
a neat right and left tumbles over a brace of the
gallant birds. The improvement in my shooting
adds just the required fillip of zest to the charms
of the scene around, and with elastic step I move
onwards more rapidly towards the ground where I
expect to find the red-wing partridges. There is
a track plainly visible as I walk, though it is here
and there overgrown by the luxuriant vegetation
— a track worn by centuries of the ponderous
tramp of elephants that once browsed amid these
mountains. But the elephants have been driven,
more than a generation ago, by the hungry ivory
hunters, to their last strongholds in the impenetrable
bush-veldt of the Sunday and Great Fish Rivers,
and the dark jungles of the Knysna Forest, where
they yet linger in the Old Colony. For the space
of nearly half-an-hour there is no game to be seen
worth the shooting, although I am not alone. In
the bushes near me the sun-birds or sugar-birds —
Les Sucriers of the old French traveller, Le
Vaillant (who, by - the - bye, crossed these very
mountains in 1784, through a poort not twenty
miles distant), flutter restlessly from flower to
flower, extracting the sweet juices with their long
tongues. Songless though they are, the plumage
of these birds is glorious ; brilliant shining greens,
marvellous blues, reds, and yellows, and orange gold
predominate in their colouring. Solomon, in all his
glory, was not more gorgeously arrayed. At length
I espy a bird long wished for— a bird that creeps
slyly in and out of the brake, as if to escape the
eyes even of its feathered fellows. I know him at
once for the bush lory, and hastily slipping in
cartridges of finer shot, I quietly follow him up, till,

A SPORTING SAUNTER. 141
as he emerges from a bush, I secure him with the
first barrel. This is a prize of value, and after
examination ' and admiration, is tenderly bestowed
in an inner pocket. The bush lory — Le Coucouron
Narina of Le Vaillant, who named it after the fair
Gonaqua Hottentot, Narina, of whom he writes so
gushingly — with its vivid green back, grey wings,
delicately pencilled in white, carmine breast, and
green throat, is a curious and a notable bird.
Having bagged the lory, I hasten on, and in
another half-mile I turn an abrupt corner, or hoek
as the Boers call it, of the kloof, and closely and
cautiously scanning the cliff sides, I set eyes upon
three klipspringers — literally, rock jumpers — standing
upon a ledge half-way up the mountain-side. The
klipspringer may be styled the chamois of South
Africa, and is one of the handsomest, most
characteristic, and shyest of the antelopes of the
country. One of the trio is but half-grown, and
in size about equals a smallish lamb. For ten
minutes, hidden in the bushes, I watch the beautiful,
sturdy little creatures, leaping here and there, from
rock to rock, and ledge to ledge, feeding as they
go. They are not very far away — although out of
range of my shot gun — and I can plainly distinguish
the rich olive brown of their coats, and the glint of
the sun upon the short straight horns, sharp as
poignards, of the full-grown ram.
A Kaffir hunter of ours saw near this very spot
a singular scene. Here is his story: — " I had been
hunting all the morning, and at last came upon two
klipspringers, on the mountain-side, perched upon
a jutting-out rock. Just as I was about to creep
closer for my shot, I noticed another hunter, keener

142 KLOOF AND KARROO.

even than myself. Above the klipspringers, just over
the cliff-tops, and unseen to the antelopes, hovered
a great black eagle, a berghaan (Le caffre of Le
Vaillant, the dassie vanger — rock-rabbit eater — of
the Dutch), and he, no doubt, had long had his
piercing gaze upon their movements. Just as I was
about to move forward, one of the antelopes leaped
down to a tiny pinnacle, or peak of rock, jutting still
farther from the mountain-side, and at that instant
the black eagle swooped like lightning from above,
and before I could realize it, or the poor klipspringer
either, with talon and beak, and the rush and force
of its mighty wings, had swept the hapless antelope
from its perch headlong to the rocks beneath. Black
as death was the eagle, and deathlike was its swoop.
This was more than hunter's flesh and blood could
stand, and rushing forward, I was in time to drive
the eagle from its quarry, which lay struggling with
broken back and smashed head. Quickly I put the
poor little buck out of its misery, and hid it away
under thorns and stones, until I had finished my
day's hunt." Such incidents are not uncommon.
A mile or so farther on the kloof broadens out,
the mountains slope less steeply, and the bottom of
the valley rises upwards somewhat. Here I must
" gang warily," for the " red wings " abound on the
more open ground. The wind is in my face, luckily.
I still hold up stream, and presently, just as I
expected, in a clump of palmiet that grows thickly
in the moist ground, I flush a brace of big greyish-
brown birds, that whirr away with even stronger
flight than our English partridge. At twenty-five
yards I stop one, but its fellow, wheeling at the report
sharp to the left, escapes a too hurried second barrel.

A SPORTING SAUNTER. 143
Quickly I reload, for I know that these birds often
lie thick and close in the palmiet, and ere I reach
the stricken bird, four others rise almost from
under my feet. Out of this quartette I secure a
brace greatly to my contentment. It takes me
ten minutes to gather up my spoil, for one of the
three is only wounded, and I am not so handy at
retrieving as an English spaniel.
The red wing partridge of the Cape colonists
is, in truth, a francolin — Francolinus Le Vaillantii —
and like many another South African bird, was
discovered and named by the indefatigable if
sometimes inaccurate Le Vaillant. It is a
handsome game bird, greyish buff upon the top,
dark orange red on the throat, and upon the
speckled rufous brown chest there is a curious
white half-moon, or gorget, somewhat similar to
the ring of our English ring-ousel ; there are also
white lines upon the head. The insides of the
wing-feathers are of a deep rufous colour, whence
the bird takes its name. Whether considered from
the ornithologist's point of beauty, or for its virtues
as a table-bird, this francolin is in truth a prize
well worthy of capture. A walk of an hour or so
up the valley adds three brace further to my score,
and I turn homewards well satisfied with my varied
if modest bag. Although the €ape Colony is now
nearly denuded of its larger game, save only the
elephant, buffalo, zebra, koodoo, and leopard, which
still linger in remote districts, Englishmen in search
of change will yet find there an abundance of the
smaller antelopes and a vast store of feathered
game, and by moving from one farmhouse to
another, any well-behaved persons will procure an

144 KLOOF AND KARROO.
abundance of sport at very little expense. They
will behold a magnificent country, as yet scarcely
touched by agriculture — a country still in many parts
as primitive and as little known as when the Dutch
first landed on its shores — and they will find a
climate unsurpassed, even if viewed from the
stand-point of health alone.
But since the passing of stricter game
preservation laws by the Cape Parliament a
year or so back, the close time for antelope shooting
is extended to the months between July and January
in some districts, and between August and
March in others ; and further, in some divisions
certain antelopes are protected from the gunner
altogether for periods ranging from one year to
three. I have referred to this with more particularity
at the end of the chapter on the antelopes and larger
game of Cape Colony.
Coming homewards by the river, I disturb some
blue cranes, which rise and fly off to some quieter
resort ; these dark-hued birds are not uncommon
hereabouts. The great wattled crane is also met
with, but only very occasionally. Sometimes
wandering down the river very quietly, we happen
upon these blue or Stanley cranes in a small band.
When undisturbed and completely at their ease, for
they are shy creatures, their pacings, dancings,
marchings, counter-marchings, and other playful
manoeuvres (I suppose these movements are playful,
although they are often gone through with awful
solemnity) are indescribably ludicrous. Watching a
group of cranes pursuing their pastime on a smooth
spit of river-sand, I have sat for nearly half-an-
hour, with one of my companions, in fits of smothered

A SPORTING SAUNTER. 145
laughter at these absurd avi-faunal junkettings and
philanderings. Another long-legged bird — the violet stork — is very
occasionally to be seen in this neighbourhood. This
bird, the Ardea nigra of Linnaeus, is much more
remarkable in colouring than the slate-coloured,
blue-black crane I have mentioned. A specimen
of this fine stork was shot at Riet Fontien far out on
the dry karroo, strangely enough ; and its skin,
which I brought home for a brother of the shooter,
was very beautiful in its strangely metallic sheen.
The general colour of the violet stork is a dark
shining green-brown ; the metallic lustre is very
remarkable ; the under parts and thighs are snow-
white ; the bill, which this bird uses very freely in its
defence, is red, as also are the long legs. Before
reaching home, I shot near the water a blue gallinule
(Porphyrio erythropus), a handsome green and
purple-hued bird, having legs and bill of brightest
red. This member of the family of rallida^ (rails),
is to be found near rivers and valleys all over the
Colony. Finally, I gain the cool stoep of the
farmhouse — now pleasantly shaded from the sun —
well content with my quiet ramble in search of
sport, and my modest bag, and in a fit state for
war upon the supper, not long hgnce to appear.

10

Chapter IX.
BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY.

AFRICA, and especially South Africa, is
peculiarly rich in birds of prey. Whether
you traverse mountain, karroo, forest, bush-
veldt, or deep and jungly kloofs, you will never be
long out of sight of some member of the order
raptores, be it vulture or eagle, buzzard, kite, falcon
or owl. Of these raptorial birds it may be asserted,
from a study of the most competent authorities, that
some fifty or more species are to be found within the
limits ofthe Cape Colony (i.e., the old Cape Colony
proper, bounded by the Orange River on the north and
the Kei River on the east). These limits embrace a
vast extent of country, much of it scarcely known to
the colonists, and still more quite unexplored to this
day by ornithologists, and it is, therefore, not at all
improbable that some rare birds of prey may to this
hour be existing in melancholy obscurity, so far as
collectors are concerned. Mr. E. L. Layard, in his
" Birds of South Africa," acknowledges that many
species on the frontiers, especially to the eastward,
may be yet undescribed, as he had not been able to
visit these districts personally, or get anyone to
collect there for him.
The raptorial birds of Cape Colony, exclusive of
the secretary bird, may be divided as follows : Five
species of vulture, two buzzards, twelve eagles, two
kites, seven falcons, thirteen hawks, five harriers,

BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY. 147
and nine owls. This is a goodly array, indeed,
and it is not surprising that the Cape farmers,
whether Boers or British, are their sworn foes.
Naroekas Poort, as I have said, is one of the
wildest and most solitary mountain ranges of the
Colony. In this wild spot many birds of prey abounded.
Whenever we went out shooting or farming, if we
failed to catch sight of any vultures, soaring or
circling in graceful sweeps over some object beneath
them, we might always count on seeing an eagle
near the cliff tops, or a hawk or falcon on the look
out for food of some kind or another ; nay, without
stirring out of doors, we could often watch one of
the fierce tribe (usually a jet-black dassie-vanger or
a Senegal eagle) hanging motionless in air above the
mountain-side facing us, or stooping occasionally,
with swift flight, upon its prey. Thus opportunities
of noticing these interesting, if somewhat incon
venient, birds (i.e., to the farmer) were almost
constantly before us.
The bearded vulture, "arend" ofthe Cape Dutch
(Gypaetus meridionalis) , was a frequent visitor from
the mountains, and, I believe, actually bred in the
locality. This great bird is an extremely dangerous
neighbour for lambs and kids, and as our mountain
flocks consisted entirely of goate, a pretty good look
out was generally kept for it. The flight of this bird
is, for power, grace, and swiftness, unexampled ; its
ordinary passage through the air seems made without
any apparent effort whatever.
The black vulture, zwart aasvogel of the Boers
(Otogyps auricularis) , was another of our neighbours,
as well as the common vulture (Gyps fulvus) , aasvogel

KLOOF AND KARROO.

of the colonists. The word aasvogel, by the way,
literally means flesh or carrion bird. Both of these
species are bred in our mountains, and if we were
shooting and killed a klipspringer or rhebok, or
other antelope, their presence was, in a very few
minutes, made known. It is extraordinary how
these birds will, on these occasions, suddenly start
as if from space. The common aasvogel is much
more numerous than the black aasvogel, and will
generally get out of its way at a carrion banquet.
We shot specimens of these birds, and also found
them dead from poisoned meat set for leopards,
but did not care greatly to handle the loathsome
creatures. The witte kraai (white crow) , or Egyptian vulture
(Neophron percnopterus) , was pretty frequently seen ;
in the Western province this bird is rare. The
Kaffirs say it nests in the mountains, but I never
saw its eggs. This is a singular bird, with its dirty
drab colouring, relieved only by a touch of yellow
round the eyes, cheeks, chin, and throat, which
are bare.
Of the buzzards, we occasionally saw the jackal
vogel (buteo jackal). It is a handsome bird, brightly
coloured in ruddy brown and black, with a touch
of white upon the throat ; it builds in bushes
principally ; its cry is often heard, and is sharp and
strident ; it is death on rats and such small game,
and will sit for an hour patiently waiting for its
opportunity. The eagles, troublesome neighbours though they
are for the pastoral farmer, have a noble something
about them, that to some extent, small though I fear
it may be with the colonists, condones their crimes.

BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY. 149
Of these grand birds, I think the dassie-vanger (i.e.,
rock-rabbit eater) of the Boers (Aquila verreauxii)
was perhaps the most striking specimen in our valley.
In colour it is jet black, with a patch of white upon
the lower part of the back ; the legs are thickly
feathered, the toes bright yellow, and the claws black.
Often were these bold birds to be seen sailing about
the mountain tops, or hovering motionless near the
cliff sides. Our mountains abounded with little rock-
rabbits (das or dassie of the Dutch), and these
animals are the favourite food of this eagle, hence its
name. It is said, and I believe with perfect truth,
that the dassie-vanger will on occasion beat or hurl
the klipspringer antelope from the peaks and
projections of the cliffs and rocks on which it has its
habitat, afterwards feeding upon its dead body. The
Kaffirs in Naroekas always affirmed this, and Boers
and other white men have frequently told me the
same thing, and from the nature and habits of the
birds, which we frequently found near klipspringer
ground, it is not difficult to believe the story. The
dassie-vanger will certainly prey on kids, lambs,
weakly goats, and sheep. A specimen of this eagle
was shot by one of my friends near the carcass of a
dead kid. I remember one hot afternoon resting
after a long tramp beneath the ^hade of a rock, and
watching one of these eagles manoeuvring for a rock
rabbit. These little animals are extraordinarily
agile and watchful, and slip about the. rocks with
lizard-like rapidity. Long and patiently the great
sable bird waited aloft ; at length its opportunity
came ; swift as thought it made its stoop, successfully
seized its victim, and with it soared away again to
its nest. The dassie-vangers are not, however,

150 KLOOF AND KARROO.
invariably, or anything like it, the winners in these
games of skill, and I have frequently seen them miss
their stoop. The nest of this bird is made on the
most inaccessible rocks and ledges, and at great
altitudes ; and I was too busily engaged in shooting
and other matters to essay the break-neck pastime
of searching for one.
The Senegal eagle, coo vogel of the Boers
(Aquila senegalla), was another familiar eagle with us.
In size it is nearly on a par with the last-named,
though a trifle smaller, measuring in length about
two feet eight inches, and is a determined and
dreaded foe to young antelopes and weakly and
young sheep or goats. We almost always saw these
eagles when out shooting, and I believe that on
the Karroo plains — where I have also seen them
frequently — they constantly accompany hunters, and
even pick up wounded game birds.
One of my friends shot a specimen of this eagle.
In colour it is a rich rufous brown, darkening
towards the tail and wings ; the toes, cere, and
irides are yellow, the legs amply feathered, and the
beak black. Mr. Layard speaks of the tameness,
when in confinement, of a specimen of this bird,
afterwards sent by him to the Zoological Gardens,
and of the probability, from its habits, of its being
trained into a good hunting eagle. Undoubtedly,
from the keen interest it takes in hunting parties,
and its amenity to semi-domestication, this is
possible ; and the Senegal eagle might be developed
into as useful a hunting eagle as the " bearcoot "
of the Khirghiz Tartars. The "bearcoot" is
employed in Asia for hunting deer, wolves, and
foxes, and, if well trained, was, according to Pallas

BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY. 151
valued at the price of two camels. It is not likely,
however, in South Africa, where the colonists are
only interested in destroying the aquiline race,
that the interesting spectacle of a trained hunting
eagle will ever be witnessed.
The crowned eagle (Spizaetus coronatus), very
occasionally, was seen in Naroekas. It was pointed
out to me on two occasions, but I only witnessed
it in flight. In size it much resembles the dassie-
vanger, but has a longer tail ; it is of a light
colour, especially underneath, the back being dark
brown slightly marked with white. The crested
eagle (Spizaetus occipitalis) was also an occasional
visitant, coming, I think, over the mountains from
the forest district of Knysna, which it seems to
prefer. This is a dark brown bird, having a long
crest of blackish-brown feathers about half a foot in
length ; the legs are well feathered, and are in
striking contrast to the dark body, being of a pure
white. I saw one specimen of this bird which
had been shot sitting on a rock ; it is considerably
smaller than the crowned eagle. There are at
least two fishing eagles in the Colony, Haliaetus
vocifer and Haliaetus leucogaster. The commoner
of these, the first-named, I once saw on the coast
not far from Port Elizabeth, sonie distance beyond
Baakens River. I believe it is abundant on the
coast of the Knysna district. This eagle has a good
deal of white about it, and is called " witte visch
vanger" (white fish-eater) by the Cape Dutch.
Passing to the falcons, the lesser peregrine,
spervel of the Dutch (Falco minor, or Falco
peregrinoides), was pretty frequently seen and
sometimes shot, as it is a great troubler of the

152 KLOOF AND KARROO.
poultry ; it is almost identical with the European
peregrine. Another falcon, which I took to be
Falco biarmicus, but whose colonial name I never
heard, was also seen occasionally. In our valley,
not very far from the farmhouse, there was a large
grove of mimosa trees, down near the bed of a
periodical stream, and amongst these mimosas there
were hundreds of turtle doves. Upon these hapless
doves the two falcons I have named, as well
as others of the raptores, did great execution,
scattering every now and again the poor wretches
with sudden swoop.
The smaller falcons were not uncommon. The
hobby (Hypotriorchis subbuteo), with its bluish grey
back, was sometimes observed, as also was the rooi
valk (red hawk — Tinnunculus ruficolus), a pretty little
falcon, resembling our own kestrel, very frequently
to be seen hovering in mid-air, watching intently for
birds, rats, mice, and other small game. Seen in
flight, this bird looks as its name implies, principally
rufous in colour, but the head, neck, and tail are of
a bluish grey.
Of the kites, I believe only two have been
properly recognised in the Cape Colony. I saw
one near Naroekas on two different days, which I
took to be Milvus parasiticus, but these birds are
not frequently seen, so far as I could learn.
Of the hawks, one of the commonest and yet
most interesting was the blue hawk, sometimes
called the chanting falcon, the blaauw valk of the
Dutch (Melierax musicus). This interesting bird
has been surrounded by Le Vaillant with a
somewhat fictitious glamour. He tells us that it
sings regularly night and morning — and even in

BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY. 153
the night — for about an hour, at intervals of a
minute ; and further, what is certainly correct, that
it is shy and difficult of approach, but can be shot
while singing, when it seems much engrossed. I
fear the old-world French traveller was drawing
upon his imagination for the first statement, for
I have never been able to learn that there is any
such regularity or method in its singing as he
pretends. I often saw this hawk in and near
Naroekas Poort, and when crossing the karroo it
was even more abundant, and I have heard its
singular cry or song. This is a handsome bird,
rather long in the leg, and slightly resembling the
jerfalcon. It stands some two feet high, its upper
parts are of a greyish brown, while underneath it
is white, barred with browmsh blue lines ; the
legs are red.
The chanting falcon preys on hares, rabbits,
francolins, bustards, and other game birds, and even
upon the paauw (Otis kori), on occasion. All the
rapacious birds have shrieks and cries of their own,
but the blaauw valk differs from its fellows in
possessing the power of making sounds almost
musical in their cadences ; these sounds have been
compared to the thrilling notes of musical glasses,
which indeed they do distinctly resemble. I have
heard this hawk's notes in the early morning, but
was never able to convince myself that Le Vaillant
was correct in stating that it sang regularly morning
and evening. A small dark brown hawk, which,
I think, must be Accipiter minullus, was very
occasionally seen at Naroekas Poort. Le Vaillant
states that this hawk hunted in the country between
Gamtoos River and Kaffraria, and there, I think, he

154 KLOOF AND KARROO.
is undoubtedly correct, for Naroekas Poort lies only
a few miles from the Gamtoos or Groote River, and
this hawk is found in other parts of the Eastern
province. It has become the fashion to sneer at Le
Vaillant as a mere fabricator of absurd stories
concerning birds and their habits ; but we must
remember that Le Vaillant did, at a time when the
Cape was a dangerous and almost unexplored country,
actually discover, and accurately record, very many
of the birds of South Africa, birds which to this day
are distinguished by his name ; and for this work
we ought to be duly grateful. The hawk known as
Melierax gabar, was fairly common in our neighbour
hood. This is a light brown hawk, the darker colour
on the back changing to grey upon the throat, and
white lower down ; we always found it in particular
in a deep bushy kloof or gorge where small birds
were plentiful. The harriers were not very well
represented in our mountains, but as they are
generally found in low marshy spots, this is not to be
wondered at. The only specimen I saw was one of
the species called by Le Vaillant " le grenouillard "
(Circus ranivorus). This specimen was shot near the
river which ran through our valley, where I expect it
was hunting for fish or frogs. There were several of
the owl family in our neighbourhood, but the only
members definitely distinguished were the large-
eared owl (Bubo capensis), Le moyen due of Le Vaillant,
and the common white owl (Strix affinis).
Our principal day for noticing quietly such of the
raptorial birds of the Colony as favoured us with
their presence was Sunday, a day which, in the more
remote farmhouses (where church is, as was the case
with us, some sixty or seventy miles' distant), hangs

BIRDS OF PREY IN CAPE COLONY. 155
rather heavily after private service is over. On hot
afternoons, in the grim old poort, often have we
helped to pass the time watching the great eagles
wheeling about the cliffs, or the hawks and falcons
plying their devastating careers.

Chapter X.
AN UNLUCKY DAY.

1 QUITTED our mountain valley one morning,
attended by Jackson, an English mason, who
was staying for some time at the farmstead
building cattle kraals, and generally making himself
useful upon the estate. A handy man of this sort,
especially if he be a blacksmith, and sober and
diligent to boot, may reckon upon constant and
lucrative employment in South Africa. Jackson was
a good enough sort of man, and was desperately
keen for a day's shooting now and then, an instinct
possibly inherited from some remote poaching
ancestor in the Old Country, or, still more probably,
naturally implanted in his breast in common with so
many denizens of these islands. But Jackson had
been out of health for some time from fever and
rheumatism, and was not in the best condition for a
long tramp over rough mountain veldt. However,
the man begged so hard that I consented, and
we set out at eight o'clock in the morning, he
armed with our " mixed " weapon carrying shot and
bullet, while I took with me my favourite " George
Daw" -450 sporting rifle. Varying our usual
hunting ground, we made up the steep mountain
directly at the back of the farmhouse, and after a
hard scramble of five-and-twenty minutes or so,
reached the crest. Here we took a survey of the
country- — a survey embracing in its sweep nothing

AN UNLUCKY DAY. 157
but mountain tops, some peaked, some serrated,
others of the broad flat table shape so common to
South Africa. It was a glorious morning, and the
clear crisp air — for it was yet spring-time at the
Cape — the blue vault of space, and the grand
panorama of hill scenery billowing around us, all
appealed strongly to that sense ofthe beautiful, which
I suppose every man, in some degree, slight though
it may be, possesses. Having settled our plan of
action, and noticed how the wind lay — a matter of
vital importance in dealing with the marvellously
keen-scented game of South Africa, and indeed every
other wild country — we descended the mountain on
the other side, bearing right-handed for a nek or
opening between the hills. Reaching this nek we
looked to our weapons, and then stole cautiously
along for some two hundred yards over rough ground,
covered with long coarse grass, until we came to a
turn of the mountain. Rounding this turn, we came
suddenly upon a reddish-coloured antelope that was
grazing apparently alone some sixty yards away.
The rooi or red rhebok, for such it was, was
away like lightning, almost as soon as we set eyes
on it ; and although we fired simultaneously, we
were not quick enough, and the antelope had gained
the shelter of some dense bush, and we never looked
upon it again. Misfortune number one ! This was
the only buck we got within range of throughout
that day, although we sighted others. Doubtless,
if we had had Igneese, our Kaffir hunter, he would
have somehow got us within fair shot of the rhebok ;
for these people, from centuries of practice, have much
finer instincts in tracking and finding game, than as
a rule is to be found in the average white man ;

158 KLOOF AND KARROO.
however, nothing daunted, we resumed our wa37.
All that morning we toiled up rough and jagged
mountain-sides, through deep kloofs, and along flat,
table-like, hill tops, littered here and there with huge
dolmen-like boulders, and covered with dense crops
of long waving sour-grass, in search of game ; it
was a hot morning as the sun gained strength.
Twice only did we sight antelopes before twelve
o'clock ; once a brace of klipspringers, far up on a
rocky krantz, and quite inaccessible, except at the
long range of six or seven hundred yards. Lying
flat upon the ground, we put up our sights, and
essayed the forlorn hope. As I expected, the bullets
struck short, for in the marvellous clearness of this
atmosphere, one is apt too often to misjudge
distances in this way ; only incessant practice and the
constant habit of pacing out distances can get over
this difficulty. As the bullets rattled into the cliff
below them, the klipspringers bounded away up the
precipitous crags, and were soon lost to view ; then
the echoes of our shots, reverberating loudly among
the rocks, came rolling back. We obtained just a
glimpse of a vaal or grey rhebok a little later, but he
got our wind, and was away long before we could
get near him. At twelve o'clock we rested for a
mouthful of lunch, and I then discovered that
Jackson had had about enough of it ; the lack of
sport had no doubt something to do with this, added
to his somewhat indifferent health. We determined
to walk quietly for another hour or two, and then, if
unsuccessful, to make our way to a store that lay just
outside the poort, or pass from the mountains to the
plains beyond. Still no luck ; we tramped steadily
on for two hours longer, and then rested upon a

'

wW
Xo2
H

UjOoC
«

AN UNLUCKY DAY. 159
mountain top that overlooked Waai Kraal (Windy
Kraal), the store I have mentioned.
It was a fine prospect. On our right the Gamtoos
(hereabouts more usually called the Groote) River,
or the remains of it — for drought prevailed —
meandered peacefully beneath, its shallow course
occasionally broken into a chain of deep pools.
Just on its thither bank nestled three or four small
Boer homesteads, around which, upon some rich
alluvial soil, grew pleasant fruit trees — oranges,
peaches, grapes, and quinces — although at present
not in the full bearing — save the oranges — of their
summer fruit. Further to the left the white walls of
the store shone, gleaming beneath the hot sunlight,
and in a camp near the house we could just discern
a few ostriches pacing solemnly hither and thither.
Away in the distance, far as the eye could reach,
the open Karroo plains stretched to the foot of
some distant range that lay purple upon the horizon.
As we rested here, the only bit of sport, which fell
to us this day, happened. Jackson rose, and went
poking about in some long grass with his gun ;
a solitary bird got up from under his feet, and
letting drive with all the bottled-up eagerness of
desperation, he knocked it over with his shot-
barrel at fifteen paces. The victim proved to be
one of the plover kind (Charadrius coronatus), and
is known all over the Colony as the kiewit — a name
evidently given to it, as in the case of our own
peewit, from its piping call. Purplish drab as to
its upper parts, its breast is of a darker shade of
brown ; the stomach is snow-white, and the tail
feathers are also white, marked towards the
extremities with black cross-bars, and tipped with

160 KLOOF AND KARROO.
white ; the crown of the head is black, effectively
separated by a white line. This bird is seldom
found alone ; in this instance its fellows must have
been disturbed by our vicinity.
Picking up his solitary and battered prize,
Jackson came back and finished his pipe. Although
temporarily a little roused from his fatigue, I could
see that the man's weary soul no longer hungered
after sport ; in fact, he was now completely knocked
up, and our only plan was to make for the store,
rest an hour or so, and then, towards evening, start
back for home through Witte Poort, and so along
the fairly level road that led along by the Plessis
River up to our farmstead — a matter of eight or
nine miles. Descending the mountain with some
difficulty, for it was steep, broken, and crumbling,
we reached the plain, and presently arrived at the
store. Squatted outside, blinking in the hot glare of the
sunlight, were three or four Kaffirs, one of whom I
recognised as a petty chief from a neighbouring
kraal, making up their minds for a drink, or
devising means of raising the wind. Inside, as
we entered, another was having a soupje, a small
tumbler of raw spirit — Boer brandy — which he
gulped down without even winking. Not a
pleasant sight, but, alas, a too frequent one at
South African " winkels " (stores). Another fiery
dram followed, gulped down, like its predecessor,
quite unblenchingly, and yet that crude and awful
spirit is enough to make even a dead donkey
sneeze. Truly these natives must have " interiors "
of cast iron. Now I am not straight-laced, or a
preacher, or a practiser of total abstinence, but

AN UNLUCKY DAY. 161
when I remember that the Hottentots, who 250
years ago held sway in this vast territory, are
now, as a race, absolutely demoralised by strong
drink ; that out of their numbers probably more
than fifty per cent, are at the present time in a
greater or less degree drunkards ; when I reflect
that drink forms the unhappy beginning and the
miserable end of the story of their intercourse with
the white man ; when, too, I see a magnificent
race like the Kaffirs falling before the same evil
influences, I feel sick at heart, and heartily wish
every barrel of the filthy poison sold to these
poor people a hundred fathoms deep beneath
the ocean.
Having entered the " winkel," Jackson forthwith
flung himself down on the top of an empty cask,
and having ordered him some .bottled beer and
some sardines and biscuits, I followed the store
keeper into his inner sanctum, there to refresh
myself and look at some Kaffir curios. Having
finished a bottle of Bass, I came out into the store
again, and there found Jackson discussing a third
glass of "square-face" (Hollands), in succession
to the beer I had paid for. This would not do at
all, for I knew his head was anything but strong,
and I had to get him home. Alas ! the mischief
was done, as I found to my cost later on. Jackson
now lay down for a nap before we started, and
I lighted a pipe, chatted to the store-keeper, and
went out to have a look at his ostriches. In about
three-quarters of an hour I roused Jackson, and
prepared to set off homewards, for it was now four
o'clock. I wanted to take a little treat home for
Mrs. H., our hostess, and I therefore bought half
11

162 KLOOF AND KARROO.
a dozen bottles of stout, which, at two shillings
and sixpence a bottle, is a luxury in these regions.
Three of these I inserted into the capacious pockets
of my own shooting jacket, the other three I got
Jackson, who, though drowsy and tired, seemed
pretty well, to carry in fhe same way.
Then we prepared to start. About three hundred
yards from the house lay the drift or ford of the
Groote River, and towards this we made our way.
The drift was strewn with rough stones and boulders,
and the water ran in a shallow stream between these ;
with ordinary care, it would not be a difficult matter
to get across dryshod. I went over first, and when
half-way, or a little more, turned to look for Jackson ;
alas ! at that moment he stumbled and fell
headlong into the stream, smashing my gun, which
he carried, short off at the stock, and smashing also the
three bottles of stout with which he was loaded up.
I picked him up, put his hat on, took the pieces ofthe
gun under my arm in addition to my own rifle, and
helped the man across the remainder of the drift ;
he was simply dripping with stout, which leaked
through his pockets and streamed down his legs.
On the other bank, I picked the pieces of broken
bottles from his pockets, and cleaned him down as
well as possible ; then, with his arm in mine, we
continued the journey — a journey I shall never
forget. We proceeded about three hundred yards, and I
was vexed to find that the fresh air had an entirely
different effect upon Jackson from what I had hoped
and expected. He became rapidly more helpless ¦
he leaned heavily upon me, reeling in his gait, and
occasionally letting his hat fall from his head. When

AN UNLUCKY DAY. 163
I picked it up he usually fell down ; however, we must
get home, and slowly and laboriously we proceeded.
I suppose if Jackson dropped his hat and fell down
once in the next two miles, he did it fifty times ; it
was really too disgusting. Presently I began to feel
tired, for it is no joke, after a fifteen miles' mountain
tramp, to have to carry a rifle, a gun broken in two,
three bottles of stout, oneself, and a tipsy man into
the bargain. With infinite labour we completed
another mile in this manner, until, as dusk came
on, I became exhausted. Here Jackson implored me
to leave him in the bush to go to sleep. Another
half-mile of falls and pickings up, and I sat down for
a moment's rest beside the unfortunate Jackson, who
instantly seized the opportunity to fall fast asleep.
It was now dark ; in the distance I could hear the
noisy barking of the curs belonging to a Kaffir
kraal. I thought of taking Jackson there, but I scarcely
liked the idea, for although the Kaffirs would look
after him till morning, he would probably be placed
in a hut swarming with vermin. Then I tried to wake
him and proceed. In vain ; he muttered, " Leave
me to sleep," and I could do nothing with him ; he
would not wake. Finally I placed him under a dry
thick bush away from the road, and left him to follow
on in the morning when he had recovered ; he could
take no harm, and the nights were dry and not too
cold. Weariedly I resumed my journey, and about
three miles from home, the last stroke of a day of
evil luck overtook me.
I had carried all day, suspended to a belt, a
sheathed hunting knife — one of Silver & Co.'s best
specimens — for the purpose of giving the coup de

1 64 KLOOF AND KARROO.
grace to, and skinning game when wounded. The
knife, a doubled-edged one, was nearly new, and
its point and edges were as sharp and keen as
they well could be. During the operations of
stooping and picking up the unfortunate Jackson,
the sheath had by some means come off, and
as it was dark, to save time, I slipped it into
my pocket, and very unwisely left the knife to
hang naked at my side. Before long the belt
had slipped round, and the knife hung, unknown
to me, directly in my front. In crossing a dry
spruit, and scrambling up the farther bank, I
blundered in the dark, and making an extra effort,
thrust my right thigh heavily against the point of
the hunting knife. I knew in a moment what had
happened ; the blade had gone pretty deeply into
my leg, and directly I topped the bank I was
bleeding freely, and felt the warm blood trickling
down the wounded limb. Situated as I was, I could
only bind my handkerchief tightly round my leg,
trust to Providence, and hurry home. After a
somewhat painful walk, I at length saw the welcome
lights of the farmhouse, and presently got indoors ;
then I found the leg of my right trouser soaked in
blood. Assistance was soon provided, the wound
washed and tightly strapped up, and the bleeding
presently ceased. An inspection showed that I had
had a very narrow escape ; the wound was within one
inch of the femoral artery ; if this artery had been
severed I should have bled to death very rapidly
and nothing could have saved me. An inch of a
miss, however, in this case, was literally as good as a
mile, and the only reminder I have of the adventure

AN UNLUCKY DAY. 165

is a neat scar. I was about again in a few days.
Jackson arrived at the farm at five o'clock in the
morning, none the worse for his sleep in the veldt,
but rather ashamed of himself. And so ended the
most unlucky day's sport I ever experienced in Cape
Colony.

Chapter XI.
A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER.

M

ANY are the stories told at the outspan fires
of the South African transport riders —
some weird, some romantic, some of native
wars, some of fierce encounters with the wild beasts
of the land. Often, as I travelled with my friends
up country, we stopped to have a chat with the
rugged transport riders, and some strange and
interesting information was obtained in this way.
The transport rider — the carrier of Africa — with
his stout waggon and span of oxen, travels, year
after year, over the rough roads of Cape Colony,
and beyond, in all directions, and is constantly
encountering all sorts and conditions of men —
white, black, and off-coloured ; and in his wander
ings, or over his evening camp-fire, he picks up
great store of legend and adventure from the passing
hunters, explorers, and traders.
One night, after a day's journey through the
bush-veldt, we lay at a farmhouse, near which was
a public outspan. At this outspan two transport
riders were sitting snugly over their evening meal ;
they seemed a couple of cheery, good fellows — one
an English Afrikander, the other an Englishman,
an old University man, and well-read, as we
afterwards discovered — and nothing would suit them
but that we should join them, and take pot-luck.
Attracted by their hospitable ways, and the enticing

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 167
smell of their game stew, for we were none of us
anthobians, we sat us down and ate and drank with
vigorous appetites. Their camp-pot contained the
best part of a tender steinbok, and a brace or two
of pheasants (francolins) ; and we heartily enjoyed
the meal, washed down with the inevitable coffee.
Supper finished, some good old Cango (the best
home-manufactured brandy of the Cape, made in
the Oudtshoorn district) was produced, pipes lighted,
and then we began to "yarn." For an hour or more,
we talked upon a variety of topics — old days in
England, the voyage to the Cape, the Colony, its
prospects and its sport. From these, our conversa
tion wandered up country, and we soon found that
our acquaintances were old interior traders, who in
the days when ivory and feathers were more plentiful
and more accessible than now, had over and over
again made the journey to 'Mangwato and back.
'Mangwato, it may be explained, is the trader's
abbreviation for Bamangwato, Khama's country,
the most northerly of the Bechuana States ; and of
Bamangwato, Shoshong is the capital and seat of
trade. Then we wandered in our talk to the
Kalahari, that mysterious and little-known desert
land, and from the Kalahari back to the Orange
River again.
"'Tis strange," said one of.our number, "how
little is known of the Orange River — at all events
west of the falls ; I don't think I ever met a man
who had been down it. One would think the
colonists would know something of their northern
boundary ; as a matter of fact they don't."
"Ah! talking of the Orange River, reminds
me," said the younger of the transport riders, the

168 KLOOF AND KARROO.

ex-Oxonian, and the more loquacious of the two, " of
a most extraordinary yarn I heard from a man I fell
in with some years back, stranded in the 'thirst-land'
north-west of Shoshong. Poor chap! he was in a
sorry plight ; he was an English gentleman, who for
years had, from sheer love of sport and a wild life,
been hunting big game in the interior. That season
he had stayed too late on the Chobe River, near
where it runs into the Zambesi, and with most of
his people had got fever badly. They had had a
disastrous trek out, losing most of their oxen and all
their horses ; and when I came across them they
were stuck fast in the doorst-land (thirst-land) unable
to move forward or back. For two-and-a-half days
they had been without water; and from being in
bad health to begin with, hadn't half a chance; and
if I had not stumbled upon them, they must all have
been dead within fifteen hours. I had luckily some
water in my vatjes, and managed to pull them round;
and that night, leaving their waggon in the desert, in
hopes of being saved subsequently, and taking as
much of the ivory and valuables as we could
manage, and Mowbray's (the Englishman's) guns and
ammunition, we made a good trek, and reached water
on the afternoon of the next day. I never saw a man
so grateful as Mowbray ; I believe he would have
done anything in the world for me after he had
pulled round a bit. Poor chap, during the short time
I knew him, I found him one of the best fellows and
most delightful companions I ever met. Unlike
most hunters, he had read much, and could talk well
upon almost any subject; and his stories of life and
adventure in the far interior interested and impressed
me wonderfully ; but the Zambesi fever had got too

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 169
strong a hold upon him. I dosed him with quinine,
and pulled him together till we got to Shoshong,
where I wanted him to rest ; but he seemed restless
and anxious to get out into the open veldt again, and
after a fewr days we started away. Before we had
got half-way down to Griqualand, Mowbray grew
suddenly worse, and died one evening in my waggon
just at sunset. We buried him under a kameel
doom tree, covering the grave with heavy stones,
and fencing it strongly with thorns to keep away
the jackals and hyenas.
" Many and many a talk I had with poor Mowbray
before he died ; sometimes he would brighten up
wonderfully, and insist on talking to me for hours,
as he lay, well wrapped up, in the evening,
underneath my waggon sail. One evening, in
particular, he had seemed so much stronger and
better — and in the evening, as we sat before the
camp fire on the dewless ground, where I had
propped him up and made him comfortable, he
told me a most strange story, a story so wonderful
that most people would scout and laugh at it
as wildly improbable ; yet, remembering well the
narrator and the circumstances under which he
told it to me, with the shadow of death creeping
over the short remaining vista of his life, I believe
most firmly his story to be true as»gospel.
" Poor chap ! he began in this way : " Felton,
you have been a thundering kind friend to me,
kind and tender as any woman (which, by the
way, was all nonsense), and I feel I owe you
more than I am ever likely to repay ; yet, if you
want wealth, I believe I can put it in your way.
Do you know the northern bank of the Orange

170 KLOOF AND KARROO.
River, between the great falls and the sea ? No !
I don't suppose you do, for very few people have
ever trekked down it ; still fewer have ever got down
to the water from the great walls of desolate and
precipitous mountain that environ its course, and
except myself and two others, neither of whom
can ever reveal its whereabouts, I believe no mortal
soul upon this earth has ever set eyes upon the
place I am going to tell you about. Listen !
" In 1871, about the time the diamond-fields were
discovered, and people began to flock to Griqualand
West, I was rather bitten with the mania, and for
some months worked like a nigger on the fields ;
during that time I got to know a good deal about
stones. I soon tired of the life, however, and finally
sold my claim, and what diamonds I had acquired,
fitted up a waggon, gathered together some native
servants, and trekked again for those glorious
hunting grounds of the interior, glad enough to
resume my old and ever-charming life. Amongst
my servants was a little Bushman, Klaas by name,
whom I afterwards found a perfect treasure at
spooring and hunting. Like all true Bushmen, he
was dauntless as a wounded lion, and determined
as a rhinoceros, which is saying a good deal. I
suppose Klaas had had more varied experience of
South African life than any native I ever met.
Originally, he had come as a child from the borders
of the Orange River, where he had been taken
prisoner in a Boer foray, in which nearly all his
relations were shot down. He had then been
' apprenticed ' in the family of one of his captors,
where he had acquired a certain knowledge of semi-
civilised life. From the Boer family of the back

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 171
country, he had subsequently drifted farther down
into the Colony, and thence into an elephant
hunter's retinue. He had accompanied expeditions
with Griquas, Dutch, and Englishmen all over the
far interior. The Kalahari desert, Ovampoland,
Lake N'Gami, the Mababe veldt, and the Zambesi
country, were all well known to him, for in all of
them he had traded, hunted, and, on occasion,
fought. As for the western Orange River and its
mysteries — for it is a mysterious region — he knew it,
as I afterwards discovered, better than any man in
the world. Well, we trekked up to Matabeleland,
and, after some trouble, got permission to hunt
there ; and a fine time we had, getting a quantity
of ivory, and magnificent sport among lions,
elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceros, sable and roan
antelopes, koodoo, eland, Burchell's zebras, pallah,
and all manner of smaller game.
" One day, Klaas, who was sometimes a bit too
venturesome, got caught in the open by a black
rhinoceros, a savage old bull. The old brute
charged and slightly tossed him once, making a
nasty gash in his thigh, but not fairly getting his
horn under him, and was just turning to finish
the poor little beggar, when I luckily nicked in.
I had seen the business, and had had time t
rush out on to the plain, and jifst as Borele charged
at poor Klaas to finish him off as he lay, I got
up within forty yards, let drive, and, as luck
would have it, dropped him with a "500 express
bullet behind the shoulder. Even then the fierce
brute recovered himself, and tried to charge me in
turn ; but he was now disabled, and I soon settled
his game. After that episode, Klaas proved himself

172 KLOOF AND KARROO.
about the only grateful native I ever heard of, and
seemed as if he couldn't do enough for me.
"One day, after he had got over his wound, he
came to me, and said, ' Sieur ! you said one day that
you would like to know whether there are diamonds
anywhere else than at New Rush (as Kimberley
was then called). Well, sieur, I have been working
at New Rush, and I know what diamonds are
like ; and I can tell you where you can find as many
of them in a week's search as you may like to pick
up. Allemaghte ! Ja, it is as true, sieur, as a wilde
honde on a hartebeest's spoor."
" ' What the devil do you mean, Klaas ! ' said I,
turning sharply round — for I was mending the
dissel-boom (waggon pole) — to see if the Bushman was
joking. But, on the contrary, Klaas's little weazened
monkey-face wore an expression perfectly serious and
apparently truthful. The statement seemed strange,
for I knew the little beggar was not given to
' blowing,' as so many of the Kaffirs and Totties are.
" ' Ja, sieur, it is truth ; if ye will so trek with me to
the Groote (Orange) Rivier, three or four days beyond
the falls, I will show you a place where there are
hundreds and hundreds of diamonds, big ones, too,
many of them, to be found lying about in the gravel.
I have played with them, and with other " mooi
steins," too, often and often as a boy, when I used to
poke about here and there, up and down the Groote
Rivier. My father and grandfather lived near the
place I speak of, and I know the way to the " vallei,"
where these diamonds are, well, though no one but
myself knows of them ; for I found them by a
chance, and, selfish like, never told of my child's
secret. I will take you to the place if you like.'

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 173
" ' Are you really speaking truth, Klaas ? ' said I
severely. "'Ja! Ja ! sieur, I am, I am,' he earnestly
and vehemently reiterated, ' you saved my life
from the " rhenoster " the other day, and I don't
forget it.'
"Again and again I questioned and cross-
questioned the little Bushman, and finally convinced
myself of his truth, and I had too much respect for
his keen intelligence to think he was himself misled
or mistaken. "'Well, Klaas,' said I at last, 'I believe you,
and we'll trek down to the Orange River and see
this wonderful diamond valley of yours.'
" Shortly after this conversation we came back to
Shoshong, where I sold my ivory, and then with
empty waggon, and the oxen refreshed by a good
rest, set our faces for the river. From Shoshong,
in Bamangwato, we trekked straight away across the
south-eastern corner of the Kalahari, in an oblique
direction, pointing south-west ; it was a frightfully
waterless and tedious journey, especially after passing
the Langeberg, which we kept on our left hand.
Towards the end of the journey, we found no water
at a fountain where we had expected to obtain it, and
thereby lost four out of twenty-two oxen (for I had
six spare ones), and at last, after trekking over a
burning and most broken country, we were beyond
measure thankful to strike the river some way below
the great falls. Klaas had led us to a most beautiful
spot, where the terrain slopes gradually to the river
(the only place for perhaps thirty or forty miles,
where the water, shut in by mighty mountain walls,
can be approached), and where we could rest

174 KLOOF AND KARROO.
and refresh ourselves and our oxen. Here we
stopped four days. It was a lovely spot ; down
the banks of the river, and following its course,
grew charming avenues of willows, kameel dooms
(mimosa), and bastard ebony ; two or three
islands densely clothed with bush and greenery
dotted the broad and shining bosom of the mighty
stream ; hippopotami wallowed quietly in the flood,
and fish were plentiful. The mimosa was now in
full bloom, and the sweet fragrance of its yellow
flowers everywhere perfumed the air as one strolled
by the river's brim. Rare cranes, flamingoes, gorgeous
kingfishers, and many handsome geese, ducks, and
other water-fowl, lent life and charm to this sweet
and favoured oasis.
" I had some old scraps of fishing tackle with me,
and having cut myself a rod from a willow tree,
I employed some of my spare time in catching
fish, and had, for South Africa — which, as you
know, is not a great angling country — capital sport.
The fish I captured were a kind of flat-headed
barbel, fellows with dark greenish-olive backs and
white bellies, and I caught them with scraps of
meat, bees, grasshoppers, anything I could get
hold of, as fast as I could pull them out, for an
hour or two at a time. Once I ran clean out of
bait, and was non-plussed ; however, I turned over a
stone or two, killed a couple of scorpions, carefully
cut off their stings, and used them as baits, and
the fish came at them absolutely like tigers. I soon
caught some thirty pounds' weight of fish whenever
I went out. The mountains rose here and there
around in magnificently serrated peaks, and the
whole place, whichever way you looked, was superbly

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 175
beautiful. There was a fair quantity of game
about ; Klaas shot some klipspringer antelopes
— hereabouts comparatively tame — up in the
mountains, and there were koodoos, steinboks,
and duykers in the bushes and kopjes.
"After the parching and most harassing trek
across the desert, our encampment seemed a
terrestial paradise. The guinea-fowls called
constantly with pleasant metallic voices from the
trees that margined the river, and furnished capital
banquets when required. Many fine francolins
abounded, and at evening, Namaqua partridges
came to the water to drink in literally astounding
numbers. We had to form a strong fence of thorns
around us, for leopards were numerous and very
daring, and there were still lions about in that
country. At night, as I lay in my waggon,
contentedly looking into the starry blue, studded
with a million points of fire, and mildly admiring
the glorious effulgence of the greater constellations,
I began to conjure up all sorts of dreams of the
future, of which the bases and foundations were
piles of diamonds, culled from Klaas's wondrous
valley. " Having recruited from the desert journey, and
all, men and beasts, being in good heart and fettle,
we presently started away down the river for the
valley of diamonds. I had, besides Klaas, four other
men as drivers, voer-lopers and after-riders, and they
naturally enough were extremely curious to know
what on earth the ' Baas ' could want to trek down
the Orange River for — a country where no one came,
and of which no one had ever even heard. I had to
tell them that I was prospecting for a copper mine,

176 KLOOF AND KARROO.
for, as you probably know, there are many places in
this region where that metal occurs. After our
four days' rest by the noble river we were all greatly
refreshed, and quite prepared for the severe travel
that lay again before us. As we were doubtful
whether we should find water at the next fountain
that Klaas knew of, owing to the prevalence of
drought — and as it was an utter impossibility (so
Klaas informed me) to get down to the river on this
side for several days owing to the steep mountain
wall that everywhere encompassed it — I filled the
water vatjes, and every other utensil I could think
of; and then, all being ready, and the oxen
inspanned, we moved briskly forward.
" We had now to make a detour to the right, away
from the river, and for great part of a day picked our
painful footsteps over a rough and semi-mountainous
country. Towards evening, we emerged upon a
dreary and interminable waste that lay outstretched
before us, its far horizon barred in the dim distance
by towering mountains, through which we should
presently have to force our passage. That evening
we outspanned in a howling wilderness of loose and
scorching sand, upon which scarcely a bush or shrub
found subsistence. After a night, not too comfortable,
and broken by some hyenas that prowled restlessly
about, we were up betimes next morning. As soon
as the oxen were inspanned, and ready to move
forward for the mountains to which Klaas had
directed our course, I rode off for a low kopje that
rose from the plain away in the distance, hoping to
see game beyond. I was not disappointed ; a small
troop of hartebeest was grazing about half-a-mile
off, and by dint of a little manoeuvring with my

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 177
Hottentot after-rider, whom I despatched on a detour,
I managed to cut across the herd, and knocked over a
fat cow at forty yards. We soon had her skinned,
and taking the best of the meat, rode on for the
waggon. Again we had an exhausting trek over a
burning sandy plain ; the heat of this day was
something terrible. I have had some baddish
journeys in the doorstland on the way to the great
lake, but this was, if possible, worse. Towards four
o'clock, the oxen were ready to sink in their yokes ;
their lowing was most distressing, and as the water
was now nearly at an end, and we might not reach a
permanent supply for another day, nothing could be
done to alleviate their sufferings. At nightfall, more
dead than alive, we outspanned beneath the loom of
a gigantic mountain range, whose recesses we were
to pierce on the following morning. Half a day
beyond this barrier lay the valley of diamonds, as
Klaas whispered to me after supper that night with
gleaming excited eyes ; for, noticing my growing
keenness, he, too, was becoming imbued with some
thing of my expectancy.
" That night, as we lay under the mountain, was
one of the most stifling I ever endured in South
Africa, where, on the high table-lands of the interior,
nights are usually cool and refreshing. Even the
moist heat of the Zambesi Vafley was not more
trying than this torrid, empty desert. The oven
like heat, cast up all day from the sandy plain,
seemed to be returned at night by these sun-
scorched rocks with redoubled intensity. Waterless,
we lay sweltering in our misery, with blackened
tongues and parched and cracking lips. The oxen
seemed almost like dead things. Often have I
12

178 KLOOF AND KARROO.

inwardly thanked Pringle, the poet of South Africa,
for his sweet and touching verse, written with the
love of this strange wild land deep in him, for his
striking descriptions of its beauties and its fauna.
As I lay panting that night, cursing my luck and
the folly that brought me thither, I lit a lantern, and
opened his glowing pages. What were almost the
first lines to greet my gaze ? These !
¦ A region of emptiness, howling and drear,
Which man hath abandoned, from famine and fear ;
Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone,
With the twilight bat from the yawning stone ;
Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub, takes root,
Save poisonous thorns, that pierce the foot ;
And here, while the night-winds around me sigh,
And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky,
As I sit apart, by the desert stone,
Like Elijah at Horeb's cave alone,
" A still, small voice " comes through the wild,
(Like a father consoling his fretful child),
Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear,
Saying, — Man is distant, but God is near.'
"True! True! And so, thanks to Pringle, I
bore up through that most miserable night, with a
stouter heart, an easier mind."
Here the transport-rider paused in his story, got
up, and diving into his waggon, pulled out a small
volume, roughly bound in the soft skin of an Ourebi
fawn. Opening its well-thumbed pages, he showed
us the passage he had just quoted, deeply scored in
pencil. "There," said he, "is the very book poor
Mowbray read that night ; there is the passage,
marked with his own hand. Every line of it I know
by heart, and his book I treasure greatly, and nearly
always carry with me." Then he resumed his
narrative.

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 179
"We hailed," said Mowbray, "the passage of
the mountains next morning with something akin to
delight ; anything to banish the monotony of these
last two days of burning toil. We were up as the
morning star flashed above the earth-line. We
drank the remaining water, which afforded barely
half-a-pint each to the men, none for the oxen and
horses. With difficulty the poor oxen, already, in
this short space, gaunt and enfeebled from the heat,
and for lack of food and drink, were forced up into
their yokes. Klaas, as the only one of us who knew
the country, directed our movements, and with
hoarse shouts, and re-echoing cracks from the
mighty waggon- whip, slowly our caravan was set
in motion. Our entrance to the mountains was
effected through a narrow and extremely difficult
poort (pass), strewn with huge boulders, and over
grown with brush and underwood that often barred
the way, and rendered stoppages frequent. After
about a mile, the kloof into which this poort
debouched suddenly narrowed and turned left-
handed at right angles to our course. Accompanied
by Klaas, I walked down it, and was soon convinced
by the little Bushman that our passage that way
was ended. As Klaas had warned me, our only
way through and out of the mountains now lay in
taking, with our waggon, to the* steep and broken
hillsides, a proceeding not only perilous, but
apparently all but impossible. Yet the thing had
to be done, and we at once set the spent oxen
in motion, and faced the ascent obliquely. After
consultation with Klaas, I got out some ropes which
I had fastened to the uppermost side of the waggon,
while some stout long poles which I had had

180 KLOOF AND KARROO.
previously cut for such an emergency, while out-
spanned at the Orange River, served to prop up
our lumbering vehicle from the lower side. Slowly
and wearily, and yet, withal, with a sort of dogged
stubbornness, the poor oxen toiled on, half-hour after
half-hour, urged by our shouts, by the cruel waggon-
whip, mercilessly plied, and the terrible after-ox
sjambok.* Many times it seemed, as our cumbrous
desert ship crashed across a boulder, or down a
stair-like terrace of rock, that it must inevitably
topple over, and roll crashing to the bottom ; but
our guy-ropes, and the supporting poles, saved us
again and again.
" I had fastened one of the ropes with a stout
band of leather round the chest of my hunting horse,
the other two ropes were held by the strongest of
my servants and myself, while two other men held
the poles against the lower side of the waggon as
they stood down hill below it. My old horse,
guided by a Bechuana boy, as usual, proved himself
as sensible as any Christian, knew exactly what he
had to do ; and when we came to crucial points, and
the waggon shivered as it were upon empty space, he
and my Kaffir and I tugged away, while the fellows
below shoved with might and main. And so time
after time we averted a catastrophe, so dire that I
shuddered to think of it ; for in some places, if the
waggon had gone, the wreck must have been
irreparable, and the yoked oxen hurled with it in
a broken and mangled heap to the bottom far
below us. Well, occasionally halting for a blow
long hours of the most distressing labour I ever
* Sjambok, a. straight, tapering, cutting whip, of rhinoceros or hippo
potamus hide— terribly punishing.

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 181
experienced were at last got through ; we had
surmounted and left behind the first huge mountain
side, had plunged into a valley, had passed obliquely
over the shoulder of another great mountain, and
now halted in a deep and hollow kloof lying below a
singular flat-topped mountain, conical in shape, that
stretched across- our onward path. This mountain
was flanked on either hand, as we fronted it, by
yawning cliffs, and was only approachable from
this one aspect. Here we outspanned for a final
rest before completing our work, if to complete it
were possible. Shading my eyes from the fierce
sunlight, I looked upward at the long slope of
mountain, broken here and there, and occasionally
shaggy with bush ; over all, the fierce atmosphere
quivered, seething and dancing in the sunblaze. I
looked again with doubt and dismay at the gasping
oxen, many of them lying foundered, and almost
dead from thirst and fatigue, and my spirits,
usually brisk and unflagging, sank below zero.
Klaas had told me, previously, of a most wonderful
pool of water that lay on the crown of a mountain,
where we should outspan finally before entering upon
the portals of the diamond valley. Now he came
to me and said, pointing upwards, ' Sieur, de
sweet water lies yonder op de berg. It is a beautiful
pool, such as ye never saw the^ike of; if we reach
it we are saved, and the oxen will soon get round
again ; ye must get them up somehow, even without
the waggon.'
"The tiny yellow blear-eyed Bushman, standing
over me as I sat on a rock, pointing with his lean
arm skywards, his anxious dirt-grimed face streaming
with perspiration, was hardly the figure of an angel

1 82 KLOOF AND KARROO.
of hope, and yet at that moment he was an angel,
of the earth, earthy, 'tis true, yet an angel that held
before us sure hope of rescue from our valley of
despair ; for despair, black and utter now, lay upon
the faces of my followers, and in the eyes of my
oxen. Remember, we had tasted no water to speak
of for close on three days, and had had, besides, a
frightfully trying trek.
" We lay panting and grilling for an hour or more,
and then I told my men that water in any quantity
lay at the mountain top, and that we must, at all
hazards, get the oxen up to it. By dint of severe
thrashing with the after-ox sjambok, we at last got
the oxen on to their legs — all but two, which could
not be made to rise — and then, leaving the waggon,
but taking three or four buckets, we moved upwards.
Only a mile of ascent, or a little more, lay before
us ; but so feeble were the oxen, that we had the
greatest difficulty to drive them to the top, even
without the encumbering waggon. At last we
reached the krantz, and after a hundred yards
walk upon its flat top, we came almost suddenly
upon a most wonderful, and to us, most soul-thrilling
sight. Dense bush of mimosa, thorn, spekboom,
euphorbia, Hottentot cherry, and other shrubs grew
around, here and there relieved by wide patches
of open space. The oxen, getting the breeze and
scenting water, suddenly began to display a most
extraordinary freshness ; up went their heads, their
dull eyes brightened, and they trotted forward to
where the brush apparently grew thickest.
" For a time they found no opening, but after
following the circling wall of bush, at length a broad
avenue was disclosed — an avenue doubtless worn

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 183
smooth by the passage of elephants, rhinoceroses,
and other mighty game, in past ages ; and then there
fell upon our sight the most refreshing prospect that
man ever gazed upon. Thirty yards down the
opening, there lay a great pool of water, about 200
feet across at its narrowest point, and apparently of
immense depth ; the pool was circular, its sides
were of rock and quartz, and completely inaccessible
from every approach save that by which we had
reached it. It was indeed completely encompassed
by precipitous walls about thirty feet in height, which
defied the advent of any other living thing than a
lizard or a rock-rabbit. Upon these rocky walls
grew lichens of various colours — blood-red, yellow,
and purple, imparting a most wonderful beauty to
the place. The avenue to the brink of this delicious
water was of smooth rock somewhat sloping, and in
the rush to drink we had the greatest difficulty in
preventing the half-mad oxen from plunging or being
pushed in, in which case we should have had much
trouble to rescue them.
" How the poor beasts drank of that cool pellucid
flood, and how we human beings drank too ; I
thought we should never have finished. The oxen
drank and drank till the water literally ran out of
their mouths as they at last turned away. Then I
cast off my clothes and plunged into the water ; it
was icy cold and most invigorating, and I swam and
splashed to my heart's content. After my swim and
a rest, I directed my men to fill the four buckets we
had brought, and then, leaving the horses in charge
of one of their number, we drove the cattle, loth
though they were to leave the water, back to the
waggon, going very carefully so as not to spill the

KLOOF AND KARROO.

water. At length we reached the valley, only
to find our two poor foundered bullocks lying
nearly dead. The distant lowing of their refreshed
comrades had, I think, warned them of good
news, and the very smell of the water revived
them, and after two buckets apiece of the cold
draught had been gulped down their kiln-dried
throats, they got up, shook themselves, and rejoined
their fellows.
" We rested for a short time, and then inspanned
and started for the upland pool. The oxen, worn
and enfeebled though they were, had such a heart
put into them by their drink, and seemed so well
to know that their watery salvation lay up there,
only a short mile distant, that they one and all bent
gallantly to the yokes, and dragged their heavy
burden to the margin of the bush-girt water. We
now outspanned for the night, made strong fires, for
the spoor of leopards was abundant, stewed some
bustards, ate a good supper, and turned in ; when
I say turned in, I should be more correct in saying
/ turned into my waggon, and the men wrapped
themselves in their blankets or karosses, lay with their
toes almost into the fire, and snored in the most
varied and inharmonious chorus that ears ever
listened to.
" I suppose we had not been asleep two hours,
when I was awakened by the sharp barks and
yelpings of my dogs, the kicks and scrambles of the
oxen, and the shouts of the men. Snatching up
my rifle and rushing out, I was just in time to see
a firebrand hurled at some dark object that sped
between the fires.
" ' What is it, Klaas ? ' I shouted.

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 185

" ' Allemaghte ! it is a tiger * (leopard) , sieur,'
cried the Bushman, ' and he has clawed one of
the dogs.'
" True enough, on inspecting the yelping sufferer,
Rooi-kat, a brindled red dog, and one of the best
of my pack, I found the poor wretch at its last
gasp, with its throat and neck almost torn to
ribbons. Nothing could save the unfortunate animal,
the blood streamed from its open throat, and, after
a convulsive kick or two, it stretched itself out, and
lay there dead. Cursing the sneaking, cowardly
leopard, I saw that the replenished fires blazed
up, and again turned in.
" It must have been about two o'clock in the
morning, the coldest, the most silent, and the
dreariest of the dark hours — that fatal hour betwixt
night and day, when many a flickering life, unloosed
by death, slips from its moorings — when I was
again startled from slumber by a most blood
curdling yell. Hunters, as you know, sleep light,
and seem instinctively to be aware of what passes
around them, even although apparently wrapped in
profoundest sleep. I knew in a moment that that
agonised cry came from a human throat, and
headlong from my kartelf I dashed. God! what
a din was there again from dogs, men, and oxen,
and, above all, those horrid hutnan screams. I had
my loaded rifle, and rushing up to a confused crowd
struggling near the firelight, I saw in a moment
what had happened.
" The youngest of my servants, a mere Bechuana
* At the Cape the leopard is invariably known by the Dutch misnomer
of " tiger."
t Kartel, a sleeping framework fitted up in Cape waggons.

186 KLOOF AND KARROO.

boy, was hard and fast in the grip of an immense
leopard, which was tearing with its cruel teeth at his
throat, and at the same time kicking murderously
with its heavily clawed hind legs at the poor fellow's
stomach and thighs. One of the men — Klaas of
course — bolder than his fellows, was lunging an
assegai into the brute's ribs, seemingly without the
smallest effect ; others were thrashing at it with fire
brands ; and the dogs were vainly worrying at its
head and flanks. All this I saw instantaneously.
Thrusting my followers aside, I ran up to the leopard,
and, putting my rifle to its ear, fired. The express
bullet did its work at once ; the fiercest and most
tenacious of the feline race could not refuse to yield
its life with its head almost blown to atoms, and
loosening its murderous hold, the brute fell dead.
But too late ! the poor Bechuana boy lay upon the
sand wounded to the death. His right shoulder and
throat were terribly ribanded and mangled by the
foreclaws and teeth of the deadly cat ; but the
cruellest wounds lay lower down. The hinder claws
of the leopard had absolutely torn the abdomen
away ; it was a shocking sight. Recovery was
hopeless, and, indeed, although we did what we
could for the poor sufferer, he only lingered an hour
insensible, then died. After his death my men told
me how the thing had happened. In this solitary
region, the leopards and other feres, as I have often
heard, never being disturbed by gunners, are
extraordinarily fierce and audacious. The leopard —
a male — was evidently very hungry, as its empty
stomach testified, and after once tasting blood — that
of the dog — it soon got over its temporary scare.
The young Bechuana lay farthest from the fire, for

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 187

his elders took up the warmest positions, and the
leopard had crept cat-like in upon him, and got him
by the throat before he knew where he was. Then
came the awful shriek I had heard, and then began
the tussle for life, alas ! an altogether one-sided one.
My men in the scramble — and scared too, no doubt
— forgot the guns which were in the waggon, and only
Klaas had thought of his assegai. So blood-thirsty
was the brute, that nothing, except my rifle, could
make it relax its hold, even although it was manifestly
unable to get away with its victim. After these
horrors, sleep was banished, and as the grey light
came up, we prepared for day.
"The morning broke at length in ruddiest
splendour, and as the terrain was slowly unfolded
before my gaze, I realised the desolate magnificence
of the country. Mountains, mountains, mountains,
of grim sublimity rolled everywhere around. Far
away below, as I looked westward, a thin silvery
line, only visible for a little space, told of the great
river flowing to the sea, inexorably shut in by
precipitous mountain walls that guaranteed for ever
its awful solitude.
" Klaas stood near, and as I gazed, he whispered,
for my men were not far away : ' Sieur, yonder,
straight in front of you, five miles away, lie the
diamonds. If we start directly after breakfast, we
shall have four hours hard climbing and walking
to reach the valley.' 'All right, Klaas,' said I,
' breakfast is nearly ready, and we'll start as soon
as we have fed.' A good fire was going, the pot
was already steaming, the oxen had been watered,
and I myself, stripping off my clothes on the brink
of that delicious pool, dived deeply into its unknown

KLOOF AND KARROO.

depths. After a magnificent swim in the cold and
bracing water, I felt transformed and ready for
breakfast; but although the bathe had to some
extent revived my spirits, I could not forget the
sad beginning of our search — the death of poor
Amazi, now, poor fellow, lying buried beneath a
cairn of stones, just away beyond the camp.
" Well, breakfast was soon over, and then I spoke
to my men. I told them that I intended to stay at
this pool for a few days, and that in the meantime I
was going prospecting in the mountains bordering the
river. I despatched two of them to go and hunt for
mountain buck in the direction we had come from,
where we had noticed plenty of rhebok, duyker, and
klipspringer ; the others were to see that the oxen
fed round about the water, where pasture was good
and plentiful, and generally to look after the camp.
For Klaas and myself, we should be away till dusk,
perhaps even all night ; but we did not wish to be
followed or disturbed, and unless those at the camp
heard my signal of four consecutive rifle shots, they
were on no account to attempt to follow up our
spoor. My men by this time knew me and my ways
well, and I was convinced that we should not be
followed by prying eyes ; indeed, the lazy Africans
were only too glad of an easy day in camp after their
hard journey.
"Taking some biltong (dried flesh), biscuits, and
bottle of water each, and each shouldering a rifle,
Klaas and I started away at seven o'clock. The
little beggar, who, I suppose, in his Bushman youth
had wandered baboon-like all over this wild country
till he knew it by heart, showed no sign of hesitation,
but walked rapidly down hill into "a deep gorge at

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 189
the foot, which led half a mile or so into a huge mass
of mountain that formed the north wall ofthe Orange
River. This kloof must at some time or another
have served as a conduit for mighty floods of water,
for its bottom was everywhere strewn with boulders
of titanic size and shape, torn from the cliff walls
above. It took us a long hour of the most laborious
effort to surmount these impediments, and then with
torn hands and aching legs we went straight up a
mountain, whose roof-like sides consisted of masses
of loose shale and shingle, over which we slipped
and floundered slowly and with difficulty. I say we,
but I am bound to admit that the Bushman made
much lighter of his task than I, his ape-like form
seeming indeed much more fitted for such a slippery
breakneck pastime.
"At length we reached the crest, and then, after
passing through a fringe of bush and scrub, we
scrambled down the thither descent, a descent of no
little danger. The slipping shales that gave way at
every step, often threatened indeed to hurl us head
long to the bottom, which we should most certainly
have reached mere pulpy masses of humanity. At
last this stage was ended, and we found ourselves in
a very valley of desolation. Now we were almost
completely entombed by narrowing mountain walls,
whose dark red sides frowned upon us everywhere in
horrid and overpowering silence. The sun was up,
and the heat, shut in as we were, overpowering.
Moreover, to make things more lively, I noticed
that snakes were hereabouts more than ordinarily
plentiful ; the bloated puff-adder, the yellow cobra,
and the dangerous little night adder, several times
only just getting out of our path.

190 KLOOF AND KARROO.
"The awful silence of this sepulchral place was
presently, as we rested for ten minutes, broken by a
posse of baboons, who having espied us from their
krantzes above, came shoggling down to see what we
were. They were huge brutes and savage, and
quah-quahed at us threateningly, till Klaas sent a
bullet into them, when they retreated pell-mell. We
soon started again, and pressed rapidly along a
narrow gorge some fifty feet wide with perfectly
level precipitous walls, apparently worn smooth at
their bases by the action of terrific torrents, probably
an early development of the Orange River when first
it made its way through these grim defiles. The
ground we walked upon was, I noticed, composed of
sand and rounded pebbles, evidently water-worn
and of various kinds. Some of them were round
masses of the most beautiful transparent crystal-spar,
often as large as a man's head.
"Presently the causeway narrowed still more, and
then turning a sharp corner, we suddenly came upon
a pair of leopards sauntering coolly towards us. I
didn't like the look of things at all, for a leopard at
the best of times is an ugly customer, even when he
knows and dreads firearms, and here probably the
animals had never even heard the report of a
gun. " The brutes showed no intention of bolting, but
stood with their backs up, their tails waving
ominously, and their gleaming teeth bared in fierce
defiance. There was nothing for it, either we or
they must retreat, and having come all this frightful
trek for the diamonds, I felt in no mood to back
down, even to Felis pardus in his very nastiest mood.
Looking to our rifles, we moved very quietly

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 191
forward, until within thirty-five yards of the
grim cats. They were male and female, and two
as magnificent specimens of their kind as sun ever
shone upon. The male had now crouched flat for
his charge, and not an instant was to be lost ; the
female stood apparently irresolute. Noticing this,
and not having time to speak, we both let drive at
the charging male ; both shots struck, but neither
stopped him. The lady, hearing the report, and
apparently not liking the look of affairs, incontinently
fled. With a hoarse throaty grunt, the male
leopard flew across the sand, coming straight at me,
and then launched himself into the air. I fired
too hurriedly my second barrel, and, for a wonder,
clean missed, for in those days I seldom failed in
stopping dangerous game ; but these beggars are
like lightning once they are charging. In a
moment the yellow form was flying through space,
straight at my head ; I sprang to one side, and
Klaas, firing again, sent the leopard struggling to
earth, battling frantically for life amid sand and
shingle, with a broken back. Lucky was the shot,
and bravely fired, or I had probably been as good
as a dead man ere this. Another cartridge soon
finished off the fierce brute. We noticed, on
inspection, that one of our first two bullets had
ploughed up the leopard's nose,«and glanced off the
forehead ; the other had entered the chest, and
passed almost from end to end of the body, while
the third had broken the spine. Klaas soon whipped
the skin off the dead leopard, and hid it under some
stones, and we then proceeded, the whole affair
having occupied but twenty minutes.
" Another mile of this canal-like kloof brought us

192 KLOOF AND KARROO.
to an opening, and here a most singular sight fell
upon my vision. Hitherto we had been so shut
in that the sun failed to penetrate between the
narrowing cliffs — except, probably, for a short while
as it passed immediately above them.
" Suddenly, as the gorge widened on either hand,
a blaze of sunlight glowed and glistened on the
upright walls to the left hand of us. As I looked
thither, one of the most marvellous sights in nature
was, in an instant, laid bare ; a sight that few
mortals, even in seons upon seons of the past,
have ever gazed upon, in these remote and most
inaccessible regions of the Orange River. The
wall of mountain on our left stood up straight before
the hot sunlight, a dark reddish-brown mass of
rock — I suppose some five hundred feet in height —
and then sloped away more smoothly to its summit
that overlooked the river, as I should judge, about
a mile distant. As we came out into the sunshine,
Klaas, pointing to the cliff, ejaculated, in quite an
excited way, ' De paarl ! de paarl ! kek, sieur,
kek ! ' (The pearl! the pearl! look, sir, look!).
Looking upwards at the mass of rock, my eye was
suddenly arrested by a gleaming mass that protruded
from the dead wall of mountain. Half-dazzled, I
shaded my eyes with my hand, and looked again. It
was a most strange and beautiful thing that I beheld,
a freak of nature the most curious that I had ever
set eyes on. The glittering mass was a huge
egg-shaped ball of quartz, of a semi-transparent
milky hue, flashing and gleaming, in the radiant
sunshine, with the glorious prismatic colours that
flash from the unlucky opal. But yet more
strange, above the ' paarl,' as Klaas quaintly called

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 193
it, and overhanging it, was a kind of canopy of
stalactite of the same brilliant opalescent colours.
It was wonderful ! Klaas here began to caper and
dance in the most fantastic fashion, and then
suddenly ceasing, he said, ' Now, sieur, I will soon
show you the diamonds ; they are there,' pointing to
a dark corner of the glen, ' right through the rock.'
" ' What made you call that shining stone up
there " De paarl " ? ' said I, as I gazed in admiration
at the beautiful ball of crystal.
" 'Well, sieur, I was once with a wine Boer at
the Paarl down in the Old Colony, and a man told
me why they called the mountain there " De paarl " ;
and he told me, too, what the pretty gems were
that I saw in the young vrouw' s best ring when
she wore it ; and I then knew what a paarl was,
and that it came from a fish that grows in the sea.
And I remembered then the great shining stone
that I found up here, when I was a boy, on the
Groote Rivier, and I thought to myself, " Ah ! Klaas,
that was the finest paarl ye ever saw, that near
where the pretty white stones lay." I mean the
diamonds yonder, sieur.'
"At last, then, we were within grasp of the famous
stones, concerning whose reality I had even to the
last had secret misgivings. It was a startling
thought. Just beyond there, somewhere through
the rock walls, whose secret approach at present
Klaas only knew, lay ' Sindbad's Valley.' Could
it be true ? Could I actually be within touch of
riches unspeakable ; riches, in comparison with
which the wealth of Croesus seemed but a beggar's
hoard ?
"I sat down on a rock, and lit a pipe, just to
J3

194 KLOOF AND KARROO.
think it over and settle my rather highly-strung
nerves. The Paarl, as I could now see, was an
unique formation of crystal-spar, singularly rounded
upon its face. It, and the glorious canopy of hanging
stalactite above it, must have been reft bare by
some mighty convulsion that had anciently torn
asunder these mountains, leaving the ravine in
which we stood.
"As we drank from our water-bottles, and ate
some of the dried flesh and biscuits we had brought
with us, I noticed Klaas's keen little eyes wandering
inquiringly round the base of the precipice in our
front. He seemed puzzled ; and as we finished our
repast, and lit our pipes again, he said : ' The
hole in the rock that leads from this kloof to the
diamonds should be over there ' — pointing before
him ; ' but I can't quite make out the spot, the
bushes have altered and grown so since I was here
as a boy, years and years ago.'
" We got up and walked straight for the point he
had indicated, and reached the foot of the precipice.
All along here, where the sand and soil had been
swept in bygone floods or had formed from the slow
disintegration of fallen rock from above, cactus,
euphorbia, aloe and brush grew thickly, and in
particular the curious Euphorbia candelabrum, with
its many-branching arms, stood prominent. The
Bushman hunted hither and thither in the prickly
jungle, with the fierce rapidity of a tiger-cat after
a running guinea-fowl ; but, inasmuch as he was
sometimes prevented from immediately approaching
the rock-wall, he appeared unable to hit off the
tunnel that led, as he had formerly told me, to the
valley beyond. Suddenly, after he had again

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 195
disappeared, he gave a low whistle, a signal to
approach, to which I quickly responded. Quietly
pushing my way towards him, I was astonished to
see within a small clearing a thick and high thorn
fence, outside of which Klaas stood. Inside this
circular kraal was a low round hut, formed of boughs
and branches strongly and closely interlaced. Klaas
was standing watching intently the interior of the
hut, which seemed to be barred at its tiny entrance
by a pile of thorns lying close against it.
" What could it mean, this strange dwelling,
inaccessible as it seemed to human life ? Klaas soon
ound a weak spot in the kraal fence, and pulling
down some thorns, we stepped inside and approached
the hut. Here, too, Klaas pulled away the dry
mimosa thorns from the entrance, and was at once
confronted by a tiny bow and arrow, and behind that
by a fierce little weazened face. Instantly, my
Bushman poured forth a torrent of his own language,
redundant beyond expression with those extraordinary
clicks of which the Bushman tongue seems mainly
to consist. Even as he spoke, the bow and arrow
were lowered, the little head appeared through the
entrance, and the tiniest, quaintest, most ancient
figure of a man I had ever beheld stood before us.
Ancient, did I say ? ancient is hardly a meet
description of his aspect. As he"stood there, blinking
like an owl in the fierce sunlight, his only covering a
little skin kaross of the red rhebok fastened over his
shoulders, standing not more than three feet eight
or ten inches in height, he looked indeed coeval with
the rocks around him. I never saw anything like it.
Poor little oddity ; dim though his eyes were waxing,
feeble though his shrivelled arm, dulled though his

KLOOF ANU KAKKUO.

formerly acute senses, he had, with all the desperate
pluck of his race, been prepared to do battle for his
hearth and home.
" In his own tongue, Klaas interrogated this
antediluvian Bushman, and then, suddenly, as he
was answered by the word ' 'Ariseep,' a light flashed
across his countenance. Seizing his aged country
man by the shoulders, he turned him round and
carefully examined his back. Lifting the skin
kaross, and rubbing away the coating of grease and
dirt that covered the right shoulder, Klaas pointed
to two round white scars just below the blade-bone,
several inches apart. Then he gave a leap into
the air, seized the old fossil by the neck, and
shrieked into his ears the most wonderful torrent
of Bushman language I have ever heard. In his
turn the old man started back, scanned Klaas
intently from head to foot, and, in a thin pipe,
jabbered at him almost as volubly.
" Finally, Klaas enlightened me as to this comical
interlude. It seemed incredible ; but this old man,
'Ariseep by name, was his grandfather, whom he
had not set eyes on since, long years before, the
Boer Commando had broken into his tribal fastness,
slain his father and mother and other relatives, and
carried himself off captive. The old man before
us had somehow escaped in the fight, had crept
away, and after years of solitary hiding in the
mountains around, had somehow penetrated to this
grim and desolate valley, where he had subsisted
on Bushman fare — snakes, lizards, roots, gum, bulbs
fruit, and an occasional snared buck or rock-rabbit •
these, and a little rill of water that gushed from the
mountain-side hard by, supplied him with existence.

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 197

Here he had lingered for many years, alone and
isolated. His only fear had been, as he grew older
and feebler, the leopards infesting the neighbouring
mountains. Against their attacks had he built the
strong thorn fence, carefully closed at night, and
the door of thorns, which he wedged tightly into the
entrance-wray. "A strange meeting indeed it was, but after all
not stranger than many things that happen in the
busy world. So far as I could learn from Klaas,
who himself was between forty and fifty, the ancient
figure before us was laden with the burden of more
than ninety years. Think of it ! Ninety summers
of parched Bushmanland, of burning Orange River
mountains ; ninety seasons of hunger and thirst
and dire privation ; great part of the earlier period
varied by raids on the flocks of the Boers, and
battles for existence with the wild beasts of the
land! " After nearly an hour's incessant chatter, during
which I believe Klaas had laid before his monkey
like ancestor an epitomized history of his life, he
told the old man we wished to get through the
mountain, and that he had lost the tunnel of which
he had known as a boy. 'Ariseep, who it seems,
in the years he had been there, had explored every
nook and cranny of the valley, *knew at once what
he meant, and quickly pointed out to us, not a
hundred paces away, a dense and prickly mass of
cactus and euphorbia bush ; here, after half an
hour's hewing and slashing with our hunting knives,
we managed to open a pathway, and at last a
cave-like opening in the mountain, about seven
feet in diameter, lay before us. Grandfather

KLOOF ANU KARROO.

'Ariseep, questioned as to the tunnel, said, that
upon first discovering it — which he had done quite
by accident while hunting rock-rabbits — he had
once been through, years before, and as he had
found the passage long and dangerous, and the
valley beyond appeared to him less interesting than
his present abiding place, he had never repeated
the journey. However, he gave us warning that
snakes abounded, and might not impossibly be
encountered in the twenty minutes' crawl, which,
as Klaas had told me, it would take to get through.
This opinion, translated by Klaas, was not of a
nature to fortify me in the undertaking, yet, rather
than leave the diamonds unexploited, I felt prepared
to brave the terrors of this uncanny passage.
" It was now three o'clock; the sun was marching
steadily across the brassy firmament, on his eastward
trek, and we had no time to lose.
" ' In you go, Klaas,' said I, and, nothing loth,
Klaas dived into the bowels of the mountain, I at
his heels. For five minutes, by dint of stooping,
and an occasional hands-and-knees creep upon the
flooring of the tunnel, sometimes on smooth sand,
sometimes over protruding rock and rough gravel,
we got along very comfortably. Then the roof of
the dark avenue — for it was pitch dark now — •
suddenly lowered, and we had to crawl along,
especially I, as being taller and bulkier than Klaas,
like serpents, upon our bellies. It was unpleasant,
deuced unpleasant, I can tell you, boxed up like this
beneath the heart of the mountain. The very
thought seemed to make the oppression a million
times more oppressive. It seemed that the frightful
pile of rock, towering far above us, was bodily

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. igg
descending to crush us into a horrible and hidden
tomb. The thought of lying here, squeezed down
till Judgment Day, was appalling ; or, perhaps,
more mercifully, one's bones might, ages hereafter,
be discovered, as these regions became settled up,
in much the same state in which mummified cats are
occasionally found in old chimneys and hidden
closets, when ancient dwellings are pulled down in
England. Even Klaas, plucky Bushman though he
was, didn't seem to relish the adventure, and spoke
in a subdued and awe-stricken whisper. Sometimes
since, as I have thought of that most gruesome
passage, I have burst into a sweat, nearly as profuse,
though not so painful, as I endured that day. At
last, after what seemed to me hours upon hours of
this painful crawling and Egyptian gloom, we met
a breath of fresher air ; the tunnel widened • and
heightened, and in another five minutes we emerged
into the blessed sunlight. Little Klaas looked pretty
well 'baked,' even in his old leather 'crackers'*
and flannel shirt ; as for myself, I was literally
streaming ; every thread on me was as wet as if I
had plunged into a river. We lay panting for awhile
upon the scorching rocks, and then sat up and
looked about us.
" If the Paarl Kloof, as Klaas called it, from
whence we had just come, Had been sufficiently
striking, the mighty amphitheatre in which we lay
was infinitely more amazing. Imagine a vast arena
almost completely circular in shape, flat and smooth,
and composed as to its flooring of intermingled sand
and gravel, reddish-yellow in colour. This arena
* A Colonial term for leather trousers.

KLOOF AND KARROO.

was surrounded by stupendous walls of the same
ruddy brown rock we had noticed in Paarl Kloof,
which here towered to a height of close on a
thousand feet. An inspection of these cliffs, which
sheered inwards from top to bottom, revealed the
fact previously imparted to me by Klaas, that no
living being could ever penetrate hither save by the
tunnel passage through which we had come. The
amphitheatre, which here and there bore upon its
surface a thin and scattered covering of bush and
undergrowth, seemed everywhere about half-a-mile
across from wall to wall. In the centre of the red
cliffs, blazing forth in splendour, ran a broad band
of the most glorious opalescent rock-crystal, which
flashed out its glorious rays of coloured light as if to
meet the fiery kisses of the sun. This flaming girdle
of crystal, more beautiful a thousand times than the
most gorgeous opal, the sheen of a fresh-caught
mackerel, or the most radiant mother-of-pearl, I can
only compare in splendour to the flashing rainbows
formed over the foaming falls of the Zambesi, which
I have seen more than once. It ran horizontally
and very evenly round at least two-thirds of the
cliff-belt that encircled us. It was a wonderful and
amazing spectacle, and I think quite the most
singular of the many strange things (and they are
not few) I have seen in the African interior.
"Well, we sat gazing at this crystal rainbow for
many minutes, till I had somewhat feasted my
enraptured gaze ; then we got up, and at once
began the search for diamonds. Directly I saw the
gravel —especially where it had been cleansed in
the shallow spruits and dongas by the action of rain
and flood — I knew at once we should find ' stones ' •

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER.

it resembled almost exactly the gravel found in the
Vaal River diggings, and was here and there strongly
ferruginous, mingled with red sand, and occasionally
lime. I noticed quickly that agates, jaspers, and
chalcedony were distributed pretty thickly, and that
occasionally the curious banddoom stone, so often
found in the Vaal River with diamonds, and, indeed,
often considered by diggers as a sure indicator of
' stones,' was to be met with. In many places the
pebbles were washed perfectly clean, and lay thickly
piled in hollow water-ways ; here we speedily
found a rich harvest of the precious gems. In a
feverish search of an hour-and-a-half, Klaas and I
picked up twenty-three fine stones, ranging in size
from a small pigeon's egg to a third of the size of
my little finger nail. They were all fine diamonds,
some few, it is true, yellow or straw-coloured, others
of purest water, as I afterwards learned, and we had
no difficulty in finding them, although we wandered
over not a twentieth part of the valley. I could see
at once from this off-hand search that enormous
wealth lay spread here upon the surface of the earth ;
beneath probably was contained fabulous wealth.
I was puzzled at the time — and I have never had
inclination or opportunity to solve the mystery
since — to account for the presence of diamonds in
such profusion. Whether they were swept into the
valley by early floodings of the Orange River
through some aperture that existed formerly, but
had been closed by volcanic action, or whether, as
I am inclined to think, the whole amphitheatre is a
vast upheaval from subterraneous fires of a bygone
period, is to this hour an unfathomed secret. I
rather incline to the latter theory, and believe that

KLOOF AND KARROO.

like the Kimberley ' pipe,' — as diggers call it — the
diamondiferous earth had been shot upwards
funnel-wise from below, and that ages of floods and
rain-washing had cleansed and left bare the gravel
and stones I had seen upon the surface.
" From the search we had had, I made no doubt
that a fortnight's careful hunting in this valley would
make me a millionaire, or something very like it. At
length I was satisfied, and as the westering sun was
fast stooping to his couch, with a light heart and
elastic step I turned with Klaas to depart. The
excitement of the 'find' had quite banished the
remembrance of that awful tunnel passage so recently
encountered. " ' We'll go back now, Klaas,' said I, ' sleep in
your grandfather's kraal, and get to the waggon first
thing in the morning ; then I shall arrange to
return and camp a fortnight in Paarl Kloof, leaving
the waggon at the pool. In that time we shall be
able to pick up diamonds enough to enrich ourselves,
and all belonging to us, for generations. I don't
mind, then, who discovers the valley ; they can make
another Kimberley of it if they choose for aught I
care.' " At half-past five we again entered the tunnel.
It was a nasty business when one thought of it again,
but it would soon be over. As it flashed across my
brain, I thought at the moment that two such
journeys a day for six or seven days would be quite
as much as even the greediest diamond lover could
stomach. As before, Klaas went first, and for half
the distance all went well. Suddenly, as we came
to a sandy part of the tunnel, there was a scuffle in
front, a fierce exclamation in Bushman language,

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 203
and then Klaas called out in a hoarse voice :
' Allemaghte, sieur, een slang het mij gebissen '
(Almighty, sir, a snake has bitten me). Heavens,
what a situation! Cooped up in this frightful
burrow, face to face with probably a deadly snake,
which had already bitten my companion ! Almost
immediately Klaas's voice came back to me in a
hoarse guttural whisper, ' I have him by the neck,
sieur ; it is a puff-adder, and his teeth are sticking
into my shoulder. If you will creep up and lay hold
of his tail, which is your side of me, we can settle
him; but I can't get his teeth out without your help.'
As you will remember, the puff-adder's striking fangs
are very curved, and are often difficult to disengage
once it has made its strike. Poor Klaas, I felt
certain his days must be numbered, but there was
nothing for it ; I must help him.
" Crawling forwards, and feeling my way with
fright-benumbed fingers, I touched Klaas's leg. Then,
softly moving my left hand, I was suddenly smitten
by a horrible writhing tail. I seized it with both
hands, and finally gripped the horrid reptile (which
I felt to be swollen with rage, as is the brute's
habit) in an iron grasp with both hands. Then I
felt, in the black darkness, Klaas take a fresh grip
of the loathsome creature's neck, and, with an
effort, disengage the deadly farf^s from his shoulder.
Immediately, I felt him draw his knife, and, after
a struggle, sever the serpent's head from its body.
The head he pushed away to the right, as far out
of our course as possible, and then I dragged the
writhing body from him, and, shuddering, cast it
behind me as far as possible.
" At that moment I thought that, for the first

204 KLOOF AND KARROO.
time in my life, I must have swooned. But, luckily,
I bethought me of poor, faithful Klaas, sore stricken ;
and I called to him, in as cheerful a voice as
I could muster, ' Get forward Klaas, for your life,
as hard as you can, and, please God, we'll pull you
through.' " Never had I admired the Bushman's fierce
courage more than now. Most men would have
sunk upon the sand, and given up life and hope.
Not so this aboriginal. ' Ja, sieur ; I will loup,'
was all he said.
" Then we scrambled onward, occasionally
halting as the deadly sickness overtook Klaas ;
but all the while I pushed him forwards, and urged
him with my voice. At last the light came, and, as
my poor Bushman grew feebler and more slow, I
found room to pass him, and so dragged him behind
me to the opening into Paarl Kloof. Here I
propped him for a moment on the sand outside,
with his back to the mountain, and loudly called
' 'Ariseep ' while I got breath for a moment.
" The sun was sinking in blood-red splendour
behind the mountains, and the kloof and rock walls
were literally aglow with the parting blush of day.
Nature looked calm and serenely beautiful, and
hushed in a splendour that ill-accorded with the
agitating scene there at the mouth of the tunnel.
All this flashed across me as I called for the old
man. I looked anxiously at Klaas, and examined
his wound ; there were two deep punctures in the left
shoulder, and from his having had to use some
degree of force to drag off the reptile, the orifices
were more torn than is usual in cases of snake-bite.
Klaas was now breathing heavily, and getting dull

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 205

and stupefied. I took him in my arms, and carried
him to 'Ariseep's kraal, whence the old man was just
emerging. At sight of his grandfather, Klaas rallied,
and rapidly told him what had happened, and the
old man at once plunged into his hut for something.
Then Klaas's eyelids drooped, and he became
drowsy — almost senseless. In vain I roused him,
and tried to make him walk, and so stay the baleful
effects of the poison, now running riot in his blood ;
he was too far gone. 'Ariseep now re-appeared
with a small skin bag, out of which he took some
dirty-looking powder. With an old knife he scored
the skin and flesh around Klaas's wound, and
then rubbed in the powder. I had no brandy
or ammonia to administer, and therefore let the
old Bushman pursue his remedy, though I felt,
somehow, it would be useless. So it proved ; either
the antidote, with which I believe Bushmen often do
effect wonderful cures, was stale and inefficacious,
or the poison had obtained too strong a hold. My
poor Klaas never became conscious again, though I
fancied eagerly that he recognised me before he died,
for his lips moved as ho turned to me once. His
pulse sank and sank, his face became dull and ashen,
his eyelids quivered a little, his breath came hard
and laboured, and at last, within an hour-and-a
half from the time he was bitten, he lay dead.
" So perished my faithful and devoted henchman;
the stoutest, truest, bravest soul that ever African
sun shone upon. I cannot express to you the
true and unutterable grief I felt, as with old
'Ariseep, I buried poor Klaas when the moon
rose that night. We placed him gently in a deep
sandy spruit, and over the sand piled heavy stones to

206 KLOOF AND KARROO.
keep the vermin from him. Then laying myself
within 'Ariseep's kraal, I waited for the slothful
dawn. As it came, I rose, called 'Ariseep from his
hut, and bade farewell to him as best I could, for we
neither of us understood one another. I noticed, by-
the-bye, that no sign of grief seemed to trouble the
old man. Probably, he was too aged, and had seen
too much of death to think much about the matter.
" The rest of my story is soon finished. I made
my way back to camp, told my men what had
happened, and indeed took some of them back with
me to Klaas's grave, and made them exhume his
body to satisfy themselves of the cause of death ; for
these men are sometimes very suspicious ; then
we covered him again securely against wandering
beasts and birds.
" I trekked back to the Old Colony, sold off my
things, and came home. The diamonds I had
brought away, realised in, England .£22,000. I have
never dreamt of going to the fatal valley again ;
nothing on earth would tempt me, after that ill-
starred journey, heavy with the fate of Klaas, and the
Bechuana boy, Amazi. As for the tunnel, I would
not venture once more into its recesses for all the
diamonds in Africa, even if they lay piled in heaps
at the other end of it. Except old 'Ariseep, Klaas
had no relation that I knew of, and it was useless
to think of spending the diamond money in that
quarter. The old fellow had, so far as I could make
him understand me, utterly refused to accompany
me from the kloof, where he evidently meant to end
his days ; even if he had come, what could I have
done for him ? At his time of life, and with his
peculiar habits, he could hardly have begun the

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 207
world again, even if I had brought him home, bought
him a country house, taken rooms in Piccadilly,
dressed him in the height of fashion, and launched
him upon society.
" Therefore, I left him as I found him. Klaas I
have never ceased to mourn, from that day to this.
Part of the £22,000 I invested for some relatives,
the balance that I kept suffices, with what I already
possessed, for all possible wants of my own. Then
I came back to my dearly-loved South Africa for
the last time ; and a few years later, made the
journey to the Chobe River, from which you rescued
me in the thirst-land."
Such was the story related to us by the transport
rider, in a clear and singularly graphic manner, to
which these pages do scant justice. Our narrator
wound up by telling us that Mowbray had further
imparted to him the exact locality of the diamond
valley, but, he added: "I have never yet been there,
nor do I think that, for the present, it is likely I
shall. Some day, before I leave the Cape, I may
have a try and trek down the Orange River ; but
I don't feel very keen about that secret passage,
after poor Mowbray's experiences."
We had sat wrapt listeners, for some hours of
that soft, calm, African nighf. The glorious stars
looked out from above us in their deep blue dome ;
the Southern cross shone in serene effulgence, as
if too its sparkling gems claimed an interest in
the legend of the lost diamonds. It was now two
o'clock, and the camp fire of the transport riders
burned low ; just one more soupje we had with
our friendly entertainers, and then, with hearty

208 KLOOF AND KARROO.
expressions of thanks and goodwill, rose to seek
our beds. That night, before falling asleep, I
pondered long upon the strange narrative we had
heard. Often since I have done so. Often, too,
have I thought of the lone grave of the English
hunter, Mowbray, far out on dim Kalahari.
Many will think a grave in some green and
umbrageous village churchyard in Old England a
fitter resting place ; I doubt it. I believe that for
spirits, such as Mowbray ; those hardy adventurers
and bold hunters, who have opened up the South
African interior, and have made the name of
Englishman known and respected, even amongst
the uttermost tribes, loving, as they ardently love,
the wild free life of the desert, a last resting-place
upon the open veldt would accord more with their
habits and ideas. Thus, in the quiet Kalahari,
amid the fauna, and the scenes he loved so well,
Mowbray will sleep in peace. There are men — and
if you meet them anywhere, you meet them in
South Africa — who even in these latter days have
in their blood the pure hunter spirit, possessed by
rude and remote ancestors, who subsisted by their
weapons, and lived only for the joy of war and
of the chase. These modern men have, however,
commingled with the old hunter spirit, and almost
unknown to themselves, a love for the beautiful,
for nature in her wildest, most primeval moods,
and to these South Africa has offered a veritable
paradise. These are the men who, of all others,
really and truly enjoy existence, albeit in a rude
kind of way. No one, who has not met South
African hunters, British or Dutch, can rightly
appreciate the overpowering sentiment that enthrals

A SECRET OF THE ORANGE RIVER. 2og
them. They, themselves, know not exactly what it
is that binds them so passionately to a life not
seldom of inordinate toil and privation. Once the
veldt fever has bitten them, they can never entirely
forget or forsake their semi-civilised existence. Perils,
wounds, fevers, hunger, thirst, and hardships of
every kind ; none of these can quench the love they
bear for their self-chosen hunter's life. The open
air ! The open veldt ! Ever-changing scenery ;
everywhere a glorious game country ; everywhere
a spice of danger ; and beneath it all, burning
brightly in their ardent souls, lies, I am convinced,
a keen — if to themselves a half-hidden, half-
comprehended — love of the beautiful, oftentimes
purer and more true than the pallid sentiment, the
jargon of nonsense, heard but too often in the
crowded picture galleries of cities.

H

Chapter XII.
THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT.

WHILE travelling up country from Port
Elizabeth, I often heard of the elephants
that, thanks to a timely preservation, yet
remain to Cape Colony. These animals wander in
small troops through a large expanse of the dense
bush-veldt that clothes much of the eastern portions
of the Colony, and in the Knysna Forest to the
extreme south ; and many amusing stories are told
of their unwieldy pranks upon the outskirts of
civilisation. As we passed through Uitenhage, we
heard that some of these obtrusive mammoths had
been, a few days previously, destroying the telegraph
posts, and over-running the railway line close to the
town. Only last year (1888) a troop of sixty
elephants — besides calves — was seen in the Addo
Bush. Many of the farmers of the Winterhoek and
other adjacent localities are visited by these playful
giants, and occasionally awake in the morning to find
their mealie fields and gardens severely punished.
Two years since, in 1887, Mrs. Hess, of Vaaldam,
Winterhoek, was awakened one night by the angry
barking of her dog. Sallying forth she searched her
premises, and finding everything quiet returned to
bed ; at two o'clock in the morning, however, a
Hottentot servant aroused her with the curious
intelligence that a wool-waggon was in the goat
kraal. Naturally anxious to verify such perplexing

THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 211
tidings, Mrs. Hess at once went out to the kraal,
and there beheld one of her finest goats flying in the
air, and the rest of the flock rushing forth helter-
skelter through a large breach in the enclosure. The
startled lady saw also in the bright moonlight not a
wool waggon, but a huge elephant carrying long
gleaming tusks, and very sensibly she at once fled
indoors. Next morning it was found that besides
slaying the inoffensive goat, the elephant had
trampled and destroyed the crops around the house,
and had made havoc with a quantity of sheep dip.
Upon the morning of the same day the District
Inspector of Sheep Scab, while making his rounds,
happened to come upon a troop of eight elephants in
the same neighbourhood, but not deeming such
mighty cattle within the purview of the Act he
administers, he turned his horse's head and hurriedly
rode away.
One of the last of the professional ivory-hunters
who pursued their dangerous calling in this part of
the Colony was one Thackwray, a most silent and
expert tracker, a man of extraordinary courage and
determination — amounting sometimes even to rash
bravado. Of this man, who was killed by an elephant
somewhere about 1830, some extraordinary tales
are related. I have been told, on excellent authority,
that Thackwray met his death in the act of winning
a most foolhardy bet. He wagered that he would
pick out the biggest and most savage bull elephant
of the adjacent forest, would chalk with his own
hand a large cross upon the hind quarters of the
animal, and would then shoot it and obtain its
ivory. The first part of the bet was actually

KLOOF AND KARROO.

performed ; the elephant was followed, chalked,
and laid low, but, rising again before Thackwray
had reloaded, it turned upon him, thrust one tusk
through his thigh, then grasping him with its trunk,
smashed the unfortunate man almost to atoms, and
then falling upon him repeatedly with its knees,
crushed his body to a pulp. The elephant was
afterwards found dead with the chalk marks upon
it, still uneffaced.
It is a remarkable thing that in modern times
no attempt has been made to domesticate and
utilise the African elephant, as with its Indian
congener. Within this century, the young of the
elephant might have been captured even in the
Old Colony itself, but no Governor of the Cape
has apparently ever considered the matter worth
thinking of, or if he has, his thoughts have been
dexterously concealed. In India the elephant,
although inferior in stature and strength to the
elephant of Africa, has been utilized to a very
large extent, and its mighty thews and sinews and
wonderful intellect have aided in many a scheme
of useful work, and in many a distant campaign.
In South Africa its services could have been at
least as advantageously employed ; and yet decade
after decade these magnificent creatures have been
ruthlessly shot down and exterminated, until now
it is almost too late to think of subjugating and
employing them. But even now there is time, and
within thirty miles of Port Elizabeth, a town of
seventeen thousand inhabitants — the most thriving
business emporium of eastern South Africa  a
beginning might be made. I say might, for although
the raw material is there, I doubt greatly if a

THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 213
commencement will now ever be made of this
business ; and yet, by the importation of a few
Indian elephants and their trainers, and the
establishment of proper capturing compounds, the
whole thing might be successfully accomplished
almost within sound of Port Elizabeth — certainly
of Uitenhage. This modern neglect of the African elephant is
not a little singular, especially having in view the
shining examples of our Indian dependency. The
figures on many a Roman coin and medal bear
ample testimony to the frequent user of Elephas
Africanus in ancient times. This fact is quite
indisputable, for not only do the huge flap ears —
differing so entirely from the Indian species —
extending to the point of the shoulder, instantly
proclaim the African elephant's identity upon Roman
coinage, but history gives at least two well-known
instances of the employment of trained African
elephants, even within Europe itself. Pyrrhus,
king of Epirus, so far back as 280, B.C., aided
by Egyptian Ptolemy, with men and elephants,
successfully made war upon Rome, and chiefly by
the help of his African elephants, obtained victory
at Heraclea, upon the Gulf of Tarentum, and two
years later, 279, B.C., at Asculum. In the second
Punic War, Hannibal, starting from New Carthage,
B.c, 218, made his never-to-be-forgotten passage
of the Pyrennees and Alps, with thirty-seven
African elephants ; and these huge creatures,
subsequently reinforced by more of their kind, in
213, B.c, undoubtedly contributed in no slight
degree towards his memorable victories of the
Trevia, Lake Thrasymene, Cannae, Herdonea,

214 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Centenius, upon the Anio, and in Lucania, in that
wonderful sixteen years' Italian campaign.
In that long and most memorable war, the
African elephant never saw defeat. Polybius tells
us that no Roman General ever dared to close with
Hannibal. May we not infer that the elephant
contributed in great measure to this wholesome
dread of the Carthaginian's prowess ? Alas ! how
have the mighty fallen ! Instead of assisting great
captains and mighty armies, and contributing to
splendid victories as of yore, the African elephant
has been hunted and destroyed these two hundred
years past with such unrelenting ardour, that his
disappearance, not only from South Africa, but from
the whole of the Dark Continent, is now only a
question of a generation or two.
But a few short years back, I myself witnessed
many a waggon-load of ivory passing down from the
interior to the coast ; nowadays the supply is
meagre indeed, and the stream that erstwhile was
poured forth in abundance, now trickles feebly and
intermittently. It was a wonderful sight (albeit a
melancholy, if one only reflected on the waste of life)
to witness the great waggons, crammed with ivory,
toil-worn and travel- stained by the storm and stress
of thousands of miles of rough and uneasy trekking,
standing outspanned for the evening, or discharging
their rich contents in the market-place. What
strange and moving histories those waggons could
have yielded if but they could have found tongue
— the silent witnesses of many a toilsome trek
through arid thirst-land, dense jungle and park-like
champaign, studded thickly with the giraffe-acacia,
the baobab, and many another tree and shrub.

THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 215
They could tell of many a moving battle with wild
beasts, many a gallant head of game, and of the
death of many a stout oxen and horse, and even
perchance of the indefatigable hunters that
made of them their home. But the glory and the
passionate excitement of elephant hunting is rapidly
departing from Southern Africa, never again to
return. Nothing can better illustrate the rapidity with
which the wisest and most powerful of the brute
creation is being wiped from the face of Africa, than
a survey of his decline and fall within the broad
territories contained between the Zambesi and the
Indian and South Atlantic Oceans, during the sixty
years last past.
At the beginning of this century the elephant
was found plentifully upon the eastern confines, and
in the southern forest-belt of the Cape Colony. As
lately as 1830 ivory-hunters pursued their calling in
the dense bush-veldt of the Eastern province, and
still later in Kaffraria ; but the Cape Government,
foreseeing the probability of the mighty beast's
extinction within a few years, at length proclaimed
measures of protection ; and it is a curious fact
that there exist at the present moment, within the
south-eastern limits of Cape Colony — within sight
of the Indian Ocean — more wild elephants than are
to be found for probably 1,500 miles inland. In
the Addo Bush, not far from Port Elizabeth ; in the
Knysna and Zitzikamma Forests, and upon the
jungly slopes of the Winterhoek Mountains, troops
of elephants yet wander free and undisturbed, as
also does the fierce and gloomy buffalo, and that
king of antelopes, the koodoo. Beyond the Kei, in

216 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Kaffraria itself, where fostering protective laws have
not extended, the elephant is extinct.
Passing eastward through Natal, once abounding
in, but now devoid of, elephants, we reach Zululand.
In that territory between 1850 and 1875 immense
numbers of the great pachyderm were hunted and
destroyed. Baldwin, Drummond, and other well-
known Nimrods, besides a numerous array of obscure
but quite as deadly Dutch and colonial professional
hunters, have practically wrought extinction in the
Zulu country. North of the Zulus, in Amatongaland,
the same state of things exists, with this difference:
that some numbers of elephants, driven by the
incursive gold-diggers and prospectors of Swaziland
from their ancient secluded haunts in that territory,
have recently trekked south across the Amatonga
border. Here their extermination must soon follow.
It is probable that the country most abounding in
the poor remnant of elephants now south of the
Zambesi is the unhealthy region lying east and
north-east of the Transvaal border — much of it
known as Umzilaland. Here the prevalence of
deadly fever in the hot months, and the tse-tse fly,
have alone prevented Dutch hunters from completing
their work of destruction ; but even here the supply
of elephant-life is now sparse and limited, and
cannot long hold out. The Orange Free State, from
the treeless open nature of its terrain, although
formerly crowded with other game, was never a haunt
of elephants. But not so with the Transvaal. Here,
in 1837, Captain Cornwallis Harris, one of the first
to explore the beautiful but unknown wilds then held
by the fierce Moselikatse and his Matabeles, found
elephants in astounding plenty. In one valley alone,

THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 217
he saw wandering, in peaceful seclusion, hundreds of
the great mammals. But close on the heels of
Harris followed the Boer Voer-trekkers, who, having
attacked and driven out Moselikatse, turned their
attention to the extraordinary wealth of ivory within
their new-found borders. Their labours have been
but too successful ; and there now remains to the
vast territories of the South African Republic
probably not one solitary wild elephant ! All have
vanished. North of the Transvaal lie Matabele and
Mashona lands, the country now ruled by Lobengula,
son of the dreaded Moselikatse. So recently as
between 1871 and 1875, these lands were tenanted
by vast numbers of elephants ; but, as Mr. F- C.
Selous, the well-known hunter, tells us, it is now
difficult in a year's hunting to come across a single
elephant in these countries. Mr. Selous, himself the
mightiest elephant-hunter of these or any other
times, who has devoted the greater part of the last
seventeen years to the fierce toil and countless
dangers of ivory-hunting, and the numerous Dutch
and other hunters who have ravaged the country,
have much to answer for in this matter. But, after
all, they have been but the instruments of supply
to a pitiless and never-ceasing demand.
Turning westward to Bechuanaland, the same
story has to be told. In Gordon Cumming's time —
1846 to 1850 — Bamangwato, now ruled by Khama,
was a veldt virgin to the hunter. Gordon Cumming
himself was one of the first to exploit it ; and
by him, O swell, and Vardon, and afterwards by
Baldwin and others, great execution was wrought
amongst the elephants, even as far to the west as
Lake N 'Garni. Professional hunters have, since

KLOOF AND KARROO.

Gordon Cumming's day, completed, absolutely, the
work of extirpation in these lands. In one year
alone, after the discovery of Lake N'Gami (1849),
Livingstone tells us that 900 elephants were slain
in the region of the Great Lake. What wealth of
animal life, although backed by countless years of
undisturbed freedom and repose, could withstand
the barbarous ravages of so short-sighted a policy ?
North Bechuanaland, including its Zambesi borders,
and the Mababe veldt — once a great hunting ground
— and the Lake N'Gami regions, are now all but
completely denuded of ivory. Passing yet further
to the westward, across the Kalahari, which now
shares the dearth of Bechuanaland, we reach the
countries of the Namaquas and Damaras. Here
the same miserable history has to be recorded.
Since the time of the explorer, Charles Andersson,
between 1850 and i860, when elephants were found
in abundance in South- West Africa, succeeding
years have seen the professional hunters pursuing
without mercy or cessation their work of slaughter,
and elephants may now be found no further
south than Ovampoland, where the native
hatred of the white man has alone protected
them. The ivory trade of South Africa has,
with the decline of elephant life, decayed
in like ratio. In 1875, the value of ivory exported
through Cape Colony was £60,402 ; in 1886, it was
£2,150! In 1873, £17,199 worth of ivory was
exported from Natal; in 1885, but £4,100 worth!
Beyond these Austral-African regions, where ivory
is now as scarce as it was but a few years since
superabundant, the progress of extirpation goes on
apace. Portuguese and Arab hunters have for years

THE FALL OF THE ELEPHANT. 219
been hard at work, and each season sees the precious
supply wax smaller. In the Kilimanjaro regions in
East Africa, and about Bengweolo and the other
great central lakes, elephants are, no doubt, still
very abundant ; but each month rifles and hunters
penetrate more deeply into the Dark Continent.
Probably the Niger territories, and the little-known
interior of Western Africa, will hold out longest of
all. But when it is remembered that 1,200,000
pounds weight of ivory are yearly imported into
England, for which supply it has been computed
that 50,000 elephants are annually slain ; when
it is remembered that for the annual supply of
the whole world 100,000 elephants must yearly
suffer death ; no sane person can resist the
conclusion, that the days of the African elephant
are now " but as grass," and that his place will soon
" know him no more."

Chapter XIII.
SPRINGBOK SHOOTING.

ONE fine morning, we left Naroekas Poort to
visit a friend of our host, who farmed on
the karroo, some twenty-five miles away,
and who had invited us for a few days springbok
shooting on the flats around his house. This we
gladly accepted, for at that time we had only had
an occasional shot at long ranges at these antelopes,
as we drove across the Camdeboo Plains from
Graaff Reinet to Naroekas. There were four of
us — our host, H., who rode, and his wife, Bob (one
of my travelling companions), and myself, who
bestowed ourselves in a Cape cart drawn by a
pair of horses. We trekked six or seven miles up
some of the most villainous mountain roads to be
found in the Colony, which is saying not a little.
The day was glorious, and the scenery grand. Here
and there a troop of baboons shambled alongside,
at a respectful distance, barking angrily at our
intrusion. Aloft, in the clear sky, some vultures
circled, watching intently some object beneath
them. Ringdoves, kingfishers, and honeybirds
imparted life to the scene. After many shakings,
bangs, and bruises, in which, I fear, Mrs. H. came
off worst, we emerged from the mountains, through
the wildly picturesque pass of Swanepoels Poort,
into the plains. Here, after crossing the very nasty
drift in the Plessis, a tributary of the Gamtoos or

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 221
Groote River, where the banks are deep and almost
perpendicular, and where, on our way to Naroekas,
we had nearly come to grief in an exceedingly dark
night, we at length entered upon the eastern edge
of the Great Karroo, upon the flat surface and
improved roads of which we bowled merrily along.
We had but one short outspan on the veldt for
lunch, and then proceeding, arrived at Riet Fontein,
our destination, in the afternoon. Here we were
heartily welcomed, and after coffee we were shown
round the very extensive kraals and farm buildings.
Riet Fontein, like many another Karroo farm, lies
shadeless far out on the heath-like plains, where
are daily pastured many thousands of sheep and
goats. The name of our entertainer — Mr. J.
B. Evans,* " of Riet Fontein " — is so widely known
throughout the Colony, as that of a successful
and enterprising pastoral farmer, and one of the
earliest introducers of Angora goats, that I may be
excused for mentioning it. Mr. Evans, as is well
known, has done, probably, more towards the
successful introduction of Angoras than any other
man, and he has even visited Asia Minor for the
purpose of obtaining the purest strains of this breed.
Having inspected the horses and ostriches, of which
latter great numbers stalked solemnly about in their
enclosed " camps," we strollecl down to the dam
to see the vast herds of sheep and goats come, in
charge of Kaffir herd boys, for their evening drink,
before being kraaled for the night. A beautiful and
truly Eastern sight it was, to see the different flocks
coming in in thousands from their long day on the
* Recently deceased, to the great regret of all who knew him.

KLOOF AND KARROO.

thirsty veldt. After this, we adjourned to supper,
and thence to Mr. Evans's sanctum, to indulge in
pipes and a glass of " Cape smoke." During the
evening, we arranged our plan of campaign against
the springboks on the morrow, and it was finally
settled that Bob and I, with Mr. Evans's son, Edgar,
should rise before dawn, and get out on the veldt,
among the bok, under cover of darkness. By so
doing we should probably get a good shot or two
before H., later on in the morning, came out to us
with horses, when we were to try a " springbok
drive." I may mention here that a herd of some
4,000 of these beautiful antelopes grazed upon
Mr. Evans's veldt, some 256 square miles in extent,
and numbers of them could be always seen grazing
quietly within a few hundred yards of the house
door. The springbok, the ostrich, and the steinbok,
are now the only representatives on the Great
Karroo of the teeming herds of game that formerly
abounded there. It is not so very many years since
the gemsbok, wildebeest, hartebeest, ostrich, and
quagga imparted life and beauty to these parched
plains. In 1837, when Captain Cornwallis Harris
(one of the most accomplished of South African
hunters and naturalists) passed through the Colony,
on his way to the country now called Transvaal,
then a terra incognita, he met with the black wilde
beest, quagga, and ostrich, in large numbers on the
karroos not far from here.
In a curious old map, illustrating Barrow's travels,
published in 1804, the karroo region is marked as
abounding with the eland, gemsbok, hartebeest,
quacha (quagga), wildebeest or gnu, ostrich,
springbok, lion, and other animals. Most of these

HEAD OF A SPRINGBOK EWE (Profile).

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 223
animals have, however, been driven from their
ancient plains; and the springbok, steinbok, jackal,
and a few wild ostriches, alone remain. There is,
however, an abundance of game birds of various
kinds. Just as we shooters were about to retire,
three uncouth and very dirty Boers came in to see
our host on business. After their invariable custom,
they walked solemnly round, and placed their flabby
paws in everyone's hand, but without looking at one
or speaking ; they then sat down to a long and
desultory conversation, and as at that time our
knowledge of Boer Dutch was very limited, and the
visitors appeared far from interesting, Bob, I, and
Edgar shortly retired to rest, after looking to our
rifles and other impedimenta. At about three
o'clock we rose, dressed quickly, and stole quietly
out. It was the spring of the year, the air was keen
and frosty, for on the elevated karroo plateau frosts
are severe, and a dense mist hung over the veldt.
Not a sound could be heard, not even the distant
bleat of a springbok, or cry of a jackal. Edgar, who
is accustomed to this sort of work, leads the way,
and we walk across the veldt for half-an-hour, as
briskly as the darkness, the unevenness of the ground,
and the rough heathy scrub would permit, stumbling
now and again as we go. Then our guide stops to
listen for a few moments. We resume our silent
march for another half-hour, when, having progressed
some four miles, we again halt. This time Edgar
whispers that he can hear the springbok, and again
we proceed with renewed caution. In another ten
minutes we stop again, and this time we can all
distinguish sounds to our front, and an occasional
bleat.

224 KLOOF AND KARROO.
We hold a whispered council, and after waiting
for a while steal forward very cautiously, keeping
what little breeze there is in our faces. In ten
minutes a subdued "hush!" brings us to a halt,
and we sit down waiting for light. There is now at
hand the faint approach of dawn, and shortly, as it
lightens perceptibly, we rise, shove cartridges into
our rifles, and peer anxiously through the mist.
Then Edgar pushes Bob forward a few paces,
pointing to an almost invisible object to his front ;
at the same time I can just distinguish something
moving to the left, fifty yards away. In a few
seconds, as the light comes, we can just make out
the forms of three or four springbok grazing, and
at a glance from Bob to indicate that he is ready,
we simultaneously fire, Bob to his front, Edgar and
I at an antelope on our left. Bob having a longer
shot misses clean in the uncertain light and fog ;
but a loud thud follows the reports of our other shots,
and the antelope we aimed at plunges forward and
falls. Rushing up, we find a springbok struggling
on the veldt with a bullet (Edgar's, as it turns out)
through its shoulder. Its life is quickly ended, and
then marking the spot with a handkerchief stuck on
a stick brought for the purpose, we run briskly
forward for a mile. Again we have to proceed
slowly, as the fog shifts back again ; but in a few
minutes it clears, and Bob and I get another shot
at a bok which trots slowly past us within thirty
paces. The beauty has not time to escape before we
have each planted a bullet, one through the brain
— a lucky shot — the other in the centre of the
body, too far back to have been immediately fatal

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 225
of itself. This bok falls dead to the first-named
shot, and is at once secured and marked down.
The mist now began to lift rapidly, and, as the
game around us was too disturbed to enable us to
do much more good at present, we ate some biltong
(dried meat) and bread, and took a soupje of Boer
brandy ; both welcome after a cold morning on the
veldt. We had now nearly an hour's leisure before
H. and the horses were to join us, and had time to
look around as we strolled quietly in the direction
of the farm. As the sun began to make his presence
felt the mist rolled away, and shortly Aurora
appeared in her most resplendent toilet.
That sunrise on the karroo I shall not readily
forget. As the sun ascended in a perfect blaze of
colour — pale blues and greens, and flaming reds and
yellows — the vast expanse of open plains stretched
in limitless extent before us, till broken by the
dazzling horizon of the east. In every direction
around us we could distinguish the herds of spring
bok grazing within a mile or two. The mountains
we had quitted yesterday rose solidly in a semicircle
behind us, springing from the plains in stern
magnificence, and tinted lovingly by the rising orb.
Presently, as the heat increased, the mirage danced
before us, presenting to our ^nchanted vision the
most curious effects. As we looked at Riet Fontein,
some three miles distant, we saw, standing in air
immediately above the farmhouse and buildings, an
exact counterpart of them, but inverted, with the
roof downwards. Turning in another direction,
groups of trees and lakes of water appeared, startling
in their semblance to reality, even to us, who knew
that the brown karroo was destitute of any moisture 15

226 KLOOF AND KARROO.
except in the artificial dam at Riet Fontein. In
another half-hour the mirage disappeared, and the
most marvellous clearness of atmosphere succeeded.
The tawny mountains, in no place nearer than twelve
or fifteen miles, appeared almost within rifle-shot,
and we could plainly distinguish every little kloof,
crevice, and inequality sharply defined upon their
rugged surface, until they melted, many a league
away, into deepest blue. As we gazed again upon the
open karroo, in the other direction, but one object
interposed between us and the far horizon — a
conical mountain (the Tiger Berg), rearing itself from
the sea of plain, and looking down in solitary
grandeur on the world beneath. The air, upon
these elevated plateaux, possesses an extraordinarily
exhilarating influence, and I think one never feels
"fitter" than in these regions.
At length we perceived H. and a Kaffir riding
towards us, the former leading one, and the latter
two horses. As soon as they had reached us, we
buckled on our spurs which they had brought, and
despatching the Kaffir with the fifth horse to pick up
the game we had shot, listened to H.'s instructions
as to the best method of driving a herd of springbok
in the distance. In the result, we mounted, spread
out upon the plain at distances of some three
hundred or four hundred yards apart, and walked
our horses quietly in the direction of this herd,
which numbered some three or four hundred
antelopes. When we had got within three-quarters
of a mile, the antelopes became disturbed, and
began those extraordinary saltatory accomplishments
("pronken," the Boers term them), from which they
take their name. One of the herd, followed by

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 227
several others, would spring sheer and straight
from its four feet, with arched back, ten or twelve
feet into the air, as if made of india-rubber ; this
leap would be repeated half-a-dozen times or more,
and then the animals would settle to a canter, and
thence into a gallop. While these marvellous
bounds are being executed, the springboks erect
the curious mass of long snow-white hair, which
extends from about the middle of the back as far
as the tail, imparting a most singular effect. When
the animal is not excited or alarmed, this hackle or
ruff lies closely to the back, and is almost enveloped
in the loose fawn-coloured skin which closes over
it. Finally, the whole herd galloped away to a
distant part of the veldt, long before we were near
them. Disappointed in this direction, we turned
our attention to a herd some distance to our right,
and again attempted a drive, and this time with
more success. « This herd, some two hundred in
number, allowed us to approach within seven
hundred yards, and then H., who was on the
extreme right, and had managed to creep outside
and a little beyond them, suddenly began to gallop
his hardest towards the game.
This was the signal for ourselves as well as the
springbok. It is a well-ascertained fact, that the
springbok, when pursued, will generally take up
wind, and making for a certain point, they never
swerve from their line. Immediately, therefore, we
other three on the inside saw the antelopes crossing
up-wind obliquely across our front, we set spurs to
our nags, and raced our hardest to cut them off, or,
at all events, a portion of them. Five' minutes'
desperate galloping across the rough veldt brought

228 KLOOF AND KARROO.
us a little before the bok, within forty or fifty yards
of their line. No time in this scramble is there to
look out for meercat or aard vark holes ; we trust
to our good horses and to Providence. Then we
pull up suddenly, jump off our nags, throw the
bridles over their heads, so as to hang in front of
their forelegs (an invariable precaution against
bolting, which every Cape hunting horse understands
and obeys), and, cocking our rifles, are ready. In
a few seconds, part of the herd come flying past at
whirlwind speed within fifty yards. Crack go our
three rifles, and one antelope drops, but regains its
feet and limps after the rest. We hastily reload,
and again the three barrels flash, but this time,
in the excitement and at the speed the game is
retreating, we all miss clean. The antelopes are
soon far out of range, and scouring the veldt a mile
or two away.
After some little trouble, and the expenditure of
another cartridge, we bag the wounded bok, and
then H. canters up. He is, and with reason, a little
disappointed at our bad shooting, and tells us we
ought to have bagged three or four head of game,
but we remind him that two of us are tyros at the
business. We now rest a few minutes and give our horses
a blow, and as the veldt is pretty well disturbed and
the antelopes in the vicinity have nearly disappeared,
we have time to admire the proportions of the dead
game. The springbok (Gazella euchore), tsepe of the
Kaffirs, Matabeles, and Bechuanas, stands some
thirty-two inches high at the shoulder, and two
inches higher at the croup, and in length measures

'3AV3 MOHONIHdS V AO (3V3H

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 229
about fifty-eight inches. Its body colour is of a
bright rich fawn, with a deep chestnut band running
along either side from flank to shoulder, and slight
bands of the same colour on either side of the white
ruff or hackle I have mentioned as lying on its
back. The head and face, throat, belly, tail, and
inner parts of the limbs are white, rivalling in purity
the snowy "blaze" formation on the croup. The
horns are twelve or fourteen inches long, lyre-
shaped, black, stout, and strongly annulated, and
the tips bend inwards. In the female, the horns are
slighter than in the male. The eyes are large, dark,
and tender. The slender wiry limbs, and light well-
proportioned frame, are fashioned exactly for speed
and grace, and for those marvellous displays of
strength and agility of which we had been witnesses.
The springbok can exist for long intervals without
water, and seems to have been designed by Nature to
adorn the parched karroos over which it delights to
scour. The flatness of its habitat enables it to
scan attentively and suspiciously every approaching
danger, and I suppose, for these reasons, the spring
bok has suffered (except in trek bokken or migrations)
less than any other antelope from the attacks of the
Felidce and other wild animals. Altogether, the
springbok, with its grace, its spee^, and its agility,
is one of the most beautiful and typical of the
twenty-five varieties of South African antelopes, and
standing as it does mid-way in size between the
gigantic eland and the tiny blauwbok, is a worthy
representative of the magnificent game that formerly
crowded these vast plains.
We had noticed that the herds had now
scattered far and wide, with the exception of a

230 KLOOF AND KARROO.
small group of half-a-dozen springbok that still
grazed some half a mile distant, and as these fed
quietly enough, I walked gently to within 500
yards, and then, lying on the veldt, took
careful aim at the nearest. My aim was, rather to
my surprise, true ; the bullet clapped loudly, and the
springboks, after a jump or two, flashed away at top
speed. I noticed that the bok I had aimed at
lagged in the rear, and determined to follow him ;
I ran back, therefore, for my horse, and found that
my friends had had enough shooting for the present,
and were off to breakfast. Mounting my nag, I told
them I would not be long after them, and, amidst
some chaff, rode away for a thickly-bushed kopje
(a small hill or swelling in the veldt), towards which
the wounded bok, which was now detached from its
fellows, was retreating. I galloped hard, but the
wounded antelope entered the covert before I could
get within range. I soon reached the eminence
and entered the bush ; but quickly found it too
thick and stony for riding, and, dismounting, left
my horse. After wandering about some time, over
rough ground and through thorny bush in search
of the quarry, but without success, at length I gave
up the search.
It was now ten o'clock — the sun was approaching
hotly towards his zenith ; I had been out since
three o'clock a.m., and was parched and tired. The
distant tinkle of goat bells, borne on the warm
breeze across the sun-dried karroo, told me that
the flocks had long since been unkraaled, and,
altogether, I began to think my friends had not
done unwisely in trekking for breakfast. Turning
my footsteps, therefore, after some little trouble, I

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 231
found my horse, who stood where I had left him,
more patient by far than any human being. Good
old Ombrale ! No better shooting horse was ever
saddled on South African veldt.
Just as I was remounting, I noticed the old horse
looking, with cocked ears, intently into the bush on
his off-side. Looking that way also, I suddenly set
eyes on a lovely little red antelope, not thirty yards
away, staring fixedly at us with startled, yet
inquisitive gaze. I lost not a moment, but taking
rapid aim at the little beauty, planted a bullet just
behind the shoulder. The steinbok, for such it was,
fell dead to the shot, and with delight I rushed
forward to secure it. After all, thought I, I shall
have the laugh of my companions ; so quickly
disposing of the little bok behind my saddle, I
descended the kopje, and cantered contentedly for
home. The steinbok {Tragulus rupestris), eoolah of
the Kaffirs, is one of the smallest and most beautiful
of antelopes ; its favourite habitat is just such bushy,
stony hillocks, as that in which I had found it. It
stands but twenty or twenty-two inches high, is about
thirty-five inches in length, has sharp straight horns
four inches long, beautiful eyes, and a lovely reddish-
cinnamon coloured coat. Like the klipspringer, its
pasterns are very rigid. The steinbok is found every
where in the Cape Colony, arid, like the springbok,
affords good sport before the colonists' greyhounds. I
was not much more than half-an-hour in reaching the
farm, and found the others still busy at breakfast.
I am bound to say all were pleased at my success.
After a wash, I quickly joined them, and manfully
performed my share in the demolition of springbok
fry and chops, honey, coffee, and other good things.

232 KLOOF AND KARROO.
I found that H. had shot a koorhaan (a fine game
bird of the bustard species) with a single bullet as
it stood on an ant-heap ; and I was further informed,
amid roars of laughter, how Bob, whose horse had
put its foot in a meercat hole, had described an arc
with unerring precision in his passage through the
air to mother earth. While we were at breakfast,
a pretty little fawn of the vaal or grey rhebok, which
had been caught in the adjacent mountains, trotted
about the room as tamely as a domestic cat, and
evidently fully appreciated such luxuries as bread
and sugar. The fawns of this antelope, and
more commonly still of the springbok, are often
taken when young, and make pretty gentle pets.
After a memorable breakfast, we adjourned to
the stoep or verandah for a smoke, and a chat upon
sport and antelopes. Mr. Evans told us of his
experience of the last great trek bokken (migration)
of the springbok in the Colony, which happened, I
think, in 1858. In old days, these trek bokken were
a source of the greatest alarm and danger to the
colonist ; quite as much, in fact, as the locust flights.
Countless thousands of these antelopes, impelled by
drought and the loss of their more secluded pastures,
migrated from their true nursery and headquarters
in the country formerly known as Great Bushman-
land, now forming the districts of Namaqualand,
Calvinia, Fraserburg, Clanwilliam, and Victoria
West, and even from the far Kalahari Desert itself,
where also they abound in vast numbers, into more
fertile districts in the interior of the Colony. A trek
bokken might be witnessed for a whole day, and
the veldt would be left denuded of every scrap
of pasturage. The immense numbers of the

SPRINGBOK SHOOTING. 233
antelopes literally swept everything before them, and
farmers frequently lost whole flocks in consequence.
Our host described the approach of the trek bokken
I speak of; enveloped in clouds of dust the herds
came on. At one time the sight was positively
alarming, for the springbok, on these occasions,
from sheer press of numbers cannot retreat, and one
has to be careful to keep out of their way. As the
leading antelopes feed and become satiated, they
fall back and allow those in the rear to come to the
front ; but for this provision of instinctive nature,
the rear-guard would be starved to death, for those
in front, of course, leave not a particle of nutriment
as they pass. During these migrations the farmers
shoot as much venison as they desire, and prepare
immense quantities of biltong (salted and sun-dried
flesh), of which the springbok furnishes the best
quality. Mr. Evans informed us that during this
last great trek bokken, he killed with buckshot no
less than five bok at one shot. Of course, he was
almost within touching distance, and the heads of
the antelopes were close together ; for on these
occasions they are wedged so tightly that escape
is impossible ; and, indeed, it is actually on record,
that lions have been carried along nolens volens in
the midst of a trek bokken.
At the present time, the springbok is still fairly
abundant on the Great Karroo and other plains in
the North of Cape Colony ; but in the remote
colonial districts, formerly called Great Bushman-
land, they are yet found in very large numbers, and
there the trek bokken, on a smaller scale than of
old, still continues. The Great Karroo is, however,
so rapidly becoming more settled, and wells and

234 KLOOF AND KARROO.
water-mills, and the enclosure of pastoral farms
are, under the improved conditions of farming,
coming so much more into vogue, that I fear the
springbok will, not many years hence, be driven to
its strongholds and sanctuaries in the arid regions
of the north-west of the Colony. There the country
is so vast, so little settled, and so waterless, that
many years must elapse before this beautiful and
characteristic South African antelope is finally
exterminated within the Colony. Even then there
will remain beyond the Orange River the vast
solitudes of the Kalahari Desert, where the
springbok teems in countless numbers. Pringle, in
one of his poems, says :
O'er the brown karroo the bleating cry
Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively.
And I am inclined to think and hope that the
springbok's bleat will be heard on South African
veldt long after most of the other antelopes are
extinct. From its fecundity, its fleetness, its
timidity, and extreme wariness, it seems probable
that this antelope will decorate for another century
the sun-dried pastures whereon it has disported
itself for, probably, some thousands of years.

Chapter XIV.
A KARROO FARM.

THE morning star of Africa has some time
since sprung like a rocket above the
horizon ; it is now approaching six o'clock,
and after the usual early coffee, we are up and out
of doors. Already the sun, although not long risen
above the plains, is shining with a brilliancy known
only in the marvellously translucent atmosphere of
Southern Africa. The bold range of Witteberg, here
forming the extreme south-eastern barrier of the
Great Karroo, springs from its bed of mighty plain
in everlasting, ever-imposing grandeur. The rosy
flush, cast by the rising orb upon the brown and
rugged bosom of the mountain, has not yet departed,
and we stand for a few minutes watching the glorious
tints gradually fade, leaving the mass of mountain
clad in its soberer, but little less beautiful garb of
browns and purples. The place we are staying at
is so good an example of a large pastoral farm in
Cape Colony, that I may be pardoned for giving
some particulars concerning it. Riet Fontein (reed
fountain) , then, lies to the extreme south of Camdeboo,
an old Hottentot region, at the south-eastern
angle of the Great Karroo, and to the south-west
of Zwart Ruggens, another district, partly karroo,
partly mountain. It is pitched upon the open
plains at three or four miles distance from the
Witteberg range, which, by the way, in this clear

236 KLOOF AND KARROO.
atmosphere, usually appears not much more than a
few hundred yards away.
A ride of an hour or less up constantly rising
ground, brings one to Schoorstenberg (chimney
mountain), a bold and isolated pile of rock standing
solitary upon the veldt, and rising upon its northern
side (which presents a curious resemblance to a
chimney) to a sheer elevation of more than 5,000 feet
above sea level. From this peak, on a clear day, a
magnificent panorama greets the eye. If you turn
to the north-west, you may stretch your gaze across
the broad expanse of plains until arrested by the
Beaufort West mountains, which form the northern
limit of the karroo, some eighty miles away. To
the north-east, the bold range of Fore Sneeuwberg,
beneath which shelters the town of Graaff Reinet,
billows blue upon the skyline, 120 miles distant.
South-eastward, the magnificent peaks of the
Cockscomb — the highest point, nearly 7,000 feet
in altitude, of the Great Winterhoek — rear
aloft, plainly apparent, though ninety miles
away, from amidst a tossing sea of mountain ;
while, to the south-west, the Zwartberg range may
be readily picked out in the neighbourhood of
Prince Albert, although not less than 180 miles
distant. Yet one other natural landmark strikes the eye.
This is the Tiger Berg (leopard mountain), a
conical peak, thrusting itself 3,000 feet sheer from
the karroo, some twenty-four miles distant from
where we stand. But although Schoorstenberg is,
from its isolated position, a sufficiently striking
object, it is not equal in height to portions of the
Witteberg range lying immediately behind it. The

A KARROO FARM. 237

highest point of Witteberg nearest Riet Fontein, is at
De Beer Vlei, where an altitude of 6,000 feet above
sea level is reached. Thus, at Riet Fontein, the
dull monotony of plain is relieved by the noble
mountains rising here and there around.
I believe most people, who have not been there,
picture to themselves South Africa as a series of flat
and sandy plains. Nothing can be more erroneous.
The surface of the whole country is, on the contrary,
ribbed and broken with mountains, between which
here and there lie plains, sometimes, it is true, of vast
extent, as in the case of the Great Karroo. The
karroo is, in fact, the largest of the South African
plateaux, having a length from east to west of 350
miles, with a breadth of from seventy to eighty miles.
Nothing can be more magnificent, nothing more
inspiring, than a journey through these mountain
interiors, especially when the traveller emerges
suddenly through some frowning poort upon the
broad and limitless expanse of the Great Karroo.
In the year i860, our host, Mr. J. B. Evans, first
came here, and purchased the farm of Riet Fontein
from an old-fashioned Boer, one Gert Hendrik
Stols. At that time the place was little better than
open desert. There was a house, certainly, the
nucleus of the present extensive buildings ; there
was one very small dam, and there were a few
insignificant fountains rising in the neighbouring
heights of Witteberg and Schoorstenberg, which
sufficed for the watering of Stols's flocks — that is,
if the seasons were not too dry, or the drought too
prolonged. But what changes have taken place
since i860 under the management of an energetic
Welshman. In place of the ramshackle homestead

238 KLOOF AND KARROO.
of the old Boer, Riet Fontein* is now almost a
village, and boasts a population of some sixty souls
— whites and blacks — while upon the whole run
there are nearly 100 people more. Farm has been
added to farm, until the total area of the estate
contains not less than 164,000 acres of mountain
and plain, of which 132,000 acres are karroo, and
32,000 acres mountain pasture. Two hundred
and fifty-six square miles of land seems an uncon
scionable deal of space ; but large flocks demand
far-spreading pasturage, at all events under present
conditions of the Cape.
The Cape Dutch distinguish pastoral farmers
under two heads, viz. : Groote- Vee Boers, i.e.,
great-stock farmers ; and Klein-Vee Boers, little-
stock farmers. A Groote- Vee Boer runs horned
cattle, whilst a Klein-Vee Boer depastures sheep
and goats. Our host ranges himself under the
second denomination, and is a Klein-Vee Boer.
Upon his 164,000 acres are depastured 15,000
sheep, 20,000 goats, and 500 ostriches, whilst, in
addition, 200 head of cattle and 100 horses are run
upon the slopes of Witteberg and Schoorstenberg.
These flocks are, of course, not all quartered
at Riet Fontein itself ; the farm is divided into
twenty-five out-stations or vee-kraals, scattered
about in different parts. Each of these vee-kraals
is in charge of a Dutch or native overseer, under
whom are numerous herds — Kaffirs, Bushmen,
Hottentots, Bechuanas, Mantatees, and others —
who daily tend their flocks at pasture, and bring

* Note. — I am describing the farm as I saw it a few years back.
It was sold by Mr. Evans, subsequently, and is now the property of the Cape
Stock Farming Company.

A KARROO FARM. 239

them home at night to kraal. Many of these
out-stations lie still farther out into the plains,
and have not all dams or fountains upon them.
The flocks, however, get water once in three
days in the cooler season, in this way : — It is
arranged that they shall depasture on one side of
the station for one day without water ; the next
day they are fed upon the other side of the station
where water lies. Here they drink, return to kraal
as usual, and next day are depastured in another
direction without water. Thus one dam suffices
for three, or even more out-stations ; that is in fairly
cool weather. When the season gets hot, they
require water every other day, and at the homestead,
where water is abundant, they drink night and
morning. From April till September — the Cape
winter — sheep and goats alike, are often entirely
without water, unless, of course, near an abundant
supply ; in this cool season they scarcely need it,
and obtain a sufficiency of moisture from such
succulent plants as the spekboom, braak veije, a
small kind of stunted aloe called alveig, and others.
But, occasionally, the karroo is visited by prolonged
and appalling droughts, when but little rain or
moisture falls for two years at a stretch ; then every
dam dries up, every atom of#moisture is scorched
from the herbage, the plains gasp under clear and
brazen skies, and the flocks perish in thousands.
During one of these droughts, our host himself lost
20,000 head of sheep and goats, while farmers,
not so well provided with water, lost even more
heavily in proportion.
Where the veldt is good, sheep and goats can, if
required, during the winter and spring months —

240 KLOOF AND KARROO.
from April till October — subsist entirely without
water. The karroo vegetation, despite its parched
appearance, is so succulent, so full of moisture, that
unless near a homestead dam or fountain where
water can almost always be spared, the flocks can
without the least inconvenience do entirely without
water. It may be astounding, indeed, to the
unitiated to learn that in South Africa, of all places
in the world, animals can thus live and thrive for
long months upon pastures absolutely waterless.
Yet such is the case. Some years ago, when the
veldt was virgin and untrampled, our host kept his
flocks upon the open karroo, on the Aberdeen Road,
for the greater part of two whole seasons, without
giving them any water whatever ; nor did he find
that they suffered in consequence. There was one
small fountain on the run, just sufficing for himself
and his horses, but no more. During the extreme
heat of summer, the flocks were removed to other
pastures possessing water. But at the present day,
it is impossible to find on the Karroo such fresh and
virgin feeding grounds as then existed. There has
been too much overstocking ; and far too little care
has been taken to preserve and give rest to portions
of the runs. The system of wire fencing, however,
now becoming common, will soon work wonders
in this respect.
Riet Fontein itself stands close to a dry karroo
river-bed, which holds water only in time of heavy
rain, and then but for a short period. As with most
South African rivers, there is a heavy flood which
abates as rapidly as it rises, and the river-bed then
resumes its normal appearance. Here and there,
indeed, perhaps within three miles or so, there is a

wHy z
y

QH

A KARROO FARM. 241

pool where the water escapes from underground from
the dykes higher up. These pools are often brackish,
and become undrinkable as drought increases. The
river-bed is handsomely margined with a fringe
of mimosa trees (Acacia horrida), which mark out
plainly for miles along the flat expanse its devious
and meandering course. The old Boer house has
been enlarged and added to, until there is now an
irregular pile of buildings of red Kaffir bricks,
concreted with lime and sand — rough casting, as it
is called — covering a considerable space of ground.
Here dwell our host and hostess and their olive
branches, and their tutelary deities. The nearest
good school is, perhaps, 150 miles away ; and
instruction, thorough and systematic, is carried on
upon the premises under a careful and accomplished
tutor. At the front of the dwelling house runs the
invariable Cape stoep or raised verandah, which
offers a cool and refreshing shade to weary souls.
This stoep is partially covered with a handsome
vine. Fifty yards in front of the homestead lies a
good-sized dam, and in the rear a much larger one,
constructed at great cost and with infinite pains. In
addition to this main dam, there are, as I have said,
others at something like half the, out-stations. But
besides dam-making on a very large scale, our host,
after experiencing disastrous droughts, when even
the dams became exhausted by evaporation and by
ever-thirsty flocks, turned his ideas to other methods
of procuring water. He was the first farmer, I
believe, to bore for water beneath the karroo, and
now, at a depth of 212 feet, he procures through a
two-inch pipe a sufficient supply of the precious 16

242 KLOOF AND KARROO.
element to water, if need be, from 8,000 to 10,000
sheep daily. Each sheep drinks in summer about
one gallon at a time, so that the supply from this
source may be taken as equalling nearly 10,000
gallons daily. Round the margin of the dam are
planted graceful willows, fig trees — which offer
delicious fruit in season — and blue gums ; and upon
a well-watered patch of the rich red karroo soil
hard by, flourish in perfection tomatoes, potatoes,
cabbages, turnips, lettuces, and radishes. To the
left of the great dam, and at a good distance from
the house, stand two sets of the kraals, wherein are
gathered nightly the flocks of sheep and goats on
their return from the home veldt. These are the
oldest of the kraals, and are built ofthe old-fashioned
Boer bricks, made of dung cut in blocks from the
hard-trampled enclosures, and dried hard and clean
in the sun. This substance, locally called " mist,"
serves also almost entirely for fuel on karroo farms,
where wood is scarce and expensive ; it makes
excellent firing burning slowly much as peat does.
The kraals are wisely placed at a respectable distance
from the house. The Boers usually build theirs
close to their dwellings, and are in consequence
in summer plagued to death with flies. These
enclosures are partitioned off into sub-divisions.
Crossing the dry river-bed from the open karroo
side, whereon our host's house stands, we come first
to the comfortable roomy dwelling and stables of
his partner, Mr. John Rex. Some distance to the
rear of this house, partly upon the rising ground of
a kopje covered with Kaffir plum, spekboom and
other bushes, partly upon open flats, lie the ostrich
camps — immense enclosures, girt by wire-fencin°-

A KARROO FARM, 243
wherein 500 birds can wander freely. On the left
hand, as we pass Mr. Rex's, lie the houses of the
blacksmith and handy man — a very important
personage here — and other workpeople, and of the
herdsmen ; beyond, there are more stone kraals,
wherein the remainder of the flocks are shut up for
the night. Still further behind all these, forming a
glorious and ever-welcome background, stand the
mountains, stern and beautiful. But the flocks, to the
number of 9,000 or 10,000, are about to be unkraaled,
and we hasten to the oldest of the enclosures to
watch the process. Standing by the gate is our
host, who is desperately pre-occupied counting the
Angora goats as they defile forth for their day's
pasture on the veldt. This fleecy census is a business
never omitted by the Cape farmer, and it is astonish
ing what marvellous rapidity and exactitude are
attained. Mr. Evans is famous for his Angoras, and
the beautiful creatures, with their long snow-white
silky hair, are well worthy of the care and trouble
bestowed upon their rearing. First brought into
prominence at the Cape in 1856, Angoras have
proved wonderfully successful, and the mohair clipped
from Cape stock now yields little, if at all to the
purest breeds of Asia Minor.
Our host, who has perhaps done more for Angora
goat farming than any other, man in the Colony,
was one of the earliest to recognise their value. He
has even undertaken a journey to Asia Minor in
search of the choicest strains of his favourites ; and
from the districts of Tcherkess and Geredeh, by
permission of the Sultan, he obtained some most
valuable stock. In this expedition he undertook a
journey of 1,200 miles inland, and brought out from

244 KLOOF AND KARROO.
an almost unknown district thirty or forty Angoras,
which were carried to the coast packed on the backs
of mules. Some of the rams thus imported realised
from £100 to £400 a-piece amongst the farmers of
Graaff Reinet and other parts of the Eastern
province. But the Angoras have at length all poured
forth from their kraals, and their silken coats glinting
beneath the sunshine, are off to the broad plains for
the long hot day in charge of Kaffir herd boys. Well
may our host look lovingly after them. His clip of
Angora hairisthe largest in the world, and he possesses
the greatest number of goats — 20,000, all Angoras,
or half-bred Angoras — to be found on one farm in
South Africa. The annual clip of mohair from these
flocks amounts to 50,000 lbs. Some farmers clip
their goats twice a year ; but this is a greedy and
short-sighted policy, which in the long run brings
weakness and deterioration alike to goats and to
mohair. Upon the estate of Riet Fontein each
year 4,000 kids are reared ; occasionally seven
hundred are dropped in one day. This may continue
for a day or two, and then the number diminishes,
perhaps to increase later, for, unlike sheep, the
kidding appears to progress by fits and starts.
During this season, the goats are kept in large
camps enclosed by wire-fencing, and the kids are
immediately after birth fastened to the fence by the
hind leg. Goats resemble the springbok and other
game in their propensity for leaving their young in
one place and wandering away for a time. At one
time the kids were fastened to the karroo bushes
but it was found that in looking them up and putting
them into kraal, after fourteen days or so, many were
hidden in the thick herbage and left behind ; and

VlQ

<
oo<ooCO

OW
u o
jfa

A KARROO FARM. 245

the ewes, after a couple of day's absence, failed
to recognise them, thus causing trouble and
inconvenience. Now, when fastened to the wire-
fencing, the herdsman simply walks up and down,
and finds his charges at once.
The time for clipping the Angoras comes in
July, when from fifteen to twenty hands are hard at
work for three weeks or a month. The goats are
clipped in forks; into which their heads are inserted,
and in which they stand firm and rigid as rocks
until the operation is completed. The silly sheep,
on the contrary, cannot be induced to stand in this
manner, nor perhaps, if they were willing, could the
old - fashioned method of shearing be improved
upon in their case. The yoke, in which the goats
stand, is an exceedingly simple yet ingenious
contrivance of our hosts, and deserves description.
Two iron forks are fixed into a wooden standard,
sufficiently high to reach to the goat's neck, the
standard itself being firmly planted in the ground.
One of these forks is movable, and is so contrived
that the goat's head being inserted, the fork can be
pushed back into its natural position, and a wire
being then passed over the neck and fastened to
both forks, the goat is firmly secured and cannot
withdraw its head. •
The 15,000 sheep depastured on the estate are
almost entirely of the merino breed. The clip of
wool from the flocks in one year amounts to 150
bales ; that is, reckoning the bale at 450 lbs.,
27,000 lbs. weight. Wool shearing begins in
November, and some twenty hands, including sorters
and packers, are kept busily employed for three
weeks or a little longer. At the time I speak of, the

246 KLOOF AND KARROO.
wool or mohair when sheared was put on ox- waggons
and sent to the Port Elizabeth market ; now, there
is a railway station at Klipplaat, within thirty miles
of the farm, and the process is thereby expedited
very materially.
The system of nightly kraaling the flocks, which
even to this hour obtains to a very large extent
over the whole of Cape Colony, is a survival of those
wild and primitive days when the early Boers had
to defend their fleecy charges from the lion and
leopard, the various hyenas, the Cape hunting dog
(Lycaon pictus) and jackals, and the smaller of the
Felidse and Viverrse innumerable. But of all these
destroyers, the jackals, the African lynx, a hyena or
two, and certain of the wild cats, alone remain to
the karroo plains ; the rest have been shot or
poisoned off, or driven northwards to the interior.
The leopard, it is true, still haunts the mountain
ranges, but even he is being surely, if slowly,
exterminated, just as is the jackal from the karroos.
With the disappearance of these carnivora, the
advent of wire-fencing on an enormous scale has
come. Huge runs are being completely girdled by
wire-fencing, which is rendered proof against jackals
and other vermin. Our host, whose complete and
perfect system of wire-fencing now patented and
shown in England, after years of patient and
practical working out in the Colony, was one of the
first to recognise its utility. Since the time I write
of, Mr. Evans has fenced his entire estate with some
fifty miles of wire-fencing, and the Cape Stock
Farming Company, to whom he has sold the run,
have now a fine property, wherein their flocks can
pasture by day and night without being brought into

A KARROO FARM. 247

kraal. The advantages of this system are manifest
and manifold. Under the old plan, obtaining at the
time of my visit, the flocks spent a good part of the
day in journeying backwards and forwards to kraal,
in the hot summer weather a matter of much fatigue
and distress ; thus from the perpetual trampling to
and fro of mighty flocks, vast portions of the veldt
were completely destroyed. Much of the manure
which might have added to the fertility of the soil
was wasted in the kraals, or only partially utilized
in its sun-dried form as fuel. By these weary
perambulations to and fro, paths were hollowed out,
which increased in process of years into ravines, down
which, in time of rainfall, the water poured away and
was wasted, instead of being distributed equally over
the surface of the soil. It is not too much to say
that wire-fencing, now being adopted by all progressive
farmers at the Cape, will effect immense saving, not
only by the rest afforded to the pastures, but by the
increased feeding and repose, and, consequently,
much-improved condition thus afforded to the sheep
and goats.
But we have at length seen every kraal emptied
of its hungry contents, and have watched the stream
of sheep and goat-life pouring out far upon the
plains. Breakfast is now announced, and with healthy
appetites, sharpened by the clear bracing air of
this elevated plateau — here some 3,000 feet above
sea level — we follow our host to his comfortable
dining room. Before us is spread a typical Cape
breakfast ; here is springbok fry (karroo grown,
though it is more delicate and more savoury than
that of the tenderest lamb ever nurtured in verdant

248 KLOOF AND KARROO.
England), cold springbok haunch, cold koorhaan —
one of the bustards — steaming coffee, goat's milk,
delicious hot " cookies " of Boer meal, springbok
biltong, sliced into the most delicately thin shavings
by the carpenter's plane. Biltong, especially of the
springbok (i.e., flesh slightly salted and dried to the
consistency almost of horn), when sliced in this
way forms a most appetising relish, and is a most
nourishing commissariat article keeping, although
uncooked, always fresh. The Boers, in their
hunting expeditions and their war commandos
and forays, invariably use it, for it occupies little
space, does not require cooking, and is always
ready for eating. Then there is store of fragrant
wild honey, taken from the neighbouring rocks of
Witteberg, and to crown the repast luscious stewed
peaches, with plenty of sweet goat's milk to wash
them down ; tomatoes and lettuces impart an
air of Arcadian grace to the board. Talk to me
of the discomforts and hardships of the Cape !
With a little trouble, a little forethought, many a
delicacy now unknown to the farmer's table might
give zest to many a jaded palate. What a
difference, this snowy cloth and bountiful table,
spread though it is in the wilderness, to the filthy
board, the everlasting greasy mutton swimming in
sheep's tail fat, of the average up-country Boer.
How we enjoyed that meal ! Memories of it,
tender and fragrant as aromatic karroo shrubs after
the rain showers, still linger with me.
Breakfast over, and the little tame vaal rhebok,
that trots so gracefully round the table pushino-
its 'soft moist muzzle into one hand and another
propitiated with offerings of bread and sugar, we

A KARROO FARM. 249

light our pipes, and lounge for just ten minutes on
the stoep (verandah).
Away out upon the plains yonder, the nearest
of them not 700 yards distant, graze the dainty
springboks, which yesterday we hunted. If we lay
down and took a long steady aim, with carefully-
adjusted sights, we might even knock one over from
the door here. But it is neither fair nor discreet to
disturb the beauties too often, and we leave them
to-day to wander undisturbed.
Our busy host is soon ready for us, and at once
carries us off to the ostrich camp to see some of his
birds clipped. Passing a young half-tame baboon —
known as Adonis — tied up to an outhouse, and just
stopping to exchange a morning greeting with the
cunning and amusing rascal, we cross the deep spruit
of the dry river, and shortly arrive at the ostrich
camp. This camp is a vast enclosure of between
3,000 and 4,000 acres, surrounded by wire-fencing
about four feet ten inches high. Great care has
been taken with this fencing, and it is now, by an
ingenious arrangement of wires laid flat upon the
ground, rendered jackal proof. These wires, twelve
in number, are towards the bottom set three inches
apart, the lowest one resting on the ground. The
jackal begins to burrow, and expecting to get quickly
beneath the upright fence, comes in contact with
the bottom ground-laid wire. Instead of retreating
a little and then beginning to burrow, the foolish
animal (in other matters terrestrial crafty enough)
runs farther down the fence, and tries again with
same result; and, finally, after repeated attempts,
throws up the sponge, and admits the fence to be
the conqueror. This is a well-ascertained fact, and a

250 KLOOF AND KARROO.
very important one it is likely to be to the Cape
farmer ; although, so far I believe Mr. Evans is alone
in the use of " jackal wire." The camp is partly flat
karroo, partly rising and broken ground (kopje),
whereon wilde pruim, spekboom, and other succulent
bushes and shrubs flourish in a scant luxuriance.
Within this huge enclosure or enclosures — for there
are smaller ones carved out of the main camp — ¦
some 500 ostriches are gathered.
Here the great birds wander practically free and
unfettered — some full grown, some smaller, others
quite young — in solemn stateliness ; ludicrous
creatures they are with their quaint bald bristly
heads. We enter the largest enclosure to assist in
driving some of the birds into a small pen or fold
between the great and little camps. A ferocious old
cock comes rushing up with direful eye and
malevolent intent, but is easily kept at bay by
thrusting the long-forked sticks with which we are
armed against his neck ; this is a simple yet
infallible guard, without which no ostrich camp
should be entered if it contains dangerous birds ;
a thorn bush held in front of the bird's neck will
answer the purpose equally well. A fierce old cock
bird is indeed no joke, and can snap the limbs of the
strongest man with a kick impelled by the enormous
muscular power of his thigh. The old cock
presently turns away in a huff, and stalks off to
another part of the camp. Rampageous and un
reasonable creatures as ostriches may appear to the
uninitiated, they are in reality very easily managed.
When they have to be driven considerable distances
from one place to another, they are sometimes guided
by a kind of harness. A band of leather is passed

A KARROO FARM. 251

round the chest and under the wings ; to this two long
" reims " (skin halters) are attached, and the bird is
then easily driven by two men — each holding a
" reim." Another plan often adopted, is to fasten a
" reim " round the bird's neck ; this is held by a man
on horseback, who canters alongside of the ostrich,
and gets over the ground with his willing captive in
very easy fashion. The ostrich is wonderfully
amenable to pressure upon the neck, and makes the
journey under such circumstances with far more than
the docility even of the tractable sheep. After
some trouble, a certain number of birds, which
have been brought up early in the morning from
distant parts of the camp by the Kaffir herds, are
driven one by one into the small fold. Here they
are guided into a corner, and then a hurdle is set up
against them ; then a bag or small sack is placed
over the head ; the bird stands perfectly still, and is
speedily denuded of its best feathers by the aid of a
pair of garden pruning scissors, which do their work
neatly and expeditiously, leaving about half-an-inch
of quill stump remaining ; this soon afterwards
becomes loose, and is easily and painlessly removed,
giving place to a fresh growth.
There is no pain whatever in this clipping
process, but in the earlier da*ys of ostrich farming,
when the feathers were pulled out bodily, I fancy
there must have been some suffering. In many
cases, instead of using bags for the head, boxes are
employed during the process of denudation. One
after another the birds are rapidly driven in, clipped,
and turned out again, until there is a great pile of
feathers — prime whites, feminas, drabs, blacks,
spadonas, and the rest. At the time I write of,

252 KLOOF AND KARROO.
feathers had not yet fallen to the wretchedly low
prices they now command, nor had the birds them
selves lost much of the fictitious value they assumed
during the extremest rage of the ostrich mania.
About that time, .£1,000 had actually been paid for
a pair of breeding birds with a nest of eighteen
eggs ! £500 was not by any means an uncommon
price for a pair of really good breeders ; while from
£200 to £300 were common enough prices. The
sum of £82 has been known to be realised from the
plucking of a few feathers only. But what a crash
was there when the bubble burst, and the inflation
was at an end. The Colony has not yet overgot
its effects, which will be remembered with soreness
for many a long day. Now (1889) birds are almost
unsaleable, and good breeding birds may be bought
for £5 a pair, and chicks for a few shillings each,
instead of from £7 10s. to £10, as soon as they
emerged from the eggs. Now, indeed, is the time
to go into ostrich farming, for at the present low
price of stock, it can assuredly be made to pay.
It has been commonly supposed that the
domestication of ostriches began in 1864, from
which time ostrich farming practically takes its rise ;
such is not the case. Kolben, that quaint and
entertaining traveller, distinctly mentions having
seen ostriches tame and in confinement at the
Cape in or about 1705. It would seem, however,
that the practice fell into obscurity, to be revived
again with astounding and unexpected success
160 years later. It was a fortunate thing for
these great birds that domestication set in at this
later period, or a few years would probably have
seen their complete extinction within the limits

A KARROO FARM. 253

of the Cape Colony. The remnant of wild
birds had by 1864 been greatly thinned by
remorseless feather hunters, and ostriches were
only to be found upon the Great Karroo and
in Bushmanland and other remote parts of the
Colony, where their young were often reared with
extreme difficulty. Shooting parties were periodically
got up by our host, and from eight to ten birds were
usually accounted for during the hunt. Mr. Evans
was one of the first three farmers in the Colony to
inaugurate ostrich farming, the others being Mr.
Kennear, resident magistrate, of Beaufort West,
and Mr. Murray, of Colesberg.
The first chicks were obtained for him by a Boer,
a beiwoner (a sort of sub-farmer on the estate of
a richer farmer, who is expected to perform certain
duties for the privilege of running his stock) on
a neighbouring run. A nest was watched by this
Dutchman until the chicks were hatched out ; but
when the time came for delivery, the Boer, who had
had his suspicions, demanded much more than the
agreed price — a trifling one — and obtained £4 ios.
for half of the chicks, the rest going to the owner
of the land. From these four or five chicks sprang,
practically, the gigantic ostrich farming business
that now obtains. At first all sorts of erroneous
ideas prevailed concerning the new stock. As the
birds did not breed for three or four seasons, it was
imagined that the pristine wildness and timidity of
their nature would prove a bar to their perpetuation
while in captivity. Time proved this to be a mistake.
Mr. Evans's first ostriches were not confined in
camps, but ranged free upon the karroo, returning
each night to kraal to be shut up.

254 KLOOF AND KARROO.
As the cocks grew older they grew also bolder,
and many ludicrous anecdotes of their escapades
were told us. Two Dutchmen's horses, which had
never seen an ostrich at close quarters, were
nearly frightened out of their skins, while standing
by the homestead, by the apparition of the cocks
rushing upon them from round the corner of the
house. Breaking their skin halters, they fled
precipitately for miles across the plains, with the
cocks in hot pursuit. Horses now view ostriches
with as much unconcern as poultry. A Dutchman's
horse was attacked from behind by the downward
kick of an ostrich ; the Boer was thrown and
seriously hurt, and his gun broken, and an action
for damages was nearly resulting. After these and
other similar events, and as the cocks became daily
more troublesome, they were hobbled for some
considerable time, until the system of confining
them in camps came into vogue. In fighting,
ostriches very much resemble dunghill cocks.
The two I have spoken of took up different ranging
grounds, one selecting the higher, the other the
lower part of the veldt. If he of the plains ventured
into the upper ground to do battle, his defeat was
certain ; and if he of the upland sought his rival
on his native heath, he was equally certain to be
worsted ; each bird invariably proving the baas-raake
(conqueror) on his own territory.
One of the most singular habits of these singular
birds is the challenge ; at first this habit was quite
incomprehensible to the early ostrich farmers. A
cock would come rushing across the karroo in
pursuit of a man on horseback, and when within
a few yards, would suddenly bring itself to the

A KARROO FARM. 255

ground, thrust up its head slightly backwards, set
up its tail, and then, flapping its wings, utter a
monotonous groaning chant ; this challenge to
mortal combat would be repeated over and over
again. At first it was imagined that the ostriches
were in convulsions or attacked by fits, but this
idea soon faded as the birds persistently got to
their feet again, assumed the defensive and
displayed their fighting powers.
Another singularity about this bird is, that a cock,
which has been dangerously pugnacious in its own
camp, will, when removed elsewhere, invariably prove
as quiet and submissive as the proverbial lamb. One
other point. It is commonly thought that ostriches are
monogamous ; as a fact, they are only monogamous
so far as the hatching-out is concerned. A number
of hens lay their eggs in one nest ; but the strongest
hen then takes possession, and with the help of
the cock, performs the hatching-out process. The
younger and weaker hens often attempt to satisfy
their " broody " instinct, by sitting religiously upon
the bare sand as near the nest as possible.
Again, it has been thought that a certain number
of the eggs are rolled out of the nest, and broken by
the old birds to serve as food for the chicks as they
hatch out. In reality, all those eggs that the sitting
bird cannot properly cover and4iatch are rolled out,
and are then broken and devoured by jackals and
other vermin. Nature's unerring instinct tells the
birds that it is useless to retain in their nest eggs
that cannot be hatched, and the encumbrances are
at once got rid of.
At the present time, wild birds, from being strictly
preserved, are much more plentiful ; and, indeed,

256 KLOOF AND KARROO.
their numbers have been actually reinforced from the
ranks of their domesticated brethren. A year or two
back (1886-7) farmers became so utterly sick and
disgusted at the fall of prices and the depreciation
of their stock, that, rather than bear the expense
and trouble of keeping useless and unremunerative
encumbrances, they turned loose their birds upon
their native karroos, where no doubt they will thrive
and perpetuate themselves, and possibly impart to
their wild congenitors new methods and increased
store of artfulness — already possessed in plenty. It
may be noted that " tame " feathers never equal
the best of the produce of the wilderness ; " Prime
bloods," as the first quality of wild feathers are
called, realising half as much again per pound as the
best of domestic pluckings. The highest value in
the export of feathers was reached in 1882, when
253,954 lbs. weight — valued at £1,093,989 — were
exported; in 1885, the figures had fallen to 251,084
lbs., valued at but £585,278 — a terrible depreciation
in value. But now having done our duty by the ostriches,
we are ready for the horses, which in the meantime
have been saddled up and brought out to us by a
couple of Kaffir boys. We are quickly mounted,
and proceed to ride off to the slopes of Witteberg
to have a look at some of the stock — horses and
horned cattle — running there.
For part of the distance we ride across perfectly
flat karroo, and our host tells us something about
the nature of the herbage growing around. Just now
we are nearing the end of a long droughty season ;
the early summer rains, so anxiously expected, have
not arrived, and the far-stretching plains look too

A KARROO FARM. 257

brown and barren to afford nourishment even to a
rear-guard locust — an insect thankful for small
mercies. Much of the red soil — rich enough for
anything if water be brought to it — is scarcely
covered; there are often great bare patches between
the shrubs and plants, and the grasses have quite
disappeared. But, droughty and parched though the
plains appear to us after eight months without rain,
what must they be like when, as is sometimes the
case, no moisture falls for two years on end ; two
years of scorching suns, of brassy skies, of evaporating
dams, and disappearing vegetation ; towards the
end, long months of weary struggling, to preserve the
constantly decreasing flocks, which day by day die
from thirst and starvation. At such times the lot of
a Karroo farmer is not merely not an enviable one —
it is an existence absolutely maddening. Yet even
now, as we amble across the plains, there is in
these apparently scrubby feeding grounds an ample
pasturage, and the stock as we have seen are in
good heart and fettle. These dried-up looking
shrubs, and the low heathery brush that form the
karroo vegetation, are even now full of feeding
power ; and when the rains come, as we afterwards
witnessed, what a transformation ! Brush and scrub,
apparently devoid of life, shoot out a fresh and vernal
verdure ; starry flowers spring in profusion, even
before the green leaves appear ; fragrant grasses and
herbs emerge as if by magic from the soil, and the
whole surface of the karroo appears one immense
ocean of dark green, spangled with flowers most
brilliant and innumerable. A delicious aromatic
odour fills the atmosphere. No one, indeed, who
has not witnessed this glorious transformation, can
:7

258 KLOOF AND KARROO.
possibly appreciate the vastness and completeness
of the change.
Amongst the principal feeding plants upon these
plains are the spekboom (fat-tree), guarray, karree-
bosch, fingerpoll, vaal boschie, noorse-doorn (in
certain localities, especially in Zwart Ruggens), and
others too numerous to mention. The compositse
and the portulacise are very largely represented
amongst the innumerable varieties of vegetable life.
The hibis-cus, pelargonium, heliophila, oxalida^
(several), mesembryanthemum, crassula, and coty
ledon, are very noticeable.
The fingerpoll is singular, even amongst many
curious plants. This, the Euphorbia caput-meduscs of
scientists, has a low growth, not distantly resembling
a squabby footstool, with fingers standing forth from
it. It is a tough, yet an extremely nourishing plant,
and is so hard as to require to be cut up with an
axe ; the kernel or inner part of it is, when boiled,
used as a vegetable occasionally. Sheep and goats
feed greedily upon it when cut up and thrive
amazingly. Oxen do not take to it quite so naturally,
but when used to it they do even more credit to its
recuperative powers ; and it is a well understood fact,
that spent and foundered oxen, left to die upon
the road where they had fallen, have, when fed
with fingerpoll, regained vitality, got up, and
resumed their trek. Horned cattle, indeed, become
extraordinarily fond of this plant. I have seen a
span of oxen outspanned for evening, and wandering
off into the bushes to graze. I have watched the
driver go to the waggon, get out his axe, and with it
smartly strike the wheels. The metallic clink was
instantly noted and responded to by the cattle •

A KARROO FARM. 259

to them that welcome sound meant "fingerpoll,"
and briskly they all straightway returned and followed
the driver a short distance, to where some of the
much-loved plant grew. There they patiently
waited while their provider cut up and prepared
the luxury, and finally fell to with keen and hearty
appetites, as their crisp crunchings plainly told.
We have a ride of several miles before us to the
foot of yonder Witteberg ; and accordingly, putting
our nags to a canter, we rapidly get over the ground,
rough and uneven, and studded here and there with
meercat or ant-bear holes, though it is. The sun,
now well overhead, shines warm and brilliantly ;
still it is not too hot, there is a pleasant breeze out,
and the clear air is full of sparkle and exhilaration.
Upon these high karroos, even in the fiery intensity
of the hot season, life is not unbearable, and when
"The sultry summer noon is past,
And mellow ev ening comes at last,
With a low and languid breeze,
Fanning the mimosa trees."
the nights are cool, and sleep, welcome and
refreshing to the sun-baked Vee-Boer, is obtained.
Far away to our right front there is a deep, dark
indentation in the mountain range. That is Beer
Vley, or De Beer's Vley, a pass from the karroo
well-known to ancient travelers. Here Barrow
rested and refreshed his cattle, and before him the
lively Le Vaillant. Here amid the reeds and long
grasses was slain, not so many years ago, the last
lion known in this locality.
Presently, as we near the mountain and
approached some thicker clumps of bush that
begin to clothe the veldt, a sharp, fierce bark from

260 KLOOF ANU KAKKUU.
the colley that accompanies us is heard in front.
Then across a piece of open ground darts a reddish
yellow form, followed by the dog. " Rooi cat! by
jove!" exclaims our host; "shoot, or give me the
gun, quick." But, alas ! 'tis too late, the rooi cat has
got to shelter, too dense to follow him into, and the
colley is not equal, single-handed, to an encounter
with an African lynx, and, indeed, is clearly not
inclined for it either ; so after hunting and spooring
about a little, we give it up. " We must have that
fellow in the next few days," says our host; "we'll
bring the dogs and a Kaffir to-morrow, and hunt
him up ; and if we can't get him that way, we must
poison him somehow." The rooi kat (red cat) of
the Boers, more commonly known to naturalists as
the caracal or African lynx, is plentifully distributed
over the Cape Colony, and as it is a sworn foe to
the farmers' flocks is killed off as relentlessly as
occasion admits.
A.shortway farther and the mountain is reached.
We ride quietly about here and there, looking up
and inspecting the horses and oxen — or most of
them — which here run free and unconfined. When
Mr. Evans, in i860, bought Riet Fontein from
Hendrik Stols, the old Boer had fifty mares, most
of them with foals, which he grazed principally in
the direction of these mountains. But so infested
was the place with leopards at that time, that every
one of these animals was knee-haltered, and they
were all jealously tended throughout the day by
sharp-eyed Bushmen or Hottentots. Every night
they were driven into kraal, and every morning sent
forth into the veldt again. But even with these
precautions, the leopards secured many of the foals.

A KARROO FARM. 261

Our host has ended all this ; strychnine placed
in meat or dead carcasses, and set about on bushes
or low trees, has done its deadly work ; and on this
side of Witteberg the " tigers," as they are invariably
called at the Cape, now cease from troubling.
Farther over on the other side, in Naroekas Poort
and other parts of the mountain interior, however,
they are still plentiful, and cause much damage.
At Naroekas Poort, our mountain abiding-place,
only two years before our arrival, the leopards had
killed no less than fourteen foals in one season.
During the afternoon we inspect some eighty
or ninety horses of all sorts, shapes, and colours,
as well as a good number of oxen, and find them all
pretty fit and flourishing. The Cape horse is, as a
rule, a trifle undersized ; is somewhat lacking in
bone below the knee and hock, and too often has
drooping quarters ; yet, with these failings, I have
found him (and most people who have tested the
matter will agree with me) the hardiest and most
willing servant in the world. No day is too long,
no country too severe for him; and, in the matter
of food, the Cape horse is as accommodating as
such a-rough-and-ready Colony often requires him
to be. As hunting nags, when properly trained, they are
the most sensible and sporting animals imaginable,
and enter with extraordinary zest into the spirit
of the chase ; standing like rocks when dismounted,
and galloping like the wind — carefully avoiding
holes, with the cleverness of cats — when engaged
in cutting off the flying herds of antelopes. Very
many of the Cape horses have spotted or snowy
quarters ; I am not certain why this should be, but

262 KLOOF AND KARROO.

I have heard that this characteristic is to be traced
to their Barb or Persian ancestry.
The Cape horse owes its origin, some two
hundred years back, to a Persian strain, and to
ancestors imported from the Dutch settlement at
Java ; later on, to a touch of the Barb and a fair
share of English blood, and the result, as I have
pointed out, is an animal not by any means showy,
but possessed of eminently useful qualities.
A pull at our cold tea bottles and a biscuit or two
breaks our fast while we are shepherding the cattle.
The slopes of these mountains are, in parts, very
densely clothed with bush, the fleshy and succulent
spekboom, and the strong wiry wilde pruimen,
affording thick cover for game. Hither wander
occasionally the magnificent koodoo (Strepsiceros
kudu), most regal of South African antelopes,
happily still to be found within Cape Colony, and,
it is pleasant to say, even on the increase in some
localities. Here is to be found, lurking in the
darkest of the jungle, the bosch vark (bush hog),
one of the two varieties of South African wild boar.
Here the lovely steinbok, the fleet rheboks — red
and grey — the crouching duyker, and the rock-
loving klipspringers abound. But to-day we are
not come prepared for shooting, although, as a
matter of habit, guns are carried by two of our
number ; and as the sun now dismounts from his
zenith, and the shadows lengthen, we turn our
horses heads for Riet Fontein. A pleasant ride
home, delayed a little by a fruitless attempt to
stalk a steinbok, which is espied in a thinly-bushed
kopje, brings us, towards the close of the afternoon
to the homestead, whose dam we can see shimmerino-

t>

A KARROO FARM. 263

beneath the slanting sunlight. We are not sorry to
off-saddle, and have a cup of coffee, or something
stronger, and a smoke during the hour before
high-tea. The springboks graze peacefully far out upon the
veldt ; the flocks of sheep and goats are all now
trending homewards as the sun sinks, the distant
tinkle of their bells wafted now and again across
the brown-bosomed plain. Lower sinks the great
luminary as he prepares his gorgeous vestments for
the night ; it is a goodly and a striking scene. The
pomp and pride of evening now begins ; lingeringly
the sun departs, charging and suffusing earth,
atmosphere, and mountains alike with a ruddy flush
and glow of colour, well-nigh inconceivable to any
but African beholders. The red light fades, the
mountains change from their glorious panoply of
crimson and gold to a mellow purple, and as day
departs from the karroo, they pass into sombre
darkness. Silence, save for the occasional bleating
from the kraals or the cry of a distant jackal, now
broods upon the landscape, as we turn half reluctantly
indoors. The sun has gone, but shortly the African
moon, already risen, will appear radiant and serene
from behind yonder lowering pile of Witteberg —
" Here shall the wizard moon ascend
The heavens in the crimson end,
Of days declining splendour ; here
The army of the stars appear."
As we light our pipes contentedly after supper,
and look out upon the landscape now drenched in an
argent flood of the most chastening and bewitching
light that ever shone from heaven, we inwardly bless

264 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the destiny that has led us hither, to pass among
such scenes. Presently we remember that the
springboks have to be hunted on the morrow, and
betake ourselves to rest.*

* Since these lines were written, I have to lament the untimely death of
my old and greatly valued friend, Mr. J. B. Evans, of Riet Fontein, J.P. for
the Divisions of Graaff Reinet, Aberdeen, Uitenhage, and Willowmore. In
him the Cape has lost one of her foremost and most devoted sons, a perfect
example of what a colonist should be. Respected and esteemed by all who
knew him (and he was very widely known), his bright example will not soon
fade from the memory of his fellow colonists, Dutch as well as British. His
only fault was that he worked too hard and unceasingly, and his strong frame
was undoubtedly worn out before its time, by a too unflagging energy. It is
not too much to say that if Cape Colony contained 5,000 British colonists as
energetic and shrewd as the late Mr. Evans, it would soon become completely
transformed.

Chapter XV.
A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON
WITTEBERG.

WHILST staying in Naroekas Poort we
arranged, amongst other items of sports,
to go overnight to the dwelling of Tobias
Verwey, our host's Dutch foreman — who lived in a
rude hartebeest-huis amid the mountains — sleep
there for an hour or two, get up before dawn, and
make our way to a nek in the most secluded part of
the mountains, where the klipspringers and rheboks
were in the habit of passing, soon after sunrise,
from their night's drink at a fountain in one of the
deep kloofs below. Four of us, therefore, having
sent on a Kaffir with our blankets, rifles, and some
cartridges, took our shot guns, and in the afternoon
wended our way quietly along the mimosa valley,
and thence up the kloof that led to Tobias's. It
was a glorious day, one of those still afternoons
of late spring — warm, yet not too warm, for the
air was tempered by a crisp freshness, that later on
fades before the glowing heat of summer.
We had calculated on a shot or two as we went
along, and were not disappointed. As a spring-haas
(jumping hare), that had issued from its shelter
somewhat earlier than is usual with these animals,
bounded away among the thorn trees to our right,
two guns rattled out, and over tumbled the hare.
Soon after we noticed, for the second time in our

266 KLOOF AND KARROO.
stay, some of the cuckoos that were just beginning
to arrive in these regions, known in the Colony by
the quaint name Piet-mijn-vrouw — dark grey birds,
with reddish breasts and dirty white stomachs
with black cross-bars. Le Vaillant calls this bird
Le coucou solitaire, and Cuvier, Cuculus solitarius.
Its Dutch name, Piet-mijn-vrouw, is obviously
bestowed upon it from its call, which sounds not
unlike those words. We had noticed, a day or two
before, another and rarer cuckoo — Klaas's cuckoo —
Mietje of the Boers, Le coucou de Klaas of the
bird-loving Le Vaillant, who named it after his
favourite Hottentot. This lovely cuckoo, dis
tinguished by its brilliant green upper plumage, its
snow-white under parts and its white tail, centre
barred and tipped with green, is not common in the
Witteberg valleys, and the specimen we shot was
probably the forerunner of the numbers that move
to the Knysna Forest towards the end of the year.
The green back of this charming bird has a very
noticeable coppery metallic sheen upon it, and
further, the white lines over each eye, and the green
splash of feathers on both sides of the chest, add to
its distinction. Le Vaillant's enthusiasm over this
little beauty is not to be wondered at. The hen
bird is chiefly distinguished from her mate by the
brown markings upon her green back.
Not long after we had secured the spring-haas,
a pair of purple herons, evidently winging their
flight to our river, turned off from their course
almost immediately overhead. They were flying
carelessly and low, and had not noticed us in the
mimosa grove, hereabouts pretty thick, and for one
of them the mistake was fatal. We had not killed

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 267
one of these fine birds since our arrival, and Frank's
gun brought down the male bird neatly enough.
This bird, the Ardea purpurea of Linnaeus, is
abundant in the Colony ; it measures in length
very nearly three feet, and in colouring stands
pre-eminent among its numerous congeners — for
the Cape boasts of eleven true herons (Ardece),
though not all are commonly met with.
It is a delightful country, this Kaap-land as
the old Boers called it, if you have leisure enough to
explore it ; and pastoral farmers out here have,
after all, frequently but to sit down quietly and
see their flocks increase around them ; while to a
collector, with plenty of time on his hands, I can
imagine nothing more enticing than six months
spent in the Eastern province of the Cape Colony,
or beyond the Kei in Kaffraria proper (both of them
countries not yet half ransacked by naturalists).
Presently, as we walk on, a wild cat of some kind
jumps out from some bushes in front, and tears
away into covert, where it is useless to follow. It
was too quick for us, and we lose an opportunity of
slaying one of the pests of our much-harassed
poultry-yard. But " vorwarts " is the word, and
we push on through the deep kloof of which I have
previously spoken, and as the £un falls in a warm
glow behind the hills, tinting gorgeously the brown
rocks around, we reach Tobias's little reed and
plaster habitation, where we shall sup and rest for
a few hours.
Tobias's vrouw, an excellent but somewhat
retiring Dutch lady, of rotund and sturdy figure, is
preparing a capital supper for us, and we can already
scent from afar, with appetising sensations, that

268 KLOOF AND KARROO.

capacious flesh-pot, in which is stewing a melange of
francolin and buck, procured by Tobias for our
special use and behoof on this occasion. We stroll
with the little Dutchman about the premises, note
the horses he has in the kraal, hear that a troop of
zebras has been seen running on the mountains close
to our own far-ranging stud ; hear, too, of the
untimely demise of a weakly foal killed by a leopard ;
inspect the patches of oats and melons in the
alluvial bottom ground ; and then supper is ready.
There are only two compartments, for they
cannot be styled rooms, in Tobias's house- — in
reality it is one apartment, with a rough partition of
boards running half-way up to the roofing which
shuts off the bedroom. In one corner of the dining-
room — if I may so call it — there is an ancient Boer
waggon chest, a treasured family heirloom, as these
things often are, at least 150 years old, in which is
stored most of Tobias's worldly gear, and upon which
reposes a huge antique clasp Bible. A rust-bank —
a rude sofa of wood, covered with skins — stands
against the wall facing the entrance. Upon the
wall hangs a solitary picture — an ancient engraving
of one of the old-time Dutch governors of the
Colony — Governor Ryk Van Tulbagh, if I remember
rightly, who flourished towards the middle of the last
century. A plain deal table, two chairs, and an
empty case or two, complete the furniture. The
floor is of the usual South African mixture of ant-hill
clay and cow-dung, set perfectly hard and perfectly
clean. Tobias and his wife have already supped,
and while he sits on his rust-bank and smokes his
pipe, she places on the table a mighty tureen
steaming hot. The Cape Dutch are not often

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 269
renowned for the cleanliness or delicacy of their
viands, but our worthy entertainers are exceptions.
perhaps Tobias's Huguenot descent has transmitted
to him traces of the neatness and the culinary
propensities of his Gallic ancestors. The plates are
clean, the knives and forks strangely bright, and the
stew is delicious. Our meal is finished off with
honey literally " out ofthe stony rock," for the caves
in the kloofs around furnish a rich and perennial
store of magnificent wild honey. Coffee and some
very decent Boer brandy and water wash down our
repast, and pipes and Boer tobacco — the latter very
good of its kind — wind up the feast. Then we have
an hour's chat with Tobias, chiefly of anecdotes
concerning the fierce Bushmen, who, not so many
years since, infested these mountains and harassed
the farmer's flocks ; and nine o'clock finds us all
asleep — Tobias and vrouw behind their partition,
ourselves snugly enwrapped in our blankets on the
floor. Our sleep was sound while it lasted, but it
seemed scarce an hour since we had dropped off
when Tobias awakened us at one o'clock.
It was yet dark within doors, and a light had to
be procured. Then we took up our rifles, slung on
our cartridge bandoliers, strapped up three of our
big bush rugs, and issued forth into the chilly
morning. The moon was up, and it was not difficult
to distinguish near objects ; and as the little
Dutchman led the way, we followed him pretty
comfortably by two and two up a narrow track, that
led first up a small kloof, well clothed with stunted
olive trees, through which we emerged, upon the
rough mountain-side. Then followed a tough, and
not altogether agreeable scramble over rocks and

270 KLOOF AND KARROO.
through low bushes and scrub until the summit was
attained. This hill was flat topped, and we waded
across its uneven surface, through long sour grass,
for a mile or more. Now we were near the nek,
trending from a lower hill that sloped two miles
away to a long, deep valley, in which lay the fountain
I have spoken of. This nek was a sort of ridge,
leading from the lower to the higher mountains ; it
was shut in on either hand by precipitous rocks,
which bent inwards and afforded no sort of foothold
even for the chamois-like klipspringer. The
mountain whereon we stood, which communicated
with one end of the nek, led off in various sharp
spurs to other heights, and as it was only by this
passage that the more secluded hills could be reached
from the water (and the water from them) without a
long deviation, the antelopes in this vicinity used it
pretty regularly in their nightly journey to quench
their thirst. The length of the nek was about 250
yards, its width in the broadest part about fifty
yards. Tobias had chosen for our ambush two
places, the first about forty paces from the entrance
out of the lower ground, the other on the opposite
side and sixty yards or so nearer the exit to the
higher hills.
It was an eerie walk over these mournful, solemn
mountains by the pale moonlight, and we were not
sorry, at last, to reach our destination. We were
soon snugly ensconced with our backs to a rocky
wall, and in front of us a screen of bush, which would
effectually conceal us from passing game. With the
three rugs we had brought with us we enwrapped
ourselves as well as possible, for the air was keen
and searching. Silence almost complete lay upon

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 271
the heights around. Occasionally, the weird, harsh
cry of a leopard, on his nightly prowl, could be heard
in the ravines below us ; and now and again the
churring of the goat-sucker could be distinguished
as the bird paused in its flight, and from some bush
or tree sent forth vibrating notes through the still
atmosphere. We had now about an hour before
daylight, and all, except Tobias, who kept watch,
dozed off. It seemed but a second or two, instead
of an hour, before we were nudged, and on the alert
again. Rubbing our eyes and looking around, we
could perceive, as we turned involuntarily to the
east (it is curious, by the way, how instinctively the
eye seeks the light), the faintest touch of pallor in
the dim blue distance over the neighbouring heights.
Charlie and Bob now, under Tobias's instructions,
take a blanket, creep cautiously behind the bushy
screen for seventy yards, and then cross over to the
other side, where they are to lie perdu till the sport
begins. We have noticed, previously, that the light
breeze, which just caresses the bushes, blows towards
us, thus making matters a point more in our favour.
Tobias, who, in matters of venary, is as keen and
acute as a Bushman, had previously assured himself
on this point, or our plans might have needed
alteration at the last moment. We wait impatiently,
for pipes are tabooed, and the light comes charily,
and as if begrudged, as it seems to our now
expectant nerves. But the buck will probably not
pass till the sunlight is well over the hills, so we
have, perforce, to smother our impatience as we may.
At length the dim eastern pallor spreads and
broadens out. Presently thin streaks of light appear,
and then a faint saffron tint imperceptibly creeps up.

272 KLOOF ANU KAKKUU.
Anon, a soft rose flush mantles the lower eastern sky.
Slowly the glorious day comes, heralded by sweet
forerunners of light, painted in every conceivable
tint of red and rose, of amber, blue, and green.
Now the mountain tops flush as if with pleasure at
the coming of the rising king, glorious streamers
flaunt and float upwards in the sky, and, finally, all
but broad daylight rests upon the earth. But,
surrounded as we are by mountains, we cannot yet
actually behold the sun.
With the advent of daylight, Nature begins slowly
to open her eyes. First is heard the sweet piping
notes of the mountain canary — the "berg canarie "
of the Boers (Amadina alario of Linnaeus). As a
rule, the Cape is not famous for its songsters, and the
radiant colouring of much of its feathered life but
ill supplies the deficiency ; but this bird and the
common Cape canary (Fringilla canicollis) are notable
exceptions to the rule. The mountain canary, of
which I speak, is a neat little fellow, reddish-brown
coloured above and as to its tail ; the under parts
are white, while the head, throat, and neck are black.
The sweet-tongued bird, after hopping about a little
not far from us, presently shakes off the heaviness of
night, and pulling himself together with some pick-
me-up discovered among the seeds and berries, flies
hither and thither singing merrily between times. It
is not long before others of his species join him and
add to the melody.
Soon after, as the sun gets warmer and thrusts
away the chill night air, a stout rock-thrush and his
mate come hopping along in and out of the boulders
that lie in such wild confusion around us. The
cock bird, as he ought to do, runs first ; he is a fine

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 273
bold fellow when he thinks he is safe and unobserved,
as indeed he mostly is up here ; and, unseen, we can
admire his ruddy brown back and tail, and his dark
blue head and throat. Then, in his innocence, he
boldly faces us, showing his fine rufous chest and
stomach. Presently, after picking up an insect or
two, he perks his head round at his lady, who
follows closely behind him, and they suddenly stop,
and then, spreading their wings, fly upwards to a
projecting rock, where the fuller strength of the
sunlight can be felt. Immediately the male bird
bursts into a bold and pleasing song ; his notes are
clear and full, and we listen to him with interested
ears, for he reminds us of our own feathered songsters
at home in England. Another bird flits from rock
to rock close to us on our left — a tiny finch, not
much larger than a tom-tit, commonly known in the
Colony by its Boer name of streep-kopje (little
stripe-head). It is a quaint little grey fellow, black
striped upon its upper parts, and having its head
plainly marked on either side with white and black
stripings. Its piping note is not unpleasant, as it
searches hither and thither for its morning meal.
Suddenly, starting as if from space, comes soaring
above us a great black mountain eagle. We know
him at once for a berghaan (cock, of the mountain)
or dassie-vanger (coney-eater). He is evidently
watching some object below — probably the antelopes
we are waiting for — and doubtless, keen sportsman
that he is, he has been the first of all the birds up
here to sally forth from his rocky eyrie in search of a
good meat breakfast.
At length Tobias nudges me, and instantly our
sporting instincts are aroused and acutely alert.

274 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Listening intently, we hear a kind of suppressed
grunt borne on the breeze towards us from below.
" De klipbok," whispers Tobias, and we cock our
rifles quietly. For a few seconds we wait with
feverish impatience ; still nothing appears.
But now, on a sudden through the sweet morning
air, picking its way daintily through the long sour
grass and over the rough rocks — its proud little head
well erect, the sunlight glinting on its short stiletto
like horns, its moist, round muzzle searching the
breeze to catch the faintest breath of suspicion, its
large ears anon cocked forward to act as auxiliaries
to its keener sense of scent — comes a sturdy
klipspringer. How magnificently the little plump
fellow moves ; how gallant is his port ; how bonny
his soft brown eyes, and the rich warmth of his
olive-brown tinted coat. Just behind him trips the
ewe, and near to her again another pair. Close at the
flanks of the ewes run a pair of the daintiest little
fawns that ever mortal set eyes on. These little
creatures skip and spring in sheer gaiety of heart
in the most bewitching manner. Their playful
leaps and antics are simply astounding. They seem
scarcely to touch the rocks that for one fleeting
thousandth part of a second give them foothold.
Nothing in nature — not even the chamois of
Switzerland or the bighorn of America — can excel
these rock-lovers in poetry of motion, in grace of
attitude, or in the careless daring of their leap;
they fly over rather than touch the rocks and earth.
A glance at Tobias warns us not to fire. The ewes
with their young at heel, cannot be shot; and it were
a shame to slay the gallant rams, whose services
may be needed — who shall say how soon ?  to

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 275
protect their families from some prowling wild cat or
swooping eagle. Fifty paces behind this charming
family group comes a clump of two more rams and
three ewes — two of the latter barely full grown.
These are marked for our quarry, for they have no
young. Motionless as the rocks we lie till the first
party is gone, and then, as the last ones trot slowly
past, we let fly. They are scarcely thirty-five paces
from us, and at the discharge the two rams leap
forward — one dead, the other severely wounded ;
while one ewe, with a broken shoulder-blade, is
down. Three seconds later, we hear two reports
away on our left, and afterwards we find that,
unfortunately, one of the rams of the family party
had fallen to the shot. The wounded ram ran on as
far as the second ambush, where he was stopped by
Bob. It is not often that so many as ten or eleven
klipspringers are found together; usually they are
seen in pairs, or perhaps as many as four together,
but occasionally, as in this instance, when returning
to their favourite habitat from water, they may be
happened upon in a small "clumpje," as the Boers
call it.
But Tobias assured us that, despite the shooting,
we shall see yet more game — klipspringer or rhebok —
and, true enough, in three minutgs there is a helter-
skelter, and seven or eight larger antelopes, red and
grey coloured, came flying past in a very tempest of
fear and fright. They were evidently scared by the
noise of the firing, which (as Tobias afterwards
told us) rolled and re-echoed round the valley
bewilderingly about their ears. There were five of
the vaal (grey) rhebok, and three of the rooi (red)
kind. These latter usually keep to the lower ground,

276 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the vaal rhebok to the higher ; but, as in the present
instance, when alarmed, they will temporarily unite
till the danger is past. Bang ! bang ! bang ! a kill
and a half and one clean miss (alas ! mine), for the
game is up and past like lightning. A rooi rhebok,
smitten by Tobias's bullet, is down and struggling ;
a vaal rhebok, with one of Charlie's bullets clean
through him, leaps in the air almost like a springbok,
and presses on, hard hit. He, too, is secured at the
second ambush, both rifles there, by a mistake, being
emptied at him. Thus the rest of these antelopes
escape, leaving only two of the troop behind them.
We wait five minutes longer, and then we know the
shooting is over ; no more bucks will now pass. We
whistle to our friends in the higher ambush, and
gather together the game. As we look across a
broad deep kloof to another range, Tobias points to
something in motion. It is a troop of nine zebras,
which, scared by the firing, are tearing away over
the mountain at headlong speed. They are soon
lost to view. These splendid creatures, naturally
wary to a degree, are, from much persecution,
extremely hard to find, and only at early morning are
to be seen within some miles of this point.
Occasionally, however, they will run with the horses,
mules, and donkeys, that range over the hills, and
have even been driven down and captured in this
way. While we light our pipes, and Tobias, assisted
by two of our number, proceeds to gralloch the slain
antelopes, we others examine his rifle. He is not a
rich Boer, or he would not have taken service with
our host as overseer, and he possesses no newer
weapon than an old " roer " that belonged to his

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 277
father forty years ago. It is a wonderful gun, an
ancient smoothbore, with a barrel as long as a
yard-arm almost, and it goes off with a report like
a cannon. Its spherical bullets, eight to the pound,
make a nasty hole in a buck, and their handiwork is
plainly apparent.
Six buck — four klipspringers and a brace of
rhebok — form the bag, as we think a capital
morning's work ; for, stalked in the usual way,
these mountain dwellers require an infinity of care
and trouble to procure ; yet, when secured, the
reward of your labour is sweet, and a mountain
buck is well worth the stalk, fatiguing though it
may have been. The only objection to the fun
we have been indulging in, is, that it is too quickly
over. The rhebok are hidden with stones and
bush till a horse can be sent up for them, and
each of us shouldering one of the four klipspringers,
we make our way down hill towards breakfast. The
mountain air up here is bracing and most delicious,
and, by the way, how confoundedly hungry it makes
one. Here we are nearly 5,000 feet above sea level,
and the health-giving breeze seems to send a tingling
sense of life and buoyancy hurrying through one's
veins. In these regions and amid such surroundings
one lives; in the dense and siojdy atmosphere of
cities one exists. Can there be a comparison
between the pleasures of such a life and such an
existence ? I trow not. They who have tasted the
pleasures of this clear healthy atmosphere and
gloriously beautiful country, will agree with me
that six months here are worth long years of
dwelling in towns. Yet, on the other hand, I
suppose custom can stale even the pleasures of

278 KLOOF AND KARROO.
such an existence ; at all events, a glance at many
a listless, stolid, Dutch Afrikander would seem to
imply it.
We were not long in getting down hill to
breakfast. On our way we noted a handsome
umber-brown lark — " dubbelde leeuwirk " the
Boers call it. Le Vaillant knew it, and christened
it "l'alouette a. gros bee"; its ornithological title
is Alauda crassirostris. Other larks there are in the
Colony, but none of them have the splendid song of
an English skylark — more's the pity. A flight
of red-wing starlings passed over our heads, flying,
doubtless, to some fruit or berry not far off. These
birds have dark blue bodies and handsome rufous-
tinted wings. The Dutch farmers know the bird as
the rooi vlerk-spreo ; Le Vaillant discovered it, and
christened it "la roupenne." These are shocking
fruit stealers, and the wine Boers, during the grape
season, find them most troublesome neighbours, and
wage determined war on them, guarding their crops
with boys and guns. These fellows were, I fancy,
on their way to the peach orchards of some Boers
away over the mountain. A little lower down, a
rock-lizard, about a foot long, flashes across our
path. It is a great, gaudy creature, having a bright
blue head and back, and a wonderful rose-coloured
throat. Its skin is marvellously smooth and soft
to the touch. The Boers call it the " blaauw-kop
salamander" (blue-headed salamander), and look
upon it with feelings of awe and horror. They will
tell you solemnly — and they verily believe it — that
this reptile is deadly poisonous, and that from it all
the snakes obtain and renew their poison.
The lizard, in truth, is perfectly harmless. But

A MORNING AMBUSCADE ON WITTEBERG. 279

the Cape Dutch — except the better \ families
immediately near Cape Town and its vicinity — have
some extraordinary superstitions. For instance, the
Boers of our neighbourhood at Naroekas were
perfectly convinced that there existed in the
mountains, near De Beer Vlei (about ten miles off),
a fabulous monster having the head of a rock-rabbit
and the body of a snake. After all, considering the
amount of superstition yet existing in remote parts
of England, the wild beliefs of these Dutch
Afrikanders, isolated as they have been from the
world for 230 years, are not to be wondered at. We
were not long in reaching Tobias's house, where we
deposited our loads. Then, taking our shot guns,
we had a turn for a couple of hours in the kloofs
around at the grey-wing partridges (Francolinus
afer), securing five-and-a-half brace. After this we
attacked and demolished, soon after seven o'clock
a.m., an excellent breakfast, and then, with Tobias,
spent an hour or two getting honey from a deposit in
the rocks near at hand. In the afternoon, we
returned home contentedly with horses well laden
with venison and honey.

Chapter XVI.
THE PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE
ANTELOPES AND LARGER GAME
OF CAPE COLONY.

TT77HEN Governor Jan Van Riebeek set foot
\X/ on the shores of Table Bay in 1652,
^^ hoisted the Dutch flag, and took posses
sion of the soil, he found a land literally teeming
with game, and absolutely virgin, so far as Europeans
were concerned, for the hunter. Before him
stretched precipitous mountains, wide karroos, and
rolling uplands, crowded, as no other country was
ever crowded, with the noblest, the most beautiful,
and the most stupendous game that nature in her
bounteous moods ever produced. The elephant,
the rhinoceros, the buffalo, the quagga and zebra,
the lion, the leopard, and the ostrich, roamed in
profusion and in undisturbed freedom over the
country to the very margin of Table Bay — nay, the
strand wolf (Hycsna brunnea) even found its food
from the dead whales and other fish cast upon
the sea-shore ; while in every river the hippopotami
wallowed in countless plenty. As for antelopes,
their numbers were literally as the sands of the sea.
Within the old and more commonly known limits of
the Cape Colony (that is, taking the Kei River as
the eastern boundary, and the Orange River as the
northern), with perhaps half-a-dozen exceptions
every variety of antelope to be found between the

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 281
Zambesi and the Indian Ocean there had its habitat.
The magnificent eland, an animal surpassing in
weight and stature the heaviest ox, and yet
possessing all the truest points of the antelope
tribe, must have been found in extraordinary
profusion, for its name to this day lingers upon
river, mountain, plain, and kopje in every part of
the Colony.
The rare roan antelope, now approaching
extinction in South Africa altogether, restricted as
it ever is in its habitat, was common in Swellendam,
where it survived till the end of the last century ; the
gemsbok or oryx abounded on every open karroo, the
curiously-pied bontebok was found in vast numbers ;
and the black wildebeeste, blessbok, springbok, and
hartebeeste upon the open plains literally covered
the face of the earth. Indeed, but for the
brandtsickte or burning disease which ravaged
their herds, they must have become far too numerous
for the country to support. All the smaller antelopes
were found in unexampled plenty. The Hottentots
and Bushmen, who at that time held the territory
now known as the Cape Colony, though they
obtained their food supplies from the game around
them, could from the nature of their weapons (the
bow and assegai only) , if left to, their own devices,
never have made much impression upon the vast
natural game preserves of their land.
But since the Dutch landed and firearms were
introduced, the history of the fauna of Cape Colony,
and, indeed, of South Africa generally, has been one
continual record of ceaseless, wanton, and shameful
slaughter. It will be said that our own countrymen,
as well as the Dutch, have had a great hand in this

282 KLOOF AND KARROO.
slaughter. To this I may point out that those of our
own race (of course with some exceptions) have more
sportsmanlike ideas than other nations, and have not
joined in the useless slaughter and skin-hunting
forays that the Boers have invariably and incessantly
indulged in.
Perhaps there is no better illustration of Boer
wastefulness and of wicked destruction of animal life
than the rolling plains of the Orange Free State.
Thirty years ago, these plains literally swarmed
with Burchell's zebras, quaggas, wildebeestes (gnus),
blessbok, and springbok. The Dutch found that
the skins of these animals brought them temporary
wealth, and in consequence scarcely a head of game
can now be found in that country ; the bones of
these beautiful creatures lie literally whitening the
veldt — all have vanished, and the life of the Free
State Boer is now robbed of half its former charm.
In the Cape Colony, English farmers have, to my
own knowledge, in many places succeeded in
preserving some of the rarer game now left ; and
in the case of the koodoo, zebra, and other animals,
have actually increased their numbers, as they
certainly have prevented their extinction. In the
district of Uitenhage, there are certain contiguous
farms of Englishmen where the koodoo is preserved,
and hunted only a few days in the winter of each
year. As a consequence, it is now fairly plentiful ;
and it is a curious fact that these koodoos never
wander upon the farms of the neighbouring
Dutchmen, where their extinction would be quickly
and surely wrought.
It may be doubted exceedingly whether the
Dutch, who first landed at the Cape and became

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 283
acquainted with the many species of antelopes
then abounding there, were sportsmen to the
manner born. Rather would it appear that two
hundred years of the chase, on the most glorious
hunting grounds ever provided by nature, have made
them the fine shots and ardent hunters they now
are. Certainly, if we may judge from the absurd
and anomalous nomenclature bestowed by these
early settlers on the game of South Africa, they
must have been the very cockneys of their period.
For instance, the word eland signifies an elk, but
the difference between this, the largest of the
antelopes, with its stout straight horns, and the true
elk with its heavy branching antlers, could not well
be wider. Every antelope almost seems to have
been called a " bok," which, translated, literally
means a goat, and from this misnomer many absurd
mistakes have been made by the uninitiated. Thus,
Dr. Broqkes, who appears to have gleaned most of
his information from Kolben, who visited the Cape
in 1705, in his Natural History, published in 1763,
gravely classes many of the South African antelopes
among the goats, as the blue goat (the koodoo, then
called the blaauwbok), spotted goat (bontebok), grey
goat (grysbok), diving goat (duykerbok), etc.
The name gemsbok, literally translated, means
chamois goat, and is perhaps the worst specimen of
Boer misnomer. The gemsbok or oryx inhabits
waterless and open karroos, is about the size of an
ass, and has long straight sharp horns, more than
three feet in length ; while the chamois, not found in
Africa, lives in the mountains, is of no great size,
and has short horns turning over at the points. How
the early Dutch could have traced a similarity

284 KLOOF AND KARROO.

between these animals, or what their ideas of
the European chamois could have been, passes
understanding. The koodoo retains its native
name; but the hartebeeste signifies hart or stag-
ox, presumably from its non-bovine characteristics.
Wildebeeste (the gnu) means wild ox, not a happy
simile ; the blessbok takes its name from the white
" bless " or blaze on its face.
The tsesseby, or sassaby, is called by the Dutch
the bastard hartebeeste; the sable antelope, "zwart
wit pens" — i.e., black with white belly; the roan
antelope, blaauwbok (blue bok), sometimes bastard
gemsbok, or bastard eland, both singularly
inappropriate names ; while among the larger
game, kameel (camel) standing for the giraffe, tiger
for leopard, and zee koe (sea cow) for hippopotamus,
are all somewhat uncouth and far-fetched.
Evidently, the Dutch pioneers did not carry a
practical naturalist with them in their wanderings.
And yet, once in South Africa, all these strange
and uncouth names seem to come naturally enough
to the lips, and indeed, I think by most hunters
(English as well as Dutch) are regarded with a sort
of affection ; for they recall vividly many a happy
hunting ground, many a gallant head of game, and
many a scene of natural beauty, such as in its own
wild picturesqueness, perhaps no other other country
can surpass. It will, perhaps, better serve the
purpose of this chapter if I enumerate the large
game and antelopes that found a home in the Cape
Colony one hundred years ago, and then endeavour
to trace slightly the decline and disappearance of
such as are now extinct within its limits, and the
present occurrence of such as remain. For this

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 285
purpose I will take the colonial boundary as it was
best known — viz., having the Orange River for its
limit to the north, and the Kei River to the east,
and not including Griqualand West and Transkeian
Kaffraria, which are now actually under Cape
Colonial Government.
One hundred years ago, then, there were to be
found within the territory I have indicated the
elephant, black rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo,
zebra, quagga, lion, and leopard; and of the
antelopes, the roan antelope, eland, hartebeeste,
koodoo, gemsbok or oryx, black wildebeeste or gnu,
bontebok, blessbok, springbok, rietbok, vaal or grey
rhebok, rooi or red rhebok, klipspringer, duyker,
boschbok, grysbok or grys steinbok, steinbok, oribi,
and the blaauwbok or kleenebok. From this category
I have omitted the white rhinoceros (rhinoceros
simus) and the giraffe. Both these animals are
stated to have been found in the Colony at a remote
period ; and, indeed, Barrow, in his travels, asserts
that the former of these animals was plentiful in
Great Bushmanland in 1796. From the nature of
the country, it seems not improbable that this may
formerly have been the case, unless scarcity of water
in that parched region interfered; but, as the point
seems involved in doubt, I have refrained from
including this animal. As regards the giraffe, there
is no certain and reliable evidence as to its former
existence within the Colony ; but it may be pointed
out that this animal has, within the last one hundred
years or so, been frequently shot within a day or
two's journey north of the Orange River (see
Paterson's, Le Vaillant's, and Campbell's travels in
1777, 1784, and 1 81 3 respectively) ; and, sharply and

286 KLOOF AND KARROO.
curiously defined as are the geographical limits of
occurrence of many African animals, there seems no
sound reason, other than nature's caprice, why the
camelopard should never have crossed into the
colonial limits. The rude drawings in the Bushman
caves near Graaff Reinet and in other parts of the
Eastern province, and an old tradition of the Hot
tentots, that this animal was formerly found in the
Amaebi or thorn country (now part of the Queenstown
division), are, at all events, some slight evidence in
favour of the theory that the giraffe in ages past
browsed south of the Orange River.
The Elephant (Elephas Africanus) is happily still
to be found in Cape Colony. In the Knysna Forest,
where they are preserved, and where the Duke of
Edinburgh shot a fine bull in 1870, they are still
not uncommon. In the dense bush-veldt thickets of
the Eastern province, especially between Uitenhage
and King William's Town, where they are almost
inaccessible, and in the Zitzikamma Forest and
Addo Bush, they manage to maintain their ground.
Even down to 1830, the elephants in this part ofthe
country were vigorously hunted for their ivory, and
must have been then numerous ; and Barrow, in
1796, mentions that between Bushman and Kareeka
Rivers the country was a very nursery of elephants,
and that in this region one Rensburg saw a troop of
four or five hundred crossing a plain between the
bush veldt.
The Black Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros bicornis). — A
hundred years ago this rhinoceros must have been
common in the neighbourhood of the Great Fish
River, and between it and the Kei ; and in the rough
bushy country west of the former river, not far from

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 287
its mouth, Barrow speaks of it as being abundant.
The last specimen seems, according to Gordon
Cumming, to have been seen as late as 1 849 in the
Addo Bush. In the latter half of the seventeenth
century, and during a greater portion ofthe eighteenth,
this rhinoceros roamed freely over the whole of Cape
Colony, where the pasture suited ; and its Dutch
name rhenoster yet remains on many a hill, river
and fountain.
In 185 1, there lived on the Great Fish River
an old Boer, named Bezuidenhout, who in his
youth had killed many rhinoceroses on the eastern
borders of the Colony, and in Kaffraria itself. The
old man at that time was about eighty years of
age, and still affectionately retained, long after his
more civilised fellow-Dutchmen in the Colony had
discarded them, his immense long "roer " (elephant
gun) and "veldt broeks " (literally, field breeches)
— the ancient garments of leather worn by the old-
world Dutchmen of the Cape. Many a good hunting
story could the old man tell, and amongst them was
one in which the " veldt broeks " had played an
important part. One day, when out shooting,
Bezuidenhout was charged by a wounded rhinoceros,
which caught him with its horn between the legs.
The Boer, miraculously, was unhurt, and managed
to cling to the animal's head, while it rushed madly
onwards for nearly a mile, as the old man always
stoutly swore ; at length, in entering a grove of
stunted trees, the frightened rider managed to clutch
a branch, and hoist himself out of harm's way. The
old man always attributed his wonderful escape (for
he suffered only a few bruises) to the strength and
thickness of his leather breeches. The story seems

288 KLOOF AND KARROO.
almost incredible, but those who knew the old man
and who told it to me believed in it ; and amongst
the marvellous escapes of African hunters, it is not
altogether improbable. Old " Veldtbroeks " (as he
was called) and his rhinoceros story were well known
in the Eastern province five-and-thirty years ago.
The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius),
although I believe it only disappeared finally from
the Great Fish River within the last twenty years,
is now only to be found in the waters of the Orange
River, and there only to the westward of the Great
Falls. Formerly it abounded in every river in the
Colony. I believe a few are still to be found in the
rivers of Kaffraria.
The Buffalo (Bubalus coffer) is still fairly
numerous in the denser parts of the bush veldt
of the Eastern province. In the Knysna Forest,
the Zitzikamma Forest, on the slopes of the Great
Winterhoek range, and between Sunday River and
the Great Fish River, and the Great Fish and the
Kei Rivers, these fine animals find sanctuary. A
few are shot every year, especially between Wolve
Kraal and Uitenhage ; but the thickets in which
they lurk are so thorny and impenetrable, that
hunters find their sport attended with much pain
and peril, from the lacerations of the bush and the
dangerous nature of the buffaloes in these gloomy
thickets. The Zebra (Equus montanus) , as I have pointed
out in a former chapter, is still fairly abundant on
some of the mountains of the Colony, notably the
Zwartberg, Witteberg, Great Winterhoek, Baviaans
Kloof, and Sneeuwberg, and near Cradock and a few
other places.

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 289
The Quagga (Equus quagga), or quacha, is now
quite extinct within the Colony. Formerly it
abounded on every plain, and with a very little
preservation, might even now be adorning the
landscapes. The last observed on the Great Karroo
were three that still remained, in 1858, near the
Tiger Berg, in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen. In
a subsequent chapter I have dealt at some length
with the decline and fall of this handsome and
interesting quadruped. I was told not long since
that quaggas were still to be found in the Outeniqua
district, but I subsequently ascertained that my
informant had confounded them with zebras,
which did undoubtedly exist there. It is a moot
point whether Burchell's zebra (Equus Burchellii)
was not formerly found within colonial limits.
Paterson's "Journeys," 1777-8-g, would certainly
seem to imply that such was the case ; while
on pages 318 and 319 of his " Travels," Barrow
speaks of an animal of the zebra kind, yet differing
from the quacha and true zebra; seen near
Bambosbefg at the end of the last century by several
Dutch hunters, which in several respects answers to
the description of Burchell's zebra. Naturalists
have, however, laid down, chiefly on the authority
of Cornwallis Harris, that this species never came
south of the Orange River. tt is much to be
regretted that no record of South African travel
exists between the time of Peter Kolben, 1705, and
Sparrman, 1772. Such a record would, probably,
have done much to establish the true geographical
distribution (now for ever in doubt) of several
animals, notably the giraffe, white rhinoceros, and
Burchell's zebra. In 1705, Kolben's time, the
*9

2go KLOOF AND KARROO.
present colonial territory and its fauna, except
within less than one hundred miles of Cape Town,
were very little known.
The Lion (Felts led). — Since January 23rd, 1653
— when according to the quaint old Dutch journals,
now preserved in the Colonial archives, "This
night it appeared as if the lions would take the
fort (i.e., the present Cape Town) by storm" — this
animal has been gradually, but surely, exterminated
or driven back. In the same year, 1653, Governor
Van Riebeek encountered a lion in his garden ; and
the king of beasts long held his ground against the
Dutch intruders. Even between 1825 and 1830,
when Steedman travelled in the Colony, the lion was
exceedingly plentiful ; but probably from the date
of the introduction of percussion caps its downfall
proceeded more hurriedly. It would seem that the
lion had finally disappeared from the Colony by
1850 or thereabouts, or perhaps, in the remote
parts of Bushmanland, a little later. The present
Queenstown district was one of its last strongholds.
The Leopard (Felis pardus) is still common in
nearly all the mountains of the Colony, and is, from
its habits and habitat, principally kept down by
means of poisoned meat. It is, however, occasionally
shot, and occasionally severe and even fatal accidents
happen in encounters with these dangerous brutes.
The Roan Antelope (Hippotragus leucophesus) . —
This magnificent and exceedingly scarce antelope —
the bastard eland, or bastard gemsbok of the Dutch,
sometimes also called by them in bygone days the
blaauwbok — was formerly found within the Colony,
but apparently only in the Swellendam division, and
in the neighbourhood of the Breede River.

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 291
According to Barrow, the last of this species was
seen about 1786 ; but other authorities (Steedman
amongst the number) place its final disappearance
in 1799. Between these dates probably lies the
true period.
The Eland (Oreas eanna). — Formerly one of the
most abundant of all the antelopes, this, the largest
and in some respects the noblest of the antelope
kind, has long disappeared. From the excellence of
its venison and the ease with which it could be
pursued and slain, it fell a speedy prey to all hunters.
It is nothing short of a disgrace that an animal so
easily preserved, even in captivity, should not have
been protected in some way by the colonists. Even
now a few elands might, with a very little trouble, be
re-introduced, and in a few years would quickly
multiply and prosper in their ancient habitats. In
Campbell's time (1813) this antelope was common in
the north of the Colony, and was repeatedly seen
chased by three or four lions. It probably lingered
till between 1840 and 1850 in the waterless deserts
of Bushmanland. Barrow found them in abundance
on the Great Karroo and other plains, and shot a
specimen six feet six inches in height.
The Hartebeest (A Icelaphus caama) . — This antelope
has almost disappeared entirely f/om the Colony, but,
as I hear, a few are yet to be found along the Orange
River between Little Namaqualand and the Orange
River Falls. Seven years ago a few were shot in
that region. It seems to have been fairly abundant
till 1840 or thereabouts. From its swiftness and
endurance, it is difficult to understand why it has
not lingered longer.
The Koodoo (Strepsiceros kudu). — It is a pleasure

2g2 KLOOF AND KARROO.
to state that this noble antelope, one of the most
beautiful and striking as well as one of the largest of
its race, is still fairly abundant in the Eastern
province. Of late years, indeed, owing to the
preservation of British farmers, it has even largely
increased in numbers. It is found on the slopes
of the Great Winterhoek Mountains, and on the
Messrs. Hay ward's farms in the district of Uitenhage,
thanks to their fostering care, fifteen or twenty may
now be seen in a day's hunting. It may be noted,
however, that these koodoos are only hunted for a
short time in each winter. It is hardly necessary to
mention that, if left to the tender mercies of the
Boers, this antelope would soon be mercilessly shot
off. Last winter a bull koodoo, with horns four feet
long, and weighing nearly 500 lbs., was shot in the
Uitenhage district. They are also found in the
bush-veldt near the lower portions of Gamtoos River,
Sunday River, and Fish River, as well as in the
neighbourhood of the Zitzikamma Forest, and at the
eastern end of the Zwartberg range.
The Gemsbok or Oryx (Oryx capensis) . — This rare
and singular antelope — undoubtedly the prototype of
the fabled unicorn, which it resembles in nearly every
particular, except that its long horns (which, by the
bye, seen in profile, look like a single horn) are set
back instead of forward — is very nearly extinct in
Cape Colony. Seven or eight years since, two of
the last were shot in the very north of Great
Bushmanland (now known as Calvinia), towards the
Orange River, by members of a Government Survey
Expedition, and a few still linger there and on the
eastern confines of Little Namaqualand. Formerly
the gemsbok was plentiful on every karroo of the

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 293
Colony. Even between 1825 and 1830 Steedman
found them in fair numbers on the Great Karroo :
while in 1843 Gordon Cumming hunted them on the
plains west of Colesberg, and writes in ecstatic
terms of the beauties of this striking and interesting
antelope. The oryx, in nearly the same form as in
South Africa, is found in Northern Africa, and it
would seem that the idea of the unicorn was first
taken from the representations of this animal found
on Egyptian and Persian monuments.
The Black Wildebeest or White-tailed Gnu
(Catoblepasgnu). — Formerly found in vast numbers on
the plains, this antelope now only remains upon one
or two farms in the north-west of the Colony (Victoria
West), where it is carefully preserved. It was
still fairly abundant on the northern plains, between
1850 and 1857, especially between Colesberg and
Hanover. Unless the few now preserved are well
looked after, and suffered to perpetuate themselves,
the Cape of Good Hope Government is in danger
of losing, at one and the same time, both the ancient
supporters of its coat of arms — the gemsbok and
black wildebeest.
The Blue Wildebeest, or Brindled Gnu (Catoblepas
gorgon), blaauw wildebeest of the Dutch, has been
hitherto erroneously omitted fr«m catalogues of the
large game formerly to be found within the Cape
Colony. It is laid down by Dr. Smith and
Cornwallis Harris, in their treatises on the game
of South Africa, that this animal was never to be
found south of the Orange River, and this theory
seems never to have been controverted by naturalists
since 1837, when Harris made his expedition from
Graaff Reinet to the Tropic of Capricorn. That

294 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the blue wildebeest was, however, formerly a
denizen, albeit a rare one, south of the Orange
River, and that Dr. Smith and Cornwallis Harris
were, in this particular, mistaken or misinformed,
is proved by no less an authority than Gordon
Cumming. In December, 1843, when that great
hunter was shooting with Mr. Paterson, an officer
of the 91st Regiment, in the karroo country west
of Colesberg, in what is now the Hope Town
division of the Cape Colony, the brindled gnu is
twice mentioned as having been shot.
In his well-known work, "The Lion Hunter
of South Africa," Gordon Cumming says : "I
despatched one of my waggons to bring home the
oryx, and it returned about twelve o'clock that
night, carrying the skin of my gemsbok, and also a
magnificent old blue wildebeest (the brindled
gnu), which the Hottentots had obtained in an
extraordinary manner. He was found with one of his
forelegs caught over his horn, so that he could not
run, when they hamstrung him and cut his throat ;
he had probably managed to get himself into this
awkward attitude while fighting with some of his
fellows." And again, a few lines later, he writes:
" I lent him (Paterson) Cobus (a Hottentot), and on
this occasion his perseverance was rewarded by a
noble gemsbok, which he rode down and slew, and
also a fine bull blue wildebeest, which last animal is
rather rare in these parts." I have italicised these
last words. The reputation of Gordon Cumming is,
I think, sufficient to fully establish the fact that the
brindled gnu was formerly found within the Colony •
but that, unlike its confrere, the black wildebeest, its
occurrence there was rare. It is singular, to say

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 295
the least of it, that this fact has not (as I believe)
been noted and set right by naturalists. It may be
added that the blue wildebeest, admittedly rare
even in Gordon Cumming's time, south of the
Orange River, has, for many years, been extinct in
those regions.
Gordon Cumming found the brindled gnu in the
territories now known as Griqualand West, the
Orange Free State, and Transvaal. The last-named
state was, undoubtedly, its chiefest and most
favourite habitat; but there the Boers have, of
late years, played sad havoc with this singular
antelope, not so long ago found in countless
numbers. The Bontebok (Alcelaphus pygargus). — It is
difficult to understand why this antelope, described
by old writers as being almost as plentiful as the
springbok, should have been one of the earliest to
disappear. One of its last resorts were the Bontebok
Flats, to the north of the present Queenstown
district. Mr. J. B. Evans, late of Riet Fontein,
on whose farms I formerly shot in the Colony,
told me that in 1851 he knew of seventeen or
eighteen being in that locality. At the present
day there are a few preserved on private farms in
Bredasdorp, Swellertdam, near ("ape Agulhas, where
they have been ever since 1830. Barrow speaks of
them as abounding in his day (1796) near the Zee
Koe River, between the present town of Hanover and
the Orange River, and he further mentions that they
had been as plentiful in Swellendam as springboks
in the Sneeuwberg district, but were then only seen
there in troops of ten or twelve.
The Blessbok (Alcelaphus albifrons) is now extinct

296 KLOOF AND KARROO.

in the Colony. It would seem never to have been
abundant, except on parts of the northern plains.
Steedman, in 1830, speaks of it as being scarce even
in that region. Its more natural habitat appears
to have been the Orange Free State, whence it
descended periodically across the Orange River into
the Old Colony. These antelopes do exceedingly
well in captivity. I came home from the Cape
when there were two on board the ship, and
both of them fed upon hay, .throve well, and
remained in fine condition during the whole of the
voyage. The Springbok (Gazella euchore) . — I have indicated
the present occurrence and numbers of this antelope
in a former chapter. Despite the warfare that has
been waged upon it, it is still found in considerable
plenty on the Great Karroo, and on the plains of
the country formerly known as Great Bushmanland,
it abounds in large herds. In former days these
beautiful creatures were literally innumerable. Barrow
says, at page 118 of his travels : " The springbok is
met with on the plains of Camdeboo (near Graaff
Reinet) in numbers that are almost incredible. A
thoroughbred sportsman will kill from twenty to
thirty every time he goes out. This, however, the
farmer (Dutch) does by a kind of poaching. He lies
concealed among the thickets near the springs or
pools of water to which the whole herd towards the
close of the day repair to quench their thirst, and by
firing amongst them his enormous piece loaded with
several bullets, he brings down three or four at a
shot." A few years since, I still found the springbok
in considerable numbers in crossing these very
Camdeboo Plains, and a little farther south in

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 297
thousands ; but the inclosure of farms is just
beginning in many parts of the Great Karroo, and
will have some influence on the free range of the
antelopes on this great sun-dried plateau. As an
instance, however, of inclosure in some cases tending
to preserve game in the Colony, the Graaff Reinet
Advertiser, of November, 1886, mentions that
Shirlands, the property of Mr. John Priest, of that
district, was, twelve or thirteen years ago, a piece of
waste land abandoned to squatters. Now there are
16,000 morgen (more than 32,000 acres) fenced with
wire. Within this fence there are now fully a
thousand springboks, where formerly only a few
remained " harassed and hunted to death by
impoverished, lazy squatters."
The northern parts of the colonial divisions of
Little Namaqualand, and of Calvinia, Fraserburg,
Carnarvon, and Victoria West, formerly called
Great Bushmanland, will, from their arid nature,
long provide comparatively undisturbed sanctuary
for large numbers of "the showy buck," as the
Boers sometimes call this beautiful creature.
The Rietbok (Eleotragus arundinaceus) is, I believe,
now nearly extinct within the Colony. As far back as
1830 it seems to have been somewhat scarce even in
the Eastern province, its natural habitat, and from
its nature and habits was easily shot. It is possible
a few specimens may still linger in the denser
parts of the Fish River thicket, but it is, I think,
improbable. The Vaal or Grey Rhebok (Pelea capreola) is, as
I pointed out in a former chapter, plentiful on most
of the mountain ranges of the Colony, and is likely
to remain so.

298 KLOOF AND KARROO.

The Rooi or Red Rhebok (Eleotragus reduncus)
is also fairly plentiful, especially in the mountains
of the Eastern and Midland provinces. It resembles
the vaal rhebok almost exactly, save in its colour,
which is of a bright red brown. It chooses for its
haunts the lower parts of the mountains, where
the "rooi" grass is abundant, and where its own
colour harmonises almost exactly with its pasture.
The vaal rhebok, as I have mentioned, is found
higher upon the mountains, where the " zuur
veldt " is of a greyish colour, assimilating with
its own coat. There is a very curious circumstance
in connection with these two antelopes, which
I think has not been previously remarked by
naturalists. In some localities, where the "zuur veldt"
clothes the upper parts of the mountains, and the
"rooi" grass the lower portions, the vaal and rooi
rhebok may be found on the same mountain-side,
but each adhering rigidly to its own peculiar
pasturage. When the hunters come upon the
ground to shoot, the rooi rhebok immediately fly
from their lower slopes to the higher ground of
their grey brethren, and the two species are seen
galloping in close company over the mountain
heights. If the hunter rests quietly after his shot
and looks about him, he will presently see the two
kinds of antelope, as soon as they think they may
safely do so, separating, the rooi rhebok quitting the
"vaal" pastures, and betaking themselves again to
their own feeding grounds. To this habit they
invariably adhere, and will not delay their departure
an instant longer than their safety admits of. If
the vaal rhebok in turn are driven out of their own

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 2gg
ground, they pursue exactly the same tactics, and
will on no account remain for long in their red
brethren's territory. It is a remarkable fact that
the fawns of none of the smaller antelopes, with
the exception of the springbok, can be reared
without falling victims to a disease of the eyes,
which invariably ends in blindness. Experiments
have been made with scores of the young of the
steinbok, duyker, and rhebok, but always with the
same result. It having been suggested that, as the
natural haunts of these animals are of a bushy or
partly bushy nature, the fawns suffered from too much
exposure to the sunlight, the experiment of placing
them in dark sheds and other shelter was tried, but
the blindness ensued in these cases in just the same
way. At the time I stayed with Mr. Evans he had
a beautiful young fawn of the vaal rhebok, which
was perfectly tame and almost lived in the house.
At that time the ophthalmia was just beginning to
show itself, and I heard afterwards that the pretty,
gentle creature became quite blind, and had tp be
destroyed. With the young of the springbok, on the contrary,
no trouble whatever is experienced ; they are never
afflicted with any affection of the eyes, and
invariably grow up strong and hardy. It would
seem from this circumstance that the question of
natural cover and bushy habitat has, after all,
something to do with the ophthalmia in the other
antelopes, and that the springbok, loving as it does
the open plains, and exposed as it is to the full
glare of the sun, bears with impunity the changed
surroundings. Unquestionably, too, I think the
springbok is the hardiest of all the antelopes.

300 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Perhaps my readers may have some explanations to
offer upon this subject.
The Klipspringer (Oreotragus saltatrix) , as I have
mentioned in other chapters, is found in plenty on
the most precipitous and rugged mountains in all
parts of the Colony. It may be noted that the
young of this antelope are the most difficult and
troublesome to rear of all the South African family
— in fact, they can hardly be kept alive in captivity.
I suppose the extreme solitude and freedom of this
little beauty in its natural state has something to do
with the fact.
The Duyker or Duykerbok (Cephalopus mer gens)
is common almost everywhere in the Cape Colony,
in deep bushy bottoms and kloofs, or in thick bush.
The Boschbok or Bush Buck (Tragelaphus
sylvaticus) is abundant in the broad fringe of thick
bush-veldt extending along the southern and south
eastern coast line to Kaffraria. It affords excellent
sport to the colonists, and at the annual Easter
hunt near Port Elizabeth, large numbers of this
antelope are shot. It is one of the most plucky
and determined of its kind.
The Grysbok or Grys Steinbok (Nanotragus
melanotis). — This variety of the steinbok is found
plentifully in the same localities as the boschbok.
Very occasionally it is encountered near the vleys
sometimes found on the tops of mountains higher up
the country, but very rarely ; and it may be doubted
whether these are not stray antelopes that have
wandered or been driven out of the bush-veldt fringe
where they are usually found.
The Steinbok (Nanotragus tragulus). — This
beautiful little creature is to be found freely all over

MU
DcqKCOpCQWa

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 301
the Colony where slight bush or kopjes (stony bluffs) ,
sparsely covered with bush, are plentiful.
The Oribi or Bleekbok (Nanotragus scoparius)
was formerly abundant on the grassy plains of the
north-east portion of the Colony. It is now
comparatively rare, but may yet be found in the
divisions of Somerset and Bedford, and one or two
other localities on the Eastern frontier.
The Blaauwbok or Kleenebok (blue buck or
little buck) (Cephalopus pygmesus), the tiniest of all
antelopes, hardly bigger than a guinea-pig, is found
plentifully in the bush-veldt line of the eastern
seaboard, in the same localities as the boschbok
and grysbok.
In addition to the game I have above enumerated,
the bosch vark (bush pig) or wild boar ; the tiger
wolf of the colonists (Hyesna crocuta) ; the strand
wolf (Hynesa brunnea) ; and the aard (earth) wolf
(Proteles cristatus) ; as well as the curious Cape
hunting dog, the wilde honde of the Dutch (Lycaon
pictus), are still found within the Colony. The
hysenas are, however, happily for the farmers, who
exterminate them unmercifully, becoming scarce ;
while the wilde honde is now principally found towards
the coast line of the Eastern province. Jackals are
common everywhere. Here and there on the more
remote karroos, the wild ostrich may still be found.
With this slight and imperfect sketch of the principal
fauna now remaining to the Old Colony, I will
conclude this chapter.
I have been induced to take up this interesting
subject, for the reason that it is long since any
approach towards settling the present distribution
of these animals, under the changed conditions of

302 KLOOF AND KARROO.
colonial life, has been made, and that the wildest
ideas are often prevalent as to what game is or is
not to be found within the colonial marches.
There is even now in the vast area of the Cape
Colony abundance of room for farmers as well as
game ; and such is likely to be the case for many
a year to come. It is devoutly to be hoped that
some effort may yet be made towards re-introducing
some of the lost antelopes of the Colony, such as
the eland, blessbok, hartebeest, and others. With
very little protection and care, these animals would
soon become plentiful, and afford good sport in
their ancient hunting grounds. That long years
may elapse before the mighty elephant, the grim
and gloomy buffalo, and the stately koodoo are
driven from the sanctuaries they now possess in
the dense thickets and dark-green impenetrable
bush-veldt of the Eastern province — before the
last hippo bathes his unwieldy limbs in the waters
of the Orange River — or before the flying springbok
is finally improved from the face of the Great
Karroo, and even from the wastes of Great Bush-
manland — is an aspiration that I am sure all
sportsmen and lovers of nature will heartily share
with me.
The destruction of game in all parts of the world
has of late years proceeded at so alarming a rate, that
it is not surprising to hear simultaneously of severe
and stringent game laws from more than one of our
Colonies. The Ontario Legislature, for instance, has
enacted that the deer-killing season shall be confined
to a period between October 15th and November
20th. No one person is allowed to kill more than
five deer in a year, no two persons of the same party

LARGE GAME OF CAPE COLONY. 303
more than eight, no three persons more than twelve.
Moose shooting is absolutely prohibited for seven
years, and, further, no person may kill deer at all
unless he has resided in the province for three
months and holds a licence. In the United States,
owing to the frightful waste of the fauna, strict game
laws have been in vogue for some time ; moreover,
the Americans — Republicans though they are — see
that their enactments are rigidly enforced.
Similarly in Cape Colony more stringent laws,
directed to the preservation of game, have been
recently passed. Within this last year (1888), the
close time fixed by the proclamation of 1882 has
been greatly extended. All antelopes are now
protected in every part of the Colony by a close
season, varying from six to seven months — July
to January, and August to March — in different
districts. In the division of Caledon, no antelopes may be
shot for two years (from the begirining of 1888) ; in
Bredasdorp, no rhebok or klipspringer for three
years ; and so on in different localities in proportion
as the particular game has become scarce.
In Calvinia, formerly known as Great Bushman-
land, the rare gemsbok (Oryx capensis) and the curious
hartebeest (Alcelaphus caama), both well nigh extinct
within the Colony, are protected from slaughter
for three years; while the singular bontebok
or pied antelope (Alcelaphus pygargus) is similarly
protected. The Cape colonists are wise in time. The game in
their territory, even now, through the common sense
of the settlers, more abundant than in the Orange
Free State, will, by these laws, be greatly increased,

304 KLOOF AND KARROO.
and they will be able to look in future with some
complacency from their own borders to the Transvaal
and Orange Free State, where the skin-hunting
Boers have almost completely swept a magnificent
and redundant fauna from the face of the land.

Chapter XVII.
THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY.

M'

OST people have some vague and shadowy
idea of the wealth of South Africa in the
matter of the larger game ; few in this
country probably have any conception ofthe vast store
of the smaller mammals and birds to be found, even
at the present day, within the comparatively accessible
regions of the Cape Colony. Since the days of
Cornwallis Harris and Gordon Cumming, " big
game " has been a sort of traditional attribute of
the country ; but the big game are year by year
retreating to the dim and distant regions of the far
interior with much more rapidity, probably, than the
general public are at all aware of. I have endeavoured
to point out in previous chapters that many of the
smaller antelopes, in which the Cape Colony yet
abounds, are but little known to Europeans, and, for
various reasons, unrepresented in any of the zoological
collections in England or the Continent. I fear
that the game birds, with which the Old Colony is
so plentifully endowed, languish" in a still more
melancholy obscurity. And yet this group of birds,
numbering at the lowest computation some nineteen
or twenty different species — not counting wild duck,
wild geese, rails, and others — can boast of some of
the noblest and most striking looking feathered fowl
to be found in any country of the world. Within the
broad territories bounded by the Orange and the Kei
20

306 KLOOF AND KARROO.

Rivers, francolins, guinea-fowl, sand-grouse, quails,
and bustards flourish in extraordinary plenty, and
among the bustards stands pre-eminent the great
Kori bustard — the gom paauw ofthe Dutch colonists
—the Otis kori of Dr. Burchell, one of the earliest
and most scientific of the old Cape travellers. This
noble bird, ranging as it does in weight from twenty-
five to forty pounds and even more, is of itself
sufficient, whether from its merits as a table bird, or
from its sport-giving qualities, to provide a reputation
for an entire Colony. But this, somehow or other,
is not the case, and the game birds ofthe Cape are,
even among the colonists themselves, by no means
so sought after as their sporting merits would lead
one to expect. It is certain that in this country the
whole group are almost unknown, save to the
naturalist. Chief among the reasons for this apparent
neglect is, I imagine, the fact that hitherto the
antelopes and larger game have to a great extent
dwarfed and set aside, in the average sportsman's
view, this exceptionally large and varied class of
birds. The Boer has never taken any notice whatever
of the splendid table birds that have their habitat
within his borders, excepting always the kori bustard,
and perhaps an occasional koorhaan (another of the
bustards), which he can secure with a bullet from
his rifle now and again. But the Boer will some
day in the distant future awaken to the discovery
that antelopes are not so plentiful as they once
were ; and he may then deign to turn to the
francolins and bustards that lie ready to his hand.
In the meantime, it is perhaps just as well for the
British settlers that the Cape Dutch have not taken

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 307
thought for their game birds, or, as has happened
with much of the nobler game of the country, their
extinction might by this time have been partially
wrought in certain districts.
It would be interesting to fling aside the curtain
that separates the present from the future, and to be
able to look forward fifty years, in order to ascertain
what manner of man the Boer of that period will
be. Not improbably, having shot off the last
of his "groote wilde" (big game), he may be
found to be bestowing as much care and attention
on his feathered game as any English squire ; to
have devised strict game laws and a stern code of
shooting etiquette ; and to be pursuing his day's
shooting over a brace of highly-bred dogs with as
much zest and punctiliousness as an English country
gentleman of thirty years back. At all events,
let us hope such may be the case. The sportsmen
of these islands of ours, who wander nowadays so
far afield in search of game, whether furred or
feathered, can have but little conception of the
diversity of feathered game that lie everywhere at
hand in South Africa, or I imagine the Cape Colony
would be much more exploited by fowlers than it
has been hitherto. Accommodation is cheap, living
plentiful and wholesome, if plain, and any English
gentleman desirous of a quiet shooting tour would
find in the Colony numbers of farmers only too
delighted to put him up and show him sport.
Within the Cape Colony alone there are to be
found no less than five or six different kinds of
francolin, six or seven kinds of bustard, two species
of quail, one of the guinea-fowl, one or two of
the sand-grouse family, and two sorts of snipe.

308 KLOOF AND KARROO.

In this list I have not included wild duck, wild
geese, teal, widgeon, and rails, many of the species
of which abound. This is a goodly category, and
even the most exacting of sportsmen would hardly
be disposed to cavil at its proportions. Add to the
ordinary attractions of game shooting a magnificent
country, offering almost every conceivable variety
of scenery, a climate always healthful, often perfect,
and seldom too intemperate or too extreme for
sport, and my humble contention on behalf of the
claims of the Cape game birds is, I venture to
believe, not difficult of substantiation.
I have witnessed some memorable days amongst
the antelopes of the Colony, whether springbok,
rhebok, klipspringer, duyker, bushbok, or steinbok —
days never to be forgotten for their manifold and
indescribable charms ; but I think, amongst almost
equally cherished recollections that I have, are
some of the quiet days of sport enjoyed in some
wild mountain kloof, some shaggy upland, or some
broad and spreading karroo, wandering quietly in
search of the red or grey-wing "partridge," the
" pheasant " (all francolins, though called otherwise
by the Cape settlers), the guinea-fowl, the Namaqua
"partridge," or the magnificent bustards, all of
which, in their different haunts, grace in plenty the
landscapes of the Old Colony.
First among the Cape game birds I will place the
francolins. Amongst these, the so-called "pheasant"
of the colonists (Francolinus clamator) may first be
taken. Commonly to be met with in the broad belt
of bushy country that fringes the coast-line of the
Colony, and extends to the eastward considerably
into the interior, the "pheasant" may be recognised

m

I

b^mS.

yo.

nn

*^^^^

^fek.

3.ft

»

^IflSSIllllitii

SOME GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. I.
i. Namaqua Partridge (Sandgrouse),
(Pterocles Tachypetes).
3. Red-wing Partridge (Francolinus
Le Vaillantii).
5. Black Koorhaan ; a Bustard (Otis
2. Guinea Fowl (Numida Mitrata).
4. Cape Pheasant (Francolinus
Clamator).
6. Vaal (Grey) Koorhaan ; a Bustard
(Otis Vigorsii).
THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 309
at great distances by its noisy, clamouring call. It
is the largest of its genus, and is a fine game bird,
measuring some fifteen or sixteen inches in length.
its general colour is a dark brown, but each feather is
marked with narrow whitish lines, which concentrate
at the shaft. The chin and throat are white, and the
top of the head quite a blackish brown ; the brown
neck feathers have white edges, which impart a
singular appearance to this bird ; while the stomach
and side feathers are slightly speckled with white,
and have a broadish white line running down the
centre. The only objection, that I am aware of, that
can be urged against Cape game birds when in the
field, is that they are often much more troublesome
to flush than feathered game in. England. They will
sometimes lie absolutely like stones, and have to
be kicked up ; or, especially in the case of the
pheasant and the guinea-fowl, they will run like
hares. The first of these peculiarities will, to
the moderate shot, not be thought altogether
inconvenient, for a bird that rises at your feet, as a
rule, is not difficult to account for, if your powder be
anything like straight. But these francolins are, in
one respect, even worse sinners than their brethren,
for they have a very common habit of perching
amongst bushes and low trees, and in dense jungle ;
they are, therefore, exceedingly difficult to drive out.
Yet even with these drawbacks, if you do not object
to early rising — and at the Cape this is a habit you
soon learn to acquire — and will go forth at four
o'clock, or thereabouts, you will certainly find the
pheasants feeding upon open ground, and especially
in the vicinity of water-courses or moist low-lying
soil. Kolben, who sojourned at the Cape between

310 KLOOF AND KARROO.
1704 and 1714, gravely informs us that these birds
" will suffer a man, behind the picture of a pheasant,
to approach near enough to throw a net over them."
How Kolben picked up this extraordinary myth I
am not aware. He appears, however, to have been
of a confiding nature, and although he acquired
much useful information concerning the country, he
was made the recipient of many absurd notions,
which he gravely related upon reaching Europe.
Certain it is that the pheasants now lack the artistic
sense claimed for them by Kolben, and are not to be
taken by such a pictorial device in these days.
I first met with the pheasants upon a journey
from Witte Poort, north of the Uitenhage district, to
the coast. We had outspanned for the night in the
bush-veldt country, about a day's journey from the
town of Uitenhage, and as time was of no great
importance, we rose at half-past three next morning,
and proceeded to a broad, well-bushed kloof, having
here and there considerable spaces of open ground
and a small water-course running through the centre.
Our first quarry chanced to be a bush buck
(Tragelaphus sylvaticus), one of the handsomest and
pluckiest of the Cape antelopes, which we surprised
near the water, and secured with two charges of
buckshot, with which we had been prepared, as we
knew these buck abounded hereabouts. Half-a-mile
farther on we came to a broad stretch of grassy
open ground, whereon here and there a few low
bushes grew, while near the water-course which
intersected it the palmiet flourished luxuriantly,
affording excellent cover. Upon this ground, and
for some distance up the kloof, as we had expected
the pheasants and grey and red-wing partridges

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 311
abounded, and for about two hours and a half we
had capital shooting. It is true that the pheasants
occasionally ran clean out of view, but on the other
hand quite as many lay like stones, and after a few
miles walking, our three guns had amassed a bag of
nine brace of pheasants and partridges, besides a
couple of the colonial wild duck (Anas flavirostris) ,
called by the Boers the geelbec (yellow bill). I may
add that the shooting was much more easy than if
English partridges had been our game. We returned
to the farmhouse, needless to state, in a contented
frame of mind, and with enormous appetites. The
francolins and the bustards of the Cape are good
table birds, but they have, in common with most of
the game of Africa, a certain dryness which renders
them not quite such delicious eating as the game
birds of our own temperate climate. Nevertheless,
they are, as a rule, undeniably good eating, and the
great kori bustard, which puts on fat in a quite
amazing manner, is, in particular, fitted to grace the
most princely banquet, or to satisfy the most exigent
appetite. The red-necked francolin (Francolinus nudicollis),
also called "pheasant," is of much the same size
as Francolinus clamator. Its body is brown, the back
feathers having black centres ; the chest feathers are
a lighter brown, having the same black marking ;
and the neck feathers are white, having broad black
stripes. The breast, stomach, and flank feathers
are of a darker brown, and have white stripes. The
front of the throat is bare and of a bright red colour
(from whence the bird, I suppose, takes its name),
and the space round the eyes, and the chin, are also
bare and bright red in colour. I shot a few of this

3i2 KLOOF AND KARROO.

fine francolin in some wooded kloofs near the eastern
end of the Zwartberg, but they were not very
abundant, and were difficult to get at. In the
Knysna Forest, and in the forest country of the
eastern frontier and in other wooded districts,
they are abundant, and may be secured at early
morning, while feeding, much in the same way as the
common "pheasant." The Francolinus adspersus of
Waterhouse, first discovered by Sir J. Alexander in
his travels in 1835-6, a brownish grey bird, a foot in
length, is, I believe, found on the southern banks of
the Orange River in the north-west of the Colony,
but very little is known of it.
The grey -wing francolin (Francolinus afer), here
called "partridge," comes next. In general colour
this bird is of a light ashy grey, marked upon
the back with black blotches and reddish brown
bars. The chest and flanks are blurred with
darker reddish brown markings, and the stomach
is thinly barred with dark brown. There are
rufous bands down the head and neck, and under
the bill to the chest. The chin and throat are
white, and a white band runs from behind the eye to
the shoulder ; the tail is dark brown, marked with
reddish brown bars. Its length averages about a
foot, and it nests among bushes. This francolin is
a really good game bird. It is flushed more readily
than its congener and frequent companion, the
red-wing partridge, which is sometimes found almost
immovably fixed in its thick shelter, and in the early
morning and evening it may generally be found upon
open ground. I have enjoyed some excellent days'
shooting with this francolin, especially in some of the
shallower mountain kloofs, and upon the sides and

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 313
tops of hills, surrounded on every side by scenery of
surpassing beauty.
The red-wing francolin, or "partridge" (Franco
linus Le Vaillantii), is, to my mind, taken all round,
one of the handsomest and most representative of
South African game birds. In size it slightly exceeds
the grey- wing, but in colouring it far outvies that bird.
In general colour it is not dissimilar, but the markings
are much darker and brighter. Thin white stripes,
mottled with black, run from the beak, over each
eye, to the back of the head, where they unite and
extend further. A similar stripe runs under the eye
across the ear, trending to the chest, where it
broadens into a crescent not unlike the white gorget
of the ring ousel of this country, but bigger. A
beautiful rich orange-red band surrounds the eye,
passes over the ear, then widens and spreads
backward to the neck and forward to the white
crescent upon the chest. The front part of the
throat is of the same rich colour. The chest
beneath the white crescent, the stomach, and sides
are beautifully coloured with dark rufous and brown
mottlings, and the insides of the wing feathers are
dark rufous — from whence the bird takes its name.
In a deep, far extending kloof or glen, some miles
from Naroekas Poort, through which meandered a
small stream, these fine birds abounded, and here
we often had very excellent sport with them. They
lie, as I have before mentioned, often with
extraordinary tenacity, and especially in the thick
palmiet bordering the streams, and in long grass,
they can sometimes hardly be forced to rise. In
some localities they are found on higher ground, like
the grey-wing partridge, but, as a rule, they are not

314 KLOOF AND KARROO.
often seen very far away from moist ground. By
getting up betimes, and reaching their favourite
ground in early morning, we could generally reckon
upon a bag of from five to a dozen brace of these
handsome francolins. From its habits, this bird is
more easily shot than the grey-wing without the
aid of a dog — if, as is unfortunately sometimes the
case, such a convenience is not readily procurable.
The first mention of the two Cape partridges
last before-mentioned seems to have been made
by William Ten Rhyne, a native of Daventry,
a physician, who afterwards became a member of
the Council of Justice of the Dutch East India
Company. Ten Rhyne made the voyage to the
Cape as far back as 1673, and his remarks may
be taken as amongst the earliest upon the natural
history of Cape Colony. He mentions " Rubicundi
et cinerei phasiani," which, being translated, and
rendering "phasiani" as partridges, I take, from
the similarity of colouring, to be the earliest
description of the red-wing and grey-wing francolins
of the Cape.
The Francolinus subtorquatus of Sir A. Smith,
a species rather smaller than the red-wing, is stated
not to have occurred within the Cape Colony,
although found in the Orange Free State and
Natal ; but, from what I have heard, I am by no
means certain that it has not been found pretty
frequently in the north of the Colony, not far from
the southern banks of the Orange River.
The wild guinea-fowl (Numida mitrata) I will
next treat of, in continuing this subject of the
game birds. Although a much handsomer and finer
bird than the common domesticated guinea-fowl of

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 315
our own poultry yards, it is not very dissimilar
in general appearance, save that its colour is
darker, and the white mottlings are more noticeable.
It is found gregariously and in abundance in
the dense bush-veldt country near the Sunday
and Great Fish Rivers, and upon the northern
borders near the Orange River, as well as more
sparingly in other bushy or semi-bushy localities.
We shot some of these birds on our way up
and down country between Uitenhage and Graaff
Reinet ; near the Sunday River they were especially
plentiful, and, like all their kind, we found them
feeble in flight, but great runners and roosters.
In the evening they may be sometimes shot
with a bullet while roosting in low trees near the
water. The sand-grouse family is represented in the
Cape Colony by the well-known " Namaqua
partridge," as it is called all over South Africa.
This bird, the Pterocles tachypetes of Temminck,
the Namaqua grouse of Shaw, and Namaqua patrys
of the Boers, abounds upon every karroo plain of
the Colony ; and towards evening, when flying to
water, may be often witnessed in great flocks, and
numbers may then be shot. In general colour this
bird is a dull ashy brown ; the «back is of a darker
shade and mottled, while the wing feathers are
dark brown. Between the chest and stomach are
two bands, one white, the other reddish brown. The
throat and chin are yellow. In length this bird
extends to about eleven inches. Its long and
pointed wings denote great powers of flight. The
legs are very short, and the feet feathered, and when
seen, as it often may be, running about the karroo,

316 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the aspect of this bird is very ludicrous ; its gait
has, indeed, been compared to the appearance of a
clock-work mouse when set in motion. This sand-
grouse seems likely to be abundant in the Colony
for all time. It is not much shot for food, as its
flesh is the driest of all South African game birds.
It is, however, if included in a game stew, by no
means bad eating, and as it affords very good
shooting, new comers to the Colony will not, I am
convinced, feel inclined to despise it. The sand-
grouse will always find its way to water at close of
day, and this very peculiarity has often saved the
lives of men and beasts in many a parching trek,
when the evening flight of this bird has indicated
the presence of some unknown fountain in the desert.
Of bustards there are six or seven kinds to be
found within the Colony. First and noblest of the
family, and, indeed, of all South African feathered
game, stands the great kori bustard, the gom paauw
of the Dutch, the kori of the Bechuanas, the Otis
kori of the naturalist, Dr. Burchell. Formerly
abundant upon every open karroo, this magnificent
bird is at the present day by no means so plentiful
in the Colony ; its great size, and quality as a table
bird, having rendered it much sought after by
sportsmen, whether Dutch, British, or native. It is,
however, still to be met with occasionally upon the
flats, generally not far from the mimosa bushes
fringing rivers and dry water-courses, and as it is a
migratory bird, it will probably long remain to the
Colony, although in reduced numbers. The Dutch
Afrikanders have ever loved to bestow quaint and
outlandish names upon the birds and beasts of
their adopted land. The name gom paauw really

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 317
signifies gum peacock ; this bustard being quaintly
called by the Boers "peacock" from its fancied
resemblance to that bird in its habits during the
pairing and breeding season. This bustard and no
other is supposed to have an inordinate affection for
the gum which exudes from the mimosa thickets
(near which it is often found) at certain seasons,
and it then attains its extraordinary fatness and
condition. I first met with and shot the paauw between
Jansenville and Graaff Reinet, and I shall never
forget the exultation with which my shooting
companion and myself witnessed the fall of the great
bird to our rifle bullets at about sixty paces. This
particular individual weighed twenty-six pounds, but"
they frequently run from thirty pounds to thirty-five
pounds, and even forty pounds, and farther up in the
interior they reach, I believe, the enormous weight of
from sixty pounds to seventy pounds. During a
lengthened stay in the Midland and Eastern provinces
of Cape Colony, I saw only some half-dozen
specimens of this noble bird, and of these I shot
only one other, for they are exceedingly shy and
difficult of approach. In some seasons they are,
however, more plentiful, and especially when
excessive droughts prevail beyond the Orange River.
These bustards are often extraordinarily fat, so much
so as to make one wonder how they can attain such
adipose proportions in so hot and dry a climate.
An old colonial friend, Mr. J. B. Evans, of Riet
Fontein, on whose extensive farms I have often shot
at the Cape, gave me a striking instance of this
characteristic. Years ago, when this bird was much more

318 KLOOF AND KARROO.
plentiful on the karroo than it now is, he and a
friend, while out springbok shooting, espied a huge
paauw stalking over the plain in the direction of a
rocky hill. The hunters turned their attention at once
to the paauw, and after some manoeuvring, drove it
to the base of this hill. When within about seventy
yards, just as they were thinking of firing, the bird
rose and flew upwards towards the krantz or crown
of the mountain. Both discharged their rifles, and
by good fortune one of the bullets told. The effect
was extraordinary. The mighty bird, sore stricken,
instantly towered high in air above the hill, and then
fell like a feathered thunderbolt. On reaching the
spot where their game had fallen, the hunters, to
their chagrin, found upon the rocks literally nothing
but the scattered and pulpy remains of the paauw,
which had burst to atoms. The bird must have
been more than ordinarily fat, for the amount of
adipose tissue lying about was beyond belief. Any
Cape colonist can, however, bear testimony to the
wonderfully high condition these birds attain. The
general colour of the gom paauw is an ashen grey
strongly mottled. The wings are lighter, and in
some specimens almost white, and are black mottled.
The wing feathers are black, the neck and head grey
barred with black. The top of the head is black
and heavily crested, and the stomach and chest are
white, with a band of black separating the neck from
the chest. The legs are yellow. An average cock
bird will measure about four feet eight inches in
length. The female is considerably smaller than the
male, and her plumage less bright. The body of
this bird is so robust, and so strongly protected bv
feathers, that shot make little impression upon it

SOME GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. II.
i. Veldt Paauw (Eupodotis Caffra). 2. Gom Paauw, or Great Kori
Bustard (Otis Kori).

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 3ig

especially as one seldom gets to very close quarters,
and its death is invariably compassed by rifle and
bullet. The Boers of old soon learned by experience
to shoot them with their long roers (smooth-bore
rifles), carrying large spherical bullets. The flesh is
not altogether unlike that of the turkey; but it
partakes also of the true game flavour, and is
delicious eating.
The next in size of the bustards is the Eupodotis
caffra of Lichtenstein, commonly called the veldt
paauw by the colonists. This is a fine big bird, often
measuring in length from three feet two inches to
three feet four inches. Its general colour is dull ashen
grey, streaked with black, and relieved by touches of
white upon the chin, neck, and stomach, upon which
there are white bands. It is more commonly found
than its congener the gom paauw, and is pretty
frequently seen and shot upon the Great Karroo,
especially to the north and east. Upon the plains
of Bushmanland it is also plentiful.
Another fine bustard is Otis cold, a bird measuring
three feet six inches in length. Its colour is a yellowish
brown, interspersed with fine dark brown lines. The
chest, underparts, and front of the neck are white,
tinged with bluish grey. It has a reddish coloured
ruff, a white tail heavily barred with black, and the
legs and bill are yellow. The females of both these
last-named varieties are smaller than the males, and
both varieties are excellent sporting birds, and
equally good at table.
One of the best known bustards in the Colony is
the knorhaan, commonly called the black koorhaan,*
* The old Dutch name knorhaan, literally "scolding cock," appears to
have been corrupted to koorhaan, sometimes koran.

322 KLOOF AND KARRUO.
I have enjoyed days of delightful shooting with this
little beauty when staying at Cape Town, after
driving some distance out into the country to the
shooting ground of the friends who kindly invited me.
The sand-quail or reed-quail of the colonists
(Turnix hottentotus) , belonging to the sub-family of
bush-quails, is much less abundant than the common
quail, and is only to be met with occasionally in the
maritime districts of the Colony, principally to the
south and south-west. This bird never quits the
Colony, and breeds near vleys and reedy places.
It never flies far, is a great runner, and is generally
to be found in thick covert ; in size, it is a trifle
smaller than the last-named.
The two snipes to be found at the Cape must
conclude my list of sporting birds. Of these, the
commoner is Gallinago esquatorialis, which may be
called the Cape snipe, and is to be found in every
part of the Colony where water or swampy ground
exists. I believe this snipe has been and is still
mistaken for the common snipe, which, however, it
exceeds slightly in size ; it is also much blacker
on the back.
The painted snipe (Rhynchcsa capensis) is often
found in abundance in the same moist localities as
the last-named. Its colouring is very remarkable.
The brown head is lightly touched with white. Over
the centre of the head a yellow stripe runs from the
base of the bill to the back of the neck, and another
similar stripe runs from either eye to the back of
the head, while yet two other yellow stripes, edged
with black, trend from the shoulders, down the back,
to the base of the tail. The brown neck has a
white collar ; the under parts of the bird are white,

THE GAME BIRDS OF CAPE COLONY. 323
and the back is barred with black, grey, and white.
The wings are variegated with black and yellow
spots or eyes, and, with the tail, have black wavy
cross bars. This beautiful bird is slightly smaller
than the common Cape snipe, and the female is,
curiously enough, even more beautifully coloured
than the male. The eye stripe in the hen bird is
white instead of yellow, and the neck and breast
are reddish brown instead of grey brown ; the wings
are greenish.
In addition to this considerable catalogue of
sporting birds, there are rails, plovers, wild geese,
widgeon, wild duck, and teal to be found abundantly
in various parts of the Cape Colony.
Wanderers in search of health or sport, or of
health and sport combined, will find, within nineteen
days of our own shores, a country rich in scenes of
changing and romantic beauty, and one of the most
health-giving climates of the world ; rich — wondrously
rich — in its flora and fauna. One only drawback I
know of — the average accommodation is, though
sufficing for rough-and-ready sportsmen, at present
primitive, and at times rude. But even in this
respect the Colony is improving, and it will improve
more rapidly as demands increase.

Chapter XVIII.
THE BOER OF TO-DAY.

IN many respects the Boer of the present day
exhibits but little change from his sturdy
forefathers of 200 years ago. He sees so little
of the busy outer world, of which he has no conception,
and no desire to know ; and surrounded by his usually
large family and his flocks and herds, he plods
dully along his life road, whether he be wine grower,
or pastoral farmer, or Trek, or wandering Boer, with
no wish to better or change his lot. In the Cape
Colony one day's routine exactly resembles another.
The family rise at dawn, and after a cup of coffee
and devotions, the flocks are unkraaled, and, in
charge of Hottentot or Kaffir boys, are despatched
to their pasture on the veldt or mountain until
the evening. If the Boer is a wine grower, the work
of the vineyard is directed, and tobacco and fruit
crops are looked after, and other matters put in train
for the day. At eight o'clock breakfast is eaten, and
at mid-day, dinner. Then follows a siesta, and at
sunset the horses, cattle, sheep, and goats are put
into kraal for the night. Then come the evening
meal and family devotions, and at eight o'clock, or
at latest nine, all are asleep. Smoking is vigorously
indulged in during the whole of the day, but this is
not an expensive luxury, as Boer tobacco costs little
or nothing to produce, and is sold at a retail price
of from twopence to sixpence per pound. Large

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 325
quantities of coffee are also consumed, and, strangely
enough, sweets are a favourite luxury among the
Boers. The Bible is the only book that is generally
read, and twice a year at least the family trek into
the nearest town to partake of the Nacht-maal or
Sacrament. The Boer never changes his clothes
for his night's rest, and his ablutions are scanty
enough ; but these habits have descended to him
from his forefathers, who, from the manifold dangers
and night alarms of the wilderness, were formerly
compelled to sleep in their clothes, so as to be able
to go out at a moment's notice when danger
threatened their flocks or themselves.
In the Western province, the oldest of the Dutch
settlements, some few refinements are creeping into
the dwelling-houses. Some of the daughters may
have been educated at the ladies' schools now
established in various parts of the Colony, and the
notes of a harmonium, or even a piano, may now be
occasionally heard in a few of the better houses.
But with the Boers progress is so slow, and their
hatred of innovations so rooted, that many years
may elapse before even the simplest refinements of
civilisation acquire much foothold.
The vrouw occupies an important position in
every Dutch household, as, indeed, she ought. In
the stirring history of the Boers in South Africa, the
womenfolk have ever borne their share, and more
than their share of the work, rousing their phlegmatic
spouses at need by sharp and scathing words, and
in time of battle often assisting to repel the attacks
of savage foes, loading the emptied rifles of their
men-kind, and, upon occasion, even using them
themselves. If the secret history of the Transvaal

326 KLOOF AND KARROO.
War could be written, the part played by the house
wives in stirring up the spirit of discontent and
insurrection, would not improbably be the cause
of some wonderment and even admiration ; for in
restless determination the Dutch Afrikander women
are often much in advance of their stolid husbands.
The huis-vrouw may be found usually from dawn
till nightfall, seated in her easy-chair, directing the
polity of the establishment. If the weather is chilly,
as in spring and winter it often is, her ample feet
not seldom repose upon a kind of footstool filled
with hot charcoal. No other person would dare
to occupy the vrouw's seat of honour under any
circumstances whatever. In the remote districts,
and farther up in the Transvaal and Free State,
many of the Boers are to this day as primitive in
their habits as when Barrow wrote of the Dutch
housewife more than ninety years ago. "She makes
no scruple of having her legs and feet washed inwarm
water by a slave before strangers. . . If the motive of
such a custom were that of cleanliness, the practice
of it would deserve praise ; but to see the tub with
the same water passed round through all the branches
of the family, according to seniority, is apt to create
ideas of a very different nature." This evening
custom still obtains in the households of the remote
back country, and to the stranger, who is expected
to share the luxury, is rather appalling. From her
huge arm-chair the vrouw exercises a severe sway
over her numerous native servants, only rising
occasionally to bake bread, make coffee, and
superintend the butchering department, and the
manufacture of dried flesh, soaps, candles, and other
necessaries. Occasionally, if the servants are away

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 327
or otherwise employed, the lady will slaughter and
cut up a sheep or goat with her own hands, and a
capital business she makes of it ; indeed, with some
of these simple pastoral people, butchering appears
to have a great attraction among the fair sex. It is
not a pleasant trait, but a really useful one.
The morning ablutions are very scanty. A
Hottentot appears with a basin of minute
dimensions, containing, perhaps, a pint or so of
water, and a small and often dirty towel. The
father dips his fingers in the water, gives his eyes
and a small portion of his face a slight rub, dries
himself on the towel, and the trick is done. Then
the process is repeated by the rest of the family, all
using the same water and the same towel. I have
watched this proceeding with extreme curiosity,
tempered with some little disgust, in several Boer
establishments, and I am given to understand that
no other ablutions whatever are thought requisite,
year in, year out — save, of course, the evening
custom I have above referred to. But then water
is often a very scarce luxury in South Africa, and
the Dutch Afrikander is at least 200 years behind
the times. Our own grandfathers troubled the
washstand very little, if we may judge from the
size of basins of a hundred years ago. Prayers
are never forgotten, and are conducted with the
most solemn ceremony. The father reads a chapter
from the great family clasp-bible, which has often
been in the family a hundred years or more, and
even sometimes ever since Van Riebeek's time
(1652). Then, all kneeling, prayers are offered up ;
the Boer prays for himself, his family, and his
flocks, and other earthly possessions — if in

328 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the Transvaal or Orange Free State, for the
President and his family and worldly gear — as well
as for the spiritual welfare in either case. At meals
a long grace is usually said before falling to.
Few people are more litigious than the Cape
Dutch, considering the immense distances that
often separate them from their legal advisers. But,
disputatious though they are, it is unquestionable
that on occasion they altogether surpass their
British fellow-subjects in the strength and com
pleteness of their apologies. Here is a public
apology, translated from the columns of a Cape
paper, Di Afrikaanse Patriot : —
" I, the undersigned, A. C. du Plessis, C. son,
retract hereby everything I have said against the
innocent Mr. G. P. Bezuidenhout, calling myself
an infamous liar, and striking my mouth with the ex
clamation, ' You mendacious mouth (jij lengenachtige
bek), why do you lie so?' I declare further that
I know nothing against the character of Mr. G. P.
Bezuidenhout. I call myself, besides, a genuine
liar of the first class. (Signed) A. C. du Plessis.
Witnesses, P. du Plessis, J. C. Holmes."
I have said that the Cape Dutch are great
smokers ; they are equally great spitters, and herein
they vie with the most notable talent of America ;
this habit they even carry with them to the church.
A new Dutch Reformed Church was recently built
and the Graaff Reinetter , a local paper, was moved to
speak thus in view of preserving the virgin purity of
the floor — made of pitch pine and oiled. Here is a
translation of the article in question : —
" In the last meeting of the congregation the
question was discussed whether it was necessary to

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 329
have spittoons made for the new church in places
where persons befoul the floor by spitting on it. A
few members of the congregation thought that those
who wanted spittoons could provide themselves with
them. The chairman said that the complaint had
been recently made that a man and his wife got quite
sick from this spitting near them ; even the Sunday
school teachers, who taught their classes on the
gallery of the old church, had complained that there
were so many quids (pruimpjes) and so much tobacco
spittle on the floor, that they got quite a turn in their
stomachs. Some of the speakers thought that the
supplying of spittoons would only make the spitting
worse. Generally, the meeting came to the conclusion
that they hoped no one would be dirty enough to
befoul the floor of our fine new church with spittle
or quids, to the disedification of decent hearers and
the defilement of God's house."
The article went on to compare the spitters to
Kaffirs, and to ask "how one can give heed to the
Word, and heartily sing or join in prayer, while his
attention is divided between his plug of tobacco and
the service."
The average size of an ordinary Cape farm is
about 3,000 morgen — rather more than 6,000 acres.
For a large pastoral farmer, this is a mere fleabite,
and farms of 20,000 and 40,000 acres, and even
more, are very commonly met with. But it is not
to be supposed that all Boers in the Colony are
great landed proprietors. There yet remain many
who move about from place to place with their flocks
and herds, sometimes paying a trifle (in kind) for
pasturage and water, oftener finding it for nothing
upon the vast crown lands, that still lie unused, in

330 KLOOF AND KARROO.

millions of acres, in many parts of the Colony.
Many of these families have never known a home,
save their own waggons ; they have been born and
reared in this fashion, and so they bring forth and
rear their own children. A strange existence, indeed !
These nomads pay no taxes, and, practically, own
no laws, and by all careful and prudent farmers,
they are looked upon with unmixed disgust and
resentment. It is probable that a great part of the
contagious diseases that ravage the flocks and herds
of the colonial farmers — such as scab, brand-sickte,
red-water, and lung-sickness — are transmitted by
these Trek Boers. Theirs is, no doubt, a picturesque
and interesting survival of the old wandering existence
of the early Dutch settlers, but it is a survival not
exactly fitted for these days of progress, and its
departure would greatly benefit the Colony.
In the north-west divisions of the Colony, notably
in Calvinia, Namaqualand, Fraserburg, and Victoria
West, even the well-to-do farmers move away,
periodically, from their regular homes, and with
families and flocks, seek fresh pasturage in the
trek-veldt (part of the ancient Bushmanland),
where their white waggon tilts and camping tents
lie dotted upon the landscape in picturesque
disorder. The curious customs of the young Boers when
courting have too often been touched upon to need
repetition here. The smart attire, the shining riding
boots, the bright new spurs, the curvetting horse,
the "opsitting," and the "opsitting" candle, by the
burning of which the duration of the lovers' interview
is regulated, are all pretty well known. The following
Boer Dutch verses, composed by an old Cape friend

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 331
of mine," very well express the courting preparations:
" Carl Jansen was een jonge kerel,
En dapper 00k was hij.
Fluks was hij met zyn laange roer,
En 00k met paarde reij.
Carl Jansen klim zyn spoght piart op,
De beste wat hij kon krij.
Dan gaat hij voort al lynks en reghts,
Met de meisjes o'r als te vrej.
Carl Jansen komt na' onze huis,
Hij jaa moss, oer de vlak.
Zyn stevels het al mooi geschine,
En een kerse was en zyn zaak."
Even in the long-settled Cape Colony, Boer
husbandry is too frequently as primitive as it was
two centuries since. The Boer has ever preferred
pastoral farming, with its loose roving methods, and
free-and-easy camp life in the trek-veldt for part of
the year, to agriculture. Far greater returns might
be obtained from the soil, if a little more trouble
were taken ; if the ground were a little better
prepared, and more care were taken to plough
deeper and more evenly. As often as not in the
back settlements, the bushes and roots are not
cleared away, nor the clods broken by rolling and
harrowing. It is an astonishing fact, that thrashing
is performed in most parts of the Colony, in the
ancient Biblical manner, by treading out the corn on
a circular threshing floor by means of horses or oxen ;
the corn is then cleared of the chaff, simply by
throwing it in the air when a good breeze is blowing,
and it is then bagged and stored away ready for sale
or use. Thrashing, which by the aid of machinery
* Mr. A. G. Evans, an eighteen years' resident among the Boers of
Sneeuwberg.

332 KLOOF AND KARROO.

could be finished in a week or ten days, often
lasts from January to June, after a quite astonishing
amount of labour.
The Boer is just beginning to find out that
banks are really sound and reliable institutions,
not intended for the robbery of the farmer of his
hardly won money. But even now very few take
advantage of the bank in the nearest country town ;
they cannot be brought to believe that any man
can be so foolish as to pay them interest for the
privilege of taking charge of their savings, and
rather look upon this as a cunning trap, devised to
snare the unwary. The average up-country Boer
prefers to accumulate his savings in a chest in the
bedroom, and amongst the richer members of the
community, it was not an uncommon thing, in the
good days, to have £10,000 or £12,000 lying in
the house in specie. Even now, despite recent
bad times, large hoards lie stored in the family
chest. Stories of the Cape Dutch and their quaint
ways are innumerable; here is one of them. Before
the Cape railway to Wellington was completed, a
Boer transport rider used to drive his ox- waggon,
heavily laden with produce, over the deep and
distressing sands that form the Cape Flats, and at
this point often had to call in the aid of a second
span of oxen.
When the railway was built, the old fellow was
tempted, with some heart-quaking, to try a journey
by train over his old trekking-ground. As sometimes
happened then on Cape railways, the engine had to pull
up on these very flats to get up more steam. There
upon the old Dutchman put his head out ofthe carriage

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 333
window, and shouted, " Ik doch zo bias als jij bei
die dek zand kom " ("I thought you would want a
blow when you got to the deep sand "). The engine
was puffing away at a great rate, and the old fellow,
who could scarcely be persuaded to look upon it
as an inanimate thing, seemed to have thought that
its stoppage was due to the same want of breath
that formerly gave pause to his own oxen on
this selfsame spot.
Of all races of mankind, the Boers have in time
past been endowed with the richest and most
diversified hunting grounds that the world has
produced. On the arrival of the father settlers at
the Cape, they found a land which for untold
centuries had teemed with wild animals of every
conceivable size and shape, from the mammoth
elephant to the tiniest of those twenty-five odd
varieties of antelope which South Africa boasts of.
The elephant, the rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus
were then plentiful over what is now the Cape
Colony, and all the larger antelopes, such as the eland,
roan antelope, and others, have only been driven
from the Colony itself within the memory of man. It
must be admitted that the Boers have not been
slow to avail themselves of Nature's profusion. Since
1652, when lions wandered through the gardens of
stout old Governor Van Riebee*k, on the ground
where Cape Town now stands, the Dutch have
waged an incessant and a frightfully wasteful warfare
upon game of all descriptions. Within the last
fifteen or twenty years, since they have availed
themselves of breech-loading weapons, the decima
tion of antelopes, elephants, rhinoceroses, zebras,
and quaggas, has been prodigious. Antelopes were

334 KLOOF ANU KARRUO.
slaughtered in thousands upon thousands for the
sake of their skins, which were sold at very low
prices, and shipped to England and elsewhere ; and
the plains of the Free State and Transvaal, which
not long since literally swarmed with noble game,
are now more denuded than even those of the Cape
Colony. The rhinoceros is now nearly extinct south
of the Zambesi, and the elephant only lingers in the
most inaccessible fastnesses of the tsetse fly country,
in Mashunaland, and one or two other localities.
The smaller antelopes, it is true, are still plentiful,
but only for the reason that their hides were not
worth powder and ball. If much of the romance
and pleasure of his life has departed from the Boer
with the decrease of game, he has only himself
to thank. Of late years the dress of the Boer has changed.
The springbok, blessbok, and other antelopes which
formerly grazed in countless thousands on the
karroos of the Old Colony, the rolling flats of the
Free State, and the high veldt of the Transvaal,
from whose skins the garments of the farmer were
made, have been so depleted and exterminated, that
most Boers now dress in fustian or moleskin.
" Veldt-schoons," however, shoes of home-tanned
leather, with the hair outside, are still invariably
used. True, the elephant hunters, who yet pursue
their dangerous calling in the far interior of Mashuna
land, the Mababe veldt, or the Zambesi regions, and
the Vee, or pastoral Boers (literally stock farmers) —
nomads, who wander as their fancy or fresh pastures
may impel them — still wear the leathern garb of their
ancestors ; but ivory is not now so difficult to procure,
and land so much more scarce and less easily

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 335
"jumped," that these classes are not nearly so
numerous as in former days. The Boers do not
take kindly to trading, which is almost entirely in the
hands of English, Scotch, or Afrikanders other than
Dutch. They trek about the country, however,
with their families, and flocks, and herds, when
they wish to sell their horses and flocks, or have
oranges, tobacco, brandy, and dried fruits to dispose
of. They have entirely discarded the old-fashioned
" roer " (heavy smooth-bore gun), and are now
almost invariably armed with good breech-loading
sporting rifles, and from their constant practice at
game shooting are excellent shots, as Majuba Hill
and other fields can testify. The men are usually
tall, heavy and ungainly in their movements, and
somewhat sullen of aspect, unless of Huguenot
extraction, when they may be easily picked out.
The Transvaal Boers very generally live part of the
year on the high veldt or uplands, and in the
winter or healthy season migrate with their entire
families and belongings into the lower or bush-veldt
country, where there is good pasturage, and where
they live a happy gipsy kind of life for some months.
Ten years ago it appeared almost as if the
ancient embittered feeling of the Dutch towards the
British in South Africa, softened by years of peace,
was likely to disappear.
Ten years ago we in the Old Colony, Boers and
British, had made up our minds to forget our
differences, shake hands, and pull together ; and for
years before that the Dutch had ever looked upon us
with respect, tinged perhaps with a little wholesome
awe — qualities long fixed in their dull natures by the
ancient prestige of British arms. The lessons

336 KLOOF AND KARROO.
taught by Sir Harry Smith at Boomplaats, on the
Free State plains, and by the suppression of the Van
Jaarsfeld Insurrection in 1798, were still remembered.
Suddenly, like a thunderclap, came the news of
Majuba Hill, and that subsequent surrender
everlastingly disgraceful to England's name. Since
that day much is changed, and the Boer, whether he
be colonial or a dweller in the republics beyond the
Orange River, goes his way with altered demeanour.
In the Old Colony, the Afrikander bond has done
much to educate the Dutch party, and instead of
viewing the elections with apathy, the up-country
Boer now controls the helm of state, and, through
his mouthpieces — Mr. Hofmeyr and others — dictates
his own terms to the Premier for the time being of
the Cape Parliament. Agitation skilfully conducted
has proved as great a power among these rude
people as among the newspaper-reading artisans of
English cities. Only a short time back, in our
district of Zwart Ruggens, a meeting of farmers —
English and Dutch — was held, and among the
subjects discussed was the advisability of supporting
an Act for the compulsory fencing of farms, proposed
by the Cape Legislature. An old Boer of our
neighbourhood, Hans Knoetze by name, presently
got up and passionately exclaimed, "Ik schiet moors
dood die erste man wat durf een gut mark op myn
grond voor een draat henning" (" I'll shoot as dead
as mutton the first man who will dare to make a
hole on my ground for fencing"). Before Majuba
this old man would never have dared to make
such a speech.
But, compared with their relations of the
Transvaal, the Boers of the Old Colony are

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 337
peaceable and harmless enough, and, indeed, on
the whole, loyal subjects of the British crown,
and, although Majuba rendered them for a time
somewhat more aggressive than of yore, it is in
the last degree unlikely that our rule at the Cape
will ever be endangered by Dutch disturbance.
The vast extension of influence acquired last year
(1888) by the British in the Zambesi regions, and
the ever-increasing flow of British emigration to
the Transvaal, have happily put matters beyond
all possibility of doubt, and the British colonist
now sleeps with a far lighter heart than for the
few years immediately succeeding the miserable
Transvaal War.
Mahomet has said that " Paradise is under the
shadow of swords." It may with truth be said of
the Transvaal Boers, as of the colonial Boers of
the Eastern frontier before the great trek of
1836, that, since that time, their paradise has been
beneath the shadow of their trusty rifles. With the
cumbrous elephant " roer " of a past generation, and
with the breech-loading Winchester, or Westley-
Richards, or Martini- Henry of the present day,
they have well-nigh exterminated the great game
of their country, have harried the native tribes
within and without their borders, and, lastly,
extracted from Mr. Gladstone, in 1881, a peace, in
all respects glorious to themselves, and inglorious
to the British. As I shall show hereafter, a little
tact, a little good management, might have saved
the Transvaal to the English without a blow,
without the loss of a single life, Dutch or British.
But the fates and Mr. Gladstone willed that a
surrender, the blackest and most disgraceful that

338 KLOOF AND KARROO.
ever darkened the annals of this country, should
be made at the muzzles of the rifles of these
Transvaal farmers. Just one hundred years before,
the capitulations of Burgoyne and Cornwallis, in the
American War of Independence, had cast a shadow
upon the fair page of English history ; but, compared
with the Majuba surrender, the failures of Burgoyne
and Cornwallis were honourable incidents. These
generals were then far separated from their home
government, and were compelled in a great
emergency to act upon their own responsibility
and their own judgment. In 1881, every disgraceful
item of surrender was flashed by wire direct to
the scene of battle. The thing is done, but the
British colonists, the Cape Dutch (in a different
sense), and, too, the natives of South Africa, never
will, never can forget the humiliating and
exasperating dishonour that the English then
suffered. Well might Earl Cairns say, in a
memorable speech made in debate at that period :
" In all the ills we ever bore
We grieved, we wept, we never blushed before."
The Boers have been ever proud of their history
in South Africa ; and, indeed, little known though
their achievements are, the story of their struggles
for existence in that country, of their " trekking " from
British rule, and of their bloody but victorious
strife with Dingaan in Natal, and Moselikatse in
the Transvaal, is so abounding in romantic episodes
as to be scarcely credited in modern history. The
fatal day of Majuba Hill, and the English reverses
before that fight, have added a proud chapter to
Dutch Afrikander history.

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 339
What is to be the future of the Dutch in South
Africa is even now, despite the struggles and intrigues
of the Afrikander Bond, still uncertain. That this
strange people will remain rooted to South African
soil is quite certain, but whether the Transvaal
Dutch will suffer themselves to be swamped out of
all national recognition by the British element is
another matter. President Kruger incessantly warns
his people to " keep up their shooting," and although
it is improbable that Boer and British will ever
again come to blows, it is yet uncertain how the
Transvaal Dutch propose to preserve their fast
disappearing " Republic of isolation." It is possible
that large numbers, disgusted with the overcrowding
of the gold-seekers, may again trek north, and
seek once more new homes in some fresh and far
distant land.
From their constant habit of warfare upon wild
beasts and savage tribes, the Transvaalers, especially
the younger of them, have acquired a more truculent
and aggressive nature than the Cape colonists, and
even than their more staid brethren of the Orange
Free State. It is probable, however, that time and
more peaceful years, and above all, that desire of
gold just awakening among them, will in the future
soften and tempjer these qualities, and that the
Transvaal Dutch may, twenty years hence, be a
much more changed race than the Cape colonists,
oyer whom the tide of emigration has swept
unheeding. It must never be forgotten, too, that
large numbers of Transvaal Boers favoured the
British occupation, and infinitely preferred British
rule to their own halting and bankrupt government,
existing prior to 1877.

340 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Not very long since I met an old Cape friend,
with whom I had sojourned formerly on his karroo
farms in Cape Colony. After a long separation a
long talk naturally ensued. One topic led to
another, until we happened upon that inevitable one
of ever-burning interest to all British at the Cape—
the Boer War of 1880-81. "Well," I said, "and
how are the Boers in the Old Colony behaving now ;
they are less ' cheeky ' I hope by this time ? "
"Yes," said my friend, "they are, somewhat; and
I think now that matters will settle down again,
especially as Government is acting more firmly and a
Zambesi Protectorate has been practically declared.
By-the-bye, you remember Swanepoels Poort very
well, don't you ? — the place where you and your
friends nearly came to grief at that nasty drift (ford)
the dark night you first crossed it ? Well, one
afternoon, some little time since, I was coming out
of the mountains that very way home, when I met a
Boer outspanned at Stols's farmhouse. His waggon
looked worn and dirty, and his oxen weary from
long travel. He turned out to be a Transvaal Boer
on his way into Oudtshoorn division to visit his
numerous friends and relations. (It must be
remembered that the Boers of the Transvaal and
Cape Colony are almost all united by ties of family
and of sympathy.) I rode up to his waggon and
off-saddled to have a chat, and I found the man a
very sensible well-informed Boer — indeed, of quite a
superior class. 'Well,' I said to him, after talking
of various matters, ' and how was it that you came
to fight the British Government ? ' ' Allemagtig ! '
(Almighty) said the Dutchman ; ' believe me, most
of the Boers up there (pointing north-east) — the most

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 341
respectable, I mean — who had a stake in the land to
lose, were not a bit sorry when you English took
over the country. But let me tell you one thing :
your Government went quite the wrong way to work.
Now if they had made maaters (chums) with Oom
Paul (Kruger) and a few other of our leading men
and given them posts, and if they had listened a
little to them, and especially if Colonel Lanyon and
others had not been so terribly hoogmoedaag (high
and mighty), all would have gone well. And I will
further say that I and numbers of farmers — indeed,
the majority of them — would, if the proposals of our
leaders had been given ear to, have been British
subjects to-day — ay, and peaceable ones to boot.
But your administrators and colonels and captains
all rode too high a horse. Instead of conciliating
they threatened ; instead of trying to understand us,
they laughed at us. You must understand, too,
there were always among us numbers of freebooting
and disaffected men — those with nothing to lose
and everything to gain by disturbance ; therefore,
immediately these saw an opening they began to
agitate ; after which Kruger, Joubert, and other
disappointed men were soon persuaded to join as
leaders. And then, as you know, the gathering at
Paard Kraal was got together, and shortly the war
began. Naturally I, like many another, when war
was proclaimed, dare not refuse to join my
countrymen, although I wanted no fighting ; if I had
done so ruin would have fallen upon me, my flocks and
farms would have been confiscated, and I should have
left heeltemaal kaal (quite naked). Well, I joined the
commando, and went to Laing's Nek, Ingogo, and
Majuba. You have heard the story of Majuba Hill,

342 KLOOF AND KARROO.
of course ? Allemagtig ! I tell you it was astounding,
and our baas-raaking (thrashing) your English rooi-
baatjes (red-jackets) was even more wonderful to us
than to them. Your men were badly led, and their
shooting was alte sclecht (most wretched). I never
saw anything like the way they threw away the
battle. It happened in this wise. About daybreak
we in our camp down below were awakened to find
the soldiers crowning the mountain. Then about
eighty of us went up to meet them ; and so creeping
from bush to bush, from rock to rock, we slowfy
made our way upwards. We could see the rooi-
baatjes' heads sticking out over the tops of the high
rocks, and, too, the flash and smoke of their rifles,
which were discharged very rapidly and at random.
But they fired anyhow, at least fifteen or twenty feet
over our heads. Ja ! die coegels het vere bookaut onz
gevluit (Yes, the bullets whistled high above us).
As we crept closer we picked off the poor soldiers,
as they showed their heads, like so many dassies
(rock-rabbits). Even then had they charged us with
the bayonet they might have driven us back ; but
no doubt they thought us much more numerous
than we actually were, and feared, too, our rifle-fire.
Well, nearer and nearer we becrept them, until at
last we saw them making some attempt to charge.
Allemagtig! Poor General Colley, he was indeed
a brave man — too brave, in fact ; for almost at the
instant he came forward, cheering his men, and
calling on them to charge, he fell riddled by our
bullets — stukken geschiet (shot to pieces). When that
happened, then your men fled, and we shot them down
like rheboks as they ran down the mountain-side ; for
our battle-blood was up. Many of them jumped down

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 343
krantzes (rocks) of fearful height, by which some were
severely injured, others killed moors-dood (stone-
dead). I could not help but feel jammer (sorry) for the
arme karels (poor fellows). To me it was a wonderful
thing indeed ; and to this day I cannot understand
how we won the battle. Your rooi-baatjes are brave
enough — at least, they were at Laing's Nek and
Ingogo River ; but what is the use in these days
of breech-loaders, if those that hold them are as
brave as lions and yet cannot aim straight and judge
distances ? As you know, we Boers are, so to say,
born with rifles in our hands, and learn to shoot
straight ; and from infancy, climbing as we do the
hills and crossing the plains in search of game,
we have a continual training which enables us
to judge distances to a nicety.' "
Such was the plain but interesting narrative given
to me by a Cape colonist, an Englishman having, from
thirty-five years' experience, a very intimate knowledge
of the Boers of South Africa. According to the view
of my friend's Dutch informant, if a little more
forbearance, a little more tact, a little diplomacy,
had been exercised towards the Transvaal Dutch and
their leaders from 1877 to 1880 ; if a few administrative
posts had been judiciously distributed, the Boer War
would never have happened, and#the Transvaal, with
all its potentialities of wealth, would have remained
to this day flourishing and contented beneath the
British flag.
But on the other hand, I am bound to say a
widely different rendering has been placed before
me. I have been informed by a Cape gentleman,
who held a high administrative post in the Transvaal
during British rule, and whose opportunities of

344 KLOOF AND KARROO.
forming accurate judgment were unrivalled, that
nothing would have ever induced Kruger, Joubert,
and others ofthe Boer leaders to join hands and work
with the English. Their hatred and hostility never
could have been overcome by peaceful means. When
Sir Bartle Frere went up to Pretoria, he repeatedly
interviewed the Dutch irreconcilables, and offered
them every possible concession short of positive
rendition of the country. No man found his way so
straitly to the hearts, even of the rugged Boers, as
Sir Bartle Frere ; but even he could not turn these
men from their purpose. " Sir Bartol Ferreira,"
said Kruger, in his curious Dutch-English, at one
of these interviews, "we want our country back;
we will take nothing less than our country, and we
will not rest night or day till we get it."
At length even the gentle and patient Frere gave
up his efforts in despair, and Kruger and his sup
porters went their way still breathing threatenings
and hostility against the English. Yet even with
these men, a firm policy, supported by a strong home
Government, would in the end have triumphed. Two
reverses for English arms, and the crowning mercy (for
the Boers) of Majuba sufficed, however, to turn the
faint hearts of Lord Kimberley and Mr. Gladstone,
and once more the magnificent Transvaal country
reverted to Dutch authority.
It has been recently said that the Transvaal
authorities were still coquetting with Germany, and
that a Protectorate by that Empire over the South
African Republic would be the outcome. This view
I take leave entirely to differ from. The bulk of the
Transvaal people might, and would with judicious
management, have come peaceably and quietly under

THE BOER OF TO-DAY. 345
the British flag in 1877, or soon after, and having
once come willingly they would have remained for
ever British subjects. I was conversing not long
since with a Dutch gentleman, formerly holding
office in the Transvaal Volksraad before 1877, who
assured me that if President Burgers had not been
in such desperate haste to quit the sinking ship of
the Transvaal State, and to secure the British
pension he afterwards enjoyed, and that if Sir T.
Shepstone had only waited six months longer, the
ruin of the bankrupt Republic would have been
complete, and all the inhabitants would have freely
and gladly placed themselves under British rule.
Britannia seized the plum before it was yet quite
ripe ; in another few months it would have fallen
into her mouth. But since 1877 many things have
happened. By the war of 1880-81, the pride and
enthusiasm of the Transvaalers have been increased
a thousand-fold. The opening up of the gold-fields, and the influx
of the mining element, have placed the exchequer of
the new Republic far beyond the sordid cares and
troubles that formerly beset it, and it is, in my
judgment, in the last degree improbable that the
sturdy Transvaal Boers will ever bow the knee to
Germany ; I believe, rather, that if put to extremity,
they would range themselves with the British. The
success of the Republic is now assured, but looking
at the enormous increase of the British element
there — in the next few' years to be still more
recruited — looking at the approach of railways
through the Free State and Bechuanaland (now
going steadily forward), and the wonderful changes,
in every instance favourable to British interests,

346 KLOOF AND KARROO.
everywhere taking place south of the Zambesi,
it is, I think, incontestable that the future of South
Africa is assuredly now to be British and not
Dutch. The two races are at length just beginning
to move together in the march of progress. The
dream of an United South Africa, owning allegiance
to Great Britain, is not now an Utopian one, and
ten years hence may see it peacefully accomplished.
But, whatever the issue, I have no fear that the
Boer will ever vanish from South Africa. I, for
one, should be sorry indeed to see him go, or his
old-world characteristics entirely swamped by the
thrusting modern European element. As a social
and historical study, this farmer of the African
wilderness, shut off from his fellows by 200 years
of a rude and semi-barbarous existence, is unique,
and deeply interesting. That he has been able
to retain the good qualities — and they are not few
— that he possesses, a deep if simple faith, a
wonderful power of self-help and self-reliance, an
intense love of family, extraordinary skill as a
hunter, no little knowledge as a grazier, and when
put to it, an undaunted courage — speaks volumes for
the better type of the South African Boer. Through
evil and good report, through petty wars and perils
innumerable, in sunshine as in storm, ill-equipped,
and ever relying upon his own stout arm alone,
he has clung to his beloved " Zud Afrika," his
land of promise ; and his magnificent faith in that
wonderful country is, as we may now all see,
entirely justified, and not one whit too greatly
rewarded.

Chapter XIX.
THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA.
A Frontier Drama.

SOME few years ago an expedition set out from
the north-west border of the Transvaal, which
attracted great local attention at the time-
On the banks of the Limpopo, or Crocodile River,
there lay, outspanned, many a stout waggon and
many a yoke of oxen, which carried some seventy
or eighty families of Dopper Boers, with their goods
and fortunes. The Doppers are a sect holding
religious views more severe and savage even than
those of the Calvinists of old. They look upon the
natives in exactly the same light as did the
wandering Israelites, as mere hewers of wood and
drawers of water, and they treat them invariably
with merciless severity and even barbarity, for they
truly believe that they have " the heathen for an
inheritance." These hardy trekkers were proceeding
in search of what they called " the promised land,"
which was in reality a rich territory in Ovampoland,
far to the north-west of Lake N'Gami and the river
systems of that region.
A year or so passed by after their departure, and
at length fitful news began to leak through from the
interior of sad disasters to those Boer trekkers. It
became known, finally, that after long and weary
journeying through the arid doorst-land (thirst-land),

348 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the expedition had been overtaken by the unhealthy
season in the lonely and malarious swamp country
lying between the rivers Teouge and Chobe; that
their oxen had nearly all perished from tsetse fly
and lung sickness ; that whole families had been
carried off by fever and starvation ; and finally that
the miserable survivors had, after untold sufferings,
at length emerged, with a few waggons and oxen,
upon the higher and healthier country of the eastern
borders of Damara and Ovampo-lands. After some
delay, the Cape Government, prompted by feelings
of humanity, despatched a ship with provisions and
necessaries to Walfisch Bay, on the south-west
coast, whence the much-needed aid was sent through
Damaraland to the Boers.
Nothing more, whether of good or evil, was for
some time heard by the outer world of the expedition ;
but it was understood that the survivors had, to
some extent, recovered themselves, and were gaining
a livelihood by trading and hunting on the borders
of Ovampoland. Early in 1887, tidings came that a
Mr. W. W. Jordaan, a Cape colonist, had proceeded
to Ovampoland in the year preceding, and had
obtained a large concession of land from Khambonde,
the young chief of the Omandonga Ovampos, that
he had joined hands with the Boers, and had
established a settlement under the name of
Upingtonia — so called after Sir T. Upington, the
late Premier of the Cape Government. It was
further stated that the prospects of the new State
were most promising. The ceded tract lay some
200 miles or so north-west of Walfisch Bay, between
the eighteenth and twentieth degrees of south
latitude, and included in its area the rich copper

THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 349

mines of Otavi, which for ages had been worked by
the Omandongas.
It transpired that a large portion of the land was
very fertile and produced bountifully maize, millet, or
Kaffir corn, fruit, and vegetables, while the remainder
was eminently adapted for pastoral purposes, and
contained numerous strong fountains — a great
desideratum in parched South Africa. The district
was but sparsely inhabited by a few Berg Damaras
and Bushmen, who paid tribute of ivory, copper ore,
and ostrich feathers to the Ovampos. It may be
here stated that Ovampoland is an undoubtedly rich
country, lying immediately north of Damaraland,
which, in its turn, is to the north of Great Namaqua-
land. The natives are a fine race of men, nearly
allied to the true negro type of Central Africa.
Armed with this rich concession, which he did not
disguise he had obtained for a very inadequate
consideration, Jordaan set about attracting colonists,
and with such success that in November of 1886,
there were settled some thirty or forty families of
English, Germans, and Dutch Afrikanders, while
other Boer families were also trekking in. Each
family of settlers had allotted to it a farm of 3,000
morgen (6,000 acres). Shortly after, a bestuur, or
council of thirteen members, wa^s formed, on Boer
lines, to administer the affairs of Upingtonia.
In the third act of this curious drama, a Mr.
Lewis appeared on the scene, who, as principal
adviser of Kamahero, chief of the Herero-Damaras,
repudiated Khambonde's concession, alleging that
the country ceded belonged to the Damaras, and in
default of certain arrangements being made, he
threatened to declare war upon both Upingtonians

350 KLOOF AND KARROO.
and Ovampos. In support of his claims, he urged
that the Herero-Damaras had for centuries been
possessed of the Otavi district ; he denied that the
Ovampos had ever worked the copper mines, but
affirmed that his clients had worked them, and had
sold the ore to the Ovampos, in exchange for knives,
tobacco, beads, and other articles. In further proof,
he asserted that there were no Ovampo names in
that district, but that all local names were of
Damara and Bushman origin, and that he could
call hundreds of old inhabitants to prove his
statements. In the meantime, another cloud arose upon the
horizon of the new settlement. Khambonde declared
that when he executed the concession to Jordaan, he
had merely intended to assign to him, in return for
the guns and ammunition he received, a piece of
land situated near his own kraal ; that he had been
tricked by Jordaan into the vast concession of the
Otavi district, and that he would absolutely contest
the claims of the bestuur of the new settlement.
Further, in reply to a letter from the Damara chief,
brought to him by Lewis, he despatched the
following letter (presumably written for him by a
missionary or trader) :
" My dear eldest brother Kamahero, — Your letter
I have received, and I must inform you that I have
not sold the Otavi mine and the ground in question
to Mr. Jordaan, and I have no idea whatever about
the same being sold. All that I know is that I have
sold to Mr. Jordaan a piece of ground near my station
for guns and ammunition. So, as you are my eldest
brother and adviser, please write and let me know
what I must do with these things — whether I shall

THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 351
return them or not. I am only a child, and do not
know the traditions of my forefathers, or even how
far my boundary extends. So please, my eldest
brother, kindly inform me how far my boundary
extends to."
For a short time the dark curtain of the far
interior drops, and then we have the final and tragic
climax of the drama. On the 29th June, 1887, late
in the afternoon, Jordaan " outspanned " at Ondonga,
whither he had trekked to endeavour to come to
terms with Khambonde. Considering the excited
state of the Ovampos, and their character for
treachery and bloodshed, for they had a few years
before slaughtered a Roman Catholic mission, his
journey was a dangerous one ; but, being a man of
strong will and determined courage, Jordaan seems
to have had no misgivings.
After night had fallen, the waggon was surrounded
by Ovampos, who had received their orders from the
chief, and early next morning they advanced to the
outspan, and squatted by the camp fire. Presently
their leader spoke to Jordaan's driver, who was
preparing breakfast, and told him that Khambonde
had sent a present of an ox, and that he wished to
salute him. Accordingly Jordaan was awakened,
descended from his waggon, and greeted the
Ovampos. He then prepared for breakfast, and
just as he stretched across to take a cup of tea from
his driver, one of the Ovampos fired both barrels of
a heavy elephant gun into his chest at three paces,
killing him dead on the spot. The Hottentot driver
rushed to the waggon for a gun, but was forthwith
despatched. The waggon was then taken to the
chief and looted, while, shortly after, the body of the

352 KLOOF AND KARROO.
unfortunate Jordaan was buried in a hole scratched
a foot deep in the earth. Afterwards the resident
missionary erected a wall round the spot, and
re-interred the remains. Two Boers and a trader in
the neighbourhood, whose deaths had been also
planned, had warning in time, and escaped with their
lives. After this event, all was confusion in the
settlement. Some of the colonists at once trekked out, fearing
greater disasters. The Boers first sent in hot haste
to Damaraland to ask for German protection, but
chiefly owing to difficulties of their own raising, after
some negotiations, the German Acting Commissioner
threw up the affair in disgust and left them to their
own devices. But to add to their troubles, already
sufficiently heavy, other entanglements ensued. A
dispute had occurred between the Bushmen of the
district and a wandering trader ; the latter had taken
the law into his own hands and shot one of the
Bushmen, who in turn had retaliated by plundering
the white man of his stores and looting his waggon.
Both parties came before the bestuur of the
settlement for justice, and as the Boers unduly
favoured the trader, the Bushmen, who, to speak
truth, had thus far behaved fairly well, after their
imperfect lights, towards the settlers, took high
offence, and departed, vowing that for the future they
would follow their own laws and would make the
Upingtonians smart for their shuffling. Meanwhile
the settlers entered into fresh negotiations with the
Damaras, and for a time it seemed that peace
would yet prevail, and that by timely concessions to
Kamahero, the Damara chief, they might even yet
remain in possession of their new lands. A punitory

THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 353
expedition against the Ovampos to revenge Jordaan's
murder was even talked of. But ill fortune was yet to
cling to this ill-devised Colony. About this time
there came news that Rudolph du Toit, field-
cornet (sub-magistrate) of the new settlement, who
had taken up a farm near Otavi mountain, had been
foully slain by the revengeful Bushmen. Du Toit was
a famous hunter, and hitherto from his knowledge
of their ways and their language, had had
considerable influence among the Bushmen, and
had often employed them on his hunting expeditions.
Trusting in these people, he had taken a number of
them with him on a shooting trip as spoorers and
hunters ; but now, full of revenge and hatred against
the Upingtonians, the Bushmen when out in the
hunting veldt fell upon the Dutch hunter and killed
him, and returning to his house ransacked the place.
His wife and children, who were intended to be
enslaved, escaped at night, and by great good
fortune happened upon a party of traders and
hunters. A commando was then quickly raised
among the settlers, and the Bushmen, pursued to
their mountain places, were surrounded and attacked.
A hot fight, begun at grey of dawn, took place,
in which the Bushmen, about fifty in number,
lost some dozen in killed, whije the Boers, only
about twenty strong, were weakened by two
deaths and the wounding of one or two others.
The fight had straggled from a deep ravine into
dense bush, and here the Bushmen, in their own
peculiar element, had all the best of it, and at
length the Boers having 'but half completed their
campaign gave up the attack and returned to the
main settlement. 23

354 KLOOF AND KARROO.
In a very short time, the outlook became blacker
than ever ; the Damaras after all could not be
appeased, the Ovampos were dangerously excited
and gathering force for an attack, and the Bushmen,
formerly half friends, were now bitter and exasperated
enemies. Upingtonia, the intended stronghold and
palladium of Dutch Afrikander freedom in South
Africa, was now represented by a handful of Boer
families — survivors of the long trek of 1876 — of
whom but eighteen were men capable of bearing
rifles. Gathering their possessions and flocks and
herds once more about them, this poor remnant
inspanned their oxen, and again taking to their
waggons, turned their faces for the Transvaal.
Some of them passed through Damaraland and
Namaqualand, and thence by the Orange River,
after long months of incessant hardship, found their
way back to their own land. Others took a different
course, and, after great sufferings, won their way
north of Lake N'Gami through the thirst-land,
and thence across Bechuanaland back to Transvaal
territory. A small band of the original trek remained
behind at Humpata, near Mossamedes, in Portuguese
territory, where they yet linger. Such was the
miserable end of Upingtonia, a state founded too
much upon the usual model of Boer filibusters. The
Ovampo chief seems unquestionably to have been
tricked into a huge concession, for nothing at all
approaching an adequate consideration. A transac
tion thus inaugurated in duplicity, as it seems to have
been, and terminated in bloodshed, could have only
one certain result. The Ovampos, always suspicious
of strangers, and disgusted with the dealings of the
white men, will in future only yield their territory to
force of arms, and will have no further intercourse if

THE RISE AND FALL OF UPINGTONIA. 355
they can help it with Boers, British, or Germans.
The result of this episode is that an important trade
route is now practically closed for years to come.
Out of the great "Promised Land" expedition
of years before, which had set forth with such high
hopes, such boundless possibilities of land grabbing,
such dreams of pastoral wealth, but a small and
enfeebled remnant finally arrived back at Marico in
the Transvaal. But though in one sense theirs had
been a failure complete and miserable, in another
sense the survivors had some reason for pride and
gratulation. The expedition had endured for eleven
long years, and in the annals of this nation of trekkers
it will ever occupy the foremost place. In the
earlier days of the Transvaal and Free State, nay,
even of the Old Colony, the Boers became
remarkable for the length and severity of their
wanderings. Whole families existed for months and
years in their waggons, moving slowly onwards with
their flocks and herds, and such rude household
belongings as they could carry with them. But
there is no record at all approaching that of these
Trek Boers, who had thus regained the Transvaal
after eleven years of travel in the most dangerous
and remote portions of South Central Africa. Even
the Israelites in their wandering* never trekked- more
persistently or more doggedly than these Afrikanders.
The foundation of the so-called Republic of
Upingtonia was based upon foundations unwise,
insecure, and improper, and its ending was not
unjustly doomed to misfortune ; but the struggles
of these frontier farmers had been of unexampled,
nay, of incredible severity, and it is impossible to
deny to the survivors some meed of admiration for
their stubborn and undaunted pluck.

Chapter XX.
JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF.
A Legend of Cape Colony.

FAR away in the gloomiest recesses of a
range lying between Zwart Ruggens and the
Zwartberg, not far from where the mountains
of that wild and secluded district give place to the
eastern limits of the plateau of the Great Karroo,
there lies hidden, and almost unknown, a kloof or
gorge, whose dark and forbidding aspect, united to
the wild and horrid legend with which it is invested,
prevents any but the chance hunter or wandering
traveller from ever invading its fastnesses. This
kloof is about seven miles from the rough track that
in these regions is dignified by the name of road ;
it is approached by a poort or pass through the
mountains, and the way is, even for South Africa,
a rough and dangerous one, although there are
indications that a rude waggon track did formerly
exist there. Standing upon the steep side of this
kloof are the remains of what must have once been a
roomy and substantial Boer farmhouse ; but the four
walls are roofless, the windows and doorways naked
and destitute of sashes, the euphorbia, the prickly
pear, and clambering weeds grow within and without,
the lizard and snake abide there, and the whole

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 357
appearance of the place denotes that many years
have elapsed since Prinsloo's Kloof was tenanted by
human life.
In many respects the wild kloof gives evidence
that the Boer who first tarried there had an eye
for good pasturage for his flocks and herds. The
spekboom, and many another succulent bush dear
to the goat breeder, flourish amid the broken and
chaotic rocks with which the hillsides are strewn.
A strong fountain of water runs with limpid current
from the mountain at the back of the house ; the
flat tops of the hills around are clothed with long
waving grasses, and the valley is eminently fitted to
be the nursery of a horse-breeding establishment.
A tributary of the Gamtoos River flows deeply, if
fitfully, below the sheer and overhanging cliffs in
a chain of pools called zee-koe gats (sea-cow or
hippopotamus deeps) — the hippopotamus, though his
name lingers behind, no longer revels in the flood —
and the bottom of the valley is in many parts
fertile and suited for the growth of grain and fodder
crops. Broken and uncouth as are many portions
of the Witteberg and Zwartberg, the neighbourhood
of Prinsloo's Kloof far surpasses them. There the
volcanic action of a bygone ^.ge has perpetrated
the most extraordinary freaks. The mountains are
torn into shapes so wild and fantastic, that, viewed
in profile against the red glow of the setting sun,
all manner of weird objects may be conjured before
the imagination. In some places, as the kloof runs
into the heart of the hills, the cliffs' sides are so
deep, so precipitous, and so narrow, that but little
sunlight can penetrate beneath, and even on a hot

358 KLOOF AND KARROO.
day of African summer a chill strikes upon the
spectator passing through.
It is not difficult to understand, from a Boer
point of view, that this stern valley was a well-
chosen spot in which to build a farmhouse. The
distance from a roadway is, in Boer eyes, of no
great account, and, as a rule, the farther from
human habitation the Dutch farmer can get the
better he is pleased. As for the forbidding aspect
of the kloof, the stolid, unimaginative Boer would
be little troubled on that score ; for he has no eye
whatever for picturesque or scenic effect, and will
plant himself as readily upon the treeless wastes
of the Orange Free State, or the most stony,
barren mountain-side of the Old Colony, as in the
most beautifully wooded country that South Africa
can give him.
When Jan Prinsloo trekked into the kloof
towards the end of the last century, the place
must have been a very paradise and nursery of
game. In the river the hippopotamus played,
elephants roamed through the valleys and poorts
everywhere around, the zebras ran in large troops
upon the mountain tops, and many of the larger
game, such as the koodoo, the buffalo, and the
hartebeest, wandered fearlessly and free ; while of
the smaller game, such as rhebok, duyker-bok,
and klipspringer, judging from the abundance of
the present day, there must have been literally
multitudes. To Jan Prinsloo, then, wild and
sombre as the place was, it must have appeared
as he trekked down the pass, a veritable Boer
elysium. But Jan, having played his part in the
world — a part more fierce and turbulent even than

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 359
was usual to the marauding frontier Boers of ninety
years ago — made his exit from the scene in a
manner cruel and horrible enough to match fitly
with the rest of his wicked and violent existence.
Since Jan Prinsloo's fearful ending, which will be
hereafter alluded to, the kloof has borne an evil
reputation. Now and again a Boer has taken the
farm, tempted by its pastoral advantages and its
low purchase-money, but somehow, none have ever
stayed upon it for long. The last tenant, an
Englishman, quitted it hastily nearly thirty years
ago, and ever since then the house has steadily
fallen into ruin, the dark kloof has become year by
year more sombre and more desolate, the footsteps
of human beings now rarely penetrate thither, and
even the very Kaffirs avoid the place.
In September of the year i860, a young English
Afrikander, Stephen Goodrick by name, who had,
from the time he could handle a rifle, been engaged
in the far interior, in the then lucrative, if dangerous
occupation of elephant hunting ; having amassed, at
the age of thirty, some four or five thousand pounds,
after fourteen years of hunting and trading in
Northern Bechuanaland, and the Lake N'Gami
region, threw up the game, and trekked down to
Graham's Town with his last loads of ivory.
These disposed of, and his affairs settled, he took
unto himself for a wife, a handsome, dark-eyed girl,
the daughter of Scotch parents, living near his own
family in the Western province, and then set about
looking for a farm, having determined to settle down
to the more peaceful pursuits of pastoral farming.
After a month of riding hither and thither, inspecting
farms in the districts of Swellendam, Oudtshoorn,

360 KLOOF AND KARROO.

and George, none of which pleased his fancy, he
turned his attention to the Eastern province.
Goodrick had been long and continuously away
from the Colony, and in the brief intervals when he
had rested from his hunting and trading expeditions,
he had usually stayed with his father, an old colonist,
in Swellendam, a district to the south-west of the
Colony. His knowledge, therefore, of the Eastern
province was necessarily somewhat restricted.
Stephen, by chance, heard one day from a Boer
trekking by with fruit and tobacco, that another
Boer named Van der Meulen was leaving his farm
near the end of Zwartberg. Losing no time, Stephen
saddled up, bade temporary farewell to his wife,
whom he left at his father's house, and traversing
Lange Kloof and crossing the Kougaberg, he entered,
on the afternoon of the third day, Prinsloo's Kloof,
whither he had been directed.
It was a glorious hot afternoon in early summer,
the sun shone as only it can in Africa, and under its
brilliant rays and with the wealth of vegetation and
flower life springing up everywhere around, the
kloof, savage though it appeared, put on its mellowest
aspect ; and as Goodrick rode up to the farmhouse
and noticed the flocks and herds, all sleek and in
good condition, he thought that there might be
many worse places to outspan for life, than in this
beautiful, if solemn valley.
At the farmhouse he was welcomed by the owner,
Van der Meulen, and after a stroll round the kraals
and supper over, a business conversation took place
before the family retired to rest, which, as it seemed
to the young Englishman, they did hurriedly and
with some odd glances at one another. Next

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 361
morning all were up early, and Goodrick rode round
the farm — all good mountain pasture, embracing some
19,000 morgen (rather more than 40,000 acres) in its
area. The Boer, in his uncouth, rough way, warmly
praised the farm ; the price he asked was extremely
small, and the annual Government quit rent very
trifling. Van der Meulen explained as his reason for
selling the place apparently so much below its value,
that he had been offered, at an absurdly small price,
a very fine farm in the Transvaal, by a relation who
had lately annexed the best of the land of a native
chief; and as many ofhis blood relations, Boertrekkers
of 1836, were settled there, he wished to quit the
Colony quickly and join them. Finally, Goodrick
agreed to buy the farm, together with part of the
stock, and early on the following morning left the
kloof. The purchase was shortly completed at Cape
Town, where the vendor and purchaser met a week
afterwards, and the Van der Meulens having trekked
out with all their household goods and belongings,
the Englishman and his wife prepared to enter upon
their property.
Stephen Goodrick, then, with two waggons,
carrying his wife, her white female servant, a
quantity of furniture and household and farming
necessaries, and taking with h^im four Hottentots
and half-a-dozen horses, trekked again through
Lange Kloof, over the Kougaberg, and thence
through a country partly mountain, partly karroo,
until one afternoon early in October, the waggons
crossed the deep and dangerous drift of the river, and
went up through the poort that 'led into Prinsloo's
Kloof. After a most difficult and tedious piece of
travelling for some seven miles — for the half-forgotten

362 KLOOF AND KARROO.
waggon track lay up and down precipitous ascents
and declivities, littered here and there with huge
boulders, or hollowed out into dangerous spruits and
holes — at length the stout but wearied oxen faced
the last steep hill to the farmhouse, and with many
a pistol crack of the great whip, many a Hottentot
curse directed at Zwartland, Kleinboy, Englesman,
Akerman, and the rest, dragged their heavy burdens
up to the open space that had been cleared in front
of the homestead. It had been arranged that Van
der Meulen's eldest son should remain upon the
farm until Goodrick and his wife had arrived, and,
further, that an old Hottentot, Cupido by name, who
knew the farm and its ways well, and two young
Kaffirs who had lately arrived from Kaffraria in
search of work, should transfer their services to
the new-comer.
These four were therefore ready, having already
brought in and kraaled the goats for the night, and
they assisted the Englishman to outspan his oxen
and unload the waggons. After two or three hours'
hard work, a good portion of the waggons was
unloaded, and part of the furniture arranged in the
house ; three of the horses were placed for the night
in the rough building adjoining the dwelling-house,
that served for a stable, while the remainder had
been turned into a large stone kraal which lay on
the other flank of the house. Meanwhile the white
servant had prepared supper, which partaken of, the
wearied travellers retired to rest. About the middle
of the night Goodrick and his wife were suddenly
aroused by a great commotion in the stable ; the
horses were trampling, plunging, and squealing as
if suddenly disturbed or scared. Then there rose

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF, 363
upon the night, as it seemed just outside the house,
a wild scream, hideous in its intensity and full of
horror. Hastily thrusting on some clothes and taking a
lantern, Goodrick ran round to the stable. The
night, though there was no moon, was not dark,
and the stars shone clear in the firmament above.
Nothing was to be seen, no sound could be heard
save the snorting of the horses, and the weird cry of
a leopard, (strangely different, as the hearer well
knew, from the scream heard just previously), that
sounded from the rocks a mile or so away on the
right. Quickly entering the stable, Stephen was
astonished to find the horses in a profuse sweat,
trembling, their halters broken, their eyes startled
and excited, and their whole demeanour indicating
intense fear. What could be the cause ? There
was, apparently, no wild animal about, nothing in
the stable calculated to excite alarm; the animals
were old comrades, and not likely to have been
fighting. Goodrick was altogether puzzled, and,.
leaving the stable, went to a shed in rear of the
house, where the natives slept, and roused the old
Hottentot. He could give no reason for the
disturbance. " Wolves (hyamas) were not likely to
approach the house, and the tigers (leopards) had
not been very troublesome lately," and he could
think of nothing else to explain the matter. There
was a scared look in the old man's face, which
Goodrick thought nothing of at the time, but
which he afterwards remembered. After some little
trouble, fresh halters were procured, the horses tied
up and soothed, and the two again retired, Cupido
being cautioned to keep his ears open against

364 KLOOF AND KARROO.

further disturbance ; nothing further occurred during
the night.
Next morning, after seeing the goats unkraaled,
watered, and despatched to their day's pasturage
in charge of the two Kaffir herds, Goodrick asked
the young Boer at breakfast if he had heard the
noise among the horses, and the wild scream, and
what could be the cause, and if there were any
cattle stealing about this wild neighbourhood.
Young Van der Meulen's heavy, immovable
countenance changed slightly, but he replied "that
he could give no explanation, except that perhaps
a leopard might have been prowling about ; they
were pretty numerous in the kloof." Stephen
explained that he and the Hottentots had spoored
everywhere around the stable for leopards, but could
find no trace.
Here the subject dropped, and Van der Meulen
relapsed into silence, except when the Englishman
asked him what game there was about the hills.
" You will find," he said, " plenty of small buck —
klipspringers, rhebok, and duykerbok, and there are
still a fair number of koodoo, which take some
stalking though. Then on the berg tops there are
several troops of zebras, as Avell as hyaenas and
leopards ; but the zebras we have seldom shot, they
take so much climbing after, and you know we
Dutchmen prefer riding to walking. You will find
still lots of springbok and steinbok, and some black
wildebeest (gnu) on the plains beyond the mountains.
Yes, I have had many a ' mooi schiet op de plaats '
(pretty shoot on the farm)." Suddenly the young
man's heavy features changed again as he said
¦" Allemaghte ! (Almighty), but I shall be glad to get

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 365
out of this place ; I hate it ! I want again to get
on to the Transvaal high veldt, where I trekked
through two years ago, and where you can shoot as
many blauuw wildebeest (brindled gnu), blessbok,
quagga, springbok, and hartebeest, as you want in
a day's ride. Ja ! that is the land for me ; these
gloomy poorts and kloofs are only fit for leopards
and 'spooks' (ghosts). Then, you know, Mynheer,
the Transvaal is free ; we never loved your
Government, which is always wanting from us this,
that, and the other, and I shall be glad to trek out.
Up in Zoutpansberg we shall be able to hunt the
kameel (giraffe), and the zwart wit pens (sable
antelope), and elephant, as much as we like, and for
our winter pasture we shall not have to pay a single
rix-dollar. Ja ! I have had enough of Prinsloo's
Kloof, and never wish to see it again." This long
speech delivered, the Boer relapsed into silence.
There was a curious look on the young man's face,
as he had spoken, which Goodrick and his wife
could not quite define or understand.
An hour afterwards Van der Meulen had slung
his rifle on his back, packed some biltong (sun-dried
meat) in his pockets, saddled up his horse, and
bidden farewell to the tenants of the kloof. The
Englishman and his young wife watched his
retreating form as it slowly proceeded down the
valley, and presently disappeared amidst a grove
of acacia trees that margined the river ; then they
turned to the house. " I don't quite understand
that fellow," said Stephen, "do you, Mary?
I can't help thinking there was something behind
what he said. Why were his people so eager to
leave this farm ? However, darling, the farm is a

366 KLOOF AND KARROO.

good one and a cheap one, we are young and strong,
and ought to be as happy as any Afrikanders in the
Colony." " Yes, Stephen," said his wife, " I thought there
was something queer in what the young man said,
but it could have been only fancy. I am sure we
ought to be happy and contented, and with you by
my side I shall always be so."
In a few weeks time Goodrick had increased his
stock of goats, and had bought a sufficient number
of horses to start a stud farm upon the mountains
around. Things seemed to be going well with him.
The pasture was in splendid condition, the valleys
and kloofs that led into the mountains literally
blazed with flowers of every conceivable hue, from
the great pink or crimson blossomed aloes, that gave
warmth to the towering brown rocks above, to the
lovely heaths, irises, and geraniums that clothed as
with a brilliant carpet the bottom grounds. The house
had been thoroughly cleansed, put into order, and the
new furniture settled into it, and young Mrs. Goodrick
busily employed her days in household duties. Her
husband had had several good days shooting about
the hills, and had brought in two koodoos (one of
the largest and most magnificent of South African
antelopes), whose noble heads and heavy spiral
horns now adorned the dining-room, besides many a
head of smaller antelopes and innumerable francolins
pheasants, ducks, and other feathered game.
Yet somehow, though things had so far gone
well, the young couple were not quite comfortable.
The disturbances among the horses, although
not repeated for several nights, had occasionally
happened ; the same horrid scream had been heard

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 367
and their causes had so far completely baffled
Stephen Goodrick. He had tried all sorts of plans,
changed the horses, and even had them all turned
loose together in the great stone kraal, but with the
same results. They were found over and over again
at night, mad with fear and drenched with sweat,
trampling and plunging in the stable, or tearing
about the enclosure.
Cupido and the Kaffirs, and his own Swellendam
Hottentots, had been questioned and cross-examined,
but to no purpose. Twice had Goodrick remained
on the watch all night. On one occasion he believed
he had seen a figure move quickly past him in the
dark night, and the horses had been disturbed at the
same time ; but nothing further could be traced, and
no spoor of man or quadruped was ever discovered.
The thing was a mystery. At length, one moonlight
night, Goodrick ran out, hearing the now familiar
noises, and taking with him his great brindled dog
" Tao"(so called from the Bechuana name for lion,
bestowed upon him when, as a puppy, his master had
first taken him up into the interior, and he had, on
his introduction to the king of beasts, single-handed,
driven his tawny majesty from his shelter in a dense
reed-bed), who had often hunted elephant, rhinoceros,
buffalo, and lion, he quickly went round to the
stable. At this moment the two Kaffir herds also came
running out on hearing the noise. Just as they
approached the stable togetKer they beheld a figure
pass through the open doorway, as they supposed,
and swiftly glide away to the hillside. The dark
figure was clad in a broad-brimmed Boer hat and
quaintly-cut old-fashioned looking dress, as Goodrick

368 KLOOF AND KARROO.
could plainly notice. Stephen shouted, and with the
Kaffirs gave chase, but after a few minutes' running
the man suddenly vanished into the bushy scrub
that grew on the mountain-side, and no further
trace could be found, although the Kaffirs hunted
everywhere around.
Meanwhile, Stephen turned for his dog, surprised
that the animal, usually so fierce and impetuous,
had not led the chase. To his utter astonishment,
" Tao " was close at his heels, his tail between his
legs, his hackles up, and with every symptom of
terror upon him. The thing was incomprehensible ;
the dog had never feared man or beast in his life
before ; and many a time and oft had faced, as they
turned at bay, the fierce and snarling lion, the
dangerous sable antelope with his scimitar-like horns,
and the wounded and screaming elephant. At
length, turning back, they entered the stable ; to
their surprise the door was locked, and on being
opened the horses as usual were loose, and in the
last extremity of fright. Nothing more could be
done that night. In the morning the Kaffirs and
Hottentots searched everywhere for spoor, but could
find no trace of the midnight marauder. Cupido,
indeed, shook his head, rolled his bloodshot-looking
eyes, and appeared to take the ocurrence as a
matter of course.
Three mornings afterwards the two Kaffirs came
to Stephen, declared that they had seen on the
previous night the same dark figure just outside their
sleeping shed ; that the terrible appearance ofthe face
of this apparition, which they saw distinctly in the
moonlight, had made them utterly sick and terror
stricken ; that the thing was a thing of witchcraft

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 369
and that nothing would induce them to stay another
night on the farm.
" We like the N'kose (chief or master) well,"
they said, " but we dare not stay longer in this
country, or we shall be slain by the witchcraft we
see around us ; why do you not get a ' smeller out '
to cleanse this place from the evil ? " The two
men, who in daylight were, as most Kaffirs are,
bold, hardy fellows, were evidently in earnest in
what they said, and though Goodrick, who could
ill afford to part with them at a moment's notice,
offered them increased wages, they steadfastly
declined ; and at length finding he could not shake
their resolution, he reluctantly paid them their
money and let them go. Goodrick learned some
months afterwards from a friend, that these men had
marched straight for the boundary of the Colony,
crossed the Kei, and rejoined their own tribe, the
Gaikas, in Kaffraria.
Goodrick now began to think somewhat seriously
of the matter, and to ask himself with inward
misgivings what it meant. Brave man though he
was, like most mortals he was not quite proof
against superstition, and he began to find himself
half fearing that there was something not quite
canny about the place. How else could he account
for the locked door, the suddenly vanishing figure,
the sickening yell, and the lack of footmarks ?
However, he kept his thoughts from his wife, and
made some excuse about a quarrel with the Kaffirs
as to wages, to explain their sudden departure.
She, although accepting the explanation, seemed
uneasy, and at last burst out, " Oh, Stephen, I
think there is something wrong about this kloof —
24

370 KLOOF AND KARROO.

some dreadful mystery we know nothing of. Have
you ever noticed that even the Kaffirs in the kraal
a few miles away beyond the poort never enter
here ? Not a soul amongst the farmers comes near
us, and as for ' Tao,' he never seems happy now,
and is always restless, suspicious and alarmed."
That same night the wild, unearthly scream
rose again ; the same tumult was heard in the stable,
and Stephen rushed out ; and once again he saw the
figure passing in front of him. This time he had
his rifle loaded, and after calling once, fired. Still
the figure retreated ; another shot was fired, but to no
purpose ; the figure apparently glided imperceptibly
onwards, and then suddenly disappeared, as it
seemed, sheer into the earth. Goodrick knew so
well his powers with the rifle, with which he had
been famous as a deadly shot, that he could not
bring himself to believe he had missed twice within
fifty yards. From this incident he could form no
other conclusion, and he shivered as he thought so,
that the night disturber was not of human mould.
Meanwhile the horses were becoming worn to
shadows, their coats stared, they lost flesh and
looked altogether miserable. Fresh horses had been
brought in, but the effect was ever the same. Shortly
after, two of the Swellendam Hottentots left, and
the other two, with Cupido and Mrs. Goodrick's
servant, alone remained. Goodrick was now in
great straits ; he could not immediately procure
other native servants, and only managed to get
through his farm work with the greatest trouble
and labour.
Things drifted on uncomfortably for another
week or two, and each day, as it came and went,

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 371
seemed to Goodrick and his wife to increase the
gloom and uncertainty of their life in the kloof. At
length a climax arrived. Christmas, but a sombre
one, had sped, and South African summer, with its
heat, its flies, and other manifold troubles, was now
at its height.
On the 15th of January, 1861, a day of intense
heat was experienced. All day the landscape had
sweltered under a still oppression that was almost
unbearable, and the very animals about the farm
seemed touched and depressed by some mysterious
influence. Towards nightfall dark clouds gathered together
suddenly in dense masses ; in the distance, long,
rolling thunder-peals were heard approaching in
strangely slow, yet none the less certain movement.
Cupido, the old Hottentot, had fidgetted about the
house a good deal all the evening, and finally, just
before ten o'clock, he asked his master if he might
for that night sleep on the floor of the kitchen, in
order, as he put it, to attend more quickly to the
horses, if anything scared them. Goodrick noticed
that the old man looked agitated, and good-naturedly
said "Yes."
Still slowly onward marched the stormy batteries
of the sky, until at eleven ^>'clock they burst
overhead with a terrific crash (preceded by such
lightning as only Africa can show), that literally
seemed to tear and rend each nook and corner of
the gorge, reverberating with deafening repetition from
every krantz and hollow and rocky inequality in the
rude landscape. Rain fell in torrents for a time,
then ceased. Again and again the thunder broke
overhead, while the lightning played with fiery

372 KLOOF AND KARROO.

tongue upon mountain and valley, showing
momentarily, with photograph-like clearness, every
object around. Sleep on such a night was out of
the question, and Goodrick and his wife sat together
listening to the hideous tumult with solemn faces.
At length, at about twelve o'clock, the storm for a
brief space rolled away, only to return in half an
hour with increased severity.
Goodrick had gone for a few moments to the
back door, which faced partly towards the entrance
to the kloof, and found Cupido standing there
seemingly listening intently. As the tempest
approached again with renewed ferocity, some
strange confused noises, shrieks and shouts as it
seemed, were borne upon the strong breeze that now
preceded and hurried along the thunder clouds.
"Hallo!" said Goodrick, "what the deuce is
that ? There surely can't be a soul about on such a
night as this ? " Again a hideous scream was borne
up the valley. " Good God ! that's the very yell
we've heard so often round here at night," repeated
the Englishman. " It's not leopard, it's not hyaena ;
what on earth is it, Cupido ? " The Hottentot was
now trembling in every limb ; his yellow, monkey
like face had turned ashy grey, and his bleared eyes
seemed full of some intense terror. " Baas (master),
it's Jan Prinsloo's night, and if you're wise you'll
shut the doors fast, pull down the blinds, and not
stir or look out for an hour."
" What do you mean, man ? "
" I mean that the ghosts of Jan Prinsloo, who
was slain here years ago, and his murderers, are
coming up the kloof." At that moment the cries
and shoutings sounded up the valley closer and

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 373
closer, and it seemed as if the rattling of horses
galloping along the rock-strewn path could be
distinguished through the storm. Just then the
other two Hottentots, who at length had also heard
the din, rushed across from their shed, and huddled
into the kitchen. Mrs. Goodrick at the same instant
ran into the room. " What is the matter, Stephen ?"
she cried ; "I am certain there is some dreadful
work going on." " Yes, wife, there is some devilish
thing happening, and I mean to get to the bottom of
it. I haven't hunted fifteen years in the interior, to
be frightened by a few strange noises." So speaking,
the young farmer went to the sitting-room, took down
and quickly loaded two rifles and his revolver, and
returned to the kitchen. Handing one rifle to the
Hottentot, he said, " Here, Cupido, take this ; I know
you can shoot straight, and, if needful, you'll have to do
so. Wife, give the Totties a soupje each of brandy."
This was quickly done, and the result seemed,
on the whole, satisfactory, and the Hottentots more
reassured. In a few more seconds the storm burst
again in one appalling roar, and after it could now
be heard the clattering of hoofs up the hillside,
mingled with shrieks and shouts. This time the
tempest passed rapidly overhead, the dense black
clouds rushed on, and suddenly the moon shone
out with wonderful brightness.
Onward came the strange noises, sweeping past
the side of the house, as if up to the great stone
cattle kraal, that lay sixty- yards away. Then was
heard the loud report of a gun. Stephen could
stand it no longer. " Come on, you fellows, with
me," he exclaimed, as he ran out towards the kraal.
Cupido and Mrs. Goodrick, who would not be left

374 KLOOF AND KARROO.

behind, alone followed him ; the white servant
woman, and the remaining two Hottentots stayed
in the kitchen, half dead with fright, the one on a
chair, her apron clasped to her head and ears,
the others huddled up in a corner. The three
adventurers were not long in reaching the kraal,
whence they heard the same dreadful cries and
shrieks proceeding, mingled with the trampling of
feet. Goodrick first approached the entrance, which
he found burst open. The sight that met his eyes,
and those of his wife and Cupido, close behind, was
enough to have shaken the stoutest heart.
Under the clear illumination of the moon, which
now shone forth calm and serene, the enclosure
seemed as light as day. In the far corner, to the
right-hand, seventy paces distant, the half-dozen
horses, that had been turned in, stood huddled with
their heads together like a flock of sheep. On the
opposite side, from the entrance, a frightful-looking
group was tearing madly round. First ran a tall,
stout figure, clad in the broad-brimmed hat and
quaint old-fashioned leathern costume, which
Goodrick in a moment recognised. In its hands
it grasped a huge, long, old flint " roer," a smooth
bore elephant gun, such as the Boers used in
earlier days. The figure, as it fled, had its face
half-turned to its pursuers, who consisted of six
half-naked Hottentots armed with assegais and
knives. As the chase, for such it was, swept round
the kraal and the figures approached the entrance,
every face could be plainly discerned ; and this was
the horrible part of it. These faces were all the
faces of the dead, gaunt, ghastly, and grim, and yet
possessed of such fiendish and dreadful expressions

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 375
of anger, cruelty, and lust for blood, as to strike a
chilling terror to the hearts of the three spectators.
Brave man and ready, though he was, Goodrick
felt instinctively that he was in the presence of the
dead, and his rifle hung listlessly in his hand.
Closer the fearful things approached the spell
bound trio, till, when within thirty yards, the leading
figure stumbled and fell. In an instant, with
diabolical screams, the ghostly Hottentots fell upon
their quarry, plying assegai and knife. Again the
awful scream that the kloof knew so well rang out
upon the night ; then followed a torrent of Dutch
oaths and imprecations ; and then the dying figure,
casting off for a moment its slayers, stood up and
laid about it with the heavy " roer " grasped at the
end of the barrel.
The three living beings who looked upon that
face will never to their dying days forget it. If the
expression of every crime and evil passion could be
depicted upon the face of the dead, they shone clear
under the pale moonlight upon the face of the dying
Dutchman — dying again though dead. Once again
with wild yells, the Hottentots closed on their
victim, and once more rang the fiendish dying yell.
Then, still more awful, the Hottentots, as it seemed
in an instant, stripped the half dead body, hacked
off the head and limbs, and tore open the vitals, with
which they bedabbled and smeared themselves as
they again tore shrieking round the kraal. Flesh
and blood could stand the sight no longer ; Mrs.
Goodrick, who had clung to her husband spell-bound
during the scene, which had taken in its enactment
but a few seconds, fainted' away. Goodrick turned
to take his wife in his arms, with the intention of

376 KLOOF AND KARROO.
making hurriedly for the house. At that instant the
horrid din ceased suddenly, and was succeeded by a
deathly silence. Turning once more to the kraal
gate, Goodrick at once perceived that the whole of
the enactors of this awful drama had vanished. He
rubbed his eyes in vain to see if they deceived him,
but a nod from the half-dead Cupido convinced him
that this was not so. No, there was no doubt about
it, the waning moon cast her pure and silvery beams
calmly and peacefully upon a silent scene. Not a
trace of the bloody drama remained ; not a whisper,
save of the soft night breeze, told of the dreadful
story. " Baas," whispered the Hottentot, "they'll come
no more to-night." Quickly Goodrick raised his
fainting wife and carried her into the house, where,
after long and anxious tending, she was restored to
consciousness. Placing her in the sitting-room,
upon a couch that he had himself made from the
soft skins, " brayed " by the Kaffirs, of the antelopes
he had shot, he at length induced her to sleep,
promising not for a moment to leave her, and with
his hands clasped in hers.
At length the night wore away, the^sun of Africa
shot his glorious rays upward from behind the rugged
mountain walls of the kloof, and broad daylight
again spread over the landscape. Goodrick was
glad indeed to find that with the bright sunshine his
wife, brave-hearted woman that she was, had shaken
off much of the night's terrors ; yet were her nerves
much shaken. For the last time the goats were
unkraaled, and sent out, with the two somewhat
unwilling Hottentots, to pasture. Breakfast and
some strong coffee that followed this operation

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 377
made things look brighter ; and then taking the
•couch, and setting it upon the stoep (verandah),
just outside the windows of their room, and placing
a chair for himself, Goodrick went out to the back
and called Cupido in with him to the " stoep,"
where he made the little ancient yellow man squat
down. "Cupido," said he, " I am going to inspan
this morning, load up one of the waggons, and send
my wife and servant under your charge out of this
cursed place to Hemming's farm — the next one,
twenty-five miles away, out on the karroo. To
morrow, with the help of some Kaffirs I shall borrow
from Mr. Hemming, I shall get down the horses
from the mountain, load up both the waggons with
the rest of the furniture and farm tackle (as soon as
you return, which you will do very early), and trek
out of the kloof, never again to set foot in it. But
first of all, you will tell me at once, without "lying,
why you have never said a word to me of this
horrible secret, and what it all means. Now speak,
.and be careful."
" Well, baas," said Cupido, speaking in Boer
Dutch, the habitual language of the Hottentots,
"you have been a kind baas to me, and de vrouw"
(nodding to his mistress) "has been good to me
too ; and I will tell you all I know about the story.
I would have warned you long ago, but Mynheer
Van der Meulen, when he left, made me promise
under pain of being shot, and I believe he was
Boer enough to have kept his word, for he often
gave me the sjambok,* and I dare not. I was born
here in the kloof many years ago, many years even
* The sjambok is a short tapering whip made of hippopotamus hide, and
is a most cruel and punishing weapon in bad hands.

378 KLOOF AND KARROO.
before slavery was abolished and the emigrant Boers
trekked out into the Free State and Transvaal, and
you will know that is long since.
" My father lived as a servant under that very
Jan Prinsloo, whom you saw murdered last night
in yonder kraal, and many a time has he told me
of Prinsloo and his evil doings and his dreadful
end. Well, Jan Prinsloo was a grown man years
before the English came across the shining waters
and took the country from the Dutch.* He was
one of the wild and lawless gang settled about
Bruintjes Hoogte, on the other side of Sunday
River, who bade defiance to all laws and govern
ments, and Avho, under Marthinus Prinsloo (a
kinsman of Jan's) and Adriaan Van Jaarsveld, got
up an insurrection two years after the English came,
and captured Graaff Reinet.
"General Vandeleur soon put this rising down, and
Marthinus Prinsloo and Van Jaarsveld were hanged,
but Jan Prinsloo, who was implicated, somehow
retired early in the insurrection, and was pardoned.
Some years before this, Jan was fast friends, as a
younger man, with Jan Bloem, who, as you may have
heard, was a noted freebooter who fled from the
Colony across the Orange River, raised a marauding
band of Griquas and Korannas, and plundered,
murdered, and devastated amongst many of the
Bechuanas tribes, besides trading and shooting ivory
as well. The bloody deeds of these men yet live in
Bechuana story. Jan Bloem at last, however, drank
from a poisoned fountain in the Bechuana country,
and died like a hyaena, as he deserved. Then Jan
Prinsloo took all his herds, waggons, ivory, and
* The Cape was first taken by the British in 1795.

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 379
flocks, came back over the Orange River, sold off
the stock at Graaff Reinet, and came and settled
in this kloof. He had brought with him some poor
Bechuanas, and these people, who are in their way,
as you know, great builders in stone, he made to
build this house, and the great stone kraal out there,
where we saw him last night. He had, too, a number
of Hottentots, besides Mozambique slaves, and these
he ill-treated in the most dreadful manner, far worse
even than any Boer was known to, and that is saying
much. At last one day, not long after the Bruintjes
Hoogte affair, he came home in a great passion, and
found that two of the Hottentots' wives and one
child had gone off without leave to see some of their
relatives, Hottentots, who were squatted some miles
away. "When these women came back in the evening,
Prinsloo made their husbands tie them and the child
to two trees, and then and there, after flogging them
frightfully, he shot the poor creatures dead, child
and all. As for the husbands, he 'sjambokked' them
nearly to death for letting their wives go, and then
turned in to his ' brandewein ' and bed. That night
all his Hottentots, including seven men who had
witnessed the cruel deed — God knows such deeds
were common enough in thos^e wild days — fled
through the darkness out of the kloof, and never
stopped till they reached the thick bush-veldt
country, between Sunday River and the Great
Fish River. Just at that time, other Hottentots,.
roused by the evil deeds of the Boers, rose in arms,
and joined hands with the Kaffirs, who were then
advancing from beyond the Fish River.*
* This rising occurred in 1798-9.

380 KLOOF AND KARROO.
" Well, the Kaffirs and Hottentots, to the number
¦of 700, for some time had all their own way, and
ravaged, plundered, burned, and murdered the
Boers and their farms, even up to Zwartberg, and
Lange Kloof, between here and the sea. While
they were in that neighbourhood, a band of them,
inspired by the seven Hottentots of Prinsloo's Kloof,
came up the Gamtoos River, in this direction, and
met with Jan Prinsloo and a few other Boers, who
were trekking out of the disturbed district with their
waggons, and who had come to reconnoitre in a
poort, fifteen miles away from here. All the Boers
were surprised and slain, excepting Prinsloo ; and
while the Kaffirs and other Hottentots stayed to
plunder the waggons, Prinsloo's seven servants, who
were all mounted on stolen horses, chased him like
' wilde honde ' * hunting a hartebeest, for many
hours ; for Jan rode like a madman, and gave them
the slip for three hours, while he lay hid up in a
kloof; until, at last, as night came on, they pressed
him into his own den here.
" It was yesterday, but years ago, just when the
summer is hottest and the thunder comes on, and
just in such a storm as last night's, the maddened
Hottentots, thirsting for the murderer's blood, hunted
Prinsloo up through the poort. They were all light
men and well mounted, and towards the end gained
fast upon him, although Jan, who rode a great ' rooi
schimmel ' (red roan) horse, the best of his stud,
rode as he had never ridden before. Up the kloof
they clattered, the Hottentots close at his heels now.
Prinsloo galloped to the great kraal there, jumped off
his horse, and ran inside, like a leopard among his
* The wild hunting dogs of the Cape (Lycaon pietus) .

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 381
rocks, fastening the gate behind him, and there
determined to make a last desperate stand for it.
"The Hottentots soon forced the gate and swarmed
over the walls, not however before one was killed by
Prinsloo's great elephant ' roer.' Round the kraal
they chased him, giving him no time to load again ;:
at last, as you know, he fell and was slain, and the
Hottentots cut off his head, and arms, and legs, and
tore out his black heart, and in their mad, murderous
joy and fury, smeared themselves in his blood. Then
the men looted the house, set fire to what they
could, and afterwards rejoined their comrades next
morning. They told my father, who had known
Prinsloo, the whole story when they got back.
These six men were all killed in a fight soon after
wards when the insurrection was put down ; and
the Kaffirs and Hottentots were severely punished.
" Well, ever since that night the thing happens-
once a year upon the same night. Many Boers
have tried to live in this place since that time, but
have always left in a hurry after a few week's trial.
I believe one man did stay for nearly two years ; but
he was deaf, and knew nothing of what was going
on around, until one Prinsloo's night ; when he saw
something that quickly made him trek. I once saw
the scene we witnessed last night ¦ it was many years
ago, when I was a young man in the service of a
Boer, who had just come here ; (before then I had
been with my father in the service of another Boer,
forty miles away towards Sunday River). Next
morning after seeing Prinsloo and his murderers, my
master trekked out terror stricken. I never thought
to have seen the horrible thing again, but eight
months ago when the Van der Meulens came here, I

382 KLOOF AND KARROO.
was hard up and out of work, and though I didn't
half like coming into the kloof again, I thought,
perhaps, after so many years, the ghosts might have
vanished. I hadn't been many nights here, though,
before I knew too well I was mistaken. Even then
I would have left, but Van der Meulen swore I should
not. He and his family came here soon after
Prinsloo's night, and left before it came round again ;
but after the old man and his sons had twice been
face to face with Jan's ghost prowling about the
stable and kraals, and even looking in at the windows,
they were not long before they wanted to clear out,
and now you know their reason, baas."
" Yes, Cupido, to my cost I do," said Goodrick.
" I don't suppose I shall ever come across that
delightful family again ; for it is a far cry to
Zoutpansberg in the north of the Transvaal, and a
wild enough country when you get there. But tell
me, why is it that this dreadful thing is always in
and out of the stables and kraals, frightening the
horses?" "Well, baas, I am not certain, but I
believe, for my father aways told me so, that
Prinsloo was very fond of horseflesh, extraordinarily
so for a Boer ; for you know as a rule they don't
waste much care on their horses, and use them but
ill. He had the finest stud in the Colony, and took
great pains and trouble with it ; and they say that
Jan's ghost is still just as fond as ever of his
favourites, and is always in and out of the stable
in consequence. Anyhow the horses don't care
about it, as you know ; they seem just as scared at
him as any human being."
Cupido, like all Hottentots, could tell a story with
the dramatic force and interest peculiar to his race

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 383
and the bald translation here given renders very scant
justice to the grim legend that came from his lips.
After the quaint little yellow man had finished, Mrs.
Goodrick gave him some coffee, and immediately
afterwards the party set about loading up one
waggon with a part of the furniture ; and this done,
and Mrs. Goodrick and her servant safely installed,
Cupido, the oxen being inspanned, took the leading
reim of the two first oxen, and acted as leader,
while Goodrick sat on the box and wielded the whip.
Twelve miles away beyond the poort that opened
into the kloof there was a Kaffir kraal, and having
arrived there, Goodrick was able to hire a leader ; and
Cupido having relieved his master of the whip, and
received instructions to hasten to Hemming's farm
as quickly as possible with his mistress, Goodrick
saddled and bridled his horse, which had been tied
to the back of the waggon, and rode back to his
farm. The night passed quietly away ; the two
remaining Hottentots begged to be allowed to sleep
in the kitchen, and this favour their master not
unwillingly accorded to them. Next morning, at
ten o'clock, Cupido, who had trekked through a good
part of the night, arrived, and with him came Mr.
Hemming, the farmer, and four of his Kaffirs.
Hearing of his neighbour's trouble, and having seen
Mrs. Goodrick comfortably settled with his own
wife, he had good-naturedly come to his assistance.
" So Jan Prinsloo has driven you out at last," said
he, upon meeting Goodrick. " I heard from your
wife last night what you had seen the night before.
I was afraid it would happen, and would have
warned you in time if I had known. But I never
even heard that the Van der Meulens had sold

384 KLOOF AND KARROO.
the farm, till they had cleared out, and I met you
about a month after you had been here ; and as you
were a determined looking Englishman, and the
half-dozen people who have tried the farm in the
last twenty years have been superstitious Dutch, I
thought perhaps you might succeed in beating the
ghost, where they failed. I haven't been in the
kloof for many years, and after this experience,
which bears out what my father and others who
knew the story well have always told me, I shan't
be in a hurry to come in here again. It is a strange
thing, and I don't think, somehow, the curse that
seems on the place will ever disappear." " Nor I,"
said Goodrick, "I'm not in a hurry to try it. I
never believed in ghosts till the night before last ;
for I never thought they were partial to South
Africa, but after what I saw I can never again
doubt upon that subject. The shock to me was
terrible enough, and what my wife suffered must
have been far worse."
With the willing aid of his neighbour and his
Kaffirs, as well as his own Hottentots, Goodrick got
clear of the kloof that day, and after a few days
spent at Mr. Hemmings', trekked away again for
Swellendam, to his father's home. Six months later
he finally settled in a fertile district not far from
Swellendam, where he and his wife and family still
remain. Cupido died in his service only a few years
since. After much trouble Goodrick sold his interest
in Prinsloo's Kloof and the farm around, for a sum
much less even than what he gave Van der
Meulen for it ; and it is only fair to say he warned the
purchaser of the evil reputation of the place before
this was done. It is a singular fact that on his way

THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 385
to take possession of the kloof the new purchaser fell
ill and died, and the place has never since been
occupied. Although it is nearly thirty years since these
events took place, and Mrs. Goodrick has now a
grown up family around her, she has never quite
thrown off the terror of that awful night. Even now
she will wake with a start if she hears any sudden
cry in her sleep, thinking for the moment it is the
death scream of Prinsloo's Kloof. As for the
haunted kloof, it lies to this day in desolation
black and utter. No footfall wakes its rugged
echoes ; the grim baboons keep watch and ward ;
the carrion aas-vogels :|: wheel and circle high above
its cliffs, gazing down from their aerial dominion
with ever-searching eyes ; the black and white ravens
seek in its fastnesses for their food, looking, as they
swoop hither and thither, as if still in half mourning
for the deed of blood of bygone years ; and the
antelopes and leopards wander free and undisturbed.
But no sign of human life is there, or seems ever
likely to be ; and if by cruel fate, the straying
traveller should haplessly outspan for his night's
repose, by the haunted farmhouse, on the night of
the 15th of January, he will yet see enacted, so the
neighbouring farmers say, the horrible drama of Jan
Prinsloo's death.

Vultures. 25

Chapter XXI.
THE TRUE UNICORN.

THE Cape of Good Hope claims as the
supporters of its coat of arms two antelopes
— one, perhaps, the noblest, the other the
most fantastic, of that astonishing array with which
South Africa is so bountifully endowed. Of these,
the famous gemsbok (pronounced by the Boers,
gutturally, "hemsbok") is one; the curious black
wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu (now, by the way,
much scarcer than the brindled gnu), the other.
Until towards the middle of this century both these
antelopes were to be found upon every wide-spreading
karroo of the Cape Colony. But, such has been the
fierceness of the war of extermination waged against
the nobler of the fauna, the black wildebeest
(Catoblepas gnu) is now almost practically extinct
within the ancient colonial limits — saving on one or
two farms, where they are yet preserved, in the
Western province ; while the peerless gemsbok (Oryx
capensis), the prototype of the fabled unicorn, has,
with the exception of the small number that still
linger in the wastes of Northern Bushmanland, been
in the same manner exterminated.
A very noticeable feature in connection with the
fauna of Southern Africa is the apparent fickleness
of its geographical distribution. Many animals,
for some unsolved reason, have their habitats

THE TRUE UNICORN. 387
peremptorily bounded by a river, or a belt of sand
or jungle. The gemsbok, never profusely scattered,
is now only to be found in the Kalahari desert — its
chief stronghold — upon the fringes of Great Nama-
qualand and Damaraland, in Bechuanaland, where
it only occurs on the Kalahari border, except to the
northward, where it is occasionally found in the
interior, and, very sparsely, in the north-west of
Cape Colony. In the more jungly countries of the
Eastern province of the Cape, of Kaffraria and
South-Eastern Africa, and the Zambesi regions,
although vast plains here and there occur, it is
utterly unknown. Almost independent of water, it
loves the parched and arid regions of South-Western
Africa alone, and the dryer and more desolate the
terrain the better does this antelope appear to
appreciate it. The oryx and the springbok, indeed,
seem created by nature to adorn and beautify these
wastes. The gemsbok, from the rare singularity of
its beauty, its consciously majestic carriage, and the
difficulties of procuring it, may fairly be classed
among the five noblest antelopes of the world. In
that wondrous galaxy of South African antelopes,
numbering more than twenty-five species in all, it
rightly stands upon the same proud vantage
ground as the rare sable antelope, the mighty
eland, the stately koodoo, and the now extremely
scarce roan antelope — the last-named extinct within
the Cape Colony nearly these hundred years.
The name gemsbok is a good example of the
extraordinary infelicity of the early Cape Dutch in
naming their beasts of the chase. These old-world
Batavians appear to have had about as much
knowledge of natural history as of the electric

KLOOF AND KARROO.

telegraph. The largest antelope of the torrid regions
of the Cape they called the eland or elk ; the gnu they
named the wildebeest (wild ox) ; the caama, the
hartebeest (stag-ox), and so on down the whole gamut
of wildly grotesque nomenclature. The oryx they
christened gemsbok, which signifies, literally, a
chamois, perhaps the most uncouth and far-fetched of
the category. The gemsbok, whose Dutch name has
clung to it these 200 years, is an antelope of striking
characteristics. In size rather larger than an ass — the
adult male standing some three feet ten inches at the
shoulder — in general colour it is of a greyish buff.
Its horns, straight, sharp-pointed, and over three feet
long, are deadly weapons of defence ; its form is
robust and square, and its port very noble. But its
most beautiful point is its head, which is of a pure
white, painted with eccentric black markings that
exactly and singularly resemble a complete headstall.
The breast, stomach, and legs are pure white. A
full and beautiful eye, a tuft of thick black hair upon
the chest, broad black bands painted upon its back
and sides, an erect mane reversed, and a long black
switch tail, that sweeps the ground, all combine
instantly to mark out this magnificent creature from
its fellows, upon the broad plains whereon it has its
habitat. As a beast of the chase the gemsbok stands
almost unrivalled. It is possessed of amazing
swiftness and bottom, and when turned to bay,
its sharp horns and determined charges render it
an exceedingly awkward customer should the rifle
not be held straight. Of all the antelopes, with
perhaps the exception of the Zwart-wit-pens (the
sable antelope), the oryx alone will face the lion ;

HXtv
OWsWcdOy,ow
o

THE TRUE UNICORN.

and it is an undoubted fact that not seldom have
the carcasses of the lion and the gemsbok been
found rotting on the plains together, the lion,
impaled in its spring, firmly fixed upon the sharp
horns of its quarry. An old-world Boer, who
hunted in Cape Colony so far back as the end of
the last century, when elephants, rhinoceroses, and
other great game were abundant, described from
personal observation to a friend of the writer, the
singular method in which this antelope will often
receive the attacks of lion and leopard. When
danger threatens, it throws itself to the ground,
and presents its tremendous horns to every point
of attack, occasionally slightly shifting its position
to enable it to do so. The eyes are prominent
and set high in the head, and greatly aid to this
system of defence. The leopard and lion, who
never attack this antelope unless hard pressed by
hunger, have been known to retire baffled from
these trials of skill. Occasionally, no doubt, the
great cats come off victorious, by stratagem or
surprise. Cornwallis Harris, Gordon Cumming, and other
mighty hunters write in rapturous terms of the
beauty, speed, and grace of the gemsbok. Andersson
and Selous are, indeed, not so convinced of its
superlative merits as regards sp<?ed, but it must be
remembered that seasons, feeding, and locality have
much to do with the condition of this, and, indeed,
of all other antelopes. There are men, old interior
hunters, who will tell you that to see the rare
gemsbok ranging in its pride over its own primeval
karroos, or the jet black sable antelope in its
mountain fastnesses, is to them as keen a pleasure,

39° KLOOF AND KARROO.
even, as to gaze on the wondrous Victoria Falls of
the Zambesi itself.
But, perhaps, the chief reason that renders the
oryx of interest to Englishmen and Scots, lies in
the fact that it is undoubtedly the original of the
famous unicorn. Its colour, size, and shape, all
point to this conclusion ; and the horns, when seen
in profile, appear as one. The ancients seem
merely to have invented the forward set of a single
horn, to have added a few other touches to the oryx,
and to have thus furnished forth the unicorn to
puzzle succeeding ages. Ctesias, physician to
Artaxerxes Mnemon, who described it, circa 400 B.C.,
seems to have been the originator of this fable.
He describes it as a wild ass (Onos agrios), and
from him doubtless has sprung the cloud of mystery
in which the unicorn has been enveloped. Aristotle
speaks ofthe oryx and the Indian ass as one-horned ;
Pliny follows Aristotle. Loborn, in his history of
Abyssinia, describes the unicorn as resembling a
beautiful horse. Other ancient authors of Greece
and Rome refer to this mythical creature as of the
size of a horse, and having the appearance of that
animal, with one straight horn, of from one-and-a-
half to two cubits in length, planted upon the
forehead. Further interesting details had grown with
the ages. The body was now described as white,
the head red, the eyes blue ; so swift was the
unicorn that no horse could overtake it. A legend
arose that the unicorn could only be captured by
the aid of a virgin. By some ancient writers, the
rhinoceros is clearly intended in the description of
the unicorn. The English Bible in the Book of
Job clearly follows this idea. In those wonderful

THE TRUE UNICORN. 391
descriptions of Job, the idea of enormous strength
depicted in the words, "Canst thou bind the unicorn
with his band in the furrow ? or will he harrow the
valleys after thee ? " can only refer to the mighty
bulk and gigantic power of the rhinoceros.
By some it has been contended that the unicorn
of heraldry derives its origin from the Crusaders,
who are said to have brought home accurate
descriptions of this animal of mystery. But the
Crusaders could only have obtained their information
from those Eastern sources to which I have referred,
or from Egyptian or Persian monuments. From
monuments at Persepolis — the " Takti Jamshid "
(throne of Jamshid), captured and destroyed by
Alexander the Great — it would seem that the oryx,
with a. single horn set forward upon the forehead, is
clearly intended in the Cartozonon of the ancient
Persians. It is true that the wild ass, furnished
with a long horn, is actually described; but the size,
the colouring, the erect mane and switch tail, and
the clean wiry limbs, are notably similar in the oryx
and the wild ass.
In short, the investigations of distinguished
naturalists and historians clearly establish the fact
that from the monuments of old Persia and of Egypt
springs the unicorn, and that this long-fabled
creature is no other than the* oryx with the horn
set forward, and, no doubt from the profile view
of the animal, represented as single.
Before the Union, two unicorns stood as
supporters of the Scottish arms. The animal now
forming the sinister supporter of the Royal Arms of
Great Britain is " a unicorn argent armed, crined
and unguled or, gorged with a coronet composed of

392 KLOOF AND KARROO.

crosses, patee, and fleurs-de-lys, with a chain affixed
passing between the forelegs, and reflexed over the
back ofthe last."
The picture of the gemsbok, facing page 386,
is reproduced from a photograph of a specimen
at the Natural History Museum. This, perhaps
the finest example ever brought to England, was
shot by Mr. F. C. Selous, on the Botletlie River,
North Bechuanaland. I am indebted to Dr.
Gunther for special permission to photograph this
matchless specimen.
When in Cape Colony, I was greatly interested
to hear that the singular and beautiful gemsbok, the
Cape oryx, yet lingered in the wild desert country of
North Calvinia, where its shyness, swiftness, and the
fact of its existing in a country almost destitute of
water, yet gave it sanctuary from the too relentless
hunter. The Game Protection Act, passed a year
or so since, gives the gemsbok and the hartebeest
complete immunity from the gunner for the space of
three years, during which time it is devoutly to be
hoped that both these fine antelopes may increase and
multiply, long to adorn the parched plains of the Old
Colony. It may be noted that the oryx- in slightly
varying forms occurs in North-Eastern and North
western Africa, and in Arabia. The gemsbok is
now difficult of access, but if the sportsman seeks a
happy hunting ground and worthy quarry, where yet
this stately creature freely roams, he may reach
Kimberley by rail in thirty-six hours from Cape
Town, and thence the Kalahari desert, its mysteries
and its treasures, lie hot very far distant.

Chapter XXII.
THE EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE
QUAGGA (EQUUS QUAGGA).

IT is a melancholy thing to chronicle the final
disappearance from its ancient primeval habitat
of one of the most beautiful forms of animal
life ; but there is now, I fear, no longer any
reasonable doubt that the true quagga — quacha
of the Hottentots — Equus quagga of Linnaeus —
must be numbered in the increasing catalogue of
extinct creatures.
During my former stay in Cape Colony, I made
many inquiries in various parts of the country as to
the date of the final disappearance of this animal
from within the colonial limits, and from the
information 1 then obtained, I should be inclined
to place its extinction south of the Orange River,
between the" years i860 and 1865. Cape Colony
is a wide territory, and its remote parts are to this
day almost as unnoticed and unknown as they were
at the beginning of the century' and for this reason,
it is very difficult to place exactly — even to a few
years — the actual extinction of its disappearing
fauna. In the Orange Free State, where it roamed,
not so very many years since, even more freely than
of old in the Cape Colony, the quagga lingered to
a much later period ; but even there it would seem
for some years past to have become quite extinct.

3g4 KLOOF AND KARROO.
In this opinion I am fortified by Mr. F. C. Selous,
who told me only a few months since, just before
his last return to Africa, that he had not heard of
a true quagga in the Free State for some years,
and doubted not that it had become completely
exterminated. Other South African informants
confirm this opinion.
It may be well, before proceeding further, to
remind readers that among all South African interior
hunters and traders, Burchell's zebra — called by the
Boers, from its fuller markings, the bonte quagga
(literally the pied or spotted quagga), in contra
distinction to the now extinct true quagga — is also
invariably, if erroneously, called a quagga. In this
way a good deal of confusion has arisen, and many
people, no doubt, still suppose that the rarer true
quagga is yet plentiful in the distant territories
beyond the Orange River.
I find that among hide-brokers and others in
the skin and leather trades, this confusion has also
arisen, and that the skins of the Burchell's zebra,
which still arrive in this country in large numbers
from East Africa, are invariably classed as
" quaggas." The true quagga, as a matter of fact, was easily
to be distinguished from Burchell's zebra, by the
paucity of its stripings, which extended only to the
centre of the barrel, and by its general body colour
— a rich rufous brown, fading to white underneath.
Burchell's zebra, on the contrary, is completely
striped all over the body (save as to the legs), while
its body colour is yellowish sienna. The true zebra
(Equus zebra), formerly the rarest of the hippotigrine
group, differs widely, again, from both the above-

EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE QUAGGA. 395

mentioned animals. In this species, as I have
before pointed out, the body colour is silvery white,
the stripings are black, and extend all over the
body and legs, while the ears and tail are far more
asinine. It may further be noted that, amongst
the zebras called Burchell's, a variety exists — known
as Chapman's variety — in which the legs are striped
as completely as in the true or mountain zebra
(Equus zebra). This variety is comparatively scarce,
but not so scarce, Mr. Selous tells me, as is generally
imagined. In equatorial Africa, indeed, it would
seem to be fairly common.
lt is, I think, unquestionable that, so far as mere
beauty is concerned, Burchell's zebra (the zebra of
the plains), the commonest of the group, carries away
the palm. The type is more equine, the ears are
smaller, and the tail more bushy than in the true
zebra ; while the colouring is, to the average eye,
richer and more attractive. Thus much I am free
to admit. On the other hand, I am bound to say
of the true zebra that, viewed as I have viewed it in
Cape Colony, revelling in the wildest, most rugged,
and remotest portions of its own-loved mountain
habitat, there are few prouder and more beautiful
objects in animate nature.
Burchell's zebra, of which there are always some
good specimens to be seen at'the gardens of the
Zoological Society, though for the last hundred years
not found south of the Orange River, has a widely
extended range over all Africa, from the Orange
River to far north of the equator. The true zebra
would seem to be confined mainly to the extreme
north and south of the continent ; its peculiar and
most favoured habitats being the Cape Colony, and

KLOOF AND KARROO.

Namaqualand and Damaraland in the south, and
Abyssinia and Shoa in the north.
The range of the true quagga, the subject of this
chapter, was even more arbitrarily defined. This
animal, formerly so abundant upon the far-spreading
karroos of Cape Colony and the plains of the Orange
Free State, appears never to have been met with
north of the Vaal River. Its actual habitat may be
precisely defined as within Cape Colony, the Orange
Free State, and part of Griqualand West. I do not
find that it ever extended to Namaqualand and the
Kalahari Desert to the west, or beyond the Kei
River, the ancient eastern limit of Cape Colony, to
the east. In many countries, and in Southern
Africa in particular, nothing is more singular than
the freaks of the geographical distribution of
animals. A river, or a desert, or a belt of sand or
timber — none of which, of themselves, could naturally
oppose a complete obstacle to the animal's range —
is yet found limiting, thus arbitrarily, the habitat
of a species. I have thought a good deal over this
circumstance, and I confess to being completely
puzzled for a satisfactory explanation of it, more
especially in the cases of the zebra, Burchell's zebra,
quagga, giraffe (said, in common with Burchell's
zebra, to have been never found south of the Orange
River), the blessbok, bontebok, black wildebeest
(white-tailed gnu), and other antelopes.
As the quagga may now be fairly considered as
absolutely extinct as the dodo — for alas ! although
easy enough to destroy, no human skill can ever
restore it to its natural haunts — it may not be out
of place here to record its exact description, taken
from Cornwallis Harris's " Portraits of the Game

EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE QUAGGA. 397

and Wild Animals of Southern Africa." " The adult
male stands four feet six inches high at the withers,
and measures eight feet six inches in extreme length.
Form compact. Barrel round. Limbs robust,
clean and sinewy. Head light and bony, of a bay
colour, covered on the forehead and temples with
longitudinal, and on the cheeks with narrow trans
versal stripes, forming linear triangular figures
between the e)-es and mouth. Muzzle black. Ears
and tail strictly equine ; the latter white and flowing
below the hocks. Crest very high, arched, and
surmounted by a full standing mane, which appears
as though it had been hogged, and is banded
alternately brown and white. Colour of the neck
and upper parts of the body dark rufous brown,
becoming gradually more fulvous, and fading off to
white behind and underneath. The upper portions
banded and brindled with dark brown stripes,.
stronger, broader, and more regular on the neck,
but gradually waxing fainter, until lost behind the
shoulders in spots and blotches. Dorsal line dark
and broad, widening over the crupper. Legs white,
with bare spots inside above the knees. Female
precisely similar."
Sir W. Jardine describes the quagga as equal
or superior in size to the Burohell's zebra, and as
" still more robust in structure, with more girth,
wider across the hips, more like a true horse ; the
hoofs considerably broader than in the true zebra,
and the neck full ; the ears rather small." The
same writer speaks of it as best calculated for
domestication of the zebra group, both as regards
strength and docility. He instances the facts, that
the late Mr. Sheriff Parkins used to drive a pair

398 KLOOF AND KARROO.
of quaggas in his phaeton about London, and that
he himself had been drawn by one in a gig, " the
animal showing as much temper and delicacy of
mouth as any domestic horse."
Barrow, in his excellent " Travels into the
Interior of Southern Africa" (1797-8), writes of
the quagga as " well-shaped, strong-limbed, not
in the least vicious ; but, on the contrary, soon
rendered by domestication mild and tractable ;
yet, abundant as they are in the country, few have
given themselves the trouble of turning them to
any kind of use. They are infinitely more beautiful
than, and fully as strong as, the mule, as easily
supported on almost any kind of food, and are
never out of flesh."
On the other hand, although undoubtedly, if
taken young, more easily tamed than the fierce true
zebra, in its wild state the quagga must have been
an extremely awkward customer when wounded. I
have heard numerous anecdotes from old colonists
of the ferocity of this animal and the zebra in the
wild state. Cornwallis Harris instances the death
of a native servant, whose skull was completely
smashed by the kick of a quagga, and mentions a
narrow escape of his own ; and he further speaks
of his having seen " a wretched savage, every
finger of whose dexter hand had been stripped off
by the long yellow teeth of a wounded male."
The courage of the quagga, reputed by Jardine
"to be the boldest of all equine animals, attacking
hyaena and wild dog without hesitation," was, in the
old days, to some extent taken advantage of by the
Dutch colonists, who are reported to have used them
in a domesticated state " for the purpose of protecting

EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE QUAGGA. 3gg
their horses at night, while both are turned out to
grass." I have not been fully able to satisfy myself
that this account of Jardine's was correct. The
Boers' ancient habit of kraaling all their flocks and
herds, to insure them against the nocturnal attacks
of dangerous animals, would, I think, militate
against the adoption of this plan to any great extent.
Still, in some instances, it may have occurred.
The vast karroos of the Cape Colony in the
earlier half of this century, and the plains of the
Orange Free State until about the year i860,
furnished the most extraordinary spectacles of
teeming animal life that the world has ever seen. At
one time the supply of game, which literally swarmed
upon these plains, jostling one another in actual
millions, seemed practically inexhaustible. No other
part of the world could ever vie with these favoured
regions in the wealth and variety of their fauna.
Elevated table-lands, a singularly healthful climate,
and abundance of pasture, seem to have here united
to attract and sustain an unparalleled collection
of animal life. Brindled and white-tailed gnu,
Burchell's zebras, quaggas, springbok and blessbok,
and the ever-attendant lion, formed the main body
of all these beasts of the chase ; ostriches, elands,
hartebeests, gemsbok, and bontebok, furnished ample
battalions in support. Old colonists have often
spoken to me of the quantities of game thus existing
as being positively inconceivable ; but improved arms
of precision, and the ruthless skin-hunters, have
done their work, and well nigh all these crowds of
game have vanished. In the Cape Colony, the
beautiful springbok yet remains in considerable
abundance to remind one of the past ; but the Free

400 KLOOF AND KARROO.
State is now almost entirely denuded of its former
glorious fauna. Nature, upon these crowded plains,
seems to have provided periodical and ravaging
diseases to keep down the superabundance of life, and
the brand-sickte, or burning sickness, amongst others,
killed off thousands of game at various seasons. It
is a singular circumstance that, although inhabiting
the same plains in the Orange Free State, the quagga
was never to be found mixing with Its near relative,
the Burchell's zebra. It was, however, curiously
enough, almost invariably found associating with the
black wildebeest (the white-tailed gnu, Connochaetes
gnu, now also becoming extremely scarce) and the
ostrich. The Burchell's zebra for its part is, and
was, usually seen in company with the blue
wildebeest (brindled gnu, Connochaetes gorgon) ;
and the ostrich would seem to have been a companion
common to both animals.
The downfall of the quagga first began, as it
ended, at the hands of the Boers. In the old days,
the Cape Dutch farmers, to save their flocks and
herds, which they considered far too valuable to
waste on the feeding of their slaves and retainers,
usually shot the quagga for this purpose. The
oily yellow flesh of this animal, disdained by them
selves amid the abundance of more toothsome
game, was set apart for the food of their Bushmen
and Hottentot servants, and Mozambique slaves, and
very large quantities were thus annually sacrificed.
Although this practice gradually thinned it oft
the Great Karroo, even so lately as Gordon
Cumming's day (1843) the quagga was found upon
the northern plains of the Cape Colony in consider
able numbers. Upon the Great Karroo itself, the

EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE QUAGGA. 401
last quaggas ever seen were shot near the Tiger Berg,
a solitary mountain, springing from the plains not
far from Aberdeen, in the year 1858. There were
two then remaining, and my informant, with whom
I stayed while in Cape Colony, near this very spot,
well remembered their being shot. Further north
in the Colony, as I have said, they lingered to a
still later date. Their skins were used for grain
sacks, and I have seen old quagga-skin sacks still
in use in a Dutch farmhouse.
Some twenty or twenty-five years back the Boers
of the Orange Free State suddenly awoke to the
fact that in the skins of the quagga and Burchell's
zebra and other game they possessed a mine of
wealth, and they at once set about the task of
exterminating these animals. The mine took some
years to work out ; but the task is now complete,
and many a farmer looks back with keerf but
unavailing regret to the glorious hunting veldt of
the past.
In the hide trade the skins of these animals have
been in great demand for years past, and the
avaricious Boers were not slow to avail themselves
of this demand. The bone-strewn plains of the
Free State bear miserable testimony to the feverish
haste and deadly methods of tfie skin-hunters of
the past twenty years. The work was done with
business-like skill and parsimony. Bullets were
carefully cut out of the carcass for future use, and
a sufficient number of skins having been prepared,
the waggons were loaded up and slowly driven down
country to the coast.
From the point of view of the naturalist, the
final disappearance of the true quagga is a fact full of
2f)

402 KLOOF AND KARROO.
melancholy interest. That an animal so beautiful, so
capable of domestication and of use, and to be found
not long since in so great abundance, should have
been allowed to be swept from the face of the earth,
is surely a disgrace to our latter-day civilisation.
No human effort can now recall this magnificent
form — it is gone for ever, after an existence of untold
thousands of years upon its spacious plains. One
can only hope that the African elephant, the eland,
and other useful creatures now fast disappearing,
will not be suffered to vanish thus miserably.
I find that the true quagga has not often figured
in the collection of the Zoological Society. There
appear to have been but two specimens shown there :
one, a female, purchased in 1851 ; the other, a male,
presented by Sir George Grey (then Governor of
the Cape) in. 1858. These specimens have, of course,
long since disappeared.
I do not remember to have seen a stuffed
specimen of the quagga in the Natural History
Museum at South Kensington, although I believe
a skin or skins formerly existed in the British
Museum. The name quagga is obviously a corruption of
the Hottentot name for this animal, " quacha,"
derived from the animal's call or neigh. Pringle,
the bard of South Africa, recalls this peculiar neigh
in his poem " Afar in the Desert " :
And the timorous quagga's wild whistling neigh
Is heard at the fountain at break of day.
Old hunters and colonists have described to me
the curious single-file march of this animal when
moving about its native plains, and the squadron-

EXTINCTION OF THE TRUE QUAGGA. 403
like wheel of the troop when disturbed. Cornwallis
Harris seems to have noticed this trait. He writes
thus picturesquely of it : " Moving slowly across
the profile of the ocean-like horizon, uttering a shrill
barking neigh, of which its name forms a correct
imitation, long files of quaggas continually remind
the early traveller of a rival caravan on its march."
Never more, alas ! will this fleet and handsome
creature scour its primeval karroos, or proudly pace
in regular formation, or with its fellows wheel and
charge like a regiment of cavalry. It has been
the first of the matchless fauna of South Africa to
disappear. That its extinction may serve as some
sort of warning to wanton and ruthless destroyers
of game, whether Boer or British, or of any other
nationality, is devoutly to be hoped.

Chapter XXIII.
THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY.

EVER since 1806, when a British force
under Sir David Baird effected its capture,
the Cape Colony has remained without
interruption in the hands of England. Before that
time it had been in our possession from 1795 to
1803, but had been restored to the Dutch at the
Peace of Amiens. But although, in point of years,
the Cape occupies an ancient position among our
colonies and dependencies, it has, for a variety of
reasons, lingered tardily behind in the race of
material progress and prosperity. India, Australia,
New Zealand and Canada have, within these last
forty years, advanced with amazing strides ; but
South Africa, with advantages in many respects
equal, in some superior, to her sisters, has hitherto
not taken that part in the world that she had the
right to command. Camoens, in his " Lusiad,"
makes mention of Adamastor, the spirit of the
stormy Cape, and it would almost seem that the
grim phantom he portrays had really cast an evil
spell over this fair country ; for the Cape has been
to the British during long years a distressful and
disturbed possession. But all, or nearly all, the
influences that have created these troubles have
passed, or are passing away. There are unmistak
able signs that the dawning of a new era of peace
enlightenment and progress, has come for South

<Hy oSwym<Hipc«u<pq

OPd

>

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 405
Africa, and it may be hoped that Adamastor and his
malignant destinies have disappeared finally and for
ever. It is not to be imagined that the Batavian
Government had, before the coming of the British,
an easy or unquestioned sway over the Boers of the
Colony. On the contrary, the absurd and arbitrary
restrictions of succeeding Governors had more than
once goaded the rugged farmers of the distant
frontiers into insurrection, or something very near
it. In 1795, the colonists of Graaff Reinet and
Swellendam actually expelled the landdrosts and
declared themselves independent. It has been
suggested that these farmers may have been attracted
and imbued by the spread of revolutionary principles,
at that time flooding France and other parts of
Europe. To those who know the Boers and their
isolation, this assumption is in the last degree
improbable ; these graziers of the wilderness were
at that time, as indeed they are to this day,
completely shut off from the outer world, and having
no external communication with it whatever.
At this conjuncture the British Government
came to the assistance of the Dutch authorities,
and with the consent of the Prince of Orange,
their Stadtholder, then a fugitive in England from
the armies of Napoleon, took- possession of the
Cape in the name of George III.
Upon their entry into the Cape territories, the
British found their new subjects surrounded on
every side by a network of absurd and antiquated
and most vexatious laws. There is, perhaps, no
more striking example of the rooted antipathy of
the Dutch colonists to any sort of change, however
necessary or favourable to themselves, than the

406 KLOOF AND KARROO.

state of their marriage law at the end of the last
century. At that time the settlers, even of the
remotest parts of the Colony, were compelled to
present themselves at Cape Town, in order to be
examined whether there were any hindrance of
relationship, blood-kindred, or the like, and to pass
certain other forms. Whether considered from the
point of view of decency, of expense, or of
convenience, no more monstrous or barbarous law
could have been devised. Two young settlers of
the frontier districts, such as Graaff Reinet, wishing
to be united in matrimony, had then to undertake
together a waggon journey of five or six hundred
miles, occupying a space of two or three months,
over parched and devious deserts, and encompassed
by dangers from wild men and wild animals. And
this notwithstanding that pastors and landdrosts
(magistrates), who might readily have performed
the office of marriage, were to be found within
their own provinces.
For further observations upon this oppressive
and degrading law, and its frequent consequences
for the woman, the reader may be referred to p. 152
of Barrow's " Travels into the Interior of Africa,"
published in 1801. It is hardly necessary to
mention that this enactment was speedily repealed
by the British upon their entry into the Cape. But
this was only one out of a multitude of antiquated
and absurd restrictions that still obtained in the
Dutch South African possessions at the close of the
Batavian rule. Thus, in 1780, at the very moment
that a British fleet menaced the Cape, the following
grant of citizenship was made to one Gous, a tailor,
who had formerly been a soldier : — " He is graciously

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 407
allowed to practise his craft as a tailor, but shall not
be allowed to abandon the same, or adopt any other
mode of living ; but, when it may be deemed
necessary, to go back into his old capacity and pay,
and to be transported hence if thought fit."
Prisoners awaiting their trial were then confined
in dark and noisome dungeons, their legs secured in
stocks or by iron chains, for months before undergoing
trial, whether innocent or guilty. " This," we are
told, "often had an excellent effect; they became,
through it, so docile and so mild, that they confessed
all that was in their hearts." The condemned were
sometimes broken on the wheel, or stripped naked
and bound to a wooden cross, whereon first the
right hand was struck off, then the head, after which
the body was disembowelled and quartered. At
the time the British Government abolished these
barbarities, the Dutch Colonial Court of Justice
urged their continuance " as proper engines of
terror." It is small wonder then that the Batavian
Government at the Cape — a weak and yet a
brutally severe one — had succeeded, at the time of
British interference, in goading the colonists into
insurrection. It is a curious circumstance that the Dutch
rulers at the end of the last century were as alarmed
at the prospect of immigration to the Colony as
the Afrikander Bund party is at the present day.
Quite at the close of the Dutch dominion, Governor
Janssens, replying to a memorial, said : " With
regard to your inclination to strengthen the Cape
with a new settlement, we must to our sorrow, but
in all sincerity, declare that we cannot perceive any
means whereby more people could find a subsistence

408 KLOOF AND KARROO.
here, whether by farming or otherwise 
When we contemplate the number of children
growing up, we frequently ask ourselves, not only
how they could find other means of subsistence,
but also what it is to end in at last, and what they
can lay hands on to procure their bread."
Such was the freezing polity, such were the
numbing fetters by which the Batavian authorities
sought to restrain the vigorous existence of the
infant Colony !
It may be gathered from the few facts I have
quoted that the Boers, although they have been
frequent and persistent grumblers against British
dominion and influence, had in reality little to thank
their own Government for ; and the very fact of their
insurrection indicates that they would not long have
peaceably endured such a state of affairs as existed
in 1795. Worried and harassed as they had been
by the petty and exasperating legislation of their
Governors, it is astonishing indeed that they had
tamely endured it so long. But the evils that men
(and Governments) do live after them. Some of the
earliest enactments of the old Dutch Legislature
will indicate the spirit in which they afterwards
governed, and the principles they instilled into the
early settlers — principles that even now obtain far
too much amongst the Boers. Thus lands were
granted on yearly leases at the small fixed rent-
charge of twenty-four rix-dollars (thirty-six shillings
sterling) in any part of the country. It was also
enacted that the nearest distance from house to
house was to be three miles, so that each farm
consisted of nearly 6,000 acres. Concerning this
policy, Barrow, then secretary to Earl Macartney,

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 409
the first English Governor of the Cape, afterwards
widely known as Sir John Barrow, secretary to the
Admiralty, observes, "The Government foresaw
that a spirit of industry, if encouraged, in a mild
and temperate climate and On a fertile soil, might
one day produce a society impatient of the shackles
imposed on it by the parent State. It knew that
to supply its subjects the wants of life without the
toil of labour or the anxiety of care ; to keep
them in ignorance and to prevent a ready inter
course with each other, were the most likely means
to counteract such a spirit." This is a heavy
impeachment, but it would seem to contain the
elements of truth.
One of the main difficulties in developing the
Cape Colony has been the extraordinarily tenacious
hold retained by the Dutch population upon
territory which they themselves have never attempted
to utilize, preferring rather to exist in a state of
primitive patriarchal life, and using, or rather
misusing, vast tracts of rich land, which with
irrigation and culture might sustain thousands of
souls, for the depasture of their flocks and herds.
This grip upon the land is, however, at length
relaxing. A succession of bad seasons, added to
an effete system of farming ; thc temporary ruin of
pastures by years of overstocking, and other reasons,
have compelled large numbers of the Dutch
population to mortgage their ancient and unwieldy
¦estates. These mortgages have not been met ; the
¦estates have been foreclosed upon, realised and
thrown into the market, and fresh owners with newer
and enlarged ideas have taken, and are taking, the
place of the more ignorant and unenlightened of

4io KLOOF AND KARROO.
the Dutch farmers. In some instances the Boers
themselves have happily awakened to the fact that
they must either march with the times or be left
stranded, and they too are farming more in
accordance with modern practice.
During the first four years of the British
occupation, old taxes were diminished and modified,
and no new ones were imposed. Every production
of the Colony increased greatly in demand and value.
More than 200,000 rix-dollars of arrears of rent
were remitted, as well as 180,000 rix-dollars of other
debts. The laws and religion of the inhabitants
remained undisturbed ; a much greater share of
personal liberty was enjoyed ; property increased to
double its former value ; the paper currency, which
had been devised by the Dutch Government as a
temporary stop-gap and had depreciated 40 per
cent., rose to par with specie; and .£2,000,000 of
money was brought over from England and set ira
circulation. The rent of houses became doubled,,
and the country farmer found his sheep worth twice
their former value. " Four years of increasing
prosperity, of uninterrupted peace and domestic
tranquillity," says Barrow, "have been the happy
lot of the inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope."'
There is a striking analogy between this rapid
advance under British influence at the Cape nearly
ninety years ago, and the brief period of British rule
in the Transvaal. In the latter country between
1877, when the Union Jack first floated there, and
1881, when it was, to the everlasting disgrace of
Mr. Gladstone and his Government, hauled down,
property trebled in value, markets were good, capital
was abundant, and everything pointed to a rapid and

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 411
enormous expansion of trade and industr)'. The
Transvaal, however, threatens to become Anglicized
against its will. Despite the endeavours of
President Kruger and the old Boer party, thanks
to the discovery of the gold-fields, a British
population is steadily flooding the territory of the
South African Republic, railways are being pushed
steadily towards its borders, and a few years will
in all human probability see that rich country far
more pervaded by the Anglo-Saxon element than
is the Cape Colony now, even if it be destined
never again to add lustre to the British crown.
In 1806, when the Cape for the second time and
finally fell into our hands, its borders were much
more circumscribed than they now are ; the Great
Fish River on the east, and an irregular line drawn
from Buffalo River on the west to the site of the
present town of Colesberg, forming its limits in those
directions, while the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
bridled it to the west and south.
At that period the total population was 73,663,.
of whom some 27,000 at most were of European
descent. Since that time the area of the Colony
has been enormously increased. Bushmanland,.
Little Namaqualand, British Kaffraria, Griqualand
West, and finally Kaffraria itself, have one after
the other been added, forming a present total area
of 213,917 square miles — nearly double the extent
of Great Britain and Ireland — and having a total
population of 1,377,213 souls, of whom considerably
more than 340,000 are Europeans or of European
descent. British and Boers are at present fairly
evenly divided in the Colony, the latter probably
exceeding the former by some 30,000.

412 KLOOF AND KARROO.
The principal towns of the Cape Colony and
their populations are now about as follows : —

Cape Town

50,000 inhabitants,

Kimberley

28,000

>i

Port Elizabeth 

16,000

11

Graham's Town...

10,000

11

Paarl

6,000

11

King William's Town ...

5,000

n

Graaff Reinet 

5,000

11

Stellenbosch

5,000

11

East London 

5,000

11

Of these, Kimberley has sprung into existence
since 1870 ; Port Elizabeth, Graham's Town, King
William's Town, and East London practically since
1820 ; Graaff Reinet, Paarl, and Stellenbosch have
•chiefly increased since that time ; while Cape Town
¦owes its considerable population to British influence
and British trade. These figures are fairly en
couraging, but, compared with the populations of
Australian and NewZealand cities, theyare as naught.
The European population of the country districts
shows to even less advantage than in the urban.
Under British control the Colony advanced
steadily, if slowly, until 1855. From that time until
1876 progress was more rapid; the labours of the
Albany settlement of 1820 have borne fruit, after
years of hard and uphill struggling. From 1870
dates the diamond industry, while the ostrich mania
was at its highest from 1875 to 1880. From 1879
to 1886 a period of profound stagnation intervened.
Every one had gone mad over ostriches. Farmers
and traders cast aside their ordinary occupations
and embarked in "birds." Feathers rose to £50
and £jo per pound, and breeding birds to £200
and £300 per pair. At length, in 1 881, the crash

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY.

4J3

came, prices fell suddenly and rapidly, and ruin,
depression, and stagnation ensued. But the value
of ostriches has reached its lowest level, and the
industry may now be carried on profitably at the
low prices that obtain for stock. Meanwhile, in
spite of depression, the quantity of feathers exported
has steadily risen, in itself a healthy sign.
From 1865 dates the first production of mohair,
from the importation of Angora goats ; the value
then exported being £368. In 1883 the value
reached £271,804 — a truly astonishing advance.
Angora farming is now a settled and increasing
industry of the Colony ; the clip of hair from these
beautiful animals comparing favourably with the
choicest produce of Asia Minor, whence the original
stock was imported.
Here are the values of a few of the chief exports
of the Colony in recent years : —

1865.

1870.

1875-

1880.

1885.

1886.

1887.

1 838.

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

Copper Ore 

118,297

146,368

248,537

306,790

395.675

559.328

577,053

856,803

18,256
365,587
19.599
347.792
Ostrich Feathers
65.736*
87.074*
304.933*
883,632
585,278
546,230
Angora Hair or
368
268,446 96,756
305,362 66,652
Hides, Ox &, Cow
9.724
21,710
38,964
26,691
128,915
117,872
Ivorv
16,982
4,774
4,242,470
2,089
4,022,379 109,068
198,107
Nil
126,112
158,404
Sheep Skins 
79,160
87,240
147,842
172,264
192,631
174.225
:69,98l
Wine (ordinary)
24.499
13,887
12,817
1 1 ,966
14,558
21,593
17,190
18,378
Wool:
Fleece washed^
5i3,«7
702,354
395.966
164,977
171,788
167,584
185,093
1,680,826
934,726
1,834,114
1,5 "7,630
976,2C9
933,680
1,007,507
1,058,074
221,675
319.431
515.775
284,922
744,649
499,840
938,343
* 1865, wild feathers. 1870, principally ditto. 1875 and after, feathers from tame birds.
In addition to these products, aloes, salted fish,
dried fruits, horses, horns, brandy, Constantia wine,
414 KLOOF AND KARROO.
and other articles are exported. Of the above, it is
probable that in the future, corn, which the colonists
have for years not only almost ceased to export, but
have actually imported to the extent of from a
quarter to half a million sterling annually, will be
produced and exported heavily.
The ivory trade has dwindled to a shadow, in
¦consequence of the almost complete extirpation of
elephants south of the Zambesi. When it is
remembered that soon after the discovery of Lake
N'Gami, in 1849, 900 elephants were slaughtered
by ivory hunters, within one short year, in that
region alone, this is scarcely to be wondered at ;
but with the future continuation of Cape railways,
.as may be expected, from Kimberley towards the
Zambesi, and perhaps beyond Lake N'Gami, to the
western regions, as suggested by Mr. H. M. Stanley,
a great Central and Western African ivory trade will
be tapped. Horses are reared at the Cape, of excellent
quality and in great abundance, and there is no
reason why they should not be exported at a profit
in years to come.
Wine production, which would probably better
repay the introduction of capital and enterprise than
almost any other Cape industry, is likely, with
improved methods, to increase very largely ; for
the soil and climate are even more favourable to the
growth of the vine than in Australia. Yet Australia
has, thus far, quite outstripped the Cape in the
quality and quantity of its wines. This matter has,
happily, now been taken in hand by the Cape
Government, and experts from Europe are employed
in teaching proper and improved methods. The

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 415
old Dutch system seems to be chiefly remarkable
for its dirt and carelessness.
Dried fruits were formerly exported to a greater
extent than at present. South Africa is peculiarly
fitted for the production of almost all kinds of fruit,
and there is no reason why fruits, both fresh and
dried, should not be exported at reasonable profit.
If South America and Australia can export oranges,
the Cape should surely be able to do the same.
Cape oranges, grapes, peaches, apricots, nectarines,
figs, apples, pears, loquats, quinces, guavas, and
numerous other fruits are of fine quality.
Tobacco is an article that, instead of, as at
present, being largely imported for the better class of
smokers, might be exported to an enormous extent.
The colonial production is about 3,000,000 lbs.
per annum, a great portion of which is, however,
used for sheep dip. The better qualities of Cape
tobacco are habitually smoked by the farmers,
English and Dutch, and command a ready sale.
The Cape Government has, quite recently, engaged
the services of an expert to impart information to
the tobacco farmers. Hitherto, the fault seems to
have lain, as in viti-culture, not in the growth, which
in this favoured climate is simple enough, but in
the curing and preparing for consumption.
The diamond industry, iif Griqualand West, now
an integral part of Cape Colony, has long been
established on a secure and steady basis, and the
output appears likely to be maintained for many
years to come, at from £2,000,000 to £4,000,000 per
annum. The returns received for 1887 show that
the value exported in that year amounted to nearly
four millions and a quarter. Moreover, it is not

416 KLOOF AND KARROO.
unlikely that, in process of time, other diamond-
bearing localities may be discovered. These precious
stones have been found in the Orange River, at least
as far down as Prieska, to the north-west of the
Colony, and there are many more improbable things
than that rich diamond areas exist far away from
Kimberley. Who would have dared to say, twenty
years ago, that upon those arid plains, whereon a
few miserable Griquas then herded their scanty
flocks, Kimberley, and its enormous potentiality of
wealth, would now stand ?
In minerals the Cape is extremely rich, yet
hitherto her territories have lain unnoticed and
almost entirely unprospected. The copper mines of
Little Namaqualand, south of the Orange River,
are among the richest in the world, and are at
present nothing like developed. Copper exists in
many other localities in the north-west.
Coal has been found in many parts of the Colony,
and ' no doubt will crop up in very many more.
Notably in the Stormberg range excellent coal,
which is now largely employed on the Cape railways,
is obtained. Gold has, within the last two years,
been discovered in considerable quantities at the
Knysna in the extreme south, and a mining camp is
now established there. Still more recently, within
the last few months, other discoveries of this
precious metal have been made in the north-west,
near the Orange River, and in other places, and
with the gold fever that has now laid such a hold
upon South Africa, it is not unlikely that large and
important auriferous areas may be found in other
parts of the Colony.
Other minerals are plentiful, but as yet lie

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 417
unsought and undeveloped. Manganese, iron, lead,
and other ores are abundant in many localities, and
it is not improbable that the Orange River region — 1
hitherto unknown and almost unexplored — wiU
yield vast treasures of mineral wealth. In that
magnificent, mysterious river are to be found
diamonds, amethysts, cairngorms, garnets, quartz
crystal, rose quartz, jaspers of many varieties, agates,
chalcedony, and a host of other stones. Marble of
fine quality and colour, crocidolite, asbestos, granite,
freestone, sandstone, prehnite — a very beautiful
green ornamental stone — and porcelain clays of the
finest qualities are also freely distributed throughout
the Colony, but have hitherto been almost entirely
neglected. Salt pans have long been a source of
wealth in various parts.
In truth it may be said that even to its own
inhabitants the Cape — save in its pastoral sense —
is to this hour a terra incognita, and that riches, in
almost extravagant profusion, lie scattered about the
land, waiting only for the coming of the capitalist
and the prospector.
And with the development of these and other
products, most assuredly to take place in the not
very far distant future, an 1 education, silent but
wondrously effective, will be gqjng forward amongst
the native populations. Glance at the mines of
Kimberley and Namaqualand. Think of the
thousands of natives annually passing through an
apprenticeship in the ways of regular labour at these"
semi-savage emporiums. To these centres flock
representatives of the dark races from the uttermost
parts of South and South Central Africa. From
the far Zambesi, and even from beyond its broad 27

418 KLOOF AND KARROO.
waters ; from the lands of the Damaras and
Ovampos ; from Matabele and Mashonalands ; from
the countries of the Amatongas, the Amaswazis,
and the Zulus ; from Kaffraria and Basutoland they
throng. And not only do these races learn lessons
of obedience, of the value of money, of self-control,
and of many of the arts of peace ; but above all
they acquire a firm and lasting belief in the good
faith of the British paymaster. Native hunters far
up country will take unhesitatingly, and without
misgiving, the letter of a British trader or sportsman
for the payment of a sum of money, at a place
hundreds of miles distant. For the development of
progress and of peace among the barbarous tribes
of Austral-Africa, as for the development of the
immense natural wealth of the country itself,
immigration, new blood, and the introduction of
capital, properly directed, are alone required.
While a vast expansion of territory has been
going forward at the Cape, there has not, however,
compared with more fashionable colonies, been a
corresponding influx of British blood and British
energy. Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have
been building and peopling great cities, rapidly
filling up their back countries, and advancing, until
quite recently, by leaps and bounds, in material
wealth, while South Africa has plodded with painful
and halting footsteps upon her devious route.
What are the reasons for this disparity ? Neither
the climate, nor the quality of the land itself, can be
adduced for one moment as sufficient explanation.
The climate of Cape Colony is indeed one of the
most magnificent and healthful in the world. There
you may see in the descendants of the stout and

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 419
stubborn breeds of Dutch and British examples of
manhood unsurpassed in any land.
In that clear and bracing atmosphere the
European constitution is invigorated instead of
becoming enervated as in India, the West Indies,
•and other of our possessions. South Africa, in truth,
is no drain upon the parent European stock, but
rather reproduces, often on an increased scale, the
bones and sinews of our northern lands. As for the
quality of the soil, it cannot be urged that South
' Africa is poorer than her neighbours. Within the
limits of the Cape Colony there are millions of acres
of rich land now lying waste simply for lack of
irrigation, of capital, and of emigrants. Hereafter
I will touch upon the capabilities of this land in the
way of grain producing, when cultivation and
irrigation are brought into play. The climate, the
flora, and in many instances even the terrains of
Australia and Cape Colony, are strangely similar,
yet has Australia far outrun her sister of the Cape
in the race for wealth. First, I think, among the
reasons for this want of progress may be placed the
dragging influence of the Dutch population. As I
have previously pointed out, the Boers were, and still
are the principal landowners. But in recent years
hard times have told sadly against them. There
may now be seen in each week's issue of the Cape
Times and other papers, frequent instances of the
bankruptcy of Dutch farmers, necessitating usually
a change of ownership in the soil. A silent if
distressing revolution is thus being effected, probably
for the ulterior benefit of the whole community.
The Boers, except in a few favoured districts in the
vicinity of Cape Town, inhabited by the older and

420 Kloof and karroo.
better class of Dutch families, have never made
any considerable attempt to practise agriculture on
a large scale. Their wine and brandy are through
careless manufacture not of a character to recommend
them to Europeans ; their wool is too frequently sent
to market in a wretched and filthy condition ; and
their tobacco, which might with care and attention
vie with American growths, is grown and cured in a
far too rough-and-ready manner, and only obtains a
sale at extremely moderate prices within the Colony.*
The Dutch Afrikanders have been chiefly responsible
for the prolonged and determined opposition to the
passing of a Scab Act, an Act which at length
carried through, will, it is computed, benefit the
flock-masters to the extent of half-a-million annually.
The Cape Dutch, indeed, cling with an extraordinary
infatuation to the habits and ways of their forefathers.
To this hour they will tell you that what sufficed for
their fathers will suffice for themselves, and a book
of travels of a hundred years since almost exactly
describes their present customs and manners.
Yet in some respects has the Boer of South
Africa been, as I think, a too heartily abused
individual. He has his good points, as those who
have had intercourse with him must admit. No
one who recalls the stubborn and self-denying
independence of those emigrant farmers, who in 1836
forsook the land of their adoption (a land passionately
beloved and remembered by them even to this day),
and trekked with their waggons and their oxen, their
families and worldly goods, into the unknown wilds
of the Orange Free State, the Transvaal and Natal,
* Boer tobacco sells at from one penny to sixpence per pound.

^T

T?h

VIEW OF DEVIL'S PEAK, NEAR CAPE TOWN.

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 421
or the stirring and bloody fights that subsequently
took place with Moselikatse and his hordes beyond
the Vaal, and with Dingaan and his Zulus in Natal,
can deny this strange people the qualities of
determination, self-reliance, and a deep religious
sentiment. They have been, it must be remembered,
the pioneers of South Africa, and within these two
hundred years they have done yeoman's service in
opening up a barbarous and difficult country.
Moreover, I question if they have been altogether
fairly treated by the English settlers. Naturally
desiring to be left alone, they have been too literally
set apart from the world, too severely left to their
own devices ; and there has been often too much
scornful contempt of them as a stupid, an uncouth,
and an inferior race. A little more sympathy, a
little more friendliness, would, I am convinced,
frequently have worked wonders with these simple
and isolated farmers. A gentleman of my acquaint
ance, upon whose farms I stayed in the Colony,
accomplished with the Boers of his neighbourhood,
by the exercise of these qualities, what no English
man had ever even attempted. He was the first
British farmer, I believe, to induce the poorer of the
Dutch Afrikanders to enter his service as overseers
of his numerous outlying flock stations. But even
he only won his way amongst them by dint of
unwearied patience, and by entering their dwellings
and conversing with them as if he took an interest
in them. In time I believe the Boers will gradually
adopt larger ideas, cease to dream only of hugging
huge tracts of comparatively useless country, of
flocks and herds, and of moody isolation, and will
turn their attention, as they see Englishmen around

422 KLOOF AND KARROO.
them doing, to the fencing of their runs, to irrigation
and the growth of grain, and to improved methods
of treating their wool, wine, and tobacco.
The second great deterrent to Cape progress, and
especially to its colonization and development, has
been the constant succession of native wars that,
until 1878, vexed the Eastern frontier. But it
may be safely asserted that Kaffir wars are now
things of the past. The Transkeian territories have
been annexed to the Colony ; the natives have
settled down to the cultivation of their lands ;
and if they are properly looked after, and not
suffered to be ruined in body and purse by the
drink traffic, they will, while themselves greatly
benefiting, indirectly prove a source of wealth
to the Colony and the Mother Country. This
deterrent, then, of Kaffir troubles may be considered
as entirely removed, and it 'may be taken for granted
that as vast numbers of natives have been for years
past attracted to the diamond-fields by the demand
for labour, as they have been thereby enriched and
partly civilised by contract with Europeans, so the
Kaffirs will, when labour markets are opened up by
new industries, mining and otherwise, by irrigation
and increased cultivation, tobacco manufacture and
the like, cast off their ancient laziness, and enter
in large numbers into the service of the colonists.
Hitherto they have only been utilized as herds and
grooms. In the Western province the Hottentots
perform most of the work in the vineyards and
corn-fields, but they are as a race, unhappily,
almost completely ruined by the old custom, still
obtaining among the Dutch farmers, of paying them
partly in cheap and deleterious wines and spirits.

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 423
The Cape long suffered from the lack of railway
communication, and, until the last few years, nearly
every article of consumption and of commerce was
dragged up and down country by the expensive
and painfully laborious medium of the old-world
ox-waggon. The first railway in the Colony was
begun so recently as 1859. It was not until 1875 that
any considerable progress was made in this direction.
Within the last twelve years the advance in railway
communication has, however, been extremely rapid.
The lines from Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to
Kimberley have been for some time completed, and
the Colony has now some 1,600 miles of railroads,
constructed at a cost of £13,407,385.
The Witwatersrand gold-fields of the Transvaal,
destined, as Sir Donald Currie tells us, to become
among the richest in the world, are already exer
cising beneficial influence on the Kimberley line, as
witness the very marked increase in this last year's
income of the Cape railways. It will not be long
probably before further communication is opened
up with the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and
the far interior (through Bechuanaland) ; and the
Cape will proportionately benefit thereby. It is true
that the Transvaal and its President have hitherto
declined to entertain an extension into their territory
from the south-west, and the Orange Free State
Volksraad have postponed a proposed railway from
Kimberley through their territory for the space of a
year ; but, after all, wiser councils may prevail, and
it may yet be hoped that united action of the South
African States and Colonies may be arranged.
But whatever the event, if our colonial authorities
are vigilant, will keep an eye on Swaziland and

424 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Delagoa Bay, and wait for the rising tide and
influence of English-speaking miners and men of
business, now steadily flooding the Transvaal, the
latter will ere long have their way in this matter.
Last year (1888), an extension of the railway
system from Kimberley to the Vaal River, and
from Colesberg to the Orange River, was voted
by the Cape Legislature, despite the opposition
of Mr. Hofmeyr and the Afrikander Bund.
Amatongaland, abutting on Delagoa Bay, has
now been practically secured to England by
treaty with the Queen Regent, and within these
last twelve months we have wisely forestalled
German and Transvaal encroachments in the
direction of the Matabele and Mashona countries,
north and north-east of the Transvaal, by the
extension of our sphere of influence over those
territories, and have thus secured to ourselves the
future of the vast and fabulously rich regions lying
between the Limpopo and Zambesi. In this matter
our Colonial Office has moved in time, but there
yet remains something which must be done quickly
and done well. A hostile line and hostile tariffs from
Delagoa Bay must at all cost be prevented, and a
communication between the Cape railways, and that
¦ port, vid the Transvaal, will in due course follow.
Sir Donald Currie, during his visit to the South
African Republic in December, 1887, pointed out to
President Kruger the immense advantages accruing
to all the South African States and Colonies by such
inter-communication, and it was believed that his
words had weight with the bluff but acute Boer
leader. But recent developments tend to show that
Kruger has been playing a very astute game of his

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 425
own. He has now manoeuvred the Portuguese
Government into such a position that the Delagoa
Railway — for which he has been playing so long —
was recently confiscated with the ulterior view of
selling it to himself or his nominees. Meanwhile,
aided by his Afrikander Bund friends of the Cape
Colony, who temporarily shelved the Bechuanaland
extension already voted, for a rival line through the
Free State, he deluded the Cape colonists into the
idea that he would assist in a line through the Free
State to the gold-fields. Having gained the time he
required for the development of his Delagoa Bay
policy, the Cape party find themselves, after a year
of waiting, left out in the cold, the Orange Free
State Volksraad, acting with Kruger, having shelved
the Kimberley-Bloemfontein extension for a year
certain. It was a pretty scheme enough, but the
firm attitude ofthe British Government in connection
with the Delagoa Bay Railway Confiscation may
probably render it after all futile.
The Cape Government, after being thus humbugged
(there is no other word for it) by Kruger and the
Orange Free State for a year, will now do well to
turn their attention immediately to the Bechuanaland
extension, their proper and legitimate outlet to the
interior, for which an Act was parsed a year ago. A
British company is ready and willing to help them
from the British Bechuanaland southern border
northwards." Certain it is that the gold-fields of the Transvaal,

* Just as these pages go to press, a cablegram from the Cape
announces that Sir Gordon Sprigg has arranged with the British
South Africa Company for the immediate extension of the Bechuanaland
Hailway.

426 KLOOF AND KARROO.
of Bechuanaland, of Swaziland, and of the still more
distant and probably immeasurably richer country
of Mashonaland, will, within the next ten years,
entirely transform Southern Africa ; as certainly
the Cape Colony will, through her railroads and in
other ways, undoubtedly share in the general
prosperity now just dawning.
It is probable that in the near future, well-devised
systems of irrigation, fencing, and tree planting, will
have marvellously altered the face of the Colony.
In the last few years these questions, which affect,
not partially, but in an absolutely vital degree, the
general welfare and the agricultural and pastoral
progress of the community, have moved rapidly to
the front. When the early settlers landed at the
Cape, they found a land immeasurably richer in the
vegetable productions of nature than at present.
The mighty plains were covered with rich grasses
and shrubs that have too often been overstocked
and trampled to death by the farmers' flocks.
Many of the mountains that now stand drear and
barren were shaded by cedars, olives, and other
trees, while every stream and water-course was
margined by sturdy thorn trees, that had flourished
and perpetuated themselves for untold centuries.
The rainfall was then more abundant. But with
a fatuous disregard for the future, the Boers set
themselves to destroy hurriedly, and at haphazard,
these bountiful gifts. Trees have everywhere
been ruthlessly cut down, farms overstocked, the
vegetation destroyed and trampled out, and grasses
burnt off by periodical fires — a most short-sighted
policy. The country has in consequence become
year by year more desiccated, fountains and rivers

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 427
have dried up or diminished, and the rainfall has
been hindered or absolutely driven away.
As Mr. Gamble, late hydraulic engineer to the
Cape Government, has remarked : " The wandering
sheep-farmer goes on to Crown lands and cuts down
the trees so that his goats may feed on the leaves ;
the Kaffir destroys thousands of saplings in the
Kaffrarian forests to restore his easily and frequently
burnt hut . . . . ; large areas along the Hart River
and elsewhere have been denuded of the kameel
dorn (acacia) tree to supply firewood for the
machinery at the diamond-fields." 
" Erosions," caused by the incessant trampling
backwards and forwards to kraal of useless and
unwieldy flocks, " form into canyons thirty feet
deep and upwards, and take off the surface-water
and under-drain the land." Nature has in her turn
retaliated, and the parched earth, deprived of the
shade and moisture of its trees, and worn out by
over-grazing, has proved comparatively valueless.
But happily new methods and new ideas are
being brought into prominence by the better class
of farmers, and these wasteful systems are gradually
disappearing. The Irrigation Acts of 1877, 1879
and 1880 afford great facilities to the colonists, and
although the Dutch farmers are from ignorance,
inertness, and mortgage difficulties, slow to take
advantage of them, they are gradually making way.
Irrigation is, in truth, only just beginning to be
properly appreciated at the Cape, yet already it has
wrought wonderful results. A perusal of the Cape
Irrigation Commission Report for 1883, and of the
Cape Government Official Handbook for 1886, will
demonstrate the extraordinary results attainable

428 KLOOF AND KARROO.
from even the simplest forms of irrigation : "In
the district of Calvinia seventy bushels of
wheat for one bushel sown can be relied on, while a
return of one hundred and thirty bushels is not
unfrequent " (Cape Handbook, p. 133). From my
own knowledge of the grain farms on the Fish and
Zak Rivers of Calvinia, I can assert that these
figures are not exaggerated. It may be noted also
that two crops yearly are obtainable (pp. 233, 234).
From page 117 ofthe Irrigation Commission's Blue
Book, I quote as follows : "At a farm called
Nooitgedacht, on the Lower Oliphants River, the
proprietor, thirty-five years ago, was unable to raise
sufficient bread for his own consumption. At this
moment it supports two hundred and sixty-five
souls, whites, exclusive of the coloured population ;
and this is the result of irrigation carried on in its
most primitive form, there being nothing beyond
ordinary Boer dams made in the bed of the river,
with furrows leading therefrom."
But instances, far more remarkable than this, of
the extraordinary results obtainable from irrigation
in this favoured climate, are scattered broadcast
throughout the Irrigation Report. The principal
attempt by the Cape Government at the storage of
water on a large scale, has not long been completed,
and the results, although at present necessarily
imperfectly developed, already point to a gigantic
success. This work, the reservoir of Van Wyks Vlei
in the Western province, was accomplished in
a waterless tract of country — in Kayen Bult — a
southern prolongation of the Kalahari desert. The
catchment area is 460 square miles. The reservoir

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 429
can hold 25,000,000,000 gallons, but it is never likely
to be filled to overflowing. Last year no less than
4,000,000,000 gallons were contained. The Vlei had
the appearance of an inland sea, and the Boers
flocked from all parts of the surrounding country—
in many cases from extraordinary distances — to
witness the prodigy. This and other efforts of the
Cape Government are likely to bring forth good
fruit in coming years.
But in addition to irrigation by the catching and
storage of water by reservoirs, other sources are
available. Until quite recently, it was imagined that
the Great Karroo could never be made available,
save for the depasturage of the farmers' flocks.
This mighty plain, waterless though it apparently is,
has a marvellously rich soil, sun-baked, it is true, yet
none the less fruitful where water can be brought to
bear. It has long been known that streams of water,
arrested by igneous dykes — called by the Boers yzer
klip kopjes (iron stone ridges} — run plentifully beneath
the surface of the plains. These are now being
tapped and made use of. Windmills and wells are
beginning to appear upon the karroo with highly
successful results, and will undoubtedly now rapidly
multiply. There are enthusiasts who predict that
the whole of the Great Karroo, plateau will one day
smile with crops of waving corn ; and though this
may be too sanguine an estimate, yet many more
improbable things have come to pass.
It can scarcely be credited that for years the
Cape colonists have been importing wheat from
abroad at the rate of £300,000 to £600,000 per
annum, and this while thousands of acres of rich
land within their borders have been lying wasted and

43° KLOOF AND KARROO.
unemployed. The thing is incredible, yet literally
true. In the last year or two some diminution in
this importation has occurred, but it is a standing
disgrace to Cape agriculturists and Cape rulers
that even one bushel of wheat should have to be
imported into a country so naturally adapted for its
production. It is not too much to hope that within
a few years the Colony will not only cease to import,
but actually be able to export at a profit. As to its
quality, Cape wheat cannot be surpassed by any in
the world ; the better qualities, on the rare occasions
upon which they have appeared, have commanded
a ready sale in the London market for the finest
kinds of pastry flours. Barley is prolific and good ;
oats and mealies (Indian corn) also furnish fine
crops. I have in my mind a well-known karroo
farmstead, which supplies an excellent example of
what may be accomplished on karroo land by the
conservation of water and systematic irrigation.
There a mass of foliage now decorates the once
barren and forbidding earth. Umbrageous trees,
flowering shrubs, roses and other beautiful plants,
welcome the wearied traveller. Vineyards, garden-
ground, corn and lucerne lands, make the earth
rejoice. Hundreds of fruit trees flourish, some of
them (fig trees) covering twenty-five by ten yards of
ground. Mulberries rear themselves to heights of
forty and fifty feet. Oranges, apples, pears,
peaches, plums, nectarines, loquats, lemons, quinces,
pomegranates, walnuts, almonds, cherries, and
strawberries, all thrive amazingly.
To the credit of the colonists, there appears
likely to be a rapid increase in the system of tree

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 431
planting. Within the last few years, Arbor Day,
a celebration borrowed from America, has been
observed throughout the land, and now each year on
this anniversary, which is observed as a general
holiday, thousands of trees are planted by men,
women and children. This is a wise and most
praiseworthy custom, and succeeding generations of
Afrikanders will doubtless bless the forethought of
their ancestors.
Much, however, remains to be done in this way,
and long years must elapse before the destruction
of two centuries can be repaired and the forests of
the Colony regenerated.
Another rapidly growing system which also
promises to work wonders is that of the fencing of
sheep and goat runs. In the old days, upon every
pastoral farm, the flocks were kraaled at night in
inclosures, as a protection against wild beasts, and
in the morning led to their pastures in charge of
Kaffir or Hottentot herds. The disadvantages of
this system are sufficiently obvious. The sheep or
goats have insufficient rest, and often improve but
little in flesh or wool. The distance to pasture
daily increases ; great portions of the veldt are
worn and destroyed by the incessant trampling to
and fro to kraal ; the kraakj themselves become
unspeakably filthy from the deposits of years, and
harbour and propagate various diseases ; while
the manure, instead of being scattered about the
veldt, thereby improving the pasturage, is wasted, or
only partially utilized as fuel in its sun-dried form.
This custom still obtains on very many pastoral
farms, especially among the slow-moving Boers, its
originators.

432 KLOOF AND KARROO.
Picturesque it certainly is, as I can testify. On
a hot African evening, as the sun goes down redly
upon the karroo, it is a curious and most interesting
spectacle to watch first the clouds of dust that herald
the approach of the parched and weary flocks.
Presently the troops of sheep and of snow-white
silky-fleeced Angora goats emerge from these clouds,
and, following their Kaffir herd-boys, trot to the
dam to lave their burning throats. Then they turn
away and file quietly into their respective kraals for
the night. But the custom is rightly doomed ; the
evils of overstocking, the destruction of pasturage,
the propagation of disease, and the decrease of
flocks, at length became so serious as to call for a
Government Commission. The fencing of runs was
then suggested, and during the last ten years
amazing progress has been made in this direction.
The predatory wild beasts, formerly so destructive
to the farmers' flocks, are rapidly disappearing, and
the leopard (only found in mountainous regions),
the jackal, occasional hyenas and wild dogs, and
the wild cats alone remain. These survivors are.
being vigorously proceeded against by means of
poison and trapping, and will eventually disappear,
as have the lion and practically the hyena. Huge
farms, from 20,000 to 30,000 acres (and even more)
in extent, are now completely fenced, and the flocks
graze by day and night in peace and comfort. The
farmer can move them from one inclosure to another
at his pleasure, the veldt is allowed rest, and a
reserve is thus provided in time of drought. A
compulsory Scab Act recently passed, after years
of bigoted and factious opposition, provides another
invaluable safeguard for the flock-masters.

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 433
But the Cape Colony, although emerging rapidly
from its troubles and its strangely antique ways, is
sadly lacking in a strong and wholesome tonic.
Despite the failure of large numbers of the Boers,
for some years past the old Dutch party has been
rising in power (a power but too vigorously stimulated
by the Transvaal War, the disaster of Majuba Hill,
and Mr. Gladstone's inglorious surrender), until
Cape ministers, though nominally Britons and
representatives of British ideas, obey but the
dictates and carry out the political traditions of
the Afrikander Bund. It is difficult for us in this
country to fully comprehend such a state of affairs.
Under this malignant and overpowering influence,
immigration has entirely ceased, and the Dutch
party loudly declare that they will neither tolerate
more settlers, nor the utilization of the vast
tracts of land now lying fallow and neglected.
They tell us in fact that there is enough for them
selves and no more. Mr. Arnold White, in his
experiences in connection with his model settlement
of Wolseley in British Kaffraria, a settlement
boycotted and almost strangled in its infancy by
officials of the Cape Government, can bear testimony
to the extraordinary difficulties thrown in the way of
organised attempts at colonization.
It is high time that Englishmen knew these
things, and that they were ended once and for all.
It cannot be tolerated that a rich field of emigration,
such as the Cape, should lie longer fallow and
unknown. The tonic of new blood — British blood— and
new ideas is urgently needed at this moment in
Cape Colony, and the time is ripe for a fresh and

434 KLOOF AND KARROO.
considerable transference of colonists to our South
African possessions. Whether such a transference
shall take the form of a State-aided scheme, or of a
scheme or schemes backed by private wealth, is a
matter for mature consideration.
Since we took possession of the Cape territory,
there has been only one considerable plantation of
British blood upon its shores, and that a strikingly
successful one. The Albany settlers of 1820 have
proved themselves a tower of strength to the Colony.
The five thousand emigrants sent out by the British
Government, at a cost of £50,000, have completely
transformed the Eastern province, now by far the
richest and most advanced portion of the Colony.
The plantation of a number of the German
Legion in British Kaffraria, after the Crimean
War, proved a similar success. But with these
exceptions — exceptions of singular encouragement
— no systematic emigration to the Cape Colony has
taken place from this country. It is time that the
tide turned, and this fair inheritance of ours became
utilized. As a health resort — boasting a climate unsurpassed
— as a field for the farmer, whether agricultural or
pastoral, the Cape needs only to be more known to
be better appreciated. At this day a farmer in
England, whether his capital be a few hundreds or a
few thousands, now finds it well-nigh impossible to
make both ends meet. A farmer with a capital of a
few hundreds can live at the Cape in comfort and
independence, under skies fairer a thousand times,
and in an atmosphere a thousand times clearer and
more exhilarating than at home. He may surround
himself quickly with almost every fruit that man can

THE FUTURE OF CAPE COLONY. 435
desire, and will find his flocks and herds speedily
increase. He may buy good land for from five to ten
shillings per acre, not an extravagant price it
must be 'admitted. Game of all kinds, from the
magnificent bustards and francolins to the springbok
— gracefullest of the antelopes — still remains in
abundance, so that sport, dear to every true British
heart, is not lacking.
There are, as I have endeavoured to show,
indications that the good time of this neglected
possession is at hand. I believe that this generation
will see the Cape Colony, with its water supplies
— hitherto so wasted — enlarged and secured ; its
terrain re-afforested ; its rich waste lands and almost
unknown back-country laughing under lusty crops
of corn, of bountiful vineyards and of fruit ; its
boundless pastures fenced and nurtured, and ren
dered a hundred-fold more profitable ; its industries
regenerated and enormously recruited. I see planted
there a fresh and ardent Anglo-Saxon population,
happy, prosperous and contented, mingling with
the descendants of the ancient Dutch settlers on
terms of friendship and good will. These things
are not as the dreams of a dreamer, but can and
will be vigorous and enduring realities.

PRINTED BY

THOMAS

POULTER AND SONS, LIMITED,

6,

ARTHUR STREET WEST,
LONDON BRIDGE,
AND

GLOBE

WORKS, RUPERT STREET,

E,

pppp £;¦¦¦ p*ppp ¦. k &vO o m-o-ioyo-:

: ¦.'..¦ .¦.¦¦