Chapter VIII: Letter SEVEN

LION-HUNTING, ETCETERA, IN THE EARLY DAYS--BUSHMEN AND THEIR TROUBLES.

It is deeply interesting to tread in the footsteps of bold adventurous men, and visit the scenes which have been rendered classic by their deeds of heroic daring or of patient endurance. So I found it during my brief sojourn in the regions of Baviaans River, where, upwards of fifty years before, my countrymen had faced, fought, and subdued the savage, the wilderness, and the wild-beast.

The every-day life of the early settlers of this region cannot be better illustrated than by a brief quotation from the diary of one of them.

"_October 1st_.--Arrival of the Somerset wagon with flour, seed-corn,
etcetera. I discharged the servant Sandy from the party, gave him a
pass, countersigned by the Deputy-Landdrost, and sent him off with the
Somerset wagon towards Grahamstown. This lad has turned out to be at
once a fool and a blackguard, and quite beyond hope of reform.

"_4th_.--A sharp frost last night blighted all our early potatoes,
pumpkins, melons, kidney-beans, etcetera. It appears we had sown some
of our seed too early.

"_8th, Sunday_.--A troop of about twenty quaggas galloped through the
corner of our gardens during divine service.

"_9th_.--A herd of hartebeests passed close to our huts, pursued by a
pack of six wild dogs (_Hyaena venatica_). Fired at the latter, but
without effect. This day Mr John Rennie, being out hunting on
Hyndhope Fells, fell in with two wild Bushmen, dressed in sheepskins.
They ran off on his approach, but made no demonstration of hostility.
He came upon six hyenas devouring a hartebeest, and brought me its
skull and horns.

"_11th_.--Visited by three Boers from the Tarka--desirous of
exchanging horses and cattle for guns and ammunition. Completed my
map of the location.

"_16th_.--Surprised by a slight fall of snow; weather chill and
cloudy. The laughing hyena heard near the folds last night. The
sound truly horrible.

"_21st_.--Fine weather. Killed a large yellow snake.

"_23rd_.--Received a visit from our district clergyman, the Reverend
J. Evans of Cradock. He brought a packet from the Landdrost conveying
letters from the Colonial Secretary, assuring me of the continued
support of the Government, and giving us the agreeable intelligence
that a party of emigrants from the West of Scotland were speedily
expected out, who would be located close beside us. Received also
very pleasant letters from Scotland, from Dr Philip, and from our
parted comrade Mr Elliott. Religious service in the evening by Mr
Evans. All much pleased and comforted.

"_24th_.--Mr G. Rennie, who at my request had gone with a party of
Hottentots to explore the country beyond the mountains towards the
Koonap River, returned with a very favourable report of it. Abundance
of wood, water, and rich pasturage. He saw a great deal of large
game, and the recent traces of elephants. Shot a gnu and hartebeest.

"_November 1st_.--The weather warm and serene, like the finest summer
weather in England. Two snakes and a large scorpion killed.
Turtle-doves, touracoos, thrushes, finches, and other birds of
beautiful plumage become numerous.

"_6th_.--Violent storm of thunder. The peals fearfully loud.
Magnificent clouds at sunset.

"_15th_.--A tiger-wolf broke into the kraal last night, and killed
several sheep.

"_22nd_.--A wolf-trap constructed, with the aid of the Hottentots, of
large stones and timber.

"_29th_.--A wolf caught in the trap.

"_December 4th_.--A heavy rain for three days swells the river to an
unfordable size. All the dry beds of torrents filled with furious
floods.

"_7th_.--Weather again warm and serene. Mr G. Rennie kills another
wild-boar at Glen Vair.

"_19th_.--My brother John finds stone fit for millstones, and with the
aid of one of the Hottentots begins to construct a small mill.

"_29th_.--My father narrowly escapes being gored by a furious ox.
Blight appears in the wheat.

"_30th_.--Receive a large packet of letters and newspapers from
Scotland. All deeply interested. This is the first packet of British
newspapers that has reached us."

How all the Robinson-Crusoe blood in one's veins is stirred by such a diary! Truly I sometimes almost regret that I was not born to become a pioneer settler in the African wilds!

However, it is some comfort to have the privilege of paying a flying visit to these same wilds, which in many respects are quite as wild now as they were then. The lions, elephants, quaggas, and some others of the large game, it is true, have taken themselves off to remoter wilds, but the leopards, hyenas, baboons, antelopes, still inhabit these kloofs, while snakes, scorpions, and the like are as plentiful as ever.

Talking of baboons reminds me that these creatures are said to sleep sometimes on a ledge of rock on the face of a precipice for security against lurking foes. I was assured that sometimes a row of them may be seen in such a situation sitting sound asleep, with their faces in their hands, against the precipice, and their tails hanging over the ledge. Of course I do not vouch for the truth of such reports. I am answerable only for what I profess to have seen.

The highest type of monkey suggests the lowest type of man in Africa. This is the Bushman, or, as the Dutch have it, Bosjesman. He is a branch of the Hottentot race, and a very miserable, stunted branch; nevertheless he is very far indeed removed from the baboon. He has no tail, for certain; at least if he has, he conceals it effectually. He wears garments, which no monkey does, and he speaks, which no monkey ever did.

No thanks to the white man, however, if the poor Bushman is not a baboon with the spirit of a tiger, for he has been most shamefully treated in time past. It is true the Bushmen were arrant thieves, and committed great havoc among the frontier farmers at various times, and it was both natural and right that these farmers should defend their homes and property. But it was neither right nor natural that these unfortunate natives should have been so cruelly dealt with.

When the Scotch party settled at Glen Lynden, their troubles with wild-beast pilferers were augmented occasionally by the appearance of Bosjesman-thieves.

"In the beginning of October," writes Mr Pringle, "we were somewhat alarmed by the discovery of a band of predatory Bushmen, lurking among the rocks and caverns of the wild mountains between us and the valley of the Tarka. Lieutenant Pettingal, an officer of engineers, who was then in our valley, engaged in the Government survey of the country, discovered this horde in searching for some of his horses that were missing. Suspecting, from the traces, that they had been carried off by Bushmen, he went out with an armed troop in pursuit, and came upon a party of these wild marauders in one of the most savage recesses of the neighbouring mountains. They were at breakfast, on a grey horse which they had slaughtered, and had steaks roasting on the fire cut out of the flank, with the hide still upon them. Pettingal, enraged by the supposed loss of his best blood-horse, poured in a volley upon them; but, apparently, without effect, for they all scrambled off with inconceivable agility among the rocks and bushes. He recovered, however, some of his own horses, and eight belonging to our neighbour which were tied up under an overhanging cliff near the top of a mountain."

There were no Bushmen running wild among the beautiful hills and valleys of Glen Lynden when Hobson and I entered it, but the region was not free, as I have related, from naked Kafirs, and it is still noted for its population of hairy baboons.