On reaching the camp, Willem and Hendrik found their companions
anxiously awaiting their return.
The horses and cattle had all been recovered, and the borele that had
caused their dispersion had been shot by Hans and Arend.
Its attack had caused a delay of two days, and the loss of an ox.
Again the journey towards Graaf Reinet was resumed, and day by day was
prosecuted with all the speed that could be made in safety to their
animals.
The return journey was not completed until they had suffered many
hardships, and had more than once nearly lost the two young giraffes.
On passing through the Hottentot country, they saw many large plains
from which the grass had lately been burnt; and not a morsel could be
obtained for the subsistence of their animals. Amid the herbage charred
by the fire, they frequently saw the remains of serpents and other
reptiles, that had been scorched to death.
During the passage across these burnt tracts, the travellers suffered
much from hunger and thirst, as did also their animals. Such hardships
Groot Willem seemed not to heed. His only care was for the young
giraffes; his only fear that they might not safely reach their
destination. But each hour of the toilsome journey was cheered by the
knowledge that they were drawing nearer home; and all that was
disagreeable was endured with such patience as sprang from the prospect
of a speedy termination to their toils.
The latter part of their route lay through a part of Southern Africa,
farther to the west than any they had yet visited. They passed through
lands inhabited by certain tribes of natives, of whom they had often
heard and read, but had never seen.
Of some of the customs of those unfortunate people classed amongst that
variety of the _genus homo_ known as the "Hottentot," they one afternoon
became fully and painfully acquainted.
Beneath the shade of some stunted trees they found an aged man and a
child not more than eighteen months old. The man, who could not have
been less than seventy years of age, was totally blind; and by his side
was an empty calabash, that had evidently once contained water.
With the assistance of Swartboy, as interpreter, it was ascertained that
he had lately lost by death an only son and protector. There was no one
now to provide for his wants, and he had been carried far-away from the
home of his tribe, and left in the desert to die!
The child had lost its mother, its only parent, and had been "exposed"
to death at the same time and for the same reason,--because there was no
one to provide for it.
Both old man and infant had been thus left exposed to a death which must
certainly ensue, either by thirst, hunger, or hyenas.
This horrid custom of the Hottentots was not entirely unknown to our
adventurers. They had heard that the act, of which they now had ocular
evidence, was once common among the inhabitants of the country, through
which they were passing, but, like thousands of others, they had
believed that such a barbarous custom had long ago been discontinued,
under the precept and example of European civilisation.
They saw that they were mistaken; and that they were in the
neighbourhood of a tribe that had either never heard these precepts of
humanity, or had turned a deaf ear to them.
Knowing that a Hottentot kraal could not be many miles away, and
unwilling to leave two human beings to such a fearful fate, the
travellers determined to take the helpless creatures back to the people
who, as Swartboy worded it, had "throwed 'um away."
Strange to say, the old man expressed himself not only willing to die
where he sat, but showed a strong disinclination to being returned to
his countrymen!
He had the philosophy to believe that he was old and helpless,--a child
for the second time,--and that by dying he was but performing his duty
to society! To be placed again in a position where he would be an
incumbrance to those whom he could not call kindred was, in his opinion,
a crime he should not commit!
Our adventurers resolved upon saving him in spite of himself.
It was not until late in the afternoon that they reached the kraal from
which the outcasts had been ejected. Not a soul could be found in the
whole community who would admit that the old man had ever been seen
there before, and no one had the slightest knowledge of the child!
The white men were advised to take the objects of their solicitude to
the place where they properly belonged.
"This is interesting," said Hendrik. "We might wander over all Southern
Africa without finding a creature that will acknowledge having seen
these helpless beings before. They are ours now, and we must provide
for them in some way or other."
"I do not see how we can do it," rejoined Arend; "I'm quite sure that
they are now with their own tribe, and it is they who should provide for
them."
A second effort was made to persuade the villagers to acknowledge some
complicity in the attempt to starve two human beings. But they had
already learned that their conduct in such a custom was considered by
white people as a crime, and, ashamed of what they had done, they
stoutly stood to the story they had first told.
Strangest of all, the feeble old man confirmed all their statements,
and, as some proof of the truth of what they had said, he informed the
travellers that the chief and several others whom he called by name,
were men incapable of practising a deception!
This he professed to know from a long acquaintance with them.
The hunters were now within the territory over which the Colonial
Government claimed and sometimes enforced dominion, and the Hottentots
were threatened with the vengeance of English justice in the event of
their not taking care of the old man and child, or should they again
expose him as they had already done.
They were told that a messenger should be sent to them within a few
weeks, to learn if their orders had been obeyed; and, having delivered
up the two helpless beings to the headman of the village, the travellers
once more proceeded on their way.