In my last I related to you all the circumstances of our settlement
here, and the prospect that we had of a peaceful and pleasant
habitation. In truth, it is a fine country, and inhabited by a fine race
of people, for the Kousies, as far as I have seen of them, are a simple
and ingenuous race.
You knew my Agnes from her childhood--you were at our wedding at
Beattock, and cannot but remember what an amiable and lovely girl she
then was; and when she was going about our new settlement with our
little boy in her arms, I have often fancied that I never saw so lovely
a human being.
The chief Karoo came to me one day with his interpreter, whom he caused
to make a long palaver about his power, and dominion, and virtues, and
his great desire to do much good. The language of this fellow being a
mixture of Kaffre, High Dutch, and English, was peculiarly ludicrous,
and most of all so when he concluded with expressing his lord's desire
to have my wife to be his own, and to give me in exchange for her four
oxen, the best that I could choose from his herd!
As he made the proposal in presence of my wife, she was so much tickled
with the absurdity of the proposed barter, and the manner in which it
was expressed, that she laughed immoderately. Karoo, thinking she was
delighted with it, eyed her with a look that surpasses all description,
and then caused his interpreter to make another palaver to her
concerning all the good things she was to enjoy; one of which was, that
she was to ride upon an ox whose horns were tipped with gold. I thanked
the great Karoo for his kind intentions, but declared my incapability to
part with my wife, for that we were one flesh and blood, and that
nothing could separate us but death. He could comprehend no such tie as
this. All men sold their wives and daughters as they listed, I was told,
for that the women were the sole property of the men. When I told him
finally that nothing on earth could induce me to part with her, he
seemed offended, bit his thumb, knitted his brows, and studied long in
silence, always casting glances at Agnes of great pathos and
languishment, which were perfectly irresistible, and ultimately he
struck his spear's head in the ground, and offered me ten cows and a
bull for my wife, and a choice virgin to boot. When this proffer was
likewise declined, he smiled in derision, telling me I was the son of
foolishness, and that _he foretold I should repent it_.
My William was at this time about eleven months old, but was still at
the breast, as I could never prevail on his lovely mother to wean him,
and at the very time of which I am speaking, our little settlement was
invaded one night by a tribe of those large baboons called
ourang-outangs, pongos, or wild men of the woods, who did great mischief
to our fruits, yams, and carrots. From that time we kept a great number
of guns loaded, and set a watch; and at length the depredators were
again discovered. We pursued them as far as the Keys river, which they
swam, and we lost them.
Among all the depredators, there was none fell but one youngling, which
I lifted in my arms, when it looked so pitifully, and cried so like a
child, that my heart bled for it. A large monster, more than six feet
high, perceiving that he had lost his cub, returned brandishing a huge
club, and grinning at me. I wanted to restore the abominable brat, for I
could not bear the thought of killing it, it was so like a human
creature; but before I could do this, several shots had been fired by my
companions at the hideous monster, which caused him once more to take to
his heels, but turning oft as he fled, he made threatening gestures at
me. A Kousi servant that we had, finished the cub, and I caused it to be
buried.
The very morning after that but one, Agnes and her black maid were
milking our few cows upon the green: I was in the garden, and William
was toddling about pulling flowers, when, all at once, the women were
alarmed by the sight of a tremendous ourang-outang issuing from our
house, which they had just left. They seemed to have been struck dumb
and senseless with amazement, for not one of them uttered a sound, until
the monster, springing forward, in one moment, snatched up the child and
made off with him. Before I reached the green where the cows stood, the
ourang-outang was fully half a mile gone, and only the poor, feeble
exhausted women running screaming after him. Before I overtook the
women, I heard the agonized cries of my dear boy, my darling William, in
the paws of that horrible monster. I pursued, breathless and altogether
unnerved with agony; but, alas! I rather lost than gained ground.
These animals have this peculiarity, that when they are walking
leisurely or running down-hill, they walk upright like a human being;
but when hard pressed on level ground, or up hill, they use their long
arms as fore-legs, and then run with inconceivable swiftness. When
flying with their own young, the greater part of them will run nearly
twice as fast as an ordinary man, for the cubs cling to them with both
feet and hands, but as my poor William shrunk from the monster's touch,
he was obliged to embrace him closely with one paw, and run on three,
and still in that manner he outran me. Keeping still his distance before
me, he reached the Keys river, and there the last gleam of hope closed
on me, for I could not swim while the ourang-outang, with much
acuteness, threw the child across his shoulders, held him by the feet
with one paw, and with the other three stemmed the river, though then in
flood, with amazing rapidity. It was at this dreadful moment that my
beloved babe got his eyes on me as I ran across the plain towards him,
and I saw him holding up his little hands in the midst of the foaming
flood, and crying out, "Pa! pa! pa!" which he seemed to utter with a
sort of desperate joy at seeing me approach.
Alas, that sight was the last, for in two minutes thereafter the monster
vanished, with my dear child, in the jungles and woods beyond the river,
and then my course was stayed, for to have thrown myself in, would only
have been committing suicide, and leaving a destitute widow in a foreign
land. I was quickly aroused by the sight of twelve of my countrymen
coming full speed across the plain on my track. They were all armed and
stripped for the pursuit, and four of them, some of whom you know, Adam
Johnstone, Adam Haliday, Peter Carruthers, and Joseph Nicholson, being
excellent swimmers, plunged at once into the river and swam across,
though not without both difficulty and danger, and without loss of time
continued the pursuit.
The remainder of us, nine in number, were obliged to go half a day's
journey up the river, to a place called Shekah, where the Tambookies
dragged us over on a hurdle; and we there procured a Kousi, who had a
hound, which he pretended could follow the track of an ourang-outang
over the whole world. We kept at a running pace the whole afternoon; and
at the fall of night, came up with Peter Carruthers, who had lost the
other three. A singular adventure had befallen to himself. He and his
companions had agreed to keep within call of each other; but as he
advanced, he conceived he heard the voice of a child crying behind him
to the right, on which he turned off in that direction, but heard no
more of the wail. As he was searching, however, he perceived an
ourang-outang steal from a thicket, which, nevertheless, it seemed loath
to leave. When he pursued it, it fled slowly, as if with intent to
entice him in pursuit from the spot; but when he turned towards the
thicket, it immediately followed. Peter was armed with a pistol and
rapier; but his pistol and powder had been rendered useless by swimming
the river, and he had nothing to depend on but his rapier. The creature
at first was afraid of the pistol, and kept aloof; but seeing no fire
issue from it, it came nigher and nigher, and seemed determined to have
a scuffle with Carruthers for the possession of the thicket. At length
it shook its head, grinning with disdain, and motioned him to fling the
pistol away as of no use; it then went and brought two great clubs, of
which it gave him the choice, to fight with it. There was something so
bold, and at the same time so generous in this, that Peter took one as
if apparently accepting the challenge; but that moment he pulled out his
gleaming rapier, and ran at the hideous brute, which frightened it so
much, that it uttered two or three loud grunts like a hog, and scampered
off; but soon turning, it threw the club at Peter with such a certain
aim, that it had very nigh killed him.
He saw no more of the animal that night; but when we found Carruthers,
he was still lingering about the spot, persuaded that my child was
there. We watched the thicket all night, and at the very darkest hour,
judge of my trepidation when I heard the cries of a child in the
thicket, almost close by me, and well could distinguish that the cries
proceeded from the mouth of my own dear William. We all rushed
spontaneously into the thicket, and all towards the same point; but
found nothing. I cried on my boy's name, but all was again silent, and
we heard no more. He only uttered three cries, and then we all heard
distinctly that his crying was stopped by something stuffed into his
mouth. Before day, we heard some movement in the thicket, and though
heard by us all at the same time, each of us took it for one of our
companions moving about; and it was not till long after the sun was up,
that we at length discovered a bed up among the thick branches of a
tree, and not above twelve feet from the ground; but the occupants had
escaped, and no doubt remained but that they were now far beyond our
reach.
We then tried the dog, and by him we learned the way the fliers had
taken; but that was all, for as the day grew warm, he lost all traces
whatever. We searched over all the country for many days, but could find
no traces of my dear boy, either dead or alive; and at length were
obliged to return home weary and broken-hearted.
About three months after this sad calamity, one evening, on returning
home from my labour, my Agnes was missing, and neither her maid-servant,
nor one of all the settlers, could give the least account of her. My
suspicions fell instantly on the Kousi chief, Karoo, for I knew that he
had been in our vicinity hunting, and remembered his threat. I and three
of my companions now set out and travelled night and day, till we came
to the chief's head-quarters. Karoo denied the deed; but still in such a
manner that my suspicions were confirmed. I threatened him terribly with
the vengeance of his friend captain Johnstone, and the English army at
the Cape, saying, I would burn him and all his wives and his people with
fire. He wept out of fear and vexation, and offered me the choice of his
wives, or any two of them, shewing me a great number of them, many of
whom he recommended for their great beauty and fatness; and I believe he
would have given me any number if I would have gone away satisfied. But
the language of the interpreter being in a great measure unintelligible,
we all deemed that he said repeatedly that Karoo _would not give the
lady up_.
What was I now to do? We had not force in our own small settlement to
compel Karoo to restore her; and I was therefore obliged to buy a
trained ox, on which I rode all the way to the next British settlement,
for there are no horses in that country. There I found captain Johnstone
with three companies of the 72nd, watching the inroads of the savage
Boshesmen. He was greatly irritated at Karoo, and dispatched lieutenant
McKenzie, and fifty men along with me, to chastise the aggressor. When
the chief saw the Highlanders, he was terrified out of his wits; but,
nevertheless, not knowing what else to do, he prepared for resistance,
after once more proffering me the choice of his wives.
Just when we were on the eve of commencing a war, which must have been
ruinous to our settlement, a black servant of Adam Johnstone came to me,
and said that I ought not to fight and kill his good chief, for that he
had not the white woman. I was astonished, and asked the Kaffre what he
meant, when he told me that he himself saw my wife carried across the
river by a band of pongos, (ourang-outangs), but he had always kept it a
secret, for fear of giving me distress, as they were too far gone for
pursuit when be beheld them. He said they had her bound, and were
carrying her gently on their arms, but she was either dead or in a
swoon, for she was not crying, and her long hair was hanging down.
A whole year passed over my head like one confused dream; another came,
and during the greater part of it my mind was very unsettled. About the
beginning of last year, a strange piece of intelligence reached our
settlement. It was said that two maids of Kamboo had been out on the
mountains of Norroweldt gathering fruits, where they had seen a pongo
taller than any Kousi, and that this pongo had a beautiful white boy
with him, for whom he was gathering the choicest fruits, and the boy was
gambolling and playing around him, and leaping on his shoulders. We
applied to Karoo for assistance, who had a great number of slaves from
that country, much attached to him, who knew the language of the place
whither we were going, and all the passes of the country. He complied
readily with our request, giving us an able and intelligent guide, with
as many of his people as we chose. We raised in all fifty Malays and
Kousis; nine British soldiers, and every one of the settlers that could
bear arms, went with us, so that we had in all nearly a hundred men, the
blacks being armed with pikes, and all the rest with swords, guns, and
pistols. We journeyed for a whole week, travelling much by night, and
resting in the shade by day, and at last we came to the secluded
district of which we were in search, and in which we found a temporary
village, or camp, of one of these independent inland tribes.
From this people we got the heart-stirring intelligence, that a whole
colony of pongos had taken possession of that country, and would soon be
masters of it all; for that the Great Spirit had sent them a Queen from
the country beyond the sun, to teach them to speak, and work, and go to
war; and that she had the entire power over them, and would not suffer
them to hurt any person who did not offer offence to them; that they
knew all she said to them, and answered her, and lived in houses and
kindled fires like other people, and likewise fought rank and file. That
they had taken one of the maidens of their own tribe to wait upon the
Queen's child; but because the girl wept, the Queen caused them to set
her at liberty.
I was now rent between hope and terror--hope that this was my own wife
and child, and terror that they would be rent in pieces by the savage
monsters rather than given up. Of this last, the Lockos (the name of
this wandering tribe) assured us, we needed not to entertain any
apprehensions, for that they would, every one of them die, rather than
wrong a hair of their Queen's head. That very night, being joined by the
Lockos, we surrounded the colony by an extensive circle, and continuing
to close as we advanced. By the break of day we had them closely
surrounded. The monsters flew to arms at the word of command, nothing
daunted, forming a close circle round their camp and Queen, the
strongest of the males being placed outermost, and the females inmost,
but all armed alike, and all having the same demure and melancholy
faces. The circle being so close that I could not see inside, I went
with the nine red-coats to the top of a cliff, that, in some degree,
overlooked the encampment, in order that, if my Agnes really was there,
she might understand who was near her. Still I could not discover what
was within, but I called her name aloud several times, and in about five
minutes after that, the whole circle of tremendous brutal warriors flung
away their arms and retired backward, leaving an open space for me to
approach their Queen.
In the most dreadful trepidation I entered between the hideous files,
being well guarded by soldiers on either hand, and followed by the rest
of the settlers; and there I indeed beheld my wife, my beloved Agnes,
standing ready to receive me, with little William in her right hand, and
a beautiful chubby daughter in her left, about two years old, and the
very image of her mother. The two children looked healthy and beautiful,
with their fur aprons, but it struck me at first that my beloved was
much altered: it was only, however, caused by her internal commotion, by
feelings which overpowered her grateful heart.
As soon as Agnes was somewhat restored, I proposed that we should
withdraw from the camp of her savage colony; but she refused, and told
me, that she behoved to part with her protectors on good terms, and that
she must depart without any appearance of compulsion, which they might
resent; and we actually rested ourselves during the heat of the day in
the shades erected by those savage inhabitants of the forest. My wife
went to her hoard of provisions, and distributed to every one of the
pongos his share of fruit, succulent herbs, and roots, which they ate
with great composure.
Agnes then stood up and made a speech to her subjects, accompanying her
expressions with violent motions and contortions, to make them
understand her meaning. They understood it perfectly; for when they
heard that she and her children were to leave them, they set up such a
jabbering of lamentation as British ears never heard. We then formed a
close circle round Agnes and the children, to the exclusion of the
pongos that still followed behind, howling and lamenting; and that night
we lodged in the camp of the Lockos, placing a triple guard round my
family, of which there stood great need. We durst not travel by night,
but we contrived two covered hurdles, in which we carried Agnes and the
children, and for three days a considerable body of the tallest and
strongest of the ourang-outangs attended our steps.
We reached our own settlement one day sooner than we took in marching
eastward; but then I durst not remain for a night, but getting into a
vessel, I sailed straight for the Cape.
My Agnes's part of the story is the most extraordinary of all. The
creatures' motives for stealing and detaining her appears to have been
as follows:--
These animals remain always in distinct tribes, and are perfectly
subordinate to a chief or ruler, and his secondary chiefs. For their
expedition to rob our gardens, they had brought their sovereign's sole
heir along with them, as they never leave any of the royal family behind
them, for fear of a surprisal. It was this royal cub which we killed,
and the Queen his mother having been distractedly inconsolable for the
loss of her darling, the old monarch had set out by night to try if
possible to recover it; and on not finding it, he seized on my boy in
its place, carried him home in safety to his Queen, and gave her him to
nurse! She did so. Yes she positively did nurse him at her breast for
three months, and never child throve better than he did. By that time he
was beginning to walk, and aim at speech, by imitating every voice he
heard, whether of beast or bird; and it had struck the monsters as a
great loss, that they had no means of teaching their young sovereign to
speak, at which art he seemed so apt. This led to the scheme of stealing
his own mother to be his instructor, which they effected in the most
masterly style, binding and gagging her in her own house, and carrying
her from a populous hamlet in the fair forenoon, without having been
discovered.
Agnes immediately took her boy under her tuition, and was soon given to
understand that her will was to be the sole law of the community; and
all the while that they detained her, they never refused her aught, save
to take her home again. Our little daughter she had named Beatrice,
after her maternal grandmother. She was born six months and six days
after Agnes's abstraction. She spoke highly of the pongos, of their
docility, generosity, warmth of affection to their mates and young ones,
and of their irresistible strength. At my wife's injunctions, or from
her example, they all wore aprons: and the females had let the hair of
their heads grow long. It was glossy black, and neither curled nor
woolly, and on the whole, I cannot help having a lingering affection for
the creatures. They would make the most docile, powerful, and
affectionate of all slaves; but they come very soon to their growth, and
are but shortlived, in that way approximating to the rest of the brute
creation. They live entirely on fruits, roots, and vegetables, and taste
no animal food whatever.
I asked Agnes much of the civility of their manner to her, and she
always describes it as respectful and uniform. For awhile she never
thought herself quite safe when near the Queen, but the dislike of the
latter to her arose entirely out of the boundless affection for the boy.
No mother could possibly be fonder of her offspring than this
affectionate creature was of William, and she was jealous of his mother
for taking him from her, and causing him to be weaned. But then the
chief never once left the two Queens by themselves; they had always a
guard day and night. Win. MITCHELL.
Vander Creek,
Near Cape Town.
Oct. 1. 1826.
_Blackwood's Magazine._
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