A melancholy feeling clouded the features of Alexander Wilmot as, on the
following morning, the vessel, under a heavy press of sail, was fast
leaving the shores of his native country. He remained on the poop of
the vessel with his eyes fixed upon the land, which every moment became
more indistinct. His thoughts may easily be imagined. Shall I ever see
that land again? Shall I ever return, or shall my bones remain in
Africa, perhaps not even buried, but bleaching in the desert? And if I
do return, shall I find my old relation still alive, or called away,
loaded as he is with years, to the silent tomb? We are in the hands of
a gracious God. His will be done.
Alexander turned away, as the land had at last become no longer visible,
and found a young man of about his own age standing close to him, and
apparently as much lost in reverie as he had been. As in turning round
Alexander brushed against him, he thought it right to apologise for the
unintentional act, and this occasioned a conversation.
"I believe, sir," said the other party, who was a tall, spare,
slight-built man, with a dark complexion, "that we were both indulging
in similar thoughts as we took leave of our native shores. Every
Englishman does the same, and indeed every true lover of his country,
let the country be what it will. We find the feeling as strong in the
savage as in the enlightened; it is universal. Indeed, we may fairly
say that it extends lower down to the brute species, from their love of
localities."
"Very true, sir," replied Alexander; "but with brutes, as you say, it is
merely the love of locality; with men, I trust, the feeling is more
generous and noble."
"So it ought to be, or else why are we so much more nobly endowed? This
is not your first voyage, I presume?" continued the stranger.
"Indeed, it is," said Alexander; "I never was out of England, or on
board of a vessel, before yesterday."
"I should have imagined otherwise," remarked his companion: "the other
passengers are all suffering from sea-sickness, while you and I only are
on the deck. I presumed, therefore, that you had been afloat before."
"I did feel very giddy yesterday evening," observed Alexander, "but this
morning I have no unpleasant sensation whatever. I believe that some
people do not suffer at sea."
"A very few; but it appears that you are one of those most fortunate,
for by experience I know how painful and distressing the sickness is for
some time. Breakfast will soon be ready; do you think that you can eat
any?"
"Yes, a little--not much; a cup of tea or coffee," replied Alexander;
"but I cannot say that I have my usual appetite. What bird is that
which skims along the water?"
"It is the _procellarius_, as we naturalists call it, but in English,
the stormy petrel; its presence denotes rough weather coming."
"Then I wish it had not made its appearance," said Alexander, laughing;
"for with rough weather, there will of course be more motion in the
vessel, and I feel the motion too much already."
"I think if you eat your breakfast (although without appetite), and keep
on deck, you may get over any further indisposition," replied the
stranger.
"Have we many passengers on board?"
"No; nine or ten, which is considered a small number, at least by the
captain, who was complaining of his ill-luck. They are mostly females
and children. There is a Cape gentleman who has long resided in the
colony, and is now returning there. I have had some conversation with
him, and he appears a very intelligent person. But here is the steward
coming aft, to let us know that breakfast is ready."
The person who had thus conversed with Alexander Wilmot was a Mr
Swinton, who, as he had accidentally observed, was a naturalist; he was
a person of some independent property, whose ardour for science had
induced him to engage in no profession, being perfectly satisfied with
his income, which was sufficient for his wants and to enable him to
follow up his favourite study. He was now on his passage to the Cape of
Good Hope, with no other object than to examine the natural productions
of that country, and to prosecute his researches in science there, to a
greater extent than had hitherto been practicable.
Before they had arrived at Madeira, at which island the ship remained
three days to take in wine and fresh provisions, a great intimacy had
been established between Alexander and Mr Swinton, although as yet
neither knew the cause of the other's voyage to the Cape; they were both
too delicate to make the inquiry, and waited till the other should of
his own accord impart his reasons.
We have mentioned that there were other passengers, one of whom was a
gentleman who resided in Cape Town, and who held a lucrative situation
under the government. He was an elderly gentleman, of about sixty years
of age, of a very benign and prepossessing appearance; and it so
happened that Alexander found out, on looking over his letters of
introduction when at anchor at Madeira, that he possessed one to this
gentleman. This of course he presented at once, although they were
already on intimate terms; and this introduction made Mr Fairburn (for
such was his name) take an immediate interest in his welfare, and also
warranted his putting the question, as to what were Alexander's views
and intentions in visiting the Cape: for Mr Fairburn knew from the
letter that he was heir to Sir Charles Wilmot, and therefore that he was
not likely to be going out as a speculator or emigrant.
It hardly need be said that Alexander made no hesitation in confiding to
one who could so materially assist him in the object of his voyage.
The other passengers were three young ladies bound to their friends in
India, and a lady returning with her two marriageable daughters to
rejoin her husband, who was a colonel in the Bengal army. They were all
pleasant people, the young ladies very lively, and on the whole the
cabin of the _Surprise_ contained a very agreeable party; and soon after
they left Madeira, they had fine weather, smooth water, and everything
that could make a voyage endurable.
The awnings were spread, chairs brought up, and the major portion of the
day was spent upon the quarter-deck and poop of the vessel, which for
many days had been running down before the trade-winds, intending to
make Rio, and there lay in a supply of fresh provisions for the
remainder of her voyage.
One morning, as Alexander and Mr Fairburn were sitting together,
Alexander observed--"You have passed many years at the Cape, Mr
Fairburn, have you not?"
"Yes; I was taken prisoner when returning from India, and remained a
year in Cape Town during the time that it was in the hands of the Dutch;
I was about to be sent home as a prisoner to Holland, and was embarked
on board of one of the vessels in Saldanha Bay, when they were attacked
by the English. Afterwards, when the English captured the Cape, from my
long residence in, and knowledge of, the country, I was offered a
situation, which I accepted: the colony was restored to the Dutch, and I
came home. On its second capture I was again appointed, and have been
there almost ever since."
"Then you are well acquainted with the history of the colony?"
"I am, certainly, and if you wish it, shall be happy to give you a short
account of it."
"It will give me the greatest pleasure, for I must acknowledge that I
know but little, and _that_ I have gleaned from the travels which I have
run through very hastily."
"I think it was in the year 1652 that the Dutch decided upon making a
settlement at the Cape. The aborigines, or natives, who inhabited that
part of the country about Cape Town, were the Hottentots, a mild,
inoffensive people, living wholly upon the produce of their cattle; they
were not agriculturists, but possessed large herds of cattle, sheep, and
goats, which ranged the extensive pastures of the country. The history
of the founding of one colony is, I fear, the history of most, if not
all--commencing in doing all that is possible to obtain the good-will of
the people until a firm footing has been obtained in the land, and then
treating them with barbarity and injustice.
"The Hottentots, won over by kindness and presents, thought it of little
consequence that strangers should possess a small portion of their
extensive territory, and willingly consented that the settlement should
be made. They, for the first time in their lives, tasted what proved
the cause of their ruin and subsequent slavery--tobacco and strong
liquors. These two poisons, offered gratuitously, till the poor
Hottentots had acquired a passion for them, then became an object of
barter--a pipe of tobacco or a glass of brandy was the price of an ox;
and thus daily were the colonists becoming enriched, and the Hottentots
poor.
"The colony rapidly increased, until it was so strong, that the governor
made no ceremony of seizing upon such land as the government wished to
retain or to give away; and the Hottentots soon discovered that not only
their cattle, but the means of feeding them, were taken from them.
Eventually, they were stripped of everything except their passion for
tobacco and spirits, which they could not get rid of. Unwilling to
leave the land of their fore-fathers, and seeing no other way of
procuring the means of intoxication which they coveted, they sold
themselves and their services to the white colonists, content to take
care of those herds which had once been their own, and to lead them out
to pasture on the very lands which had once been their birthright."
"Did they then become slaves?" inquired Alexander.
"No; although much worse treated, they never were slaves, and I wish to
point that out; but they became a sort of feudal property of the Dutch,
compelled to hire themselves out, and to work for them upon nominal
wages, which they seldom or never received, and liable to every species
of harsh treatment and cruelty, for which they could obtain no redress.
Yet still they were not bought and sold as were the slaves which were
subsequently introduced into the colony from the east coast of Africa
and Madagascar. The position of the slaves was, in my opinion,
infinitely superior, merely from the self-interest of the owner, who
would not kill or risk the life of a creature for whom he had paid two
or three hundred rixdollars; whereas, the Dutch boors, or planters,
thought little of the life of a Hottentot. If the cattle were to be
watched where lions were plentiful, it was not a slave who had charge of
them, but a Hottentot, as he had cost nothing, and the planter could
procure another. In short, the life of a Hottentot was considered as of
no value, and there is no denying that they were shot by their masters
or employers upon the most trifling offence."
"How dreadful! but did the Dutch government suffer this?"
"They could not well help it, and therefore were compelled to wink at
it; the criminals were beyond its reach. But now I will proceed to give
you some further insight, by describing the Dutch boors, or planters,
who usurped and stood in the shoes of the poor Hottentots.
"The Dutch government seized upon all the land belonging to the
Hottentots, and gave it away in grants to their own countrymen, who now
became herdsmen, and possessed of a large quantity of cattle; they also
cultivated the ground to a certain extent round about their habitations.
As the colony increased, so did the demand for land, until the whole of
the country that was worth having was disposed of as far as to the
country of the Caffres, a fine warlike race, of whom we will speak
hereafter. It must not, however, be supposed that the whole of the
Hottentot tribes became serfs to the soil. Some few drove away their
cattle to the northward, out of reach of the Dutch, to the borders of
the Caffre-land; others, deprived of their property, left the plains,
and took to the mountains, living by the chase and by plunder. This
portion were termed boshmen, or bushmen, and have still retained that
appellation: living in extreme destitution, sleeping in caves,
constantly in a state of starvation, they soon dwindled down to a very
diminutive race, and have continued so ever since.
"The Dutch boors, or planters, who lived in the interior, and far away
from Cape Town, had many enemies to contend with: they had the various
beasts of the forest, from the lion to the jackal, which devastated
their flocks and herds, and also these bushmen, who lived upon plunder.
Continually in danger, they were never without their muskets in their
hands, and they and their descendants became an athletic, powerful, and
bulky race, courageous, and skilled in the use of fire-arms, but at the
same time cruel and avaricious to the highest degree. The absolute
power they possessed over the slaves and Hottentots demoralised them,
and made them tyrannical and bloodthirsty. At too great a distance from
the seat of government for its power to reach them, they defied it, and
knew no law but their own imperious wills, acknowledging no authority,--
guilty of every crime openly, and careless of detection."
"I certainly have read of great cruelty on the part of these Dutch
boors, but I had no idea of the extent to which it was carried."
"The origin was in that greatest of all curses, slavery; nothing
demoralises so much. These boors had been brought up with the idea that
a Hottentot, a bushman, or a Caffre were but as the mere brutes of the
field, and they have treated them as such. They would be startled at
the idea of murdering a white man, but they will execute wholesale
slaughter among these poor natives, and think they have committed no
crime. But the ladies are coming up, and we shall be interrupted, so I
will not task your patience any more to-day. I shall therefore conclude
what I may term part the first of my little history of the Cape colony."