IN THE BLUE SHADOW OF TABLE MOUNTAIN
The blue shadow of Table Mountain falls straight across the 'Flats,'
or the sandy isthmus of the Cape Peninsula--a long, intensely blue
line stretching from one ocean to the other.
In 1653 this shadow meant something more than a beautiful shade; it
was a boundary-line; it meant safety and shade within its depth, war
and barbarians beyond.
Along its borders were dotted small forts and watch-houses; there were
even the beginnings of a canal running parallel with the definite
shade, to intensify its significance.
The Dutch East India Company's long-suffering and harassed Commander,
Van Riebeek, with infinite undertaking of dangers and difficulties,
wild beasts, Hottentots, and quicksands, rode across it, and fixed its
boundaries as proper limits to the Settlements, which its most
honourable directors were pleased to call 'Goode Hoop.'
The blue shadow begins on the other side of the Wind Mountain or
Devil's Peak, and we will go where it leads.
In 1663 there was a narrow road running close up to the mountain
rather higher up than the present dusty main road. It ran as far as
Rondebosch, or 'Rond die Bostje,' whose round-wood traditions are
untraceable, Van Riebeek having given orders that only the outer
bushes should be preserved as a convenient kraal for cattle. Along
this narrow road a small ox-cart rumbled every day from the fort in
Cape Town, dragging home logs of wood from the almost unknown land
beyond; its driver running momentary risk of meeting in the narrow way
the lions, tigers, or rhino, that roamed the mountain slopes.
One end of the shadow falls into the sea at Maitland or Paarden
Island, and covers some stretches of beach, small houses, and railway
workshops. There the rivers meet--the Diep River from Milnerton, the
Liesbeek and the Black Rivers from across the Flats. They join and
form the Salt River, a wide, overflowing stream that is constantly
flooding the green lands between the sea and the old Trek road to the
north.
In the old days, this beach between Salt River and Milnerton was the
setting of tragedies: backed in on the north and east by the
Blaauwberg Mountains and the Stellenbosch Ranges, and on the
south-east by the Hottentot's Holland.
From behind the Blaauwberg, or Blueberg, came that long thin stream of
Saldanhas from the north, lighting their fires among the rushes of the
Diep River and the Salt Pans near the Tigerberg or Leopard Mountains,
which are the green, corn-sown hills of Durbanville and Klipheuvel.
They brought with them, past the outpost 'Doornhoop' on the Salt
River, to the very gates of Van Riebeek's Fort, then standing where
the railway station now is, cattle and sheep and wonderful stories of
rich countries to the north and north-east, where kings lived in
stationary stone houses and had much gold, their wives loaded with
bracelets and having necklaces of sparkling white stones! The little
dysentery-stricken settlement, growing thin and determined on a carrot
and a snack of rhinoceros, opened the gates, bought the scurvy cattle,
believed the stories, and had visions of reaching the fabulously
renowned river 'Spirito Sancto.' They dragged their waggons and their
precious oxen and horses over the scrub and sand-dunes; and now one
may see the fruits of these brave but small expeditions in carefully
compiled but imaginative maps and plans, telling of how one or another
reached the banks of the Orange River and found 'a great desert,' but
found no great kings, no gold, no cities.
[Illustration: BLAAUWBERG AND HEAD OF TABLE BAY]
Lying close to the shore are many wrecks, an old order which has
changed but slowly.
This corner of the bay was a dangerous roadstead before the year 1653.
A scurvy gang of bastard natives called 'Watermen' or 'Beach Rangers,'
crawling like mammoth cockroaches among the seaweed and wreckage, had
eked out their monstrous living long before the _Harlem_ dragged her
anchor and stranded at the mouth of the Salt River.
A grand string of names in the records of these old wrecks; no cheap
sloops, galleots, or second-rate pirating-hulks, but big, stately
merchantmen: one, from France, _La Maréchale_, with a Bishop on board
who is uncommonly like the man who became a Cardinal during the reign
of 'Le Roi Soleil.' He was on his way to Madagascar with something
political behind his mad-sounding schemes for church-building (on such
a sparsely inhabited island) and for personally endowing the buildings
to the tune of hundreds of thousands; it may be heresy, but there was
something politically consequent in the extraordinary story of this
wreck of _La Maréchale_ and the energy of the French seal-fisheries at
Saldanha Bay.
To continue the rôle of backstairs glory: an English ship--a
well-known name, _The Mayflower_--on her way from the east with John
Howard, her captain, got a bad time in the terrible bay, tearing winds
coming from the 'Wind Mountain' and across from Robben Island.
The clearing of the roadsteads became almost a yearly festival and a
certain necessity.
So the blue shadow begins by the sea and ends by the sea; but to reach
the other end will take us in a motor more than thirty minutes; an
ox-waggon lumbering across sandy dunes and along stony mountain-paths
took the early settlers something more than a day or two. We did it
riding, and took something like a month; but one must compromise to
really enjoy life.
We rode one day along the main road to Rondebosch, where the old
Commanders would ride out two hundred years ago, to inspect the
Company's granary, 'Groote Schuur,' and the Company's guesthouse,
'Rustenburg.'
The Cape Town length of the road has little of interest. 'Roodebloem'
comes into the list of old homesteads; and down in the swampy green
fields of Observatory Road, where the clerk life of Cape Town has its
two acres and a cow, and near the Royal Observatory, lived the
Company's free miller; and the Liesbeek waters worked his mill. There
is still an old mill in existence, but probably of later date.
[Illustration: TIGERBERG AND DIEP RIVER]
In 1658 the Company gave grants of land along the Liesbeek River,
mostly all along the west side, beginning with the swampy land below
the Wind Mountain or Devil's Peak, granted to the Commander's
nephew-in-law, Jan Reyniez, and ending on the south side,
somewhere in Wynberg, with the lands of Jacob Cloeten of Cologne. The
burghers, having formed into three companies--one called Vredens
Company--lying in lands on the wrong side of the river at Rosebank,
sent in a petition, which was forwarded with all due delay to the
Commander and Council, who, 'having found, according to the many deeds
and diagrams, that the land is quite dangerously situated, the owners
being exposed to the depredations of the Hottentots,' granted new
lands near the Company's orchard, called 'Rustenburg.'
The conditions laid down by the Company to freemen varied slightly in
each little colony: there were three along the Blue shadow:
'1. They might fish in the rivers, but not for sale.
'2. The Company would _sell_ them at ploughing time a plough
and twelve oxen. The ground should be theirs for ever.
'3. That they should grow tobacco.'
These are some of the rules. Everyone knows the story of how the rules
later became unbearable--the fixing of selling-prices by the Company,
the paying of taxes, the limitations set on selling produce to the
ships.
The conditions, however, and the dangers from the Hottentots on the
east side of the shadow, were thankfully accepted.
In the old records there is the entry which explains the position of
these little colonies:
'_February 21, 1657._
'Fine sunshine, fickle weather.'
'Many having been informed of the intention of the Masters
to establish freemen all about and under favourable
conditions, a party of five selected a locality on the
other side of the Fresh River (Liesbeek), named by us the
Amstel, _below_ the forests and beyond it where our
woodcutters are, near the crooked tree about three leagues
from the Fort, and as long and broad as they wished it, on
condition that they were to remain on the other side of the
river. Another party of four selected a spot about a league
nearer, at the Rondebosjen, on this side of the river or
Amstel, from the small bridge leading to the forest as far
as the spot chosen for the redoubt, near where the bird
trap is to be built. The boundary of that land will be
three-quarters of a league long, the river will divide them
from the other party, and they will go back as far as they
like to Table Mountain and the other mountains. The party
of five may go forward towards the mountains of the
continent proper, as far as they like; these two parties
are therefore stationed right on the isthmus in fruitful
soil. The further colony has therefore been named Amstel,
or the Groeneveld, and the farthest redoubt will be about
quarter of a league beyond it. The nearer colony at
Rondebosjen (which is to be converted into a cattle kraal
and to be provided with a gate) is to be called the "Dutch
garden." A redoubt will also be built there.'
And then began some amusing correspondence between the Honorable
Commander and his honorable employers at Amsterdam.
Very few of these freemen had wives. Jan Reyniez had married the
Commander's niece Lysbeth, Jacob Cloeten sent to Cologne for Frau
Fychje Raderoffjes, and a few other wives were ordered out; but,
grumbled the Council from this strenuous settlement, 'Here are good
freemen, who would willingly marry if there were any material
(_stoffe_)'--to quote from the old documents--
'These young men have accordingly prayed and begged us [the
Council spared no words] to ask girls (_meis-jen_) for
them, whom they may marry. We therefore request
outward-bound families to bring with them strong, healthy
farm girls, and the Company would make the condition that,
when arriving at the Cape, the good ones might be retained
and all others permitted to go on; as between Patria and
this, it will be easily discovered what sort of persons
they are.'
So in like manner, as bread fell from heaven to the Israelites in the
desert, or as the British Government supplied wives to their Virginian
Colonies, came wives to the freemen at the Cape. But rather hard for
the families who were to have their good maids retained.
It is a surprising thing, in looking over the old Roll-call, to find
so few old Cape names. The varying forms of spelling may account for
this.
In the old title-deeds one finds some lands in Table Valley granted to
one Cornelius Mostaert, a well-known name; then there are mentioned
Cloeten, Cloetas, Muller, Theunissen, Visagie, and a Van der Byl, who
was a 'messenger of justice,' and rode from Cape Town to the Bosheuvel
on his rounds; but the large majority are almost unknown names.
But we have arrived at Rustenburg, off the wagon road which leads to
the forest on the slopes of the Bosheuvel, or 'Hen and Chickens Hill,'
where Amman Erichiszen, the keeper of the forest lands, planted most
energetically the great pine-trees which now, like an invincible army,
have marched over all the lands.
It is said that the original buildings at Rustenburg have been
destroyed. Marinus and I choose to think differently, as the position
of the present building must be on the exact spot. Rustenburg has
degenerated into a high school for girls, and bears itself like an
aristocrat in the stocks. Its long teak windows and rows of Doric
pillars look imposing enough to suggest the ancient glories which are
so carefully recorded: 'This day the Commander takes out a party to
inspect the Company's corn-lands at Rond die Bosje'--Van Riebeek on
his famous horse, 'Groote Vos'; Maria de Quellerai, his wife, in a
coach with the guests; Governors on their way to the East--the Great
Drakenstein, Van Oudtshoorn, Governor Van Goens, the Java Commander
who gave so much advice on his way to and fro, the Van der Stels still
working in the East; the Admirals of Return and Outward
Fleets--Vlemdingh, Van Tromp, De Reuyter--with their wives and
families; the famous Commander of the French Fleet, M. le Marquis du
Quesne, and so many others. Do their ghosts disturb the dreams of the
little high-school 'backfish'?
At the back of the Rustenburg buildings, to the left, following a path
which was probably a way to the Groote Schuur, are the remains of some
old orchard lands, and some years ago I remember going with a troop of
excited girls, in the terrifying hour of twilight, to see the old
slave burial-place, which lay to the right of a path leading to the
summer-house and 'Rustbank'--a small white seat still to be seen near
the little red-roofed tea-house. To the right of this spot is the
house called 'The Woolsack,' where Rudyard Kipling has lived every
summer for years. Here were remains of graves, old bits of tombstone,
old decaying skulls--oh! the horror and pleasure of these evening
desecrations! An orgie for the emotions which makes one adore the
past.
Above the Woolsack towers the Wind Mountain, on its slopes the white
and grey granite temple of the Rhodes Monument.
THE RHODES MEMORIAL.
One day someone sat gazing at the big Devils Peak, which shadows
Groote Schuur and stands like a rampart of the Citadel Mountain
behind. As he gazed he became inspired; he said: 'There should be a
monument to Rhodes, just there, on those steep green slopes under the
Watch House, where the heavy Dutch cannon were dragged up to defend
the bay.' The Rhodes trustees rose up and formed the chorus.
So began the drama of the monument.
The players were reinforced. Watts from London sent a huge bronze
group, Physical Energy, which is the beginning in the game of
progress. John Swan, with his wonderful head of a Michael Angelo
prophet and a later Roman Emperor, Rodin of the English, came himself
and drew designs for paradoxical lions.
This was our train of mind as we rode up the fir avenue of Groote
Schuur bordered with blue periwinkle flowers.
[Illustration: BLUE HYDRANGEAS AT GROOTE SCHUUR]
Home of Rhodes and a hostel for passing visitors of name and fame, it
was the 'Great Barn' of long ago--the Great Barn where the 'Company's'
corn, grown under such difficulties, was stored in times of
plenty, that there should be food for the Company's servants, ever
busy fighting off the Hottentots across the Flats, when the Batavian
Directors, with great omnipotence, decreed that the homeward-bound
fleet should find no room to carry rice to the vegetable settlement of
Bonne Esperance. For the Company settled in the shadow, not to found
an empire beyond the seas, but to 'grow vegetables for their ships.'
Groote Schuur, the great barn with its present building carefully
imitative, its masses of blue hydrangeas and wisteria, white-walled
terraces of plumbago and magenta bougainvillæa, and its tall
pine-trees and deep, fern-banked glen.
There is something adorable in the green plaque over the front
entrance--and instinctively it is _chapeau bas_--a small group of
Dutchmen and Hottentots on the seashore--'The Landing of Van Riebeek.'
The simplicity of the thing starts the weaving of the spell, which, in
the plod, plod of life at the Cape, is a forgotten aspect. No nation
can ever be great that has no time for sentimental patriotism. Why is
it that this Africa cannot hold its people? There is talk of the Call
of the Sun, but it does not hold fast, this Sun call. If Progress goes
north and all new effort must wander away from the Patria, it must not
be allowed to wander without the shibboleth of sentiment. A domestic
simile would be invidious.
Marinus, my guide, is used to my wanderings, and the horses are slowly
climbing the steep gravelled path behind the house. Past cool woods
filled with arum lilies and fantastic, twisted young oaks, looking to
the heated imagination like fauns and satyrs, which send back one's
mind to a long-ago atmosphere of mythology.
This atmosphere increases, and culminates at the Temple of the
monument.
In a large sloping field to the right of the path live, in happy
monotony, four or five llamas, while in another teak-gated enclosure
the striped zebras are gazing in mild surprise at a fierce wildebeeste
stalking along the other side of the thin wire fence.
Far across the purple sandy flats with their blue barriers to the
north--the 'Mountains of Africa'--lie the big vleis, or lakes, and
near them the tall white spire of the tiny Lutheran church, little
shepherd of all the German souls who cluster round in white farms,
growing lettuce on week-days and singing Lutheran hymns on Sunday.
At the top of the gravel road, almost buried in a kloof of stunted
oaks and yellow protea-bush, is a cottage, where the two sons of that
fat King of the Matabele, Lobengula, lived and were educated. What has
happened to them since Rhodes's death I do not know; they may be
studying French and science at the Sorbonne, or, having married
somebody's 'respectable English housemaid,' may be the happy fathers
of a tinted family of pupil teachers or typewriters!
We climbed higher, and were soon in the shadow of the Devil's Peak or
Doves Peak.
The name 'Devil' must have drifted from the 'Cape' to the Wind
Mountain. 'Windberg' was the ordinary name for the Peak, and 'Devil's
Cape' was the name given to the Cape many years before Diaz's ship was
driven round into the Indian Ocean.
Humboldt, the German traveller, has interesting information about this
name. He says that on Fra Mauro's world chart, published between 1457
and 1459, the Cape of Good Hope is marked 'Capo Di Diab!'
Diaz, to his surprise and unintention, rounded the Cape in 1486.
But even before this, others than the 'Flying Dutchman' sailed these
seas. On the old planisphere of 'Semito,' made in 1306, the tricorned
shape of South Africa is shown, and in a note added later to the
planisphere it is stated that an Indian junk coming from the East
circumnavigated this Cape 'Diab.'
To those who have thought of this Cape as shrouded in mystery until
the Portuguese sailors rounded it, the shock might be similar to the
state of mind of the Ignoble Vulgar (used in the sense of ignorance),
who find, one day, that quite a decent system of education existed
before the Flood; but shattering a fallacious perspective may not
necessarily widen a horizon, and Sheba's Mines of Ophir, the voyages
of the Phoenicians, Moorish slavers, Indian junks, gold, and apes,
and peacocks, and Flying Dutchmen, may still be in the jig-saw pattern
border of South Africa.
Groups of almond-trees guide us to two cement and iron cages. There,
lying blinking benignly in the sun, are the famous lions of Groote
Schuur--almost monuments in themselves.
Did not their ancestors roam over these very slopes of the mountain,
and swoop down into the cornfields and ricefields of the Company's
burghers, seeking water and shelter from the raging north winds, in
the comfortable piece of land 'Rond die Bosch' below?
Passing the lions, we are still mounting to the east ridge of the
Peak. Somewhere George Eliot says, 'attempts at description are
stupid--how can one describe a human being?' The assertion does not
apply entirely to human beings. Who but refuses to bear attempt at
minute description, and who but would fail in the attempt to describe
the wonderful view which suddenly appears--the shining blue rim of
Table Bay, a harmony in blue and silver, Watts's 'Energy' in
silhouette, the giant horse and rider dominating a huge precipice, the
precipice which is the narrow, flat, and sandy isthmus of the
Peninsula? All round and down the slopes are soft, green forests of
firs.
[Illustration: THE BLUE SHADOW--VIEW FROM RHODES' MONUMENT]
The inscription on the statue runs: 'Physical Energy, by G. F. Watts,
R.A., and by him given to the Genius of Rhodes.'
From the foot of the group in bronze and granite we look up the huge
steps to the grey granite temple, the grey rocks of the mountain
behind, and the 'Silver-Trees' keep the eye and senses running along
the gamut of greys.
Behind the tall pillars runs another inscription--'Dedicated to the
Spirit and Life Work of Cecil John Rhodes.' The paradox to this will
be found in the statue, or bust, of Cecil John, to be placed by the
trustees in the niche below. It is in the nature of man to embody,
allegorically, in human form, virtues and vices, but surely it were
better to leave the good deeds of the man, which belonged to the
Spirit, in the care of this wonderful grey granite temple. To the Life
and Spirit! Few bodies make temples worthy of the Spirit, and Cecil
John failed to prove the rule. But 'how truly great is the Actual, is
the Thing, that has rescued itself from bottomless depths of theory
and possibility, and stands as a definite indisputable fact ...' and
the Knowledge and the Practice, which are the elements of the mighty
Physical Energy, hang over the abyss of the Known, the Practicable.
The man and his life 'rest on solidity and some kind of truth.'
So we came down from the heights.