GLIMPSES OF SOUTH AFRICA.
Probably no section of the continent is more interesting in its history
than South Africa. The books which have been written upon the subject
would make quite a library in themselves.
Its coast was first visited in the latter part of the fifteenth century,
by Bartholomew Diaz, a Portuguese, in search of a passage to India. He
sailed along the western coast till he came to an inlet with a group of
islets at its mouth. Here he cast anchor, and landed with his crew.
The neighboring country was a dreary waste of sand. Not a trace of human
beings was to be found, nor could any food other than sea birds' eggs be
obtained there. Little wonder then that, after planting a cross as a
sign of possession, the Portuguese commander sailed away.
Early in the sixteenth century some white men, landing on the South
African coast, found that on one side rose a great mass of rock, over
three thousand feet in height, with its top marking a level line more
than a mile in length on the sky.
This grand mountain was flanked at either end with peaks less lofty,
which were supported by buttresses projecting towards the shore.
The recess was a capacious valley, down the center of which flowed a
stream of clear sweet water. The valley seemed to be without people, but
after a while some Hottentots made their appearance; and from them a cow
and two sheep were purchased.
The commander of the white men climbed to the top of the rock to which
he gave the name of Table Mountain.
The bay in which he had anchored his little fleet is the so-called Table
Bay.
The general conformation of the country is such that there are no
navigable rivers. The streams, even the very largest of them, are all
of the nature of mountain torrents, obstructed with rapids and falls,
and varying in volume with rain and drought.
There is an utter absence of secure harbors on the coast, except in
positions where they could be of little service in the early days of
exploration. In addition to all this, a very large portion of the land
along the eastern seaboard, as well as of the interior plains, is so dry
that it could be traversed only by degrees, as its slender resources
became known.
Though the Portuguese fleets to and from India doubled the Cape each
year, yet they seldom put in at any point south of Sofala, so unenviable
a reputation did the natives of South Africa bear.
In the course of time English, Dutch, and French ships followed in the
wake of the Portuguese fleets; but it was not till near the close of the
sixteenth century that the English flag was displayed for the first time
on South African soil.
Early in the seventeenth century, Table Bay became a port for the
purchase of cattle and provisions from the natives.
Just about the time the English flag was floating over South
Africa,--near the close of the sixteenth century,--the people of the
northern Netherland provinces were struggling bravely against Spanish
rule. These same people were destined to found the first European
settlement upon the South African coast.
The northern Netherland provinces soon became united as a free republic,
and ranked among the greatest commercial powers of the world.
Two great companies, the English East India and the Dutch East India,
were instrumental in locating stations along the South African coast.
In 1620, two English sea captains made an inspection of Table Bay, and
proclaimed the adjoining country to be under the rule of King James; but
this proclamation was never ratified. It is true that English ships
called at Table Bay, but the island of St. Helena was the usual port.
The Dutch fleets were in the habit of putting into Table Bay for fresh
water, to give the crews an opportunity to go on shore, to catch fish,
and to obtain news from the places to which they were bound. It was the
custom to bury letters on the shore and to mark the places of deposit by
conspicuous stones. One can imagine that Captain Kidd's treasure was
never more eagerly sought for than these buried letters.
Parties of Dutch seal hunters and whale fishers often occupied Table
Valley.
Near the middle of the seventeenth century, the ship _Haarlem_ of the
East India Company was wrecked off the Blueberg coast. The crew
succeeded in saving themselves, their own effects, and the ship's cargo.
After everything was secured against the elements, a guard was left in
charge of the stores, while the sailors removed to Table Valley.
Somewhere near the center of the present Cape Town they built huts in
the vicinity of a stream of fresh water, and threw up an embankment of
earth around them.
As the rainy season was now close at hand, they planted some seeds they
had saved, and soon had a garden which furnished an abundance of fresh
vegetables. Intercourse with the natives was most friendly, and meat was
often obtained in barter from them. Taken all in all, the experience of
this shipwrecked crew gave the impression that South Africa was a
productive and fruitful land. Six months later, a returning fleet
rescued the sailors and took them back to England.
[Illustration: CAPE TOWN AND TABLE BAY.]
Two of the officers of the rescued crew, upon their arrival in their
home at the Netherlands, set forth the advantages to be derived from the
establishment of a station in Table Valley.
A year later three vessels set sail from Texel, not for the purpose of
carrying passengers to South Africa to found a colony, but to establish
a refreshment station for the fleets on their way to and from eastern
seas.
In 1652, the little fleet from the Netherlands reached the coast, and
proceeded to form such a station at Table Valley, under the auspices of
the Dutch East India Company.
The only permanent inhabitants at the Cape were a few Hottentots. These
subsisted chiefly on shellfish. The little band of settlers found much
discomfort from the winter rains. The tents and wooden structures leaked
badly, and many of the members became ill and died.
When these rains ceased, however, a change for the better came. Grass
began to grow and every sort of edible plant. Ground was dug up, seeds
planted, and soon luxuriant vegetable gardens gladdened the eye and the
palate. Reeds, to thatch the houses, were obtained, and thus their roofs
were made secure from the rainy season.
The pleasantest weather in South Africa is immediately after what are
termed the winter rains. Just at the close of this season a clan of
Hottentots came to the Cape peninsula. They drove before them great
herds of horned cattle and flocks of sheep in search of fresh pasturage.
Though always suspicious of each other, this clan and the Europeans
maintained the pleasantest relations during the three months of their
stay at the peninsula.
During that time the commander of the station secured in barter more
than two hundred head of cattle and nearly six hundred sheep.
At the end of the first year, the station was well established and
prosperous. A garden had been planted, a system of irrigation introduced
sufficiently great to water the whole extent of cultivated ground, some
acres in all. A hospital, plain but substantial, with earthen walls and
thatched roof, and large enough to give accommodations to two or three
hundred men, had been built; while a cattle trade had been opened with
another friendly clan that had visited the peninsula.
The second winter was not very eventful. True, some building was done,
oxen were trained to draw timber from the forests behind Devil's Peak,
and much new ground was broken up.
"Wild animals gave more trouble than anything else. The lions were so
bold that they invaded the cattle pens by night, though armed men were
always watching them; and leopards came down from the mountains in broad
daylight and carried away sheep under the very eyes of the herdsmen.
"One morning before daybreak there was a great noise in the poultry
pens, and when the guards went to see what was the matter, they found
that all the ducks and geese had been killed by wildcats. The country
appeared to be swarming with ravenous beasts of different kinds."
The Europeans had been settled in Table Valley about a year and a half,
when they had their first difficulty with the Hottentots. The
treacherous natives, one Sunday, while the settlers were holding church,
killed the little white herdsman of the settlement and ran away with
almost the entire herd of cattle.
This was a sad blow. The fort needed to be strengthened by palisades
made from the timber cut in the forests back of Devil's Peak. The
working oxen were gone, and all timber had to be carried on the
shoulders of the settlers. Then, too, the clans that had supplied the
settlers with meat deemed it wise to remain at a distance, and the loss
of this article of food was keenly felt.
After a few months, quiet and apparent peace were restored. During the
next few years, exploring parties were sent out to learn of the physical
features of the neighboring country, and to make the acquaintance of
well-disposed Hottentot clans.
During these years, nearly every garden plant native to Europe or India
was grown at the Cape. Potatoes and maize, however, had not yet been
introduced. The oak and the fir tree, various kinds of fruit trees,
varieties of vines from France and South Germany, strawberries and
blackberries, were all in a thriving condition. Horses had been
introduced from Java, and pigs and sheep, together with dogs, rabbits,
and poultry, from Europe.
In February, 1657, the first real colony was established along the
Liesbeek River, at Rondebosch, by nine of the Company's servants, who
obtained their discharges and had small lots of land allotted to them.
In this manner the colonization of South Africa was begun.
In 1658 negro slaves were introduced. This was a great mistake on the
part of the colonists. In this move they but followed the example of all
colonizing nations, who made of the negro merely a hewer of wood and a
drawer of water. No doubt, the cause of all the subsequent troubles of
the Dutch settlers with England was due to the establishment of a system
of slavery.
Many of the first slaves were taken from a Portuguese slaver which had
been captured at sea. Not long after, quite a number of slaves were
brought by the vessels of the Company from the coast of Guinea. A few of
these were sold to the burghers, but most of them were maintained by the
government and employed at all kinds of rough labor.
In addition to negroes, the East India Company began the introduction of
Asiatics into the settlement. They were chiefly natives of Malacca,
Java, and the Spice Islands. These people were, for the most part,
criminals banished to slavery for life or for a term of years by the
court of justice at Batavia. South Africa was chosen as their place of
banishment. These men were far more intelligent than the natives of
Guinea or Mozambique. Many of them were employed by the settlers as
masons, harness makers, coopers, and tailors.
Later, South Africa was made a place of banishment for political
prisoners of high rank from India. These prisoners were often
accompanied by their families. Many of them had numerous attendants,
both male and female.
It was thus that the colony at the Cape was settled by three distinct
varieties of the human family, and really peopled by four varieties, for
we must include the native Hottentots.
Europeans, negroes, and the Javanese represented the original settlers,
but various mixed races of every color soon populated the colony. Hence,
it is doubtful if anywhere else in Africa could a greater diversity of
hue and of features be found than in the Cape peninsula.
There are now five distinct governments represented in South Africa in
the following divisions of territory: Cape Colony, Natal, and British
Kaffraria,--all British possessions; the South African Republic, and the
Orange Free State,--both independent republics. Of these divisions Cape
Colony and the South African Republic, formerly known as the Transvaal,
are the most interesting.
In addition to these divisions there are various dependencies, as
British Bechuanaland, the British Protectorate, the German Protectorate,
the British Chartered Company Territory, the Portuguese Possessions, and
Swaziland.