to it had as its head a man named Louis Triegard, fifty-three years of
age, who had been living in the district of Somerset. He was the
grandson of a Swede, who came to South Africa in the service of the
Dutch East India Company, and married here in 1744. His father, Carel
Johannes Triegard, was one of those farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte who in
1796 were most opposed to the recognition of British authority in
Graaff-Reinet, and he inherited his parent’s prejudice in this respect.
He was married to Martha Elizabeth Susanna Bouwer, and had a family of
five children.
Triegard had received only an elementary education from an itinerant
schoolmaster, just sufficient to enable him to write a letter or keep a
journal in such a way that his meaning could be made out, but his
understanding was by no means defective. He had a passionate temper,
though he was usually able to keep it under control. Among the farmers
he was regarded as a wealthy man, and his establishment was much larger
than those of his neighbours.
In June 1834 Louis Triegard moved away from the district of Somerset,
and camped out for a time on the banks of the White Kei river, beyond
the border of the colony. According to the declaration of one of his
slaves, who ran away from him there, and who appeared before the civil
commissioner of Albany at Grahamstown on the 10th of September, he had
previously purchased from a storekeeper in that place one large and two
small kegs of gunpowder, which he had taken with him. On the banks of
the White Kei about thirty emigrant families were then living, among
whom were those of Adriaan de Lange, his four sons Adriaan, Hans,
Robert, and Gerrit, Frans van Aardt, Hans van der Merwe, and Sybrand van
Dyk. Triegard had three female and seven men slaves, but the others had
only five slaves among them all. While in the colony Triegard was a mild
master, but when he got beyond the border his conduct changed, and he
became harsh.
[Sidenote: Conduct of Louis Triegard.]
On the 21st of November 1834 the civil commissioner reported that all of
Triegard’s slaves and four of the others had run away and reached
Grahamstown safely, only one, belonging to Frans van Aardt, remaining at
the White Kei. By removing them beyond the border, their masters had
forfeited their right to them,[96] so they were all declared emancipated
without any further action, and were permitted to take service as free
persons with any individuals in the town who might care to employ them.
At the close of this year the sixth Kaffir war commenced, and the Rarabe
clans held out until September 1835. When negotiations for peace were
being conducted, the chief Tyali stated that Louis Triegard had
persuaded the Xosas to continue hostilities so long, but there is no
other positive evidence to this effect. It is difficult to believe that
he would have tried to bring evil upon his own countrymen, but there is
the incriminating fact against him that he moved northward with the
notorious robber captain Jalusa, who carried on a career of violence and
indiscriminate plunder until his entire band of between a thousand and
twelve hundred individuals, with only eight exceptions, was exterminated
in September 1836 by the Basuto of Moshesh. The authorities on the
frontier in the meantime, being convinced that he was doing much harm,
but being unable to arrest him in his retreat beyond the border, were
making secret inquiries into his conduct and movements, of which very
likely he came to learn, for early in September 1835 he crossed the
Orange river and became the leader of the first band of emigrants into
the then unknown interior.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
He had with him his wife and four children, his son Carel with wife and
two children, Pieter Johannes Hendrik Botha with wife and five children,
J. Pretorius with wife and four children, G. Scheepers with wife and
nine children, H. Strydom with wife and five children, an old man named
Daniel Pfeffer who made his living as a schoolmaster, and a Frenchman
named Isaac Albacht, who had a coloured woman as a consort and five
children.
This party was joined before it crossed the Orange river by another of
equal size, consisting of Jan van Rensburg as leader, with wife and four
children, S. Bronkhorst with wife and six children, G. Bronkhorst the
elder with wife and one child, G. Bronkhorst the younger with wife,
Jacobus de Wet with wife, F. van Wyk with wife and two children, P.
Viljoen with wife and six children, H. Aucamp with wife and three
children, N. Prins with wife and eight children, and M. Prins.
Together they had thirty waggons. After crossing the Orange they
continued their course northward, travelling just as suited their
inclination or convenience until they reached the place now known as
Potgieter’s Rust, in the Zoutpansberg, where they arrived in May 1836.
In passing through the vast almost uninhabited waste beyond the Orange
river they had escaped the observation of Moselekatse’s warriors, and
had met so few blacks that they considered themselves quite secure. The
men hunted game constantly on horseback, and had seen vast areas of land
suited for settlement, but as they wished to open communication with the
outer world through Delagoa Bay, they had gone on until they believed
themselves to be in the latitude of that port.
[Sidenote: Fate of Rensburg’s Party.]
At the Zoutpansberg they halted while the young men explored the country
around, which they considered admirably adapted for stock-breeding and
agriculture. They were in ignorance that Moselekatse’s kraals were only
four hundred kilometres or two hundred and fifty English miles to the
south-west, and of the ferocity of the Matabele they likewise knew
nothing, or they would not have been so satisfied with the locality.
They were almost at the mouth of a lion’s den, and yet were so utterly
careless that in July 1836 the families composing Rensburg’s division,
consisting of forty-nine individuals, left the others with the object of
proceeding to Delagoa Bay to open up communication and trade with the
Portuguese who had recently rebuilt a fort there. From that time nothing
definite is known of these people. A report reached Triegard some months
afterwards that they had all been murdered by a band of Magwamba
robbers, and this was confirmed in later years by the accounts of
various blacks, but just when and where it occurred could never be
ascertained.
It was commonly believed in the Transvaal Republic a generation later,
and the newspapers circulated the statement widely, that in August 1867
a white man and woman, who spoke no language but that of the Eastern
Bantu, and whose habits were those of barbarians, were sent to
Commandant Coetzer, of Lydenburg, by a Swazi chief who had obtained them
from the Magwamba. They could tell nothing of their history except that
they believed they had always lived among Bantu; but as they had never
seen other whites that they could remember, it was concluded that they
were the sole survivors of Rensburg’s party, and that they were very
young when their relatives were murdered. For some time they had lived
as man and wife, and had two children when they were handed over to
Commandant Coetzer. This was the tale generally accepted as correct at
the time, but the man and woman believed to be Europeans were in
reality albinos of pure Bantu blood.[97]
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
From a journal kept by Triegard, a fragment of which, commencing on the
25th of January 1837 and ending on the 1st of May 1838, has fortunately
been preserved, the history of those who were left behind at the
Zoutpansberg is known. On the 11th of May 1837 Triegard wrote to the
authorities at Lourenço Marques that the party was in great want of
clothing and ammunition, and asking if horned cattle, wethers, wool, and
hides would be received in barter. They were then seven families of
forty-six souls, only nine of whom were males capable of bearing arms.
This letter was sent by Gabriel Buys, accompanied by a Knobnose black
named Waiwai. Buys was a son of the notorious freebooter Coenraad du
Buis, who had fled from the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony many
years before, and after carrying on extensive depredations in Southern
Betshuanaland, at the head of a band of ruffians, had become afraid that
ministers of justice might be sent to apprehend him there, so had moved
on to the Zoutpansberg and become the first European resident in the
present Transvaal province. As he had done at the Keiskama he did in his
new home in the north: he took to himself a harem of Bantu women, by
whom he had numerous children. Among these were Gabriel and an elder
brother named Doris, who attached themselves temporarily to Triegard’s
party, and as they spoke Dutch and Setshuana, were of great service.
Doris remained behind as interpreter and general servant when Gabriel
proceeded to Delagoa Bay with the letter.
[Sidenote: Life at the Zoutpansberg.]
They had over five hundred head of horned cattle and a flock of sheep
and goats, the care of which occupied most of their attention. Game was
plentiful, and they obtained some millet and sweet cane from the blacks
who were thinly scattered about in their neighbourhood, so that there
was no want of plain food, but the women missed greatly such articles as
coffee and sugar. The men had accustomed themselves to the use of millet
beer, and Triegard was always pleased to receive a calabash filled with
it as a present from the head of a Bantu kraal, using the precaution,
however, of requiring the donor according to the custom of the
barbarians to take the first draught. As they had used all their lead,
they cast bullets of copper and of tin, both of which metals were
obtainable, though no information is given as to how or through whose
means they were procured. Occasionally, though very rarely, they were
able to get in barter a piece of calico that had passed through the
country from Delagoa Bay, being handed on from one clan to another for
sale. It is interesting to read in Triegard’s journal that, rough a life
as they were leading, they observed Sunday as well as they could, and
that a school was kept for the children. It is to be noted also that
even in this little party there was a spirit of disagreement, and that
Triegard’s leadership, owing to the feeling of absolute equality among
the different heads of families, was hardly even nominal, much less
real.
On the 7th of August Gabriel Buys and the Knobnose Waiwai returned from
Delagoa Bay. No one there could read Triegard’s letter, but the
Portuguese officer in command of the fort, understanding that the
emigrants wished to visit him, sent two black soldiers to show them the
way. Accordingly on the 23rd of that month they broke up their camp,
and set out on the journey to the coast, with the intention, however, of
returning and settling permanently in the goodly locality they had
found. From Gabriel Buys and the men who accompanied him they obtained
only a vague idea of the distance they would have to travel or of the
obstacles in their way. They were in reality about three hundred and
thirty-six kilometres or two hundred and ten English miles in a straight
line from Lourenço Marques, which lay almost due south-east, for without
knowing it they had gone fully a hundred and ninety kilometres farther
north than its latitude. So far they had enjoyed excellent health, as
after passing the Stormberg they had been on the high plateau, and
travelling from south to north they had not met with any serious
obstacles. They were now to have a very different experience.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
They travelled past the mountains, since so famous as the strongholds of
the Bapedi, where Sekwati, who was then a very petty chief, was living,
and who sent them a kindly greeting. They came next to the great range,
which lay between them and the coast terraces, where trouble of no
ordinary kind was before them. The black Portuguese soldiers had
traversed the range on foot, and had no conception of waggon traffic, so
they were absolutely useless as guides. A road had to be made, and they
managed to obtain some Bantu labourers by paying them in sheep, but when
it was completed it was just passable in most places and so dangerous at
one spot that some of the party rather than venture on it preferred to
take their waggons to pieces and lower the separate parts down the face
of a precipice.
In the mountains their cattle were attacked by the tsetse, an insect a
little larger than a common fly, but though they had once before
suffered loss from this destructive pest, they did not pay much
attention to it at first. They were doubtful of its being the same as
that they had formerly seen, but soon their oxen began to pine away and
die, when they found themselves in a deplorable condition. Still they
pushed on, and by dint of almost superhuman exertions, managed to get
through the Lebombo, the last range on their way. The cattle were dying
fast, when on the 8th of April 1838, to their great joy, they were met
by a messenger from the commandant of the Portuguese fort at Lourenço
Marques. This messenger had come up the river Umbelosi in a boat, and
had brought a present of provisions, rum, medicines, and even some
articles of clothing, which were most acceptable.
[Sidenote: Suffering at Delagoa Bay.]
Triegard now transferred his ivory and other heavy effects to the boat,
and with his lightened waggons pushed on to the fort, which he reached
on the 15th of April 1838, two hundred and thirty-five days after
leaving Makapan’s Poort at the Zoutpansberg. The party then consisted of
fifty-seven individuals, namely five married men and their wives, two
widowers, one widow, eight lads over sixteen years of age, fourteen lads
under sixteen years of age, four girls over sixteen years of age, seven
girls under sixteen years of age, four half-caste children of Albacht,
and seven Betshuana and Bushman servants.
The Portuguese received them with much kindness, though they were
required at first to give up their guns. These, however, were soon
restored to them, and whatever could be thought of to make them
comfortable was done. Triegard informed the commandant of the fort that
he had left the Cape Colony because the frontier had been ruined by the
Xosas, the slaves had been set free by the English, and the government
desired to make soldiers of the Afrikanders. It was evident that they
could not return to the Zoutpansberg, but they had not decided what next
to undertake when they were attacked by fever. The first to die was old.
Daniel Pfeffer, who expired on the 21st of April, at the age of 78
years. He was followed on the 29th of April by P. J. Hendrik Botha, who
was 37 years of age. Next came Louis Triegard’s wife, who died on the
1st of May. When she fell ill the Portuguese commandant had her carried
into the best room in the fort, and his own wife tended her day after
day with the utmost kindness until she died. With a great cry of anguish
over his terrible loss Triegard closed his journal, and no particulars
can be ascertained of occurrences during the next fifteen months that
the party remained at Lourenço Marques. Months of intense suffering,
physical and mental, they must have been, of this there can be no doubt.
Actual hunger may have been averted by the kindness of the Portuguese
officers, but the resources of these good people were very limited, and
such food as was obtainable must have consisted mainly, if not entirely,
of millet and other produce of the gardens of the Bantu.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
Their number was constantly diminishing by fever, till at length the
emigrants who had settled in Natal, hearing where and in what condition
they were, chartered the schooner _Mazeppa_ to proceed to Delagoa Bay to
their relief, and in July 1839 the remnant of the party, consisting of
Mrs. H. Botha and five children, Mrs. G. Scheepers and five children,
Mrs. J. Pretorius and two children, three young men, and seven orphan
children, were landed at Durban. One young man, son of Louis Triegard,
had gone to Mozambique in a Portuguese vessel before the _Mazeppa_
reached the bay, but in the following year he managed to travel overland
to his friends in Natal. Thus of the ninety-eight individuals who formed
the first party of emigrants all had perished except the twenty-six who
reached Natal in a state of utter destitution.
II.
PIETER LAVRAS UYS.
[Sidenote: Progress of Emigration.]
The second party to leave the colony was under the leadership of Andries
Hendrik Potgieter, and consisted of farmers whose religious tendencies
were towards the separatist--equivalent to the Scottish
Covenanter--section of the church. They migrated chiefly from the Tarka.
A full account of their wanderings and actions, of their sufferings from
the Matabele and their heroic conduct until Moselekatse was compelled to
flee northward to the territory now called Rhodesia, together with the
adventures of the party from Colesberg under Carel Cilliers that joined
them is given in my _History of South Africa_, and it is unnecessary to
repeat it here.
The third party was under the leadership of Gerrit Marthinus Maritz, and
went from the neighbourhood of Graaff-Reinet. It was much larger than
the one under Potgieter. On the 2nd of December 1836 these parties, who
were then in the neighbourhood of Thaba Ntshu, attempted to establish a
government and elected a court of justice, with Maritz as landdrost or
president. Various small parties and even single families now arrived,
and joined either Potgieter or Maritz according to the section of the
church that they preferred.
The next large party was headed by Pieter Retief, and went from the
Winterberg. On the 17th of April 1837 a meeting of the emigrants was
held in the camp of Maritz,[98] when Pieter Retief was elected
administrative head, but he was not then installed in office, as the
section under Potgieter took no part in the proceedings, and the others
hoped that they might be induced to join in course of time. Potgieter
and Maritz had quarrelled, and from this time forward harmony among the
emigrants was rarely seen.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
On the 6th of June 1837 Mr. Retief was formally installed in office as
governor and commandant-general, a volksraad of six members was elected
and entrusted with full legislative power, and a provisional
constitution of nine articles was adopted. Whether these proceedings
were not premature may be open to doubt. The number of emigrants north
of the Orange was then not very great, many more were known to be on
their way, and for these few to exercise the power of modelling the
future government and appointing the chief executive officer seemed
unjustifiable to most of those who arrived afterwards. There was no
question as to the ability of Pieter Retief and his fitness for the
highest office, but that he should be appointed to it by a section of
the community and the others be required simply to concur was regarded
as a grievance.
Mr. Retief’s first proceeding proved him to be a man of tact. He
actually succeeded in inducing Hendrik Potgieter, the representative of
the separatist or Covenanter section of the church, to meet in a
friendly manner Gerrit Maritz, the representative of the larger section
of the church,[99] a man accused by his opponents of ambitious views and
not very conciliatory in demeanour. It is true that these men had once
fought side by side, when Maritz generously assisted the other to
recover the spoil taken by the Matabele in August 1836 in their
murderous onslaughts on the camps north of the Vaal, but the
constitution of mind of the Covenanter seems to differ from that of
other men so much as to make concord difficult except under unusual
circumstances. It need not be asked whether his views are more or less
praiseworthy than those of his neighbours, but it must be admitted that
as a rule he looks upon most matters from a different standpoint. And so
the good feeling between the two leaders brought about by Mr. Retief was
only temporary, and from the first Potgieter resolutely declined to give
in his adherence to the political faction led by Maritz.
[Sidenote: Progress of Emigration.]
The fifth large party arrived at Thaba Ntshu at this time. It was under
the leadership of Mr. Pieter Jacobs, and went from the district of
Beaufort West, being composed largely of families connected with the
Slachter’s Nek insurrection. These people joined the adherents of Retief
and Maritz, though they continued to form a separate camp.
Next to cross the Orange was a large party from Oliphants Hoek, under
the leadership of Pieter Lavras Uys, though his father, Jacobus Johannes
Uys, was nominally its head. The old man was nearly seventy years of
age, and the party was entirely composed of his immediate descendants
and connections by marriage. It is of Pieter Lavras Uys, and the part he
took in the emigration, that the remainder of this paper will deal, the
information being largely drawn from the documents contained in the
D’Urban collection.
[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]
He was descended from Cornelis Uys, who with his wife and three children
migrated from Leyden in Holland as colonists at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, when the Dutch East India Company was sending to the
Cape settlement as many industrious families accustomed to agriculture
as it could obtain. Dirk, one of the three children of Cornelis, was
born at Leyden, but grew up in South Africa, and in 1722 married Dina le
Roux, daughter of a Huguenot refugee from Provence. The fifth child of
this marriage, Cornelis Janse by name, in 1766 married Alida Maria
Swart, and from this union eleven children were born, the second of
whom, Jacobus Johannes by name, in 1793 married Susanna Margaretha
Moolman. When grown up, this Jacobus Johannes Uys went to reside in
Oliphants Hoek in what became later the district of Uitenhage, and there
in 1797 his third child, Pieter Lavras, was born.[100]
Any one who will take the trouble to watch the career of South African
students at European universities, say at Leyden or Edinburgh, will find
that they occupy prominent places in their classes. The sons of men
whose ancestors for many generations had received very little education
from books on their farms are found intellectually able to compete in
study with the sons of Europeans who have long enjoyed the greatest
facilities for acquiring knowledge. This is a most hopeful sign for the
future of South Africa. If with vastly increased knowledge our young men
only adhere to the sterling virtues and strong confidence in God that
characterised their ancestors, there need be no fear for this country in
the time to come.
It is true that there are in South Africa many poor white people, some
of whom seem to have lost both the power and the inclination to raise
themselves in the social scale. But with education, industrial training,
and opportunities to acquire property, the great majority of these would
undoubtedly rise again, and the residue are at least more capable of
improvement than the unemployables in a European city. In all countries
of the world there are weak-minded people of different degrees of
imbecility, but in South Africa the number of these is very small, and
white men and women with criminal instincts are almost unknown. If an
average be taken the old colonists need not fear a comparison of
intellect with the inhabitants of any country in Europe.
[Sidenote: Character of Pieter Uys.]
Pieter Uys was of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa. He
had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good school
education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from every
source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could write
a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch, and he
was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. His upright conduct,
his religious convictions, and his kindly disposition caused him to be
held in general esteem, not only by his Dutch-speaking neighbours, but
by the English settlers of Albany, with whom he was brought into close
contact during the Kaffir war of 1835.