THE EARLY DAYS
The only use of war, says a cynical writer, is to teach geography.
Certainly there are many people in South Africa who a few months ago
would have been sorely puzzled to locate Luderitz Bay on the map of
Africa. And how many are aware that this islet-studded inlet is a place
of considerable historic importance? It was here, says Theal, that
“for the first time Christian men trod the soil of Africa south of the
tropic.”[11]
In 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, the famous Portuguese navigator, who
was in search of the way to India, stepped ashore from the little
fifty-ton ship that had brought him from the Tagus, and gave the bay
the name Angra Pequena, the Little Bay. On Serra Parda, or the Grey
Mountain, now Pedestal Point, he set up the first of the three stone
crosses erected on the South African coast. It stood there above the
dreary waste, a striking landmark, well into the nineteenth century,
when vandals from the whaling ships broke it in pieces. Fortunately,
considerable fragments of the monument were recovered and conveyed to
the South African Museum at Cape Town in 1856.
For some 300 years after the landing of Diaz, South-West Africa
remained an Unknown Land, and no one seemed eager to venture into what
appeared to be a most inhospitable region. Early in the nineteenth
century a few whaling ships might have been seen off the coast taking
heavy toll of the many whales that abounded. Walvis Bay, with its
sheltered harbour, became a base for the seamen, and from the few
Hottentots who lived in the vicinity the men purchased their supplies
of fresh meat.
The first European to cross the Orange River was one Jacobus Coetsee,
who proceeded northward from his farm at Picketberg in 1760, with
a number of Hottentots, to shoot elephants. He hunted in Great
Namaqualand, and while there heard from the Namaquas of a tribe of
strange, black people living ten days further north, called the
Damrocquas, who had long hair, and wore clothes made of linen cloth.
This was the day when queer tales lost nothing in the telling. On his
return Coetsee related what he had heard to Hendrik Hop, a Captain of
the Burgher Militia; Hop reported to Governor Ryh Tulbagh, and offered
to conduct an exploring expedition in order to seek out these strange
people. Tulbagh had a zeal for knowledge surpassed among the early
Governors of the Cape only by the Van der Stels; he readily acquiesced
in the proposal, and in 1761 Hop set out on his adventurous journey
with a caravan of no less than fifteen wagons. The expedition was
well-equipped, since it included a botanist, a surveyor, a surgeon,
who also acted as a mineralogist, and a number of European volunteers,
with quite a little army of Hottentots. The journey extended from July
16th, 1761, to April 27th, 1762. It deserves to be remembered as one of
the most notable journeys connected with early African exploration.
The result is the “New Accounts of the Cape of Good Hope, etc.”--one of
our earliest books of travel in South-West Africa, an exceedingly rare
octavo, published in Amsterdam, both in Dutch and French, in 1778. A
German edition was published at Leipzig in 1779.[12] The book is the
work of several hands: it contains, among other things, the journal of
C. F. Brink, the surveyor, the reports of T. Roos and P. Marais, two
volunteers, on the native tribes encountered, and some excellent plates
depicting such rare animals, as they were then, as the zebra, the
gemsbuck, the koodoo, and the gnu.
The party crossed the Orange, passed the hot springs now known as
Warmbad, pushed along the western base of the Karas Mountains; and
penetrated to the borders of Damaraland. Some valuable prizes were
secured in the shape of several giraffes, animals that were among
the rarities at the time. Governor Tulbagh sent the skin of one of
these animals to Leiden, the first of its kind to be sent to Europe
from South Africa. Hop did not succeed in reaching the country of the
Damrocquas, as he was compelled to turn back owing to the loss of
cattle and the failure of water. The Orange River, placed on the map
from hearsay by the elder Van der Stel, was now definitely located, and
a fair knowledge obtained of the sterile wastes of Great Namaqualand,
and the mountainous region that lay to the north.
Lieutenant William Paterson, a gifted botanist and explorer, next
reached the Orange River; in company with Colonel Gordon, the Scotch
Commanding Officer of the troops of the Dutch East India Company, and
Jacobus van Reenen. “On the 17th of August, 1779,” says Paterson, “we
launched Colonel Gordon’s boat, and hoisted Dutch colours. Colonel
Gordon proposed first to drink the States’ health and then that of the
Prince of Orange and the Company, after which he gave the river the
name of the Orange River, in honour of that Prince.”[13]
Up to this time the river had been known as the Braragul, the name
given to it by the elder Van der Stel. We owe a debt to the gallant
Gordon, who could hardly have found a more appropriate name for these
yellow muddy waters; and as Pettman points out in his “South African
Place Names,” this is the only royal name in the place names of the
period.
Le Vaillant next appears upon the scene. This romantic and picturesque
traveller assures us that he journeyed “into the interior parts of
Africa in the years 1783, 1784, and 1785,” leaving the house of his
friend Mr. Slabert, near Saldanha Bay, in the middle of 1783; but,
unfortunately, Le Vaillant was much given to romancing, and doubts have
been thrown on the authenticity of his journeys. That he travelled
somewhere in the regions north of the Orange River, “in search of rare
birds and new hordes,” “suffering much from the reverberations of the
sun,” seems clear from his descriptions of the country and people. His
many adventures make delightful reading, and he was a wonderfully keen
observer of objects of natural history.
The quest for gold next led a party into the northern wilds. In
1791 Willem van Reenen set out from his farm on the Elephant River,
accompanied by a number of burghers, in the expectation of discovering
gold, about the existence of which rumours had reached him. The party
passed the farthest point reached by Hop thirty years before, and
pushed northward until they probably penetrated into what is now
Damaraland. One Peter Brand travelled fifteen days further than the
main party, and was the first European to come into contact with
the mysterious Damrocquas, the Berg Damaras. These natives had the
appearance of Kaffirs, they spoke the Hottentot language, and they
lived like Bushmen.
For some months the party remained among the Damaras gleaning
information about the various clans. Game was abundant; they accounted
for no less than sixty-five rhinoceroses, six giraffes, and small game
without number. What was more important to them, they dug up large
quantities of “gold ore,” and transported it with much joy to Cape
Town. Their chagrin can be imagined when they were assured that the
“gold” ore was really copper ore.
But belief in the existence of gold north of the Orange seemed to
persist, as in 1793 another party left Cape Town, with Chevalier Duminy
as a guide, in the packet _Meermin_, for a bay somewhere up the coast,
where a train of wagons, sent overland, was to meet them on landing.
The wagons, however, were not at the rendezvous, so the _Meermin_
sailed north until Walvis Bay was reached. Here, in February of 1793,
the prospectors set up a stone beacon, engraved on one side with the
arms of the States, and on the other with the monogram of the Dutch
East India Company. Hottentots were found living along the shore, and
Peter Brand sought their guidance for a trek into the interior. He was
away about a month; during which time he traversed a portion of the
Damara country, and was somewhat surprised to find an abundance of
trees and many rich grazing tracts. Elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses,
lions, and giraffes were numerous, but there were no traces of the
desired gold. Pienaar was probably the first European to penetrate into
the country from the west coast.
The early years of the nineteenth century bring us to the beginning
of the missionary era in South-West Africa, and we now turn to the
missionaries who came to evangelise the heathen inhabitants. These men
have played no small part in the political life of South Africa, and
the dust of the many controversies in which they were concerned ought
not to be allowed to obscure the high value and romance of the early
missionary enterprise. As pioneers, explorers, geographers, no less
than as philanthropists, they have done a great deal for knowledge.
As early as 1802 the London Missionary Society--that stormy petrel
of African Missionary Societies--had its agents north of the Orange
River. The brothers Christian and Abraham Albrecht were probably the
first Europeans to reside in Great Namaqualand; they founded a mission
station at Warm Bath (now Warmbad) in 1807. Warm Bath was so named
because of the hot springs found there. Another station was established
at Bethany in 1814 by J. Henry Schmelen. Robert Moffat, who was
destined to leave his name indelibly impressed on African history, took
charge of the Warm Bath station in 1818. At this time Titus Africaner,
the outlaw Hottentot Chief, was at the height of his career as a
marauder and desperado; a cloud of dust in the distance was sufficient
to drive the peaceful tribes that lived along the course of the Orange
River frantic with terror, since it might herald the approach of the
ferocious raider. Africaner came under the benign influence of the
missionary, and a complete change of character was effected in him.
Acting on a sudden impulse, Moffat took him to Cape Town when on a
visit. An immense sensation was created. The people at the Cape could
scarcely credit the fact that this man, once the terror of farmers and
natives, was a reformed character. Lord Charles Somerset “expressed
his pleasure at seeing thus before him one who had formerly been the
scourge of the country,” and made him the present of a wagon. Moffat’s
stay in Great Namaqualand, though brief, was certainly notable.
The agents of the London Missionary Society were withdrawn from the
country by 1821, and the Wesleyans appeared on the scene. With their
early efforts is bound up one of the most tragic stories of missionary
enterprise. William Threlfall, a young minister from Yorkshire, was
seeking an opening for philanthropic labours among the Hottentots in
the region of Warm Bath in the year 1825. He lay down to rest upon
the ground one night after a long trek; while he slept his Bushman
guide drew near with two accomplices, fell upon the defenceless man,
and dealt him blow after blow until he lay dead at their feet.[14]
William Threlfall is thus the missionary martyr of Namaqualand. In
1834 the only European resident in Great Namaqualand was Edward Cook,
who had charge of the Warm Bath station, renamed by Cook Nisbett Bath,
in honour of Mr. James Nisbett, a generous supporter of the Mission.
He laboured among the Bondelswaarts. Cook was the first white man to
take his wife into the wilds of Damaraland. The two people had a most
adventurous journey northward to the Windhoek Valley, to Gobabis, and
then across to Walvis Bay, and they actually had their young children
with them. Lions proved a great source of anxiety to Mrs. Cook. The
following extract from Cook’s journal affords an interesting glimpse of
the amenities of travel in those days. “During the night we came across
a rhinoceros grazing, the snorting of which frightened our servant
girl, who was riding an ox. She threw herself off and ran to take
shelter in the wagon. The oxen, being accustomed to be chased by wild
beasts, took fright at her screaming, and furiously galloped off. Those
who had not heard the rhinoceros thought a lion had attacked us, and
the greatest terror prevailed until an ox, getting his leg entangled in
the harness, fell, and the wagon was stopped.”[15]
Sir James Alexander was the first traveller to explore the country
who possessed the scientific attainments essential to extensive and
accurate observation. The Scottish knight journeyed slowly through
Great Namaqualand and Damaraland in 1836-7, covering, from the time he
left Cape Town till his return, a distance of 4,000 miles. It is rather
surprising, in view of what we have recorded, to read in more than
one “reliable résumé of the history of the country,” that Sir James
Alexander “was the first European to explore the unknown land.” Even
Francis Galton assumes that Alexander was the pioneer. Doubtless Sir
James was proud to emphasise the fact “that up to this day the whole of
the western region of southern Africa to the north of the Orange River
has hitherto remained a blank on our maps,” but it was hardly the
unknown land he imagined it to be. Sir James did a good deal of hunting
in the country; he spent some time in the vicinity of Walvis Bay; where
the “climate was healthy and good”; he gathered a large number of
zoological and other specimens, many of which were unknown to the world
of science, and he gleaned much useful information about the social
condition of the Bushmen, Namaquas, and Damaras. He was the first white
man to secure an exclusive interview with the headman of the Berg
Damaras, who told the knight that he had never before looked upon a
white man; all his people had run away on hearing that such a fearsome
creature was approaching. At Warm Bath Sir James “set up his staff to
wait for the thunder rains,” and while there “took the waters,” and
thereby “set the natives the example of ablution.”[16]
For a few years after Alexander’s visit, Wesleyan missionaries occupied
stations in Damaraland, and the Rev. J. Tindall was the first white man
to reside at Gobabis, although the Rev. Edward Cook and his wife had
spent three months there in 1840; but these stations were at length
handed over to the German missionaries who belonged to the Rhenish
Missionary Society. With the entry of these men into the country in the
’forties we note the forging of the first link in the chain of events
which had its end in the establishment of a German Protectorate.
Francis Galton made a notable journey through, the country in 1850-2,
in company with the Swedish naturalist and trader, Charles J.
Andersson. Galton proceeded from Walvis Bay through regions hitherto
almost unknown into Ovamboland and arrived at a point within seven days
of Lake Ngami. He was much pleased with the fertility of Ovamboland and
the quiet, sociable disposition of the Ovambo people. His “Narrative of
an Explorer in Tropical Central Africa” affords the fullest description
of the land and the people. For many years the career of Charles J.
Andersson was identified with Damaraland and the adjacent countries.
He was the first European to travel across South-West Africa to Lake
Ngami. This feat he accomplished in 1853. He discovered the Okavango
River, and as a result of his many hunting and trading expeditions
added much to our knowledge of the country. His books of travel are
richly instructive and alive with stirring incidents.
The names of travellers and explorers like James Chapman, Thomas
Baines, Frederick J. Green, bring us to the ’fifties and ’sixties of
the nineteenth century, to what may be termed the closing days of the
No Man’s Land era. The consideration of the events which led up to the
German occupation we leave to another chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Theal’s “History of South Africa” (1486-1691), p. 2.
[12] Mendellssau’s “South African Bibliography,” Vol. I., p. 185.
[13] Paterson’s “Narrative of Four Journeys,” 1789, p. 113.
[14] Cheeseman’s “William Threlfall, the Missionary Martyr of
Namaqualand,” 1911.
[15] Cook’s “Modern Missionary,” 1849, p. 136.
[16] Alexander’s “Expedition of Discovery,” 1838.