FROM SHOSHONG TO THE DIAMOND FIELDS.
Arrival at Shoshong--Z.’s chastisement--News from the
colony--Departure from Shoshong--Conflict between the Bakhatlas
and Bakuenas--Mochuri--A pair of young lions--A visit from
Eberwald--Medical practice in Linokana--Joubert’s Lake--A series
of salt-pans--Arrival in Kimberley.
[Illustration: RETURN TO THE DIAMOND FIELDS.]
Not only did my kind friend Mr. Mackenzie give me a hearty welcome,
but he insisted upon my becoming his guest for as long a time as he
remained in Shoshong. I am sure that his hospitality, and that which
I subsequently received from Mr. Jensen, did more than anything else
towards re-establishing my shattered health. I remember that the first
time I again tasted proper bread I felt as happy as a king.
On the very day of my arrival I went with Westbeech to visit Khame.
To Westbeech’s surprise the king immediately began to interrogate him
about Z.; he had heard that he had been travelling with us, and we were
forced to acknowledge that he had only left us early that morning.
Khame lost no time in sending out a body of armed men to capture him;
and when they returned in the evening unsuccessful, he despatched a
troop of horsemen with orders to search the whole district as far as
the Khame Saltpan.
The men brought in their prisoner in the morning; they had been
attracted by the glimmer of a fire in the bushveldt, and alighting from
their horses, they had laid their hands upon Z. before he had time to
make use of his revolver. He professed to be extremely indignant at his
arrest; but the king upbraided him severely for his violation of his
orders, and sentenced him to pay a fine of 100_l._ It was in vain
for Z. to protest, and to assert that he had not the means to raise
such a sum. Khame replied that he was quite aware that Westbeech had
not yet paid him for the team and the waggon that he had bought of him,
and that he should hand over the money to himself instead.
At the same sitting Khame publicly fined two traders’ agents
10_l._ apiece for having been found tipsy outside their quarters
on the outskirts of the town, telling them that if they were determined
to drink, they must confine themselves to their own houses or their
own waggons; he for his part was quite resolved that they should not
make an exhibition of themselves before his subjects.
The Matabele who had come with us were the bearers of a letter from
Lo Bengula, inviting Khame to co-operate with the President of the
Transvaal Republic in preventing the advance of the Damara emigrants.
My late travelling-companions only stayed at Shoshong two or three
days, and then started for the south, leaving me with Mr. Mackenzie.
Before his departure, Westbeech cleared out the ivory from a waggon
of which he was not in immediate want, and placed the vehicle at my
disposal. On the 25th and 26th I was feeling considerably better, and
found much amusement in inspecting all the collections I had made.
There was a Captain G. staying in the place, on his way back from a
hunting-tour on the Limpopo, who expressed himself highly delighted
with what I showed him. In the evening I wrote my journal, except when
Mr. Mackenzie kept me in conversation, and supplied me with additional
particulars about the Bamangwatos. It was a great satisfaction to me to
find that I could now converse with Khame in Sechuana, without the aid
of an interpreter.
[Illustration: KORANNA HOMESTEAD NEAR MAMUSA.
_Page 420._]
Three weeks passed away without anything transpiring particularly to
record, until the 13th of May, when the native postman brought the
news that war had broken out in the Transvaal between the Boers and
Sekokuni. During my leisure time I undertook, at Khame’s request, to
prescribe for some of his people who were ill; Mr. Mackenzie kindly
provided the drugs that were requisite. On the 15th I despatched a
letter to Lord Derby, the Foreign Secretary, containing a report of the
slavery in the Marutse empire.
Almost daily at this time we received accounts of the atrocities that
were being committed by the Bakuenas and Bakhatlas, the two rival
tribes that were at war upon Sechele’s territory. Towards the end of
the month the girls’ boguera was commenced at Shoshong, but Khame
assured me it was for the last time.
At the beginning of June Mr. Mackenzie began to prepare for his
move to Kuruman, whither he had been summoned to found a large
training-college. I did what I could to assist him in his packing, but
I was still so weak that I could not be of much service; indeed, during
the hot weather I was so exhausted by visiting my patients, that I was
obliged to ask the king to allow me the use of a horse.
We heard here that Matsheng and some other Bechuana chiefs had settled
upon the right bank of the Limpopo without recognizing the authority of
the Transvaal Republic, so that the Limpopo could hardly now be said
to be the actual northern boundary of the country; and on the 13th we
received the further intelligence that the Bakhatlas had been worsted
in their attack upon Molopolole, the Bakuena capital, having been
unable to make a stand against their opponents’ breech-loaders.
It was on the 17th that we started from Shoshong with a caravan of
seven waggons. Besides Mr. Mackenzie and myself, there were Mr.
Mackenzie’s colleague, Mr. Hepburn, and Mr. Thompson and Mr. Helm,
the two missionaries from Matabele-land, who were going to attend a
conference at Molopolole.
At Khame’s Saltpan we were honoured by a farewell visit from the
king himself, who said he could not resist coming once more to shake
hands with Mr. Mackenzie, the friend to whom he owed so much. When
he arrived he found several waggons belonging to a trader who asked
permission to pass through his country, but recognizing him as a man
who had been disposing of some brandy to his people about a year ago,
he peremptorily refused to comply with his request, and sent him back
immediately to the south.
The deficiency of water made our journey to the Limpopo extremely
toilsome. Instead of crossing the Sirorume as usual, we made a circuit
to avoid the arid and sandy woods upon its bank. We halted at the
mouth of the Notuany for three days, and whilst there I made the
acquaintance of Captain Grandy, the African explorer, then on his way
to Matabele-land. He died some time afterwards of fever.
The track that we followed up the Limpopo valley bore every indication
of not having been used for years; it was painfully bad, being
everywhere either blockaded by stones or covered with deep sand. On
the 1st of July we halted, and stayed the next day as well, at one of
the pools on the Notuany, that I have elsewhere described as being fed
by springs as well as by the overflow of the river, and consequently
contain water long after the stream itself is dry. This pool was about
150 yards long, and about twenty yards wide, and full of fish.
One of the wheels of the waggon in which Mr. Mackenzie was travelling
having broken, we had to wait while Mr. Hepburn went forward to
Mochuri, the next town on our route, belonging to the western
Bakhatlas, to procure a new one from the traders there. The damage
being made good, we all proceeded to Mochuri, where we learnt the
full particulars of the late engagement--the remnant of the Bakhatla
defeated force having returned there on the preceding day. They had
succeeded so far as to approach Molopolole unawares. They had killed
sixteen Kalahari herdsmen, and had made themselves masters of all their
cattle. They had defied all the efforts of the residents to recover
their herds, and it was only at last, when they found themselves face
to face with the breech-loaders which the Bakuenas had procured from
the traders, that they were obliged to retreat and abandon their booty.
Ten of them had fallen on the spot; four of the wounded had made their
way home; but numbers of them, in spite of Sechele, the Bakuena king,
being a Christian, were overtaken and massacred according to the custom
of the tribe. They had, they avowed, been goaded on to make their
attack because the Bakuenas had pillaged their cattle-stations, and cut
off the hands and feet of many of the women.
Formerly the Bakhatlas had resided in the Transvaal; but after the
occupation of the Boers, most of them left, and settled under two
separate chiefs in Sechele’s territory, becoming known respectively as
the eastern and western Bakhatlas. Sechele had now demanded the same
tribute from them as he exacted from the Makhosi and the Batlokas, and
it was their refusal to pay this that had brought them into their
present contention.
Mochuri struck me as one of the cleanest Bechuana towns that I ever
saw. It is situated in a depression between two hills, being surrounded
by a high thorn-fence, and having all the enclosures about its
farmsteads well cemented and neatly preserved. Until 1876 the Bakhatlas
were the only central Bechuana tribe that cultivated tobacco and used
it as an article of commerce. Besides being agriculturists, they spend
a good deal of their time in tanning leather. Nearly all of them speak
Dutch.
[Illustration: MISSION HOUSE IN MOLOPOLOLE.]
Here I had to part with Mr. Mackenzie and the other missionaries. It
was with a heavy heart that I said good-bye. They had to turn off for
about thirty miles to the east to go to Molopolole; I had to continue
my way south towards Chwene-Chwene. As a farewell kindness, Mr.
Mackenzie induced the chief to let me have a couple of young lions.
After leaving the valley of the Notuany I had to cross a wide plain,
where the soil was salt, and consequently the growth of grass was
very scanty. I did not stay longer than was absolutely necessary at
Chwene-Chwene, as it was suffering so much from drought that holes
thirty feet deep had to be dug in the rocky beds of the spruits before
any water could be obtained. While we were halting next upon the
northern slope of the Dwars Mountains, we incautiously allowed my two
little lions to make their escape. It took us two hours to catch them;
nor could we put them back into their cage again without getting our
hands scratched and bitten considerably.
Instead of proceeding south-west from Brackfontein through Buisport,
I turned due south across the bushveldt to Linokana, noticing on the
way that the little Morupa stream quite lost itself in the shallow
depressions of its bed, so that it is only after heavy rain that it
makes its way over the grass plains to the Great Marico.
Mr. Jensen welcomed me most cordially when I arrived at Linokana on the
8th. I was also highly delighted to have a visit from my old friend
Eberwald, who had come all the way from the Leydenburg gold-fields on
purpose to see me. He was of great assistance to me while I remained in
the place, and proceeded with me on my way south. He did his best to
acknowledge the hospitality that he received from Mr. Jensen by working
for him in his garden.
Moilo, the chief, was dead, and had been succeeded by his nephew, who
came from Moshaneng. His name was Kopani. He was a Baharutse chief,
subordinate to the Transvaal government. The war was still going on in
the east, the whites decidedly getting the worst of it. In the Marico
district, as elsewhere, there had been a conscription of men, cattle,
and waggons, much to the dissatisfaction of the agriculturists.
I had a roomy cage made for my two lions, but unfortunately just as it
was finished the female died.
Mr. Mackenzie joined me again unexpectedly on the 5th of August. He
was on his way to Kuruman, and was accompanied by Mr. Williams, who
had come from Molopolole to consult me about his health. Next day I
paid my four servants--To, Narri, Burilli, and Chukuru--their wages,
telling them they might now go back to the Zambesi; and in the prospect
of again securing their services, I gave them something more than
was really their due. As two of them were Matongas, I had taken the
opportunity, while they were with me, of turning my slight knowledge
of the Senansa and Sesuto-Serotse dialects to account, to acquire
something of the Setonga.
Mr. Wehrmann, a missionary who resided amongst the eastern Bakhatlas,
informed me that their town Melorane was a few miles to the west of
the Great Marico. The chief of the western Bakhatlas was a son of
Rhamananis, named Linsh.
In order to get sufficient money to carry me back to the diamond
fields I had to resort to medical practice. Amongst my patients was a
trader, who had been thrown out of a waggon through Westbeech’s bad
driving, and had been a good deal hurt. Another patient was the Dutch
minister, De Vries, and by curing him I made a number of friends in the
neighbourhood, where he was much beloved.
About this time I received a very courteous answer from Lord Derby
in reply to the letter which I had sent him from Shoshong. A few
days afterwards I took my departure from Linokana; and choosing the
nearest route to Mamusa, went past Oisthuizen’s Farm, and along the
southern portion of the west frontier of the Marico district. The stony
condition of the road made the whole journey very toilsome.
Whilst rambling about in the neighbourhood of Dornplace Farm on the
Molapo, I came to a rocky lake, named Joubert’s Lake, after the owner
of the farm. It is probably the smallest of all the lakes in South
Africa, and lies in a deep hollow, about a hundred yards long by
fifty yards wide; less than twenty yards from the shore it was 800
feet deep, and the farmer informed me that in the rainy season the
water rose some four or five feet higher than it was when I saw it; he
likewise expressed his belief that the lake was in communication with
the Molapo, which flows at no great distance, and on a lower level. I
formed an opinion that the lower rocks are of hard grey limestone, and
that at the bottom there are caves and grottoes by which the lake is
fed. The shores, which were both steep and rocky, were all alive with
large brightbrown rock-rabbits, rock-pigeons, and starlings, as well
as with innumerable bees. Mr. Joubert related to me some interesting
hunting-adventures, and gave graphic descriptions of three very
exciting lion-hunts. In former times lions, especially of the maneless
breed, seem to have been very numerous on the Molapo. In common with
other farmers, Mr. Joubert expressed great dissatisfaction with the
Transvaal Republic. He held the post of field-cornet, and tried to
induce me to employ any influence I might have in urging the British
Government to annex the Molapo valley. The complaints of the way in
which justice was administered were very bitter; the farmers murmuring,
moreover, that after the Republic had conceded to them the purchase of
farms and land, it was impotent to protect them from the Barolongs, to
whom the territory by ancient right belonged.
Starting off again on the 30th, I was not long in reaching Rietvley
Farms, where several families resided, but I made no stay, leaving
again the same afternoon for Poolfontein. This was formerly a
farm, but is now a settlement of Barolongs, who migrated from the
neighbourhood of Potchefstroom under their chief Matlabe, and are
industrious agriculturists. Mr. Hansen was here working very hard on
behalf of the Hermannsburg Mission, but the majority of the population
were Wesleyans. A spring that I saw in the neighbourhood was issuing
from one of the deep cavities in the hard limestone, and at no great
distance from this I noticed a small rock-pool, on the surface of which
was a little floating island of grass.
Hence to the Harts River, which we crossed about a day’s journey from
Mamusa, our way led over the Quagga Flats. The grass was low and the
soil dry, consequently the game, which is generally very abundant,
had retreated to moister and better concealed districts. I found
the underwood very dense in the shallow valley at the source of the
Maretsane.
Water-birds were plentiful at a salt-pan at which I arrived on the 1st
of November, but unfortunately at this date I had so many indications
of a return of fever, that neither here nor at the Calvert or Helmore
lakes, was I in a condition to enjoy any sport.
Continuing my journey three days later, I paid a visit to the Harm
Saltlake, where some Boers contrive to make a miserable livelihood by
hunting and by selling salt.
The Mackenzie and the Livingstone salt-pans lay in the next day’s
route, and after a drive of some hours over marshy soil, we came to
a pond encircled by tall sedge, in the middle of which there seemed
to be a rock-pool; as far as I know, it is the only one of the kind
on the plain between the Harts and Molapo. As we approached we were
almost deafened by the chorus of bird-cries that rose from its banks.
We put up for the night in two deserted huts that had belonged to some
Dutch hunters, who had left the tokens of their calling behind them in
a great accumulation of the bones of the gnus and antelopes they had
killed. I was sorry that there was no boat at hand in which I could
make an investigation of the bottom of the pond. Besides the numerous
swamp-birds and water-fowl, there was a great variety of finches in the
sedge; and before night closed in, it was a remarkable sight to see the
thousands of swallows that came back from their day’s flight across
the boundless plains.
Crossing the Harts River on the 9th, we found it so swollen by the
rain that the transit was somewhat dangerous, but we arrived safely
at Mamusa on the next day, and at Houmansvley on the day after. Mr.
Houman, the resident proprietor, gave me a courteous welcome, and I
stayed with him until the 14th, when I continued my way south, till I
came to Hallwater Farm, where there were a good many Korannas.
[Illustration: NIGHT JOURNEY.]
The nearer I approached the diamond-fields, the more disheartened and
out of spirits I felt. I had not 2_l._ in my possession, and I
owed Mr. Jensen 120_l._, a sum considerably more than I could
realize by the sale of my waggon and team, which would fetch much less
here than they would if I could have sold them in the Transvaal.
While I was in Christiana I was pleased to make the acquaintance of a
trader named Sanders, who had been travelling in the tropical parts of
the west coast.
On my way down the Vaal valley I had another attack of fever, which
came on so violently, that when I arrived at Kimberley on the 26th, I
was thoroughly ill.