Geographical Position of Namaqua-land
Geographical position of Namaqna-lancI — When first visited by — Topography — Character and language of the inhabitants — Influence of foreign intercourse — Privations of the first Missionaries — Their feelings — They cross the boundaries of the Colony — Cornelius Kok — Commencement of labours — First inter¬ view with Africaner — His ancestry — Oppressions — Revenge — The catastrophe — Africaner’s escape to the Orange River — War with the Berends — A testimony — Africaner attacks a banditti — His mode of warfare — His cattle stolen — He storms the assailants — Nicholas Berend.
Great Namaqua-land, as it is usually called, lies north of the Orange River, on the western coast of Africa, between the 23° and 28° of south latitude; bounded on the north hv the Dainaras, and on the east by an extensive sandy desert, called by Mr. Campbell the Southern Zara, or Zahara.
In the month of January, 1806, the Orange, or Gariep River, was crossed by missionaries of the London Missionary Society, for the purpose of plant¬ ing the Gospel among the inhabitants of that wild and desolate region. Before entering into a detail of painful and pleasing events, which marked the whole course of the hold, self-denying, and dangerous enterprise of the two Albrechts and their associates, it will he proper briefly to sketch the character of the country, and the circumstances connected with TOPOGRAPHY
the early efforts of these men of God, to sow the seeds of the everlasting Gospel in a most ungenial soil.
As an inhabited country, it is scarcely possible to conceive of one more destitute and miserable; and it is impossible to traverse its extensive plains, its rugged, undulating surface, and to descend to the waterless beds of its rivers, without viewing it as emphatically “a land of droughts,” bearing the heavy curse of
“Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the woidd, and all our woe.”
Meeting with an individual, on my journey thither, who had spent years in that country, I asked what was its character and appearance. “Sir,” he replied, “you will find plenty of sand and stones, a thinly scattered population, always suffering from want of water, on plains and hills roasted like a burnt loaf, under the scorching rays of a cloudless sun.” Of the truth of this description I soon had ample demonstration. It is intersected by the Fish and ’Oup Rivers, with their numberless tributary streams, if such their dry and often glowing beds may be termed. Sometimes, for years together, they are not known to run; when, after the stagnant pools are dried up, the natives congregate to their beds, and dig holes, or wells, in some instances to the depth of twenty feet, from which they draw water, generally of a very inferior quality. They place branches of trees in the excavation, and, with great labour, under a hot sun, hand up the water in a wooden vessel. and pour it into an artificial trough; to which the panting, lowing herds approach, partially to satiate their thirst. Thunder storms are eagerly anticipated, for by these only rain falls; and frequently these storms will pass over with tremendous violence, striking the inhabitants with awe, while not a single drop of rain descends to cool and fructify the parched waste.
When the heavens do let down their watery treasures, it is generally on a partial strip of country, which the electric cloud has traversed; so that the traveller will frequently pass, almost instantaneously, from ground on w’hich there is not a blade of grass, into tracts of luxuriant green, sprung up after a passing storm. Fountains are indeed few and far between, the best very inconsiderable, frequently very salt, and some of them hot springs; while the soil contiguous is generally so impregnated with saltpetre, as to crackle under the feet, like hoar-frost, and it is with great difficulty that any kind of vegetable can be made to grow. Much of the country is hard and stony, interspersed with plains of deep sand. There is much granite; and quartz is so abundantly scattered, reflecting such a glare of light from the rays of the sun, that the traveller, if exposed at noon-day, can scarcely allow his eyelids to be sufficiently open to enable him to keep the course he wishes to pursue.
The inhabitants are a tribe or tribes of Hottentots, distinguished by all the singular characteristics of that nation, which includes Hottentots, Corannas, Namaquas, and Bushmen. Their peculiar clicking language is so similar, that it is with little difficulty
they converse with the two former. In their native state the aborigines, though deeply sunk in ignorance, and disgusting in their manners and mien, were neither very warlike nor bloody in their dispositions. The enervating influence of climate, and scanty sustenance, seem to have deprived them of that bold martial spirit which distinguishes the tribes who live in other parts of the interior, which, in comparison with Namaqua-land, may be said to “flow with milk and honey.” With the exception of the solitary traveller, whose objects were entirely of a scientific character, those who ventured into the interior carried on a system of cupidity, and perpetrated deeds, calculated to make the worst impression upon the minds of the natives, and influence them to view white men and others descended from them as an “angry” race of human beings, only fit to be classed with the lions, which roar for their prey in their native wilds. Intercourse with such visitors in the southern districts, and disgraceful acts of deceit and oppression committed by sailors from ships which visited Angra Piquena, and other places on the western coast, had, as may easily be conceived, the most baneful influence on the native tribes, and nurtured in their heathen minds (naturally suspicious) a savage disgust for all intercourse with white men, alas! professedly Christian. Having little to talk about, when they met, these subjects became their general theme. Such was the long and deep-rooted impression made on their mindS;, as a people, that on one of the branches of the Fish Hiver, far east of Mr. Schmelen’s station at Bethany, when I asked a native why he had never visited the missionary station, his reply was, ‘‘ I have been taught from my infancy to look upon hat men (hat- wearers) as the robbers and murderers of the Namaquas. Our friends and parents have been robbed of their cattle, and shot by the hat-wearers.” Many run¬ aways, and characters reckless of law, abandoning the service of the farmers in the Colony, fled to Great Namaqua-land, and their influence went far in stirring up the native mind against all compromise on the part of their civilized neighbours. It was to such a people, and to such a country, that the missionaries directed their course, to lead a life, of the greatest self-denial and privation.
From a variety of untoward circumstances, their experience on the journey from Cape Town to the place of their destination, seemed a precursor and preparation for future trials, and to them the journey must have formed a striking contrast to European travelling, and the endeared home of the friends they had left, never again to behold in the flesh. In their journal they detail numerous difliculties with which they had to contend in their progress. They had a weak and imperfect supply of oxen to draw their wagons, some fainting, and others incapable of being yoked. Their wagons stuck fast in the sand, then in the river. They were compelled to leave oxen behind, and they suffered excessively from thirst, as the water was scarce and nauseous. They were unable to obtain, from their poverty and the locality, a sufliciency of food to supply the calls of hunger. Their s])irits drooped, and though their courage did not fail, the following letter shows that they were alive to the nature of their situation.
“We had no prospect of being soon among the people, and could easily calculate that we should not have sufficient to last till we had an opportunity of purchasing for slaughter. The Lord brings us now into paths where we must by experience learn to pray, ‘ Give us this day our daily bread.’ We have not only to take care of our own provisions in the parched deserts, but also of those who conduct the wagons. Besides, the 36 rix-dollars (about 3/.) we had remaining to carry us from the Rodesand, were almost expended, and we were still at a considerable distance from the Kamies Berg. To say nothing of the country of the Great Namaquas, where we hope to find the place of our destination, it is very grievous for me and my brethren, that we are sent to make such a long journey, through the dreary parts of Africa, with so little money and provisions: we being altogether eleven in number, who cannot live upon the air. We acknowledge that through love we gave ourselves up to that service as well as other brethren; and we are also convinced that our worthy brethren, the Directors, would not suffer us first to stand in need, and then be willing to help us when there should be no opportunity, or when it might be too late to deliver us from trouble and danger. We were never in our lives so perplexed, to think what we should eat or drink, as we have reason to do at present; not only to our grief, but that also of our people in this dry sandy desert, where we are deprived of human assistance, but must rejoice when able to get just a drink of water, which is mostly brack or saltish. But all suffering we meet with in the journey or in the service of our Lord, we shall patiently bear for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Yet when we and our people suffer by famine, and we think the same might have been prevented — and who knows how long we must remain in this perilous situation? — then it is very sorrowful for brethren, who have abandoned their livelihood, country, and friends, and have given themselves up to the service of our great Sender, the Lord Jesus, thus to endure. But we trust God will protect us, and will not let us come to shame.”
These were only some of their trials, while yet within the boundary of the Colony, and at no great distance from the abodes of civilized men; as they drew near the sphere of their intended labours, their spirits revived, though their troubles and reasonable fears did not diminish; for, having passed the boundary of the Colony, they add, — ‘In this place, which is called Bushman- countrv, there is as little water as there is grass to be found. One must hunger and thirst, and be in continual danger of being devoured by wild beasts, or murdered.”
It is pleasing to see that, amidst these privations, their devotedness to the immortal interests of the heathen continued unwavering, even though they were fully satisfied that much suffering and distress of mind might have been prevented by some whose duty it was to direct and assist.
“Dear brethren,” they write, addressing the Directors,* “we have gone through many difficulties, of which nobody can form an idea, who never has been in a dry and barren desert. We were not only separated from our friends, but could get no assistance from any human being. If we had not been able to believe that it was the wdll of the Lord for us to go to the Great Namaquas, we could not have gone through such great fatigue and labour. Nevertheless, it was painful to us to observe that even those who are said to have assisted us, have made our journey so difficult by not providing properly for us.”
While in some of their greatest perplexities, Cornelius Kok, of Kamiesberg, with his son Adam, (late chief of Philippolis,) appeared to them like an angel of mercy, assisting, comforting, and directing them in their arduous enterprise. These trying times were rendered tenfold more so from their want of pecuniary resources, among a people suspicious of their real
* It should be borne in mind, that at that time our missions w’ere principally under the management of the Directors of the South African Missionary Society — Dr. Vanderkemp and hlr. Kicherer.
motives, themselves in poverty. Though permitted by an austere and mistaken government, as a favour, to exile themselves beyond the boundaries of the Colony, to instruct the aborigines in the Christian religion, they were forbidden to teach them to write, without special orders from the Cape authorities.
On reaching the junction of the Hartebeast with the Orange River, they waited some time, till Christian Albrecht, having pioneered to Great Namaqualand, returned with encouraging prospects, and the whole party passed on to that country. Characteristic of the simplicity of their proceedings, they named the spot of their first temporary re&idence, Stille Hoop, (Silent Hope,) and the next Blyde Uitkomst, (Happy Deliverance.) Their Silent Hope, however, in that country, was long deferred; and, indeed, could scarcely be said to be fully realized, till their Happy Deliverance from a succession of disappointments, mortifications, and hardships, which brought the Albrechts, and Mrs. C. A., formerly Miss Burgman, to a premature grave. Soon after commencing their labours, their prospects were alternately bright and gloomy. Their proximity to Africaner, the notable robber, added not a little to their anxieties. Appearing before them on one occasion, he said, “As you are sent by the English, I welcome you to the country; for though I hate the Dutch, my former oppressors, I love the English; for 1 have always heard that they are the friends of the poor black man.” So early and so fully was this man, the terror of the country, im¬ pressed with the purity and sincerity of the missionary character, that, hearing that it was the intention of the Albrechts to remove to a more eligible situation. he came to the missionaries, (after having sent repeated messages,) entreating them not to leave that part of the country, and testifying the pleasure he felt at seeing the progress his children had made under their instruction, promising to send the rest, which he did eventually, taking up his abode with them, and causing his people to do the same.
Before proceeding with the painful record of events which followed in rapid succession, it may be proper here to glance briefly at Africaner’s history and character. In doing this, it will be well to fix the attention on Jager, the eldest son of the old man, who, from his shrewdness and prowess, obtained the reins of the government of his tribe at an early age.* He and his father once roamed on their native hills and dales within 100 miles of Cape Town; pastured their own flocks, killed their own game, drank of their own streams, and mingled the music of their heathen songs with the winds which burst over the Witsemberg and Winterhoek mountains, once the strongholds of his clan. As the Dutch settlers increased, and found it necessary to make room for themselves, by adopting as their own the lands which lay beyond them, the Hottentots, the aborigines, perfectly incapable of maintaining their ground against these foreign intruders, were compelled to give place by removing to a distance, or yield themselves in passive obedience to the farmers. From time to time he found himself and his people becoming more remote from the land
* The father of the large family of Africaners, or Jagers, had re¬ signed the hereditary right of chieftainship to his eldest son Jager, afterwards Christian Africaner; the old man, who lived to a great age, being superannuated.
of their forefathers, till he became united and subject to a farmer named P -. Here he and his dimin¬
ished clan lived for a number of years. In Africaner,
P - found a faithful and an intrepid shepherd;
while his valour in defending and increasing the herds and flocks of his master enhanced his value, at the same time it rapidly matured the latent principle which afterwards recoiled on that devoted family, and carried devastation to whatever quarter he directed his steps. Had P - treated his subjects with com¬
mon humanity, not to say with gratitude, he might have died honourably, and prevented the catastrophe which befell the family, and the train of robbery, crime, and bloodshed which quickly followed that melancholy event. It can serve no good purpose here to detail the many provocations and oppressions which at length roused the apparently dormant energies of the often dejected chieftain, who saw his people dwindling to a mere handful; their wives and daughters abused, their infants murdered, while he himself had to subsist on a coarse and scanty pittance, which, in the days of his independency he would have considered as the crumbs of a table fit only for the poorest of the poor. Demonstrations too tangible to admit of a doubt, convinced him and his people, that in addition to having their tenderest feelings trodden under foot, evil was intended against the whole party. They had been trained to the use of fire-arms; to act not only on the defensive, hut offensive also; and Africaner, who had been signally expert in re-capturing stolen cattle from the Bushmen pirates, now refused to comply with the command of the master, who was a kind of justice of peace. Order after order was sent down to the huts of Africaner and his people. They positively refused. They had on the previous night received authentic information that it was a deep-laid scheme to get them to go to another farm, where some of the party were to be seized. Fired with indignation at the accumulated woes through which they had passed, a tempest was brooding in their bosoms. They had before signified their wish, with the farmer’s permission, to have some reward for their often galling servitude, and to be allowed peaceably to remove to some of the sequestered districts beyond, where they might live in peace. This desire had been sternly refused, and followed by severity still more grievous. It was even-tide, and the farmer, exasperated to find his commands disregarded, ordered them to appear at the door of his house. This was to them an awful moment; and though accustomed to scenes of barbarity, their hearts heat hard. It had not yet entered their minds to do violence to the farmer. Jager, with his brothers and some attendants, moved slowly up towards the door of the house. Titus, the next brother to the chief, dreading that the farmer in his wrath might have recourse to desperate measures, took his gun with him, which he easily concealed be¬ hind him, being night. When they reached the front of the house, and Jager, the chief, had gone up the few steps leading to the door, to state their complaints, the farmer rushed furiously on the chieftain, and with one blow precipitated him to the bottom of the steps. At this moment Titus drew from behind him his
gun, and fired on P -, who staggered backward and
fell. They then entered the house: the wife, having witnessed the murder of her husband, slirieked, and
implored mercy. They told her on no account to be alarmed, for they had nothing against her. They asked for the guns and ammunition which were in the house, which she promptly delivered to them. They then straitly charged her not to leave the house during the night, as they could not ensure her safety from others of the servants, who, if she and her family attempted to flee, might kill them.
This admonition, however, was disregarded. Over¬ come with terror, two children escaped by a back door. These were slain by two Bushmen, who had long been looking out for an opportunity of revenging
injuries they had suffered. Mrs. P - escaped in
safety to the nearest farm. Africaner, with as little loss of time as possible, rallied the remnant of his tribe, and, wdth what they could take with them, directed their course to the Orange Biver, and were soon beyond the reach of pursuers, wdio, in a thinly scattered population, required time to collect. He fixed his abode on the banks of the Orange River; and afterwards, a chief ceding to him his dominion in Great Namaqua-land, it henceforth became his by right, as well as by conquest.
Attempts were made on the part of the colonial government and the farmers, to punish this daring outrage on the P — — family; but though rewards were offered, and commandoes went out for that purpose, Africaner dared them to approach his territories. Some of the farmers had recourse to another stratagem to rid the frontiers of such a terror; they bribed some of the Bastards, who were in the habit of visiting the Colonq from the upjDer regions of the Orange River. This gave rise to a long series of
severe, and sometimes bloody conflicts between the Africaners and the chief Berend and bis associates; Berend being impelled by a twofold reward, and Afri¬ caner by a desire to wreak bis vengeance on the farmers, who were once his friends, the instigators of the deeply laid scheme. Though these two chiefs dreadfully harassed each other, neither conquered; but continued to breathe against each other the direst hatred, till, by the gospel of peace, they were brought to ‘‘ beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks.”
As soon as Africaner had discovered the origin of the plot which had well nigh overthrown his power, he visited the boundaries of the Colony. A farmer named Engelbrecht, and a Bastard Hottentot, fell victims to his fury, and their cattle and other property were carried off, to atone for the injuries inflicted by the machinations of the farmers. Africaner now became a terror, not only to the Colony on the south, but also to the tribes on the north. The original natives of the country justly viewed him as a dangerous neighbour, even though he had obtained, by lawful means, a y)ortion in their country. They considered him as the common enemy. This led to pilfering and provocations on their part; conduct which he was sure to pay back, in their own way, with large interest. The tribes fled at his approach. His name carried dismay even to the solitary wastes. At a subsequent period, as I was standing with a Narnaqua chief, looking at Africaner, in a supplicating attitude entreating parties ripe for a battle to live at peace with each other; “Look,” said the wondering chief, pointing to Afri¬ caner, “there is the man, once the lion, at whose
roar even the inhabitants of distant hamlets fled from their houses! Yes, and I” (patting his chest with his hand) “have, for fear of his approach, fled with my people, our wives and our babes, to the mountain glen, or to the wilderness, and spent nights among beasts of prey, rather than gaze on the eyes of this lion, or hear his roar.”
After the general aspect of affairs began to settle in that part of the country where Africaner’s head¬ quarters were, other distant and interior parts of the country became a theatre in which the inhabitants of the Colony were pursuing a bloody game, in shooting the aborigines, and carrying off their cattle. The landrost of one of the colonial districts sent a message to Africaner, requesting him to try and put a stop to these proceedings, and especially those of a farmer, who, with his Bastard attendants, had sconced themselves in a stronghold in the country. Africaner promptly obeyed the call, and as he did not intend to fight them, he went with some of his chief men on oxen, to recommend them peaceably to retire from the country in which they were such a scourge. On approaching the temporary dwellings of these freebooters, and within gun-shot, the farmer levelled his long roer at the small party, and several slugs enter¬ ing Africaner’s shoulder, instantly brought him to the ground. His companions immediately took up their arms, and the farmer, knowing that their shots were deadly, kept out of the way, allowing the wounded chief and his attendants to retire, which they did, and returned home brooding revenge.
As soon as the slugs were extracted, and the wound partially healed, though the arm was lamed for life.
Africaner, who was not a man to be frightened from his purpose, resumed his campaign; and the result was, that this marauder, under a Christian name, was driven from his stronghold, and compelled to take refuge in the Colony whence he had come. The success which, in almost every instance, followed the arms of such a small and inconsiderable body of banditti as that of Africaner, maybe ascribed to his mode of warfare. He endeavoured always to attack his enemy on the plain; or, if entrenched, or among bushes, the usual mode of fighting in the country, he instantly drove them from their sheltering-places; where, if both parties were of the same mind, they would continue from day to day occasionally discharging their missiles, or firing a shot. By Africaner’s mode of warfare the conflict was soon decided. His reasons were these: he did not like suspense when life was at stake: he preferred to conquer a people before they had time to be alarmed, which saved them much agony of mind, and spared the unnecessary effusion of blood. Africaner was a man of
great prowess, and possessed a mind capable of study¬ ing the tactics of savage warfare. His brother Titus was, perhaps, still more fierce and fearless; and, though a little man, he was an extraordinary runner, and able to bear unparalleled fatigue. He has been known, single-handed, to overtake a party of twenty possessing fire-arms, and only retired when his musket was shot to pieces in his hand. On one occasion Berend’s party, who were far superior in numbers, headed by Nicholas Bereiid, unexpectedly carried off every ox and cow be¬ longing to Africaner, only a few calves being left in the stall. After a desperate though very unequal contest for a whole day, having repeatedly taken and lost their cattle, they returned home, slaughtered the calves
which were left them, and rested a couple of days in order to dry the flesh in the sun, ready for the intended campaign. For several days they pursued their course along the northern banks of the Orange River, and having, by spies, found out the rendezvous of the enemy on the southern side of the river, they passed beyond them, in order to attack them from a quarter on which they fancied they were safe. They swam over in the dead of the night, with their ammunition and clothes tied on their heads, and their guns on their shoulders. The little force thus prepared, not unlike that of Bruce at Bannockburn, seized their opportunity, and, when all the enemy were slumbering in perfect security, aroused them by a volley of stones falling on their fragile huts. The inmates rushed out, and were received by a shower of arrows; and before they could fairly recover their senses, and seize their guns, the discharge of musketry convinced them that they were besieged by a host encamped in the most favourable position: they consequently fled in the greatest consternation, leaving the captured cattle, as well as their own, in the hands of the Africaners.
Nicholas Berend, to whom reference has been made, was brother to the chief Berend Berend, (afterwards of the Griqua mission, and now of the Wesleyan mission among the Basuto,) and a very superior man both in appearance and intellect. I have frequently travelled with him, and many a dreary mile have we walked over the wilderness together. Having an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers, he has often beguiled the dreariness of the road by rehearsing deeds of valour in days of heathenism, in which this struggle with Afri¬ caner bore a prominent part, and on which he could not reflect without a sigh of sorrow.
Among the remarkable interpositions of Divine Providence in saving his life from destruction, he more than once repeated the following, with much emphasis. It happened when he was engaged in a desperate conflict with Titus Africaner, from whose lips I had heard the same tale. The two had been engaged for hours in mutual strife, taking and re¬ taking a herd of cattle. By means of the large drove and bushes, each had managed to conceal himself. Suddenly a passage opening in the troop, which exposed the enraged combatants to each other’s view, their rifles were instantly levelled. The moment they touched the triggers, a cow darted in between, and the two balls lod2:ed in the centre of the animal, which fell dead on the spot. But for this interposition, both would, in all probability, have fallen, as they were most expert marksmen. Titus, a man who could take his gun in the dead of night, enter an immense deep pool in the Orange River, swim to the centre, take his seat on a rock just above the surface of the water, and wait the approach of a hip¬ popotamus, which he would shoot just as it opened its monstrous jaws to seize him; — a man who would deliberately smile the moment he laid the lion dead at his feet. This man, who a])peared incapable of fear, and reckless of danger, could not help acknowledging having been powerfully struck with his escape from the ball of his antagonist, and would say to me when I referred to the fact, “Mynheer knows how to use the only hammer which make my hard heart feel.”
Nicholas finished his Christian course under the pastoral care of the Rev. T. L. Hodgson, Wesleyan missionary at Boochuap. His end was peace.