The World and Its People Part 22

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

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 pa.s.sage 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 ma.s.s 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 b.u.t.tresses projecting towards the sh.o.r.e.

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 anch.o.r.ed 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 sh.o.r.e, to catch fish, and to obtain news from the places to which they were bound. It was the custom to bury letters on the sh.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+p _Haarlem_ of the East India Company was wrecked off the Blueberg coast. The crew succeeded in saving themselves, their own effects, and the s.h.i.+p'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 s.h.i.+pwrecked 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.sengers 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 sh.e.l.lfish. 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. Gra.s.s 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.