Part 9 (1/2)
”Bring ht, Baas! I bring hi on his bare heels, and striding noiselessly into the pantry close by, where soon the sound of popping soda-water-bottles told that he was carrying out his master's orders
A few minutes later the drink was placed on the ar back, puffing clouds of s
”Light up, boys!” he said at last ”It's a bit of a yarn, and wants to be followed closely Now, to start the ball rolling, as it were, I hbours are, and froin You must know that the first whites to visit this vast continent of Africa in its southern parts were of Dutch nationality
They were servants of the Dutch East India Company, who placed a colony of their countrymen at Table Bay to form a depot, where vessels could put in and replenish their provisions and water with soree of safety They were joined many years after by a band of French Protestants who had been driven from their own country
”In 1795 the Colony was taken over by the British by request of the Stadtholder of Holland, who had been dethroned But in seven years'
tiain
”Later on, however, our forces returned once overnment on the site which is now occupied by Cape Town
Naturally, rants had become possessed of property, and had commenced to farm the land; and these stayed on under the new rule In process of time they intermarried, and by the commencement of this century nuin of the present Boer nation They are sprung from the union between Dutch and French settlers, ere the pioneers of Africa
”Then the British irant arrived and sat down by the side of the Boers, and together, in perfect unity and good fellowshi+p, they pushed farther into the country, fighting one long continuous fight against hordes of natives and against lions and other savage beasts Every step they advanced had to be fought for; for, just as the Bed Indians in Aers into their hunting-grounds, so have the natives of South Africa fought to resist the onward progress and invasion of the white settlers into the land which they considered theirs by right of birth
”But now--to hark back for one land stepped in and took possession of the colony--a factor arose to upset the peace and general agreement of Boer and Briton The fact that they had been handed over by their own government to the British, like so st the Boers And now this resentovernard to the natives
”Years before, the Boer settlers had become accustomed to slave labour, and as they pushed on into the country, natives were pressed into their service And these they had punished as each man considered the case deserved Probably because there was a plentiful supply of Kafirs and Hottentots our Boer friends had not stopped at whipping the poor fellows They treated the their lives
”Such barbarous doings awoke in England a stor been opposed to slavery Freedom and equality has been our motto for many years, and we have sustained it at no small cost to ourselves
”When the tales of Boer brutality becanation it caused resulted in the emancipation of all slaves, and from that date the 'Baas', as the hts; and to injure one of theland
”You can iement caused in the hearts of the Boers For years they had been free to do as they chose, and now their slaves were theirs no longer, and the natives, who had been in their masters' eyes like mere cattle, were now their equals in point of law, and were not to be ill-treated with impunity
”This was too lisher and hate, and rather than be forced to live side by side with theoverned by their laws, they struck out a line for themselves and trekked away north into the unexplored wilds Taking their wives and children with the their flocks, they set out for the unknown, seeking isolation from the British, and a country they could call their own
”Thousands joined in what is known as the 'Great Trek of 1837' So of them pushed on as far as the Vaal River, which, of course you know, is the southern boundary of the Transvaal, or South African Republic, as it is called nowadays They paid dearly for their teainst them and massacred every one of theed pluck, in which he much resembles our countrymen, was not the reater nuain, beat the country
”Others of the Trekkers settled on the Zand River, in what is now the Orange Free State, while others pushed across the veldt, and finally crossed the passes of the Drakenberg Mountains and came to a halt in Natal
”But these last were also to meet with trouble fro with Dingaan, the chief of that fierce native tribe, they were fallen upon with barbarous ferocity and slaughtered to a man
”Well, you have often heard it said that when the black man sees blood, no power on earth can keep him in check That hat happened now
The fierce Zulu warriors had dipped their assagais in the blood of their white foes, and they were not to be held back Like a wave they burst over the s landscape of Natal, and when the tide had ebbed hundreds of hapless men and women had been sent to their last account
”That was the commencement of all the bitter hate which the Boer of the present day has for the native race
”I think you have seen, ed stubbornness of purpose and undoubted pluck were characteristics of that old Boer people They never knehen they were beaten, and no aer and hardshi+p would prevent the on for that proht live in freedoht for to-morrow, and with no cares to upset the caled
”They banded theaan, only to be beaten But again they gathered their forces under the leadershi+p of Andries Pretorius, and on Dece, killing three thousand of the settled the natives, they built their farms and appointed from their number certain men ere to forain the British stepped in and intimated that they would not allow an independent state to be for, but reinforcements were sent up-country, and in May, 1842, the whole of Natal was taken over as a British colony
”Now, had these hardy pioneers cared to live under British rule, they were free to stay on their farlish was as prominent in their hearts as their enmity for the natives Britons should not rule the but absolute independence would suit them, and so once more they trekked away and joined their brothers on the Zand River
”One really admires the persistence and pluck of those brave fellows