g g ON GIVING A GENERAL CHARACTER TO THE BOORS. 15,16 March,
inculcated and remembered ; it shows that savages, however low or
debased may be their rank among the nations of the globe, are not
insensible to an indignity.
I could not learn for what crime this flogging had been inflicted;
nor do I pretend to interfere with the question, whether, from mere
ignorance, or misled by the habits of a lawless life to which she had
been born, she might not, though unwittingly, have committed some
offence which, in a civilized or better instructed society, might justly
be visited with punishment; but I shall not hesitate to pronounce
that man to be a cowardly unfeeling brute, who could treat with such
merciless severity, one of that sex which it is a natural duty to
protect from wrong, and shield from unkindness.
Another of the Bushwomen complained that this baas had compelled
her son to remain in his service against his wish; nor could
they by any means obtain leave for him to return with them to their
kraal. Whatever might have been the stipulated wages for these
people’s services, they certainly carried away with them none of the
rewards of their labor, unless a cap of scarlet cloth, and a pair of old
cloth trowsers, are to be considered as such, or the sheep skins which
the women wore over their shoulders and which were probably given
to them by their kind-hearted baas.
As the events of these travels are, without partiality or prejudice,
related as they occurred, and the observations recorded faithfully
in that light in which they appeared, I cannot allow the unfavorable
qualities of an individual, to be adopted as the general character
of the Dutch colonists, any more than I would admit selected examples
of individual worthiness, to be taken as specimens of the
whole colony. Of the latter, I know many : of the former, I wish
That I knew none.
From these natives I learned that the boors were apprized of my
coming, and that the intelligence had reached them by means of
some men of Kaabi’s kraal, who had been to communicate with
some of their friends residing on the borders. I was not surprised
at these Bushmen having outstripped us in travelling, because I had
witnessed sufficient proofs of their powers, to believe that they can
1812.' MAPS OF THE COLONY. —ANT-EATER. 9 *
whenever they please, traverse the country in at least half and
sometimes a third of the time required by a colonist.
The party remained with us this night, and partook of our
supper. While they were happily engaged in smoking, I took the
opportunity of a fine evening, and abundance of fuel to give me light,
to lay down on the map of my route, the last days of our course;
which I had till now been prevented doing, by the unfavorable state
of the weather. I carried with me a small Dutch pocket-map of the
Colony; but in this part it was so deficient and so incorrect, that not
the least advantage could be derived from it, to guide my course,
or to enable me to guess what particular part of the boundary I was
now approaching.
16th. Our stock of meat being now consumed, I sent off Philip
and two others to hunt in advance, giving them instructions respecting
the direction in which I intended to travel. Our two last visitors,
finding that it was not in our power to supply them with provisions
to take home, went out early in the morning to hunt in a distant
part of the plain. They returned unsuccessful, though they had
found an aardoark* or ant-eater; but it took refuge in its hole,
and after considerable labor in endeavouring to unearth it, the animal
escaped by burrowing still deeper. These Bushmen and the women
who came with them remained with us till the moment of our
departure; when bidding me farewell in the colonial manner, by
repeating the word dag, they hasted away to their kraal.
We had not travelled more than eight miles, and had just
passed through an opening between some low rocky hills, where
there were two large ponds of fresh water, when five distant reports
of a musket, which we supposed to proceed from a party of boors,
induced us to halt, and watch if they came in sight.
Both Riizo and the old Bushman advised me to stop here for
the night, as they were not acquainted with any other water which
it would be possible for us to reach before daylight failed us.
A more particular account of this animal has been given page 342. I 8 in the iirst volume, at