The World and Its People Part 31

In the building of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, the Boers have had some thought of the future. It has a situation in a basinlike hollow on a plateau some forty-five hundred feet above sea level. While so fortunate as to have a mild climate, Pretoria is subject to great and sudden changes of temperature, which are most trying to people of weak lungs or of a rheumatic const.i.tution. Frequent hailstorms of great violence are a peculiar feature of the climate. These affect the temperature to such a degree that a hot day is often followed by a dismal, chilly night.

Pretoria, as the seat of government, has quite a dignity of its own, and with the forty-five hundred or more people within its limits has quite an imposing air of grandeur. It has broad streets, s.p.a.cious squares, and many fine architectural features. There are few houses as yet upon its broad streets. The square has the usual features, the church and the residences of the chief magistrate, the lawyers, judges, and merchants.

The center of the square is a paradise for wayfaring horses, for it is their favorite grazing ground.

The inhabitants of Pretoria, warned by experience, and knowing the value of water, have caused plenty of it to be conveyed into their town. So plentiful is the supply that it not only irrigates the flouris.h.i.+ng gardens but runs in streams through the streets. Notwithstanding these streams may be very refres.h.i.+ng to look at, they must be a source of annoyance to the pedestrian, who would prefer to walk dry-shod through the streets.

On all sides may be seen hedges of roses. The weeping willow trees, which are characteristic of all towns in the Transvaal, seem to be, if possible, still more numerous here.

Provisions are exceedingly dear, except such as are native to the soil.

In consequence, while the Boers have the actual necessaries of life, they find it impossible to secure the comforts and the refinement that the average Englishman can obtain at home.

Potchefstroom bears a strong resemblance to Pretoria. The Boers, in laying out the city, planned it on so large a scale that it is rather a difficult matter correctly to estimate its extent.

Here we find the great open gra.s.s-covered s.p.a.ce, the rose hedges, and rows of weeping willows lining either side of the narrow gra.s.s-grown roads with their well-worn cart ruts.

Many writers have given interesting accounts of the home life of the Boers. Mr. Burch.e.l.l, a traveler, tells us that he met with great hospitality, not only from the wealthy farmers, but from the poorest and humblest laborers. They carried this hospitality to such an extent as to manifest a readiness and a willingness to open their doors to every hungry and belated traveler that appealed for help and shelter.

On one occasion he was the guest of a farmer of the middle cla.s.s. The house had a bleak and exposed situation, and there was little about it to indicate either art or culture. This house, which was built upon a broad level s.p.a.ce bounded by rugged mountains, had one large room, which occupied the main part of the house. The floor was made of mud, and the solitary window with its broken panes showed very plainly the scarcity and the costliness of gla.s.s.

The main occupation of the Boers is raising wool, and great quant.i.ties of this product are exported each year from Cape Town. As a matter of economy the meat of the sheep is consumed for food, and the fat, or tallow, is made into soap.

At the time of Mr. Burch.e.l.l's visit to one of the Boers, there was a large kettle of boiling soap suspended over the deep and s.p.a.cious open fireplace, in which a cheerful fire was blazing. This open fireplace occupied one end of the main building, the bedrooms occupied the other.

A door in the wall at the back led into the kitchen. Near the fireplace was a small window, kept closely covered by means of a wooden shutter.

This was the only protection from the cold wind; for the window had neither sash nor gla.s.s.

Near the glazed window in the main room of the house was a small table, and on it stood the little old-fas.h.i.+oned copper urn, which was almost constantly in use.

On opposite sides of this table were placed ordinary wooden chairs.

These were for the master and mistress. Several chairs and benches and a good-sized dining table were ranged about the room. Upon a shelf lay a large Bible and a few other books.

The labor of the farm was performed by a man slave and a few Hottentots. The work in the kitchen and about the house was superintended by the mistress, with a black slave and a Hottentot girl to a.s.sist her.

There were three daughters in the family. These were under the instruction of a tutor, a native of Holland, who had lived for nearly thirty years in Cape Colony. He had been an inmate of this family for several months. He could speak quite fluently in English and French, and seemed well able to instruct his pupils for the positions they would occupy in life.

It is no uncommon thing to find teachers of this description scattered over the country. They generally traverse the colony and remain stationed at each house for a period of from a half to a whole year.

During this time such teachers agree to instruct their pupils in reading, writing, and arithmetic,--in fact, to finish their education.

The head of the family where Mr. Burch.e.l.l visited employed his time in rearing cattle. For the disposing of his stock he depended upon the butcher's agent. Such a person is sent by his employer in Cape Town to travel through the grazing districts to select and purchase such cattle as he may deem best. For these cattle he does not pay money, but gives notes or drafts signed by his employer, and bearing an official stamp to indicate their genuineness. Such drafts are considered as good as money, and can be converted into cash by the grazier, or he can tender them in payment to his neighbors.

The inland trade connected with Cape Town was in earlier times a matter of great risk and inconvenience. This was owing to its remote situation at the extremity of the country and to the miserable condition of the roads leading to it. The barren condition of the soil and the lack of good pasturage in the section about the town was a matter of serious inconvenience to the Dutch farmers.

It was the custom for those residing at a great distance to undertake the journey but once in the course of a year. The vehicles on such an occasion resembled very much a traveling menagerie. In addition to the princ.i.p.al members of the family, the poultry, goats, sheep, dogs, monkeys, and other animals reminded the stranger, looking at the motley array, of Noah and the animals that entered the ark. As a matter of protection, and for the purpose of procuring game for food during the journey, a musket or two were carried by the farmer and his aids.

The wagon conveying this mixed load was drawn by a train of at least eight, often ten, or even sixteen, oxen. These, with the enormously long whip of the driver, and the scantily clothed figure of the little Hottentot who led the foremost pair, made a most curious and amusing sight for the stranger visiting the country. The driver's seat was considered a post of honor; the office of leading the oxen was considered a most degrading one, fit only for a Hottentot or a slave.

Between Cape Town and the cultivated farming sections lie extensive sandy plains. These are commonly called the Cape Downs. They are marked by numberless road and wagon ruts in every direction. The soil of these downs, which is composed of loose white sand resting on a bed of clay, is capable of supporting only a few stunted shrubs and coa.r.s.e rushes.

Here and there are scattered a few solitary huts.

Owing to the general barren nature of the country, travelers find no inducement to remain more than a day at Cape Town. After a journey that has perhaps lasted twenty days, during which the barren downs have been crossed, the farmers frequently unyoke their oxen at Salt River, so as to be in readiness to enter the town the next morning at break of day.

In this way they frequently dispose of their produce, procure such articles as they may require, and set out immediately upon the homeward journey in the course of a single day.

Now that the South African Republic is so well supplied with railways, no doubt even the primitive and slow-moving Boer will in time avail himself of the advantages of modern ways, and the old time customs will cease to exist, just as in our own country traveling by stagecoach is a thing of the past, except over some of the mountain roads not yet crossed by railways.

CHAPTER XLV.

OTHER SECTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICA.

British Bechua.n.a.land consists of vast tracts which have been set apart for the Bechuana clans, large sections occupied by European farmers, and a great extent of country still unoccupied.

The country is well adapted for grazing grounds, or cattle runs.

Agriculture is a success only in limited localities, owing to the scarcity of surface water. With the exception of salt, no mineral wealth has been discovered, hence there is nothing to attract the fortune seeker or adventurer to the country.

The climate of Bechua.n.a.land is exceedingly healthy, though the midsummer days are unpleasantly warm. The nights are always enjoyable, for they are invariably cool and pleasant.

Under the British rule order is well preserved in Bechua.n.a.land. There are said to be over five thousand Europeans in the country.

Vayling is the seat of government. It is connected by rail with the ports of Cape Colony. This line is now being continued to Mafeking on the northern border. As this is along the great trade route to the interior of the country, it thus brings a large area under the protection of the British flag.

At a distance considerably north of Bechua.n.a.land lies a tract under British protection, and named, not inappropriately, the British Protectorate.

All white people within its borders are under the guidance of magistrates appointed by the high commissioner. The native tribes, in their relations to each other, are all under the control of the same government; yet the rule of each chief over his tribe is seldom, if ever, subject to interference.

A large portion of this territory is without surface water. The country is thinly inhabited by Bushmen and wandering Bechuana. These were formerly held in slavery by various clans in the neighborhood of the Springs. Although the circ.u.mstances of these people have improved much of late years, yet their lives are still characterized by want and misery, for they are largely dependent upon the caprices of their masters.

Order is Heaven's first law, and it is a recognized factor within this territory, for it is enforced by a strong body of mounted police selected from among the Europeans.

The British Chartered Company's Territory is another division of South Africa. It is situated beyond the protectorate, and is a vast territory containing fully half a million square miles. This territory was opened by the British South African Company under a royal charter granted in 1889.

The country has often been called Rhodesia, from the originator of the company, and who is still its chief manager.

The native chiefs of this section have given the company proprietary rights to immense tracts of fertile land and to extensive areas of gold-bearing quartz reefs. In some places there are shafts and tunnels to indicate that at some unknown period in the past the mines were worked, and ruins of buildings far superior to the skill of the Bantu give evidence that the land was not always occupied exclusively by Europeans.

The country does not lack modern ways and means of communication with the adjoining ones; for there is a telegraphic connection and a postal service between all the forts and Cape Colony, and a railway is fast being constructed inland from Port Beira. This will give easy access to the northeastern portion, while the northwestern portion can be reached without much difficulty from the terminus of the Cape Town Mafeking line.

Such is the march of progress that many appliances of modern times, as printing presses, etc., can be found to-day in a region which a few years ago was known only to a few explorers and hunters.

The German Protectorate, as its name indicates, is under the protection of the German government. The territory, which, since 1884, has been thus protected, occupies the southwest coast of Africa and extends from Cape Frio on the north to the Orange River on the south; from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to an irregular line running from the head waters of the Zambesi to the twentieth meridian from Greenwich on the east.

From this vast territory we must exclude the only port on the coast, Walfish Bay, which with a little tract of land around it belongs to Cape Colony.

The southern part of the country is almost rainless. There are but few fountains, but towards the north the moisture increases. Still no part of this extent of territory is capable of supporting an agricultural population. Notwithstanding this, the land is well adapted for cattle raising.

The mineral wealth of the country is not fully determined. Copper is known to exist in large quant.i.ties, and it is generally believed that there are other minerals.

As far north as Walfish Bay the population consists of Hottentots, and beyond here the Bantu are found. The Europeans are chiefly missionaries and a few prospectors.