22 PEACE: LION HUNTING 



as things are, nearly the whole rainfall seems at 

 one time — i.e. during the wet season. 



The policy of the Government was to encourage 

 settlement by giving freehold possession. But 

 I think the better plan is to grant long leases of 

 areas of good size at a very small rent, and to 

 reserve the right to resume up to half of these 

 same areas (with, of course, compensation for all 

 improvements made), should it be found desirable 

 later, in the interest of closer settlement. At 

 present the cattle business on purely pastoral lines 

 and in big holdings seems the most likely way in 

 which the colony can get a sound and productive 

 start. 



At Grootfontein we got our final supplies for 

 the journey ahead. Two things, however, which 

 were particularly wanted — bells and hobbles — 

 could not be obtained, and the lack of these caused 

 us much inconvenience later on. 



It was at Grootfontein that I saw a patrol of 

 some thirty German mounted troops go out on 

 a bushman hunt, two white men, so it was said, 

 having been lately murdered by some of the bush 

 people. The Germans never had the knack of 

 living on good terms with the natives under their 

 rule, for both the Hottentot tribes in the south 

 and the Hereros farther north had rebelled in 

 previous years, in both cases putting up a desperate 

 resistance before being crushed, and now it was 

 the bushmen who were described as giving a great 

 deal of trouble. Throughout the colony, too, the 



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