BOERS ADVERSE TO IMPROVEMENT. 35 



CHAPTER II. 



The Boers. — Their Treatment of the Natives. — Seizure of native Children for 

 Slaves. — English Traders. — Alarm of the Boers. — Native Espionage. — The Tale 

 of the Cannon. — The Boers threaten Sechele. — In violation of Treaty, they stop 

 English Traders and expel Missionaries. — They attack the Bakwains. — Their 

 Mode of Fighting. — The Natives killed and the School-children carried into 

 Slavery. — Destruction of English Property. — African Housebuilding and House- 

 keeping. — Mode of Spending the Day. — Scarcity of Food. — Locusts. — Edible 

 Frogs. — Scavenger Beetle. — Continued Hostility of the Boers. — The Journey 

 north. — Preparations. — Fellow-travelers. — The Kalahari Desert. — Vegetation. — 

 "Watermelons. — The Inhabitants. — The Bushmen. — Their nomade Mode of 

 Life. — Appearance. — The Bakalakari. — Their Love for Agriculture and for do- 

 mestic Animals. — Timid Character. — Mode of obtaining "Water. — Female Water- 

 suckers. — The Desert. — Water hidden. 



Anothee adverse influence with which the mission had to con- 

 tend was the vicinity of the Boers of the Cashan Mountains, oth- 

 erwise named " Magalieslberg." These are not to be confounded 

 with the Cape colonists, who sometimes pass by the name. The 

 word Boer simply means "farmer," and is not synonymous with 

 our word boor. Indeed, to the Boers generally the latter term 

 would be quite inappropriate, for they are a sober, industrious, 

 and most hospitable body of peasantry. Those, however, who 

 have fled from English law on various pretexts, and have been 

 joined by English deserters and every other variety of bad charac- 

 ter in their distant localities, are unfortunately of a very different 

 stamp. The great objection many of the Boers had, and still 

 have, to English law, is that it makes no distinction between black 

 men and white. They felt aggrieved by their supposed losses in 

 the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and determined to 

 erect themselves into a republic, in which they might pursue, with- 

 out molestation, the "proper treatment of the blacks." It is al- 

 most needless to add that the " proper treatment" has always con- 

 tained in it the essential element of slavery, namely, compulsory 

 unpaid labor. 



One section of this body, under the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, 

 penetrated the interior as far as the Cashan Mountains, whence a 



