Chap. II. BOERS ADVERSE TO IMPROVEMENT. 29 



CHAPTEK 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 housekeeping — Mode of spending the day — Scarcity 

 of food — Locusts — Edible frogs — Scavenger beetle — Continued hostility 

 of the Boers — The journey north — Preparations — Fellow travellers — 

 The Kalahari desert — Vegetation — "Water-melons — The inhabitants — 

 The Bushmen — Their nomade mode of life — Appearance — The Baka- 

 lahari — Their love for agriculture and for domestic animals — Timid 

 character — Mode of obtaining water — Female water-suckers — The 

 desert — Water hidden. 



Another adverse influence with which the mission had to contend 

 was the vicinity of the Boers of the Cashan Mountains, otherwise 

 named " Magaliesberg." 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 character 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 then supposed losses in 

 the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and determined to 

 erect themselves into a republic, in winch they might pursue 

 without molestation the " proper treatment of the blacks." It is 

 almost needless to add that the " proper treatment " has always 

 contained in it the essential element of slavery, namely, compul- 

 sory unpaid labour. 



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

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



