Chap. IL TREATMENT OF NATIVES BY BOERS. 23 



CHAPTER II. 



The Boers : their infamous treatment of natives. — The Kala- 

 hari Desert. — Bushmen and Bakalahari. 



One of the difficulties with which the mission had to contend 

 was the vicinity of the Boers of the Cashan Mountains, other- 

 wise named " Magaliesberg." The word Boer simply means 

 " farmer," and is not synonymous with our word boor. The 

 Magaliesberg Boers are not to be confounded with the Cape 

 colonists, who sometimes pass by the name, and who for the 

 most part are sober, industrious, and hospitable. Those, 

 however, who have fled from English law, and have been 

 joined by every variety of bad character, are of a very different 

 stamp. Many of them felt aggrieved by the emancipation of 

 their Hottentot slaves, and determined to remove to distant 

 localities where they could erect themselves into a republic, 

 and pursue without molestation the " proper treatment of the 

 blacks." This "proper treatment" has always involved the 

 essential element of slavery, — compulsory unpaid labour. 



One section of this class of persons penetrated the interior 

 as far as the Cashan Mountains, whence a Zulu or Canre chief, 

 named Mosilikatze, had been expelled by the well-known 

 Caffre Dingaan. They came with the prestige of white men 

 and deliverers ; but the Bechuanas, who had just escaped the 

 hard sway of the tyrannical Caffres, soon found, as they 

 expressed it, " that Mosilikatze was cruel to his enemies, and 

 kind to those he conquered ; but that the Boers destroyed 

 their enemies, and made slaves of their friends." The tribes, 

 while retaining the semblance of independence, are forced to 

 perform gratuitously all the labour of the fields, and have at 

 the same time to support themselves. I have myself seen 

 Boers come to a village, and, according to their custom, 

 demand twenty or thirty women to weed their gardens 

 These poor creatures accordingly proceeded to the scene of 

 unrequited toil, carrying their own food on their heads, their 



