Chap. II. 
BOEES ADVEESE TO IMPEOVEMEET. 
29 
CHAPTEE 11. 
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 northPreparations ■—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. 
Anothee adverse influence with wliich 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 their supposed losses in 
the emancipation of their Hottentot slaves, and determined to 
erect themselves into a republic, iu which 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 tins body, under the late Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, 
penetrated the interior as far as the Cashan Mountauis, whence a 
