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Page 9
After spending a most pleasant and agreeable week there, I left
Kimberley at six o'clock on the morning of June 7, in a wagon drawn by
eight horses, and accompanied by five friends, for Warrenton, _en route_
for Bechuanaland and the Transvaal. This mode of travelling was quite a
novelty to me. Although in this journey of altogether three weeks'
duration, we occasionally put up at one or two hotels, at some of the
towns, and sometimes at the farmhouses on our way, we frequently "camped
out" on the open veldt, and, after finishing our evening meal of the
rough-and-ready provisions we carried with us, supplemented by the game
we shot, we wrapped ourselves in our karosses, and slept for the night
under the canopy of the starlit sky. I occupied the wagon, my more
juvenile companions lying on the ground beneath it.
This was my first experience of sleeping in the open air in a wagon, and
this, too, in the depth of a South African winter.
The town of Warrenton is situated on the banks of the Vaal River, and is
forty-three miles north of Kimberley. It is at present an unimportant
town, but diamond diggings have been recently opened, and it is a good
cattle district. It took its name from Sir Charles Warren. Soon after
leaving Warrenton we crossed the Vaal River on a pontoon. Here a trooper
of the Mounted Police joined us, who was said to be a very crack shot.
He rode a charming and well-bred grey horse, and had two admirably
trained pointers with him. He offered me his horse to ride, he taking
my place in the wagon. I had a most enjoyable morning's ride on one of
the best little hacks I ever mounted, cantering over the veldt in the
track of the wagon for about eight or ten miles--through a charming
country with a superb view towards Bechuanaland, the veldt being more
wooded and picturesque, than I had hitherto seen.
We slept that night at Drake's Farm. Before starting the next morning, I
had a long conversation with Mr. Drake. He was born and brought up in
London, and was in business with the firm of Moses & Son, of Cheapside,
as a traveller. He came out here nine years ago with �10 in his pocket,
and travelled up from Port Elizabeth. Mr. Drake is evidently a man of
great energy, and perseverance. He has a high opinion of the country,
and a great idea of its future. His farm and store are situated on the
borders of Bechuanaland; but he now wishes he had settled there, even in
preference to where he is. He laughs at the idea of there being no
water. He says there is plenty to be found at from seventeen to
twenty-five feet below the surface. But he says it must be dug for. If
properly irrigated, it is his opinion that thousands and thousands of
tons of mealies might be grown. He is enthusiastic about the beauty of
Bechuanaland, and spoke of having seen parts of it in which the charms
of English scenery are to be found, and even greater attractions than in
many gentlemen's parks in the Old Country. His opinion of the climate is
very high. He told me he would on no account exchange his present
location, with its dry, pure, and bracing air, so healthful,
invigorating, and free, for the chill, and damps, and fogs of England.
Mr. Drake was in England during the year 1887 (the Jubilee year), but
he was glad to get back again to his home on the border of
Bechuanaland--a very comfortable one, as I can testify from my own
personal experience.
[Illustration: Decorative]
[Illustration: Decorative]
BECHUANALAND.
I was very much struck with the appearance of the country on first
entering Bechuanaland. The vast plain, over which I was then riding on
horseback, was bounded by low, sloping hills, covered with brushwood and
trees. It suggested to me forcibly the idea of a "land of promise,"
wanting only an intelligent and energetic people to secure its proper
and successful development.
In fact, as a field for settlement, I entirely concur with the remarks
of Mr. John Mackenzie, who has worked for so many years in
Bechuanaland, and who states in his recent work, entitled, "Austral
Africa"--
"I come now to give my own thoughts as to the capabilities of
Bechuanaland as a field for colonisation. My mind reverts at once
to thrifty, and laborious people who are battling for dear-life on
some small holding in England or Scotland, and who can barely make
ends meet. I do not think that any class of men, or men of any
colour, endure such hardships in South Africa. There are portions
of Bechuanaland where, in my opinion, a body of some hundreds of
agricultural emigrants would, like the Scottish settlers in
Baviaan's river, some sixty years ago, take root from the first,
and make for themselves homes. If they came in considerable
numbers, and accompanied by a minister of religion, and possibly a
schoolmaster, the children would not be losers by the change, while
the church and school-house would form that centre in South
Africa, with which all are familiar in Scotland, and give the
people from the first a feeling of home. I would not suggest that
such men should be merely agriculturists, but that like most
farmers in South Africa they should follow both branches of
farming. They would begin with some sheep, or angora goats, and a
few cows. In the first instance they would have a freehold in the
village, with right of pasturage, and they would also have their
farm itself in the neighbourhood, the size of which would depend
upon its locality and capabilities. But with the milk of his stock
and the produce of his land in maize, millet and pumpkins, the
farmer and his family would be, from the first, beyond the reach of
want."
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