A Few Skins And Horns, And Some Cattle,
Make Up The Remainder Of The Exports.
English goods, sugar, tea, and coffee
are the articles received in exchange.
All the natives of these parts
soon become remarkably fond of coffee. The acme of respectability
among the Bechuanas is the possession of cattle and a wagon.
It is remarkable that, though these latter require frequent repairs,
none of the Bechuanas have ever learned to mend them. Forges and tools
have been at their service, and teachers willing to aid them,
but, beyond putting together a camp-stool, no effort has ever been made
to acquire a knowledge of the trades. They observe most carefully
a missionary at work until they understand whether a tire
is well welded or not, and then pronounce upon its merits with great emphasis,
but there their ambition rests satisfied. It is the same peculiarity
among ourselves which leads us in other matters, such as book-making,
to attain the excellence of fault-finding without the wit to indite a page.
It was in vain I tried to indoctrinate the Bechuanas with the idea
that criticism did not imply any superiority over the workman,
or even equality with him.
Chapter 6.
Kuruman - Its fine Fountain - Vegetation of the District -
Remains of ancient Forests - Vegetable Poison -
The Bible translated by Mr. Moffat - Capabilities of the Language -
Christianity among the Natives - The Missionaries should extend
their Labors more beyond the Cape Colony - Model Christians -
Disgraceful Attack of the Boers on the Bakwains - Letter from Sechele -
Details of the Attack - Numbers of School-children carried away
into Slavery - Destruction of House and Property at Kolobeng -
The Boers vow Vengeance against me - Consequent Difficulty of getting
Servants to accompany me on my Journey - Start in November, 1852 -
Meet Sechele on his way to England to obtain Redress from the Queen -
He is unable to proceed beyond the Cape - Meet Mr. Macabe
on his Return from Lake Ngami - The hot Wind of the Desert -
Electric State of the Atmosphere - Flock of Swifts -
Reach Litubaruba - The Cave Lepelole - Superstitions regarding it -
Impoverished State of the Bakwains - Retaliation on the Boers -
Slavery - Attachment of the Bechuanas to Children -
Hydrophobia unknown - Diseases of the Bakwains few in number -
Yearly Epidemics - Hasty Burials - Ophthalmia - Native Doctors -
Knowledge of Surgery at a very low Ebb - Little Attendance given to Women
at their Confinements - The "Child Medicine" - Salubrity of the Climate
well adapted for Invalids suffering from pulmonary Complaints.
The permanence of the station called Kuruman depends entirely
on the fine ever-flowing fountain of that name. It comes from
beneath the trap-rock, of which I shall have to speak when describing
the geology of the entire country; and as it usually issues at a temperature
of 72 Deg. Fahr., it probably comes from the old silurian schists,
which formed the bottom of the great primeval valley of the continent.
I could not detect any diminution in the flow of this gushing fountain
during my residence in the country; but when Mr. Moffat first attempted
a settlement here, thirty-five years ago, he made a dam six or seven miles
below the present one, and led out the stream for irrigation,
where not a drop of the fountain-water ever now flows. Other parts,
fourteen miles below the Kuruman gardens, are pointed out as having contained,
within the memory of people now living, hippopotami, and pools sufficient
to drown both men and cattle. This failure of water must be chiefly ascribed
to the general desiccation of the country, but partly also
to the amount of irrigation carried on along both banks of the stream
at the mission station. This latter circumstance would have more weight
were it not coincident with the failure of fountains
over a wide extent of country.
Without at present entering minutely into this feature of the climate,
it may be remarked that the Kuruman district presents evidence
of this dry southern region having, at no very distant date,
been as well watered as the country north of Lake Ngami is now.
Ancient river-beds and water-courses abound, and the very eyes of fountains
long since dried up may be seen, in which the flow of centuries
has worn these orifices from a slit to an oval form, having on their sides
the tufa so abundantly deposited from these primitive waters;
and just where the splashings, made when the stream fell
on the rock below, may be supposed to have reached and evaporated,
the same phenomenon appears. Many of these failing fountains no longer flow,
because the brink over which they ran is now too high,
or because the elevation of the western side of the country
lifts the land away from the water supply below; but let a cutting be made
from a lower level than the brink, and through it to a part
below the surface of the water, and water flows perennially.
Several of these ancient fountains have been resuscitated by the Bechuanas
near Kuruman, who occasionally show their feelings of self-esteem
by laboring for months at deep cuttings, which, having once begun,
they feel bound in honor to persevere in, though told by a missionary
that they can never force water to run up hill.
It is interesting to observe the industry of many Boers in this region
in making long and deep canals from lower levels up to spots
destitute of the slightest indication of water existing beneath
except a few rushes and a peculiar kind of coarse, reddish-colored grass
growing in a hollow, which anciently must have been the eye of a fountain,
but is now filled up with soft tufa. In other instances,
the indication of water below consists of the rushes growing
on a long, sandy ridge a foot or two in height instead of in a furrow.
A deep transverse cutting made through the higher part of this
is rewarded by a stream of running water. The reason why the ground
covering this water is higher than the rest of the locality
is that the winds carry quantities of fine dust and sand about the country,
and hedges, bushes, and trees cause its deposit.
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