NEW YEAR ON THE OPEN ROAD

New Year was not always celebrated in style. A W Kiernan, a missionary on a hinterland road on December 31, 1877, reported that the year ended on a sad note. A member of his travelling party, who had been ill for a week, died quite suddenly, and later another dropped dead on the way to fetch water. “We were not surprised because he seemed a person of very little vitality,” wrote the missionary. Digging graves in the hard-dry earth was a tedious task in the heat, but by 21h00 that night both men were buried. After intoning suitable prayers, Kiernan retired to bed. He was lying reading by the light of the lamp when a large snake came into the wagon and slithered towards the bed. “When it saw me rise up, it slid under the bed among the ivory. I left the wagon in haste and gave him possession of it for the night.” As soon as it was light on New Year’s Day Kiernan carefully unloaded the wagon only to find the snake had gone. He repacked and trekked off, as always keeping an eye out for water. After about 2 ½ hours they saw water ahead, but it was only enough for about 10 oxen, so they continued until at about 17h00 when they saw a family camped at a reasonable water hole. They stopped. The oxen, who had smelt the water, became restless and milled about. They became entangled. “One charged me and struck my throat with the part of its horn nearest to its the head. It was such a severe blow that I was knocked down, but not trampled. It might have been worse.” Kiernan’s injury was so severe he was unable to help hold the oxen. They shot off trampling the waterhole into a mudpool. “Only half got a decent drink, the rest had to wait till morning.”

TRAVELLING WAS NOT ALWAYS FUN

From the outset adventurous men were drawn to the vast South African interior, but they soon discovered exploring was not easy. Water was the limiting factor and so the map became littered with names indicative of the drought and hardships of travelling. Towards the Sandveld (itself an unfriendly name) lay Knersvlakte (gnashing of teeth) then there was the Koup (caulfat in Khoisan), indicating the driest and dreariest part of the Karoo, which itself is a Khoisan a word for thirstland. Routes were peppered with names like Moedverloor (lost hope), Keerom (turn around) and Allesverloren (all is lost.). Travellers worried whether there was water ahead, if so, where, and would they be able to find it. Finding drinkable water was difficult along the rough, rugged routes into the interior where at times the water was so brack that the animals would not and, sometimes simply could not, drink it. Some water holes were impossible to find without a guide and, in times of severe drought even these men refused to travel. Then came the rains and with them new problems. Roads became so slippery in places that travellers were forced to dismount and lead their horses. The poor animals slipped and stumbled on the rough rocks, often cutting their legs to ribbons.

FRIENDLY FARMERS SAVE THE DAY

In the late 1700s Carl Peter Thunberg and Francois Masson wrote that they had reached “the Carro, a desart (desert) of three day’s journey, with no fresh water.” They mention hoping to find even pits of brackish water, “enough to preserve the lives of our cattle.” These pits, however, often were a distance from the road and this made it difficult for strangers to find them. “If we miss them, we will probably perish in this inhospitable desert.” At one stage their draught animals were so thirsty their tongues were hanging out of their mouths. Suddenly a lake appeared on the road ahead and they rushed towards it only to find it was a salt lake. Fortunately, by nightfall they found a fresh water spring. The area might have been inhospitable, but the people were not. The early travellers write of nothing but friendliness. On this particular trip Thunberg and Masson met a farmer heading home and making better time along the road than they were. He left white rags tied to thorn trees at every watering spot so that they would easily find places to refresh themselves and their animals. Another farmer, also hastening home, sent back his servants to assist them over particularly rugged places and up a mountain pass.

BEWARE THE ‘SHORT CUT’ …

Trying a short cut can be dangerous. Lichtenstein found this to his cost. One farmer recommended a short cut that involved “crossing a little pass”. Confident that this route would save him time Lichtenstein he decided to try it. This was a bad decision. The path across the “pass” turned out to be so steep and dangerous that he and his fellow travellers “soon repented exceedingly” that they had not “been content to quietly take the circuitous road.” They should have been warned when the servant of a local farmer was “prevailed upon with difficulty to show us the way.” They set off and continued until it eventually became “impossible for us to think of remaining on our horses. The way was so steep that we were sometimes obliged to use both hands in climbing.” Later they found the horses baulked at the route. “Without the aid of a whip we could not make a horse leap up the perpendicular blocks.” These “jumps” were up inclines of two to three feet at a time. The path was so narrow that it was impossible to turn – on one side was a perpendicular rock face, on the other a deep precipice. And, so they struggled on for hours until they were over the “pass” and onto safe ground.

… AND REMEMBER TO PACK A BOOK OR TWO

George Thompson came to South Africa as a clerk in the house of Wm Borradile Sons and Raven Hill of Cape Town. He rose through the ranks to become a partner and ultimately to head the firm. To promote this business, he travelled long and interesting roads into the interior and kept a good record of his journeys. When these journals were published, they give readers an excellent view of what life was like along the early roads. Making ready for his first journey in April 1823, George acquired horses and a good wagon. Then he purchased a strong bridle and good saddle with holsters and into these he placed two bottles of brandy “in lieu of pistols.” He acquired a double-barrelled gun, a supply of powder, ball, flints, a bullet mould and shooting gear. He had a small portmanteau fixed to his saddle and into it packed three changes of linen and his shaving apparatus. Then he acquired a very good shooting jacket with eight pockets. Into these he packed a map of South Africa, a compass, a thermometer, a burning glass, four memorandum books, a dozen black lead pencils, three pocket knives, a tinder box, a roll of twine, a bottle of Eau de Cologne, a few medicines and four pocket volumes of English poetry for recreational reading. When packed into the pockets these increased the weight of his jacket to 25lbs (11.33kg)

EXHILIRATION BEYOND MEASURE

Olive Schreiner loved the Karoo. On March 25, 1890, she wrote to Havelock Ellis saying she was going to put on her hat and “go out for a walk over the Karoo, where such a sense of exhilaration and freedom comes over me.” At the time she was living at Matjiesfontein, where she had “a tiny bedroom in a little house built of iron”. She wrote: “In a few days I am to have three rooms in a brick cottage all to myself.’ Describing the area, she continued: “This is a wide, long plain with one or two little koppies on it: I am going to walk to one this morning. There are no farms or homesteads: The only place is this. It consists of the railway station, Logan’s House, and a row of outbuildings or cottages of which mine will be one. There is not a tree in the veld, nor a bush in the mountain, as far as the eye can see. The water is brought from a long way off in iron pipes. Even near the house there is not a tree or bush except a few little blue gum saplings that Logan put in about four months ago; they are nearly the only things that would grown here.” Matjiesfontein was a peaceful place: “The event of the day,” she wrote, “is when twice in the twenty-four hours a railway train sweep by.”

NAMED FOR HER BROTHERS

Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner (1855-1920) was named after her three older brothers, Oliver, Albert and Emile, who died before she was born. She was the ninth of twelve children born to a missionary couple, Gottlob Schreiner and Rebecca Lyndall at the Wesleyan Missionary Society station at Wittebergen, near Herschel, in the Eastern Cape. Her childhood was a harsh one. Her father was a loving, gentle, but impractical man, while her mother was intent on teaching her children the same restraint and self-discipline that had been a part of her own upbringing. Olive, who was taught by her mother, was well-read and gifted. She, however, was not to remain with her parents for long. When her older brother Theophilus was appointed headmaster at a Cradock school in 1867, she went to live with him. There she for the first time attended his school and received a formal education. She was no happier in Cradock than she had been at home. Her siblings were very religious, but she had already rejected Christianity as baseless. This was the cause of many arguments with her family.

COLOURFUL PRESENT FOR THE GOVERNOR

Hendrik Janse van Rensburg, a respected frontier farmer, in time moved to Beaufort West. Initially he lived on Welgervonden, bur later acquired a farm named Hoeke. Later still with 60 other families he left and settled near the Bamboesberg beyond the borders of the Colony. In time he was persuaded by Governor Jannsen to return. He had met Jannsen when he toured the hinterland. It was Hendrik who supplied the governor with a list of names of farmers whose houses had been burned down and whose farms had been plundered. Hendrik presented a loerie to the Governor as a present. Hendrik served briefly as a Heemraad member in Graaff-Reinet and later as a burgher commandant during the Second Border War. On October 23, 1801, he led 400 burghers in a protest action against Magistrate Maynier and successfully took over Graaff-Reinet.

MURDER ON THE CARDS

Governor Jannsen later learned of a plot to murder Hendrik van Rensburg. According to Chief Gaika the man behind the plot was Magistrate Maynier. In his Joernaal D G Van Reenen states that while Gaika and the Governor were discussing unrest in the area Gaika explained that Iambee, had inflicted two assegai wounds on him, simply because he would not permit the murder of Christians, with whom his father had always lived in good friendship. He also stated that a Hottentot, Van Hallen, had given him a walking stick and some other presents and mentioned a desire to murder Coenraad Buys and Hendrik van Rensburg. Gaika was promised a beautiful brass knob stick upon fulfilment of the murders. He was also told that he would receive some of the stock belonging to these men. Magistrate Maynier apparently wanted all the sheep but was prepared to share the horses. Gaika said he was willing to receive the presents but was not prepared to cause the death of any Christian. Where upon he stretched out his arm and, pointing to it, said: “I still wear the armlets given to me.”

SHERLOCK TO THE RESCUE

Graaff-Reinet’s Resident Commissioner, Honoratus Christiaan David Maynier, was extremely unpopular. Dissatisfaction with his services reached a peak during 1801 when he was accused of harbouring “a force” of between 200 and 400 vagrants at the Drostdy. To the horror of some locals he also made loopholes in the walls of the church claiming this necessary for its defence. Lieutenant Duncan Stewart, who spoke Dutch fluently, and who was in command of the company of Khoisan soldiers, was detailed to defend the church if it was attacked by local burghers. The situation became so volatile that Government wisely decided to recall Magistrate Maynier and, in 1801, sent Major Francis Sherlock to Graaff-Reinet to settle affairs. Sherlock persuaded 147 of the “vagrants” to enlist for one year in the Hottentot Corps. Each recruit was given a shirt and a pair of trousers. A ticklish problem arose when Sherlock used the church at as a temporary barracks for his troops. This greatly upset locals who complained about damage being done to the building. The Church Council were most unhappy to have “heathen, vagrants and infringers of the law.” in their place of worship. They said “the place looks worse than a horse-stable.” Governor Francis Dundas directed Sherlock to “see that the church was kept tidy and to evacuate the building every Sunday so that the regular sermon could take place.” The Governor also granted 300 Rixdollars to repair the building. Despite this Sherlock was not able to get the unrest under control.

STATION-MASTER CREATES A WINNING GARDEN

At the turn of the last century Matjiesfontein’s station had a prize-winning rock garden of Karoo plants. It repeatedly won the South African Railways prize for the best station garden in the country. Its creator, Joseph Archer, came to the Cape in 1890 and joined the Railways, as a foreman. He was later promoted to station master and worked at several places before moving to Matjiesfontein. In 1925 Joseph was appointed the first curator of the Karoo Garden at Whitehill station, about five kilometers from Matjiesfontein. It became a branch of the National Botanic Gardens at Kirstenbosch. With Prof. R.H. Compton, the Director of Kirstenbosch, and others Archer undertook several collecting trips into the Karoo, the north-western parts of the Cape Province and Namibia, bringing together a large and representative collection of succulents and other plants from these arid regions. He also successfully cultivated many of these plants at Whitehill. He retired as curator in 1939, after which the garden was moved to Worcester. Archer did much to promote the popularity of succulent cultivation in South Africa, and several plant species were named in his honour.

‘JOHNNIES’ BURIED IN KAROO

Three Johnnies, as the St John Ambulance Brigade men who came to South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War were known, are buried in the Karoo. Casualties suffered by the SJAB in South Africa from 1899 to 1902 were discussed by Professor Kay de Villiers and P Beighton in an article in the Military History Journal Vol 10 No 5. They point out that the Order of St John was founded in Jerusalem during the Crusades in the 12th century. It was a religious order dedicated to taking care of the sick. “thereafter, the Knights Hospitaller of the Order had a long and eventful history and established links in many countries. The British order was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540 and only revived in the 19th century – in 1877 – when a military surgeon, Major Peter Shepherd and his colleague Colonel Francis Duncan started teaching First Aid to lay persons. This became St John Ambulance Brigade. There was great enthusiasm for this brigade in the coal mining and industrial areas where there were frequent accidents. SJAB skilled personnel and ambulances saved many lives. The brigade thrived within police forces fire departments and the railway. Victorian values, discipline and altruism played a major role in its development. Soon after the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer war it became obvious that the Royal Army Medical Corps would not be able to cope with the casualties from wounds and disease. St John Ambulance Brigade called for men to volunteer to serve six months in South Africa. Volunteers came forward in large numbers. The first 23 sailed on November 3, 1899. In time about 1800 SJAB volunteers came to South Africa and approximately 60 of them died here from enteric fever (typhoid) which they contracted from their patients. Buried at Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein in the Karoo are Private Joseph VL Barrett, Great Western Railway (attached to the Metropolitan Corps) who died on August 6, 1900, and Sgt Charles E Wilmore, National Fire Brigades, who died of double pneumonia on January 1, 1901. Both were 21 years old. Another SJAB volunteer, Pte George Pickels, of the Hebden Bridge Corps, is buried at Noupoort. He died of enteric fever on May 8, 1900.

SERVING THE LORD IN LONELINESS

In the late 1800s Christina Forsyth came to South Africa to serve the Lord in the arid hinterland on the fringes of the Karoo. She was told she was “too old to be trained as a missionary”, yet she worked in areas where no missionary would go. She was highly acclaimed for her work yet known by her peers as “the loneliest woman in Africa”. Christina was born in Glasgow in Scotland on October 23, 1844. Her mother died when she was ten and her father ten years later. By then she and a young banker had fallen in love, but before they could marry, he was sent to India. He promised to write. However, one of her sisters was also a bit sweet on him, waylaid his letters – as a joke, she later said. Because Christina never heard from him, she imagined he had lost interest, so she agreed to marry Alan Forsyth, a good friend, whose father was the editor of the Inverness Advertiser. Just before the wedding, however, the young banker returned from India and Christina’s sister’s deviousness was revealed. Nothing the banker said would change Christina’s mind. She had accepted Alan’s proposal and she married him. Shortly after that they left for America, where he was killed. She returned to Scotland, but by then the banker had married someone else (not her sister), so Christina came to South Africa in 1878 and offered her services to the United Presbyterian Church Mission. They had no openings, except a post to serve “The Red People”, a particularly wild and dissolute bunch. No missionary was willing to serve them, but Christina said: “Fine, that sounds like just the job for me.” She stayed with this tribe for 30 years and during this time she almost never saw a white face. She also almost never went more than 20 miles from her house. The nearest missionary, Paterson and his wife, said “We know of no one in the world who could have lived her life.” Christina was over 80 when she returned to Scotland.

LOSS OF A GREAT GENTLEMAN

When Dr Alberts Pieter Meiring died in Wepener in the Free State on March 23, 1934, after a brief illness, he was greatly mourned by the people of the Karoo. After receiving his M.B ChB medical degree from Edinburgh University in Scotland in 1915, Richmond-born Dr. Meiring immediately returned to South Africa where he was appointed to the staff of the New Somerset Hospital. He held this. post until the end of 1917, when, after doing some locum work in Graaft-Reinet, he fell in love with the Karoo and moved there. After a short while he moved to Aberdeen to take up the post of District Surgeon. Dr Meiring, who had married a Miss Hartford, left for Wepener in 1921, where he worked until his death. According to his obituary he was an exceptional gentleman, with quiet manners, highly respected and esteemed by his patients. His loss was greatly deplored.

Remember to keep your eyes on the stars, but your feet on the ground – Theodore Roosevelt.