STRATAGEM IN HUNTING.

53

forefathers kept cattle; intimating, that they were not intended to keep, but to eat, as their progenitors had always done. He recommended the plan to all who happened to come in his way, but with no better success. It at last occurred to his mind to present some of the principal individuals among them with a few goats a-piece. This he did, promising that, if they took good care of them for a given time, he would add to their number, and make them their own. This proposal, though to them scarcely to be believed, went to their hearts; and the very looks of the men, and the grateful gesticulations of the women, were felt by the missionary as a rich reward. His anticipations were fully realized. They allowed their little flocks to increase, and even took some trouble to make additions by barter; and it was no uncommon thing to see several of these resorting to the house of prayer on sabbath-days, though their homes were many miles distant.

One of the accompanying sketches represents a Bushman and a woman. The man has his bows, quiver, and poisoned arrows; and both he and the female are fair specimens of the general appearance of that people. The other sketch exhibits a stratagem, by which the Bushman approaches to game, in the garb of the ostrich. The method is ingenious, though extremely simple. A kind of flat double cushion is stuffed with straw, and formed something like a saddle. All, except the under part of this, is covered over with feathers, attached to small pegs, and made so as to resemble the bird. The neck and head of an ostrich are stuffed, and a small rod introduced. The Bushman intending to attack game, whitens his legs with any substance he can procure. He places the feathered saddle on his shoulders, takes the bottom part of the neck in his right hand, and his bow and poisoned arrows in his left. Such as the writer has seen were the most perfect mimics of the ostrich, and at a few hundred yards distant it is not possible for the human eye to detect the fraud. This human bird appears to pick away at the verdure, turning the head as if keeping a sharp look-out, shakes his feathers, now walks, and then trots, till he gets within bow-shot; and when the flock runs from one receiving an arrow, he runs too. The male ostriches will on some occasions give chase to the strange bird, when he tries to elude them, in a way to prevent their catching his scent; for when once they do, the spell is broken. Should one happen to get too near in pursuit, he has only to run to windward, or throw off his saddle, to avoid a stroke from a wing, which would lay him prostrate.

5*

CHAPTER V.

GREAT Namaqua-land, as it is usually called, lies north of the Orange River, on the western coast of Africa, between the 23° and 28° of south latitude; bounded on the north by the Damaras, and on the east by an extensive sandy desert, called by Mr. Campbell the Southern Zara, or Zahara.

In the month of January, 1806, the Orange, or Gariep River, was crossed by missionaries of the London Missionary Society, for the purpose of planting the Gospel among the inhabitants of that wild and desolate region. Before enter ing into a detail of painful and pleasing events, which marked the whole course of the bold, self-denying, and dangerous enterprise of the two Albrechts and their associates, it will be proper briefly to sketch the character of the country, and the circumstances connected with the early efforts of these men of God, to sow the seeds of the everlasting Gospel in a most ungenial soil.

As an inhabited country, it is scarcely possible to conceive of one more destitute and miserable; and it is impossible to traverse its extensive plains, its rugged, undulating surface, and to descend to the beds of its waterless rivers, without viewing it as emphatically "a land of droughts," bearing the heavy curse of

"Man's first disobedience, and the fruit

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste

Brought death into the world, and all our woe.”

Meeting with an individual, on my journey thither, who had spent years in that country, I asked what was its character and appearance? "Sir," he replied, "you will find plenty of sand and stones, a thinly scattered population, always suffering from want of water, on plains and hills roasted like a burnt loaf, under the scorching rays of a cloudless sun." Of the truth of this description I soon had ample demonstration. It is intersected by the Fish and 'Oup Rivers, with their numberless tributary streams, if such their dry and often glowing beds may be termed. Sometimes, for years together, they are not known to run; when, after the stagnant pools are dried up, the natives congregate to their beds, and dig holes, or wells, in some instances to

TOPOGRAPHY OF NAMAQUA-LAND.

55

the depth of twenty feet, from which they draw water, generally of a very inferior quality. They place branches of trees in the excavation, and, with great labour, under a hot sun, hand up the water in a wooden vessel, and pour it into an artificial trough; to which the panting, lowing herds approach, partially to satiate their thirst. Thunder storms are eagerly anticipated, for by these only rain falls; and frequently these storms will pass over with tremendous violence, striking the inhabitants with awe, while not a single drop of rain descends to cool and fructify the parched waste. When the heavens do let down their watery treasures, it is generally in a partial strip of country, which the electric cloud has traversed; so that the traveller will frequently pass, almost instantaneously, from ground on which there is not a blade of grass, into tracts of luxuriant green, sprung up after a passing storm. Fountains are indeed few and far between, the best very inconsiderable, frequently very salt, and some of them hot springs; while the soil contiguous is generally so impregnated with saltpetre, as to crackle under the feet, like hoar-frost, and it is with great difficulty that any kind of vegetable can be made to grow. Much of the country is hard and stony, interspersed with plains of deep sand. There is much granite; and quartz is so abundantly scattered, reflecting such a glare of light from the rays of the sun, that the traveller, if exposed at noon-day, can scarcely allow his eyelids to be sufficiently open to enable him to keep the course he wishes to pursue.

The inhabitants are a tribe or tribes of Hottentots, distinguished by all the singular characteristics of that nation, which includes Hottentots, Corannas, Namaquas, and Bushmen. Their peculiar clicking language is so similar, that it is with little difficulty they converse with the two former. In their native state the aborigines, though deeply sunk in ignorance, and disgusting in their manners and mien, were neither very warlike nor bloody in their dispositions. The enervating influence of climate, and scanty sustenance, seem to have deprived them of that bold martial spirit which distinguishes the tribes who live in other parts of the interior, which, in comparison with Namaqua-land, may be said to "flow with milk and honey." With the exception of the solitary traveller, whose objects were entirely of a scientific character, those who ventured into the interior carried on a system of cupidity, and perpetrated deeds, calculated to make the worst impression upon the minds of the natives, and influence them to view white men, and others descended from

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PRIVATIONS OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES.

them, as an "angry" race of human beings, only fit to be classed with the lions, which roar for their prey in their native wilds. Intercourse with such visitors in the southern districts, and disgraceful acts of deceit and oppression, committed by sailors from ships which visited Angra Piquena, and other places on the western coast, had, as may easily be conceived, the most baneful influence on the native tribes, and nurtured in their heathen minds (naturally suspicious) a savage disgust for all intercourse with white men, alas! professedly Christian. Having little to talk about, when they met, these subjects became their general theme. Such was the long, and deep-rooted impression made on their minds, as a people, that on one of the branches of the Fish River, far east of Mr. Schmelen's station at Bethany, when I asked a native why he had never visited the missionary station; his reply was, "I have been taught from my infancy to look upon Hat men (hat-wearers) as the robbers and murderers of the Namaquas. Our friends and parents have been robbed of their cattle, and shot by the hat-wearers. Many runaways, and characters reckless of law, abandoning the service of the farmers in the colony, fled to Great Namaqualand, and their influence went far in stirring up the native mind against all compromise on the part of their civilized neighbours. It was to such a people, and to such a country, that the missionaries directed their course, to lead a life of the greatest self-denial and privation.

From a variety of untoward circumstances, their experience on the journey from Cape Town to the place of their destination, seemed a precursor, and preparation for future trials, and to them the journey must have formed a striking contrast to European travelling, and the endeared home of the friends they had left never again to behold in the flesh. In their journal they detail numerous difficulties with which they had to contend in their progress. They had a weak and imperfect supply of oxen to draw their wagons, some fainting, and others incapable of being yoked. Their wagons stuck fast in the sand, then in the river. They were compelled to leave oxen behind, and they suffered excessively from thirst, as the water was scarce and nauseous. They were unable to obtain, from their poverty and the locality, a sufficiency of food to supply the calls of hunger. Their spirits drooped, and though their courage did not fail, the following letter shows that they were alive to the nature of their situation,

E

"We had no prospect of being soon among the people, and could easily calculate that we should not have sufficient to last till we had an opportunity of purchasing for slaughter. The Lord brings us now into paths, where we must by experience learn to pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' We have not only to take care of our own provisions in the parched deserts, but also of those who conduct the wagons. Besides, the 36 rix-dollars (about 31.) we had remaining to carry us from the Rodesand, were almost expended, and we were still at a considerable distance from the Kamies Berg. To say nothing of the country of the Great Namaquas, where we hope to find the place of our destination, it is very grievous for me and my brethren, that we are sent to make such a long journey, through the dreary parts of Africa, with so little money and provisions: we being altogether eleven in number, who cannot live upon the air. We acknowledge that through love we gave ourselves up to that service as well as other brethren; and we are also convinced that our worthy brethren, the Directors, would not suffer us first to stand in need, and then be willing to help us when there should be no opportunity, or when might be too late to deliver us from trouble and danger. We were never in our lives so perplexed, to think what we should eat or drink, as we have reason to do at present; not only to our grief, but that also of our people in this dry sandy desert, where we are deprived of human assistance, but must rejoice when able to get just a drink of water, which is mostly brack or saltish. But all suffering we meet with in the journey or in the service of our Lord, we shall patiently bear for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Yet when we and our people suffer by famine, and we think the same might have been prevented-and who knows how long we must remain in this perilous situation ?-then it is very sorrowful for brethren, who have abandoned their livelihood, country, and friends, and have given themselves up to the service of our great Sender, the Lord Jesus, thus to endure. But we trust God will protect us, and will not let us come to shame."

These were only some of their trials, while yet within the boundary of the colony, and at no great distance from the abodes of civilized men; as they drew near the sphere of their intended labours, their spirits revived, though their troubles and reasonable fears did not diminish; for, having passed the boundary of the colony, they add,—" In this place, which is called Bushman-country, there is as little water as there is grass to be found. One must hunger and thirst, and be in continual danger of being devoured by wild beasts, or murdered.”

It is pleasing to see that, amidst these privations, their devotedness to the immortal interests of the heathen continued unwavering, even though they were fully satisfied that much suffering and distress of mind might have been prevented by some whose duty it was to direct and assist.

"Dear brethren," they write, addressing the Directors,* we have gone through many difficulties, of which nobody can form an idea, who

*It should be borne in mind, that at that time our missions were principally under the management of the Directors of the South African Missionary Society-Dr. Vanderkemp and Mr. Kicherer.