Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa

by Andrew A. Anderson

I was surprised one day, soon after my arrival here, on returning in the afternoon to my camp, to find four Zulu girls sitting under my waggon, chatting and laughing with my Hottentot driver and forelooper, having with them three fine bunches of beautiful ostrich feathers. When I looked under the waggon and they saw me, they all gave a yell of delight, and came out, when I recognised them as old friends who had frequently washed my clothes when I went to Barkly, in Griqualand West, two years back, and always admired their clean neat appearance in their white European clothes. They told me their mother, who was a widow woman, wanted to go back to her nation in Matabeleland, and they had only lately arrived, having been on the road six months; and having heard of my arrival, they came to see me, and had brought me some ostrich feathers as a present, and as they knew my two boys they seemed to be at home again.

I asked them what they had done with their clothes. They said they had them tied up in bundles and were in the hut occupied by their mother, where they lived, and as they were amongst their own people they dressed or undressed as the other girls. I found them to be very convenient, as they did my washing and other things for me. I took the feathers and paid them in beads, kerchiefs, tobacco for snuff, and such things they wanted as presents; they would not take them in payment, showing these people have some kind feeling; and during my stay at this station they remained with me the greater portion of every day, their old mother coming occasionally to pay me a visit. They could speak English perfectly; they told me they would like to go back with me if their mother would let them, but four grown-up girls in my waggon would have been too much of a good thing. I should occupy many months in returning, if I ever did, and it turned out that I did not visit Barkly again for three years. If there had been women at this station wearing clothes, these girls would have retained theirs; it only shows the force of example.

Thursday, 17th. I arrived yesterday from exploring the country round, much delayed by the wet weather and heavy thunderstorms, which have lowered the temperature of the atmosphere down to 67 degrees, and yet this is the height of summer up in the tropics, a difference of 30 degrees in a few days; a great-coat is comfortable. I obtained a Mashona blanket made of native cotton, also three battle-axes. Lo-Bengulu, last Tuesday, himself took a burning piece of wood and destroyed the eyes and nose of one of his men because he threw a stone at a child and knocked out its front teeth; this was witnessed by one of the traders. And a short time previous he had one of his chief Indunas and his three wives and three children killed, as it is stated, for witchcraft, but other reasons are supposed to have been the cause; their bones are lying a short distance from my waggon, having been picked clean by wolves; they are very plentiful here and visit us nightly, being on the look-out for human food, as all who are killed are thrown outside the station for them and the dogs to eat. Lo-Bengulu, at the same time, is very fond of children and will not allow them to be annoyed; he will not allow any milk to be sold by his people, but it is given to the slave children.

A curious custom prevails amongst these people at the death of a relative. When any member of a family dies, he or she is immediately taken out of the kraal to some adjacent land and buried, sometimes in a sitting position. Then for a week, and sometimes for a month, a fire is kept burning every night close to the grave, and two or more of the family have to remain there during that time. Another curious custom is in existence in the king’s kraal; there is a hut within the king’s enclosure which no one is allowed to touch, not even to pull a straw from the thatch. If any one commits such an offence the king tells some of his people to take him out of the kraal, which is tantamount to ordering him to be killed. A short time ago a young Kaffir was killed for committing this offence, and the wolves and dogs had a good feast that night.

Lo-Bengulu has no heir to take his place when he dies, not having a royal wife, but if one of his wives should have a son, and he does not take to wife a princess, she with the child, immediately after its birth, will be banished, and have to live in a distant country; but still a watch is kept upon her, and in the event of the king dying, the mother and child will be brought back, and the child adopted by the people as their king.

20th. Lo-Bengulu came into the station this morning, and about 500 warriors went out to meet him, dressed in all the pomp of war. His sister Nina came in, in a horse-waggon, and the king with three waggons and forty loose horses, men, women and children following on foot, as the great national dance takes place on Tuesday; all the other dances being rehearsals previous to this, which is the most important and imposing of all.

Tuesday, a very hot day. Many divisions of the Impi coming in from all quarters and marching up to the great camp; as this is the last day of the old year with this nation, they commemorate it by great national rejoicings. About twelve o’clock I walked up with several of the hunters and traders, and took up our position close to the entrance of the king’s private grounds, when regiment after regiment came marching up, dressed in their war dress as before described, with shield and assagai, and took up their position so as to form an immense circle of ten and twelve deep, within the enclosure close to the king’s kraal, who came out to show himself for a few minutes and retired. In the mean time, his wives, dressed in beads and bright yellow kerchiefs over their shoulders, and long black kilts or skirts down below the knees, young girls dressed in short kilts, and a profusion of ornaments round their loins, arms and heads, stepped into the open space within the circle of troops, and chanted songs, moving forward at the same time, the warriors singing and raising their shields up and down, keeping time with their feet. Nina, the king’s sister, came forward also, dressed in beads of many colours round her waist, back, and skirt, brass and gold chains, gold watch and chain. After a time Lo-Bengulu came forward with a dancing gait, and took the lead out of the station at the head of his own particular regiment or bodyguard, whose dress and shields are all black, each soldier not less than six feet, followed by the other regiments, when they formed into three sides of a square. Then the king came forward, surrounded by his bodyguard, and threw an assagai at an imaginary enemy, when all the troops were instantly in motion and returned to the open space in the enclosure, when the rain came down so fast that it put a stop to further proceedings. But previous to the king’s leaving, about 100 oxen were driven out of the circle where they had been kept by the whole of the Impi, and were soon slaughtered for the great feast that was to come off that night. Altogether it was a pretty and novel sight, and if the weather had been fine, the effect would have been most singular and striking. Some 500 women and girls stood in groups to witness the performances. The women who danced held sticks ten feet in length with the bark peeled off; the slave population looked on at a distance. I made the best of my way to Mr Peterson’s store, where I found Mr and Mrs Elm, Mr and Mrs Coillard and the sister, and took cake and coffee with them, and then to my waggon which was outspanned on the opposite hill. The programme for this review was upon a much grander scale than the former already described. The next day the troops returned to the respective military camps, and the last of the military dances ended in a downpour of rain, amidst crashing thunder and flash after flash of the most vivid lightning I have seen for a long time.

On the 27th January, I called on Lo-Bengulu for an answer to my request; he was sitting under his verandah on a chair. We shook hands, and he stated he could not allow me to cross his country, because if I attempted to do so the people would kill me and he would be blamed by the English for the cause of my death; that if I wanted the things I wished to go in for he would try and get them, and send them down to the Governor; that I should never return if I went in, for the Mashonas would destroy me and he could not help it.

This I saw was mere excuse; he had stated the same thing to others, but it was useless to argue the point with him, and to go in without his sanction would have been madness, as the country at the present time is in a very unsettled state, as Colonel Saltmarsh, whom I met on the Maclutsie river, as I was going in and he was coming out, told me how he had been treated by the people, and his boys became frightened, he was obliged to return; that he was disgusted with his trip and was glad to get away. He also told me Lo-Bengulu will not allow any one to go beyond his station. Messrs Bray and Wood took a letter from Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the administrator of the Transvaal, to the king, asking as a favour to allow them to go in, but the king refused point blank, and stated while he is king no one shall ever go into the Mashona country.

One hunter had his waggon turned over and all his things stolen, and when complaining to the king of his people’s conduct, his reply was he did not tell them to do it, and he got no satisfaction; not very encouraging for my success, therefore I was prepared in some degree for a refusal. I believe the Colonel had a gun stolen from him also. At any rate he did not intend to go without his Christmas pudding if he had proceeded, for on the banks of the Maclutsie where I met him, he was preparing a very fine one, and asked me to join him in disposing of it. The next day we parted, the Colonel for the South and I for the North, to try my luck with this powerful and despotic monarch. And as affairs turned out it was a lucky refusal for me, for a few months after, as I was exploring the western portion of the Mashona country, reports came to us by a native that three white men had been killed in the Mashona country, not so many miles away, by the natives, but they could not give the names. But afterwards, on my return to the Tati, I found they were Captain Patterson, Mr Sargeant, son of Sir W. Sargeant, the Crown Agent, and formerly Colonial Secretary of Natal, and a son of the Rev. Mr Thomas, of Shiloh, who had left the Transvaal a few months before with a letter from Sir Theophilus Shepstone on a mission from him to the Matabele king. At the time there was great mystery concerning their death; it was first reported they had been poisoned by drinking from a pond that had been poisoned by the Bakalahari Bushmen, but that was absurd. It appears that Captain Patterson had entered into some agreement with Lo-Bengulu which was not pleasing to the Indunas, therefore to put an end to the agreement it was arranged to put an end to them. Rumours of foul play got abroad, and young Mr Thomas, son of the missionary at Shiloh, who was one of the three, went as guide; he was warned, but would not believe the report. Mr Palmer, who was going to accompany them, also heard strange rumours, and he declined, which saved his life. The very fact of rumours of foul play going to be perpetrated was proof that their death had been planned before they were on their way to the Zambese to visit the Victoria Falls, and as confirmation of this, Lo-Bengulu said afterwards to some of the white people, “Now Captain Patterson is dead, the agreement goes for nothing.” It is supposed the three were killed when they were bathing, but no document was found amongst Captain Patterson’s effects to throw light on this matter, and Mr Thomas, the father, was afraid to express any opinion, or to have a full inquiry made in the affair, as he was living in the country and would have been killed if he had said what he thought. He died last year.