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

by Andrew A. Anderson

Railroads have been extensively increased of late years, running through the country to all parts. One direct from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, another direct to Kimberley, Worcester, Graham’s Town, King William and Queen’s Town, and many other parts.

The public transport roads are in most cases good, but many that wind over the steep mountain passes are very bad, and trying to oxen and mules when they have heavy loads.

Griqualand West forms a portion of the Cape Colony, and is situated on the north side of the Orange river, and as it has been fully described in the first part of this work, in consequence of the greater portion of it being included in South Central Africa, I have merely to state that Kimberley, Bulfontein, De Beers and De Toitspan, the four large mines, now form one considerable town, and may be considered the richest of any in the colony, with a population that is not living in a sleepy hollow, as the rest of the colony is, but showing some vitality and energy, which has in a great measure saved the colony from ruin.

The district of Cape Town is very pretty and picturesque, well planted with firs and other trees. The town is well supplied with fruit of almost every description and vegetables. Abundance of fish are caught in the bay.

The climate is mild and healthy; the rainy season commences in the autumn, about May, and lasts until August. In the summer months it is rare to have a storm.

Wild animals are becoming very scarce; a few of the large game such as the elephant and buffalo are preserved in the Addo, Kowie, and Zitzchkamma forests, and may be occasionally seen going down in troops of thirty and forty to the sea to have a bath. A few wild beasts; blesbok and many springbok may now be seen on the plains, and also the ostrich.

Tigers and tiger-cats are yet plentiful in the kloofs of the mountain ranges that extend so far through the colony. A few sea-cow, I believe, are still to be seen in the rivers on the eastern border, beyond East London.

Between the eastern division of the Cape Colony, that is Kaffraria proper, and the upper part of the Caledon river, is Basutoland, an extensive region that joins up to Natal or Drakensberg mountain as its eastern boundary, the north by the Caledon river and the Orange Free State, as also a portion of its western boundary. The country is very mountainous, with deep and thickly wooded kloofs, making the scenery very lovely. Some of the hills on the Drakensberg side are 9500 feet above sea-level. The Basutos are a branch of the Bechuana family, of the Barolong tribe, the same family as Montsioa, who left Basutoland when young, and occupied the country he now holds on the Molapo river. The small district of Thaba Nchu belonged to these people, which was separated from Basutoland by the Free State, and in fact that state surrounded it; and in consequence of a difference between the two chiefs, Samuel and Sepinare Moroka (the latter being killed), President Brand went with a force of Free State burghers and took possession of the town and territory of Thaba Nchu, and annexed it to that state. Samuel was the son of the old chief Moroka, the other his nephew. When Moroka died in 1880, the people were divided as to who should be the chief. There is no doubt the son had the greatest claim; he was an educated Kaffir, having spent several years at St. Augustine’s College, Canterbury, and was in every respect a gentleman in behaviour. He is now a wanderer amongst his tribe.

Thaba Nchu, in 1863, was the largest native town in British South Africa; the population then was about 9000, with mission houses and church schools.

It was from this station, in 1837, that the Boers who escaped from the fight with Moselikatze, joined the Barolongs to drive that chief from Mosega, and collected a force of 1000 men. Montsioa, the present chief, held command of part of the expedition, and through the Basuto assistance, the Boers managed to drive Moselikatze more to the north. We now see the return they get for this help: their country at Thaba Nchu taken from them, and Montsioa would have lost his, and himself and people been murdered, if the British Government had not stepped in at the eleventh hour and saved them. Basutoland, which is separated from Thaba Nchu, is now under British protection, and is one of the finest wheat-growing countries in South Africa, and the natives, if they had been let alone, would have remained at peace, as they were growing rich in supplying the diamond-fields with corn. But as their country joins for such a distance to the Free State, which is occupied by a Boer population, it is impossible for them to remain in peace for long, for no tribe, however peacefully inclined the people may be, can with Boers on their border remain so long, as the latter have many ways of causing a disturbance, which we have so frequently witnessed, as in the case of Montsioa and Monkuruan, and the only way to prevent any further trouble in that country was for the British Government to take it under their protection. Thaba Bosigo is their principal town and one of their mission stations.