Of the vast regions north of the Orange river that had been swept nearly clean by war the farmers knew very little except from the statements of Betshuana refugees, whose intelligence was vague and often contradictory. No one of them seemed to know anything beyond the fate of the particular tribe or clan to which he belonged, and there was always so much that was fabulous mixed with their accounts that in general no credence was given to them. Then they could only be spoken to through interpreters, who were rarely obtainable and whose knowledge of any other language than their own was usually very defective.
Historical Sketches.
This was the condition of things on the frontier of the Cape Colony when the emigration of the Dutch-speaking farmers commenced, an emigration without parallel in any other dependency of Great Britain. The farmers formed themselves in little bands and moved away together, under the leadership of an elected commandant, whose authority, however, was very limited.
The first band to leave the colony with the intention of never returning to it had as its head a man named Louis Triegard, fifty-three years of age, who had been living in the district of Somerset. He was the grandson of a Swede, who came to South Africa in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and married here in 1744. His father, Carel Johannes Triegard, was one of those farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte who in 1796 were most opposed to the recognition of British authority in Graaff-Reinet, and he inherited his parent’s prejudice in this respect. He was married to Martha Elizabeth Susanna Bouwer, and had a family of five children.
Triegard had received only an elementary education from an itinerant schoolmaster, just sufficient to enable him to write a letter or keep a journal in such a way that his meaning could be made out, but his understanding was by no means defective. He had a passionate temper, though he was usually able to keep it under control. Among the farmers he was regarded as a wealthy man, and his establishment was much larger than those of his neighbours.
In June 1834 Louis Triegard moved away from the district of Somerset, and camped out for a time on the banks of the White Kei river, beyond the border of the colony. According to the declaration of one of his slaves, who ran away from him there, and who appeared before the civil commissioner of Albany at Grahamstown on the 10th of September, he had previously purchased from a storekeeper in that place one large and two small kegs of gunpowder, which he had taken with him. On the banks of the White Kei about thirty emigrant families were then living, among whom were those of Adriaan de Lange, his four sons Adriaan, Hans, Robert, and Gerrit, Frans van Aardt, Hans van der Merwe, and Sybrand van Dyk. Triegard had three female and seven men slaves, but the others had only five slaves among them all. While in the colony Triegard was a mild master, but when he got beyond the border his conduct changed, and he became harsh.
Conduct of Louis Triegard.
On the 21st of November 1834 the civil commissioner reported that all of Triegard’s slaves and four of the others had run away and reached Grahamstown safely, only one, belonging to Frans van Aardt, remaining at the White Kei. By removing them beyond the border, their masters had forfeited their right to them,[96] so they were all declared emancipated without any further action, and were permitted to take service as free persons with any individuals in the town who might care to employ them.
At the close of this year the sixth Kaffir war commenced, and the Rarabe clans held out until September 1835. When negotiations for peace were being conducted, the chief Tyali stated that Louis Triegard had persuaded the Xosas to continue hostilities so long, but there is no other positive evidence to this effect. It is difficult to believe that he would have tried to bring evil upon his own countrymen, but there is the incriminating fact against him that he moved northward with the notorious robber captain Jalusa, who carried on a career of violence and indiscriminate plunder until his entire band of between a thousand and twelve hundred individuals, with only eight exceptions, was exterminated in September 1836 by the Basuto of Moshesh. The authorities on the frontier in the meantime, being convinced that he was doing much harm, but being unable to arrest him in his retreat beyond the border, were making secret inquiries into his conduct and movements, of which very likely he came to learn, for early in September 1835 he crossed the Orange river and became the leader of the first band of emigrants into the then unknown interior.
Historical Sketches.