The Africanders

by Le Roy Hooker

The rivers of that country—laid down in great numbers on the maps—are not rivers during much of the year. In the dry season they are either without water altogether or consist of a succession of little pools scarcely sufficient to supply the cattle on their banks with drink. And when they are rivers they are, most of the time, such as can neither be forded nor navigated; the violent rains—continuing for hours and sometimes for many days—have converted them into roaring torrents.

Now, if that country could have been entered by waterways, as were North and South America, it would not have remained an unknown land so long. But there was no other means of penetrating it than the lumbering ox-wagon, making at best a dozen miles a day, with frequent long halts in the neighborhood of good grass in order to rest and recuperate the cattle. It is this lack of navigable rivers that now compels the people to depend exclusively on railways for internal transportation and travel. With the exception of tidal streams there is no internal water communication of any value.

Another peculiarity of the east coast rivers [[267]]arises out of the nearness of the Quathlamba Mountains to the sea. Such rivers as take their rise in the mountains have very short courses, and the few that come from beyond, finding channels through the mountain passes, are so obstructed by rapids and cataracts at the point of descent from the higher levels that no boat can ascend them.

South Africa presents to the foreigner from cooler climates no serious danger as to health. The sun-heat would be trying were it not for the dryness of the atmosphere and the invariable coolness of the nights, which have the effect of a refreshing tonic. With due care in providing sufficient wraps for the occasional cold day in the dry season, and the means of comfortable sleep during the cool nights, there is nothing to fear.

The much-dreaded malarial fever has its habitat in the lowlands of both the east and the west coast. Persons who are not immune to it can choose their place of residence on the higher lands, or take refuge in quinine.

The dryness and purity of the air in many parts of South Africa—notably Ceres, Kimberley, Beauport West and other places in the interior plateau—make it peculiarly suitable for [[268]]persons suffering from any form of chest disease—always excepting tuberculosis, for which the sure remedy has not yet been discovered. But even the victims of that malady find atmospheric and other conditions friendly to a prolongation of life in the salubrious air and sunshine of the South African tablelands.

On the whole, there can be no question as to the general good effect upon health of the South African climate. Europeans and Americans living therein pursue their athletic sports with all the zest experienced in their native climates, and the descendants of the original Dutch and Huguenot settlers—now in the sixth and seventh generations—have lost nothing of the stature nor of the physical energy that characterized their forefathers.

South Africa used to be the habitat of an unusually rich fauna. The lion, leopard, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, antelope in thirty-one species, zebra, quagga, buffalo and various other wild creatures—some of them savage, and all of them beautiful after their kind—abounded. But of late years all this has been changed. Since firearms have been greatly improved and cheapened and the country has been opened to the Nimrods of the world and the [[269]]swarming natives have procured guns and learned to use them, the wild animals have been thinned out. There are now but two regions in South Africa where big game can be killed in any great numbers—the Portuguese territory from the Zambesi to Delagoa Bay, and the adjoining eastern frontier of the Transvaal.

Snakes of various kinds and sizes, from the poisonous black mamba to the python that grows to over twenty feet in length, used to infest many parts of the country, but they have almost disappeared from the temperate regions inhabited by the whites.

The farmers’ worst enemies are not now the great beasts and reptiles of former years, but the baboons, which gather in the more rocky districts and kill the lambs, and two species of insects—the white ants and the locusts—which sometimes ravage the eastern coast.