It is no uncommon thing for a Dutchman to hire a Mosuto to work for him for two or three months, holding out as an inducement the promise of a sheep, or a couple of goats, or even a cow, as payment for the work done. When the time has expired, the Mosuto claims his wages, but is put off with an excuse: he must work yet another month, and then he will get something more; or six months longer, and then perhaps he will get a horse. And the poor, ignorant creature remains, only to be again disappointed.
If he is idle he is sjamboked, kicked, and generally ill-used, and in some cases even thus treated simply as a matter of course, though there is no cause for complaint.
The Basuto girls are also beaten both by master and mistress if they fail to give satisfaction, and are generally treated with contempt, if not actually ill-used. If I give one or two examples it will suffice. They are by no means exceptions.
In the Leribe district there lives a man who in his boyhood was leader of the team of oxen belonging to the Dutchman for whom he worked.
It is the duty of the leader, who is generally a boy of from ten to sixteen years of age, to guide the oxen by means of a leather strap attached to the horns of the two leading animals. This little fellow, whom we will call Pete, was employed in this way. His master, as the waggon moved slowly along, used to amuse himself by making a target of little Pete, using the long waggon whip as his weapon, and literally nipping out pieces of flesh from the child's naked body. If Pete ran on ahead to get away from the cruel whip, he was shouted at and threatened with dire punishment, until, terrified, he returned to his work.
At length, one day, a particularly sharp cut of the whip caught the child in the eye dragging it completely out of its socket. No compensation has ever been made to Pete.
Some few years ago a Mosuto girl, who was employed at a Dutch farm-house in the Free State, incurred the anger of her employer, who had her stripped naked and fastened across a bedstead, whereupon he beat her until her back was all cut and bleeding, and a large piece of flesh had been nipped completely out of her thigh. When the pain became so great that for a moment she fainted, she was released, kicked and sworn at, and told to return to her work. Needless to say, she did not do so, but ran away to her home in Basutoland, and returned to her employer no more.
Not so long ago a Dutch farmer was riding round his farm and had occasion to find fault with a native. The man answered him very impertinently, whereupon he rode back to his house, loaded his gun and returned to where the now terrified native was working. With many curses he called the man, telling him he intended to kill him. The poor wretch implored to be spared, but in vain. He was shot, and when the case was tried in one of the Free State towns, the farmer was fined £10!! That night he gave a champagne supper to his friends.