Next morning, 12th October, some of the brethren paid us the attention of examining in our presence the scholars of the Seminary for Teachers, so that we might personally satisfy ourselves of their progress in the various branches of education. This academy for the education of suitable instructors, was originally established in 1838, through the generous assistance of a Saxon nobleman, Count Schönburg, and year by year since, has been so liberally assisted by that benevolent nobleman, that its future prosperity seems fairly established. At present there are in the seminary 14 pupils (Hottentots, Caffres, and half-breeds). Since the year of its establishment, 50 young persons in all have been sent out hence; of whom, however, only one half proved to be available for the duties of teachers. Up to the year 1856, twenty-two pupils were already at work in the service of the community, fourteen had been rejected as unsuitable, and fourteen were still in the institute. They entered at from ten to fifteen years of age, remained within its walls six years for instruction, when they were clothed and maintained, and thereafter, without further obligations to the society which had educated them, were dispatched into the most remote districts of the colony as teachers and apostles of Christianity. The examination of the pupils of the seminary took place at the Library Hall, which boasts a portrait of a highly meritorious brother, the venerable C. J. Latrobe, who, in the year 1815-16, visited South Africa as a missionary, and, two years later published, in London, his very remarkable book of travels. The examination commenced with a performance on the piano by a Mestizo lad of about sixteen, son of a Mulatto father by a Hottentot mother. This youth displayed a decided talent for music, coupled with truly admirable execution; and besides the piano, played the organ, the violin, and the violoncello. Next, a variety of questions in geography and history were put to the pupils present. These consisted chiefly of easy intelligible questions, principally relating to England. Those examined were surprisingly well acquainted with the history of Liverpool, London, Manchester, Dublin, &c., and could enumerate many particulars about the Thames and Westminster Abbey. What proved most disagreeable, was the singular custom that prevailed, of all the pupils answering at once, each hoping, by out-clamouring his fellow, to prove his intimate acquaintance with the subject under discussion. The examiner, for example, put a question to a scholar, whereupon all the pupils yelled out the reply in chorus. But it was, on the whole, astonishing, and indeed eminently suggestive, to hear Hottentots, Caffres, and negroes, at the extreme southernmost part of Africa, speaking of England, and her influence over the destinies of humanity, as a commercial, maritime, and industrial power. Already the youth of the settlement are thoroughly interpenetrated with esteem and affection for the mother country and its mighty people. As a finale, the assembled pupils sang a Dutch Bergmann's Gruss, "The Miner's Welcome," and one of Mendelssohn's delightful songs.
Before we quitted Genaaden Dal we breakfasted with the missionaries. They are all married, and manage their households in common, and accordingly partake of their various meals together, each with his family, all seated at one table, one of their wives attending to change dishes and wait at the table. Nowhere are any particular qualifications to be remarked, and it is difficult to conceive more thorough harmony than exists among the unpretending, yet zealously religious missionaries of Genaaden Dal.
As we were preparing for our departure, Dr. Roser unexpectedly packed up a number of objects of natural history and scientific interest, which he kindly presented to the Imperial expedition as a souvenir of Genaaden Dal. Besides these, there were also given to us two valuable little books,—one a small work upon the Nicobar Islands, written about the beginning of this century by a Moravian brother of the name of Gottfried Hensel; the other a treatise composed by the excellent Dr. Roser himself, upon the pharmaceutics and natural history of Genaaden Dal. With respect to the various substances chewed as stimulants, or intoxicants, by the Hottentots, in order to deprive themselves of sensation, or rouse themselves to a state of high excitability, we found the following particulars in this interesting essay. That most in use is composed of the bruised leaves of the "Leonotis Leonurus." This plant, which grows in great quantity in and beyond the Genaaden Dal, is called by the natives "Dagga," as also frequently, "Tacha or Takka," and this variation in pronunciation is very probably the reason that we find in Berghaus's "Völker des Erdballs" (Races of the Globe), this celebrated smoke-weed, marked as "Donha." What the same author says of certain stimulating properties of the plant may well be considered as an exaggeration. It is curious how the properties of this plant seem to be inextricably mingled with the destinies of the Hottentots. In many places it has been extirpated, in order more readily to wean the aborigines from the practice of chewing: at other places again, "Leonotis Leonurus" is expressly planted in order to attract the Hottentots, and so supply any deficiency in hands for labour, reckless of the moral consequences. Another narcotic, and the most widely prevalent, is the wild hemp (Canabis Sativa), the dried leaves of which are smoked by the natives. Dr. Juritz, one of the most respectable apothecaries in Cape Town, assured us he had been compelled, during a previous residence at Stellenbosch, where he was engaged in his business, to keep always on hand in his store a large quantity of wild hemp for sale to the natives.
The poison with which the Bushmen tip their arrows, rendering them such dangerous and terrible weapons, is extracted from the "Cestrum venenatum."[53]
[53] The Dyaks of Borneo poison their arrows with the juice of Strychnos Tieuté and Antiaris Toxicaria (Upas).
Among the animal products of Genaaden Dal of importance in a scientific point of view is Hyrazeuma, a substance obtained from the urine of the Cape Marmot (Hyrax Capensis). It is of a dark-brown colour, somewhat tenacious, and nearly hard, of a very penetrating odour, and is found in cavities resembling a molehill. This article is made use of with much effect in hysterical complaints by the Hottentots. Dr. Roser is of opinion, that this Cape Marmot is in all probability the same animal which Martin Luther, in Leviticus, c. xi, v. 5, and Proverbs, c. xxx, v. 26, has translated by the word "kaninchen" (conies).
On our way from Genaaden Dal to Caledon, to which there is an excellent level road, we perceived a large number of silver poplars, with pendent nests of finches. On a single tree we counted more than forty such pendent nests, constructed in a very singular manner.
Caledon is a cheerful, ambitious little town, important as the centre of the wool trade, as also for the thermal springs in the neighbourhood. These, situated about two English miles outside the town, on a rising ground, in a romantic and highly attractive neighbourhood, are impregnated with iron, and of a considerable temperature. Even in the bath-house, distant about a mile from the source of the spring, a thermometer held in a stone trough, filled to overflowing, marked from 100°·4 to 104° Fahr. At their respective sources the one spring has a temperature of 116°·6 Fahr. and the other 114°·8 Fahr. The colour of the water is ochre yellow. From the terrace of the bath-house a rather extensive landscape opens to the view, backed by a splendid range of mountains, including the Tower of Babel, as the inhabitants have christened the highest peak in this vicinity.
Caledon has 600 inhabitants. About twenty years ago there were not more than ten bales of wool grown in the entire district. At present about 800,000 lbs. are shipped annually. One Merino sheep supplies from 1 lb. to 1½ lb. of wool, worth from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 4d. sterling per pound. Besides Caledon, the principal wool districts of Cape Colony are Swellendam, Beaufort, and Graaf-Reinet. All these districts united produce yearly about 15,000,000 lbs. of wool, worth about £1,000,000 sterling. Within two years the wool produce of the entire colony has increased 30 per cent., and during last year a strenuous and very costly experiment has been made to introduce the Angora breed, with the intention of increasing the wool-producing powers of the less fleecy race by a judicious cross with the native species.
The road to Somerset-West leads over the high and picturesque Hauw-Hoek Pass and Sir Lowry's Pass; the latter is very steep, and parts of it are hardly, if at all, inferior in extent and variety of landscape to those presented by the Styrian Alps. At the culminating point of the latter pass, which surpasses even Paine's Kloef in height and width, one stands as upon the ruins of a lofty tower, from which the eye can range at will over the entire country beneath. South-east and eastward towers the Hauw-Hoek Pass, while southwards and westwards the charming Lowry's Vale, and far in the distance the smiling settlement of Somerset-West come into view, while all around, farther than the eye can reach, are luxuriant pasturages, that only wait to be settled and cultivated in order to produce magnificent returns.