her.

WAR WITH THE BERENDS.

61

They asked for the guns and ammunition which were in the house, which she promptly delivered to them. They then straightly charged her not to leave the house during the night, as they could not ensure her safety from others of the servants, who, if she and her family attempted to flee, might kill them.

Mrs. P

This admonition, however, was disregarded. Overcome. with terror, two children escaped by a back door. These were slain by two Bushmen, who had long been looking out for an opportunity of revenging injuries they had suffered. escaped in safety to the nearest farm. Africaner, with as little loss of time as possible, rallied the remnant of his tribe, and, with what they could take with them, directed their course to the Orange River, and were soon beyond the reach of pursuers, who, in a thinly scattered population, required time to collect. He fixed his abode on the banks of the Orange River; and afterwards, a chief ceding to him his dominion in Great Namaqua-land, it henceforth became his by right, as well as by conquest.

Attempts were made on the part of the colonial government and the farmers, to punish this daring outrage on the P. family; but though rewards were offered, and commandoes went out for that purpose, Africaner dared them to approach his territories. Some of the farmers had recourse to another stratagem to rid the frontiers of such a terror; they bribed some of the Bastards, who were in the habit of visiting the colony, from the upper regions of the Orange River. This gave rise to a long series of severe, and sometimes bloody conflicts between the Africaners, and the chief Berend and his associates. Berend being impelled by a twofold reward, and Africaner by a desire to wreak his vengeance on the farmers, who were once his friends, the instigators of the deeply laid scheme. Though these two chiefs dreadfully harassed each other, neither conquered; but continued to breathe against each other the direst hatred, till, by the gospel of peace, they were brought to "beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks."

As soon as Africaner had discovered the origin of the plot, which had well nigh overthrown his power, he visited the boundaries of the colony. A farmer named Engelbrecht, and a Bastard Hottentot, fell the victims to his fury, and their cattle and other property were carried off, to atone for the injuries inflicted by the machinations of the farmers. Africaner now became a terror, not only to the colony on

62

AFRICANER WOUNDED.

the south, but also to the tribes on the north. The original natives of the country justly viewed him as a dangerous neighbour, even though he had obtained, by lawful means, a portion in their country. They considered him as the common enemy. This led to pilfering and provocations on their part; conduct which he was sure to pay back, in their own way, with large interest. The tribes fled at his approach. His name carried dismay even to the solitary wastes. At a subsequent period, as I was standing with a Namaqua chief, looking at Africaner, in a supplicating attitude, entreating parties ripe for a battle, to live at peace with each other: "Look," said the wondering chief, pointing to Africaner, "there is the man, once the lion, at whose roar even the inhabitants of distant hamlets fled from their homes! Yes, and I," (patting his chest with his hand,) "have, for fear of his approach, fled with my people, our wives and our babes, to the mountain glen, or to the wilderness, and spent nights among beasts of prey, rather than gaze on the eyes of this lion, or hear his roar.'

22

After the general aspect of affairs began to settle in that part of the country where Africaner's head quarters were, other distant and interior parts of the country became a theatre, in which the inhabitants of the colony were pursuing a bloody game, in shooting the aborigines, and carrying off their cattle. The landrost of one of the colonial districts sent a message to Africaner, requesting him to try and put a stop to these proceedings, and especially those of a farmer, who, with his Bastard attendants, had sconced themselves in a stronghold in the country. Africaner promptly obeyed the call, and as he did not intend to fight them, he went with some of his chief men on oxen, to recommend them peaceably to retire from the country in which they were such a scourge. On approaching the temporary dwellings of these free-booters, and within gun-shot, the farmer levelled his long roer at the small party, and several slugs entering Africaner's shoulder, instantly brought him to the ground. His companions immediately took up their arms, and the farmer, knowing that their shots were deadly, kept out of the way, allowing the wounded chief and his attendants to retire, which they did, and returned home brooding revenge.

As soon as the slugs were extracted, and the wound partially healed, though the arm was lamed for life, Africaner, who was not a man to be frightened from his purpose, resumed his campaign; and the result was, that this marauder, under a Christian name, was driven from his stronghold,

MODE OF WARFARE.

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and compelled to take refuge in the colony whence he had come. The success which, in almost every instance, followed the arms of such a small and inconsiderable body of banditti as that of Africaner, may be ascribed to his mode of warfare. He endeavoured always to attack his enemy on the plain; or, if entrenched, or among bushes, the usual mode of fighting in the country, he instantly drove them from their sheltering-places; where, if both parties were of the same mind, they would continue, from day to day, occasionally discharging their missiles, or firing a shot. By Africaner's mode of warfare the conflict was soon decided. His reasons were these: he did not like suspense when life was at stake he preferred to conquer a people before they had time to be alarmed, which saved them much agony of mind, and spared the unnecessary effusion of blood. Africaner was a man of great prowess, and possessed a mind capable of studying the tactics of savage warfare. His brother Titus was, perhaps, still more fierce and fearless; and, though a little man, he was an extraordinary runner, and able to bear unparalleled fatigue. He has been known, single-handed, to overtake a party of twenty possessing fire-arms, and only retired when his musket was shot to pieces in his hand. On one occasion Berend's party, who were far superior in numbers, headed by Nicholas Berend, unexpectedly carried off every ox and cow belonging to Africaner; only a few calves being left in the stall. After a desperate though very unequal contest for a whole day, having repeatedly taken and lost their cattle, they returned home, slaughtered the calves which were left them, and rested a couple of days in order to dry the flesh in the sun, ready for the intended campaign. For several days they pursued their course along the northern banks of the Orange River, and having, by spies, found out the rendezvous of the enemy on the southern side of the river, they passed beyond them, in order to attack them from a quarter on which they fancied they were safe. They swam over in the dead of the night, with their ammunition and clothes tied on their heads, and their guns on their shoulders. The little force thus prepared, not unlike that of Bruce at Bannockburn, seized their opportunity, and, when all the enemy were slumbering in perfect security, aroused them by a volley of stones falling on their fragile huts. The inmates rushed out, and were received by a shower of arrows; and before they could fairly recover their senses, and seize their guns, the discharge of musketry convinced them that they were besieged by a host encamped

in the most favourable position: they consequently fled in the greatest consternation, leaving the captured cattle, as well as their own, in the hands of the Africaners.

Nicholas Berend, to whom reference has been made, was brother to the chief Berend Berend, (afterwards of the Griqua mission, and now of the Wesleyan mission among the Basuto,) and a very superior man both in appearance and intellect. I have frequently travelled with him, and many a dreary mile have we walked over the wilderness together. Having an excellent memory, and good descriptive powers, he has often beguiled the dreariness of the road, by rehears ing deeds of valour in days of heathenism, in which this struggle with Africaner bore a prominent part, and on which he could not reflect without a sigh of sorrow.

Among the remarkable interpositions of Divine Providence in saving his life from destruction, he more than once repeated the following, with much emphasis. It happened when he was engaged in a desperate conflict with Titus Africaner, from whose lips I had heard the same tale. The two had been engaged for hours in mutual strife, taking and re-taking a herd of cattle. By means of the large drove and bushes, each had managed to conceal himself. Suddenly a passage opening in the troop, which exposed the enraged combatants to each other's view, their rifles were instantly levelled. The moment they touched the triggers, a cow darted in between, and the two balls lodged in the centre of the animal, which fell dead on the spot. But for this interposition, both would, in all probability, have fallen, as they were most expert marksmen. Titus, a man who could take his gun in the dead of night, enter an immense deep pool in the Orange River, swim to the centre, take his seat on a rock just above the surface of the water, and wait the approach of a hippopotamus, which he would shoot just as it opened its monstrous jaws to seize him. A man who would deliberately smile the moment he laid the lion dead at his feet. This man, who appeared incapable of fear, and reckless of danger, could not help acknowledging being most powerfully struck with his escape from the ball of his antagonist, and would say to me when I referred to the fact, "Mynheer knows how to use the only hammer which makes my hard heart feel.”

Nicholas finished his Christian course under the pastoral care of the Rev. T. L. Hodgson, Wesleyan missionary at Boochuap. His end was peace.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM the preceding description, which, though a mere glance at Africaner's character, or like a single leaf from which a volume might be produced, it may be seen that it was a most desirable object for the missionaries to make him and his people the centre of their labours, or otherwise to obtain a sphere sufficiently distant to prevent any thing like collision between the people of their charge and so formidable a neighbour. Humanly speaking, had the former plan been adopted, the evils which succeeded might have been prevented. The latter, for reasons obvious to the missionaries, was unfortunately chosen, and they removed to the Warm Bath, about 100 miles west of the neighbourhood of Africaner.

Taking up this place, as likely to become a permanent abode, they pitched their tent, though there was nothing lovely in its appearance, the neighbourhood being bare and sterile; and the small portion of ground capable of being irrigated by the hot spring, so salt that little could be expect ed to grow. People and water were, however, the objects of the missionaries' pursuit; and of all places they had seen or heard of, this was the most likely in which to congregate a tolerable, though at most a small, community. Here they resumed their labours of love, casting the heavenly seed in the hearts of their hearers. These were composed of a mixed multitude of Namaquas, and Bastards from the colony, (called on that account Oorlams,) whom they, as well as other missionaries, found it difficult to manage. Originating in the colony, proud of their superior knowledge, and having a smattering of the Dutch language, they stood high in their own estimation, and despised the aborigines. This, in many instances, gave rise to dissension, discord and war, so as even to overthrow the labours of the missionaries, and turn a thriving settlement into desolation.

For a season the prospects of the brethren continued cheering, their labours being blessed. They were "instant in season and out of season to advance the temporal and and spiritual interests of the natives, though labouring in a debilitating climate, and in want of the common necessaries