43

PROVOKING CHARACTERISTICS.

as they perceive that any of the cattle are too fatigued to proceed, they stab them; and if the pursuers come within sight, and there is the slightest probability of their being overtaken, they will thrust their spears, if time permit, into every animal in the troop. I have known sixty head levelled in this way. This habit, which obtains universally among that unfortunate people, exasperates their enemies to the last degree, and vengeance falls on men, women, and children, whenever they come within reach of their missiles. Though their poisoned arrows cannot take in one-third of the length of a musket-shot, they aim with great precision. I have known men shot dead on the spot with poisoned arrows, and others who did not at first appear to be mortally wounded, I have seen die in convulsive agony in a few hours. It is impossible to look at some of their domiciles, without the inquiry involuntarily rising in the mind—are these the abodes of human beings? In a bushy country, they will form a hollow in a central position, and bring the branches together over the head. Here the man, his wife, and probably a child or two, lie huddled in a heap, on a little grass, in a hollow spot, not larger than an ostrich's nest. Where bushes are scarce, they form a hollow under the edge of a rock, covering it partially with reeds or grass, and they are often to be found in fissures and caves of the mountains. When they have abundance of meat, they do nothing but gorge and sleep, dance and sing, till their stock is exhausted. But hunger, that imperious master, soon drives him to the chase. It is astonishing to what a distance they will run in pursuit of the animal which has received the fatal arrow. I have seen them, on the successful return of a hunting party, the merriest of the merry, exhibiting bursts of enthusiastic joy; while their momentary happiness, contrasted with their real condition, produced on my mind the deepest sorrow. Many suffer great distress when the weather is cold and rainy, during which not unfrequently their children perish from hunger. A most inhuman practice also prevails among them, that when a mother dies, whose infant is not able to shift for itself, it is, without any ceremony, buried alive with the corpse of its mother.*

To the above melancholy description, may be added the testimony of Mr. Kicherer, whose circumstances while living among them, afforded abundant opportunities of becoming

* The author had a boy brought up in his own house, who was thus rescued from his mother's grave, when only two years old.

CRUELTY TO OFFSPRING.

49

"Their

intimately acquainted with their real condition. manner of life is extremely wretched and disgusting. They delight to besmear their bodies with the fat of animals, mingled with ochre, and sometimes with grime. They are utter strangers to cleanliness, as they never wash their bo dies, but suffer the dirt to accumulate, so that it will hang a considerable length from their elbows. Their huts are formed by digging a hole in the earth about three feet deep, and then making a roof of reeds, which is however insufficient to keep off the rains. Here they lie close together like pigs in a sty. They are extremely lazy, so that nothing will rouse them to action but excessive hunger. They will continue several days together without food rather than be at the pains of procuring it. When compelled to sally forth for prey, they are dexterous at destroying the various beasts which abound in the country; and they can run almost as well as a horse. They are total strangers to domestic happiness. The men have several wives, but conjugal affection is little known. They take no great care of their children, and never correct them except in a fit of rage, when they almost kill them by severe usage. In a quarrel between father and mother, or the several wives of a husband, the defeated party wreaks his or her vengeance on the child of the conqueror, which in general loses its life. Tame Hottentots seldom destroy their children, except in a fit of passion; but the Bushmen will kill their children without remorse, on various occasions; as when they are ill-shaped, when they are in want of food, when the father of a child has forsaken its mother, or when obliged to flee from the farmers or others; in which case they will strangle them, smother them, cast them in the desert, or bury them alive. There are instances of parents throwing their tender offspring to the hungry lion, who stands roaring before their cavern, refusing to depart till some peace-offering be made to him. In general their children cease to be the objects of a mother's care as soon as they are able to crawl about in the field. In some few instances, however, you meet with a spark of natural affection, which places them on a level with the brute creation." Oh the miseries to which human nature is heir! Hard is the Bushman's lot, friendless, forsaken, an outcast from the world, greatly preferring the company of the beasts of prey to that of civilized man. His gorah* soothes some

away

* The gorah is an instrument something like the bow of a violin, rather more curved, along which is stretched a cat-gut, to which is attached a mall piece of quill. The player takes the quill in his mo th, and by

50

MISSION TO TOORNBERG

solitary hours, although its sounds are often responded to by the lion's roar, or the hyena's howl. He knows no God. knows nothing of eternity, yet dreads death; and has no shrine at which he leaves his cares or sorrows. We can scarcely conceive of human beings descending lower in the scale of ignorance and vice; while yet there can be no question that they are children of one common parent with ourselves, if, during a period of 4000 years, they have sunk thus low, what would the world become if left without Divine revelation, to grope in the mazes of heathen darkness? But, degraded as the Bushmen really arc, they can be kind, and hospitable too; faithful to their charge, grateful for favours, and susceptible of kindness. I speak from what I know, having seen all these qualities exemplified. It is also habitual with them, on receiving the smallest portion of food, to divide it with their friends; and generally it is observed the one who first received the boon, retained the least for himself; and a hungry mother will not unfrequently give, what she may receive, to her emaciated children, without tasting it herself. In order to get the people to congregate, Mr. Kicherer found it necessary to give them daily a little food, and especially small portions of tobacco, with which he was most liberally supplied by the farmers. "Without that," he says, "it would have been impossible to bring these poor people to any means of instruction, as they are compelled continually to go from one place to another for food." While, however, the message of Divine mercy at times made an impression so great, that the missionaries were led to suppose that they had surmounted every difficulty; they were again humbled and grieved to see, as they expressed it, the natural inconstancy of the Bushmen reverse every promising sign.

The Directors of the London Missionary Society, most anxious to impart to this degraded portion of the human family, the means of grace, recommended the establishment of a station for that object at Toornberg, now Colesberg, south of the Great River; and Mr. Erasmus Smith and Mr. Corner repaired thither in 1814, when about 500 Bushmen took up their abode with them. The missionaries were thus cheered by a people waiting to receive them; but their joy was of short duration. A long and mortal enmity had existed between the Bushmen and the farmers; and they soon began to suspect that the missionaries were employed only strong inspirations and respirations of breath, produces a few soft notes in the vibrations of the cat-gut.

MR. FAURE'S AFFECTING STATEMENT.

as instruments to betray them into their hands.

51

Groundless

as this suspicion was, it nevertheless so operated for a while as to damp the zeal of the missionaries. They very naturally expected that it would require a long and laborious course of culture and tuition before such pupils could be expected even to apprehend the doctrines of Christianity. This, however, was not the case. The light and power of the Gospel at an early period of the mission, accompanied the proclamation of its glad tidings, and a number of these barbarous people, when they heard the word of life, believed. And here a Christian church arose, extensive gardens were laid out, and these cultivated with the Bushmen's own hands.

Another mission was commenced among that people at Hephzibah, where there was a prospect of permanent success. It was however found extremely difficult, from the Bushmen coming into unpleasant contact with the farmers in their vicinity, and the missionaries being brought into collision on their account. These evils to which their locality exposed them, soon proved the means of blasting their pleasing hopes among that people. An order was received from the Cape authorities, requiring the missionaries to retire within the colony. Thus ceased the operations of the Society among the poor wild Bushmen at these stations; and it is impossible to read the following extract of a letter to the Rev. Dr. Philip, from the Rev. A. Faure, then minister of Graaff Reinet, without deeply lamenting with that enlightened individual, that these stations should have been broken up. "Some of the Bushmen whom Mr. Smith baptized, had acquired very rational ideas of the principles of the Christian religion; and appeared to feel its constraining influence on their habitual conduct. They were zealous in trying to convey the same inestimable blessing to their unhappy countrymen, who live without God and without hope in the world. It was delightful to hear the children sing the praises of Jehovah, and to witness the progress they had made in spelling and reading. These facts, which have come under my own observation, prove that conversion of this race of immortal beings is not impossible."

The last effort of the Society to establish a mission among that people, was attempted in the vicinity of the Caledon River Captain A. Kok, the late chief of Philippolis, most munificently presented the Bushmen who congregated at that place, with a good supply of cattle, sheep, and goats. This mission, now called Bethuli was afterwards trans

52

REVIEW OF BUSHMEN MISSIONS.

ferred by Dr. Philip to the missionaries of the Paris Society: and it has since become a Bechuana mission, where the word of God has had free course, and been glorified. The proximity of the place to the gradual encroachments of those whom the Bushmen dreaded, influenced them to leave the spot, so that now few remain, nor is it any longer a Bushman station.*

In taking a brief review of the Bushmen Missions, we cannot help being struck with the depravity and ignorance of the people, the zeal and perseverance of the missionaries, the power of Gospel truth, and the dreadful guilt of those who have been directly the cause of frustrating the objects of the Missionary Society, which is the only one that has espoused the cause of that afflicted people. Shall not the Lord require it? for the blood of thousands cries from the dust, and the cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Can we wonder that the Bushmen missions, under the circumstances in which they have been placed, should, upon the whole, prove a failure, though not without important results? We must continue to look for success in attracting the scattered fragments to the Missionary settlements, and forming out-stations among them, a method which has already received the Divine blessing. This plan has been carried on at our Griqua mission, from its commencement to the present day; and those established in connexion with the Kat River are promising. This mode of proceeding with that people cannot be too strongly recommended to those who are labouring among their more powerful neighbours. When once a number of these are savingly converted to God, and feel the constraining influence of the love of Christ, they will become valuable auxiliaries to the missionary, in collecting them around their villages and cattle out-posts, and thus, by kind endeavours, bring them within the benign and transforming influences of the Gospel of love.

'Kindness is the key to the human heart.' I know an individual who was struck with the difficulties the Bushwomen had in rearing their infants after the term of suckling, from the entire absence of any thing in the shape of milk or grain. Dried meat, or Ixia bulbs, is hard fare for a babe. He tried to persuade them to purchase goats, with ostrich feathers, or skins of game procured in the chase. At this proposal they laughed inordinately, asking him if ever their

* For a more particular account of the Toornberg and Hephzibah missions, see Dr. Philip's Researches in South Africa, vol. ii. p. 23.