The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-29
OUTLOOK FOR
SOUTH AFRICA
AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER ON THE
BoERs.
After Twenty Years Intimate Ac-
quaintance He Gives Them Fine
Certificate of Character and Says
Beers and British Must Eventually
Arrive at Better Understanding
Each of the Other.

one of the most interesting writer's
upon South Africa Is Frederick &. Sc
Ions, an Englishman, who has passed
the greater part of a lifetime as a
hunter and explorer in what until re-
Gently was the Dark Continent"
Through the courtesy of Mr.. j. II.
Ridenour we have lately had an op-
portunity to read Mr.. Selons' most re-
cent book, "Travel and Adventure in
South Africa" published in 1898 which.
in addition to being full of stirring in
cidents and valuable informa ton. has
an instructive estimate of the Beers.
Mr.. SelOns spent more than twenty
years hunting in and near the Trans
Vaal. lie spoke the Boer patois fluent
ly, saw the people as they were and,
there not being any trouble on when
he wrote his book, wrote without preju-
dice. Here is an excerpt
1t was on this journey (madc in lSSl on horse.
back from Kimberly TO Sdorp) that | met
with the one single instance of inhospitality
that have ever experienced from South Airi
can Dutchrnan, and after all | cannot blame
the man, as after the great influx of Euro
pcans-not all good oncs-no South Africa.
consequent upon the wonderful discoveries OF
diamond and gold mines, the simple kindness
and great hospitality for which the Bocrs have
always been noted was often shamcfuly abused
bv nm prnciplcd scoundrcS, and it was no IN.
common thing for Bocr TO wake up in the
morning TO lind that the stranger, whom he
had received as an honorcd guest and who
had eaten his bread and salt, had risen in the
night, and without wishing him goodbye. had
gone of with the best horse in his stable.
Such an experience would be enough to sour
the nature OF rude but kindly Boer, and
prejudice him against all ''utlanders' tor
ever.
TURNED AWAY
One wild, stormy evening between sunset and
dark, | rode up to large, well.built farm
house in the Free State, and inwardy con.
graduated myself on having reached shelter
before one Of the dense black masses Of cloud
which were di~solving in torrents Of rain all
around me, had burst upon and drcnchcd me
to the skin. Riding mp TO the front door, |
greeted the good.looking elderly Boer evidently
the owner of tho farm, with the usual Good
day, uncle" and at asked him kan TX
hicr sldaap van naCht?" OCEAN ! sleep here
to'nightED | was simply asoundcd when he
commenced TO make excuses, saying his house
was ull. etc. for it was very different from
the hearty "Kcrl, saal maar aft, en- kon bin.
men, C'GIkc your saddle off, and come inside
my hoyD to which had grown accustomed
throughout the Transyaaal. ON first seeing me,
no doubt the old man Thought that very prob.
ably ! had stolen the horse I was riding: but
noticing me more closely and perhaps feeling
somewhat ashamed of hEnsclf he 50 far re.
Tented as 10 say, "Gii kan mar. darum afr
saaaL" c'lou may, however. saddle of. -
Had ! done So, and talked with him and his
wife for bit. | have no doubt | should soon
have overcome his suspicious and obtained all
| rcqurcd-a supper and a shakc.doNn, and A
good feed for my horse; hut having, as | saw
been accustomed to the inquest ioning hospitality
OF my friends, the TranSyadl Bocrs, ! was hurt
| and indignant at the old mans suspicious; So,
taking off my hat, I made low bow, without
diomounting, and said: "Ik dank yo ON, voor
No Groot uiindliIkhct mdar lichcrstcr zal TX in
dc rcCcn @ddan saaap, ais in huis WAR TX
| MET Wclkom is" CT thank you. uncle for
your great iricndlncss hut | would rather 90
and sleep in the rain than in house where
am not wclcomc'O; then turning my horses
head, | rode slowly away into the fast gather.
| ing darkness of a stormy night
KIND AND HOSPITABLE.
| This, as | have said before, is the only time
| that | have ever met with inhoSptality at the
| hands of the South African Bocr, though OK.
| pcricn'cs of the same kind arc no doubt com.
mon along the main roads for tho reasons I have
| given. Wherever their confidence has not been
| abused however, | say il without fear OF con.
| tradiction no people in the world can be more
| genuinely kind and hosptabe to strangers than
| the south African Dutch, whether in the Trans.
| NdaI, lht ffCC STATE or the Cape Colony; and
| besides hospitality they possess in such an cmi-
| nent degree so many of the qualities that Eng
| lishmcn profess to admire that, with better
| knowledge Of one another the two would, | feel
| sure, soon shake of their mutual prciudccs, and
| agree TO work together for the common good
| and advancement Of tho best interests of South
| Africa. So many writer's South Africa have
| written disparagngly Of the Dutch without any
| real knowledge of the people themselves, their
| language. hat I ubn
| during the twenty years which | have spent in
| that country, have been intimately acquainted
| with many Bocr families, have right to say
| something ON the subject.
As young man before going ont to the Cape
| spent more than a year in Germany and Ba
| raria and acquired a fair knowledge of German,
| which | found Of great assistance to me in
| learning the Dutch pdtoiS spoken in South Africa
| Thus ! very soon was able to talk easily and
| hucntly with the Bocr hunters | met in the in.
| terror From the lips Of some of the old ''voor-
| trckkcrs" ! heard the story Of the wrongs they
suffered under the British administration Of the
| Cape Colony, which, eliminating in the cmanci-
| patton Of the slaves, and the payment to their
| owners of only about onC-SiNth of the value at
| which they had been estimated by the commits
| soncrs employed Tor that purpose, plunged the
| whole country into grief and dismay Then
the sterncr spirits resolved to submit no longer
10 uncongCnill laws. administered by officials who
cncd. The great trek Of 1896 was organized,
and hundreds Of brave Dutchmcn trckkcd away
| with their wives and their families. their hocks
| and their herds into the unknown wilderness be-
yond the great Orange river carrying with them
bitter hatred Of British rurc. which still ami.
mates their descendants at the present day.
A ROMANTIC HISTORY.
The history OF the cmigmnt Beers during the
iirSt few years after they left the Cape Colony
Is one OF the most romantic interest, and no
| people, in whose veins had run a less heroic
blood than the B0crS had inherited from their
| Dutch and French llugucnot ancestors, could
have held their own against, and finally
| triumphcd over, the manifold difficulties they
had To encounter. Woincn Uhe place of weepng)
| in Natal and Leydenborg Uhc hill Of sorrow) in
| the Trdnsydal, are the names of two townships
| laid out by the cmigrant Beers, which tell their
own tale of the griet and suffering caused by
| the masSacres they suffered at the hands of the
| Iuus after the trcachcrous murder of Peter
| Rctief and his comrades by Dingan. The name
| Of Blood river was given 10 the stream on whose
banks an army sent by the Zulu king to extcr.
| inmate the Beers was defeated by them with
| great slaughter on the sixteenth of December,
lS3s. Something Of all these matters | have heard
| from old men in the Transyaal, and | soon con.
ceiyed strong sympathy for the simple kindly
people who had so sternly refused TO submit to
uncongenia laws, which feeling became genuine
admiration when | heard how they had rallied,
after the massacrcs perpctratcd on outlying fami.
lies by the Zulus aud the Amandibili, and had
finally conquered Dingan and dri,ed Umziligazi
beyond the Transyaal.
\ most interesting and carefully accurate book
has been written by Mr. G.. Macill ThcaI en-.
titled "Ilistory of the Beers in South Africa, -
which | would advise all my reader, to study,
il they wish to know something of the people
in preference to taking the opinion of some
prciudccd Englislman on the subject, who NAV
huN.4 liNpI in "A n ila D..