Die Cape Monthly Magazine was die bekendste van die 19de eeuse Kaapse tydskrifte. Professor Roderick Noble van die South African College en Alfred Whaley Cole was die redakteurs en dus het die tydskrif bydrae van vooraanstaande Kaapse intellektuele gelok. Hierdie keuse van artikels deur onder andere Dr. W.G. Atherstone, Charles Brownlee en Robert Godlonton handel oor reise en historiese herinneringe.
Hierdie volume bevat verskeie artikels wat tussen 1870 en 1875 in die tydskrif gepubliseer is. Die redakteur het items gekies wat hoofsaaklik handel oor persoonlike herinneringe van Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis en reis.
Die 1870’s was ‘n opwindende en interessante tydperk in die Kaapse geskiedenis. Dit was voor goud in die Transvaal ontdek is, maar die diamantvelde van die destydse Griekwaland-Wes was net besig om oop te maak. Aangesien reis steeds bemoeilik is deur die onherbergsaamheid van die Kolonie (dié was die dae voor die spoorwegnetwerk uitgebrei het), het dorpsmense graag kennis oor die binneland verkry deur artikels te lees.
‘n Tipiese gesig van die diamantveld– Bultfontein vanaf Dutoitspankoppie
Die volgende artikels verskyn in die volume:
Off on Circuit. Anoniem – ‘n Geesdriftige verhaal van die reistog van die Rondgaande Hof na Caledon en Swellendam.
My first journey deur Ds Richard Ridgill – Die verhaal is ‘n noukeurige verslag van die sendingswerker Ridgill se reis na Warmbad in Suid Wes Afrika.
Through Bushmanland deur Edward John Dunn – Dunn was ‘n geoloog wat deur die Kaap gereis het en in die 1870’s geologiese kaarte gepubliseer het. Hy het ook belangstelling getoon in die Boesmans en hul klip implemente.
A coasting cruise to Kafirland. Anoniem – Die vertelling van ‘n reistog aan boord ‘n klein skoener vanaf Port Elizabeth na die mond van die Umzimvuburivier (hedendaagse Port St. Johns).
From Graham’s Town to the Gouph deur Dr. Atherstone – Atherstone, ‘n mediese dokter, het die eerste diamant wat in 1867 naby Hopetown gevind is, geïdentifiseer. In 1871 word hy en Thomas Bain afgevaardig om gerugte van die ontdekking van goud in die Koup omgewing van die Groot Karoo te ondersoek. Dié artikel handel oor hierdie ekspidisie.
Gedeelte van die kaart van die Diamantveld [uit Adamania; the truth about the SA Diamand Fields deur AF Lindley, 1873)
Night at Du Toit’s Pan deur Mary Elizabeth Barber – Mev Barber en haar man het in die Oos-Kaap geboer maar hulle het noordwaarts getrek met die ontdekking van diamante in 1868. Hulle kleim was by Dutoitspan, een van die eerste diamantmynkampe in die hedendaagse Kimberley.
A trip through Kafirland (1873). Anoniem – ‘n Interessante vertelling van ‘n reis deur die hedendaagse Transkei en Griekwaland-Oos.
Sketches on the East Coast. Anoniem – Die skrywer van hierdie bydrae het van Port Elizabeth in S.S. Zulu gevaar en in Durban oorgeplaas na S.S. Kafir om sy reis met die Ooskus langs voort te sit.
Colonial roads, routes, and modes of travel…. Anonymous – Hierdie artikel is moontlik geskryf om toerisme aan te moedig. Die fokus is op die natuurskoon en die verbetering van die padstelsel en reis metodes soos dit blyk in 1874.
Charles Brownlee — Eerste Sekretaris van Naturellesake in die Kaapkolonie.
Leliefontein, Kamiesberg — Tipiese gesig van die gedeelte van die land waardeur Dunn, die geoloog, gereis het.
Nuggets of the Gouph deur Dr. Atherstone – Ná Atherstone en Bain die goud ondersoek het, bestudeer hulle kool neerslae in die Klein Karoo. Hulle keer later terug na Grahamstad via Meiringspoort.
Via Tradouw. Anoniem – ‘n Verslag van ‘n reistog van Beaufort-Wes na Swellendam.
A scramble in the Uitenhage alps. Anoniem –‘n Geskarrel in die Groot Winterhoek berge in 1873.
Two days at the Diamond-fields. Anoniem — ‘n Besoek aan die diamantvelde by die hedendaagse Kimberley in die 1870’s.
Storms on the Vaal River. Anoniem – Nog ‘n kleurvolle vertelling van ‘n reisiger se avonture na die diamantvelde in die 1870’s.
My trip to the Diamond-fields deur Dr. Atherstone – Die eerste diamant van Griekwaland-Wes is in 1867 na Dr. Atherstone geneem vir identifikasie. Dit was dus vanselfsprekend dat hy die ‘n besoek aan die diamantvelde sou aflê. Hierdie drie artikels beskryf sy reistog vanaf Grahamstad in die “Diamond Fields Express Cart”.
Blinkwater en Waterkloofhoogte in die Ooskaap – Grensoorlog van 1851-2
The old peach tree stump: A reminiscence of the war of 1835; deur Charles Brownlee – Brownlee, ‘n kenner van Afrika lewe en gebruike, was die eerste sekretaris vir naturellesake in die Kaapkolonie. Ten tyde van hierdie vertelling sou die 6de Grensoorlog van 1834-35 verby wees.
Extraordinary hairbreadth escapes; a fragment of frontier history; deur Robert Godlonton — Godlonton was ‘n joernalis en mees vooraanstaande lid van die 1820 Setlaars. Hy was later die redakteur van die Grahamstown Journal en is ook benoem as lid van die Kaapse wetgewende raad. Die artikel is ‘n storie van die 8ste Grensoorlog van 1850-53.
The old familiar faces – and places; deur William Layton Sammons. – Sammons was die redakteur van Sam’s Sly African Journal in Kaapstad van 1843 tot 1851. Anders as baie van sy tydgenote, was hy ‘n sterk voorstander van die teater.
UITTREKSEL UIT DIE TEKS
[…] ……mountains, and below us lay the Fish River bush, spreading far as the eye could reach to the right; whilst on our left — unseen from the distance —lay the grassy slopes of Glen Lynden, Glen Pringle, and the “haughs” of the meandering Koonap, and the Amankazana or ‘River of Girls” scenes rendered classic by Pringle — not unto Boers, bless their unpoetical souls! they never heard of him or his poesy; but our Scotch friend knew Pringle by heart, and the places had only to be pointed out, which her travelling companion did to perfection, for she seemed to know everything and every place, and its whole historical associations, when the ready quotation would fit in as aptly as if dovetailed into the panorama by the poet himself! I sat listening silently, in a soft, delicious reverie, drinking in the balmy air and the dreamy visions of poesy raised by these prattling enthusiasts, just putting a word in now and then to show I was still awake. Crossing the belt of blue trap-rock, with its pebbles of granite and quartzite and gneiss, that woke me up thoroughly, we entered the Ecka Pass, scraped round the steep wooded hills clothed with evergreens, aloes, euphorbias, and the brilliant strelitzias and crassulas peeping out by the roadside. The slates here seem whitened and scorched, and baked into hones by the trap rock, and twisted and tilted up bodily with the strata above them, all dipping northwards up to the Diamond-fields. But, what’s up now? — the express cart stops suddenly. “Adam — his spoor!” grins the driver; “see, he wore veldschoens; dit staat niet in de Bijbel !“ “Footprints of primitive man! Bless me! how very interesting,” gasped out the intelligent stranger. “I’d no idea you’d got such things here in South Africa! Why, you might almost find out Adam’s stature from the size of that foot if you sent it to Owen or Huxley! Veldschoens mean sandals, I suppose. Did the Patriarchs wear sandals? I must look up the passage. But what a strange rock it is! That blue hard rock was soft mud, I presume, when those footsteps were printed there, and those large rounded boulders and waterworn pebbles imbedded in it must be evidence of the Flood?” “Well, madam,” said I, slowly, solemnly, musing thoughtfully, “if those footprints are Adam’s, of course we could measure his height from their size, and IF that boulder formation is the ‘boulder clay’ of Natal, which savants there say is a glacial drift, and if the groovings and markings they find in it are really the markings of glaciers and the spoor of pre-Adamite icebergs, I think we may legitimately infer the approximate date of Adam’s presence on earth; but the fact is, those are merely two waterworn pebbles lying imbedded side by side in the hard rock, worn away by atmospheric effects till they’ve assumed the exact appearance of footsteps of some giant.” So the whole interesting theory topples down in a moment; Adam vanishes with his veldschoens, the icebergs melt and disappear with the glaciers and grooves, and we rub our eyes and wonder — I know you do, dear reader — what we’ve been dreaming about, and if it’s at all probable that we shall ever get to the Diamond-fields at this rate of travelling. We passed two “primitive men in the road soon after, draped in Nature’s undress uniform — red clay, glossy with grease, and a smothered laugh put a stop to all further antiquarian discussion. At the Koonap the post overtook us with four men passengers, and we all were transferred to a light spring wagonette with six prancing horses that snorted and tossed their proud heads as saucily as if they felt and would tell us, “We’re off to the Diamond-fields too.” What a merry hilarious crew it was — German and English, Colonial and Scotch —and what racy diamond stories and jokes and wonderful anecdotes, keeping all in a roar of laughter: you’d have fancied Mark Twain had got in amongst them by mistake, and contaged the whole lot. We reached Fort Beaufort at night, and got off before daybreak, when we found, to our horror, that the ladies had left us — skedaddled under cover of night, and no one was rude enough to ask the young lady’s name or address!
Dawn greeted us with its wild scarlet streamers — ominous signals of storm — that vanished even as we gazed on them, melting away in the fragrant air with the straggling mists of the mountain as the sun leapt down on us, bounding away, full of life, through the beautiful Blinkwater valley.
Long grassy bottoms are crossed, frosted and sparkling with icicles, with their parklike clumps of evergreens and groves of scattered acacias of brightest hue, and Ainslie’s mill with its sheltering trees and noisy rivulet working and murmuring out of sight. The wooded heights of Fort Fordyce and the sunlit peaks of the Tyumie call up memories and scenes that would, once on a time, have sent a cold shudder through the eager listener. […]