Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa by George Thompson, 1823-24; Vol. II

Die geskiedkundige Theal beweer die boek is een van die bestes wat nog geskryf is oor Suid-Afrika en dat die skrywer het skerp waarnemingsvermoë, hy is vry van vooroordeel en sy skryfstyl is duidelik.

Wild Dogs of South Africa

Springbok en Koedo

In sy boek se voorwoord verduidelik Thompson dat hy hoofsaaklik ‘n handelaar was eerder as ‘n skrywer of ‘n wetenskaplike. Sy reistogte was gedryf deur besigheid en nuuskierigheid. Aanvanklik het hy geen begeerte gehad om ‘n skrywer te word nie. Hy het egter so baie inligting versamel, en die Kaap Kolonie was honger vir inligting oor die toestand en hulpbronne, dat hy sy notas en joernale hersien het vir publikasie.

Thompson het aanvanklik Kaap toe gekom om ‘n tak vir Londense handelsonderneming te open. Hy het later ‘n vennoot geword, en was verbonde aan die onderneming vir die veertig jaar wat hy aan die Kaap spandeer het. Hy was ook betrokke by kulturele aspekte van die Kaap, wat blyk uit die verskeie liefdadigheidsorganisasies waarvan hy ‘n lid was. Dit sluit in, onder andere, raadslid van die South African Literary and Scientific Institution, die Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society en direkteur van die Suid-Afrikaanse Openbare Biblioteek. Op die sakefront was hy direkteur van die Cape of Good Hope Bank en die Cape of Good Hope Mining Company, wat huurkontrakte in die kopervelde van Namakwaland gehad het.

Nuweland, die plattelandse woning van die Goewerneur.

Commercial Exchange, Cape Town

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Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa dek die tydperk van Januarie 1821 tot Augustus 1824, en is oorspronklik in 1827 uitgegee. Die Van Riebeeck Vereniging het dit in twee volumes herdruk.

Hierdie publikasie, die tweede volume van Travels and Adventures in Southern Africa (VRS I-49), dek die tydperk Julie en Augustus 1824 tydens Thompson se reistog noordwaarts via die Roggeveld en die Hantam na die Oranjerivier. Hy voer onderhoude met verskeie San- en Khoi-stamme, sowel as die gemengde ras Griekwas en Korannas, en beskryf hul gebruike en lewenswyses. Hy sluit die bundel af met waarnemings oor die omstandighede van die Nederlandse en Engelse inwoners, oor toekomstige kolonisasie en oor die landbou- en kommersiële potensiaal van die land.

Missionary Village at Kamiesberg in Namaqualand

In die eerste volume (VRS I-48), wat in Januarie 1821 begin, vertrek Thompson op ‘n ses-week reis na die Oos-Kaap om die moontlikhede van handeldryf met die 1820 Britse Setlaars te ondersoek. Hy reis  per see na Port Elizabeth, besoek Uitenhage, Grahamstad, Bathurst, ‘n paar ander nedersettings, en keer terug na Kaapstad oor die land. Hierna volg ‘n reis na Swellendam, George en ‘n besoek aan die Kango grotte.

UITTREKSEL UIT DIE TEKS

…attempted to make them understand by signs that I was in want of provisions, and would gladly purchase some; but they only replied by shaking their heads, and pointing to the “girdles of famine” tied round their bellies; and I afterwards learned that they had been subsisting for many days entirely on gum.

In this situation we sat together for upwards of two hours, until at length Witteboy made his appearance, leading the old horse that we had left some miles behind the preceding night, but without any game. He irnmediately entered into conversation with the Korannas, but could learn from them only the details of their own miserable situation. On account of the long continued drought, the wild game had almost entirely deserted this quarter of the country; the bulbs, also, had disappeared; and they were reduced to famine. Jacob soon after returning with the horses, we saddled up about nine o’clock, and left these poor Korannas and the “Camels Mouth,” filing away in a melancholy train down the dry channel of the river. We took this path through a heavy sand, to save our horses’ feet from the sharp fints which covered the banks.

After about an hour’s ride, we came to a spot marked with the recent foot-prints of the natives; and, looking around us, we saw two human beings seated at a little distance under a mimosa. On approaching them, a picture of misery presented itself, such as my eyes had never before witnessed. Two Koranna women were sitting on the ground entirely naked; their eyes were fixed upon the earth, and when we addressed them, one of them muttered some words in reply, but looked not upon us. Their bodies were wasted by famine to mere skin and bone. One of them was apparently far advanced in years. The other was rather a young woman, but a cripple. An infant lay in her naked lap, wasted like herself to a skeleton, which every now and then applied its little mouth alternately to the shrivelled breasts of its dying mother. Before them stood a wooden vessel, containing merely a few spoonfuls of muddy water. By degrees the Hottentots obtained for me an explanation of this melancholy scene. These three unfortunate beings had been thus left to perish by their relatives when famine pressed sore upon the horde, because they were helpless, and unable to provide for themselves. A pot of water had been left with them; and on this, and a little gum, they had been for a number of days eking out a miserable existence. It seemed wonderful that they had so long escaped falling a prey to the wild beasts; but it was evident that one or two days more of famine would be sufficient to release them from all their earthly sufferings.

My heart was moved with commiseration for these deserted and dying creatures, but I possessed no means of relieving them. We had looked forward with confidence to the relief of our own pressing wants on reaching the Koranna hordes upon the Gariep; but if the others were in a similar condition with those we had seen, our prospect was, indeed, a very gloomy one.

Editor

Vernon S. Forbes, Professor of Geography, Rhodes University