Chapter I

It is not without great and careful thought that I have decided, boldly and honestly, to put my full name and district to this truthful story of the struggles after righteousness of a once oprecht Burgher of the late South African Republic, with a full account of the temptations that assailed him at the hands of the clever and educated wicked, and in the end brought about his fall.

Since the introduction of many newspapers into the country, I have, both as a private person and in my capacity as public prosecutor, seen how great is the mischief that arises from persons writing grave accusations without affixing their names and districts, thereby often causing innocent people to be suspected, on no better ground than that they are able to read and write,—a reason perfectly justifiable a few years ago, but not to be admitted in a court of justice to-day, when it is impossible to enter a farmhouse, even in the most remote districts, without seeing accounts and letters pinned on the wall, awaiting the time when a neighbour who can read writing shall

come along. Only a short time since, they would

A have been kept till the quarterly Nachtmaal, when the predikant would have to interpret them.

But it is not alone that I despise the man who would write that which he dare not own to. I hold that just as no man has a right to preach unless he be a qualified predikant—by which it will be seen that I have no part or lot in the Dopper Church— so a man who stands up among his fellows and speaks or writes for them should prove his right; and that I fearlessly do, for as public prosecutor of Prinsloosdorp and one time smallpox tax-collector and market-master, I have been placed most favourably for knowing that side of the characters of my late countrymen which they are most often anxious not to have revealed.

Of my educational ability I need say no more than this, that long before I held any Government office I was well known for my learning, and whenever I trekked through any district, even in the Orange Free State, my fame as a reader of difficult letters in the Taal, Hollands, and English, and particularly summonses and legal papers, was so great, that as soon as it was noised abroad that Sarel Erasmus was on trek, the farmers would come in to my outspan from miles around, bringing letters for me to read, or summonses to advise on, until one might think that the Government vaccination officer was making his half-yearly visit. I need hardly remind any one who reads that I am the writer of the famous life of my late father-in-law, Piet Prinsloo of Prinsloosdorp.

It appears even now passing strange to my mind that an Erasmus should have to explain to the world who he is before beginning to tell of his doings. Time was, and that not many years ago, when my father and I, on riding up to a farm in any district, would have no need to tell our names; but so vast has now become the inhabitants of this country, that a man may be excused for not quickly realising to which branch of the Erasmus family a Sarel belongs; and I fear this ignorance will increase now that so many strangers have come into the land who do not even know the name, and much less recognise the great likeness we Erasmuses all bear to our common ancestor. This was the case when I arrived at Maritzburg as a prisoner of war.

“What name did you say?” asked the British officer who received me.

“Sarel Erasmus.”

“How do you spell it?” was the surprising answer.

“Sir,” replied I with great dignity, “I am a descendant of that Erasmus who translated the first Greek Testament and taught you English true religion.”

“Sorry I have not the pleasure of the gentleman’s acquaintance,” said he, haughtily, the foolish fellow being plainly ignorant that that Erasmus lived nearly five hundred years ago; and I had to pronounce the name several times, and even write it before he could recognise it.

This brings me to another of the good reasons that have weighed on my mind in deciding to tell my strange and pathetic story.

It is a common reproach among Englanders that we Transvaal Boers are ignorant. When I hear this remark from an educated Englander I always reply “tu quoque,” which, educated though he is supposed to be, he rarely understands, but thinks it is the Taal, or what he ignorantly calls “Dutch.” Without any desire to be considered biassed or unmannerly, the truth to which I am pledged compels me to say that the English are ridiculously uninformed on South Africa, and the recent war has proved this to an extent that has amazed me. How common is it, for example, to find the grossest misspellings of South African names in the English papers, mistakes that would not be made by a Boer schoolboy. Although geography is supposed to be learned in British schools, few officers knew what a kopjie, drift, vlei, or krantz was, and this despite the fact that these names abound on the map of South Africa.

I am not of those who ridicule Englanders for not being able to pronounce our Taal, nor do I laugh when I hear them talking of being “on” the veld, which last word they speak so strangely. The reason I do not smile is that I see in this a great and providential design and meaning. The inability of Englanders to pronounce the g, d, and v properly was designed, like the word “shibboleth,” which the Ephraimites could not pronounce, to enable us to recognise our natural enemies; for many Rooineks, especially Scotsmen, learn the Taal so quickly, that if it were not that they stumble over these words for long after, many a Boer would be deceived and not see that he was having dealings with a Rooinek, and perhaps miss a chance to make profit out of him.

Although I am naturally proud to be descended from the original Erasmus of Rotterdam, I am equally proud that I am not, as so many Afrikanders are, ashamed of my Hollander descent, particularly since I read in a book, which I do not quite believe, that a Jewish musician named Meyerbeer was the original of “Les Huguenots,’ as they are called in France. But whether true or not, it has always made me feel great contempt for the du Toets, de Villiers, du Preez, and Viljoens, who never miss the chance to explain to Rooineks that they are not Hollanders but Huguenots. I make only one exception, and that is for my old friend Paul du Plooy, of whom I shall have much to say in this book. I gravely suspect he was of Huguenot descent, but he did not know it, being very unlearned; therefore out of kindness of heart, even when most angered by him, I never told him what I suspected about his Jewish origin, for he was ever sore against that nation, and used to make a long discourse wherein he showed that the Jews who come to this country could not be Bible Jews, for they would not fight Kafirs, and knew nothing of cattle, of which the real Jews of the Bible possessed great herds.

The first Erasmus who came to Cape Colony was predikant on a Hollander ship of war, which was wrecked in Simon’s Bay coming from the East Indies; and for that reason he called the first son he had born in the land Paul, because that great Bible man was once shipwrecked.

I am not given to boasting, and, least of all, of my forefathers; for I hold that if a son will not take blame for the misdeeds of his father, neither should he take credit if his parent never got into jail. Therefore if I appear to put great weight on my good descent, it is not out of unseemly pride, but for the very sufficient reason that I am writing not only for South Africans, but for uninformed Englanders; and I find that it is usual for them to set great store upon, and make much explanation as to their ancestors, as we found in the early days of Cape Colony, when every runaway sailor or soldier who tramped to an up-country farm always told the Boer that he had great and rich relations at home, and that he was related to dukes, lords, and governors; whereby many Boer maidens were falsely persuaded to marry these men, who would after a time say that their parents had cast them off for marrying Boer girls, and the Boer father had to support them both.

When I look back on the work I have done,— being yet only twenty-eight years of age,—I can see that people who put importance on good breeding have much good cause, for all the Erasmuses, with a few exceptions, have been marked by great qualities above their fellows, and all of them have done something out of the common, even the bad ones being horribly and unusually clever in their wickedness. It would seem that the family was destined to be, even as the original Erasmus was, teachers and instructors of their fellow-men, for the stories told of my ancestors in Cape Colony are largely made up of records showing their superiority. It was an Erasmus who first made up for a bad grape harvest by putting Cape gooseberries with the wine, which has since been the universal habit. Another Erasmus discovered the Dassie serpent—that great snake with the head of a. rabbit and body of a reptile, only seen about the season of Nachtmaal; though there be those that say my ancestor came upon a puff-adder that was just swallowing a rock -rabbit. But those that said this did not stand well in the kerk, and afterwards were proved to be infidels.

A third Erasmus discovered a way to make medicine for smallpox and scurvy out of a prickly pear of a particularly malignant and fast -growing kind, that was making the best ground on his farm useless. There happened to be in Simon’s Bay certain British ships visited badly with both these diseases. My ancestor offered to make large quantities of the medicine if the captains would let their sailors dig up all the prickly pear roots, which they did. But when some of those who took the medicine got worse, the captains said that it was a trick planned by Erasmus to get his farm cleared cheaply, and they tried to make the Governor of Cape Colony order that the work be paid for; but the ships being English, and the governor a Hollander who hated Englanders, he refused, and there was nearly war between the two countries.

The cause of the dividing of the family into two branches was the unrighteousness of a cousin of my grandfather—Gert Stephanus Erasmus. When the British Government bought out the slaves of the Boers, this Gert, having the same name as my grandfather, wickedly took the money that was rightly his, and refused to give it up. But he gained little thereby, for, believing the foolish report set about that the British had no gold to pay with, he gave an order for seven hundred pounds in exchange for a gold watch that stopped almost before the Jew had left the farm, and turned out to be brass. Ever after, my branch of the family cut off all connection with the Gert Erasmuses. My grandfather solemnly called every one to witness that never would he have in his family a child bearing any Christian name borne by the offspring of this Gert Erasmus, and he kept his word, though he could little foresee how much trouble the cunning of an evil-minded man would cause him; for when Gert heard of the resolve, he planned a great and wicked revenge. Shortly afterwards his third boy was born, and he immediately gave him ten Christian names. Not content with this, he got the predikant to show him how he could add other and fresh names to the children already born; and this was done, using up near sixty good names. And as each child was born, he gave it ten and even twelve names, so that when my father came, his parents were sorely perplexed for a name for him, Gert having used up all the best, leaving only those that were foolish, or favourites with Christian Kafirs. What made the choice more difficult was the objection of my grandmother to the names borne by the children of one Frikkie Smuts, who, after promising her marriage, had cast her off for another girl; and as the Smuts had now a large family, the finding of a name became so hard that my father had to wait nearly a year before one could be found that was not disgraced by Gert Erasmus.

Then Gert, in pursuance of his viciousness, persuaded his two brothers to follow his evil example in wasting names on their children, so that the three sons and two daughters who followed my father were destitute of Christian names for long, and all got to be called “Nick,” for when asked what their names were they had to answer “Nix,’ which is Taal for nothing. But of course this could not go on, particularly when marriage-time came; and often names were not given them until they were in the kerk, when the predikant would have to find one in a great hurry. Being a godly man, he wanted to give Bible names; but all the good ones had been purposely and viciously used up by Gert or his brothers, and the predikant had to use names that were strange in the land, which is why so many of the good Erasmuses have names like mine, while when you find one with a Bible name you can always know that he is a schelm. It is through there being so many such that the name of Erasmus got into evil repute, getting many of those who bore it into tronk in the Free State and Rhodesia, where the landdrosts are much against an Erasmus, even arresting me at Bloemfontein on suspicion of horse-stealing, a scandal for which the landdrosts and police had to make apology and pay my hotel bill.

I got my taste for high education from that Erasmus who was the first to use himself, and show other Boers how to employ, a ready reckoner in calculating the price of his wool, such a thing not being before known in the land. But it brought him trouble, for the slim buyers at Port Elizabeth once refused to accept the reckoning as correct, because they said the date on the book showed it to be last year’s reckoner; and Piet Erasmus could not satisfy the foolish Boers that age does not affect figures as they believed it did, though the real cause of their mistrust was that the book had been printed in England, and had one or two real blunders made by the printer. In the end they lost in their selling, as the ignorant ever must when dealing with the educated, as the painful story of my dealings with Andries Brink will show.

And this brings me to a matter which I fear will be misunderstood and put to my discredit by English readers, who are ever high in praise of education. This history shows plainly how dangerous a thing it may become, for nearly all the misfortunes that came to me were caused by too much learning on the part of those I had to deal with,—just as the Boers in the Transvaal have suffered through the educated Hollanders, who have robbed the true sons of the soil of their birthright by taking to themselves all the offices best paid, and selfishly keeping out oprecht Burghers by making Paul Kruger believe that it was necessary for all officials to be able to read and write; which is as foolish as to say that no man should be allowed to drive a waggon till he can build one. It is true that many of the early officials in the Transvaal were educated, but that was because so many Burghers had made their sons predikants that there were not enough kerks for them; and as a predikant is fit for nothing else he was made a Government man, like some of the judges, who could not drive an ox-team even if they were given the waggon and cattle for doing it.

I have never been quite able to decide firmly whether education is altogether good, since I have, as public prosecutor, seen so many cases wherein educated Kafirs use their learning to forge passes for liquor or staying out late, and white men for writing false things about Boers. But I do hold that it is the educated man who wins until he meets another who is yet more so. Being educated is like being the only doctor in a district. He makes all the money till another doctor comes and takes away his people. So one educated man in a district is great and looked up to so long as there is none other; but when reading and writing grow common he is held in small esteem, and his chance of profit grows less. This is particularly the case when, as generally happens, he has told wrong things that the new-comer finds out and exposes to the neighbours, as was the case with young Piet de Villiers, of the Rustenburg district. He had a learned book from which he made medicine for gallsick for cattle, and heart disease in men and women; but a French Roman Catholic priest passing that way saw it, and knew it as a Latin book which is used in the churches to say Romish prayers out of. The Boers, not loving anything Romish, were angry with de Villiers, and he sold no more medicine. This case gave rise to the proposal of a member of the Raad that there should be only one educated person allowed in a district, at which the Rooinek papers made great ridicule. I myself think it was not a wise proposition, for our laws were strong enough to punish people who used their learning wrongly, though through mistaken mercifulness they were not used as much as they might have been.

As I got my love of learning from my grandfather, so I got my legal instinct from my father, and I fear I also got with it that kindness of heart which made him as unsuccessful in law matters as it made me, judging from the money point of view, which is the only way one can tell whether law be good or not.

The way my father came to mix up in law was this:—

When I was a very small kerel he once had six loads of forage that he could not sell, there being much that year. Hearing that a law-agent in the dorp six hours away wanted forage, my father loaded up two waggons and trekked. The agent, whose name was du Preez, said he had just sent to the Paarl for forage, which was not true, but, said he, rather than my father should have the trouble of taking it back, he would buy it, but only on condition that he had all six loads at half price, to which my father agreed; and within a fortnight the whole of the forage was delivered. But when it came to paying, the agent said he had no money, and that my father must take payment in law, which was a thing that up till then he had no use for. Not being pressed for money, he foolishly consented to the arrangement, and went home to think how he could get back the value of that forage.

As ill-luck would have it, the district landdrost, an old friend of my father, had applied to the Government to give him a better paid office; but they had replied that he had not enough experience of civil cases, which was true, for the people in our district were very peaceful, and only used the magistrate for having their Kafirs punished. The landdrost was telling all about it to my father, who in the goodness of his heart did a foolish thing. “Daniel,” said he, “I have a lot of money owing me by law-agent du Preez. I will make him give me law for it, and you can practise on me,” and he went to the dorp and told du Preez that he must have either money or law, but preferred law.

“Have you any children who want marriage-contracts drawn up,” asked du Preez, “or people who owe you money and whom you hate and would put to trouble?”

My father thought over all his wrongs, but except the family hatred of Gert Erasmus there was nothing strong enough to make a law case out of, till at last he remembered that his next neighbour had dammed the river above him, making him sometimes short of water.

“That’s it,” said du Preez; ‘we will apply for a summons against him for stopping your water,” and my father went home well pleased in his heart that he could now do a good act to the landdrost and get more water for himself.

In a few days the law-agent sent a letter asking for ten pounds for office fees, for, said he, “the English Government will not take forage in payment of court fees as the old colonial Hollander landdrosts would.”

My father saw the landdrost, and tried to get him to take forage instead of money, but he replied that though his heart was good enough to do it, the law was stronger than his heart. So my father had to pay in good gold. Nor was this the end, for hardly a week passed without du Preez sending for more money. My father would have stopped the action, but the landdrost pointed out that it would not be fair to him, and in any case my father would have to pay the other man’s expenses without having any fighting for it. So the money was paid to du Preez, my father secretly thinking that it was only lent; for the landdrost, being his friend, was certain to give judgment in his favour, which he did. But the other man took the case to the Supreme Court at Cape Town, and the judgment was reversed; so that in the end the law-agent not only got the six loads of forage, but the waggons that rode them and the land it grew on, for my father had to pass a bond over part of his property as security for the costs.

This it was that made him always want me to be a lawyer, for, “Sarel,” said he, ‘there is a lot of money in the law. I know, because I put it there.”

It was ever a great grief to my father that he could not afford to have me taught law properly, as the attorney wanted a very high premium; for, said he, “Young Sarel is so clever that if I teach him law he will soon take away all my clients, so I shall want to be well paid for teaching him to supplant me.”

It was because I could not learn law in the usual way that I married the daughter of Piet Prinsloo, for next to being in the office of a lawyer, the best thing is to be married to the daughter of a landdrost who knows no law, and get made public prosecutor in his court; for an intelligent man must learn much by noticing his mistakes and reading the remarks made by the judges of the High Court when they reverse his decisions, which was how I learned law.

I think it only right to explain, that although I am what is called a lawyer, I was never a proper one, being only a law-agent, which is not so high as an attorney, and requires only that one pay fees but pass no examination. This in the old days was quite good enough; but since the Uitlanders got so strong in the Transvaal, they set such weight on examinations that the judges at last shut us out from all courts except the landdrosts’. But even then much money could be made by a law-agent who had good ways with Kafirs, for they were always in trouble and paid well to be defended.

Of my six years’ experience as public prosecutor in the court of my father-in-law I will not occupy time in saying much, for if I once began to say all that I might, I should fill many chapters, as there is much in my career that needs explaining, especially to those who know not the ways of the officials of the Transvaal. It is sufficient that I should say that being by nature honest and kind-hearted, I was never properly understood or appreciated. I confess that I now and then made mistakes, for having to learn my law as I went on from a landdrost who knew none himself, and having to fight clever advocates from Johannesburg who knew more law than all the landdrosts and public prosecutors of the land, it was not to be wondered at that my law was not always of the best quality. But it should not be forgotten that my salary was not large, and even then, I was much more successful in getting convictions than my father-in-law was in having them upheld on appeal.

As is usual with public prosecutors, my most successful and profitable work was in breaking down in my cases, which was done by purposely putting in a wrong date or name in the summons and not defending it when the lawyer for the defence objected; for I hold with the great English lawyers who say it is better that fifty guilty men escape than that one innocent man be convicted. Therefore I could never see wrong in taking a reward to see the weak and merciful side of any case for the prosecution. I am not wishful to take part in the great and long discussion on the morality of officials who take payment from the public, for I have long since agreed with that Transvaal judge and the late President Kruger, who declared that it is neither wrong nor is it bribery to give a reward to an official for paying special attention to your case, any more than it is unrighteous to give a policeman a few shillings for keeping an eye on your house while you and your family are at Nachtmaal. Such a reward is but an inducement to further vigilance; and I freely confess that I have often been able to see the weakness in my summons when I have been promised a reward if the accused should be acquitted. Otherwise I might have been careless and got a conviction that would have been upset on appeal, causing unnecessary expense, and making both my father-in-law and myself appear ridiculous,—a thing no man who values his professional reputation can afford.

I could, if necessary, give many very excellent reasons in defence of my habit of never pressing a prosecution too hard. In the first place, the jail at Prinsloosdorp was very small, and could not accommodate all who should rightly have been in it, and if we flogged all guilty Kafirs, the landdrost got a name for cruelty with the Rooinek papers, and the Government would not pay all the fees of the jail doctor who examined the Kafirs for flogging; so there was nothing for it but to fine them what money they had, except when labour was much needed for the roads, when of course they were always sent to jail without the option of a fine. But it was in dealing out justice to white people that my father-in-law and I found it so difficult. Now and then there would be such a flood of crime that the court had to sit all day, and the sum collected in fines became very large. But it made us very unpopular; for not only was the man fined strongly against us, but his friends joined him, and it often happened that more than half the white inhabitants of the dorp would not invite us to their houses or even speak to us, or if they spoke, it was very offensively. So having so few friends, my father-in-law and I used to go very often to spend our time in Johannesburg, where we were not so well known, which generally ended in my father-in-law doing something foolish that got him into the Rooinek papers and brought strong criticism on him and landdrosts and other officials.

These things made the life of a public prosecutor so full of thorns, there was no alternative but to make money as quickly as possible, so that the position might be given up; and the holder was often driven to go into the Raad or some other Government office where money could be made without so much overlooking on the part of the Rooineks and jealous Afrikanders.

Looking back upon my public career, I can now see that often, without knowing it, I was a great and useful agent for bringing together the two races, Englander and Afrikander, for whenever I could find it in my conscience, I never pressed charges against Rooineks. When prosecuting miners for drunkenness I always tried to find out how much money they had spent on drink in the dorp, which was often the whole of their monthly cheque; and in stating the case I would mention that the prisoners had spent so much, instead of doing as some did, go to Johannesburg and squander their money there, only coming back to finish their drunkenness in the dorp on credit. My father-in-law always favourably considered such cases, and made the fine no more than the prisoner had left. Naturally this good nature was made matter for spiteful comment by the Rooinek papers, which went so far as to state that my father-in-law was interested in canteens in the dorp, when as a matter of fact he was only part owner of one; while the ‘Critic’ actually declared that he issued permits for drunkenness, an utterly false charge, seeing that there was no such printed form issued to landdrosts.

But while I have just cause for feeling aggrieved at the treatment I have received at the hands of Englanders, it is against my late countrymen that I feel the greatest anger; and that I have reason, the story I have embarked upon telling will clearly show. As it is skilfully and truthfully unfolded, there will be revealed the picture of a just and well-meaning Afrikander struggling to free himself from the bondage placed upon him, and fighting hard, and not always successfully, against the temptations of the worldly-wise, who were prompted by no nobler feelings than jealousy, greed, and cowardice. I tell my story— foolish though it may sometimes make me appear— because it is not only my own. The records of the treason courts show that there are now in prison men as good as myself whose struggles against the ignorance and superior strength of their countrymen have been misunderstood, and ended, like mine, in disaster. But I do not repine in an unmanly way, for my superior education and reading show me that it is only by the sufferings of others that the good of the world is advanced. The mistakes I have made—and I admit they are many—will help the world to know the real character of many of my countrymen, among whom I have been as a Don Quixote, fighting on behalf of Great Britain against the folly and ignorance that have caused such loss and suffering.

I know it may be said that in denouncing and exposing my late countrymen I shall be false to that Christian spirit which was planted in my heart when a deacon of the Dutch Reformed Church, and particularly by my present residence in jail. But I hold it to be my duty as a loyal British subject, although I have not yet been able to take the proper oath of allegiance, to do all that in me lies to prevent Great Britain being again deceived by those who would perhaps form another corrupt Boer Government in some other part of South Africa, as is vainly imagined by many, and for which some thought I was fitted for first President, though I now know this was but said to flatter me and keep me on commando when I secretly wished to surrender, being quite content to fill a position for which I might be less well fitted, but wherein I should be more free from the evil planning and plots of the wicked. And that position I sincerely say should be that of my old profession of public prosecutor, but in a larger and better-paying dorp, where my superior knowledge of my late countrymen would ensure that they do not escape the just punishment for their crimes.