The covenant - James A. Michener [159]
I recommend that you use this plague as a God-sent opportunity to halt further importation of slaves, and to curtail the use of Hottentot and half-caste labor. Let us comb from Holland honest men and women who know how to work, Boers who will create in Africa a peasant class of true Dutch character, unspoiled by sloth and privilege.
For a brief moment in history there was a chance that this advice might be followed, converting South Africa into a settlement much like the northern American colonies and Canada, where in good climates free men built strong democracies, but before the proposed Dutch farmers could be imported, the problem was resolved in an unusual way.
Hottentots from independent captaincies east of Stellenbosch had been cruelly ravaged by the pox. Their cattle dead, their traditional hunting lands depleted, they wandered in pathetic groups to farmhouse doors, begging for any kind of work so long as it provided food. This was their only chance of survival, and before long, Geertruyd had accepted so many that Trianon was back to its full complement of workers, proof that if the white man succeeded in his economic enterprises, the brown and the black man would find a way to participate in his prosperity. The only requirement was that the black do his sharing not for free wages but in some form of servitude.
When the fortunes of the plantation were at their lowest ebb, and rumors circulated that it might be taken from the women, Annatjie in her sickbed conceived a strategy which had to be acted upon quickly. Summoning Sarel and his wife, she told them, 'Now's the time to buy back any claims the De Pre boys might have on their father's share of Trianon. They'll think it's worthless. We know it's going to be invaluable.' To her delight, it was not Geertruyd who responded, but Sarel, who said very slowly, 'They will know our troubles . . . and they will sell ... at a lower price.'
'Oh, Sarel!' his mother cried. 'You do understand, don't you?'
'And this year ... the three of us ... we will make even better wine.'
That night Annatjie composed a letter to Henri de Pre in Amsterdam, offering him a shockingly few rix-dollars for his share, and she wanted to carry the letter herself to the Cape, where she would bargain with Louis, but her health would not permit, so she coached her daughter-in-law: 'Sarel's not quite able yet to conduct such a negotiation. And when you've paid Louis his money, you must go to the Castle and meet with the governor and sound him out.'
'I would feel ill-at-ease,' Geertruyd said, looking at her work-stained hands.
'We do what we must,' Annatjie said, and when the cart was ready, she left her bed to bid the girl farewell.
The meeting with Louis went much better than she had anticipated, but it contained one very painful moment. After the deal was concluded, and the papers signed, Geertruyd was led into another part of the house, where coffee and rusks had been prepared, and there she saw De Pre's four sons, and gasped, 'You have four and I have none,' and her barrenness lay heavy upon her.
At the Castle the governor said it was most fortunate that she had come to the Cape, for an Honorable Commissioner had arrived from Java and was awaiting a ship from Amsterdam which would bring him instructions from the Lords XVII. 'We're particularly interested in Trianon,' the governor said as he led her in to dinner.
When she entered the Compagnie mess she was startled by two things: the richness of the huge teakwood table set with gold-and-blue plates kilned in Japan, each bearing the august monogram V.O.C. and accompanied by five pieces of massy silver from China; and the presence of her neighbor Andries Boeksma, who had obviously been instructing the Honorable Commissioner from