The covenant - James A. Michener [234]
The Boers refuse to allow their Hottentots to attend mission schools or to convert to that one true religion which could save their immortal souls. Indeed, one gains the impression that the Boers refuse to believe that their laborers have souls, and each day that dawns sees Jesus crucified anew in order for the Boer to gain a few more shillings through the toil of these mild and peaceable people forced into a servitude worse than that of the true slave.
Such charges ignited action throughout England, especially since that nation now had responsibility for the governance of South Africa, and protests of the most vigorous force were launched. What made government intervention inevitable was Reverend Keer's closing statement that he personally could indict a hundred Boers for forced enslavement, criminal abuse and even murder.
When the four dozen copies of The Truth About South Africa reached the Cape and were distributed, with Dutch translations being rushed to the frontier, a sullen resistance developed. Even prospering townsmen in Cape Town and Stellenbosch who had clearly benefited from the English takeover protested that Keer had unjustly maligned the entire colony. And the frontier Boers! Each man felt that he was being specifically accused, and wrongfully. Pamphlets were prepared, rebutting the absent missionary, and practically the entire population combined to defend South Africa's reputation.
But the power of an inspired missionary to inflame English public opinion would always be great, and while at the Cape a few people were defending South Africa, in London a multitude called for action, and before long, commissions were on their way to the Cape to look into Keer's charges, and the mournful day came when formal accusations had to be lodged against some fifty Boers, who were commanded to stand trial before judges who would circulate throughout the colony. The Black Circuit, this exhibition would be called, and in due course it would reach Graaff-Reinet, several days' ride to the northwest, and there Lodevicus van Doorn would be tried for physically abusing his Hottentots, starving them and denying them the right to attend religious services. He was also accused of murder.
Before the Black Circuit reached Graaff-Reinet, Lodevicus, convinced that no judge appointed by the English would accord a Boer justice, swallowed his pride and rode back to Golan, where he found that Hilary could now speak moderately good Dutch. The two men conducted an impassioned conversation.
'All I ask, Saltwood, is that you come with me, now. Look at my farm. Talk with my Hottentots and slaves.'
'I'll not be party to this lawsuit.'
'It's not a lawsuit. It's a charge of murder.'
'And other things, if I hear correctly.'
'And other things. Trivial things. And it's those you must inspect.'
'I'm not a witness, Mijnheer van Doorn.'
'All men are witnesses, Dominee.'
The sudden use of this Dutch appellation caught Hilary's imagination, and he had to admit that in a situation so grave, all men were witnesses, so that even though Van Doorn had been an unpleasant man, if he now appealed for help, it had to be given. On the spur of the moment he said, 'I'll ride with you, but I'll not testify in court.'
'No one asks you to,' Lodevicus said gruffly.
Leaving Golan in care of Saul, Hilary left for the north, finding a ride with Van Doorn a moving experience: 'These vast lands with no markings how do you find your way?'
'The look of things,' Lodevicus said, and Hilary thought: That's what I'm being asked to judgethe look of things.
As in the days when Mai Adriaan wandered these lands with Dikkop, this Van Doorn and his English clergyman formed a bizarre pair, the first an old man with heavy frame and white whiskers, the second a tall and gawky