The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure (8 page)

“What a nice story,” said Madeleine. “I guess that is why
you remember her birthday. Are we having another celebration when the day comes?”

“I reckon we should,” said Grant.

Several metres above them empty sails slatted audibly. They
were trapped in a pocket of calm. It was as if the sudden, violent storm had
sucked all the energy from the elements.

CHAPTER FIVE

Hadah and his master broke camp on the second morning after the
visit by the king’s envoy. At a steady jog they could cover the distance in a
day and a half. Hadah, however, was not as fit as the master yet. They were
therefore going to travel at walking pace for much of the journey and sleep
twice. They had no worries regarding provisions. Their own people were to be
found just on the other side of Elands Pass. Also, every farm on the way had
its contingent of
KhoiKhoi
herders. Most of them did not have a problem
sharing food with a traveller of their own kind. Nobody who knew the Custodians
of the Mountain for what they were ever denied them either a resting place or
food, albeit at times with a shaking hand and a sigh of relief when they
continued on their journey. For those occasions when they did not want to see
anybody, not even their own people, they lived off the veld.

Their destination was the Butter River. The name, explained the
master, comes from the time when he was still young. The Dutch called it like
that and today everybody stuck to the name. It was the land of the
Chainouqua
and many of those who were displaced by the Dutch inside the ring of the
Great Mountains moved there as well. They had thousands of cattle that grew fat
on the soft grass along the Butter River valley and on the coastal plains. The
river flowed throughout the year and at the coast there were strong fountains
about a day’s travel away from the river mouth. All of this allowed the herds
to cover a wide area.

Anyway, said the master, the Dutch started buying butter
from the
KhoiKhoi
. First it was a wagon full but not long after there
were whole convoys of wagons that crossed the Great Mountains with barrels and
jars that they intended to fill with butter, some for their own use but most to
be sold to the passing ships. The Dutch, continued the master, are the
cleverest people in the world when it came to making money from something. They
will do anything for a profit, even if it meant going up and down Eland’s Pass.

“Do the wagons still go out there for the butter?” asked
Hadah.

“Yes they do, but not as many as before. There are many
Dutch farmers now who have their own cows. Even so, they still make butter
along the Butter River and sell it to whoever comes. When we go there you will
see the women shaking the bags of goatskin that they hang from the trees.
That’s how they make it. Afterward they store the butter and the buttermilk in clay
jars to keep it cool. We will taste some of it when we get there.”

They slipped down the mountain on the shady side and crossed
the valley until they reached the foothills of the Great Mountains. Their first
obstacle was the nearest farm.

“This farmer is always in a bad temper,” said the master.
“Now he will be even more so. The whole valley will be in uproar because of the
slaves that they had lost. We’d better keep away from the roads near the farms.”

There was a hill with a round top on the floor of the valley
and they climbed it to spy out the lay of the land. From their cave that they
had left earlier they could see the farms clearly below but it was too far to
see the movements of people. Before them now they saw vineyards stretching into
the far distance. Closer to them were squares of corn which were double their
height and just below them was a neat field that had been freshly ploughed. It
was being worked by about a hundred slaves, each bending down in a row. They
were planting something. Between them walked the Dutch overseers, hands folded
behind their backs and dressed in black coats over white shirts, even in the
heat of the morning. On their heads they wore big-brimmed hats, also black.

“They look just like big crows,” said Hadah, laughing.

“Yes, it’s funny,” agreed the master. They always dress like
that, except for the farmers far away from Cape Town. There some of them dress like
us. Unless they visit Cape Town. Then they look like that as well.”

The sounds of a bell clanged out over the valley. They could
see a slave ringing it energetically in a little tower close to the massive
house of the owner. The workers stood up and left the field as one.

“It’s time for breakfast,” the master said. “Some of the
herders explained it to me. When the edge of the shadow of the mountain reaches
that rock over there on the slope, they break for the first time. Then there is
another rock and then another for the other two times that they feed the
slaves.”

Hadah swallowed. Yesterday’s meals were far away. His eye
fell on the sheep that were grazing close by.

“It’s not a good idea,” said the master, without turning his
head. “We will get food on the way and besides, one or more of our people will
get into trouble.”

They looked around for the herder but saw nobody.

“They will round up the sheep tonight,” said the master.
They call this hill ‘Sheep’s Hill’ because they like to graze them here during
the day and bring them back into the pens at night.”

“What do you see?” asked Hadah, because the master was
looking intently into the distance.

“I need a spyglass,” said the master. “I am looking to see
what I can pick up in Table Bay. This hill is the place where the previous
owner kept a lookout to see when ships came into the bay. He always had
somebody up here with a spyglass.”

“Then shouldn’t we get going?” asked Hadah. “Maybe that man
is coming back.”

“That was the old owner. The new owner is not the same. He
only keeps a shepherd up here.”

“But you said he is a dangerous man.”

“He is. Still, the old one was not much better.”

“What was he like then, the previous one?”

“He was the governor himself,” said the master. “He planted
all these vineyards and all these trees that are from another land. He also had
so many heads of cattle and sheep that he had to build cattle stations and
sheep pens everywhere. They were too many to keep in one place. Never before
did one man own so many things.”

 “Isn’t it right that the king should have the most?”

“It is right that the king must have more but he must also
share fairly with his people and take care of them. This man was different.”

“How?”

“He was greedy, greedier than any other person in the land.
He wanted all the good things for himself. He knew that this valley is the best
in the whole world, something that our people knew for a long time. That’s why
he came here and took it for himself.”

“How did he get so much cattle and sheep?”

“He bought most of it from the
Cochoqua
and the
Chainouqua
.
They say that he bought it with company funds although it was his farm and not
belonging to the company.”

“Why did he do these things?”

“That is a long story. He came here long before there were farms.
Our people were still living in this valley. That was when a special bond developed
between him, this valley and our mountain. He was no more than a boy at the
time.”

“How did that happen?”

“His father was the governor before him and they say that as
a boy he got everything that he wanted. He only had to ask his father. He
wanted to hunt so his father arranged for him to go on hunting parties. The
soldiers who took him along taught him how to shoot and he became a very good
shot. They say that inside the castle there are many rows of skins and heads of
animals on the walls that he had shot, including dangerous ones like lion,
elephant and rhinoceros.”

“Did the soldiers bring him to this valley?”

“Yes, they did. They killed all the big animals that roamed
the plains. Then they killed the animals along the river where Stellenbosch is
now. When there was nothing left, they came to this valley. There were still
some eland here that came in the summer over Eland’s Pass. And they killed the
lions as well. There was a pride of lions that lived in these mountains for
many, many years. They killed all of them, big and small. Our people who lived here
were very happy about the lions. They had to use lots of tall branches to build
their cattle enclosures, in order to keep the lions out at night but they always
got in and killed cows, sheep or goats. Often they would kill more than they
could eat. Our people hated the lions.”

 “So he did something good?”

“They thought so at first, but they missed something.  When
he was not hunting he climbed up onto our mountain and sat there for long
times, even days, looking down at this valley. You can imagine what he was
doing.”

“He was thinking about what he wanted to do here.”

“Yes. He was making plans and there was no place for our
people in those plans. That is what they failed to see. He planned everything
you see here before you now. He did not get to it immediately. First, he went back
to Holland to learn and to find a wife. Then, when his father became old, he told
the Lords of Seventeen that he wanted to come back as governor. They appointed
him, not knowing that he wanted one thing above all.”

“This valley.”

“You are clever, Hadah.  This valley and this mountain drew
him with a strong power. All the time that he spent in Holland he was still
dreaming, planning about one thing and one thing only: this place. He
calculated what he wanted to plant on the fields and he drew up plans for the
house that he wanted to build right here below us. It was going to be the
biggest house that anybody had ever built. One day after his ship had landed in
Table Bay he took a horse and came here with some soldiers. They camped for a
night and the next day they went back. He did not need to stay long because he
already knew exactly what he wanted to do, including where he wanted to build
his big house.”

“It is a big house indeed.”

“Ha! The house that you see down there is not the big one
that he built. They broke it down just a few years ago and used the material to
build four smaller ones. What you see there is one of the smaller ones.”

“I cannot imagine something like that house you are talking
about.”

“Yes, you cannot. Nobody had ever seen anything like that. The
fleet that brought him here from Holland were full of materials for that big house.
They loaded it all on wagons, long trains of wagons that just kept on coming.
That is when we saw how much these ships can carry in their bellies.”

“I think I can see a ship in Table Bay,” said Hadah. “I just
cannot see whether it is coming or going.”

“I see it. It has just arrived. Governor van der Schoon would
have been interested. Do you know why? He wanted to sell his produce before any
of the other farmers. This was still in the days when the cannons only talked
to the farmers on the day after ships had arrived in Table Bay. Since our
governor wanted to be the first, his man up here would run down and tell him
how many ships had arrived.  Then they started harvesting. The next morning
when the other farmers got the news that so much of this or so much of that was
needed, his wagons were already on their way to Cape Town. In this way he was
one day ahead of anybody else. When the other farmers arrived with their goods
the ships had sometimes already bought everything that they needed and they had
to go back with their produce.”

“Were the other farmers not angry?”

“Yes they were angry. That is why they complained. But what
did the governor care? All he had on his mind was this valley. He could not
bear to be away from here. At midday he would leave the castle with a fast
horse and buggy. Twice he changed horses at stations that were there only for
him. In the evening he was here. Then he stayed the next day until midday
before he left for the castle again.”

Hadah pondered it all for a moment and then asked the
question that bothered him. “You told me the story about the young Dutchman who
was killed by the serpent on the hot side of the mountain. Why did the serpent
not do anything about this governor, especially when he was young and hunting
on our mountain?”

“The spirit liked him,” said the old man, “for reasons that
were peculiar to this man, even when he was young. He was haughty and proud,
but above all, he was greedy, very greedy. It was an incurable flaw in his
spirit. And through his greed he could be controlled. That is what attracted
the serpent to him.”

“What were its plans with the governor?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I don’t think it worked out well.
The spirit gave him everything that he wanted and then he showed that he was
ungrateful. He probably ignored the directions that the spirit gave him. So the
mountain turned on him. It fired up his greed so much that it became his enemy.
It got out of hand and destroyed his reputation.”

“I suppose the Lords of Seventeen regretted their decision to
make him governor.”

“Yes, they called him back to Holland. He had to leave all
his things. Other people took everything that he had. His large farm was split
into many. He was finished.”

They passed close to an outlying orchard full of velvety
orange fruit. A heavenly smell lay on the warm breeze. Hadah found that his
feet led to the orchard all by themselves.

“No! Where are you going?” asked the master. “Think before
you do something.”

 “My apologies” said Hadah. “It just smells so nice and
there is nobody around.”

“Not today maybe. But tomorrow somebody sees you and one of
our people gets flogged in retribution.”

“Did the governor plant these trees as well?”

“He planted many kinds of trees. Some grew well and give
lots of fruit like these and some failed. That was the other thing that he
brought in those big ships and that came here on the wagons. Nobody had seen
these trees before.”

They followed the footpaths that were made by the many
grazing animals all along the foothills of the Great Mountains, taking care to
stay well away from the cultivated floor of the valley.