Jacob Carel Kruger, ii

Notas deur David Abraham Swanepoel

Uittreksel uit bron [1] onder genoem.

“Thirty miles north of Carnarvon on the Prieska road you pass through the farm Carel Krieger's Graf. The name recalls one of the greatest dramas of the North West Cape, in the days when outlaws fled beyond the borders of the colony leaving only legends of their adventures.

Carel Krieger (really Kruger) was an antecedent of President Paul Kruger. He and his brother Jacob were born and brought up in the Roggeveld; and in 1776 Carel was appointed Veldwagmeester of the Klein Roggeveld. He carried out road repairs and organized the defence against Bushmen raiders.

It was said that the Kruger's possessed such mechanical skill that they could make anything. Carel, unfortunately, chose to carve two wooden dies for stamping rixdollar notes closely resembling those issued by the Dutch East India Company. Jacob carried some of these forgeries to Cape Town and bought guns and knives, ploughs and sail-cloth and buckskin trousers. He was arrested, but escaped.

Orders were sent to the Veld Corporals of the Roggeveld for the arrest of the brothers, but these officials failed to act. They explained that Carel Kruger was a man of hasty temper, well supplied with arms, who might endanger their lives; and added that they were not obliged to arrest a fellow burgher. Meanwhile the Kruger brothers disappeared into the unknown north, Carel taking his wife and family with him. They were tried in their absence, the prosecutor claiming sentence of "death by the cord" for Carel; while Jacob, as an accessory, was to be beaten and branded on the gallows and then imprisoned for fifteen years.

Carel Kruger found a safe base in a distant, inaccessible kloof which he called Kruger's Kraal. The brothers lived as hunters along the Orange River, gaining the confidence of the natives and roaming where no white men had ever set foot before. They made their own gunpowder, worked copper ore and cast copper bullets in stone moulds. Whenever they shot any animal they cut out the bullets for use over and over again.

It was in 1791 that Carel Kruger wounded an elephant near the Kareeberg range, on the farm which now bears his name. He was trampled to death. No doubt his brother was with him; and it is probable that two other outlaws, Jan Meyer and Anthony Botes, were in the neighbourhood. Meyer, a Roggeveld farmer, had been serving a sentence on Robben Island, but he had made a crude boat, reached the mainland, and struck inland to join the Kruger's in the wilderness.

Carel Kruger's estate, according to a document in the Stellenbosch archives, consisted. of only a few hundred rixdollars in cash, but he and his wife owned a female slave, nearly seven hundred sheep, a wagon, oxen, five horses and three guns.”

Alhoewel geen dokument opgelaai is nie, verskaf die inskrywing ‘n spesifieke sterfdatum en die jaar 1791 wat Green gee is dus waarskynlik verkeerd.

Sy plaas het werklik na sy dood die naam “Carel Kriegers Graf” gekry en volgens bron [2] is die graf vandag onder ‘n groot dam.

Bronne:

1. Lawrence G. Green. 1955. Karoo. HB Timmins. Available online: https://archive.org/stream/Karoo/Karoo_djvu.txt Accessed on 2018-05-07.

2. Argief-Jaarboek vir Suid-Afrikaanse Geskiedenis = Archives year book for South African History Perskor, Doornfontein, 1947. p217.

Kopieregstatus van bron 1 onbekend. Die outeur is in 1972 oorlede, maar moontlik het die oplaaier toestemming gehad om dit te doen.

Kwytskelding: geen verantwoordelikheid word aanvaar vir enige foutiewe of onakkurate inligting nie, hetsy aangehaal, herverpak of self geskryf.

c5b 2 c 5 Carel * 21.5.1750 ≈ Kaapstad 8.11.1750, verhuis c. 1752 saam met sy ouers na die Klein-Roggeveld waar hy opgroei en veeboer word. Word deur die regering aangestel as veldwagmeester wat oa behels dat hy die gebied sou beskerm teen Boesmanstrooptogte, en dat hy sou waak teen veldbrande. Tree c. 1777 op as opsigter oor konstruksie v.d. pad oor die Komsberg. Agv vervalsing van riksdalernote word hy gedwing om te vlug nadat dit ontdek word. Hy word in sy afwesigheid tot die dood veroordeel op 23.10.1783. Woon volgende 10 jaar, as v.d. eerste blankes, in die gebied langs en noord v.d. Grootrivier en word ‘n bekwame jagter en voortreflike skut, terwyl hy ook bevriend raak met die Hottentot- en Tswanavolke. Raak ‘n belangrike pionier v.d. Kaapse noordweste asook gebied noord van Gariep † Kareeberge, GrootKaroo (tans dist Carnarvon) 10.11.1793, nadat deur gekweste olifant aangeval # Kareeberge, Groot Karoo x Tulbagh 17.12.1780 Geertruyda Margaretha (Magdalena) COETZEE * 21.8.1763 d.v. Ockert Casper Coetzee en Elsie van Wyk