Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
We find little reference to major political events in Slocum's ac-
count of his travels. Like most adventurers, he considered himself
an individualist above, or at least outside, the realm of international
statesmanship. But now he was walking into the world's number one
trouble spot. President Kruger was feverishly rearming the Boer re-
publics and open war between them and England was only months
away. Slocum spent four months in South Africa, where being by
now a major celebrity, he met several leading personalities, includ-
ing Kruger, Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner, and the
explorer H. M. Stanley, who was back in Africa to work on his latest
book
(Through South Africa).
In both Natal and Cape Town Slocum found a tense atmosphere
and one constantly exacerbated by the press of both sides. Despite
himself, he was caught up in this political tennis match. On the occa-
sion of his meeting with Paul Kruger, Slocum was introduced as the
captain who was sailing round the world. Like most Boers, the pres-
ident was a biblical fundamentalist who stubbornly held to the view
that the earth was flat. 'You don't mean
round
the world,' he snapped,
'It is impossible. You mean
in
the world.' And he walked away mut-
tering 'Impossible! Impossible!' A local journal, the Cape Town
Owl
picked up the story and made it the subject of a wicked political car-
toon.
This was not the first brush Slocum had had with the
'flatearthers' in the Cape. He had already crossed swords with fanat-
ics who had taunted him publicly and told him that whatever else he
had been doing for the last thirty-two months he had
not
been sail-
ing round the world. Slocum did not allow this to colour his impres-
sion of the Afrikaner race as a whole:
While I feebly portray the ignorance of these learned men, I have
great admiration for their physical manhood. Much that I saw first
and last of the Transvaal and the Boers was admirable. It is well
