Chapter V, The Trekboers Summary

Hendrik van Doorn relinquishes all claim to Trianon and becomes a trekboer. He moves eastward, grazing cattle and sheep with two families of Hottentots, unattached by marriage or by house to the land. He meets a sixteen year old daughter of another trekboer family, and when they return on their way back to the Cape, she stays to become his wife. Their sons and daughters are raised with love, but the bible fades and as Hendrik is the only family member who is literate, his language skills slide. Son Adriaan takes a slave friend Dikkop into the outback as a youth, much like his father had, and meet two young men from South Africa. They are the first to meet members of the Xhosa tribe, Sotopo and Mandiso. The Xhosa's are spreading slowly towards the Cape just...