WORLD'S OLDEST MAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 102, 2 May 1925, Page 14

WORLD'S OLDEST MAN.

ALLEGED 140 YEARS OLD. AFRICAN NATIVES. CACPETOWX, March 20. Tn a kraal near Lvndenburg a veterinary surgeon recently found a native who is reported to be 140 years old. Stories of native longevity in South Africa are usually regarded with suspicion; but this untutored native d»s-c-ribe = historical personalities and eventn with j convincing vividness. The veterinary j burgeon found the old man, almost blind, crawling about the kraal on his hands and knees. "How oM are you?" aplxed the Bur-I geon. : "We natives do not count our ages by j the years at you white people do," re- j plied the native. ''When did tbe first white man come | to this village, then?" queried the vet- j erinary surgeon. "The first was Loui- Trichardt—l re- i member him well. He was returning]' from Zoutpansberg, and passed through i here on his wav to the lands of the Por- | tugucse near the big water." : Louis Trichardt was the first of the j; Voortrekkers (Dutch farmers who were r dissatisfied with British rule) to leave ' ; the Cape Colony. He must have reached !; the old man's village about the year 1830. | ' "When I was a youngster." croaked ! ] the old native. "I worked in the Oraaff : Reinet district, and I can remember the .' time when the English and Dutch made j' war on one another." This would have]' been the war preceding the second i' British occupation of the C'app in IRO6. ' The old man has already survived two j < wives, and is hoping to outlive the i ' third, whosr companion-hip he is at : present enjoying. His age is probably ] greater than' that of Old"" Jan. "the last ] pure-bred Bushman, who died recently 1 at the reputed age of 130. Old Jan was ; to have been taken to AVembley, but hiE i health failed. i 1