Henry Bergmann (c1830-1866) was the earliest of my blood relatives to reach what is now South Africa, and one of the first Jews to settle there. He arrived in Cape Town in 1849, having set out from his birthplace in revolution-torn Bavaria several months earlier. Despite becoming very successful as a merchant in the frontier town of Aliwal North and his happy marriage to Jenny, the daughter of a Frankfurt banker, his life ended in tragedy. Fact and fiction are woven together in my historical adventure ALIWAL: the story of the life of a pioneer in Africa.