3 1822 00108 1256 
 
 E HISTORY 
 
 REAT BOER TREK
 
 3 182200168 
 
 7 IQ
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE 
 GREAT BOER TREK
 
 FIRST EDITION, CAPE TOWN, 1856. 
 
 SECOND EDITION (5,000), LONDON, November ; 1899. 
 
 THIRD EDITION (2,000) December, 1899. 
 
 Reprinted (1,000) ,, January, 1900. 
 
 Reprinted (1,000) February, 1900. 
 
 Reprinted (1,500) ,. March, 1900.
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 GREAT BOER TREK 
 
 AND THE ORIGIN OF THE 
 SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLICS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 HON. HENRY CLOETE, LL.D. 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR NATAL, 1843-44 
 
 EDITED BY HIS GRANDSON 
 
 W. BRODRICK-CLOETE, M.A. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 1900
 
 PREFACE 
 
 AT a time like the present I conceive that 
 no apology can be required or expected 
 from anyone who endeavours to enlighten the 
 ignorance or to remove the misapprehensions 
 concerning South African history and affairs 
 which undeniably exist among great numbers 
 of our countrymen. It is with that object 
 that I now republish in a popular form a book 
 hitherto not easily procurable, which gives a 
 succinct but adequate and impartial account of 
 the course of events in South Africa from the 
 conquest of Cape Colony to the formation of 
 Natal into a British colony in 1843. The 
 book consists of five lectures delivered to the 
 Literary Society of Pietermaritzburg in 1852-5 
 by my grandfather, the Hon. Henry Cloete, 
 whose high character and attainments com- 
 manded the confidence alike of the Boer 
 farmers, the British settlers, and Her Majesty's 
 Government ; who was chosen as Her Majesty's
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 Commissioner to negotiate the final settlement 
 of Natal ; who as regards many other im- 
 portant events could well say "quorum magna 
 pars fui" and who delivered these lectures, 
 within ten years of the date of the Natal 
 settlement, in presence of a mixed British and 
 Boer audience in whose minds the occurrences 
 dealt with were a fresh and vivid memory. 
 
 Just because the book is a condensed and 
 dispassionate statement of facts from which 
 inference and comment have been excluded 
 with singular care, it requires to be read with 
 intelligent attention. But if read with atten- 
 tion and some moderate exercise of political 
 imagination, it will enable the candid student 
 to understand the clash of conflicting interests 
 and incompatible ideals which has created the 
 South African question as we know it to-day. 
 He will see in the conduct of the Colonial 
 Office much to deplore, but not so much 
 that can be fairly charged to official blunder- 
 ing if due regard be had to the conflicting 
 impulses and ideals of the English people. 
 He will find in the conditions prevailing in 
 Cape Colony, when we took it over from the 
 Dutch, elements of disorder and difficulty
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 with which only the highest sagacity, aided 
 by good fortune, could have coped with entire 
 success. While driven to confess that neither 
 of these agencies was always present, he will 
 nevertheless admit that the complete tran- 
 quillisation of Cape Colony and of Natal 
 under British rule is a not inconsiderable 
 achievement, and his forecast of the future, 
 based upon the story of the past, will not be 
 that of a pessimist. 
 
 When this country took over the Cape 
 Colony, the farmers in the rural districts had 
 been demoralised by the habit of receiving 
 grants of blocks of from ten to thirty square 
 miles for single farms. Civilisation and even 
 government loses its hold upon a population 
 so scattered. The farmers had ceased to 
 cultivate according to civilised methods, and 
 had relapsed into a purely pastoral and even 
 nomadic life. The territory had become too 
 small for this wasteful colonisation, and the 
 Boers habitually encroached, both temporarily 
 and permanently, upon the lands of the sur- 
 rounding native tribes. These tribes not un- 
 naturally made reprisals, especially as the treat- 
 ment accorded to them was uniformly severe.
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 This is the kernel of the South African 
 question. The Boer farmers tenaciously 
 clung to their supposed rights to take as 
 much land as they pleased, shooting as many 
 of its owners as they saw fit, in districts 
 which were not under the control of the 
 British Government. They expected that 
 Government, whose treaties they broke and 
 whose orders they disobeyed, to intervene on 
 their behalf whenever their proceedings pro- 
 voked a Kafir rising ; and the Colonial Office 
 alternately defended them for the sake of the 
 colony they endangered, and recoiled from 
 the limitless responsibilities thus entailed. The 
 right policy, of course, was to set up a chain 
 of military posts upon the frontier and to do 
 even-handed justice, keeping the Kafirs out 
 and the Boers in, until the population of the 
 colony became sufficiently dense to justify 
 orderly annexation of new districts. But this 
 policy actually adopted by one far-seeing 
 Governor was reversed by his successor, and 
 the old bad system of marauding on one side 
 and reprisals on the other went on until it 
 provoked the great Kafir rising of 1834. 
 
 That rising was put down by the British
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 Government, but the effort exhausted its 
 patience. When the Boers claimed compen- 
 sation for their losses at the expense of the 
 British taxpayer, they were told, with perhaps 
 unnecessary sharpness, that they had brought 
 the calamity on themselves and must bear the 
 penalty. They then determined that since the 
 British Government would not adequately pro- 
 tect their individual encroachments they would 
 make a combined effort and would cross the 
 frontier wholesale to form a new settlement 
 for themselves, where their peculiar institutions 
 might flourish unchecked. They migrated in 
 large bodies into the territory that is now 
 Natal. 
 
 There was another great cause of discon- 
 tent. The Boers of Cape Colony had reduced 
 the Hottentot population to the condition of 
 slaves, and with the Hottentot women had pro- 
 duced a race of half-castes known as Griquas. 
 It is true the slavery was of the domestic or 
 predial type found in many parts of the world, 
 but the British public, in the heat of the abolition 
 movement, took no notice of such a distinction, 
 as a great part of it refuses to do to this day. 
 Slavery was abolished, rudely, hastily, and
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 without regard to the complete dislocation of 
 the social machinery which abolition brought 
 about ; while, to crown all, the promised com- 
 pensation part of the famous twenty millions 
 turned out ludicrously disproportionate to 
 the hopes that had been raised. It is not 
 the only instance in which the British public 
 have gratified their emotions at the expense 
 of other people. 
 
 Up to a certain point the early history of 
 Natal offers a curious parallel to the more 
 recent history of the Transvaal. In the two 
 concluding lectures the reader will see how 
 the emigrating Boers came into contact at 
 once with the Zulus and with a British com- 
 munity settled at Port Natal ; how they sought 
 to profit by British assistance and yet to reject 
 all British control ; how they claimed to be 
 an independent State making treaties on equal 
 terms with this country, which however was 
 to have the unprofitable privilege of defending 
 them ; how they expected help from Holland, 
 and were ready to give that country a Pro- 
 tectorate ; how they cut to pieces a small 
 British force ; and how they found eventually 
 that there was more British force to reckon
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 with, and that Great Britain would never con- 
 sent to relinquish sovereignty or to permit 
 foreign intrusion. So far the parallel is com- 
 plete, though the scale is different. In Natal 
 it was found that war, instead of accentuating 
 race hatred, laid the foundation of enduring 
 peace. Natal is now a prosperous and loyal 
 British colony, and but for a change of govern- 
 ors and policy, the Orange Free State would 
 to-day have been in the same position. There 
 were irreconcilables of course, and they 
 trekked into the Transvaal, where we have 
 missed splendid opportunities of repeating our 
 Natal success. Let us hope that a united 
 nation, faced by what has grown to be an 
 Imperial danger, will not again take its hand 
 from the plough until the furrow is cut clean 
 and true. 
 
 Under the wise and benign rule of our 
 gracious Queen, we have witnessed immense 
 progress in colonial loyalty as well as in con- 
 ceptions of Imperial duty. Cape Colony, the 
 essential loyalty of which has been far too 
 lightly called in question by superficial ob- 
 servers, forms, together with Natal, a standing 
 proof that men of Dutch descent as well as
 
 xiv PREFACE 
 
 others can find under the British flag all the 
 conditions of prosperity and contentment. 
 Once rid of a corrupt and arrogant oligarchy, 
 largely of extraneous origin, and of its fantastic 
 dreams of an African dominion, there is no 
 reason to doubt that the mixed races of the 
 Transvaal will range themselves peaceably side 
 by side with their brethren of the Cape and 
 
 of Natal. 
 
 WILLIAM BRODRICK-CLOETE. 
 
 LONDON, October 2gth, 1899. 
 
 I
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION 
 
 SINCE the first edition of this reprint appeared 
 I have received many requests for some 
 personal information concerning its author and the 
 men mentioned in the book as more immediately 
 connected with him in the great work of pacifying 
 Natal, and persuading the burghers loyally to accept 
 the supremacy of Great Britain. Solely in deference 
 to these representations I append the following 
 observations, which after this warning no one need 
 read unless so disposed. 
 
 The family is of German extraction, and their 
 ancestry of knightly Saxon origin. They flourished 
 in the sixteenth century in the Principality of 
 Nassau. The name was Cloeten Cloeten as shown 
 by their coat of arms, " Sachsische Ritter " Sib- 
 machers Wappenbuch von Jahre 1692, vol. i. p. 171 
 Wiesbaden. 
 
 Jacob Cloeten having become politically obnoxious 
 to the authorities, fled to Holland, and to escape 
 the consequences of his ambitious and rebellious 
 temperament sailed with Jan van Riebeck the first
 
 xvi THE CLOETE FAMILY 
 
 Governor of the Cape and landed at the Cape of 
 Good Hope on the 6th April, 1652. His name heads 
 the list as one of the first seventeen free burghers ; 
 and as he was a man of family and education, he 
 naturally took a leading part in the early settlement 
 of the Colony; and frequent mention of his name 
 is found in the early records. In the return made 
 on the /th May, 1660, Jacob Cloeten appears first 
 on the list of landowners. The original record in 
 the Surveyor-General's office testifies he was the 
 first landed proprietor in the Colony. 
 
 His eldest son, Gerhard, born in 1655, married 
 Catalyn Harmans of Middlebourg, and is mentioned 
 in the records as having gone on an expedition to the 
 Berg River to kill hippopotami in November, 1672, 
 and also in 1686. From a Resolution passed in 
 Council, dated 2nd November, 1686, he is awarded 
 captured cattle as "well won booty." He played 
 a prominent part in the constant struggles with the 
 natives, which fill the early records of the Colony. 
 
 Gerhard's son, Jacob, born in 1675, a man of dis- 
 tinction and wealth, married Sibella Passman, and 
 their son, Henry, born in 1726, was a man of great 
 ability and power, who became the largest landed 
 proprietor, and by far the most influential man in the 
 Colony. He married Hester Anne, daughter of the 
 Landrost Laurence. He was the first of the family 
 that wrote the name Cloete, having discarded the 
 final letter "n." He died in 1799, leaving the ex- 
 tensive properties of Constantia which was entailed
 
 JOSIAS CLOETE xvii 
 
 by special act of Council Noitgedacht, Zandvleit, 
 Rustemberg, etc. ; also the great cattle farms at The 
 Hope in the Swellendam district, and seven other 
 properties in Graaf Reinet district. 
 
 His son, Pieter Laurence, born in 1766, married 
 Catherine Maria van Rienen, daughter of the 
 Senator Jacob van Rienen, whose only son became 
 a General Officer in the Dutch East India Service, 
 and whose remaining daughters married respectively 
 General Hawkshaw and Admiral Donald Campbell. 
 When the Colony was finally taken over by this 
 country, the Hon. Pieter Laurence Cloete was the 
 Treasurer-General of the Colony and the first and 
 senior member of the Legislative Council at the 
 Cape, and his far-reaching influence and sterling 
 qualities went a long way to smoothing over the 
 difficulties attending the change of allegiance. 
 
 In April, 1803, his two eldest sons Henry, born 
 in 1790, and Josias in 1794 were sent to Holland 
 to be educated. When the ship which carried them 
 reached the Channel war had again broken out, and 
 it required all the ingenuity of the captain, Stewart, 
 to escape capture by hostile cruisers. He succeeded 
 in this by hoisting the Prussian flag and shaping his 
 course for Emden, instead of entering a Dutch port. 
 From the Dollart, where the boys were landed, they 
 were forwarded to their guardian at Utrecht, where 
 they were at school during 1804 and 1805 ; and in 
 1806 they were sent to Naarden to the clerical estab- 
 lishment of the Rev. Ulrick Anosi, an eminent divine
 
 xviii THE CLOETE FAMILY 
 
 of the French Protestant Church, and here, under 
 the tuition of this highly gifted pastor, aided by an 
 able officer of engineers, Captain Geyler, they re- 
 ceived the foundation of the education that proved 
 of such value in after years. 
 
 In 1809 orders were sent for the youths to go to 
 England to the Military College at Marlow, prepara- 
 tory to receiving commissions in the British Army, 
 which had been promised. The eldest son, Henry, 
 having shown exceptional academical talents, it was 
 considered wiser to complete his education at the 
 Leyden University, and he was sent there ; while 
 his younger brother, Josias, whom we will follow for 
 the present, was with great difficulty transported to 
 England, in spite of the heavy penalties attached to 
 any attempt at breaking through Napoleon's " non- 
 intercourse decrees." A large sum of money was 
 paid to the agents who succeeded in smuggling him 
 on to a fishing smack lying in the Maas. Thence 
 he was forwarded to England, where the Duke of 
 Cumberland gave him a commission in his own 
 regiment, the I5th Hussars. He became A.D.C. to 
 Lord Charles Somerset, who commanded at the Cape, 
 and was placed in command of the expedition which 
 took possession of Tristan D'Acunha. In 1817 and 
 1819 he commanded a field force in the Mahratta 
 War, and was employed on the staff for forty-six 
 years, serving in every possible capacity, from an 
 A.D.C. to the important office of Quartermaster- 
 General and Chief of the Staff. During three years
 
 HENRY CLOETE xix 
 
 of active operations in the field he performed the 
 combined duties of Adjutant-General and Quarter- 
 master-General. In 1820 he carried out an exten- 
 sive measure of emigration along the frontier of the 
 Colony, and settled a serious question of Kaffir policy 
 with the envoys of the Zulu chief, Chaka. In 1842 
 he was specially selected to command an expedition 
 sent to Natal, where the emigrant Boers under 
 Pretorius, after defeating our troops, held Captain 
 Smith's detachment besieged, as narrated in this 
 volume. Colonel Cloete's success in this expedition, 
 which paved the way for the final settlement of 
 Natal, led him to be recommended for the C.B., 
 which was subsequently given him by the Duke of 
 Wellington in person. He had already received the 
 Hanoverian Guelphic Order from the hands of King 
 William IV., who was a personal friend of his ; and 
 in 1850 he was made a K.C.B. by Her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria. 
 
 Henry Cloete, after completing the University 
 course at Leyden, where he obtained the highest 
 honours, was captured by Napoleon on his way to 
 England, but refused to give parole, and escaped by 
 means of a heavy payment to the owner of a French 
 fishing smack to sail with him at night. He had a 
 perilous escape, as his flight having been discovered, 
 the boat was thoroughly searched as she was starting. 
 He had been carefully covered up with turf and peat, 
 and despite the fact that the soldiers thrust their 
 bayonets into the peat he escaped untouched. The
 
 xx THE CLOETE FAMILY 
 
 next morning, when they were well out in the Channel, 
 an English man-of-war bore down on them, and they 
 were captured. On being taken on board of the 
 man-of-war Henry Cloete found, to his delight, that 
 his uncle (by marriage), Donald Campbell, com- 
 manded her. Being safely landed in England he 
 joined Lincoln's Inn, and after the usual course of 
 study, in which he showed exceptional ability, he was 
 called to the Bar. 
 
 In 1813 he sailed for the Cape in the ill-fated 
 ship Java, which was captured after a stubborn 
 fight by the United States ship Constitution, and 
 then blown up. ( Vide JAMES* Naval History?) On 
 the Constitution he was treated with the greatest 
 kindness and consideration by the American captain 
 and officers, and was taken to Rio Janeiro, where 
 he was landed. From Rio he succeeded in sailing 
 to the Cape, where he landed without further 
 mishap. 
 
 In 1816 he married Christian Helen Graham, the 
 daughter of Robert Graham, Esq., of Fintry (the 
 staunch friend and protector of Robert Burns), and 
 the lineal descendant of Sir William Graham, Lord 
 of Kincardine, and of Marjorie, daughter of King 
 Robert III. of Scotland. 
 
 Henry Cloete became a distinguished barrister, 
 and his career at the Bar was one of pre-eminent 
 success. He was the leading member of the Legis- 
 lative Council, and, as stated in the following pages, 
 was appointed Her Majesty's Commissioner in 1843
 
 HENRY CLOETE xxi 
 
 for the settlement of affairs in Natal. After his 
 work as Commissioner was completed, he was 
 appointed recorder and sole judge for the newly- 
 acquired Colony, and, after ten years' service, was 
 appointed a puisne judge of the Supreme Court 
 of the Cape, from which he retired at the advanced 
 age of seventy-two, amid universal expressions of 
 regret, both from the Bar and the public. As a 
 judge, he commanded the highest respect, and some 
 of his decisions may be found quoted in English 
 text-books. As a man he inspired unbounded con- 
 fidence, and exercised enormous influence alike over 
 Dutch and English. He was master of a singularly 
 persuasive style of oratory, to the force and charm of 
 which the Boer leaders themselves have borne em- 
 phatic testimony. By sheer strength of character and 
 intellectual ability, he became one of the most influen- 
 tial personalities in South Africa, and but for the want 
 of foresight of the Colonial Office, would unques- 
 tionably have settled the Orange Free State in the 
 same manner as he settled Natal. He was a ripe 
 scholar, and the classic authors remained the com- 
 panions of his leisure through life, while he was 
 no mean proficient in music and in painting. His 
 abilities were always loyally placed at the disposal 
 of the British Government, though its inconsistent 
 and vacillating policy must often have caused him 
 acute distress. One subject of profound disagreement 
 was the refusal of the Government to comply with 
 his repeated advice to take Delagoa Bay, the value
 
 xxii THE CLOETE FAMILY 
 
 of which as the key to a large area of the interior he 
 vainly endeavoured to get them to recognise. His 
 eldest son, Laurence Graham Cloete, was my father. 
 
 The only other actor in the scenes described in 
 the book whom I need mention is my grand-uncle, 
 Colonel John Graham, who, by the death of his 
 brother, an officer in the British Service, killed in 
 India, became thirteenth of Fintry. He served for 
 many years during the Peninsular War in the QOth 
 and 93rd Regiments under Sir Thomas Graham 
 Lord Lynedoch and was afterwards employed in 
 the Kaffir wars at the Cape, where he gained great 
 distinction. Grahamstown, the capital of the eastern 
 province, was named in his honour. His career was 
 unfortunately a brief one, since he died at the early 
 age of forty-two of exposure and fatigue, endured 
 in the conscientious discharge of a soldier's duty. I 
 may, perhaps, be permitted in conclusion to remark 
 that the devotion of the family to the British Crown 
 in the past has been one of the strongest influences 
 in warding off the aggressions of the Kaffir and 
 native tribes, as well as quelling the dissatisfaction 
 and ambitions of the Boer element. 
 
 W. BRODRICK-CLOETE. 
 
 November ytih, 1899.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I, 
 
 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION. 
 
 FAGS 
 
 An irreparable loss Boundaries of Cape Colony A wandering 
 race The first Kafir war A serious grievance Over-zealous 
 missionaries Unfounded charges A lawless district The 
 penalty of obstinacy Beginning of the rebellion Failure of 
 negotiations End of the rebellion Execution of the leaders 
 An indelible impression Colonial government . . . I 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES. 
 
 Hatred against missionaries Missionaries and the natives The 
 Hottentot difficulty Bushmen as shepherds Evil influence^ 
 of missionaries Slavery in Cape Colony Unpopular restric- 
 tions Protest of slave-owners Proposals for gradual aboli- 
 tion Appraisement of slaves Grievances of slave-owners 
 Results of abolition Encroachment by Kafirs A temporary 
 check Defeat of the Kafirs An unsatisfactory treaty A 
 reversal of policy Zulu invasion of Kafirland A state of 
 unrest A Dutch exploring party . . 33 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 SEEKING A NEW HOME. 
 
 A peaceful policy The Kafirs invade Cape Colony Governor 
 D'Urban's plan An astounding declaration Insult and in- 
 jury The beginning of the trek Attacked by the Matabelee 
 Pieter Relief Acquisition of territory Treachery of Din- 
 gaan Attacked by Zoolahs A fearful catastrophe Attemp- 
 ted retaliation The Boers in distress Pieter Relief avenged 
 Disarmament of the Boers An unlooked-for event 
 Alliance with Panda Declaration of sovereignty A sym- 
 pathetic address The goal attained . . 75
 
 xxiv CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE BOERS IN NATAL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Historical misrepresentation Boer proclamation of supremacy 
 Their strong republican feeling Preparing a state of anarchy 
 Petition to the Governor Terms of proposed alliance 
 Unjustifiable attack on natives Attempted vindication 
 Claim for independence Protest against British supremacy 
 Boer credulity Appeal to Holland Arrival of military 
 force in Natal Night attack on the Boers The Boers pre- 
 pared Preparing for defence The British troops besieged 
 The last acts of the drama . . . . 123 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN. 
 
 Succour for the besieged Murder by Kafir auxiliaries Resolu- 
 tions of the Volksraad An important declaration A satis- 
 factory settlement Appointment of a Commissioner His 
 meeting with the Boers Activity of the war party Com- 
 missioner and Volksraad The Volksraad divided Wise 
 counsels prevail Withdrawals from the Volksraad Lord 
 Stanley's despatch The terms accepted Accepting the 
 inevitable A new Governor The blessings of peace . 160
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE 
 
 GREAT BOER TREK 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION 
 
 THE voluntary expatriation of the Dutch farmers 
 of the Cape Colony, and their wanderings 
 throughout the wilds of South-Eastern Africa, which 
 ultimately led to their occupation of this district 
 of Natal, are so singular in their character, and are 
 likely to bear such important results upon the ex- 
 ploration and further knowledge of this vast con- 
 tinent, that it has appeared to me not uninteresting 
 to note down, and thus to commemorate, the principal 
 causes which led to this migration ; more particularly 
 as, from the party-spirit which always prevails at the 
 very time of such political movements, the most 
 distorted, one-sided, and false views are generally 
 taken of the motives and objects of the principal 
 actors engaged therein ; and it is only after the lapse 
 of years, when time has somewhat soothed down the
 
 2 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 passions, and calm reason has resumed its sway, that 
 it becomes possible to obtain and impart a perfectly 
 dispassionate insight into such events. 
 
 I should also add, that I would at once refrain 
 from entering upon this subject if anything like 
 political discussion can be apprehended from such an 
 inquiry ; but as the chief actors whose names are 
 mixed up in these occurrences are long since departed 
 to that "bourn from whence no traveller returns," 
 and as the grave questions which mainly produced 
 that migration have also for ever ceased, I hope that 
 I may now venture to touch upon them "as mere 
 matters of history": happy, if a retrospect of those 
 events may tend to enlighten rulers in general in the 
 greatest of all human sciences, that of governing a 
 people for their real welfare; and more happy still, 
 if my remarks upon them may produce a kindly 
 spirit of good-will between our old colonists and our 
 recently settled immigrants ; inform the latter of the 
 hardships and vicissitudes which the former had to 
 suffer to obtain possession of this favoured land, 
 and thus induce them to look, at least without envy 
 or jealousy, upon the advantages which (as regards 
 the possession of lands) the former have purchased 
 by the blood of their parents and relatives. 
 
 No one will deny that any causes which would 
 have led to the expatriation (not of single individuals 
 merely, but) of entire clans at the head of which 
 such names appear as those of Retief, Uys, and 
 Maritz ; of Potgieter, Landman, and Duplessis ; and
 
 I.] AN IRREPARABLE LOSS 3 
 
 of Zietsman, Boshoff, and Otto must ever be viewed 
 as producing a serious national calamity upon any 
 country: that the departure of such men, taking with 
 them their entire families and properties, has tended 
 very seriously to affect and impair the strength of 
 the eastern province of the Cape Colony, in the 
 contests with the Kafir races ; and that, although 
 in the course of years some such families may be 
 replaced, yet the words of the sweet, descriptive 
 poet will in this case be found fully verified, viz., 
 that 
 
 " Princes and lords may flourish and may fade, 
 A breath may make them, as a breath has made ; 
 But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, 
 When once destroyed can never be supplied." 
 
 Having always felt a deep interest in the affairs 
 of that colony, having been personally known to 
 many of those earliest immigrants, among whom 
 I counted some of my oldest and best friends, 
 and having, moreover, personally witnessed several 
 of those events which led to this expatriation, I 
 may be permitted, I trust, to enter into some of 
 those details which were so well known to me 
 without subjecting myself to the charge of making 
 them now a subject of political controversy, my 
 sole object being to recall to memory some of 
 those events which at the time were fraught with 
 great public interest, and for which I think the 
 time is fully come to rescue them from oblivion, 
 as I feel confident that the mere recital of them
 
 4 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 will now tend only to foster between us all a 
 more friendly spirit, by producing a more correct 
 acquaintance with each other's public history. 
 
 The first cause of the Cape colonists passing 
 beyond the boundaries of that colony, and entering 
 as pioneers into the wilds of the South African 
 continent, is no doubt traceable to the inherent 
 roving disposition of man in general ; but more 
 particularly of those descendants of Saxon origin, 
 to whom, a thousand years ago, the wide range of the 
 European continent was found insufficient to gratify 
 their wandering propensities. 
 
 The Dutch Governor, Van Plettenberg, had 
 formally defined the boundaries of the Cape Colony, 
 in the year 1778, by the Great Fish River to the 
 eastward, and by an ideal line* running through 
 (what are now called) the districts of Somerset, 
 Graaff-Reinet, Beaufort, and Clanwilliam, up to a 
 little rivulet, " the Koussie," flowing into the Southern 
 Atlantic, to the north-west ; but for nearly forty 
 years these boundaries were far better respected by 
 the colonists meeting at the eastern frontier the 
 warlike and independent race of the Amakoze"e, 
 who, far from allowing any inroads upon their own 
 territories, commenced a system of aggression upon 
 our colonists, which extended over the greatest part 
 
 * By a proclamation of Sir Harry Smith, dated I7th December, 
 1847, and confirmed by Her Majesty, the northern boundaries of the 
 Cape Colony have been brought up to the banks of the Great Orange 
 River.
 
 I.] BOUNDARIES OF CAPE COLONY 5 
 
 of the Graaff-Reinet and Uitenhage districts, from 
 which they were not finally expelled until the 
 year 1812. This system of aggression they have 
 never abandoned, but on the contrary have per- 
 severingly carried on for nearly seventy years, each 
 succeeding war having only formed them into a 
 more dangerous, experienced, and vindictive foe. 
 Along this extensive northern line the colonists 
 also found little temptation to transgress those 
 boundaries, from the arid deserts skirting the 
 southern banks of the Great Orange River, where 
 a few isolated Bushmen, the very outcasts of the 
 human race, seemed to verify the fabulous accounts 
 of the " Troglodytes " of Africa, living, as they were, 
 in holes and caves, hardly able to procure a scanty 
 subsistence from the wild animals of the desert and 
 from a few bulbous roots of the earth. These com- 
 bined causes kept our Cape colonists for many years 
 within the prescribed boundaries ; but at the be- 
 ginning of the present century small parties of a 
 half-caste breed of European and Hottentot origin, 
 mixing with the Mantatees, gradually occupied the 
 lands beyond the Orange River, at the north-east 
 boundary of the Cape Colony, and from them the 
 race of what were called the Griquas was formed, 
 with whom the colonists opened a regular inter- 
 course, as they soon found that in seasons of 
 excessive drought within the colony (where their 
 herds and flocks were dying for want of pasture) 
 the lands to the northward of the Orange River
 
 6 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 were generally favoured with more frequent and 
 regular thunderstorms, thus ensuring a better supply 
 of grass during the summer months than the colony 
 afforded. From that moment all the grazing farmers 
 in that neighbourhood began to form establishments 
 in the country between the Orange and Vaal Rivers 
 (the Kye and the Knu Gariep), and took possession 
 of such tracts as they found unoccupied, or otherwise 
 entered into regular leases with the prior occupants 
 of those lands ; but they still continued to consider 
 their domicile to be within the colony, to which 
 they returned whenever the seasons of drought 
 had passed away, or whenever called upon to pay 
 their "opgaaf," or annual assessed taxes, and did 
 not for a moment consider themselves as absolved 
 from the duties and ties which bound them to the 
 old colony. 
 
 This wandering habit, thus kept up and promoted 
 by the vicissitudes and the periodical seasons of 
 drought, was still further confirmed by the very 
 tenure and extent of the lands granted to them 
 within the colony. 
 
 The loan farms (subsequently converted into quit- 
 rent lands) granted in areas never less than 6000 
 acres, but in those districts frequently to 15,000 and 
 20,000 acres while somewhat justified by the aridity 
 of the soil and the want of permanent springs yet 
 confirmed the colonists more and more in their 
 purely pastoral or nomad habits, which gradually 
 weaned them from all desire to cultivate their lands ;
 
 I.] A WANDERING RACE 7 
 
 and, consequently, deadened that affection and attach- 
 ment to a particular locality which is the natural 
 result of agriculture and the improvement of the soil. 
 On the contrary, with them their flocks and herds 
 constituted their sole care and delight. Whenever 
 these increased and multiplied they were content 
 and happy ; but the moment these suffered they 
 were as ready as the patriarchs of old to strike their 
 tents, or rather to pack up their waggons, and to go 
 forth, either to the right hand or to the left, and 
 to search for lands where late rains promised more 
 abundant grass and water for their cattle. 
 
 It is important to keep this constantly in view, as 
 explaining, from inherent causes, the facility and 
 rapidity with which those migrations took place, 
 and the unconcern with which, even to this day, 
 many of our colonists are ready to flit from one 
 district to another, for the most (apparently) frivolous 
 reasons, taking their chance to find sufficient or 
 better lands in the further wilds of Africa ; and from 
 these data we are, I think, warranted in drawing 
 this apparently paradoxical conclusion : that the 
 very possession of large tracts of country in the 
 hands of single individuals lessens in them the affec- 
 tion for particular localities, that it fosters and 
 encourages a wandering and pastoral life, which is 
 at once opposed to that steady cultivation of the soil, 
 which alone leads to the permanent improvement 
 of a country ; that it is opposed to all outlay of 
 capital and labour, whereby alone even the most
 
 8 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 fertile soils are improved and rendered productive ; 
 and that, in so far, such extensive grants will ever 
 prove opposed to civilisation and the true interests 
 of any country. 
 
 But other causes, nearly forty years ago, began 
 to prepare this important movement : in these I 
 happened to be somewhat mixed up ; and as these 
 particulars are not generally known, I believe their 
 recital will prove of sufficient interest to claim your 
 attention. 
 
 In the year 1813, on my return to the Cape 
 Colony, I may assert with perfect truth that I found 
 it enjoying such a state of general prosperity and 
 social happiness as rarely falls to the lot of any 
 colony, and has certainly not been felt in that colony 
 before or after that period. The mild and con- 
 ciliatory administration of the Earl of Caledon, his 
 personally cordial and frank intercourse with all 
 classes of society, and his princely hospitality, 
 cemented and kept up the most friendly bond of 
 union between the governor and governed, between 
 the colonists and the English immigrants, and literally 
 transformed all ranks of society into one family, to 
 which the spirit of party, of jealousy, or of distinction 
 of race was utterly unknown ; and anyone who at 
 that time would have entertained a thought of 
 creating such distinctions would have been scouted 
 and marked as an enemy to the public welfare and 
 to society. Lord Caledon's successor, Sir John 
 Cradock (afterwards created Lord Howden), and
 
 I.] THE FIRST KAFIR WAR 9 
 
 his fascinating consort, Lady Theodosia, continued 
 to keep up that hospitality, and to render the 
 government both efficient and popular. 
 
 An end had just been put to the first Kafir war, in 
 which the Cape colonists, with the aid of a small 
 military force under the command of my never-to-be- 
 forgotten brother-in-law, Col. Graham, had expelled 
 the Kafirs from our own territory, and a line of 
 stockaded forts placed at a distance of from twenty 
 to twenty-five miles from each other along the whole 
 extent of our eastern boundary had effectually 
 secured our inhabitants from the aggression of a 
 single marauding Kafir, upon whom instant death 
 had been solemnly denounced as the penalty of their 
 transgressing our boundary. 
 
 At that time also an army of about 4000 or 5000 
 men (among whom was one body of cavalry nearly 
 1000 strong), headed by a numerous staff, effectually 
 secured our coasts from foreign foes, and our terri- 
 tories within the colony ; and being maintained in 
 a high state of discipline, not only tended to promote 
 the pleasures of society, but entailing a vast military 
 expenditure, stimulated agriculture and commerce 
 to such an extent that the colony bore, without 
 grudging or complaint, an expenditure which at 
 the present day must appear hardly credible. 
 
 The Governor of that colony was then receiving 
 out of the colonial revenue as 
 
 Civil Governor only . . .; 12,000 
 
 A Lieutenant-Governor . . . 3000
 
 io THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 A Secretary to Government . . ^3000 
 A Dep. Secretary ^1500, but with per- 
 quisites bringing it up to . . 3000 
 A Collector of Customs . . . 1200 
 A Comptroller of Customs . . 1000 
 A Treasurer-General . . . 1200 
 An Auditor-General . . 1000 
 A Paymaster-General . . . 1000 
 
 and on this same scale some ten or twelve officials 
 alone (who were paid in sterling according to the 
 rate of exchange on the pay day) received out of the 
 colonial revenue upwards of ^"30,000 per annum ; * 
 which heavy burthen upon the colony (although not 
 then seriously felt) no doubt laid the foundation 
 of great subsequent distress, and of many difficulties 
 into which the Colonial Government was thrown 
 when the general peace in 1815 brought about a 
 vast reduction in the military expenditure, and the 
 withdrawal of almost all the troops ; when trade 
 
 * These appointments emanated from the Colonial Office, and their 
 salaries were fixed in sterling money, but having to be paid in paper 
 currency (the only circulating medium within the Colony), these 
 officials obtained payment according to the rate of exchange at the 
 time of receiving their salaries. As these salaries became payable 
 on the first of each month, the Governor (who alone received 1000 
 per month) directed the Commissary-General to draw bills on England 
 towards the close of the prior month, and to tender these to the highest 
 bidders for such bills. The payment of the sterling salaries for the first 
 of the following month was fixed on an average of the three highest 
 tenders received by the Commissariat the week before, and it was 
 remarked that several of these sterling officials having to make re- 
 mittances to their families or creditors at home, their tenders for bills 
 were always at the highest rate of exchange (but generally to a small 
 amount), which invariably helped to fix the average.
 
 i.] A SERIOUS GRIEVANCE 11 
 
 became paralysed, and when the repeated and urgent 
 petitions from the inhabitants at length brought 
 about a reduction of those extravagant salaries, and 
 led to a more uniform and well-arranged system in 
 the payment of public servants. 
 
 One serious grievance was, however, generally 
 felt, which, from the unsettled state in which the 
 colony had been during the last ten years (having 
 passed during that time through three successive 
 and different governments the British, the Dutch, 
 and again the British), there had been no fit oppor- 
 tunity for remedying. This grievance was the want 
 of an efficient and impartial administration of justice 
 throughout the country districts. The Supreme 
 Court at Cape Town could alone take cognizance 
 of any serious civil or criminal case arising in any 
 part of the colony : there was hardly any regular 
 communication with the interior, and although the 
 boards of Landdrost and Heemraden in each district 
 could take cognizance of minor offences and civil 
 suits of a limited amount, yet it was notorious that 
 from the vast extent of the two districts of Graaff- 
 Reinet and Uitenhage (which then embraced one- 
 half of the colony) access to these two tribunals 
 was exceedingly difficult and precarious. The 
 absence of the two Landdrosts, who at stated 
 intervals were required to visit every part of their 
 districts, and the commandos against Kafirs, Bush- 
 men, or others, which were frequently called out, 
 and in which they generally took part, gave any
 
 12 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 suitor a very doubtful chance of ever finding the 
 Landdrost on his judgment-seat, but on the contrary 
 his place there was frequently occupied by a worthy 
 yeoman, who, as one of the Heemraden, officiated 
 for him, but who was generally totally unfit to decide 
 any important legal question between man and man. 
 
 The time appeared then to have arrived to remedy 
 this evil, and one of the most important and bene- 
 ficial acts of Lord Caledon's government was his 
 directing that two of the members of the Supreme 
 Court should annually visit as " a Commission of 
 Circuit " every distict in the colony, and there hold 
 a court, with all such powers and authorities as were 
 possessed by the Supreme Court, with liberty to 
 refer any case for final determination to the Supreme 
 Court, in like manner as at present prevails in regard 
 to the District Court here and the Supreme Court 
 of Cape Town. 
 
 But it cannot be denied, and experience soon 
 showed, that justice, by being brought so much 
 nearer to their homes, also brought to light various 
 offences which, from the sparseness of the population 
 and the difficulty of obtaining redress, had hitherto 
 remained unexamined and unpunished ; and the very 
 first circuit which proceeded through the colony was 
 furnished with a calendar containing between seventy 
 and eighty cases, of murders, aggravated assault, and 
 the like, which the missionaries, Dr. Van der Kemp 
 and the Rev. J. Read, constituting themselves the 
 protectors of the Hottentot race, and who had then
 
 I.] OVER-ZEALOUS MISSIONARIES 13 
 
 established the first missionary school or location 
 on the frontier (at Bethelsdorp), deliberately brought 
 forward and transmitted to the local Government 
 as charges against the members of almost every 
 respectable family on the frontier. 
 
 The Government, of course, referred those charges 
 to the Commission of Circuit, with directions to 
 institute a searching inquiry into them all, and 
 this duty occupied the first commission for several 
 months ; but from the difficulty of getting up the 
 witnesses and sifting the preparatory examinations 
 a number of these cases had to stand over for the 
 following Circuit Court, and it was not until the 
 sitting of the third Circuit Court (at which I 
 officiated as Registrar) that the last cases on that 
 fearful calendar were finally disposed of; and it is 
 but just to add that of the long list of atrocious 
 crimes thus inquired into with the utmost care 
 and impartiality not one single instance of murder 
 was proved against the accused, although in a few 
 cases acts of personal assault and transgression of 
 some colonial law were brought home to them, and 
 punished accordingly. 
 
 As a curious instance of the extent to which some 
 of these informations had been received, and had 
 been readily adopted by the missionaries Van der 
 Kemp and Read, without properly investigating 
 them before bringing forward such serious criminal 
 charges, I may mention that at Uitenhage a widow 
 of one of the most respectable inhabitants in the
 
 14 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 district was tried on the charge of wilful murder, 
 for having ordered a young Hottentot some years 
 before to be brought into her house; for having 
 directed a boiler of hot water to be prepared, and 
 for having by force pressed down his feet into the 
 boiling water until they had been completely scalded 
 and his extremities destroyed ! 
 
 This woman had of course to be placed in the 
 dock and tried as a criminal on this atrocious 
 charge ; a host of witnesses were brought up and 
 examined, from whose testimony (and many of 
 these Hottentots themselves) it was fully proved 
 that many years before, while this widow lived in 
 the Lange Kloof district (which is the coldest dis- 
 trict of the Cape Colony), this young Hottentot had 
 been sent out to collect some cattle and drive them 
 home, when he had been caught in a snowstorm ; 
 that not returning at the appointed time, every 
 search had been made for him by order of this 
 widow ; that he had at length been found and 
 brought home late at night, with his extremities 
 quite benumbed and frostbitten ; that this widow 
 had immediately, by friction and bandages, en- 
 deavoured to restore animation to his extremities ; 
 and in her ignorance, but from the kindest motives, 
 judging that injuries of this nature could be best 
 cured by opposite remedies, she had ordered a boiler 
 of hot water to be prepared, and had kept the young 
 lad's feet therein for several minutes, from no other 
 possible motive than from a feeling of kindness and
 
 I.] UNFOUNDED CHARGES 15 
 
 humanity to endeavour to restore animation in his 
 extremities, in which she however failed ; that the 
 lad had lived for several years afterwards in her 
 service, and that of other masters, and had subse- 
 quently died from disease quite unconnected with 
 this injury. 
 
 This widow was of course acquitted, with every 
 expression of sympathy by the judges on the 
 position in which she had been placed ; but it is 
 evident that such prosecutions, in which nearly 
 100 of the most respectable families on the frontier 
 were implicated, and more than 1000 witnesses sum- 
 moned and examined, and in several of which the 
 parties accused, although acquitted of the more serious 
 charges, were mulcted in fines and imprisonment, 
 and had, moreover, to pay heavy law charges (for 
 in the state of the law at that time the ex-officio 
 prosecutors were entitled to claim costs, and in many 
 instances in which the parties were considered to 
 have the means, did exact them*), that all those 
 results engendered a bitter feeling of hostility to- 
 wards the administration of justice in general, and 
 more particularly against the missionaries who had 
 brought forward these accumulated charges against 
 such a number of colonists. 
 
 * The attorney-general or public prosecutor was by law entitled to 
 claim double the amount of the law charges due to the advocates. He 
 had to make out a regular "bill of costs," which was subject to the 
 taxation of the registrar of the Supreme Court, and at the foot of such 
 bill of costs the public prosecutor charged, pro faco, double, by 
 multiplying the bill by two.
 
 16 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 This, then, was the state of feeling generally pre- 
 valent throughout the remote country districts, when 
 in the month of October, 1815, another Commission 
 of Circuit, at which I again officiated as the Regis- 
 trar, held its session at Graaff-Reinet, when one of 
 those "untoward" events (to use a phrase from a 
 Royal speech) took place, which set the whole 
 eastern province in a blaze, drove a great mass of 
 the population into open rebellion against their 
 Sovereign, and brought the heads of several re- 
 spectable families to an ignominious death, thereby 
 causing an alienation from, and bitterness of feeling 
 towards, the local Government, which a lapse of 
 thirty-five years has not been able entirely to 
 eradicate. 
 
 At the opening of the session at Graaff-Reinet, 
 the Landdrost of that district, Mr. (afterwards Sir A. 
 Stockenstrom), acting as the ex-officio prosecutor, 
 informed the court that a farmer named Fredk. 
 Bezuidenhout, living in the Baviaan's River district, 
 had refused to appear before the court of Landdrost 
 and Heemraden on a charge of ill-treatment of a 
 Hottentot preferred against him, and that he had 
 threatened to shoot the messenger or sheriff if he 
 ventured again to approach his premises. He was 
 known to be a person of a very daring character, 
 and the Landdrost therefore applied for a warrant 
 of " personal summons " (as it was legally termed), 
 ordering him forthwith to appear in person before 
 the Commission. The court granted this applica-
 
 I.] A LAWLESS DISTRICT 17 
 
 tion, and from the lawless habits of the individual, 
 and his daily intercourse with Kafirs, whom, it was 
 known, he admitted and dealt with, contrary to the 
 law then existing, the court gave an order author- 
 ising the messenger who was sent off with the 
 summons to call in the aid of the nearest military 
 force, if he thought it necessary or apprehended 
 any danger. 
 
 The messenger, upon reaching the neighbourhood, 
 was informed that some Kafirs had been seen at the 
 Baviaan's River, and thereupon applied to Lieutenant 
 Rousseau, in command at the Boschberg post (now 
 the village of Somerset), for his aid, who immedi- 
 ately, with twenty men of the Cape Corps, entered 
 the Baviaan's River Poort, towards the residence of 
 Fredk. Bezuidenhout. To a lover of nature this is 
 a particularly picturesque spot, which was selected 
 afterwards by Scottish immigrants, headed by Mr. 
 Pringle, as their location. They have called it "Glen- 
 lynden," and I believe it is at present one of the 
 most favoured settlements to be found in Somerset 
 or Albany ; but at the time of the occurrence now 
 detailed it was only notorious for the impervious 
 nature of the bush around, for the lawlessness of 
 its inhabitants, and the facilities with which they 
 maintained constant intercourse with the Kafirs, in 
 defiance of the strict law forbidding all such inter- 
 course under the severest penalties. 
 
 Upon approaching the residence of Bezuidenhout, 
 they found him fully prepared to meet them ; for
 
 i8 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 taking up a position (with a powerful half-caste person 
 in his employ) behind the walls of a cattle -kraal, 
 both being armed, Bezuidenhout called on them not 
 to advance, as the first man would be shot ! Un- 
 deterred by this menace, Lieut. Rousseau ordered his 
 men to extend themselves in skirmishing order, and 
 to attack the spot, when Bezuidenhout, for fear of 
 being surrounded, after a hasty shot, which luckily 
 took no effect, fled into his house, and, escaping 
 through the back door, rushed into a thick bush and 
 jungle close to the house, where, strange to say, for 
 upwards of an hour this party of twenty active 
 "track -finders" failed to trace the retreat of the 
 two fugitives. 
 
 After again and again following their track up 
 to a ledge of rocks where it at once became lost, 
 they chanced to espy, in a remarkable precipitous 
 impending rock or " krans," the shining muzzles of 
 two rifles protruding from a hole in that ledge, thus 
 announcing the lair into which they had got. Lieut. 
 Rousseau thereupon crawled with difficulty to the 
 top of those rocks, and there, being stationed but 
 a few feet above the aperture of this cavern, he 
 challenged Bezuidenhout to come out and surrender, 
 acquainting him with the nature of his errand, and 
 assuring him of personal safety, upon his merely 
 engaging to accompany the messenger of the court, 
 on the summons he was ordered to serve upon him ; 
 but the only answer he received was, that he (Bezui- 
 denhout) would never surrender but with his life !
 
 I.] THE PENALTY OF OBSTINACY 19 
 
 Finding then all his efforts vain to bring him to 
 reason, and anxious to get out of these kloofs with 
 his men before night, Lieut. Rousseau, keeping his 
 position above, directed his men silently to form in 
 two files, each party scrambling up in opposite 
 directions from under the rock ; when the heads of 
 each column having got a few inches under the 
 entrance, one party rushed forward and threw up 
 the two projecting barrels, which were instantly fired 
 off, but without effect, while the leading man of the 
 second column fired his deadly rifle straight into the 
 cave, from whence a cry immediately issued for 
 mercy and surrender. All firing at once ceased, 
 when the half-caste Hottentot crawled forth, stating 
 that he surrendered himself, and that his master 
 lay mortally wounded within the cave. 
 
 The men of the detachment even then with 
 difficulty got into this grotto, which proved of 
 stalactite formation, and of goodly dimensions within, 
 where several guns and a large quantity of balls 
 and ammunition were found collected, evidently 
 showing that this place had long been prepared 
 for a retreat in a similar emergency; and at the 
 entrance lay the expiring corpse of the unhappy 
 victim of his own obstinacy, having, in the recumbent 
 position in which he had placed himself before the 
 cave, received the fatal shot both through the head 
 and breast. 
 
 Finding that the surrounding bush was occupied 
 by Kafirs, with whom Bezuidenhout had kept up
 
 20 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 daily intercourse, Lieut. Rousseau hastened to retire 
 out of these kloofs before nightfall, taking the 
 half-caste Hottentot in custody, whom he sent up 
 to Graaff-Reinet, where he was put upon his trial ; 
 but after a full inquiry into all those particulars 
 he was acquitted and discharged, and the Com- 
 mission of Circuit proceeded soon after, passing 
 by the present towns of Somerset and Graham's 
 Town, to the town of Uitenhage, where the trial 
 of several important cases awaited their arrival. 
 
 While engaged in the midst of these trials, an 
 officer stationed at Graham's Town arrived one 
 evening (having left that town the morning of the 
 same day) with the astounding intelligence that 
 the farmers of the Somerset and Tarka districts 
 were all in arms, and were about to attack Capt. 
 Andrews' post, . which was stationed along the 
 northernmost banks of the Fish River, to prevent 
 any inroads from Kafirs in that quarter ; and that 
 Major Fraser, in command at Graham's Town, had 
 immediately proceeded to the scene of action. 
 Within an hour from the receipt of that intelligence 
 Col. Cuyler, who was both Landdrost at Uitenhage 
 and the Commandant of the Frontier, started on 
 horseback, and within forty-eight hours, to the 
 surprise of the rebel farmers (who were then still 
 discussing their plan of operations), informed them 
 of his presence, and desired to know the cause of 
 those proceedings. 
 
 He then ascertained, that upon the death of
 
 I.] BEGINNING OF THE REBELLION 21 
 
 Fredk. Bezuidenhout, his relatives and neighbours 
 had assembled at his farm, immediately after the 
 departure of Lieut. Rousseau and his detachment, 
 to commit his remains to the grave ; and on 
 that occasion John Bezuidenhout, a brother of the 
 deceased, had become exceedingly excited, impress- 
 ing upon all around that an act of gross outrage 
 and illegality had been committed upon the deceased 
 by his house having been surrounded and his person 
 attacked by the military, as every burgher could 
 only legally be arrested by his field-cornet or the 
 civil authorities. This address had created universal 
 sympathy, and all those present had at once engaged 
 to avenge themselves for his outrage by attacking 
 the nearest military post and expelling the British 
 forces from the frontier. 
 
 They felt, however, that such plans ought to be 
 more considered and matured before being carried 
 out, and they had accordingly resolved to issue 
 circular letters to the neighbours around, calling 
 upon them to meet together and consider the 
 present state of the country ; while Cornelis Faber, 
 a brother-in-law of the Bezuidenhouts, immediately 
 started to hold a personal conference with the Kafir 
 chief Gaika, to solicit him to make a joint attack 
 upon the military posts, so as to expel the British 
 forces from the frontier, promising him a full share 
 in the expected booty. Several meetings were 
 accordingly held in the more immediate neighbour- 
 hood by those inclined to join the rebels, and they
 
 22 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 all resolved to place themselves under the command 
 of Hendrik Prinslo, of the Boschberg, and of John 
 Bezuidenhout ; and having determined upon this 
 first step, other circulars were more widely sent 
 abroad to the adjoining districts, bearing the 
 signatures of the leaders, inviting and commanding 
 them to meet in arms at a particular spot on a 
 day named, to " expel the tyrants from the country." 
 One of these circulars having providentially got 
 into the hands of a loyal and well-affected farmer, 
 he lost no time in transmitting it to the Deputy- 
 Landdrost of Cradock, Mr. Van der Graaff, who 
 forwarded it immediately to Capt. Andrews, where- 
 upon the latter sent out a military party and 
 apprehended Prinslo, while preparing to leave his 
 farm to join the first assembly of men in arms. 
 He was immediately secured and taken in custody 
 to Capt. Andrews' post, who by this intelligence 
 had also had time to strengthen his position and 
 put it in some state of defence, when, two days 
 after, three to four hundred men in arms appeared 
 before it and summoned him to give up the post, 
 and deliver up the prisoner Prinslo. At this time 
 Faber joined them from Kafirland, with the 
 unsatisfactory intelligence that Gaika had given him 
 a most evasive reply, to the effect that he would 
 call his Pakate* together, and take some time to 
 
 * The Pakate are the counsellors who always accompany the Great 
 Chief, and without whose advice and concurrence no great public 
 measure is ever determined upon.
 
 i.] FAILURE OF NEGOTIATIONS 23 
 
 consider, evidently following out the often ex- 
 perienced Kafir policy of watching the tide of 
 events. 
 
 Some vacillation was thereby created in the opera- 
 tions of the Boers, and this became more apparent 
 when that active officer, Major Fraser, succeeded the 
 same evening in throwing himself into the post and 
 opening communications with them, and when Col. 
 Cuyler also, two days after, arrived on the spot, and 
 informed them that all their plans were fully known, 
 and would be signally punished. Before, however, 
 proceeding to any extremities, a worthy field-com- 
 mandant, William Nel, volunteered to go among 
 the rebels, and if possible to avert from them the 
 impending hazard they were running. He fearlessly 
 continued to visit them for two days, was on several 
 occasions in imminent danger of his life from some 
 of the most violent and lawless of the rebels, who 
 evidently saw that iie was succeeding in opening 
 the eyes of some to tie dangerous position in which 
 they were placed ; when the leaders Faber, Bezuiden- 
 hout, and others, to comteract this impression, which 
 they also saw manifesting itself, called the whole 
 of their host together, and exacted from them a 
 solemn oath, which they all took while ranged in a 
 circle, loudly exclaiming that they would remain 
 faithful to each other uitil they had expelled the 
 tyrants from the frontier 
 
 Col. Cuyler despairing, upon this intelligence, of 
 bringing about their submssion by peaceable means,
 
 24 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 sallied forth the next morning early, out of Capt. 
 Andrews' post, at the head of a troop of the 2ist 
 Light Dragoons, and a troop of loyal burghers 
 headed by Commandant Nel, and finding an ad- 
 vanced post of the rebels (which they appear to 
 have thrown out from their main body), Col. Cuyler 
 at once ordered the troops to advance upon them, 
 when about thirty, forming their left wing, threw 
 down their arms in token of surrender; and the 
 remainder falling back upon their main body, they 
 all gave up the hope of further resistance, and 
 slowly retired with all their waggons and cattle into 
 the fastnesses of the Baviaan's River, where (they 
 were well aware) a small force could hardly expect 
 to dislodge them. Some further attempt to bring 
 them to submission having again feiled, Major Fraser 
 on one side, the Landdrost Stockenstrom on another, 
 and the Deputy-Landdrost of Cradock on a third 
 point, arranged a combined rcovement, by which 
 they entered and cleared simultaneously all the 
 fastnesses of that impervious glen ; the result of 
 which was, that most of the ibllowers of this band, 
 now enclosed, contrived at night stealthily to escape 
 by passes with which they vere familiar; but the 
 principal leaders still determhed to reject all terms, 
 broke up with their waggon/ and all their necessary 
 " materiel," and contrived t get out of that district 
 without direct opposition, tnd proceeded as far as 
 the Winterberg, immediatey bordering upon Kafir- 
 land, where they expected to meet with safety; but
 
 I.] END OF THE REBELLION 25 
 
 Major Fraser with a detachment of the Cape Corps 
 succeeded at length in completely surrounding them 
 in a deep kloof, where they were come upon while 
 outspanned ; but rejecting all offers of surrender, 
 John Bezuidenhout, Stephs., Corns., and Abraham 
 Botman, Andries Meyer, Corns. Faber, his wife, and 
 his young son, fourteen years old, took up a position 
 behind their waggons, from whence they maintained 
 a regular skirmish for some time, killing one of the 
 Cape Corps and wounding another, and it was not 
 until Bezuidenhout was shot, and Faber and his wife 
 were both wounded, that the troops succeeded in 
 taking them all prisoners. 
 
 They were from thence guarded by a military 
 escort, and committed to the gaol of Uitenhage, 
 where, subsequently, some fifty or sixty more persons 
 who were traced, and known to have joined in the 
 rebellion, were secured ; and a special commission, 
 appointed at Cape Town, soon arrived there to try 
 the offenders. After some preliminary inquiry, 
 thirty-nine persons out of the whole party were 
 selected as the most culpable, who were put upon 
 their trial on the charge of high treason, and waging 
 war against His Majesty ; and after a lengthened 
 and painful trial, a sentence was passed condemning 
 six of the leaders to suffer capital punishment ; and 
 all the others, after witnessing the ignominious death 
 of their leaders, to undergo various degrees of 
 punishment by transportation, banishment, and fines, 
 according to the various degrees of their proved
 
 26 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 culpability. Upon this sentence being forwarded to 
 the Governor of the colony for his "fiat," before 
 being carried into execution, His Excellency was 
 pleased to commute the sentence of one of the 
 leaders into transportation for life ; but with regard 
 to them all, the sentence directed that they should 
 be led to a remarkable plot of ground, or plateau, 
 called the " Slachters Nek," being the very spot 
 where these leaders had exacted from all their 
 followers the oath to stand by each other until they 
 had " expelled the tyrants." 
 
 Thither they were taken under a strong military 
 escort, and on the 6th of March, 1816, under the 
 direction of Col. Cuyler (upon whom, both as the 
 ex-officio prosecutor and as commandant, the duty 
 devolved of seeing the sentence carried out), the sad 
 preparations were made, in the presence of a large 
 concourse of the friends and relatives of those about 
 to undergo the punishment of death, and who were 
 gathered together from all parts of the frontier to 
 take a last farewell of those whose lives were to 
 be forfeited, although it appeared that some hope 
 was still entertained among them that their lives 
 would be spared. In these hopes they were, how- 
 ever, sadly disappointed when they saw the scaffold 
 prepared to receive the five culprits, who with perfect 
 resignation and firmness, under the spiritual guidance 
 of a worthy minister, the Rev. Mr. Herhold, simul- 
 taneously mounted the fatal ladder, from which, at 
 a given signal, they were launched into eternity !
 
 I.] EXECUTION OF THE LEADERS 27 
 
 But, even then, they were doomed not to find an 
 end to their misery ; from the hasty and imperfect 
 manner in which the scaffold had been constructed, 
 it proved insufficient to bear the weight and dying 
 struggles of these five powerful men thus thrown off. 
 The whole fabric gave way, and the unfortunate men, 
 slowly recovering from the asphyxiated state into 
 which they had been partially thrown, crawled up 
 to the officer whose painful duty it was to see to 
 the execution of that sentence, calling aloud for 
 mercy. This was responded to by all their friends 
 placed without the circle, who, viewing this as a 
 signal dispensation of Providence, were with difficulty 
 kept from forcing themselves through the military 
 array, and with screams and shouts joined in the 
 cry for mercy. 
 
 But the stern nature of his duty left the kind- 
 hearted Col. Cuyler no alternative but to see the 
 execution carried out to the letter of the sentence. 
 
 The culprits were again secured, every preparation 
 was again hastily made, so as not to allow the day 
 to pass within which the sentence directed the 
 execution to take place ; and amidst the cries and 
 clamour of their friends, the five unfortunate beings 
 were doomed again singly to mount the ladder, and 
 the last rays of the setting sun shone gloomily upon 
 the five expiring sufferers, now dangling in mid-air, 
 until life became extinct, when they were cut down 
 and their earthly remains buried under the scaffold 
 by the hands of the executioner (in the terms of the
 
 28 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 sentence of the law), and amidst the cries and sobs 
 of their friends, to whom their last request to obtain 
 the dead bodies was refused. 
 
 Thus ended the rebellion of 1815, the most in- 
 sane attempt ever made by a set of men to wage 
 war against their Sovereign, the result of which 
 could not have been doubtful for a single moment : 
 it originated entirely in the wild unruly passions 
 of a few clans of persons who could not suffer 
 themselves to be brought under the authority of 
 the law : the sentence passed upon them was no 
 other than might have been expected in a case 
 of overt rebellion thus committed ; and although 
 at the present time, with our feelings of humanity 
 becoming daily more and more abhorrent of the 
 punishment of death, we may think that the for- 
 feiture of one or two lives might have amply 
 atoned for the offence (considering the lives pre- 
 viously sacrificed), yet the culprits or their friends 
 could have no cause for just complaint when, for 
 crimes such as these, the rigour of the law was en- 
 forced ; on the other hand, we need only call to 
 remembrance our own feelings at the perusal of the 
 thrilling pages of the immortal author of Waverley, 
 to admit that pity and commiseration for the van- 
 quished are perfectly consistent with the admission 
 of the unlawfulness of their cause ; for although we 
 need not exactly assent to the proposition of the 
 author of the Pharsalia 
 
 " Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni,"
 
 I.] AN INDELIBLE IMPRESSION 29 
 
 yet we may justly, at least, make allowance for the 
 wounded feelings of those who were left behind. 
 
 In fact, I know, from personal interviews with 
 several of the descendants of those who were then 
 executed, that these events which I have how de- 
 tailed, have left in their minds a far more indelible 
 impression than even their losses by the Kafir wars, 
 or the abolition of slavery. When here as Her 
 Majesty's Commissioner, in 1843 an d 1844, I 
 endeavoured frequently, in converse with many 
 influential farmers, to soothe down the feelings of 
 hostility which they openly avowed against Her 
 Majesty's Government ; and when I had frequently 
 (I hoped) succeeded in convincing them of the 
 mistaken views which they had imbibed as to the 
 principles and objects of Government in public 
 matters, and proved to them satisfactorily, that (as 
 regarded their future prospects) an entire new system 
 had been laid down, and was now carrying on, to 
 give them the enjoyment of the utmost share of 
 rational liberty in all their political institutions; 
 when I had succeeded so far in convincing their 
 minds, I have more than once felt a pang to hear 
 the embodiment of their inmost feelings expressed 
 in the words "We can never forget Slachters Nek!" 
 
 Such expressions, coming from the heart, could 
 not but be respected and sympathised with, and 
 we might only hope that the rising up of another 
 generation would gradually obliterate such feelings ; 
 and that, as in the present descendants of those who
 
 30 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. 
 
 took prominent parts, and " were out," in the Scotch 
 Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, their feelings of hostility 
 towards the Government are long since forgotten 
 in the unity of interests which now prevails : this 
 would undoubtedly also here have taken place to 
 a certain extent, if after that date two or three 
 other events deeply affecting their interests had 
 not tended still further to keep up and excite that 
 distrust of, if not hostility towards, the Government, 
 which more directly preceded and brought this vast 
 expatriation. 
 
 If you, ladies and gentlemen, have felt any interest 
 in this introductory address, I shall willingly devote 
 a little more time to collect the materials and give 
 you the details of those further events ; but before 
 I pledge myself to carry out that intention, allow me 
 to throw myself upon your candour, at once to 
 pronounce whether any here present conceive that 
 in so doing I can be said to depart from that 
 principle which I have been the first to impress upon 
 our Council, that we should not enter upon matters 
 of present political bearing in the district. If this 
 be felt by anyone, I shall at once decline carrying 
 out a task from which I only hope to derive the 
 pleasure of producing a kindly spirit between our 
 present immigrants and the Dutch farmers, by their 
 becoming, as it were, more intimately acquainted 
 with each other. I have also ventured upon this 
 course, as I confess I do not view such a retrospect 
 as in the slightest degree connected with the present
 
 I.] COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 31 
 
 political state of the country, respecting which I am 
 well aware such an entire change has taken place 
 in the general policy of Her Majesty's Councils, that 
 so far from wishing to withhold any rights or privi- 
 leges from any of Her Majesty's subjects here, it can 
 only be owing to their own indifference to these 
 matters, or to the improper way of making their 
 appeal, that such boons would be withheld from 
 them. 
 
 In short, we have only to refer to the memorable 
 despatch of Lord Stanley of December, 1842 (which 
 first directed the adoption of this territory), and to 
 the more recent speeches delivered by Lord John 
 Russell, and very lately by Earl Grey in the House 
 of Lords, to feel that the mists which ignorance, 
 misrepresentation, and party spirit had for some 
 time cast around our rulers have been completely 
 dispelled ; and that both they and the British public 
 in general are only anxious to see us all enjoying 
 a full share of rational liberty, as most conducive not 
 only to our own interests, but to those of the empire 
 at large. On this subject I shall beg to conclude 
 by quoting a remarkable passage to be found in the 
 Edinburgh Review of April last, in an article headed 
 " Shall we Retain our Colonies ? " The words are : 
 
 " The affection of the colonists it is easy to preserve or 
 to recover, where, through misjudgment or misunderstand- 
 ing, it has been shaken or impaired. By ruling them with 
 forbearance, steadiness, and justice, by leading them forward 
 in the path of freedom with an encouraging but cautious
 
 32 THE FIRST BOER REBELLION [LECT. I. 
 
 hand, by bestowing upon them the fullest powers of self- 
 government wherever the infusion of British blood is large 
 enough to warrant such a course ; in a word, by following 
 out the line of policy announced and defended by Lord 
 John Russell, in his speech on the introduction of a Bill 
 for the government of the Australian Colonies in February 
 of the last year, we may secure the existence, and rivet the 
 cohesion of a dominion, blest with the wisest, soberest, 
 most beneficial form of liberty which the world has yet 
 enjoyed, and spreading to distant lands and future ages 
 the highest, most prolific, and most expansive development 
 of civilisation which Providence has ever granted to 
 humanity ! "
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES 
 
 IN my last lecture I gave the details of one of 
 those unfortunate events which frequently mark 
 the transition from a rude state of society to one 
 in which the supremacy of the law becomes a 
 principle acknowledged by all classes, as essential 
 to the general peace of the community and as 
 consistent with the very notion of rational liberty. 
 The feeling of hostility towards the Government 
 and the administration of justice, which then pre- 
 vailed among the frontier farmers, would gradually 
 have been obliterated, as they became more and 
 more sensible of the advantages which a higher 
 state of civilisation conferred upon them ; but several 
 other causes soon arose, which not only fed that 
 flame of discontent, but became ultimately so 
 burthensome as literally to drive the great majority 
 of the inhabitants of the eastern province out of 
 the pale of the colony, and after that movement 
 had once commenced, it has since been found quite 
 impossible to stem the torrent. One cause of 
 general dissatisfaction was connected with and arose 
 from the hasty and ill-considered measure directed 
 D 33
 
 34 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 by the Home Government to redeem the paper 
 currency, after having allowed a ruinous deprecia- 
 tion to take place, which judicious measures might 
 have averted or prevented to a great extent.* That 
 cause of grievance is, however, more connected with, 
 and forms part rather of, the general history of the 
 Cape Colony ; I shall therefore not enter upon that 
 subject, except only to observe that it tended to 
 keep up the excitement previously produced on the 
 frontier, and caused that spirit of disaffection to 
 become more generally and widely spread than it 
 otherwise would have been. 
 
 But, independent of this, there arose three great 
 and prominent causes of grievance, which bore less 
 or more seriously upon the energies and prospects 
 of the whole colony, but pressed with tenfold hard- 
 ship upon the eastern provinces. With regard to 
 these questions, it must also be observed at the 
 outset that, although, for the sake of perspicuity, 
 I shall deal with them separately, they were yet 
 working simultaneously; the one cause preponder- 
 ating in one year, and in another the second or 
 the third cause, but all alike tending to accomplish 
 this one end that of driving the great mass of 
 the population out of the further influence of those 
 
 * An ordinance sent out by the Home Government was promulgated 
 on the 6th of June, 1825, introducing British silver money as a legal 
 tender, and directing it to be taken in exchange for the Cape paper 
 rixdollar at one shilling and sixpence sterling, which had been originally 
 issued and recognised as of the value of four shillings for every rix- 
 dollar.
 
 II.] HATRED AGAINST MISSIONARIES 35 
 
 measures which (several have often assured me) 
 would otherwise again have driven them to open 
 resistance or rebellion. 
 
 These three great grievances under which they 
 suffered may be styled 
 
 1. The Hottentot Question ; 
 
 2. The Slave Question ; 
 
 3. The Kafir Question ; 
 
 and it will at once be seen from the mere recital 
 of these names that they all arose from the manner 
 in which both the local and the Home Government 
 were considered to be dealing with those three dis- 
 tinct races by which the European population was 
 surrounded, and upon a judicious management of 
 which the peace and prosperity of the colony entirely 
 depended. 
 
 I shall therefore consider the prominent features 
 of each of these three great questions, as they more 
 particularly bore upon the interests of the frontier 
 farmers, and which afflicted them during a period 
 of twenty years, say from 1815 to 1835, when the 
 migration out of the colony into Central Africa may 
 be said to have commenced. 
 
 I have stated in my preceding lecture that the 
 proceedings instituted by Dr. Van der Kemp and 
 the Rev. Jno. Read, against a great number of 
 the members of influential families throughout the 
 country districts, caused at once a deep-seated hatred 
 against those missionaries who had thus constituted
 
 36 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 themselves the guardians of the Hottentot race, and 
 also created a sense of distrust of the Government, 
 from the manner in which (it appeared to them) that 
 cause had been advocated and supported. In stating 
 this fact let me not be misunderstood, nor let it be 
 supposed that I wish to express for a moment any 
 other opinion than that, in very many instances, it 
 had become necessary to release that race from the 
 state of thraldom in which they had theretofore been 
 kept ; nor do I wish to express any other opinion 
 than that there were among those individuals who 
 were devoting themselves to the conversion of the 
 heathen, and spreading among barbarous nations 
 the light of the Gospel, many excellent persons, 
 who may be justly ranked among the greatest 
 benefactors of the human race ; and that such names 
 as those of Kicherer, Edwards, Campbell, Moffatt, 
 Hodgson, and the like, will ever be respected by 
 every one who regards true religion and virtue as 
 essential to the happiness and the eternal welfare 
 of the human race. But, being now enlisted in the 
 sacred cause of truth, my duty compels me equally 
 to state that, at the time which I am now consider- 
 ing, there were among those who assumed to them- 
 selves the important office of teachers in the 
 missionary schools within the colony, several persons 
 so illiterate, and beset by such narrow - minded 
 prejudices, as to render them totally unfit to direct 
 the education and moral training of the Hottentot 
 youths of both sexes ; while there were even some
 
 II.] MISSIONARIES AND THE NATIVES 37 
 
 amongst them who, from the disreputable connection 
 they had formed with females of that race, had lost 
 all that respect which morality of conduct will ever 
 command in society. 
 
 Such instances were not only marked out as 
 warranting that dislike to missionaries in general, 
 but the inhabitants saw, with dread and apprehen- 
 sion, how the Government gradually allowed the 
 whole of that population (on which all farming 
 pursuits on the frontier depended) to withdraw 
 themselves from all control and agricultural pursuits, 
 and to put themselves, moreover, under the spiritual 
 charge of any person who, without reference to 
 country or nation, announced himself as inclined 
 to become the pastor of such flocks. 
 
 In this manner, within a few years, no less than 
 " thirty missionary schools," or institutions, sprang up 
 within the colony where Dutchmen, Frenchmen, 
 and Germans joined with English or Scotchmen 
 nominally to instruct any Hottentots, or descendants 
 of Hottentots, who felt inclined to congregate around 
 them. 
 
 The younger ones, no doubt, received there the 
 rudiments of some elementary education ; but the 
 older ones uniformly declared that they were "too 
 old" to learn, but yet preferred remaining there, 
 leading a listless, idle life so congenial to their 
 habits, and could only be induced in the seasons 
 of harvest, or upon urgent applications, occasionally 
 to drive a waggon to market, and thus so far to " lend
 
 38 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 their help " ; but at such extravagant prices as at 
 once deprived the agriculturist of his legitimate 
 profits, and rendered such sources of labour so 
 uncertain and precarious, that (in very many cases) 
 he was compelled to abandon agriculture altogether, 
 and to depend solely upon his herds and flocks for 
 food and support. But even for the protection and 
 rearing of these some herdsmen and shepherds were 
 needed, but these duties they also gradually ceased 
 to perform : so that whenever a farmer was unable, 
 by the help of his own family, to watch his flocks 
 by day and by night, losses became fearful, and 
 many, in despair, were compelled to give up all 
 farming prospects, and to take up their abode with 
 some friends or relatives, so as to combine their 
 resources, and thus eke out a miserable subsistence, 
 without the chance of improving their condition, 
 still less of providing for their offspring. 
 
 This injury was not so seriously complained of 
 in the western, or rather south-western, provinces, 
 near Cape Town, where, for a time, slave labour 
 was sufficient for the wants of agriculture ; but in 
 the northern and eastern districts it was intensely 
 felt. I have myself known farms which had been 
 completely abandoned, by the last remaining Hotten- 
 tots having given up service, or retired to the 
 missionary schools, taking with them the flocks or 
 herds which they had earned in their employer's 
 service, and rejecting every offer or bribe to continue 
 any longer in such service.
 
 ii.] THE HOTTENTOT DIFFICULTY 39 
 
 There were even many Hottentot families so 
 destitute, or otherwise ill -behaved, that admission 
 to the missionary institutions was refused to them ; 
 but these, rather than continue in the service of 
 the farmers, gradually congregated themselves in 
 the outskirts of various towns, and chiefly about 
 Graaff-Reinet, Graham's Town, and Somerset, where 
 they became a perfect pest to society, and a terror 
 to all the neighbourhood, from the daring thefts 
 and robberies which were committed by them for 
 miles around. The difficulty, however, of tracing 
 and punishing these offenders was so strongly felt, 
 that nothing but the enactment of a stringent 
 vagrant law appeared to all practical men likely 
 to meet and overcome the evil ; but the difficulties 
 in the way of enacting such a law appeared insuper- 
 able to the Legislature, and although frequently 
 promised by the Executive, it was deferred to the 
 Greek Kalends, thus only increasing the disaffection 
 by the disappointment of such expectations. 
 
 It is a singular fact, that the only relief which 
 some of the farmers found in those districts was 
 at places adjoining the Bushman country, where a 
 humane and enlightened policy soon received its 
 never-failing reward. 
 
 Up to the beginning of this century these Bush- 
 men had been considered as utterly irreclaimable : 
 the deadly poison which they dealt out to anyone 
 approaching them in any suspicious attitude made 
 them an object of universal dread and abhorrence :
 
 40 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 they were considered as the declared enemies of 
 the human race ; and I fear that the indiscriminate 
 slaughter of men, women, and children of that race 
 was at one time considered not only as perfectly 
 lawful, but praiseworthy. 
 
 However, about the beginning of this century, the 
 worthy missionaries, the Rev. Messrs. Kicherer and 
 Edwards, boldly ventured among them, and secure 
 under the aegis of the Gospel and religion, they 
 displayed their moral courage in the midst of the 
 threats and the fearful scenes which they were 
 compelled to witness, and their sublime sacrifice of 
 every comfort, and almost of every necessity of 
 life, in the cause of humanity, was ultimately re- 
 warded by reclaiming at least some few clans, and 
 establishing a friendly feeling between them and the 
 nearest farmers. 
 
 Soon after this, also, a custom was introduced, 
 sanctioned and encouraged by Government,* of allow- 
 ing some field-cornets of well-established humanity to 
 visit their country on hunting expeditions, ih seasons 
 of drought and famine, when the Bushmen were seen 
 congregating in flocks around them, and thereby ac- 
 quiring the art of converting into " biltong "f the 
 
 * This mode of reclaiming them was first recommended to Govern- 
 ment by the "Commissioners of Circuit." 
 
 t " Biltong " (literally " hamtongue ") consists of strips of raw meat, 
 cut out of the hams, sirloins, or fleshy parts of cattle, or the larger 
 antelopes, which, sprinkled over with salt, are exposed to a warm sun, 
 and thus, sun-dried, constitute the usual food of the pastoral farmers 
 for months.
 
 IL] BUSHMEN AS SHEPHERDS 41 
 
 produce of the chase, thus securing to themselves at 
 least some animal food throughout those seasons of 
 starvation. 
 
 This humane conduct of these farmers was duly 
 rewarded, as some of these Bushmen gradually put 
 themselves under their protection, and entered the 
 service of the farmers around, thereby further secur- 
 ing to themselves and their families a certain mode 
 of subsistence throughout the year. Their natural 
 intelligence was soon displayed in watching the 
 flocks; they became most faithful and trustworthy 
 herdsmen, and I have personally visited farms in 
 the Sneeuwberg, which had for months been aban- 
 doned by the proprietors, who had gone off to 
 Cape Town, or to distant districts, with their entire 
 families, leaving flocks of six, seven, and ten thousand 
 sheep under the sole charge of one or two families 
 of these " tame " Bushmen (as they were emphatically 
 called) ; and I have been subsequently informed that 
 such instances were by no means rare, that they 
 invariably proved themselves fully worthy of the 
 trust thus reposed in them, and that on the return 
 of their masters they would, with the help of their 
 "kerfstok" (or nick -stick) account for the loss of 
 every ewe, wether, or lamb which had died or been 
 lost with a distinctness and fidelity truly surprising. 
 
 From a note appended to one of the inimitable 
 chapters of the Antiquary, Sir Walter Scott (it would 
 appear) notices these " nick-sticks " as peculiar to the 
 bakers in Scotland two or three centuries ago. It
 
 42 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 may not prove uninteresting to an Oldbuck of 
 Monkbarns to trace whether the Caledonian bakers 
 acquired that knowledge from the Bushmen of South 
 Africa, or vice versa; but to those who feel disinclined 
 to adopt either theory, it may suffice to consider 
 how, in a primitive state of society, men will be found 
 to resort to the same rude means of aiding their 
 memories and sharpening their intellect, without 
 reference to latitude or country. 
 
 In those few districts then immediately adjoining 
 the Bushman country some substitute was partially 
 found for their loss of their Hottentot servants, but 
 throughout the remainder of the eastern province it 
 must be acknowledged that the numerous missionary 
 schools, and last of all the extensive establishment 
 at Kat River, took from the service of the farmers 
 every Hottentot or servant of Hottentot descent, 
 who were not only induced to retire to those schools 
 as the abode of ease and indolence, but were more- 
 over taught to consider themselves as a distinct and 
 separate race, who " ought " not to owe any service to 
 the Saxon farmer. 
 
 And this leads me to notice a far more serious evil 
 still than the mere loss of labour, which arose from 
 the system pursued in regard of the Hottentot 
 race, the effect of which, although long predicted 
 by many persons, had been only considered as 
 " Cassandra's " prophecies, until the late events have 
 exposed them in their fearful reality ; and they 
 can now, therefore, only be noticed as historical
 
 ii.] EVIL INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARIES 43 
 
 lessons, from which rulers may derive useful warn- 
 ings in legislating for and governing different races 
 in one and the same country. 
 
 I have already noticed that at most (if not in all) 
 these schools or institutions within the colony the 
 Government did not claim or exercise the slightest 
 interference or control ; occasionally, even, disclosures 
 were made which clearly showed that in some of 
 them a magisterial authority was assumed to punish 
 offenders by juries, and modes of punishment were 
 devised by the missionaries within such schools 
 altogether inconsistent with the first principles of 
 justice ; but these even appear to have been passed 
 by without official notice ; and upon this principle of 
 the Government becoming more and more apparent, 
 the missionaries also became the more confirmed in 
 the authority which they assumed, as well over the 
 temporal as the spiritual concerns of those who came 
 to their schools. 
 
 With the exception of the simple-minded Moravian 
 brethren (whom I would willingly distinguish as a 
 marked exception), I believe, I am bound to state 
 that almost universally the notion was studiously in- 
 culcated in the minds of the Hottentots that they 
 not only had been, but still continued to be, an 
 oppressed race ; that despite the Magna Charta 
 granted them by the Government, in the so-called 
 5Oth Ordinance, the white people were still ready at 
 all times to injure them ; and such notions, I fear, 
 were instilled with great earnestness in the minds of
 
 44 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 the large mass of Hottentots who were congregated 
 in the Kat River settlements. This notion, no doubt, 
 laid the foundation of the rebellion which has so 
 fatally complicated the present Kafir war ; but upon 
 these events it is not my wish to dwell any further, 
 as I only desire here to state that, many years ago, I 
 noticed that feeling of " national alienation " (as it 
 may be called) arising, and anticipated that those 
 seeds of antipathy and hostility of races would inevit- 
 ably yield those poisonous fruits from which the 
 colony has of late been suffering. 
 
 This wilt be sufficient to mark how the gradual 
 withdrawal of the whole Hottentot race from agri- 
 cultural or pastoral service and the spirit of hostility 
 which manifested itself in them towards the frontier 
 colonists left the latter no other remedy than to 
 resort to the sad alternative of seeking elsewhere 
 for a place where their herds and flocks might be 
 safe, and where they might obtain labour on more 
 easy terms. 
 
 II. But great and serious as this cause of grievance 
 became, it proved quite secondary to the intensity of 
 feeling with which the colonists saw the steps taken 
 by the Government to deprive them of that labour 
 over which they claimed an unquestionable right of 
 property. 
 
 It is a singular fact, and one, I believe, not gener- 
 ally known, or at least not sufficiently considered, 
 that during the last century, while all other colonies 
 belonging to European powers were inundated by
 
 II.] SLAVERY IN CAPE COLONY 45 
 
 slaves (chiefly imported by British vessels), the 
 Government of Cape Colony had always been averse 
 to the introduction of slaves; that by various stringent 
 proclamations their importation had been prohibited, 
 and that from time to time (generally once a year) a 
 special licence was issued only for a limited number 
 to be imported, upon the earnest representations of 
 the colonists, and proportionate to their increasing 
 numbers and the wants in agriculture. 
 
 During the short administration of the Batavian 
 Government, from 1803 to 1806, various proclama- 
 tions and acts also manifested an intention in that 
 Government to put a speedy end to the existence of 
 slavery in the colony ; and thus, during this century, 
 a very small number of slaves indeed of the negro 
 race had trodden the colonial soil. The natural con- 
 sequence was that nine-tenths of the slave population 
 consisted of house-born slaves, who were looked upon 
 more as family domestics, and treated like the Vernce 
 of the Romans. They were trained to various trades 
 and professions ; were never worked in gangs, and in 
 fact enjoyed all the privileges and comforts which 
 free domestics could possibly claim. The value of 
 such slaves increased daily, with the increase and 
 greater demands of the free population, and not un- 
 frequently 400, $oo, and 600 were readily given 
 for a single slave well instructed in certain trades. 
 It was but a natural result, from such a state of 
 things, that slaves of this value should be well 
 treated, and also that they knew their rights and
 
 46 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 how to maintain them ; and although, no doubt, in 
 the course of ten or twelve years, two or three 
 instances of very severe ill-treatment and even of 
 murder were brought before the courts and tried, and 
 were loudly denounced by (what was falsely called) 
 the philanthropic press, yet it would be as unjust 
 to infer from such cases a charge of general ill-usage 
 of their slaves against their masters as it would be 
 to lay to the charge of the populations of Edinburgh 
 or of London the murders of Burke, of the Mannings, 
 of Rush, and the hundred others, accounts of which 
 pollute almost every English paper. 
 
 Soon after the general peace of 1815 it became but 
 too apparent that the public mind in England was 
 directed to the total extinction of slavery, the leading 
 men of all parties having openly avowed that in 
 having gained the triumph of the abolition of the 
 slave trade, they only viewed this as a stepping-stone 
 towards the attainment of the greater measure ; and, 
 as preparatory to that step, various local laws were 
 introduced considerably curtailing the authority and 
 power of masters over their slaves. The most im- 
 portant one was a local ordinance, passed in 1826, by 
 which a new office of guardian or protector of slaves 
 was created, who, by himself and his deputies, had 
 particularly to look to the protection of their interests. 
 Every slave thereby acquired a right to compel his 
 master to grant him his liberty if he could obtain the 
 means of commanding his price at a fair valuation 
 by persons indifferently chosen. The hours of labour
 
 II.] UNPOPULAR RESTRICTIONS 47 
 
 were fixed, and various other stringent rules were 
 introduced, at once creating a power which could 
 interfere on behalf of the slave in all the domestic 
 concerns of every household. It may easily be 
 imagined how such a system at once produced an 
 alienation from that good feeling which existed 
 before in these relations. The slave, heretofore ac- 
 customed to receive any favour or indulgence through 
 his master or mistress, now saw another power arising 
 which could grant these by virtue of his office ; and 
 the masters, jealous of that power, frequently with- 
 held, upon principle, what they would readily have 
 conceded as a matter of grace. 
 
 From that moment, therefore, that kindly feeling 
 which had before existed on both sides may be said 
 to have expired, and the whole country began to feel 
 the ill effects of this undue and inconsistent interfer- 
 ence. But the Home Government, not satisfied with 
 these colonial laws, passed in February, 1830, an 
 Order in Council, by which a host of protectors were 
 further appointed to be the special guardians of slaves 
 in every district, and to enforce still more stringent 
 rules against the slightest act of injustice committed 
 towards their slaves, who were expressly declared 
 not to be liable to any punishment for preferring any 
 frivolous complaints against their masters, "unless 
 such complaint shall arise from some malevolent or 
 culpable motive" (vide Section 72 of the Order in 
 Council), while for any, even the slightest contraven- 
 tion of any of the provisions of that Order in
 
 48 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 Council, by the master or mistress, a penalty never 
 less than 10 nor more than $oo is denounced. 
 ( Vide Section 74.) 
 
 But the feature which particularly denounced this 
 Order in Council was exhibited in the sections by 
 which every year the proprietors of any slaves em- 
 ployed in agriculture or manufacture were required 
 to take out from the office of the protector, or assis- 
 tant protector, a book styled in the Order in Council 
 a "punishment record book," in which every such 
 proprietor was compelled to make himself (if he could 
 write), or otherwise cause to be made, an entry of 
 every punishment of whatever kind he may have 
 inflicted upon every slave, detailing with the greatest 
 minuteness every particular of the offence, of the 
 punishment, of the witnesses to it, etc. This book 
 every such slave-owner was required to take twice 
 every year to the protector or assistant protector 
 within his district, and there to swear to the correct- 
 ness of these entries, and if at any time thereafter 
 a complaint might be preferred before any of the 
 protectors of any punishment having been inflicted, 
 and the " record book " did not show a perfectly true 
 and correct statement of every circumstance con- 
 nected therewith, the master was to be tried for wilful 
 and corrupt perjury, independent of the punishment 
 he might be liable to in respect of the complaint 
 itself! 
 
 It is impossible to describe the excitement which 
 pervaded the length and breadth of the colony when
 
 II.] PROTEST OF SLAVE-OWNERS 49 
 
 these provisions became known : the slave-owners at 
 once, with one consent, resolved to resist a law in- 
 volving so iniquitous a principle, as that everyone 
 should be called upon to enregister his own misdeeds 
 and swear to them ; and they sent from all quarters 
 some delegates to Cape Town, who there joined with 
 the slaveholders in and near the town to hold one 
 of the largest public meetings ever held in the colony; 
 where they unanimously pledged themselves not to 
 take out these "punishment record books," and in 
 the enthusiasm of the occasion they passed a resolu- 
 tion to walk up in a body to Government House to 
 submit this their firm resolve personally to the 
 Governor. His Excellency, having been previously 
 apprised of their intention (by a deputation sent up 
 in advance), some 3000 to 4000 persons marched up 
 in procession to Government House, and being re- 
 ceived by His Excellency Sir Lowry Cole, under 
 the stately oaks at the Grave Street entrance, the 
 late Mr. Muntingh and myself having been called 
 to the unenviable task of being their spokesmen, had 
 the painful duty of solemnly assuring His Excellency, 
 in the name of the assembled throng and of all the 
 slave-owners throughout the colony, " that they could 
 not, and would not, comply with this law "; that they 
 were ready one and all to submit to the penalties 
 therein enacted, but implored His Excellency to release 
 them from the operation of a law which appeared to 
 them a violation of every principle of justice. This 
 step taken by the slave-owners was denounced at the 
 

 
 So THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 time by the philanthropic press as an attempt to 
 intimidate the Governor, but we felt well convinced 
 that the hero who did not quail under the murderous 
 fire of the French when crowning the heights of 
 Albuera, and fixing the victory on that momentous 
 day, was not likely to be intimidated by 3000 or 
 4000 persons walking peaceably up to implore his 
 protection and sympathy against an iniquitous law ; 
 and the result proved that they had not mistaken his 
 feelings ; for although His Excellency (as might have 
 been expected) declared that he could not take upon 
 himself to annul or even suspend the operation of 
 the law, he yet promised that he would not fail to 
 report to the Secretary of State the great excitement 
 which this provision had created ; and the colonists 
 had the satisfaction of finding soon after that under 
 an authority from the Secretary of State, directions 
 were given to all functionaries not to enforce that 
 regulation, which thus became a dead letter, and was 
 only " observed in the breach." 
 
 From the manner in which the Government was 
 thus interfering with the slave question, it became 
 perceptible to everyone that the early abolition of 
 slavery was aimed at; and many of the liberal- 
 minded persons amongst the slave proprietors 
 accordingly determined to evince their disposition 
 to concur with the Government in this object as far 
 as they could consistently with their interests, and 
 they established a " Philanthropic Society," the 
 object of which society was to buy up all young
 
 II.] PROPOSALS FOR GRADUAL ABOLITION 51 
 
 females just reaching the age of puberty, to emanci- 
 pate these immediately, but to place them for three 
 or four years with persons of their own choice as 
 apprentices until they had procured some little funds, 
 and had been sufficiently trained to be entrusted with 
 a state of perfect freedom. 
 
 By this means in a few years two or three hundred 
 young females were purchased and manumitted, thus 
 at once preventing any increase of slavery, and the 
 society had so many voluntary applications of 
 masters or mistresses to confer this boon upon all 
 young females, that want of funds alone precluded 
 the society from extending its beneficial influence 
 all over the colony. They therefore endeavoured 
 to obtain the support of the Government, and 
 showed that by an annual sum of 7000 or 8000 
 being voted by the Imperial Parliament for such an 
 object, the operations of this institution might be so 
 enlarged that within very few years all female slaves 
 would have been reclaimed from slavery, that also 
 every able-bodied slave who might wish to be 
 emancipated, and who had acquired the right by 
 law to insist upon compulsory emancipation, might 
 have obtained the funds to attain this object, so that 
 gradually and imperceptibly slavery would have 
 ceased to exist in nine or ten years, at a sacrifice 
 to Great Britain of some 70,000 or 80,000 paid out 
 in a series of years. But the only reply that these 
 slave-holders, who were thus anxious to see liberty 
 diffused without serious loss to themselves and a
 
 52 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 disruption to society, was that this would never 
 satisfy the impatience of the British public, who 
 were bent upon instant and universal freedom ! 
 
 In this manner their object was paralysed, and 
 in the meantime the Order in Council was still 
 brought into rigid operation ; and for the most trivial 
 offences a fine never less than 10 was inflicted on 
 every master or mistress (for sometimes even a mis- 
 tress would lose her temper and slap a termagant, 
 whose aim and pleasure it became to bring their 
 mistress to the utmost verge of passion) ; and in 
 more serious cases the parties were tried by indict- 
 ment, and very heavy penalties inflicted ; and such 
 became the universal detestation of the law and its 
 effects, that it is not too much to say that the slave- 
 owners generally became anxious for the day which 
 was to put an end to the torture which they were 
 suffering under the lash of this law. 
 
 That Act, so wished for, was at length passed by 
 the Imperial Parliament in August, 1833, and in the 
 beginning of the following year a new Governor 
 (Sir Benjamin D'Urban) came out with express 
 orders to carry it into operation. 
 
 By that Act, on the ist of December, 1834, slavery 
 was for ever to be abolished in the colony ; and the 
 late slaves, after passing through four years of 
 apprenticeship, were finally to be free from all 
 control on the ist December, 1838. During that 
 interval of four years the arrangements were also 
 to be completed, by which the .20,000,000,
 
 ii.] APPRAISEMENT OF SLAVES 53 
 
 generously awarded by the British nation as a 
 compensation to the slave-owners, were to be 
 apportioned out to each colony, and paid over to 
 those whose slaves were to be put in freedom. 
 
 The amount to be awarded to each colony, and 
 more particularly to each slave-owner, was thus at 
 first altogether problematical. Appraisers were 
 appointed by the Government, who were ordered 
 to examine personally every slave, and setting aside 
 every consideration arising from a pretium affectionis 
 (as lawyers term it), were to bring them all within 
 certain classifications and fix an average value upon 
 them. 
 
 This appraisement was conducted with perfect 
 fairness (with the single exception of the district 
 of George, where it was shown to be palpably 
 corrupt, and was accordingly revised and amended) ; 
 and the returns showed that upon 35,745 slaves 
 found within the colony a sum of about 3,000,000 
 would be required to pay for them, thus yielding an 
 average of about 85 a head. 
 
 The slave proprietors at once admitted the right 
 of the Government in the exercise of its dominium 
 eminens to take from every private person any 
 property for the attainment of a public good ; and 
 they appeared generally satisfied, even with this 
 appraised value, although in very many instances 
 (from the prices I have already stated that slaves 
 were readily sold for) it was clear that serious loss 
 would be sustained, and chiefly by persons who
 
 54 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 possessed the most valuable slaves. But it was soon 
 seen that this appraisement had still to undergo the 
 rule of reduction, and that the object of the appraise- 
 ment was not to ascertain the average amount which 
 every slave-owner would receive, but only the pro- 
 portion which would be awarded to each colony out 
 of the compensation fund of 20,000,000 ; and upon 
 that computation being made by the commissioners 
 at home, it soon proved that instead of 3,000,000 
 which the slave-owners at the Cape expected to 
 receive, the sum of 1,200,000 only would be avail- 
 able for them, thus reducing the average value of 
 each slave per head from 85 to 33 12s. ; and I 
 cannot give a more striking instance of the loss so 
 sustained by the proprietors of valuable slaves than 
 by stating in my own case that for a slave for whom 
 I had frequently refused 500, and might have 
 commanded 600, I found, according to the highest 
 average for that class of slaves, a sum of 60 
 nominally awarded to me, but by the mode of 
 payment ultimately received even that pittance 
 reduced to 47 or 48. 
 
 This sudden and extraordinary reduction in the 
 amount to be received from what had previously 
 been anticipated proved ruinous to many families, 
 as the capitalists to whom many of these slaves were 
 mortgaged, foreseeing that they would not be paid 
 out of the compensation fund, immediately com- 
 menced proceedings against the principal debtors 
 and sureties, sold off their goods and chattels, and
 
 II.] GRIEVANCES OF SLAVE-OWNERS 55 
 
 thus reduced many respectable families to distress, 
 if not to actual want. 
 
 But the evils arising to the colonists did not stop 
 there. When the assistant commissioners in the 
 colony had so far proceeded in their work as to 
 make out the proportionate sums which were to 
 be awarded to each proprietor, it became known 
 that these amounts could only be received at the 
 Bank of England, and had to go through various 
 forms, at various offices in London, before such 
 payments could be made. This they at once saw 
 would be placing them at the mercy of certain 
 agents, through whom alone this could be accom- 
 plished ; and a very numerous meeting of slave- 
 owners was again held in Cape Town, from which 
 emanated a respectful petition to the Government, 
 praying that the amount awarded to each person 
 might be paid them "in the colony," either in cash 
 or by Treasury drafts, thus ensuring to them at 
 least the certainty of receiving the sums finally 
 awarded without any deductions. But this petition 
 was at once rejected as inexpedient or impracticable, 
 and all the slave-owners (not ten of whom had any 
 personal agent in England) were driven to the 
 necessity of resorting to a few persons in Cape Town, 
 and Graham's Town, who (setting themselves up as 
 alone acquainted with the requisite forms) bought 
 up these certificates at 18 to 20, and in the country 
 districts (I verily believe) from 25 to 30 per cent, 
 discount, bringing down this paltry pittance already
 
 56 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 reduced to one-third of the appraised value of their 
 slaves, as certified by the Government appraisers 
 themselves still further to about one-fifth cf that 
 amount. And can it then be wondered at, that 
 very many persons thus reduced to absolute want 
 and ruin should have been unmeasured in their 
 abuse of a Government which, intent upon one 
 great and laudable object, yet appeared determined 
 upon carrying it through, utterly regardless of the 
 master's rights and interests ; and that some of them 
 became so incensed against the Government that 
 they have to this day indignantly rejected the paltry 
 sum awarded to them, although repeatedly pressed 
 upon them ; so that the Colonial Government holds 
 still at this moment about $ooo unpaid, which 
 those entitled to receive it will not take, although 
 tendered to them again and again, as its receipt 
 would only deprive them of what they conceive to 
 be a legitimate cause of grievance. 
 
 In this state of feeling then, when most of the 
 slave-owners had seen their nominal compensation 
 frittered away to the smallest possible fraction, the 
 sun rose on the eventful ist of December, 1838, to 
 shed its lustre on a day of universal and unrestricted 
 freedom to all persons in Southern Africa ; and it is 
 but just to add that the perfect propriety of de- 
 meanour with which that blessing was hailed and 
 accepted by 35,000 individuals, has fully established 
 their capacity for the enjoyment of those privileges 
 which they have now possessed for thirteen years.
 
 II.] RESULTS OF ABOLITION 57 
 
 Yet no words can adequately convey the effect 
 which that day produced also on the prospects of 
 the whole of the agricultural interests throughout 
 the colony. 
 
 In and near Cape Town, where a large population 
 of free blacks, and persons willing to engage in 
 service, were found ready to supply the place of 
 these emancipated slaves, their departure (although 
 attended with some inconvenience and additional 
 expense) could in some measure be supplied ; but 
 no pen can describe how, in the country districts, 
 this migration was felt. Masters and mistresses 
 who, up to the evening before, had forty, fifty, and 
 some eighty persons engaged in keeping up ex- 
 tensive farming establishments, saw, in one moment, 
 the whole of their farming pursuits and plans 
 destroyed : no bribe nor entreaty, 1 believe, did 
 avail in one single instance to induce any one of 
 these now free persons to stay over that day ; for 
 a lady having a pet canary pent up for months or 
 years in a cage (the object of her most tender care 
 and affection) might as soon expect to keep it in, 
 if setting the cage door open, as that the entreaties 
 of their masters and mistresses would be heeded on 
 such an occasion ; and as misfortunes, proverbially, 
 never come singly, the day for this general eman- 
 cipation, without any thought of, or reference to, 
 the general interests of the colony, had been fixed 
 for the very midst of the wheat harvest, which was 
 seriously affected by it; for although in a very few
 
 $8 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 instances some hands were induced by large rewards 
 to stay just to cut down the crop, yet they also 
 immediately followed their companions, all crowding 
 to the towns and villages, where they could find 
 ready subsistence and easy work ; so that on that 
 day not only many of the agricultural farmers saw 
 themselves reduced to poverty and distress by the 
 paltry payments they had received, but were more- 
 over deprived of the only means of cultivating their 
 farms profitably for the future ; and although this 
 state of depression has in some measure at present 
 subsided in and near the capital, where many of 
 these slaves have again voluntarily returned to those 
 habits in which they had been brought up, and where 
 the farmers, from a proximity to the market, could 
 afford, or at least were compelled, to give somewhat 
 remunerating wages for labour, yet in the eastern 
 country districts this was impossible, and the agri- 
 culturists there found themselves totally deprived 
 of every vestige of labour to improve or cultivate 
 their farms, or even to superintend or herd their 
 flocks. 
 
 III. I shall now proceed to the third and last 
 cause of general grievance felt throughout the 
 eastern province. 
 
 In my last lecture I noticed that after the war 
 of 1812 the Kafirs had been completely expelled 
 out of the Cape Colony, and that a number of 
 stockaded posts, stationed at short intervals along 
 the whole line of the frontier, effectually secured
 
 II.] ENCROACHMENT BY KAFIRS 59 
 
 the country against the inroad of a single marauding 
 Kafir ; but it was evident that such a system could 
 only be maintained by unceasing vigilance, and by 
 a very strong military force, chiefly of cavalry, to 
 scour the intermediate country; and for upwards of 
 two years after that period, in addition to the 
 military detachments, a number of armed burghers, 
 out of every district, were regularly " commanded " 
 and kept up under military discipline to furnish 
 these posts. I have myself seen parties stationed 
 along the Fish River, from the Worcester and Clan- 
 william districts, who, for eighteen months, had thus 
 been kept on this harassing duty. Their incessant 
 complaints, however, had led to their being gradually 
 withdrawn ; but unfortunately, in consequence of 
 the great reduction of the army at the general peace 
 of 1815, the military force was not only greatly 
 reduced, but the strong and efficient body of cavalry 
 which had hitherto maintained a rapid intercourse 
 between all these posts was also removed from the 
 colony, rendering it necessary to abandon most of 
 these stations on the outer line of the frontier, and 
 to limit the defence of that country to the head- 
 quarters at Graham's Town, and one or two other 
 isolated stations. 
 
 The Kafirs (and particularly those of the tribe of 
 T'Sambie and Congo, who had been dispossessed 
 of their favourite haunts in Lower Albany) at once 
 watched and seized the opportunity for gradually 
 recovering that country, and recommenced their
 
 60 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 system of plunder, rendering that country so in- 
 secure that the inhabitants, in November, 1816, 
 represented in the strongest terms their distress on 
 the frontier; how all the advantages of the great 
 commando of 1812 had been lost, and that they 
 would be compelled to abandon their farms on the 
 line of that frontier. 
 
 This induced the then Governor, Lord Charles 
 Somerset, to repair personally to the frontier, and 
 in April, 1817, he had a formal interview with Gaika, 
 T'Sambie, and almost all the other great chiefs, who 
 (as usual) expressed themselves most anxious to 
 maintain peace, throwing the blame of the depreda- 
 tions complained of on young warriors, who would 
 go out on these forays without their sanction ; but 
 upon receiving the further assurance that no reprisals 
 were intended, and that the Government neither 
 wanted their land nor cattle, they seem, for a time, 
 to have exerted their influence with some effect, for 
 the country may be said to have again enjoyed a 
 short interval of complete repose and security. 
 
 Many farmers from the interior, in consequence 
 gradually resumed their lands in the Zuurveld, and 
 it was remarkable that the tribe of the Amakozee, 
 under Gaika, who was at that time directed by the 
 Rev. Mr. Williams, proved themselves to be the most 
 faithful in carrying out their engagement with the 
 Government 
 
 The herds of the farmers soon increasing afforded, 
 however, again an irresistible attraction to the tribes
 
 ii.] A TEMPORARY CHECK 61 
 
 of T'Sambie and Congo, who under the cover of the 
 Kap and the Fish River bushes could at any time 
 get into Albany ; and in 1 8 1 8 the old system of 
 plunder and forays again commenced, and was 
 carried on to a great extent ; and what is more 
 remarkable, either from family feuds or (as they 
 openly alleged) complaining that Gaika was too 
 faithful an ally to the British Government, they 
 openly declared war upon him, and in a single en- 
 gagement overthrew all his forces, capturing his wives 
 and his cattle, and thus threw him entirely upon the 
 Government for protection. 
 
 As Gaika had certainly proved faithful ever since 
 the treaty of 1817, the Government sent a military 
 force, under Colonel Brereton, to support and restore 
 him to his authority. A series of engagements 
 ensued, in the course of which T'Sambie and Congo 
 were utterly defeated, Gaika was replaced in his 
 former position as the great chief, and a large 
 quantity of cattle was taken, which was divided 
 between Gaika's tribe and such of the farmers as 
 had been called out in aid of the military. 
 
 The force then sent out, although quite sufficient 
 to inflict chastisement, was still unable to shut up 
 and guard all the passes into the colony, so that 
 those tribes soon again recommenced, or rather 
 continued, their hostilities, displaying then all the 
 art and ability in the conduct of such wars, at 
 which they have since become such perfect adepts. 
 Watching their opportunity from the vantage
 
 62 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 grounds which they held on the eastern banks of 
 the Fish River, they made two successful sallies upon 
 two small military patrols marching along that river, 
 in both of which the commanders (Captain Gethin 
 and Lieutenant Hunt) and a large portion of the 
 military fell, the former of whom (Captain Gethin) 
 was, without exception, one of the finest officers in 
 His Majesty's service, who had commanded the 
 forlorn hope in the last daring assault of St. 
 Sebastian, and had been the first to plant the 
 British standard upon those walls which had twice 
 resisted successfully the most murderous and best- 
 planned storming parties. 
 
 To punish such unceasing attacks another "com- 
 mando " on a larger scale was called out in March, 
 1819, under the command of Colonel Wiltshire (the 
 conqueror of Kelat), and this " commando," from the 
 small military force then in the colony, was to con- 
 sist mainly of the armed lev/e en masse of the male 
 population of the eastern and western provinces ; 
 but while these parties called out from each of these 
 distant districts were collecting, and their advance 
 impeded by that fatal disease (the horse-sickness), 
 which at certain intervals breaks out in the eastern 
 province (carrying off almost all the horses kept 
 in the field), these tribes of T'Sambie and Congo, 
 headed or rather excited (as in the present war) 
 by one of those witch-doctors,* who occasionally 
 
 * The name of this witch-doctor was " Lynx." He was sub- 
 sequently captured and sent into captivity to Robben Island, from
 
 II.] DEFEAT OF THE KAFIRS 63 
 
 succeed in elevating them to a state of fanaticism, 
 adopted a plan which had hitherto been supposed 
 as impossible to expect from them. Emerging at 
 the break of day from out of the Fish River bush, 
 a force of about eight to ten thousand men were 
 suddenly seen to blacken the eastern horizon, ad- 
 vancing in battle array upon the attack of the very 
 headquarters of the military at Graham's Town. 
 Two field-pieces (six-pounders) were providentially 
 ready on the spot, and these, with a small military 
 force then at hand, immediately advanced out of 
 the town to repel the invasion, but, surrounded and 
 pressed by overwhelming numbers, they were com- 
 pelled to fall back ; the field -pieces had thrice to 
 be limbered up and take up positions in the rear, 
 and it was not until they had taken up their last 
 stand in and among the few houses then forming 
 that town that the deadly grape and canister dis- 
 charged upon them took effect and compelled them 
 to retire. 
 
 This display of their force and daring, and of the 
 precarious tenure on which the frontier was held, at 
 length forced our rulers to adopt the suggestion 
 which, years before, had been pressed upon them, 
 viz., that it was "physically" impossible to protect 
 the frontier with the dense Fish River bush in the 
 
 whence he made a desperate effort, with two or three other convicts, 
 to escape by means of a boat which they seized, but in endeavouring 
 to land on the opposite shore of Blauwberg the boat was swamped and 
 all the runaways perished.
 
 64 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 possession of the Kafirs, and accordingly the order 
 was at length given to Colonel Wiltshire to expel 
 the Kafirs from the country between the Fish River 
 and the Keiskamma, and to seize and occupy that 
 country, which was more open and easily defended. 
 
 This commando (or second general war) was also 
 crowned with complete success ; a vast colonial force 
 was at length brought together, and by a series of 
 able and combined operations the Kafirs were driven 
 completely out of those fastnesses, and the country 
 between the Fish River and Keiskamma became 
 occupied by the Government forces. 
 
 But even then the Colonial Government was so 
 averse to extending this colony that orders had 
 been already issued to give up again that inter- 
 vening country to Gaika and his tribe, as he had 
 ever since 1813 succeeded in impressing upon the 
 Government that he had been inviolably faithful 
 to them, and having in fact owed his life and 
 restoration to power to their assistance in 1817. 
 Yet in the course of these operations it was found 
 that his men were engaged among the ranks of 
 those who had openly attacked Graham's Town ; 
 that many of his leading guides had taken a 
 prominent part therein, and that his chief interpreter, 
 Hendrik Nootka, had been shot in the very act of 
 attempting to stab Colonel Wiltshire in the attack 
 on Graham's Town. 
 
 Before finally adopting any measure in regard to 
 that territory, Lord Charles Somerset therefore again
 
 II.] AN UNSATISFACTORY TREATY 65 
 
 repaired to the frontier in 1819, and there concluded 
 a formal treaty with Gaika and all the Kafir chiefs 
 assembled on Somerset Mount, when he pointed 
 out to them the absolute necessity which their 
 incessant attacks during the last seven years had 
 forced upon the Government of incorporating that 
 tract of country ; and with their entire concurrence 
 the terms were agreed upon, by which it was 
 stipulated " that all Kafirs should evacuate the 
 country between the Great Fish River and the 
 Kieskamma, and from the boundary of the colony 
 on the opposite side to a line drawn from the 
 Winterberg to the sources of the Kieskamma." It 
 was, however, further agreed that this country should 
 not be occupied by the farmers but lie open, form- 
 ing, as it were, a neutral ground between the two 
 nations. 
 
 It certainly does appear to us now, judging ex 
 post facto and after a lapse of years, as somewhat 
 extraordinary, that persons possessed of the in- 
 telligence which distinguished both our then Gover- 
 nor and those around him should have adopted 
 a measure which the most ordinary common sense 
 of any practical peasant at once foretold was to 
 be again the cause of endless dispute, and, in fact, 
 of the undoing of everything that had been done 
 before. 
 
 The Governor had no sooner returned to Cape 
 Town than small parties of Kafirs again felt their 
 way into this ground ; and upon the government
 
 66 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 of the colony falling into the hands of Sir Rufane 
 Donkin, as acting Governor, during the years 1820 
 and 1821, he immediately saw the folly of such 
 treaty, and, repairing to the frontier, he effected a 
 modification in its terms, by which the Kafir chiefs 
 at once declared, that though they strongly objected 
 to isolated farmers being settled therein (as these 
 would be liable to be plundered, which would bring 
 the nations again at war), they yet agreed that 
 military posts should be stationed therein, and that 
 under their protection a body of British emigrants, 
 who had just then entered the Albany district, should 
 be placed and concentrated near such posts. 
 
 Upon this understanding, then, the military posts 
 of Frederick's Burg and Fort Wiltshire were estab- 
 lished in this from that time called "ceded" ter- 
 ritory, at each of which it was contemplated to 
 keep an efficient military force as a vanguard for the 
 protection of our frontier, and in the meanwhile 
 the attention of the Home Government had been 
 directed to the capabilities of the Albany district, 
 and 5000 emigrants arrived under the aid of a grant 
 from Parliament, where lands were distributed 
 among them, which, it was hoped, would form the 
 nucleus of a thriving population, and prevent at 
 once the reoccupation of that district by the Kafirs. 
 
 Everything that an enlightened and humane policy 
 could devise was now set on foot to promote friendly 
 relations with the Kafir tribes. Fairs were estab- 
 lished, where they might come to buy and sell what-
 
 II.] A REVERSAL OF POLICY 67 
 
 ever they required or wished to dispose of; passes 
 were offered to all those who wanted to enter the 
 colony, and for a short time peace and amity seemed 
 to prevail. But, unfortunately, on the return of 
 Lord Charles Somerset the policy of occupying the 
 " ceded " ground was abandoned : the post of 
 Frederick's Burg was ordered to be broken up ; the 
 applications by emigrants for lands in that district 
 were refused, and those which had been partially 
 granted or promised were revoked, and to their 
 surprise the Kafirs saw that the bone of contention, 
 which they had been compelled reluctantly to yield, 
 was again given up and virtually surrendered to 
 them, in consequence of which small parties of 
 Kafirs were seen again gradually taking possession 
 of that country ; and although no open rupture took 
 place, and, on the contrary, every encouragement 
 was held out to them to attend the fairs and keep 
 up friendly relations with the recently - arrived 
 emigrants, who freely entered with them into trade 
 or traffic, yet not a month passed by that some 
 cattle were not carried off, and that some life was 
 not lost, so that the utmost vigilance was required 
 to prevent a general incursion or attack upon the 
 frontier. To check any attempt of that kind the 
 Cape Corps, which was now almost the only pro- 
 tection for the frontier, was gradually transformed 
 into a cavalry corps, and they no doubt very 
 efficiently guarded that boundary line from any overt 
 attack ; yet this constant state of insecurity soon
 
 68 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 extended itself up to the Winterberg and Somerset 
 districts, and along the whole line of that country 
 it became quite impossible for any farmer to consider 
 his life or property secure. In the year 1828 the 
 old chief T'Sambie died, and his death was soon 
 followed by that of Gaika, in 1829; and in a short 
 time a very perceptible change took place in these 
 two great clans, which immediately bordered OUT 
 frontier. T'Sambie's successors were Pato, Kama, 
 and Cobus Congo ; these had intermixed a good deal 
 with the emigrants, and, under the able guidance 
 and instruction of the Rev. W. Shaw, had been 
 perceptibly improved both in their habits and feel- 
 ings, and the effect of such improvement was soon 
 apparent in their more earnest desire to maintain 
 peace with the colonies. 
 
 The Amakozee tribe, on the contrary, now fell 
 under the sway of Macomo and Tjalee, the first of 
 whom, although Gaika's eldest son, not being of 
 such high descent on the mother's side, was not 
 acknowledged as sole or paramount chief, but seemed 
 to derive an equal authority with his younger brother 
 Tjalee. Writing of the former (Macomo), it is 
 singular that Colonel Scott should have prophetically 
 stated in 1822 "that he promised to give much 
 trouble to the colony," although Colonel Scott could 
 little expect that during thirty years this chieftain 
 should prove so formidable, as he has continued to 
 show himself up to the present moment. 
 
 However, under their authority the Amakozee
 
 II.] ZULU INVASION OF KAFIRLAND 69 
 
 soon became more and more daring, so that the 
 Government felt driven to the necessity of estab- 
 lishing a post at Fort Beaufort ; but about that time 
 a singular occurrence took place, somewhat con- 
 nected with this district, which ought not to be 
 passed by unnoticed. 
 
 Chaka, the great Zulu chief, having depopulated 
 this entire district, made, in the year 1828, a most 
 savage inroad upon Kafirland Proper, with an over- 
 whelming force. Having first overrun this district, 
 and ravaged the country of the Amapondas, he 
 drove the remnant of all these tribes, under the 
 name of Fetcanee, upon the Kafirs ; and such was 
 the terror of their name that the latter implored the 
 aid of the Government against this formidable 
 enemy. All the burgher forces near the frontier 
 were again hastily called out to take arms, troops 
 were collected, and this force crossing the Kye 
 advanced to the Umtata, where in some partial 
 engagement the dreaded foe was repulsed, although 
 I believe it is a matter of doubt to this day whether 
 the foe thus defeated was part of Chaka's forces, 
 or only tribes of Amapondas and others which had 
 fled before him. However, after this harassing duty 
 was again passed by, Chaka retreated, and was 
 murdered in this district, near the Umvoti River, 
 by his brother Umslangaan, and other councillors 
 who were about him ; and these again, but a few 
 days after, were all butchered by Dingaan, who thus 
 became undisputed chief of the Zulus.
 
 70 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 The force then displayed by the Government, 
 and the aid immediately afforded to the Kafirs, 
 showed them again the earnest desire of the 
 Government to promote peace with them ; and of 
 this they received a striking proof. On an occa- 
 sion a farmer having reported to a military officer 
 that 1 20 head of cattle had been taken from him, 
 a Lieutenant Ross went upon some traces, which 
 led to a Kafir kraal, where these cattle not being 
 forthcoming the same number were exacted, and 
 given up ; but, a few days after, the farmer having 
 reported that the cattle supposed to have been 
 stolen had been found by him elsewhere, the whole 
 number of cattle were immediately again restored 
 to the kraal from which they had been obtained. 
 
 From facts such as these the Kafirs ought to have 
 seen that nothing but the most friendly disposition 
 was felt towards them by the Government, but a 
 cankerous sort of irritation unquestionably con- 
 tinued to prey upon them, from the false step which 
 the Government had first taken in regard to the 
 neutral or ceded territory. The moment the Kafirs 
 saw that it was not fully taken possession of, nor 
 permanently occupied, they were unceasing in their 
 applications to be allowed at least to depasture 
 that tract of country. This being once conceded 
 they naturally formed their huts, and in the proper 
 season planted their gardens, thus virtually taking 
 entire possession ; but depredations again taking 
 place within the colony, after incessant and generally
 
 II.] A STATE OF UNREST 71 
 
 fruitless patrols to pursue and recover the cattle, a 
 strong military force had invariably to be sent into 
 that territory to eject those who had squatted down. 
 This was uniformly resisted, when the huts had to 
 be burnt, the gardens destroyed, and the occupants 
 again driven beyond the Keiskamma ; until, after 
 one or two seasons, upon urgent applications on 
 the plea of drought or bad crops, the like con- 
 cession was again made, to be again followed by 
 the same train of burning huts and ejectments, 
 and their expulsion from out of this territory. 
 
 In this state of unrest, then, the whole of the 
 inhabitants of the frontier were kept during fourteen 
 years. 
 
 There was no war declared with the Kafirs, yet 
 not a week passed that some robbery or plunder 
 was not committed. In this manner the stock of 
 the neighbouring farmers was gradually thinned 
 and swept away by incessant forays, which were 
 made either by young Kafirs whenever desirous of 
 possessing themselves of a few head of cattle to 
 purchase wives, or by older Kafirs, who having 
 been "eaten up" in their own kraals, were anxious 
 to restore themselves to wealth or authority : in all 
 such cases, however, any farmer complaining of 
 these robberies was generally accused by the 
 authorities of either exaggeration or of downright 
 falsehood in his statements ; and when in the 
 attempt to recover his cattle any collision took 
 place with the Kafirs the latter were very generally
 
 72 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. 
 
 excused, some blame was uniformly tried to be 
 thrown on the farmer, and it became but too 
 manifest that the Government did not wish to 
 acknowledge the existence of a state of insecurity, 
 which they either hoped would gradually pass 
 away, or, if admitted, would only compel them 
 openly to declare and commence an active war. 
 
 Upon this principle, then, the Government would 
 not admit the extent of these injuries, and seemed 
 inclined rather to expose their subjects to these 
 losses than provoke hostilities with an enemy whom 
 they were not inclined to cope with. 
 
 During this same period the capabilities of this 
 district of Natal had become obscurely known 
 from the visits of Lieutenant Farewell and Captain 
 King, and the accounts of several of their com- 
 panions being brought to the Cape, a society was 
 soon formed for the exploration of Southern Africa ; 
 and Dr. Smith, with a very respectable party of 
 travellers, was fully equipped to examine and 
 report upon its condition and advantages. He 
 succeeded in exploring the Bay of Natal and 
 visiting Dingaan in his chief town of Umkongloof, 
 and the accounts which he brought back first 
 attracted the attention of the Dutch farmers to 
 this district with a view to occupying the same. 
 They quietly collected fourteen waggons, and a party 
 headed by Piet Uys, Cobus Uys, Hans de Lange, 
 Stephanus Maritz, and Gert Rudolph, started from 
 Uitenhage in the beginning of the year 1834, taking
 
 ii.] A DUTCH EXPLORING PARTY 73 
 
 the lower route along the eastern slopes of the 
 Quathlamba or Drakensberg range, following 
 nearly in the same track by which Dr. Smith and 
 his party had explored this district. Their arrival 
 agreeably surprised the small party of English 
 who had settled themselves down at the Bay, where 
 Messrs. Ogle, Toohey, and King (who are now 
 amongst us, and the only survivors of those settlers) 
 gave them a hearty reception, from whose accounts, 
 and from their own explorations of the country, 
 they soon came to the conclusion that this would 
 be a country in every way suited to them and 
 their countrymen ; they loitered here some time, 
 shooting and examining the country, and would 
 have pursued their explorations still further if they 
 had not been suddenly startled by the astounding 
 intelligence that the Kafirs had made a sudden 
 general irruption into the eastern province, and thus 
 provoked a third Kafir war. 
 
 This compelled them to beat a hasty retreat, 
 and they most providentially succeeded in returning 
 unattacked through the whole of Kafirland, while 
 the Kafirs, having deserted their own country, ap- 
 peared wholly intent upon laying waste the eastern 
 districts of the colony. 
 
 Some of the details of that war, as bearing directly 
 upon the emigrant farmers, and their reasons for final 
 expatriation in large bodies, must, however, be re- 
 served for a future lecture, as I fear I have already 
 too long trespassed upon your time and patience ;
 
 74 THREE GREAT GRIEVANCES [LECT. n. 
 
 but in the next I hope I shall be able to conclude 
 in setting them down in this district, and show- 
 ing how they ultimately succeeded in attaining that 
 
 object. 
 
 " Per varies casus et tot discrimina rerum." 
 
 " Through such varieties of woe they tend 
 T'wards fair Natal, where all their toil shall end."
 
 LECTURE III. 
 
 SEEKING A NEW HOME 
 
 MY last lecture brought us to the first ex- 
 ploratory visit paid by a small party of 
 Dutch farmers to Natal with a view of ascertaining 
 its capabilities, and to the general state of the 
 eastern frontier at the outbreak of the third general 
 Kafir war of 1834. That year had been marked 
 (as I have already said) by Sir Benjamin D' Urban 
 (without compare the best Governor with which the 
 Cape Colony has ever been favoured) having assumed 
 the government of the country. Two very serious 
 duties were, however, demanded from him im- 
 mediately upon his taking the administration of the 
 government : the one was to organise and set in 
 operation a Legislative Council, which was then just 
 granted to the colony, as a stepping-stone towards 
 more liberal political institutions ; the next was to 
 enact various laws and regulations, incident on the 
 abolition of slavery and the transition of all the 
 slave population into a class of apprentices for a 
 limited period. It will be easily understood that the 
 time of a Governor who read attentively every paper 
 
 75
 
 76 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 that was transmitted to the Colonial Office, and 
 who generally drew out every document emanat- 
 ing therefrom, must have been fully engrossed 
 with these two important duties ; and during that 
 period (I am personally aware) his mind was much 
 harassed by the most conflicting accounts he received 
 as to the state of the frontier and our relations with 
 the Kafir tribes. 
 
 The leading practical men about the frontier, and 
 the public press at Graham's Town, represented that 
 frontier as in a very alarming and precarious position, 
 and that the Kafirs were undisguisedly evincing a 
 very hostile feeling ; while a party in Cape Town, 
 under the influence of the Rev. Dr. Philip and of 
 the editor of the Commercial Advertiser newspaper, 
 represented them as peaceably inclined, and ready 
 to enter into any arrangements based on the prin- 
 ciples of justice and fairness, ascribing all the alarming 
 accounts received from the frontier not only to fear, 
 but to the base and unworthy motive of trying only 
 thereby to have a strong military force, and con- 
 sequent large expenditure, kept up in that province ; 
 and the contemptuous view taken by that party of 
 the representations, both of the colonists and the 
 former Government, as to the insecurity of that part 
 of the colony, cannot be better shown than by quoting 
 the following passage from one of the numbers of the 
 Commercial Advertiser, published a short time before 
 the arrival of Sir Benjamin D' Urban in the Cape 
 Colony, to this effect :
 
 in.] A PEACEFUL POLICY 77 
 
 " The murders by Kafirs, of which the Colonial Govern- 
 ment prate so fluently, are to be found only on the lips 
 of lying men or in the imagination of the timid Cockneys 
 and pin- makers who shrink from the bold eyes of a natural 
 man. 
 
 "We cannot, however, allow a single day to elapse with- 
 out declaring that the alarm expressed with regard to these 
 people (the Kafirs) have no foundation, that the accusations 
 brought against them were false, and that the clamour (we 
 feel convinced) was raised for the purpose of concealing a 
 system and series of frauds practised by some of the white 
 English inhabitants against and upon these people. 
 
 "When Government hear of any outcry they have only 
 to give a gentle hint that Dr. Philip, or the editor of this 
 paper, are about to make a tour in that direction, and 
 iniquity will hide its head, sin will be felled like an ox, 
 and all the enemies of righteousness will be scattered like 
 sheep ! " 
 
 With opinions so directly opposed to each other, 
 it is not at all surprising that Sir Benjamin D'Urban 
 should have determined to try, at least in the first 
 instance, the policy advocated by those inclined to- 
 wards peace and amity with the Kafirs, and he 
 accordingly availed himself of the very person thus 
 held out as able to " scatter the enemies of righteous- 
 ness like sheep," and authorised Dr. Philip (who was 
 going to visit the Kat River Settlements and the 
 London Missionary Institutions on the frontier) to 
 court a conference with the principal Kafir chiefs ; 
 to announce to them his Excellency's friendly dis- 
 position towards them, and his anxious desire to
 
 78 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 settle personally and permanently with them the 
 future relations which were to be kept up between 
 the two countries. The reports which his Ex- 
 cellency received during the middle of that year 
 from this and other quarters led him still more to 
 hope that peace would not be disturbed until he 
 had personally visited the frontier, and towards 
 the end of that year I accompanied our worthy 
 Chief Justice, Sir John Wylde, on circuit, when, 
 after the court business at Graham's Town was 
 ended, we were led to anticipate a friendly inter- 
 course with the chiefs Macomo and Tjalee at the 
 Chumie, where Colonel Somerset had given them 
 an intimation of his and our visit. But the recep- 
 tion which we received was marked with such a 
 spirit of hostility, as compelled the Rev. Mr. 
 Chalmers himself to admit that the behaviour of 
 the whole of the clans around him had assumed 
 so decidedly hostile an appearance as to render it 
 necessary for the public functionaries to be prepared 
 for some general outbreak ; and on our return to 
 Cape Town, at a numerous convivial meeting, to 
 which Sir Benjamin had invited myself and family 
 on New Year's Eve, I could not help dilating some- 
 what at length on the hostile disposition of these 
 tribes, to which His Excellency appeared to listen 
 with particular interest ; but nothing else indicated 
 the slightest disturbance in society, except (what 
 was only remembered afterwards by some of us) 
 that Sir Benjamin had occasionally absented him-
 
 HI.] THE KAFIRS INVADE CAPE COLONY 79 
 
 self for a few minutes from the party. Good humour 
 and hilarity prevailed until we had hailed in the new 
 year, when every one gradually retired to their 
 homes ; but on the next morning, on returning to 
 town, I found the astounding intelligence universally 
 spread abroad that the evening before His Excel- 
 lency had received the account that the Kafirs, to 
 the number of 12,000 or 15,000 men, had invaded 
 the whole frontier from every quarter on Christmas 
 Day, burning and destroying every farmhouse, mur- 
 dering the inhabitants, and carrying away all their 
 cattle and property. 
 
 Still doubting this information, from the imper- 
 turbable good humour which had prevailed at 
 Government House the night before, I could not 
 resist applying personally in that quarter for in- 
 formation, and appealing to His Excellency as to 
 the truth of that report. He, in his wonted gentle 
 and yet firm manner, not only confirmed the report, 
 but jocularly observed that he had received the sad 
 intelligence while we were assembled there, but that 
 he had done immediately all that could be done, and 
 had not wished to disturb the harmony of the party 
 by divulging such intelligence. 
 
 That night already all orders had been given to 
 despatch every disposable soldier ; to call out all the 
 burgher forces, and to send off Colonel Smith, the 
 Quartermaster-General of the forces (and now our 
 worthy Governor-in-Chief), who had started in the 
 middle of the night, and in five days reached
 
 8o SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 Graham's Town, where he found everything in an 
 indescribable state of panic and confusion. 
 
 This attack had been so little expected and pro- 
 vided against that a force of about 750 men, of all 
 arms, spread in small parties over the whole eastern 
 frontier, and from uoo to 1200 men, constituted the 
 whole military force in the colony. 
 
 All that Colonel Smith could consequently do 
 at Graham's Town was to restore some confidence 
 in the community, to organise some volunteer force 
 on the spot, and to guard the few military posts, 
 while another levte en masse of all the young 
 and able-bodied farmers throughout the colony was 
 again called out, and those who did not fall within 
 that "conscription" were still required to furnish 
 horses, cattle, waggons, supplies of food and the 
 like, upon a vague promise of being afterwards 
 indemnified ; and in this manner a very respectable 
 force marched immediately from every district of 
 the colony, fully equipped by their own relatives 
 and friends. And chiefly with this force, animated 
 by the greatest enthusiasm, and aided by one or 
 two regiments, which subsequently reached the 
 colony, Sir Benjamin D'Urban was enabled not 
 only to expel the Kafirs again out of the colony, 
 but to drive them across the Kye, where, after the 
 death of Hintza, he succeeded in dictating the 
 terms of their surrender, and to lay down the basis 
 of what was fondly hoped would secure the per- 
 manent peace and tranquillity of the frontier.
 
 in.] GOVERNOR D'URBAN'S PLAN 81 
 
 It is not my purpose, nor does it belong to the 
 object of these lectures, to enter into a detail of the 
 military or political arrangements effected by that 
 excellent Governor.* It will suffice to state that 
 chiefly owing to the exertions of the burghers, and 
 the spirit in which they were led by Col. Smith, the 
 whole of Kaffraria up to the Kye was completely 
 cleared of the Kafirs, and Sir Benjamin dictated at 
 last to them the terms upon which he would accept 
 their submission. 
 
 His plan (I have reason to know) was at that time 
 to give out all the lands between the Fish River and 
 the Keiskamma (or what was already known as the 
 ceded or neutral territory) to such inhabitants as 
 had suffered most of the Kafir war, or to additional 
 
 * I cannot resist the pleasure of here introducing the noble and 
 generous sentiments lately expressed by Sir George Napier (the 
 Governor of the Cape Colony, who had been sent to supersede Sir 
 Benjamin D'Urban, and to introduce an entirely new system in our 
 relations with the Kafirs) in his examination before the House of 
 Commons, viz. : To the question put by Mr. Hawes (question 1600) : 
 Are you, or are you not, disposed to think that, taking a certain 
 military possession of Kafirland beyond the boundary of the Keis- 
 kamma that is to say, establishing military posts there, as has been done 
 by Sir Harry Smith, with the concurrence both of Sir Henry Pottinger 
 and Sir Peregrine Maitland has been so far successful that it has 
 prevented an irruption of the Kafirs into the colony proper ? Answer : 
 I think certainly it has. I went out, if I had any prejudice at all, 
 with a prejudice against the colonists, and against that former occupa- 
 tion of the ground by Sir Benjamin D'Urban and Sir Harry 'Smith, 
 and thinking that it would be better not to have them. My own experi- 
 ence and what I saw with my own eyes have confirmed me that I was 
 wrong, and that Sir Benjamin D'Urban was perfectly right ; that if 
 he meant to keep Kafirland under British rule the only way of doing 
 G
 
 82 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 emigrants or discharged soldiers and officers ; to give 
 out these lands under the express condition of per- 
 sonal occupation, and thus to form a belt of a dense 
 European population in advance of the Fish River 
 fastnesses. He intended further to allocate the 
 country between the Keiskamma and the Kye 
 among such of the Kafirs as had submitted, but 
 to keep over them an efficient military force and 
 a magisterial control ; and he intended still further 
 to urge upon the Local Legislature and the Home 
 Government to compensate liberally, if not fully, all 
 those who had been bond fide sufferers in the war. 
 
 These losses had been inquired into with the 
 greatest care and minuteness, and the official returns 
 showed that those sustained on the immediate frontier 
 amounted to : 
 
 456 farmhouses burnt and totally destroyed. 
 350 others partially pillaged and gutted. 
 60 waggons captured by the Kafirs and destroyed. 
 
 5,715 horses, j taken and 
 
 111,930 head of horned cattle, and > irrecoverably 
 161,930 sheep, J lost; 
 
 amounting in value to upwards of 300,000, inde- 
 pendent of the losses by persons who contributed to 
 the outfitting of the various " commandos " from each 
 district. 
 
 A few thousand recaptured cattle were, however, 
 
 so was by having a line of forts and maintaining troops in them. No 
 doubt it must be so, and if all those forts were well garrisoned and 
 provisioned it would answer very well.
 
 in.] AN ASTOUNDING DECLARATION 83 
 
 all the trophies of the war, and the feelings of the 
 inhabitants may easily be guessed at when amongst 
 these many breeding cattle and entire spans of oxen 
 were recognised by their former owners, but who 
 upon reclaiming them were told that they could not 
 be surrendered, as they were to be publicly sold in 
 order to compensate for part of the expenses of 
 war, but that "they" were hereafter to get ample 
 compensation. But what were their feelings, and 
 those of their gallant commander, when, after having 
 suffered these losses and encountered the dangers 
 of a most harassing war of fifteen months' duration, 
 a despatch was received from the then Secretary of 
 the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, dated 26th December, 
 1835 (which had been immediately published by the 
 home authorities through the Blue Book), containing 
 the most unreserved condemnation of the whole 
 policy and operations of the war, abusing in un- 
 measured language the barbarous manner in which 
 (the Secretary of State asserted) the war had 
 been conducted, and concluding with the following 
 extraordinary declaration (as emanating from His 
 Majesty's Government) touching the justice of the 
 war, viz. : 
 
 " Through a long series of years the Kafirs had an ample 
 justification of war ; they had to resent, and endeavoured 
 justly, though impotently, to avenge a series of encroach- 
 ments ; they had a perfect right to hazard the experiment, 
 however hopelessly, of extorting by force that redress 
 which they could not otherwise obtain ; and that the
 
 84 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 original justice is on the side of the conquered (the Kafirs), 
 and not (of) the victorious party ! ! " 
 
 A communication more cruel, unjust, and insulting 
 to the feelings not only of the commander, who, 
 wholly intent upon the most pacific and conciliatory 
 measures with the Kafirs, had been suddenly attacked 
 and seen the country placed under his authority and 
 protection invaded, but of the inhabitants, who had 
 not only been engaged in a twelve months' warfare 
 of the most harassing and dangerous character, but 
 who were smarting from a system pursued during 
 fourteen years by the local Government never afford- 
 ing them redress for their most serious losses and 
 grievances on this subject can hardly have been 
 penned by a declared enemy of the country and its 
 Governor; and it at once opened the eyes of the 
 colonists to what they had long suspected, viz., that 
 in the estimation of his then Majesty's Government 
 they were marked as the aggressors in the war and 
 the oppressors of the Kafir race ; that the latter, and 
 not " they," were entitled to sympathy and relief. 
 And that they were not wrong in these conclusions 
 soon became still more apparent, upon their being 
 informed that all their applications for indemnity for 
 the losses they had sustained were rejected ; that all 
 the grants of land about to be made to persons, even 
 within the country ceded to the Government ever 
 since the year 1817, were to be revoked and cancelled, 
 and that the Kafirs were to be fully reinstated in the
 
 in.] INSULT AND INJURY 85 
 
 possession of all the lands which by the terms of the 
 treaty of September, 1835, they had formally ceded 
 to His Majesty, his heirs and successors for ever ; and 
 moreover, when they heard that a Lieut.-Governor 
 had been appointed, whose opinions (as publicly 
 expressed in his examination before a Committee 
 of the House of Commons on the line of policy 
 to be observed towards the Kafirs) seemed at least 
 to hold out the prospect that these views of His 
 Majesty's Government would be carried out to the 
 letter. 
 
 To expect that an entire population thus insulted 
 and injured should still continue loyally and well- 
 affected towards the Government was as impossible 
 as to expect "that of thorns men should gather 
 figs, or that of a bramble-bush they should gather 
 grapes." 
 
 From that moment, then, the farmers throughout 
 the eastern province saw that the whole Hottentot 
 race, who had been their former praedial servants, 
 had been withdrawn from them, and were fast 
 assuming a certain "nationality" within the colony. 
 They had had the few slaves they possessed taken 
 from them at a ridiculous compensation, which 
 several had refused to accept ; and they now lastly 
 found their houses and farms burnt and destroyed, 
 their stocks and herds taken from them, without a 
 chance of redress or indemnity ; and from the policy 
 at once laid down by the Home Government they 
 further clearly saw that their lives and future pro-
 
 86 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 perties would for ever be endangered, and that even 
 the day of their again recovering their former wealth 
 would as certainly be marked by another irruption 
 and the sweeping away of their newly-acquired herds, 
 as effects must follow causes. 
 
 From that moment, therefore, it may be said that 
 the determination to quit the land of their fathers 
 became general and universal, and the leading 
 families in the Oliphant's Hoek, Gamtoos River, 
 along the Fish River, and Somerset, forming them- 
 selves into little knots, at once prepared for this 
 " Exodus," although there were, no doubt, some 
 persons or families, who joined this emigration, who 
 had also some private or personal cause for thus 
 expatriating, as, for instance, the Greylings, for 
 having been indicted and severely mulcted at the 
 Circuit Court at Uitenhage for contravening the 
 ordinance for the abolition of slavery ; W. S. van 
 der Merwe, for having a personal quarrel with the 
 civil commissioner of his district ; the late unfor- 
 tunate Retief, for having been insulted (as he con- 
 ceived) by the Lieutenant-Governor of the eastern 
 province ; and Piet Uys, on account of his wife 
 having been committed, in his absence, by virtue of 
 a warrant of a local magistrate, and taken before 
 him in custody as a prisoner. Yet these were 
 but " drops " in the ocean of emigration, an ocean 
 which, from that moment, began irresistibly to flow 
 into the interior of Africa, and from thence into 
 Natal.
 
 ill.] THE BEGINNING OF THE TREK 87 
 
 The beginning of the year 1836 was marked by 
 all the farms of those intending emigrants getting 
 into the market. They were readily bought up by 
 numerous speculators at Graham's Town, Somerset, 
 and adjoining places for ridiculously low prices, and 
 everything showed a settled determination to carry 
 out this expatriation on an extensive scale. The 
 local Government did all they could "indirectly," 
 through the magistracy and the clergy, to point out 
 the illegality and dangers of such a step ; rumours 
 were indirectly spread that the Government could 
 enforce the provisions of an English writ of Ne exeat 
 Regno to prevent this emigration, and for a moment 
 some little hesitation was apparent in their move- 
 ments, but a reply of the new Lieutenant-Governor, 
 Stockenstrom, to an address from the inhabitants of 
 Uitenhage, in August, 1836, upon his assuming his 
 government, soon removed all doubt on that subject, 
 for in that reply he made use of these remarkable 
 words : 
 
 " It is but candid at once to state that I am not aware 
 of any law which prevents any of His Majesty's subjects 
 from leaving his dominions and settling in another country, 
 and such a law, if it did exist, would be tyrannical and 
 oppressive ! " 
 
 This unreserved, though perhaps injudicious, ex- 
 pression of his opinion at once settled all their 
 doubts, and soon after this the first party, of about 
 200 persons, headed by Hendrik Potgieter, crossed
 
 88 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 the Orange River.* Bidding for ever farewell to the 
 Cape Colony they advanced to Thaba 'Nchu, where 
 the Barolong chief, Moroko (who at that time was 
 under the spiritual direction of one whom I am 
 happy to see sitting near me, as a member of this 
 society, the Rev. Mr. Archbell), gave them a most 
 friendly reception, where they obtained every facility 
 in depasturing their cattle. 
 
 These were soon followed by a more numerous 
 and wealthy party from Graaff-Reinet, headed by 
 Gert Maritz, and these were again succeeded by 
 other large parties from the Uitenhage and Albany 
 divisions, headed by the old patriarch, Jacobus Uys, 
 by Carl Landman, Gert Rudolph, and others. 
 
 Their numbers thus fast increasing in the Barolong 
 territory soon gave rise to divisions, and the older 
 emigrants, making way for the later arrivals, advanced 
 gradually along the banks of the Vaal River (or Ky 
 Gariep), in a northerly direction, until they came into 
 contact with the numerous and powerful tribe of the 
 Matabelee under Mazulekatze. 
 
 It is supposed that this sanguinary chieftain, having 
 been frequently attacked by the Zulu and Griqua 
 forces in that direction, was always particularly 
 jealous of any approach from that quarter. But the 
 farmers, of course, unaware of this disposition, con- 
 
 * A small party, headed by Carel Triechard, had preceded these, 
 and they advanced as far as Delagoa Bay, but were seized with the 
 coast fever, and only two survived of that whole party, who got back 
 to this district two years after, and are now still residing here.
 
 III.] ATTACKED BY THE MATABELEE 89 
 
 tinued gradually to move onwards, quite unsuspicious 
 of danger, when their advanced party was suddenly 
 attacked, and twenty-eight of their number barbar- 
 ously murdered. After this partial success the 
 Matabelee attacked another small party, equally 
 advancing at a little distance from the former, and 
 these, also being totally unprepared, were unable to 
 offer any effectual resistance, and some twenty-five 
 men and women were also massacred, and their 
 waggons and properties destroyed and plundered ; 
 but a few of their party fortunately escaped to warn 
 the numerous little parties, who were still spread 
 about those vast plains, of the impending danger. 
 They had scarcely collected themselves in a 
 " laager " * of about fifty waggons when they were 
 attacked by the whole army of the Matabelee, who 
 rushed in upon them, endeavouring to force them- 
 selves through the waggons, and a most desperate 
 struggle ensued, in which the Matabelee were, however, 
 finally repulsed, but not without sweeping away the 
 whole of the cattle belonging to the emigrant farmers, 
 which they had been unable to get within the en- 
 
 * These " laagers," or camps, were formed by their waggons being 
 brought up in a square, the poles and waggon " gear " of one waggon 
 being firmly secured under the "perch" of the next waggon; and 
 when time admitted branches of the thorny mimosas were also wattled 
 in under each waggon, so that no entrance could be effected into the 
 enclosure without forcibly tearing up all these impediments. It is 
 clear that where the number of waggons collected is not great the 
 square formed by these waggons is so small that they could barely 
 secure their persons and families within the enclosure, leaving the 
 cattle outside.
 
 90 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 campment ; and the Matabelee succeeded in thus 
 carrying away 6000 head of cattle and upwards of 
 40,000 sheep as a poor compensation for the loss of 
 the lives of their best warriors. 
 
 From these repeated and desperate attacks it was 
 evident that the emigrants had encountered a most 
 formidable enemy in that quarter, and that all hopes 
 of a peaceable advance in that direction had to be 
 abandoned ; but the loss of their cattle prevented 
 them from either advancing or retreating until some 
 messengers, whom they had despatched to Thaba 
 'Nchu, succeeded in reaching that place and acquaint- 
 ing Moroko and the Rev. Mr. Archbell with their 
 precarious situation. These persons generously pro- 
 cured and despatched a sufficient number of oxen to 
 their encampment, from whence they thus effected 
 their retreat, and returned in safety to Moroko's 
 residence. 
 
 Upon bringing this account of their disasters and 
 losses to their fellow-countrymen the more numerous 
 and powerful clans, which had remained peaceably 
 concentrated about Thaba 'Nchu, resolved to take 
 ample revenge for these murders and to recover the 
 cattle stolen from their countrymen, and a party of 
 about 200 warriors, headed by Gerrit Maritz, crossed 
 the Vaal River,* and making a flank movement across 
 
 * The Vaal, or Yellow River, by the natives called Ky Gariep, 
 derives its name from the discoloured nature of its stream. It forms 
 at present the northern boundary of the Sovereignty district, and is 
 likely to acquire some celebrity by the recent treaty concluded, by
 
 HI.] PIETER RETIEF 91 
 
 his western boundaries, attacked one of Mazulekatzes' 
 principal military towns, named Mosega, where they 
 killed several hundreds of his principal warriors, and 
 recovered about 7000 head of cattle, together with 
 the waggons which the Matabelee had taken to that 
 town in triumph, after the attacks they had made 
 upon the first small parties which had incautiously 
 advanced into their territories. 
 
 Shortly after their return from this successful re- 
 taliation, and while they were discussing their future 
 plans, disunion and rivalry among their leaders were 
 again beginning to show themselves, when the ill- 
 fated Pieter Retief joined them with a small party, 
 and his name and character (while one of the " com- 
 mandants " appointed by the Government of the 
 eastern frontier) stood deservedly so high that by 
 one consent he was chosen to be their " commandant- 
 general," to whom all the parties, then in those regions, 
 gave in their willing submission. 
 
 A few details of the life and history of this first 
 great " martyr " in the settlement of this district may 
 not prove uninteresting. 
 
 Descended from one of those French Protestant 
 families which found refuge in the Cape Colony on 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, his grand- 
 parents had obtained a plot of freehold land in the 
 
 having been fixed by the Assistant Commissioners with the Trans- 
 vaal farmers, as the permanent line of demarcation between Her 
 Majesty's subjects and those to whom (it is said) entire independence 
 has been promised.
 
 92 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 beautiful glen of Waggonmakers' Valley, near the 
 Paarl, where both soil and climate had marked the 
 spot as favourable to the cultivation of the orange 
 and the vine, and there his father enjoyed a respect- 
 able living by the annual sale of some millions of 
 oranges and a considerable vintage. 
 
 Pieter Retief was there born, and brought up by 
 his father with a view to continue that easy and 
 profitable living ; but his active and restless dis- 
 position led him, as he advanced to manhood, to 
 emancipate himself from the mere drudgery of this 
 rural life, and he first commenced by carrying on 
 some trade with the interior, when the arrival of the 
 first British emigrants into the eastern province in 
 1820 drew his attention to that part of the colony. 
 The Government requiring some person of activity 
 and means to contract for some time to supply these 
 emigrants with certain allowances and rations until 
 they had been able to provide for their own sub- 
 sistence, he was introduced and recommended to the 
 Government by my deceased parent as a fit and 
 proper person for that purpose, who, moreover, be- 
 came his surety for the due and faithful discharge 
 of his contract. This caused his settling down on 
 the frontier, where his attention to his contract, and 
 his liberality of conduct, ingratiated him with the 
 settlers, and established that good feeling which ever 
 afterwards prevailed between them. 
 
 After the contract for the supply of these emigrants 
 had ceased he engaged in large contracts for erecting
 
 Hi.] PIETER RETIEF 93 
 
 public buildings for the Government, and at first 
 amassed a very respectable fortune ; but the failure 
 of some of his sub-contractors, and the number of 
 his various avocations, afterwards involved him in 
 serious pecuniary difficulties. But this did not in 
 any way affect the estimation in which he was held, 
 both by the community and the Government, having 
 been appointed one of the "commandants" on the 
 frontier, a situation which, although of a somewhat 
 anomalous character, was generally given to persons 
 who, as field-cornets, had rendered faithful services 
 to the country, and was always considered to give 
 the incumbent some kind of magisterial authority in 
 his district. Having returned to his farm, and being 
 altogether engaged in agricultural pursuits in 1834, 
 he had been a very serious loser in the Kafir war 
 which then broke out ; and after the peace, which 
 had been concluded towards the end of the year 
 1835, he saw with dread and fear a system (if not 
 encouraged, at least) marked out by the local 
 authorities of allowing Kafirs again to pass through 
 and congregate at whatever places they thought fit 
 within the colony. He not only strongly opposed 
 this, but apprehended such roving Kafirs and 
 Hottentots wherever he found them lurking about, 
 and whenever they were unable to give an account 
 of themselves. But in sending these persons in 
 custody to the nearest magistrate he found that 
 they were not only immediately liberated, but he 
 was officially censured for taking up persons not
 
 94 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 actually apprehended in the commission of crime. 
 He soon saw, from the tone thus assumed by the 
 authorities, that there was no longer hope for 
 the security of property along the frontier, and he 
 determined accordingly to follow the example set 
 by the first migrating farmers. He also joined in 
 some addresses, presented to the newly-appointed 
 Lieutenant - Governor, Sir Andries Stockenstrom, 
 complaining of this state of insecurity, which led 
 to a not very dignified correspondence between them, 
 in which the Lieutenant-Governor charged him with 
 misleading others, and threatened him with dismissal 
 from his " purely honorary " situation of commandant. 
 These threats, and the system which he thus clearly 
 saw was about to be again enforced, and which in 
 his opinion (fully confirmed by consequent events) 
 would again expose the frontier to harassing forays, 
 and ultimately to another general war, induced him 
 to sell off all he possessed, and to combine with a 
 few neighbours, with whom (as I have before stated) 
 he joined the emigrant farmers, shortly after Gert 
 Maritz had returned from his successful attack upon 
 Mazulekatze and the Matabelee. 
 
 Having now been unanimously elected their com- 
 mandant-general, Retief immediately set about form- 
 ing regular treaties of friendship and alliance with all 
 the native chiefs by whom he was surrounded except 
 Mazulekatze. Moroko, Mosesh, Tonana, and Sikon- 
 yella entered apparently with cordiality into all his 
 arrangements ; and upon this footing all the emigrants
 
 in.] PIETER RETIEF 95 
 
 spread themselves over the lands situated between 
 and along the Modder, the Vet, and the Sand Rivers, 
 and gradually formed themselves into a more settled 
 form of government. Their numbers were about 
 that time also increased by another large clan, headed 
 by the venerable patriarch Jacobus Uys, then about 
 seventy years of age, and his eldest son, Pieter Uys, 
 who, having already visited this district before, 
 cherished the idea of settling down here in pre- 
 ference to going further into the interior of Africa. 
 This party issued a manifesto declaratory of their 
 intention to shape their course towards Natal, and 
 to secede from all those parties who seemed more 
 intent to occupy the banks of the Vaal River, or 
 what is now called the Sovereignty, and even to 
 proceed eastward to Delagoa Bay. This determina- 
 tion of the clans of Uys, Moolman, and Potgieter 
 seems to have induced Retief also to follow their 
 track, and he sent exploring parties from the Sand 
 River, who at length succeeded in finding two or 
 three paths across the Quathlamba or Draaksberg, 
 which might easily be made passable for waggons ; for 
 up to that time every attempt to cross that mountain 
 range by waggons from the Zuurberg to the west 
 up to the Olivier's Pass, at the extreme north-east 
 extremity of our district, had failed. 
 
 Retief succeeded with his party in crossing at one 
 spot and reached Port Natal in safety, where he met 
 with a hearty reception from the British emigrants, 
 who (strange to say) had also formed themselves into
 
 96 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 a little independent community ; for, upon Captain 
 Gardiner, of the navy, arriving among them and 
 asserting a magisterial authority over them, under 
 the provisions of an extraordinary law passed by the 
 British legislature, and entitled "the Cape of Good 
 Hope Punishment Bill," which he promulgated among 
 them, they at once repudiated his interference and 
 maintained their independence from all authority 
 except from such as would emanate from themselves, 
 in consequence of the then Secretary for the Colonies, 
 Lord Glenelg, having expressly "disclaimed in the 
 most distinct terms any intention on the part of His 
 Majesty's Government to assert any authority over 
 any part of this territory." This mutual feeling 
 of independence seemed to serve as a bond of union 
 between them ; and there can be no doubt that 
 if a person like Retief had continued to be the 
 acknowledged head of the Dutch emigrants, that 
 a more firm and lasting tie would have bound them 
 together. 
 
 Pieter Retief, however, in the conscientious view 
 which he had always taken of these matters, felt that 
 as both Chaka and Dingaan had nominally given 
 away this territory to various other persons before 
 his arrival, and that the occupation of this country by 
 him and his followers might thereafter subject them 
 to disputes, either with the Zoolah chiefs or with 
 such English emigrants as had received such ill- 
 defined grants from the Zoolah sovereigns, he deter- 
 mined to proceed in person to Dingaan's capital to
 
 ill.] ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY 97 
 
 negotiate with him a treaty of peace, and obtain a 
 formal cession of such extent of territory as the 
 latter might feel inclined to cede to him and the 
 emigrant farmers. Upon reaching the Zoolah chief's 
 capital, " Umkongloof," he accidentally found there 
 a missionary of the Church of England (the Rev. F. 
 Owen), who materially assisted in apparently dis- 
 posing the chief to give him a kind reception ; and 
 upon being made acquainted with the special object 
 of Retief's mission, he at once promised him a formal 
 cession of this territory upon his first recovering back 
 for him a quantity of cattle which Sikonyella, a 
 Mantatee chief, residing on the sources of the 
 Caledon River, had recently taken from him. Retief 
 accepted these terms, and returning to this district 
 at once called together several of the parties who 
 were preparing to settle down in this territory. 
 They determined upon an attack on Sikonyella, but 
 before doing so sent messengers to him demanding 
 restitution, with a significant notice that it would be 
 enforced ; and this communication had the desired 
 effect, for Sikonyella immediately gave up 700 
 head of cattle, together with sixty horses and some 
 guns, which he and his tribe had at various times 
 captured from small immigrating parties of farmers. 
 During these proceedings, which took place during 
 the last months of the year 1837, nearly 1000 waggons 
 had already descended and passed down the slopes 
 of the Draaksberg into this district; and the emigrant 
 farmers finding the country entirely denuded of all
 
 98 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 population (with the single exception of one small 
 party under the chief Matuan, who now still occupies 
 nearly the same ground), they spread themselves over 
 the whole of the Klip River division down to the 
 Bushman's River, where the remains of thousands 
 of stone kraals clearly indicated that a very dense 
 population must have once been settled down ; thus 
 also giving a promise of the great fertility of the 
 soil, as it could not otherwise have maintained so 
 large a population. 
 
 Upon Retief's return to that part of this district, 
 on his way to Dingaan with the cattle surrendered 
 by Sikonyella, to be delivered to the former, a sad 
 presentiment seems to have come over many of the 
 heads of the parties, who, however, then still acknow- 
 ledged Retief as their leader. Gerit Maritz proposed 
 that he should proceed to Dingaan with the cattle 
 recovered, taking only three or four men with him, 
 arguing, very justly, that the insignificance of such 
 a force would be its best safeguard. But Retief 
 appeared to have desired to show Dingaan some- 
 thing like a respectable force, and insisted upon 
 taking some forty or fifty of his best horsemen with 
 him, leaving it, however, optional to any person to 
 accompany him or to remain behind. This only 
 induced an additional number of spirited young 
 men to join, and during the last week in January, 
 1838, Pieter Retief, accompanied by seventy of the 
 most respectable and picked men from among the 
 emigrants, with about thirty young Hottentots and
 
 in.] TREACHERY OF DINGAAN 99 
 
 servants riding or leading their spare horses, formed 
 an imposing cavalcade, with which he crossed the 
 Umzinjaate (or Buffalo River), and on the 2nd of 
 February arrived at Umkongloof (Dingaan's capital), 
 and delivered over the cattle recovered from Sikon- 
 yella, with the receipt of which Dingaan expressed 
 himself highly satisfied ; and having collected several 
 of his regiments from the neighbouring kraals, he 
 entertained them for two days with their favourite 
 sham-fights, which give a fearful representation of 
 their mode of warfare. Dingaan had fixed the 
 4th of February for signing a formal cession of the 
 whole of this district to Pieter Retief, for himself and 
 the emigrant farmers for ever ; and the Rev. Mr. 
 Owen, still then residing with Dingaan, was requested 
 to draw out and witness the instrument, which he 
 accordingly did in English, and to this document 
 Dingaan and some of his principal councillors affixed 
 their marks, after the tenor thereof had been fully 
 interpreted to them by the Rev. Mr. Owen. Retief's 
 business being thus satisfactorily ended he made 
 his arrangements to depart the next morning, when 
 Dingaan desired him to enter his kraal once more 
 to take leave of him, requesting, however, that his 
 party should not enter armed, as this was contrary to 
 their usage ; and this Retief unguardedly did, leaving 
 all their arms piled up outside of the kraal, while 
 they sent their "achter ryders" to fetch and saddle 
 their horses. Upon approaching Dingaan in his 
 kraal they found him surrounded (as usual) by two
 
 loo SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 or three of his favourite regiments, when, after con- 
 versing with Retief and some of his leading men in 
 the most friendly manner, he pressed them to sit 
 down a little longer, offering them their "stirrup 
 cup," in some " chuallah," or maize beer, which the 
 Kafirs enjoy as a favourite beverage. This was 
 handed round to the whole party, who partook 
 freely thereof, and while a number of them were 
 thus sitting down, with the bowls in their hands, 
 Dingaan suddenly exclaimed, " Bulala matagati," or 
 " Kill the wizards," and in an instant 3000 or 4000 
 Zoolahs assailed them with their knobkerries ; and 
 although many of the farmers, instantly drawing 
 their clasp knives (which they usually carry by them 
 and use in cutting up the game they kill or the 
 viands they eat), made a determined resistance, and 
 took the lives of several of their assailants, yet they 
 soon fell, one after the other, under the overwhelming 
 pressure of the thousands by whom they were charged 
 and beaten down ; and after a desperate struggle of 
 half an hour's duration their expiring and mangled 
 corpses were dragged out of the kraal to an adjoin- 
 ing hillock, marked and infamous as the "Aceldama," 
 or rather the " Golgotha," where the bones of all 
 victims to the fury of this despot were hoarded up 
 and became a prey to the wolves and vultures. 
 
 Dingaan, following the precept of Caesar, who 
 deemed nothing done so long as anything remained 
 undone, ordered instantly ten of his regiments to 
 march into this territory to attack all the emigrant
 
 in.] ATTACKED BY ZOOLAHS 101 
 
 farmers (who, in perfect security, were spread all 
 over the district, awaiting the return of their friends) 
 and exterminate them, root and branch. It certainly 
 is remarkable that the doubts which the majority had 
 entertained as to the good faith of Dingaan vanished 
 so soon after the departure of Retief and his party : 
 the young men were enjoying the pleasures of the 
 chase, and supplying their friends with the game 
 that abounded, and the women, seemingly also un- 
 suspicious, were only awaiting the return of their 
 husbands, sons, and relatives, when the Zoolah army, 
 having divided itself into several small detachments, 
 fell, at break of day, on the foremost parties of 
 emigrants near the Blue Krans River, and close to 
 the present township of Weenen, which has obtained 
 its name (meaning wailing or weeping) from the sad 
 events of that day. Men, women, and children were 
 at once surrounded and barbarously murdered, with 
 horrors which I should be sorry to dwell upon and 
 detail ; other detachments of Zoolahs surprised in 
 other places similar small parties, who were likewise 
 scattered all over the Klip River Division, and who 
 all fell under the Zoolah assegai ; but from one or 
 two waggons a solitary young man escaped, who, 
 hastening to the parties whom he knew to be in 
 the rear, at length succeeded in spreading the alarm 
 among them, so that as the Zoolahs advanced 
 further into the district two or three parties of 
 farmers had been able hastily to collect a few 
 waggons and arrange them into a " laager," or en-
 
 102 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 campment, where they made their preparations to 
 secure their families just in time before they were 
 also attacked, and they thus succeeded in repelling 
 the most daring attacks made upon them, not one 
 of these " laagers " having been forced or penetrated 
 by the Zoolahs. The latter, however, advanced still 
 further southward, until they met a still stronger 
 party of emigrants on the farm now called " Vecht 
 Laager" (afterwards the property of Mr. Ogle), on 
 the Bushman's River, where they sustained a very 
 serious engagement, which lasted throughout the 
 whole day, but where, when the farmers' ammunition 
 was nearly exhausted, luckily their last shots from 
 a three-pounder, which had been rigged to the back 
 of one of their waggons, struck down some of the 
 leading Zoolah chiefs, and forced them to a precipi- 
 tate retreat 
 
 The moment these attacks were thus repulsed the 
 emigrant farmers sallied out from their "laagers" to 
 rescue (if possible) any of their friends who had been 
 in advance, and to ascertain the havoc which had 
 been caused among them, when, upon reaching the 
 stations which those had occupied, a scene of horror 
 and misery was unfolded which no pen can describe. 
 All the waggons had been demolished, the iron parts 
 wrenched from them, and by their ruins lay the 
 mangled corpses of men, women, and children, 
 thrown on heaps and abandoned to the beasts of 
 prey. Amongst these heaps, at the Blue Krans 
 River, they found literally amongst the dead corpses
 
 in.] A FEARFUL CATASTROPHE 103 
 
 the bodies of two young females, about ten or twelve 
 years of age, which still appeared to show some 
 signs of vitality. The one was found pierced with 
 nineteen, and the other with twenty-one stabs of 
 the assegai, leaving every part of their little frames 
 completely perforated, and every muscle or fibre 
 lacerated. The one was named Johanna van der 
 Merwe and the other Catharina Margaretha Prinslo ; 
 they were taken up and tended with the utmost 
 care and (strange to say) lived for many years, the 
 sole survivors of the immediate branches of those 
 families ; but they always remained perfect cripples, 
 although one of them (still more strange to say) 
 married, and was the mother of one or two children. 
 But, with these solitary exceptions, all these small 
 parties which had not been able to combine and 
 concentrate themselves in " laagers " were utterly 
 destroyed, and in one week, after the murder of 
 Retief and his party, 600 more victims were thus 
 immolated by the fury and treachery of Dingaan 
 and his army. 
 
 The survivors in this fearful catastrophe, after re- 
 covering from the panic in which they had been 
 thrown, resolved to avenge themselves for this 
 dreadful loss. 
 
 The whole clan of Uys, which, from some little 
 feeling of jealousy of Retief, had lagged behind on 
 the Draaksberg (and had thus escaped this on- 
 slaught), on hearing of this destruction, came down 
 into the Klip River with many other smaller parties
 
 104 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 of farmers who were advancing towards this district, 
 and their precarious situation was soon made known 
 to the English party resident at the bay, when the 
 latter determined upon a movement on Dingaan 
 to support the cause of the emigrant farmers ; but 
 they being few in numbers took with them a body 
 of 700 Zoolahs, 400 of whom were armed with 
 guns, having learnt to use them in their hunts of 
 the elephant and buffalo. This party, which placed 
 itself under the command of Mr. R. Biggar, crossed 
 the Tugela at its mouth, and advanced a few miles 
 across that river, when they attacked and destroyed 
 the town of Tatabasooke, while the Zulu forces hid 
 themselves in the Matikoola and Imsimdoosa rivers ; 
 but advancing a little further they were suddenly 
 surrounded, and attacked at break of day by three 
 divisions of the Zoolah army. After a desperate 
 and murderous engagement almost every European 
 or man of colour belonging to the party here lost 
 his life ; a fearful number of the Zoolahs were also 
 killed, but of the English population of the bay, 
 R. Biggar, Blankenberg, Cane, Stubbs, Richard 
 Wood, William Wood, Henry Batt, John Campbell, 
 Thomas Campbell, and Thomas Garden successively 
 fell, and only one or two Europeans succeeded in 
 fighting their way through these masses to convey 
 to the small party who had remained at the bay 
 the sad result of this engagement. That portion 
 of Dingaan's army followed up (as usual) their 
 success, and advanced as far as the bay, but the
 
 in.] ATTEMPTED RETALIATION 105 
 
 few English who had survived took refuge on board 
 of the Comet, Captain Hadden, then luckily lying 
 at anchor in the bay, when after sweeping away all 
 the cattle this detachment of Dingaan's army retired 
 again into the Zulu country. 
 
 Dingaan himself, with his principal forces, was, 
 however, at this time still watching the Dutch 
 emigrant farmers, who, having now collected about 
 400 fighting men in the Klip River Division, placed 
 themselves under the command of Piet Uys and 
 of Hendrik Potgieter, and advanced about the same 
 time (in April, 1838) towards Umkongloof, Dingaan's 
 capital, intent upon destroying it, and expelling 
 Dingaan from the country. 
 
 This wily chieftain allowed the emigrant farmers 
 to advance to within a few miles of his capital, where 
 the approach to the town is closed in between two 
 hills, and there the Zoolah forces first showed them- 
 selves, but gradually retiring, drew the emigrant 
 farmers still further into this hollow way, when 
 another division of the Zoolah forces emerging from 
 behind one of these hills and cutting off all retreat, 
 a desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued, the farmers 
 being so hemmed in that they could not fire, then 
 fall back rapidly on horseback, and again load and 
 charge, as was their usual and efficient mode of 
 warfare. They accordingly, as by one consent, 
 directed all their fire on one mass of the Zoolahs, 
 where their fatal aim having cleared a path by 
 bringing down hundreds in this volley, they rushed
 
 io6 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 through and thus escaped, but their chief (and un- 
 questionably most gallant commander), Piet Uys, 
 having taken a somewhat different course in a 
 country but little known to them, found himself 
 surrounded with a small party of about twenty 
 faithful followers and his favourite son, a young 
 lad of twelve years of age, before a ravine, which 
 their horses could not get over or clear. 
 
 Finding himself wounded, he called to his followers 
 " to fight their way out," as he could not follow ; all 
 obeyed his command except his loving son, who 
 remained by his father until both fell pierced with 
 wounds. The remainder of their party, and the 
 great majority of the emigrant farmers, having 
 ultimately succeeded in thus fighting their way out 
 of this trap which had so ably been laid for them, 
 effected a retreat out of the country without any 
 further great loss of life, leaving, however, the 
 " prestige " of victory with the Zoolah chieftain, 
 to whom the loss of several hundreds of his best 
 warriors was always considered but of little moment, 
 imparting only an exciting interest to his fiendish 
 propensities and habits. 
 
 The emigrant farmers were, however, so dis- 
 heartened by the result of their attack, and that 
 of the English settlers from the bay upon Dingaan's 
 forces, that they gave up all hope of resuming 
 hostilities for the present. They had been taught 
 a lesson of prudence by the talent and daring dis- 
 played by the Zoolah armies, and they accordingly
 
 HI.] THE BOERS IN DISTRESS 107 
 
 kept a watchful eye upon their northern frontier, 
 and sent messengers out in various directions im- 
 ploring further accession to their numbers, both from 
 the Cape and the present Sovereignty. Many 
 parties, upon hearing of their distressed state, came 
 to join them, but this at the moment only increased 
 their misery and wants, as their cattle and herds 
 having been swept away (these being still in the 
 hands of the Zoolahs), and having been prevented 
 from cultivating any lands, they were exposed not 
 only to the greatest want, but were actually in a 
 state of famine, when some liberal-minded country- 
 men of theirs at the Cape, hearing of their distressed 
 condition, sent them supplies of food, medicine, and 
 other necessaries of life, which helped them through 
 the miseries of the winter of 1838, during which 
 season want, disease, and famine stalked over the 
 land, making fearful ravages among them. 
 
 Dingaan, ever watchful when to attack his foe 
 with advantage, being fully informed of their 
 wretched condition, made another attack upon them 
 in August, 1838, but on this occasion the emigrant 
 farmers (having their scouts always out to give them 
 timely intimation of his advance) were everywhere 
 prepared to give him a warm reception, and at every 
 laager the Zoolah forces were driven back and 
 defeated with great loss, only two or three lives 
 having been lost among the emigrants during several 
 successive engagements. But although Dingaan was 
 thus defeated, the emigrant farmers were still con-
 
 io8 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 tending up to the close of that year with the greatest 
 difficulties. Small parties were pouring in to join 
 them, but bringing little effectual support, until the 
 beginning of December, the season appearing pro- 
 pitious, and a number of young men having come 
 in by the Sovereignty, 460 fighting and mounted 
 men put themselves under the command of Andries 
 Pretorius, who had also recently joined the emigrants, 
 among whom (having formerly been a field-cornet 
 in the Graaff-Reinet district) he had made himself 
 extremely popular. 
 
 They were powerfully aided by the brave and 
 sterling Carel Landman, who also joined them with 
 all those emigrants who had already commenced 
 settling themselves down near the bay, and these 
 combined forces, profiting from the experience of 
 the past, advanced with great caution, securing their 
 position every evening, so that when they had nearly 
 reached the Umslatoos River they were fully pre- 
 pared, as on the earliest dawn of day on Sunday, 
 the i6th December, 1838, the whole of Dingaan's 
 forces, about 10,000 or 12,000 strong, attacked their 
 position with a fury far exceeding all their former 
 attacks. For three hours they continued rushing 
 upon them, endeavouring to tear open all their 
 defences and force the emigrant camp, until Pre- 
 torius, finding the Zoolah forces concentrating all 
 their efforts upon one side of the camp, and their 
 own ammunition nearly failing, he ordered 200 
 mounted men to sally forth out of one of the gates
 
 in.] PIETER RETIEF AVENGED 109 
 
 at the rear of the line which the Zoolahs were 
 attacking, and these mounted warriors, charging both 
 flanks and pouring their deadly volleys upon the 
 immense masses which were gathered together 
 within a small space, at length beat them off with 
 a fearful loss. The emigrants assert that nearly 
 3000 Zoolahs licked the dust before they retreated ; 
 and their defeat must have been complete, as 
 Dingaan fled quite panic-stricken, set fire to the 
 whole of his town of Umkongloof, and hid himself 
 with the remnant of his force for a considerable time 
 in the woods skirting the Umvaloos River. 
 
 The emigrants having had only three or four men 
 killed and as many wounded in this decisive engage- 
 ment (among the latter of whom was Pretorius 
 himself), advanced upon the town of Umkongloof, 
 which they still found partially burning, and on the 
 awful hillock out of the town they beheld on one 
 vast pile the bones and remains of Retief and his 
 one hundred companions in arms, who, ten months 
 before, had fallen victims to Dingaan's treachery, but 
 whose deaths they were then in fact avenging. 
 Many of the straps or riems by which they had been 
 dragged to this place of slaughter were still found 
 adhering to the bones of the legs and arms by which 
 they had been drawn thither. The skulls were 
 frightfully broken, exhibiting marks of the knob- 
 kerries and stones with which they had been frac- 
 tured, and, singular to relate, the skeleton of their 
 ill-fated leader, Retief, was recognised by a leathern
 
 i io SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 pouch or bandolier, which he had suspended from his 
 shoulders, and in which he had deposited the deed 
 or writing formally ceding this territory to the 
 emigrant farmers, as written out by the Rev. Mr. 
 Owen on the day previous to his massacre, and 
 signed with the mark of Dingaan, by which he 
 declared "to resign to Retief and his countrymen 
 the place called Port Natal, together with all the 
 land annexed, that is to say, from the Tugela to the 
 Umzimvooboo River, and from the sea to the north, 
 as far as the land may be useful and in my 
 possession." 
 
 These are the very words of the original document, 
 which was found still perfectly legible, and was 
 delivered over to me by the Volksraad in the year 
 1843, an d is now (or ought to be) among the 
 archives of the Colonial Office here. 
 
 After decently interring the remains of their un- 
 fortunate countrymen, the emigrant farmers found 
 that their horses and ammunition were ill-calculated 
 to continue a harassing warfare upon Dingaan in 
 his fastnesses, and they therefore resolved gradually 
 to fall back, which they did with little loss, taking 
 with them some 5000 head of cattle, which they 
 distributed among themselves as the lawful and 
 hard-earned trophies of this campaign. 
 
 On their return from this successful inroad they 
 were not a little surprised to find that Sir George 
 Napier (who had succeeded Sir Benjamin D'Urban 
 in the government of the Cape Colony) had sent a
 
 Hi.] DISARMAMENT OF THE BOERS in 
 
 small detachment of Highlanders, under the com- 
 mand of Major Charters, to take possession of the 
 Bay of Natal. This measure had been evidently 
 taken, and in fact was acknowledged in a pro- 
 clamation of the 1 4th November, 1838, to have 
 emanated from a desire to "put an end to the 
 unwarranted occupation of parts of the territories 
 belonging to the natives by certain emigrants from 
 the Cape Colony, being subjects of His Majesty," 
 and that proclamation gave the officer commanding 
 these forces the further power to " search for, seize, 
 and retain in military possession all arms and 
 munitions of war which, at the time of the seizure 
 of Port Natal, shall be found in the possession of 
 any of the inhabitants." 
 
 Major Charters returned immediately to the Cape, 
 when the command of the detachment devolved on 
 Captain Jarvis, of the /2nd Regiment, and from the 
 vague and ill-defined nature of his instructions some 
 serious difference, if not conflict, might have arisen 
 between him and the emigrant farmers in regard 
 to the authority and orders he had received to seize 
 upon their gunpowder and ammunition ; but the 
 good sense and good feeling of that officer soon 
 smoothed away every difficulty between them, and 
 he delivered them up their gunpowder, which he had 
 provisionally seized, upon their engaging not to use 
 it in aggressive hostilities against the natives. The 
 necessity of keeping and maintaining the detach- 
 ment led to some regular demand for supplies,
 
 ii2 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 which kept up a mutual interchange of wants, and 
 the most friendly intercourse was ever afterwards 
 maintained between them. In the meanwhile the 
 emigrant farmers laid out this township of Pieter- 
 maritzburg and what is now called the town of 
 D'Urban. Landdrosts were appointed to both 
 townships ; they established a more regular system 
 of government, and with the able assistance of 
 Mr. Boshof (the present Registrar of the Court), 
 who about that time arrived in this district with his 
 entire clan, various laws and regulations were framed, 
 which gradually redeemed them from the state of 
 anarchy into which they were fast falling. While 
 the winter of 1839 was thus taken up by these duties 
 and labours, Dingaan, somewhat recovering from the 
 effects of his late defeat, commenced sending in some 
 special messengers, first delivering up 316 horses, 
 which he at various times had captured, and there- 
 after professing every disposition to enter into 
 amicable arrangements with the emigrants. Their 
 answer was plain and manly, that they would not 
 enter into any treaty of peace with him unless ample 
 restitution had been made of all their cattle and 
 sheep, and until the value of their property taken 
 or destroyed by him and the Zoolahs had been paid 
 for. This led to frequent embassies, promises of 
 restitution, and fixing places where some at least 
 of the cattle and some guns were promised to be 
 delivered ; but the farmers soon discovered that 
 these messages and promises were mere pretexts
 
 in.] AN UNLOOKED-FOR EVENT 113 
 
 to keep up a constant and regular " espionage " upon 
 them, as one of these pretended messengers or spies 
 being caught, admitted that he had been sent to 
 report to Dingaan whether the farmers were 
 gradually returning to their farms or whether they 
 still kept near to their laagers, thus clearly showing 
 that he only waited the opportunity to attempt 
 another razia upon them. This naturally paralysed 
 all their agricultural pursuits and prevented them from 
 spreading themselves about to carry on their farm- 
 ing operations, as they were kept constantly on the 
 alert ; when, in the inscrutable decrees of Providence, 
 one of those events was brought about for which 
 they were quite unprepared, in which they were 
 not even the chief agents, but which led to their 
 undisputed possession of the whole territory of 
 Natal. 
 
 There were only at that time two brothers remain- 
 ing alive of Chaka and Dingaan : the elder Panda or 
 Umpanda (as he is called by his subjects), and a 
 young lad, Clu Clu, who was afterwards murdered 
 by Panda (in the year 1843), on which occasion their 
 " Aunt " Mawa, with a great number of Chaka's and 
 Dingaan's old followers, fled into this country ; 
 and subsequently settled in this district, chiefly in 
 the Umvooti and Inanda locations. Umpanda had 
 just reached manhood, but brought up in the midst 
 of debauchery and sensuality he was only known 
 for his unwarlike habits and became an object 
 of derision to the warriors and of contempt to 
 i
 
 ii4 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 Dingaan, who seemed for a time to give him full 
 scope for the indulgence of his passions as most 
 conducive to his own personal safety, while Dingaan 's 
 appetite for war was so insatiable that notwithstand- 
 ing his signal defeat by the emigrant farmers in 
 December last he had again mustered a strong army, 
 with which he attacked Sapusa, but in which he was 
 defeated with fearful loss. 
 
 It was, therefore, not unnatural that, even among 
 the Zoolahs, a party was forming deprecating these 
 murderous wars and apparently inclined to support 
 Panda, with a view to bring about peace with the 
 emigrants and the surrounding nations. From that 
 moment Dingaan determined to watch the oppor- 
 tunity of murdering his brother ; but it appears that, 
 a hint of his intentions to this effect having transpired, 
 Panda at once fled with a number of followers, and 
 crossing the Tugela near its mouth, took possession 
 of some lands near the Umvotee, and sent messengers 
 requesting the support and protection of the emi- 
 grants. Some suspicion was at first entertained that 
 this was but a deep-laid plot between him and 
 Dingaan to inveigle them into the Zoolah country ; 
 but after repeated conferences, which were managed 
 with great tact and ability by the Landdrost Roos of 
 D'Urban, by G. Kemp, Moolman, Morewood, Breda, 
 and several others, a formal treaty of alliance, offen- 
 sive and defensive, was concluded with him, by the 
 terms of which the emigrant farmers pledged them- 
 selves to support and defend Panda, while he, on the
 
 ill.] ALLIANCE WITH PANDA 115 
 
 other hand, promised to support them in any attack 
 upon Dingaan. 
 
 The beginning of the year 1840 being considered 
 the best season for commencing offensive operations, 
 the emigrant farmers again mustered a force of 400 
 mounted warriors, who, under the chief command of 
 Andries Pretorius, joined Panda's army, about 4000 
 strong, and this combined force, in January, again 
 entered the Zoolah country by the Sunday's River 
 and Biggar's Mountain ; but with proper caution the 
 emigrants kept themselves at some distance from 
 Panda's army, which, under the able guidance of 
 Nonklass (who continued for many years to be 
 Panda's chief counsellor and captain), seemed quite 
 intent upon coming into action. 
 
 While this commando was preparing and mustering 
 their forces in this town of Pietermaritzburg, one of 
 Dingaan's principal messengers, Tamboosa, arrived at 
 Pietermaritzburg with one of those specious messages 
 and offers of peace. He was, however, seized, with 
 his attendant Combizana, and, upon being rigidly 
 questioned, frankly admitted that he had also been 
 sent with a view of reporting to Dingaan the state 
 of the combined army of emigrants and Zoolahs 
 under Panda. The latter, evidently embittered 
 against this person (one of Dingaan's principal 
 counsellors), charged him with having been the 
 chief cause of the murder of Retief and his party ; 
 that he had plotted and advised his (Panda's) death ; 
 and, in short, brought such a series of charges
 
 ii6 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 against him that (contrary to every usage of civilised 
 life) he was taken along with the army as a prisoner, 
 until they reached the banks of the Buffalo or 
 Umzimjaatee River, where a court-martial was 
 formed, which, under the excited feelings of the 
 occasion, soon passed a sentence of death upon 
 the unfortunate prisoners, and which was carried 
 into execution within a few hours after ; Tamboosa 
 not only nobly upbraiding his executioners with 
 the violation of all usage towards messengers, even 
 amongst savages, but, expressing his perfect readi- 
 ness to die, he only implored (but in vain) mercy 
 on behalf of his young attendant, who was only a 
 camp follower, and had thus been but doing his duty 
 in following his master. 
 
 This may be said to have been the only blot which 
 seriously reflected upon the conduct of the emigrant 
 farmers in their several engagements with the Zoolahs, 
 for they otherwise constantly endeavoured to spare the 
 women and children from massacre, and uniformly 
 conducted their wars with as much discretion and 
 prudence as bravery. 
 
 A few days after this sad execution the Zoolah 
 army under Panda encountered that commanded by 
 Dingaan, whereupon a desperate engagement ensued, 
 in the course of which one or two of Dingaan's 
 regiments went over in a body to Panda. This 
 decided the fate of the day : two of Dingaan's 
 regiments who fought bravely for him being totally 
 destroyed, the battle ended in his total defeat and
 
 HI.] DECLARATION OF SOVEREIGNTY 117 
 
 flight. The emigrant farmers, not having been en- 
 gaged in this action, followed up this success (as 
 soon as they heard of it) with great vigour ; they 
 drove Dingaan over the Black Umvoloos, and from 
 thence still further to the banks of the Pongola, 
 where, deserted by almost all his followers, he en- 
 deavoured with about 100 followers to find shelter 
 amongst a small tribe living near Delagoa Bay, 
 named the Amasuree, but who, it is supposed (for 
 I believe there is no actually authentic account of 
 his death), murdered him to ensure their own safety 
 from his constant and fearful forays upon them and 
 the adjacent tribes. 
 
 As, however, no doubt as to his death and the 
 dispersion of all his army existed, the emigrant 
 farmers assembled in great state on the banks of 
 the Umvoloos on the I4th February, 1840, and 
 there, under the discharge of their guns, Andries 
 Pretorius proclaimed Umpanda the sole and ac- 
 knowledged king of the Zulus ; and by a pro- 
 clamation issued by him, and attested by the other 
 commandants, they declared their sovereignty to 
 extend from the Umvoloos Umfana, or the Black 
 Umvoloos, and the St. Lucia Bay, to the Umzim- 
 vooboo, or St. John's River ; and in fact, by their 
 proceedings of that day, assumed a certain authority, 
 or sovereignty, over Umpanda himself, from whom 
 they received, as their indemnity, 36,000 head of 
 cattle, 14,000 of which were delivered to those 
 farmers who, residing beyond the Draaksberg, had
 
 ii8 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 only come in as allies to their friends, and the 
 remaining 22,000 (or rather the sad remains of them, 
 for very many were lost or embezzled on the way) 
 were brought to the foot of the Zwart Kop, near 
 Pietermaritzberg, where, at a spot still named the Deel 
 Kraal,* they were distributed among such farmers 
 as belonged to this district, and had claims for 
 losses sustained in the previous wars and engage- 
 ments. 
 
 A few days before the emigrant farmers started on 
 their last and crowning victory over Dingaan and 
 his forces, Sir George Napier, having been ordered to 
 send the 72nd Regiment home, and finding that the 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies still continued 
 little inclined to support his policy of occupying this 
 district, sent a vessel to the bay with orders to 
 Capt. Jarvis to embark with his whole detachment ; 
 on which occasion he addressed a letter to the 
 Landdrost Roos, at D'Urban, which, after referring 
 to some complaints of natives as to encroachments 
 on their gardens, contained the following farewell 
 address and peroration : 
 
 " It now only remains for me, on taking my 
 departure, to wish you one and all as a community 
 every happiness, sincerely hoping that, aware of 
 your strength, peace may be the object of your 
 councils ; justice, prudence, and moderation be the 
 law of your actions; that your proceedings may 
 
 * Anglice, camp for distributing or dividing.
 
 Hi.] A SYMPATHETIC ADDRESS 119 
 
 be actuated by motives worthy of you as men 
 and Christians, that hereafter your arrival may be 
 hailed as a benefit; having enlightened ignorance 
 dispelled superstition, and caused crime, bloodshed, 
 and oppression to cease, and that you may culti- 
 vate these beautiful regions in quiet and prosperity, 
 ever regardful of the rights of the inhabitants whose 
 country you have adopted, and whose home you 
 have made your own ! " 
 
 From these expressions, enunciated by the officer 
 commanding the forces on the eve of his departure, 
 and from the general tenor of the intelligence 
 received by them at the time from the Cape, there 
 can be no doubt that the emigrant farmers became 
 then fully impressed that Her Majesty's Government 
 had determined, by no consideration, to swerve from 
 that line of policy which had already declared that 
 nothing would induce Her Majesty to assert a 
 sovereignty over these territories. They therefore 
 conceived that by this act of abandonment of this 
 territory by Her Majesty's forces, and by their 
 recent conquest and installation of Panda, as a chief 
 set up by themselves, they had become both de 
 facto and de jure the undisputed rulers of the 
 country. They saw themselves respected and 
 dreaded by all the neighbouring tribes, every farmer 
 now had the opportunity of sitting himself down 
 "under his own vine, and under his own fig tree," 
 none making him afraid ; and there is further no 
 doubt that if they (as a body) had possessed suffi-
 
 120 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. 
 
 cient intelligence to feel the exact position in which 
 they were placed, Her Majesty's Government would 
 thereupon have bestowed upon them all the ad- 
 vantages of self-government consistent with a mere 
 acknowledgment of their allegiance to Her Majesty 
 and her heirs. 
 
 We may, therefore, here conclude this lecture 
 (which has brought them down to a quiet and 
 undisturbed possession of this territory) by apply- 
 ing to them the lines of the Mantuan bard, where 
 in his Second Georgia he says of the peasantry of 
 his country 
 
 " O Fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint, 
 Agricolas ! " etc., etc. 
 
 As the whole of this passage is so peculiarly apposite 
 to the position in which these farmers found them- 
 selves placed at that time, I shall conclude with 
 applying to them the following lines, as translated 
 by Ring : 
 
 " Blest is the life these rural swains pursue ; 
 Blest ! ah, too blest ! if all their bliss they knew. 
 To whom, remote from dangers and alarms, 
 And from the clashing of discordant arms, 
 When once their calm and easy toil is o'er, 
 The bounteous earth pours forth her foodful store. 
 What though no domes their portals open wide, 
 To vomit forth a sycophantic tide ? 
 What though no stately columns they behold ? 
 Nor sculptured brass, nor garments wrought with gold ? 
 What though their fleece no Tyrian purple soil, 
 Nor Cassian odours paint their liquid oil ?
 
 III.] THE GOAL ATTAINED 121 
 
 Yet life, to vain delusive joys unknown, 
 And rest and safety, these are all their own. 
 And various wealth, a farm, a peaceful cot, 
 A crystal fountain and a cooling grot ; 
 The low of oxen in the grassy glades, 
 And soft repose beneath embowering shades : 
 Nor open lawns are wanting for the chase 
 Nor woods to shelter all the savage race, 
 Nor hardy youth to cultivate the soil, 
 Content with little, and inured to toil, 
 Nor sacred altars of the Powers above, 
 Nor parents honoured by the sons they love." 
 
 In these lectures I have now imparted to you, 
 ladies and gentlemen, a plain unvarnished statement 
 of the chief causes which led to the estrangement 
 of a large portion of our fellow-colonists from the 
 Government, and to their abandonment of the land 
 of their forefathers, to seek a home in the wilds of 
 South Africa, and in this district. 
 
 In this statement my aim has been "nought to 
 extenuate, nor to set down aught in malice," but 
 to show that these emigrants (as a body) form a 
 most respectable, powerful, and numerous body 
 of men, who, neither allured by the thirst after 
 gold, nor the desire to exterminate savage tribes, 
 only sought for a country which they endeavoured 
 lawfully to acquire, where they might set them- 
 selves down in peace, secure as to their lives and 
 properties. 
 
 This object they had fully gained, and if their 
 true position had ben well understood by them-
 
 122 SEEKING A NEW HOME [LECT. in. 
 
 selves, and appreciated by the Government, nothing 
 ought to have occurred subsequently to disturb the 
 friendly harmony between them and a government 
 to whom the golden rule becomes daily more self- 
 evident 
 
 "Salus Populi Suprema Lex!"
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 THE BOERS IN NATAL 
 
 I WAS induced in the year 1852 to deliver a 
 series of lectures containing a succinct, but (in 
 accordance with my pledge) a truthful and impartial 
 account of the causes which led a number of Boers 
 to leave the land of their birth and to wander 
 through the wild wastes of South-Eastern Africa, 
 until they acquired a peaceful and independent 
 settlement in this promising country. 
 
 My principal motive for consenting to deliver those 
 lectures was (as announced by me at the time) to 
 dispel the clouds which ignorance and misrepresenta- 
 tion were then but too rapidly accumulating around 
 the British immigrants, who had been previously 
 attracted hither by the delusive scheme of Mr. Byrne, 
 and which were even of a nature to affect the friendly 
 relations which should ever exist, for the good of all, 
 between those races who have now virtually made 
 this country their home. 
 
 It is remarkable, that in the very first Blue 
 Book on Natal, published by order of the House of 
 
 123
 
 124 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 Commons (a publication to which we generally refer 
 for correct official information), the name of my 
 respected and worthy brother, Colonel (now Sir 
 Josias) Cloete, appears in several places, either 
 through a misprint or misapprehension arising in 
 the Colonial Office itself, as that of the Commissioner 
 appointed to adjust the affairs of this district a 
 circumstance which has (I know) misled several 
 persons into the belief that he at one time held that 
 office in conjunction with the post of commander 
 of Her Majesty's forces, sent to relieve a detachment 
 which had arrived here under the command of 
 Captain Smith.* 
 
 The great and final triumph of the emigrant 
 farmers over the power of Dingaan, his death, and 
 the subsequent installation of Panda as the para- 
 mount chief of the Zoolah nation, under their 
 auspices, appeared to me to constitute an appropriate 
 conclusion to that course of lectures, as I was not 
 unmindful of the warning (" not to follow contem- 
 
 * At the time of delivering this lecture, I had not seen the Rev. 
 Mr. Holden's recently published work on " Natal," in which (at 
 page 191) I find that the author has fallen precisely into this error, and 
 has adopted the "misprint" of the Blue Book published in 1846, by 
 gravely announcing that " Colonel Cloete " had been appointed a 
 "Special Commissioner" by Her Majesty, in the year 1843, to adjust 
 the claims to land at Natal (vide pages 191 and 195), although the 
 author seems to have had before him the " reprint " of official papers 
 relating to Natal, edited by Mr. J. C. Chase, in which he would have 
 found (in vol. 2, page 281) the official announcement of the " Hon'ble 
 Henry Cloete, LL.D.," to that office, who is there described to be "an 
 advocate of the Supreme Court, and a member of the Legislative 
 Council of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope."
 
 iv.] HISTORICAL MISREPRESENTATION 125 
 
 poraneous history too closely at her heels") left to 
 future historians by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, in his 
 quaint preface to his History of the World, accounts 
 for his having confined himself so entirely to ancient 
 history, in the following remarks 
 
 " I know it will be said by many that I might have been 
 more pleasing to the reader if I had written the story of 
 mine own time; having been permitted to draw the water 
 as near the well-head as another. To this I answer, that 
 whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth 
 too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth : there 
 is no mistress or guide that hath led her followers and 
 servants into greater miseries." 
 
 Following this sage advice, I allowed for a time 
 " truth " to find its own way, and gradually to clear 
 up the mists hanging over the modern history of this 
 district; but I have since become more and more 
 sensible of the painful fact that every succeeding 
 day, and every ephemeral publication that has 
 emanated from the press, have only added to the 
 misrepresentations which ignorance or party spirit 
 had originated. It therefore became a duty in- 
 cumbent on those who were fully conversant with 
 the correct details of affairs at the time, to inform 
 the inhabitants of this district (upon good authority) 
 of the manner in which those events had been 
 gradually developed, terminating in a peaceable and 
 unqualified submission to Her Majesty's authority, 
 and thus introducing that settled government under
 
 126 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 the protection of which we are at present assembled 
 together. 
 
 Although these results were chiefly brought about 
 by my own instrumentality, I trust I may now be 
 allowed to refer to them without being justly charge- 
 able with vanity or egotism, since such reference 
 will be made merely for the purpose of vouching for 
 the correctness of facts and occurrences of which 
 I may truly say with the hero of the ^Eneid 
 
 " Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, 
 Et quorum pars magna fui." 
 
 I stated in the conclusion of my third and last 
 lecture of the former course that the I4th day of 
 February, 1840, may be set down as the grand epoch 
 whence the undisputed supremacy of the emigrant 
 farmers over this country is to be dated. On that 
 day, after the total defeat of Dingaan, and his flight 
 to the Amazurees' country (where he was subse- 
 quently assassinated), Andries Pretorius, the com- 
 mandant-general of the emigrant forces on the banks 
 of the Umvolosi, formally installed Panda as the 
 paramount king of the adjacent tribes, and (with 
 the concurrence of some of the members of the 
 Volksraad or Council of the People, who had accom- 
 panied him) issued the following proclamation : 
 
 " I, Andries Wilhelmus Pretorius, chief commandant of 
 all the burghers of the Right Worshipful Volksraad 
 of the South African Society of Port Natal, and 
 commander-in-chief of the army placed under my 
 command, etc., etc.
 
 IV.] BOER PROCLAMATION OF SUPREMACY 127 
 
 "Whereas the Volksraad of the South African Society, 
 on account of the unprovoked war which the Zoolah king 
 or Zoolah nation has commenced against the South African 
 Society, was compelled to incur an expense of Rds. 122,600 
 for horse and waggon-hire, and other expenses of war ; and 
 whereas the Zoolah king, according to all appearance and 
 information, has deserted his territory and crossed the 
 Pongola, etc., I do hereby proclaim and make known, that 
 in the name of the said Volksraad of the South African 
 Society, I seize all the land from the Tugala to the 
 Umvaloos Umjana (the Black Umvaloos) ; and that our 
 boundary shall in future be from the sea along the Black 
 Umvaloos, where it runs through the Double Mountains, 
 near to where it originates, and so along the Randberg (the 
 Ridges), in the same direction to the Draaksberg (or 
 Quathlamba) Mountains, including the St. Lucia Bay, as 
 also all sea coasts and harbours which have already been 
 discovered, or may hereafter be discovered, between the 
 Umzimvubu and the Black Umvaloos mouths." 
 
 This proclamation was openly read, and its con- 
 tents explained to Panda, who, with his chief coun- 
 sellors, was present on the occasion ; and under a 
 discharge of twenty-one guns from their little field- 
 piece (for they had but one), Panda was thus installed 
 as chief of the Zoolah and other adjacent tribes, but 
 holding that authority directly from the Emigrant 
 Society, who thus became in fact his dominant and 
 protecting power. Twenty thousand head of cattle 
 were brought into this district as the spoils of that 
 campaign, and the remnant of them (for a great 
 proportion was purloined on the journey by the
 
 128 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 dishonesty or negligence of the field -cornets and 
 guard to whom they had been entrusted), was 
 driven to an extensive grassy plateau, situate be- 
 tween the Zwartkop and the Uitspanplaats, Ketel- 
 fontein, on the summit of the Town-hill, still called 
 from that circumstance the " Deelkraal " (or coral 
 of distributing or dividing), where upwards of ten 
 thousand were given out to the men engaged in 
 the late expedition ; and the inhabitants soon 
 spread themselves about and seriously entered upon 
 their rural and agricultural pursuits, extending them- 
 selves from the banks of the Tugela to the Um- 
 zimkulu. 
 
 By a singular coincidence, the then Governor of 
 the Cape Colony (Sir George Napier) had just then 
 been ordered to send home the /2nd Regiment, of 
 which a detachment had occupied the harbour of 
 Port Natal ; and that detachment having been with- 
 drawn, an opinion generally prevailed that the home 
 Government had deliberately relinquished all idea 
 of occupying this territory ; so that the few English 
 inhabitants then living at the port had no alternative 
 but to acknowledge the supremacy of a society of 
 farmers, who were soon to solve the problem as to 
 their fitness for self-government. 
 
 About the same time my highly esteemed friend, 
 Mr. Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof (subsequently called 
 to the honourable but arduous post of President 
 of the Orange Free State), arrived here with his 
 numerous and influential clan, having determined
 
 IV.] THEIR STRONG REPUBLICAN FEELING 129 
 
 to give up the subordinate office he held at Graaff- 
 Reinet, no longer there 
 
 " To bear the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
 The insolence of office, and the spurns 
 That patient merit of the unworthy takes." 
 
 His merits as a zealous, able, and laborious officer 
 were, however, immediately recognised in this district. 
 He was at once made Landdrost of this division, then 
 comprehending nearly the whole district ; to him the 
 inhabitants were indebted for the appointment of 
 a regular Land Board, to inspect the farms and 
 prepare titles to lands ; as well as for various ex- 
 cellent local regulations, both at this place and at 
 the port, and D'Urban. To him was also entrusted 
 the preparation of some fundamental regulations in 
 reference to the chief executive and legislative 
 government of the country ; but on that point 
 (I have reason to believe) his own sensible and 
 practical views were overruled or made to succumb 
 to the stern republican feeling of the majority of 
 the inhabitants, who appear to have been so inflated 
 with their own ideas as to their power of governing 
 the country collectively, that they (almost unani- 
 mously) resisted every proposition of becoming 
 subject to any permanent chief or supreme head ; 
 but determined at least to try the experiment, which, 
 I fear, the Transvaal Republic is now again re- 
 peating, and which will more than probably, in their 
 case, also lead to the same results as before. 
 K
 
 130 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 This leads me to give my hearers a succinct 
 account of the kind of government which they intro- 
 duced. Once every year the field-cornet of every 
 division into which the country had been portioned 
 out, sent in to the Landdrost here a list of the 
 persons whom the inhabitants of that field-cornetcy 
 or ward desired to become their representatives for 
 the ensuing year. The district was divided into 
 twelve such wards, from each of which the names 
 of two persons were thus sent in, forming a council 
 of twenty-four members, in which were vested all the 
 combined supreme, executive, legislative, and judicial 
 powers. This elective Council or "Volksraad" was 
 required to assemble here (at Pietermaritzburg) every 
 three months. At each meeting a chairman was 
 chosen from among the members present to regulate 
 the order of their proceedings ; but he had not in 
 any other respect the slightest addition of power or 
 authority over the rest. All the members performed 
 their duties gratuitously; but for the current and 
 indispensable business of government Landdrosts 
 were appointed for this place, D' Urban and Weenen, 
 each of whom exercised a certain limited judicial 
 authority. At Pietermaritzburg also two or three 
 members of the Council, who lived in or near the 
 town, were formed into a Committee of the Council 
 (called the Commissie Raad), and had power to 
 decide upon and carry out any executive or adminis- 
 trative duties requiring immediate despatch ; but they 
 were bound at the next general meeting of the
 
 iv.] PREPARING A STATE OF ANARCHY 131 
 
 Council to report their proceedings and submit them 
 for the sanction or disapproval of the body by which 
 they were appointed. 
 
 Independently of the mode now described of 
 governing "this" district, there existed also an ill- 
 defined federal bond of union with the districts 
 of Windburg and of the Modder and Caledon rivers 
 lying beyond the Draaksberg, and now forming the 
 Orange Free State, by virtue of which those districts, 
 upon sending delegates to this place, could join in, 
 and become subject to all laws and regulations made 
 in their " combined " councils ; but otherwise those 
 districts were not to be bound by any decisions 
 of the Volksraad here. The existence and character 
 of this connection will have to be borne in mind 
 when we come to the later portions of the history 
 which will be given in these lectures. 
 
 From this statement, I believe every one of my 
 hearers possessing any knowledge of history or any 
 practical experience in the affairs of the world will 
 at once perceive that the inhabitants were preparing 
 for themselves a state of anarchy, from which the 
 most deplorable results to themselves must inevitably 
 arise. Without a head to direct or a power to 
 control, they were left entirely to those innate 
 feelings and notions of right and wrong that might 
 be found in such a community. The Landdrost, the 
 only paid functionary (whose salary was but the in- 
 significant sum of 100 per annum) was so constantly 
 thwarted by the ignorant and busy intermeddling
 
 1 32 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 of the Committee Council (Commissie Raad) that 
 Mr. Boshof soon resigned the office, and no entreaties 
 or prayers could induce him to resume it. The 
 Commissie Raad, on making a report of their pro- 
 ceedings to the full Council, were uniformly assailed 
 by or exposed to the most violent attacks from the 
 so-called " Publiek " (the public), the name assumed 
 by those who were opposed to the measures that had 
 been adopted ; and in nine cases out of ten their 
 acts, after the most outrageous personal attacks (so 
 that on some occasions the members, as it is now 
 known, came with arms secreted in their bosoms to 
 guard against assaults), were again repudiated by a 
 set of men who, going back to their homesteads the 
 next day, were ill prepared to resist the reproaches 
 and taunts of the selfish and the interested. It is 
 a lamentable fact that upon my arrival here as Com- 
 missioner in 1843, I was informed by the then 
 Landdrost that a judgment which he had passed 
 several months before against a respectable inhabi- 
 tant living only a few miles from this town (ordering 
 him to return some head of cattle which he had 
 illegally withheld from a Hottentot) was still lying in 
 his office a dead letter ; as this inhabitant had openly 
 declared he would shoot the first messenger or other 
 functionary who should come on his premises, and 
 the Landdrost therefore could find no one inclined to 
 run the risk of executing his warrant. Several of the 
 most respectable and worthy inhabitants also assured 
 me that it was impossible for them to live any longer
 
 iv.] PETITION TO THE GOVERNOR 133 
 
 in such a state of anarchy as that into which the 
 country was fast receding. 
 
 However, these sad results were not anticipated 
 by the majority of the inhabitants in the year 1840, 
 who were now formed into an independent people, 
 but still felt that the recognition of that inde- 
 pendence by Her Majesty's Government was all 
 that was wanting to give stability to their govern- 
 ment and institutions. They accordingly addressed 
 His Excellency Sir George Napier on the 4th 
 September, 1840, in the following terms : 
 
 " YOUR EXCELLENCY, By the blessing of God we have 
 perfectly succeeded in establishing with our numerously 
 surrounding savage enemies an advantageous, but, for the 
 so long oppressed people, a lasting peace, which presents 
 us with the cheering prospect of permanent prosperity, etc. 
 
 "This prospect is, however, somewhat darkened by 
 the conviction that between us and our always beloved 
 mother country there does not exist that friendly sympathy 
 in our welfare which we would fain wish to see strongly 
 and lastingly established. 
 
 "This general wish has been frequently under the 
 consideration of the Volksraad, who have at their last 
 meeting passed the following resolution, viz. : 
 
 " ' To submit respectfully to your Excellency, as the 
 honoured representative of Her Majesty the Queen of 
 England, that it may graciously please Her Majesty to 
 acknowledge and declare us a free and independent 
 people (a right so dearly purchased with our blood), and 
 to concede to us all those privileges which constitute 
 the boast and greatness of the nation which has the 
 happiness to live under her noble government.'
 
 134 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 "And to attain that object the Council have resolved 
 (should your Excellency desire it) that two commissioners 
 shall be sent to the colony of the Cape of Good Hope 
 as our representatives, at such time and to such place 
 as your Excellency shall appoint." 
 
 This letter ended by expressing their readiness 
 to enter into a negotiation " in writing," if His 
 Excellency should prefer such a course. 
 
 To this letter His Excellency, who was then at 
 Graham's Town, returned a courteous reply, civilly 
 declining the reception of the proposed com- 
 missioners, and expressing at once his opinion 
 that he himself could enter into no arrangements 
 which might in any respect be incompatible with 
 the honour of Her Majesty, but also stating "that 
 much time might be gained by their furnishing 
 His Excellency with an explicit statement of the 
 terms on which they were disposed to treat, and 
 which His Excellency hoped might yet lead to an 
 amicable settlement of the future relations between 
 the colony and Natal." 
 
 Although events of a more stirring nature sub- 
 sequently intervened, to which it will be necessary 
 to direct your attention, I may add here that this 
 letter of His Excellency's led to another com- 
 munication from the Volksraad, dated the I4th 
 January, 1841, in which they embodied, in thirteen 
 articles, the terms of their proposed alliance with 
 Her Majesty and her heirs, the chief of which 
 were :
 
 iv.] TERMS OF PROPOSED ALLIANCE 135 
 
 " i st. That Her Majesty would be pleased to acknow- 
 ledge their settlement as a free and independent state, 
 under the name of 'The Republic of Port Natal and 
 adjacent countries ' ; the boundaries whereof could be 
 hereafter defined. 
 
 "and. That Her Majesty's Government declare itself 
 willing to treat with the Republic, in the relation of an 
 ally. 
 
 " 3rd. That the said Republic reciprocally declares itself 
 to stand in the closest alliance with the British Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 "4th. That Her Majesty's Government shall be at 
 liberty, in case of any hostile undertaking against the 
 Republic by sea, by any other power whatsoever, either 
 to interpose itself in a friendly manner or to repel the 
 same by force. 
 
 " 5th. That in case of war between the British Govern- 
 ment and any other power this Republic shall be viewed 
 as neutral, and all private commercial vessels lying at 
 anchor in the ports of the Republic shall be left un- 
 molested. 
 
 "6th. That the British Government shall have the 
 right to place here an ambassador or representative 
 agent." 
 
 The remaining clauses were intended for securing 
 a mutual free trade on the footing of the most 
 favoured nations, and promising to give every 
 encouragement for the spreading of the gospel ; 
 to oppose every attempt at establishing a slave 
 trade, and not to make any hostile movement 
 against any of the surrounding native tribes, unless 
 such tribe, by any preceding hostile attack, should
 
 136 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 give the republicans occasion thereto, so that they, 
 for the maintenance of their rights, or for the 
 security of their property, should be compelled to 
 take up arms against such tribe. 
 
 The following circumstances which were then in 
 the course of actual occurrence showed in how far 
 these professions could be relied on. Towards the 
 latter end of the year 1840 some of the farmers who 
 had taken up their residence between the Umkomas 
 and the Umzimkulu rivers came in and complained 
 to the Volksraad that some of their cattle had been 
 carried away by parties of Bushmen who were skulk- 
 ing in the Draaksberg fastnesses, and urged that they 
 should be followed up and attacked in their hiding- 
 places. In the month of December, therefore, a party 
 of armed burghers was embodied, and their approved 
 leader, Andries Pretorius, was again appointed by the 
 Volksraad to the chief command, with express in- 
 structions as to the course he was to pursue. After 
 having for some time in vain beat about the sources 
 of the Umzimkulu and Umkomas rivers, some scouts 
 who had been sent out by Pretorius reported that 
 traces of cattle, which they had reason to believe 
 were the property of emigrant farmers, had been 
 followed and led towards some kraals of the Amabaka 
 tribe, under the chief N'Capai. Hereupon it was at 
 once resolved to make an attack upon that chieftain, 
 and the forces under Pretorius accordingly attacked 
 some of his kraals at daybreak, killed several men, 
 captured about 3000 head of cattle and about 250
 
 iv.] UNJUSTIFIABLE ATTACK ON NATIVES 137 
 
 sheep and goats, and carried off into captivity about 
 seventeen little boys and girls, who were picked up 
 after their parents had either been killed or driven 
 away from the scene of slaughter. 
 
 Upon the return of this commando it was soon 
 felt by every respectable member of the Volksraad 
 that Pretorius had grossly departed from the letter of 
 his instructions, and that these proceedings had sadly 
 laid themselves open to the most severe animadver- 
 sions from the whole of the civilised world. * At the 
 very next meeting of the Volksraad Pretorius was 
 called upon to give an account of his conduct, and 
 one of the members proposed a resolution expressive 
 of the unqualified disapprobation of those proceed- 
 ings by the Volksraad ; but Pretorius, being supported 
 by his powerful clan and a war party, succeeded in 
 getting this resolution withdrawn, so that subsequently 
 to this little was said about these untoward events, at 
 least within this district, but upon the intelligence 
 reaching the Cape frontier a general burst of indig- 
 nation arose against the emigrant farmers on account 
 of this wanton and unprovoked attack, and Sir 
 George Napier, in a letter addressed to me upon 
 the subject (and which I have carefully preserved, as 
 doing credit both to his head and heart), thus 
 
 * A memorial had been drawn out and addressed to the Volksraad, 
 by a number of respectable inhabitants residing chiefly at and near 
 D' Urban, strongly protesting against this act of aggression made by 
 Pretorius, contrary to the written instructions which had been delivered 
 to him when he took the command of this expedition.
 
 138 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 expresses his feelings in reference to that painful 
 subject : 
 
 "To suppose that yourself, or indeed any man in the 
 colony, with a spark of humanity in his breast, would 
 attempt to palliate such a flagrant act of cruelty and in- 
 justice, would be a libel on my part quite unjustifiable, as I 
 am well convinced that the moment you read the account it 
 must have made a deep impression of horror and disgust on 
 so sensitive and honourable a mind as I believe yours to be, 
 from the intercourse we have had together, particularly as 
 regards the conduct of your misguided countrymen and 
 fellow-subjects, the emigrant farmers of Natal." 
 
 He informed me in that letter (which bears date at 
 Graham's Town, 2$th January, 1841) that Faku and 
 the Amaponda tribes had now become apprehensive 
 of similar unprovoked attacks, and that, in short, this 
 attack of the emigrant farmers upon one of the 
 peaceable tribes around them had greatly altered 
 their position, since previously to this they had (as 
 they professed) only fought for their own safety and 
 in order to prevent the Zoolah chief, Dingaan, from 
 accomplishing by force and treachery their total 
 destruction, whereas they had now, after accomplish- 
 ing their avowed object and while living in peace, 
 wantonly sent a commando to attack a native chief 
 living at least 200 miles from their country and close 
 to the then existing borders of the Cape Colony. 
 
 His Excellency thereupon immediately despatched 
 a force of 250 infantry, with a small detachment of 
 the Cape Corps and two field-pieces, with orders to
 
 iv.] ATTEMPTED VINDICATION 139 
 
 march and take up a position on the Umzimvubu; 
 but the difficulties of such a land expedition induced 
 His Excellency so far to modify his arrangements 
 that the troops which were placed under the com- 
 mand of Captain Smith, of the 2/th Regiment, 
 ultimately took up a position and remained for 
 several months encamped on the banks of the 
 Umgazi River, awaiting the course of events.* 
 
 From that moment, however, the feelings of Sir 
 George Napier towards the emigrant farmers, which 
 had previously been marked by the utmost kindli- 
 ness and sympathy, were considerably altered ; and 
 he did not hesitate to express his indignation at 
 their conduct in a letter addressed to them, which 
 led to a reply from themselves, bearing date the 
 7th of April, 1841, in which (it is but just towards 
 them to observe) they attempt to vindicate their 
 conduct by stating that they had the undeniable 
 proofs that some of their cattle had been traced to 
 the kraals of N'Capai, and that Faku and his people 
 themselves had given the information that N'Capai 
 had then some of their cattle in his possession ; but 
 these explanations only led His Excellency to an- 
 nounce to them formally, at once, that he declined 
 any further intercourse with them, unless they dis- 
 
 * The Umgazi is a small stream arising in the Umtata or Zuurberg 
 mountains (being a continuation of the Draaksberg or Quathlamba 
 range of mountains, running from the Zoolah country to the eastern 
 frontier of the Cape Colony), and flowing about midway between 
 the Kie (the present eastern boundary of British Kaffraria) and the 
 Umzimvubu or St. John's River.
 
 HO THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 tinctly acknowledged their full and entire allegiance 
 to their lawful Sovereign, the Queen of England, 
 and further declared their willingness to obey the 
 lawful authority of the British Government. 
 
 A few months after this, after a long interval of 
 suspense and anxiety, Sir George Napier received 
 a communication from Her Majesty's Secretary of 
 State for the colonies, in answer to his several 
 despatches of the years 1840 and 1841, in which 
 he had brought before the notice of the home 
 Government his correspondence with the Volksraad 
 on the subject of their application to be declared 
 a free and independent state. About that time an 
 influential set of politicians had frequently mooted 
 the question in Parliament, whether our colonial 
 empire was not becoming far too extensive, and 
 rather required to be reduced ; and who, by dwelling 
 upon the Kafir wars and the Canada and the New 
 Zealand rebellions, and the expenses thereby in- 
 curred, were constantly urging upon Her Majesty's 
 ministers the reduction of the colonial establishments 
 to the lowest scale of efficiency. Under the influence 
 of such a pressure, it appears that the home Govern- 
 ment were very reluctant to extend their settlements 
 in South Africa ; and His Excellency was therefore 
 left in a great measure to use his own discretion in 
 regard to the matter in question, having merely 
 received an announcement "that Her Majesty could 
 not acknowledge the independence of her own sub- 
 jects, but that the trade of the emigrant farmers
 
 IV.] CLAIM FOR INDEPENDENCE 141 
 
 would be placed on the same footing as that of any 
 other British settlement, upon their receiving a 
 military force to exclude the interference with or 
 possession of the country by any other European 
 power." This resolution His Excellency communi- 
 cated to the Volksraad, in a letter dated $rd Sep- 
 tember, 1841, and there is no doubt that, if this 
 communication had been entertained in the same 
 spirit in which it had originated, the emigrants might 
 even then have secured for themselves all the benefits 
 of self-government, subject only to a mere acknow- 
 ledgment of their allegiance to Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, and with the additional advantage of military 
 protection ; but the very announcement that military 
 possession would be taken of the bay was sufficient 
 to impress them with the idea that they were to be 
 subject to military rule; and under this impression 
 they sent a reply, dated nth October, 1841, wherein 
 they state that, having asserted and maintained their 
 independence as " Dutch South Africans " ever since 
 they left the Cape Colony, they were fully determined 
 not to surrender this point, and " as Her Majesty has 
 been pleased to reject their very fair proposals, they 
 were inclined to remain on the same footing as there- 
 tofore," significantly concluding by saying that 
 
 "Your Excellency's proposal to enter into a treaty with 
 us under the influence of a military force, and without being 
 acquainted with the terms of agreement, appears to us so 
 unintelligible and undefined, that unless we are further 
 informed, we cannot comprehend the object of it."
 
 142 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 His Excellency Sir George Napier thereupon, 
 under the rather indefinite authority contained in 
 the despatches received up to that time from the 
 Secretary of State, issued a proclamation on the 
 2nd December, 1841, in which he declared 
 
 "That whereas the Council of emigrant farmers now 
 residing at Port Natal and the territory adjacent thereto, 
 had informed His Excellency that they had ceased to be 
 British subjects, and refused to be recognised or treated 
 as such; and whereas they had recently passed a resolu- 
 tion by which all Kafirs inhabiting Natal were to be 
 removed, without their consent, into a country lying be- 
 tween the Umtaphoona and the Umzimvubu, forming part 
 of the territory of the chief Faku, without having obtained 
 the consent of the said Faku ; from which measure warfare 
 and bloodshed were to be apprehended : His Excellency 
 announced his intention of resuming military occupation 
 of Port Natal by sending thither, without delay, a detach- 
 ment of Her Majesty's forces." 
 
 And His Excellency further solemnly warned the 
 inhabitants against the consequences of in any way 
 resisting or opposing Her Majesty's forces or the 
 due exercise of Her Majesty's authority, and in- 
 formed those who resided here, not being British 
 subjects, that they would be placed out of the 
 protection of the law and be liable to be dealt 
 with as the interests of the Crown might require. 
 
 This proclamation, on reaching Natal, was viewed 
 in the light of an overt declaration of hostilities, and 
 was answered on the 2ist February, 1842, in a very
 
 IV.] PROTEST AGAINST BRITISH SUPREMACY 143 
 
 lengthened and elaborate minute addressed to His 
 Excellency, in which the emigrant farmers recapitu- 
 lated all the grievances which they had suffered 
 from successive governments, ascribing all their 
 miseries to one single cause, viz., the absence of a 
 representative government, which had been asked by 
 them during many years past, while still residing in 
 the Cape Colony, but had as often been delayed or 
 refused : with regard to the intention to remove the 
 Kafirs, they declared that the measure proceeded 
 from real practical philanthropy, to avoid that 
 collision of different races which would inevitably 
 result from the continued residence of themselves 
 amongst the natives ; and with regard to their 
 intention to remove them to the country between 
 the Umtaphoona and the Umzimvubu, that it had 
 been expressly stipulated by their treaty with 
 Dingaan that their territory was to extend to the 
 latter river, all that country having been previously 
 conquered by Chaka ; and Faku having, moreover, 
 formally acknowledged the right of the emigrant 
 farmers to it. This document concluded with a 
 solemn protest against the occupation of any part 
 of their country by Her Majesty's troops ; and 
 declared that they thereby held themselves free from 
 all blame from the injurious consequences of that 
 step, before God, their own consciences, and the 
 world ! 
 
 No doubt can at present exist in any dispassionate 
 and impartial mind, that this important document,
 
 144 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 which had been drawn up by Mr. Boshof for the 
 Volksraad, ably answered the proclamation of His 
 Excellency, to which might justly be applied the 
 remark or piece of advice given me by an eminent 
 special pleader of Lincoln's Inn when I took leave 
 of him on my departure for the Cape Colony, and 
 when he, rather prophetically anticipating my future 
 elevation to the bench, said " Now, Mr. Cloete, you 
 have entered the law, and may possibly one day be 
 elevated to the judicial bench. Allow me, therefore, 
 to give you one friendly advice. Whenever you have 
 to give your judgments, abstain as much as possible 
 from giving your reasons ; for your judgments may 
 often be perfectly right, and yet your reasons alto- 
 gether wrong." 
 
 There is no doubt that in this case the hostile 
 attitude assumed by the emigrant farmers left the 
 Governor of the Cape no alternative but either to 
 admit or deny their independence, and the measure 
 of sending a military force became the only one 
 calculated to put that question at once to the test ; 
 but perhaps the result of that movement might 
 have been quite different had it not been for an 
 incident in the history of this district, which exerted 
 an overwhelming influence on the minds of the 
 inhabitants generally and of the members of the 
 Volksraad in particular. The very next month after 
 their solemn protest had been transmitted to Sir 
 George Napier, a Dutch vessel, called the Brasilia, 
 anchored in the port of Port Natal, and the supercargo,
 
 IV.] BOER CREDULITY 145 
 
 Mr. Smellekamp, who afterwards resided in the 
 Orange Free State (as it is now called), informed 
 the emigrant farmers upon his first arrival that a 
 number of merchants in Holland had taken a deep 
 interest in their affairs, and had despatched this 
 vessel for the express purpose of opening a direct 
 trade with their country, and supplying them with 
 " notions " of Dutch produce and manufacture : this 
 arrival, and the display of the Dutch flag, aroused in 
 all the emigrant farmers the most extravagant affec- 
 tion for the country and people to which most of 
 them traced their descent. Mr. Smellekamp was 
 received at this place with triumphal honours ; public 
 dinners were given him ; the Dutch flag became the 
 ensign of the new republic; and Mr. Smellekamp, led 
 away by the enthusiasm with which his arrival had 
 been greeted, gave the inhabitants of Natal the most 
 exaggerated ideas of the power and influence of 
 Holland in the council of nations ; moreover, assuring 
 them of the sympathy and support of the King of 
 Holland, and finally entered into a formal treaty with 
 the Volksraad assuring them of the " protection " of 
 Holland, to which he affixed his signature in these 
 terms : 
 
 " Accepted in the name of the King of the Netherlands, 
 subject to His Majesty's formal approval ! " 
 
 He further gave them the strongest assurances that 
 they would soon be provided with ministers and 
 schoolmasters for the improvement of their moral
 
 146 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 condition, and with arms and ammunition to repel 
 any hostile attack with which they might be 
 threatened. 
 
 I cannot give a more striking illustration of the 
 manner in which the Volksraad were misled on that 
 occasion, as to the support they expected from the 
 King of Holland, than by relating the following 
 anecdote. Some days after my arrival here in 
 June, 1843, I had an interview with several leading 
 members of the Volksraad, in the course of which I 
 happened to allude to some political measures going 
 on in Europe, and to state that such a measure was 
 under the consideration of the five great powers : 
 whereupon I was at once asked by the spokesman, 
 which were these five great powers to which I had 
 alluded. I replied that those powers were Eng- 
 land, France, Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The 
 querist at once exclaimed, " And is Holland not one 
 of them?" This compelled me to enter at some 
 length into the modern history of Europe, and to 
 explain to them how Holland had, since the year 
 1830, by the rebellion and subsequent formation of 
 Belgium into a separate kingdom, dwindled into a 
 third-rate power of Europe ; when the spokesman 
 significantly and bitterly replied, " We were never told 
 that before, but the very reverse ! " 
 
 The emigrant farmers were, however, so fully con- 
 vinced at the time that they had now obtained the 
 countenance of a first-rate European power in support 
 of their independence, that Mr. Smellekamp had
 
 IV.] APPEAL TO HOLLAND 147 
 
 all his travelling expenses paid to enable him to 
 return to Holland direct (as the Brasilia was 
 destined for a lengthened cruise to the eastward); 
 and he was, moreover, made the bearer of a number 
 of official and other letters to the Ministers of State 
 of his Majesty the King of Holland, and to many 
 influential persons in that country, claiming the 
 interposition of those persons in support of the 
 independence of Natal ; this was the state of feeling 
 which prevailed among all classes and both sexes 
 of the community here, when arrangements were at 
 length completed to enable Captain Smith to break 
 up from the Umgazi camp, and to pursue his course 
 overland to Natal. 
 
 I cannot refrain from relating here a remarkable 
 interview I had with His Excellency Sir George 
 Napier on this subject. More than a year before 
 this time His Excellency had disclosed to me (being 
 then a member of the Legislative Council at the 
 Cape), in the most frank and confidential manner, 
 his views with regard to this district, and when his 
 correspondence with the emigrant farmers assumed 
 a somewhat serious aspect (after their attack upon 
 N'Capai), His Excellency even proposed to me to 
 undertake a mission to this country, which he was 
 anxious to confide to me ; but I at once respectfully 
 declined the offer, stating that so long as the home 
 Government had not determined upon its final 
 course in regard to this question I could never hope 
 to accomplish anything satisfactory to either party.
 
 148 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT 
 
 His Excellency still continued to communicate to 
 me every step in the correspondence and relations 
 between the two countries, and the views of Her 
 Majesty's Government upon the subject ; and in 
 the month of January, 1841, His Excellency had 
 already, in the fullest manner, explained to me his 
 policy in regard to this question. In the month 
 of April, 1842, His Excellency informed me that 
 the necessary arrangements having been now entirely 
 completed, Captain Smith had, by the last post, 
 announced his departure from the Umgazi camp, 
 on his march to Natal. I could not help replying 
 that I deeply regretted to hear this news, as I 
 anticipated the most deplorable results from such 
 a movement. Upon His Excellency pressing me 
 for a further explanation, I at once said that I 
 understood the captain's force to consist of 250 
 infantry, besides a small party of the Cape Corps 
 and two field-pieces, encumbered, moreover, by a 
 numerous waggon train ; that such a force appeared 
 to me just sufficient to show a hostile intention 
 towards the emigrant farmers, without being suffi- 
 cient to secure success, if hostilities should ensue, 
 as they certainly would ; and that if the farmers 
 were to be aware of the march of the troops there 
 was not a kloof or a drift which the latter would 
 have to pass where they might not be cut off without 
 a chance of even making an effectual resistance. 
 Upon His Excellency then asking me what steps 
 I should propose, I stated that if it were intended
 
 IV.] ARRIVAL OF MILITARY FORCE IN NATAL 149 
 
 to take possession of the port, this should be done 
 from the sea, and the troops landed from vessels 
 which might at once put them on shore. His Excel- 
 lency, however, replied that he had been informed 
 that the entrance to the bay was defended by field- 
 works, which would render the landing dangerous ; 
 and, in short, that the measure under discussion had 
 already been decisively settled by the troops having 
 passed into the Amaponda country ; but the sub- 
 stance of this interview was forgotten neither by 
 His Excellency nor by myself when the disastrous 
 events which I am about to refer to became known 
 in Cape Town. 
 
 Captain Smith was at that time marching his 
 little army along what is termed the lower or coast 
 road. The rivers were still much swollen by recent 
 rains, and as many difficulties were thus to be en- 
 countered and overcome, it occupied upwards of six 
 weeks in bringing this force in safety through such a 
 country, through which only a trader's waggon was 
 known previously to have passed ; but so sparse was 
 the population, and so quietly had the march been 
 managed, that the occupants of the picturesque farm 
 of Sea View (the late Mr. Dunn and his family) 
 were suddenly surprised, on the 3rd of May, 1842, 
 by seeing the detachment enter their grounds at the 
 head of the bay of Natal. The following day the 
 troops marched through the hamlet of Congella, and 
 took up their position in the flat nearly on the same 
 spot as that where the camp is at present situated.
 
 ISO THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 So far they had fortunately succeeded in taking up 
 their ground at D' Urban without the slightest opposi- 
 tion, and a few days after their arrival the Pilot brig 
 came to anchor in the bay, bringing them an ample 
 supply of stores and provisions (of which they stood 
 much in need), as also two iS-pounders and ammuni- 
 tion ; and this vessel was soon afterwards followed by 
 the Mazeppa, schooner, so that Captain Smith also 
 took possession of the spit (where the present Custom 
 House is now established), and placed a small detach- 
 ment there to take charge of the goods as they were 
 landed, and from whence he commenced drawing the 
 supplies to the camp as occasion required. 
 
 In the meantime the Volksraad (then assembled at 
 Pietermaritzburg), astounded at having been thus cut 
 off from their only seaport, ordered out the whole of 
 their armed burghers, under Andries Pretorius, as com- 
 mander-in-chief, to the number of 300 or 400 men. 
 Their headquarters were established at Congella, and 
 messages at first, and afterwards letters, passed be- 
 tween Pretorius and Captain Smith, the former 
 insisting upon the troops quitting their position, and 
 the latter demanding that the armed burgher force 
 which was gathering around should be withdrawn. 
 Fourteen days had passed in this state of armed 
 negotiation, when on May 23rd some of Captain 
 Smith's cattle (which had always been grazing on the 
 flats below the Berea Hills) were carried off by some 
 of the herds of the emigrants; and Captain Smith, 
 viewing this as an act of direct hostility, determined
 
 IV.] NIGHT ATTACK ON THE BOERS 151 
 
 at once to carry out a plan he had projected for some 
 time, grounded (I fear) upon some well-intended but 
 erroneous information he had received from some of 
 the English residents at D' Urban (with whom he 
 was in constant communication), for making a night 
 attack upon the emigrants collected at Congella, and 
 thus destroying their camp, waggons, and supplies. 
 
 The result of that " untoward expedition " may be 
 best gathered from Captain Smith's own despatch, 
 which I will proceed to give in a condensed form, 
 but in nearly the very words of the writer, as found 
 in his official letter to Colonel Hare, commanding 
 his regiment, and the Lieutenant - Governor of the 
 eastern frontier. 
 
 " In my last despatch," he says, " I detailed the various 
 steps taken by the farmers to annoy the troops, and my 
 determination to abstain if possible from hostilities if it 
 could be done without detriment to the honour of the 
 service, etc. ; but the receipt of an insolent letter, demand- 
 ing that I should instantly quit Natal, followed by the 
 removal, by armed men, of a quantity of cattle belonging 
 to the troops, rendered it absolutely necessary that some 
 steps should be taken in order to prevent a repetition of 
 such outrages. 
 
 "I therefore determined, after mature consideration, to 
 march a force and attack their camp at the Congella, 
 and set apart the night of the 23rd" (the same day the 
 cattle were taken) "to effect that object. As the road to 
 the Congella lies for the most part through thick bush, / 
 thought it best to cross the sands at low water, etc. 
 
 " Fitting a howitzer in a boat, and leaving it under charge 
 of a sergeant of artillery, I gave directions to drop down the
 
 152 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 channel to within 500 yards of Congella, and there aivait 
 the troops, in order that they might form under cover of its 
 fire, aided by two six-pounders, which accompanied the 
 force I took with me." 
 
 [N.B. That force is then stated in detail to have amounted to 
 140 men.] 
 
 The writer goes on : 
 
 "In order to prevent our movements being discovered, I 
 put the party in motion at n p.m. (it being a bright moon- 
 light!}, and arrived without molestation within nearly 800 
 yards of the place I proposed to attack. 
 
 "To my great mortification, I found that the boat had 
 not dropped down the channel, according to my instructions; 
 but as I considered it imprudent to wait, I was forced to 
 make the attack without the valuable assistance which a 
 discharge of shot and shells from the howitzer would have 
 afforded me. 
 
 " The troops had just moved to where the termination of 
 a range of mangrove bush opened to a level space in front 
 of the Congella, when a heavy and well-directed fire was 
 opened upon us. A destructive fire from the guns for a 
 while silenced our opponents; but some of the draught 
 oxen to the guns getting killed, and others wounded and 
 escaping from their trektouws, rushed among the troops, 
 upsetting the limbers, causing much delay in reloading and 
 confusion in the ranks. This circumstance, added to the 
 partial and at length total silence of the guns, being taken 
 advantage of, they again opened a heavy fire, a severe loss 
 resulting to the troops, etc., who reached the camp about 
 two o'clock in the morning in tolerable order, leaving behind 
 them, I regret to say, the guns, which the death of the 
 oxen rendered it impossible to remove !"
 
 iv.] THE BOERS PREPARED 153 
 
 This is the substance of Captain Smith's own 
 official account ; to which he adds : 
 
 "The loss of the Boers it is difficult to estimate, but I 
 am told it has been severe ! " 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, in any reasonable 
 mind that the whole of this disaster arose from the 
 captain's utter ignorance of the character of the 
 people he was going to attack, and of his want of 
 acquaintance with the particular route he had 
 selected. He admits that he first sent out a piquet 
 to skirt the road in front of his position to prevent 
 his movements from being discovered, while he selected 
 a bright moonlight for his advance. 
 
 Now the fact was that every evening his camp was 
 regularly surrounded by vedettes or guards, placed 
 by the commandant of the emigrant farmers, who 
 watched and reported during the night the most 
 trifling incident that took place ; and on the night 
 in question the Field-cornet Joubert, with twenty- 
 four men, had been posted in the woods through 
 which we still have to pass in going to Congella, 
 but which then consisted of far denser bush than 
 they do at present. This party saw and watched 
 the march of the troops ; sent word to headquarters 
 at Congella to put the burghers there upon their 
 guard, and as the moon shone with almost the 
 brightness of day, they gradually ensconced them- 
 selves each man behind one of the mangrove trees 
 that grew down as far as low-water mark, and there
 
 154 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 waited till they distinctly heard the word of com- 
 mand given to the troops to draw up in line, when 
 they commenced and kept up a steady and deliberate 
 fire, chiefly directed at the guns and drivers, and 
 soon killing a promising young officer (Lieut. Wyatt) 
 of the Artillery, who had the charge of the guns. 
 The troops were thus thrown into utter confusion, 
 and hastily fell back; the tide having by that time 
 risen so far as to place them breast-high in water; 
 and the admitted loss of 103 men killed, wounded, 
 and missing out of a party of 140 who had marched 
 out of the camp too clearly showed the fatal effects 
 of the fire to which they had been exposed ; while 
 not a single man of the emigrant party had been 
 hurt. 
 
 Equally injudicious were the arrangements of the 
 English commander, founded on the support he ex- 
 pected to receive from the howitzer in the boat, for 
 everyone now knows that at low water there is no 
 channel affording sufficient depth of water for a boat 
 with a heavy load to approach the Congella ; so 
 that, while the ebb-tide enabled the troops to march, 
 the boat could not possibly accompany them ; while, 
 on the other hand, the moment there was sufficient 
 depth of water for the boat to approach, the men 
 would be up to their waists in water, and unable to 
 perform any effectual service, so that it was physically 
 impossible that the one could have acted in support 
 of the other. 
 
 But if the planning and execution of this unto-
 
 iv.] PREPARING FOR DEFENCE 155 
 
 ward movement are justly open to the severest 
 censure, it is equally due to Captain Smith to add 
 that his exertions, his perseverance, and the example 
 he set in the time of distress entitle him to the 
 greatest praise. Reduced to nearly one half of his 
 original strength by this misfortune, and expecting 
 every moment an attack on his camp, he applied the 
 next morning early for a truce of twenty-four hours, 
 to bring in and bury the dead. This having been 
 readily granted, he was indefatigable in putting his 
 camp into a posture of defence. The numerous 
 waggons he had brought with him were immediately 
 so arranged as to fortify the place, somewhat in the 
 fashion of a Boers' laager, and the soft and sandy 
 nature of the soil enabled him, with the aid of all 
 the non-combatants, to dig a trench and throw up a 
 mound around the camp, by which the troops were 
 in some measure protected. But the commanding 
 officer also perceived that his only chance of relief 
 depended upon the rapid transmission of intelligence 
 to the authorities in the Cape Colony. He consulted 
 some of the principal Englishmen then resident at 
 D'Urban, and he happily found in your present 
 worthy and worshipful mayor (George Cato), a faith- 
 ful adviser, through whom means were devised to 
 expedite the immediate intelligence to the Cape 
 Colony. 
 
 Richard (commonly called Dick) King, then living 
 in a hut at D'Urban, at once offered to take the 
 despatch (of which I have just given the substance)
 
 156 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 personally to Graham's Town. The following night 
 he was supplied with two troopers, and the moment 
 night had spread darkness around Mr. Cato got 
 Dick King and the horses across the bay to the bluff, 
 where King, mounting one horse and leading the 
 other, soon crossed the Umlaas, and before daybreak 
 passed the Umcomas, where he was safe from further 
 pursuit, and wended his perilous journey across Kafir- 
 land, where we shall leave him for the present 
 
 The emigrant farmers, elated by their first success 
 and the capture of two brass six-pounders, next 
 turned their attention to the supplies which Captain 
 Smith was receiving from the point and the vessels 
 in the bay ; and two days after the former night 
 attack they made another on their side, attended 
 with complete success. A detachment of their 
 mounted men went unperceived past the mouth of 
 the Umgeni, skirted the back beach (as it is called) 
 at low water, and suddenly rushing upon the small 
 detachment which was posted at the point, quickly 
 overpowered it, the officer in command having barely 
 time to escape by jumping through the back window 
 of the hut he was occupying. Two men were killed, 
 two more wounded, and the remainder of the detach- 
 ment were taken prisoners, and, together with most 
 of the English inhabitants of D'Urban (who were 
 naturally inclined to assist Her Majesty's troops), 
 were all brought up to this town of Pietermaritzburg, 
 where the present court-house was converted into a 
 prison, in which they were kept closely confined.
 
 IV.] THE BRITISH TROOPS BESIEGED 157 
 
 One eighteen-pounder and a great part of the 
 provisions still remaining in the Pilot and Mazeppa, 
 which Captain Smith had not been able to remove, 
 together with many engineers' tools, were thus cap- 
 tured ; but fortunately all the ammunition had been 
 previously removed to the camp and secured in a 
 temporary magazine. The vessels at anchor and the 
 point itself were thus taken by the emigrants, and 
 the troops thereby completely cut off from any 
 further communication by sea. 
 
 The farmers, having thus possessed themselves of 
 one long eighteen-pounder and two brass six- 
 pounders, commenced regular field-works around the 
 camp, and having brought their guns to bear, carried 
 on for three days a heavy cannonade against the 
 camp, the guns being well handled by a few Germans 
 whom they had enlisted for that service, and who 
 had served in some of the Continental armies before 
 settling in this district. Their fire was answered by 
 a howitzer and an eighteen-pounder, which Captain 
 Smith had been able to get up from the point before 
 its capture. But ammunition and shot soon failing 
 the besiegers, they established a foundry, where the 
 links of a chain cable, taken from the Mazeppa or 
 Pilot, were severed and covered with lead, of which 
 they had a tolerably good supply. But this stock 
 also becoming soon exhausted, as well as their gun- 
 powder, they determined to await the more tedious but 
 more certain effect of a rigid blockade, well knowing 
 that if the troops were effectually deprived of all
 
 158 THE BOERS IN NATAL [LECT. 
 
 external aid, they must succumb to the pressure of 
 famine. 
 
 Captain Smith had previously foreseen that this 
 last would prove to be his most serious enemy, and 
 he had therefore provided against it with the utmost 
 care. All the remaining cattle (which he was now 
 unable to send out to graze) and the horses in the 
 camp (for which he no longer had food) were 
 slaughtered and converted into "biltong," and the 
 troops were placed on the shortest allowance possible. 
 Two different sorties, made during the month of 
 June, led to no further result than the loss of a few 
 lives on both sides ; but the emaciated forms, the 
 sunken eyes, and the dejected appearance of the 
 soldiers in the camp indicated but too clearly that 
 this state of things could not last much longer. 
 Already had their rations been reduced to the 
 smallest quantity sufficient to sustain life, and for 
 some days the biltong of horseflesh had been issued as 
 their only animal food ; and after having been thus 
 hemmed in for thirty days, every hour and minute 
 began to be calculated as to the probability of their 
 receiving timely succour. At length, as darkness 
 set in on the evening of the 24th of June, several 
 rockets and blue-lights, illuminating the sky and 
 hills to seaward, announced that relief was at hand. 
 
 At this juncture I shall at present conclude this 
 lecture, as I fear I have already trespassed too long 
 upon your time and patience, and indeed I have 
 found, as I was proceeding, that to give only a
 
 IV.] THE LAST ACTS OF THE DRAMA 159 
 
 summary of events would far exceed the limits of 
 a single address. If you, then, continue to feel an 
 interest in the subject, I intend, a few days hence, 
 to conclude this portion of history in another lecture 
 in this place, when I propose to exhibit to you the 
 last acts of the drama in which many fierce passions 
 and contests were still displayed, but ending in the 
 final submission of this country to Her Majesty's 
 authority.
 
 LECTURE V. 
 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN 
 
 I STATED in my last lecture that Captain Smith, 
 after his disastrous defeat at the Congella, had 
 found in the present worthy mayor of D' Urban (Mr. 
 George Cato) a faithful adviser, and in Richard King 
 an energetic, public-spirited messenger, who, without 
 taking any selfish advantage of the circumstances, 
 responded at once to his call, and went off to 
 announce the fatal result of the night attack on 
 the Congella to the authorities in the Cape Colony. 
 It was evident that the only chance of relief 
 depended on the speed with which that intelligence 
 was conveyed, and Dick King (as he is commonly 
 called), feeling the importance of this mission, got 
 through the Amabaka* and Amaponda countries 
 at the extreme peril of his life, and on the ninth 
 day reached Graham's Town in an almost exhausted 
 state. On the receipt of this sad intelligence the 
 
 * He was surrounded by the Amabakas, who, mistaking him at 
 first for a Dutch emigrant farmer, were about to take revenge upon him 
 for the attack made upon them by Pretorius ; but he, happily, could 
 make himself understood, and explained his errand, upon which they 
 allowed him to pass. 
 
 1 60
 
 LECT. v.] SUCCOUR FOR THE BESIEGED 161 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor on the frontier (Colonel Hare) 
 immediately despatched the grenadier company of 
 the 27th Regiment to Port Elizabeth, where they 
 were embarked in the schooner the Conch, then 
 fortunately lying there at anchor, under the com- 
 mand of our present port-captain (Captain Bell), who 
 had already visited, and was well acquainted with, 
 the harbour of Natal ; and Sir George Napier, upon 
 receiving the same painful account at Cape Town, 
 had fortunately at his disposal the 25th Regiment, 
 which was then only awaiting transports to take 
 them on to India, but which might not be expected 
 for some weeks. Admiral Percy (the admiral on 
 the station) at once gave up his flagship, the 
 Southampton, of fifty guns, for the proposed ex- 
 pedition ; and my worthy and excellent brother, 
 Colonel (now Sir Josias Cloete), having been placed 
 in command of the whole force, the 25th Regiment 
 were marched down and embarked at Simon's Town, 
 and in an incredibly short space of time, on the 
 24th June (exactly one month from the day of 
 Captain Smith's disaster), the Southampton arrived 
 off the bar and found the Conch, which had anchored 
 off the bay the day preceding, and as the evening 
 fell rockets and blue-lights were immediately thrown 
 up to cheer the besieged with the prospect of instant 
 relief. 
 
 The next day, every arrangement being made to 
 effect a landing, the Southampton brought up as close 
 to the beach as she could with safety approach, and 
 M
 
 162 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 a favourable south-east breeze having just sprung up, 
 Captain Bell, in the Conch, led the way over the bar, 
 having all the man-of-war boats in tow, the last of 
 which, as they got on the bar, cast off their lines 
 and landed, and attacked the Bluff, where the 
 emigrant farmers had planted two ship guns with 
 a small force to defend the approach to the bay. 
 But Captain Wells, of the 25th Regiment, with his 
 small party soon effected a landing and captured 
 their guns, while the Conch and the remaining boats 
 were exposed to a severe cross-fire as they entered 
 the port ; but the tide and breeze had wafted them 
 in so rapidly that with the trifling loss of two killed 
 and four wounded the main body, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Cloete and Major D'Urban, made 
 good their landing near the old custom-house, from 
 whence the emigrant farmers were soon completely 
 driven away, their flag taken down and captured, 
 and their whole force pursued towards the Congella, 
 thus placing Colonel Cloete in communication with 
 Captain Smith, and the whole of the country within 
 the Berea Hills in his possession. The next day, 
 hearing that some of the farmers were still gathered 
 at the Congella, Colonel Cloete advanced with 200 
 men and drove them from that position, when they 
 retired to Cowie's farm, at the foot of the hill which 
 now encloses the rising Pine Town, to the south- 
 ward. But now the commanding officer found 
 himself placed in a most anxious position ; the 
 gentle south-east breeze which had wafted them
 
 v.] MURDER BY KAFIR AUXILIARIES 163 
 
 on shore on the 25th of June increased the same 
 evening into a violent and (at that season of the 
 year) very unusual gale from the south-east. The 
 Southampton, which had so gallantly placed itself 
 as near as possible to the bar to aid in the landing 
 of the troops, after drifting awhile, was obliged to 
 put to sea with the loss of some of her anchors, 
 having with difficulty weathered the dangerous Bluff, 
 and was driven about for four or five days without 
 a chance of returning to the anchorage. The supplies 
 on board the Conch and those found at the Congella 
 were quite insufficient to supply food for the six 
 or seven hundred men now under, his command, 
 and Colonel Cloete thus availed himself of the only 
 means he had at hand to ensure some supplies. A 
 number of petty Kafir chieftains, attracted by the 
 hostilities which had been going on for more 
 than a month, immediately repaired to the camp, 
 tendering their ready assistance, and Colonel Cloete 
 requested them to supply the troops as soon as 
 possible with some cattle, both for slaughter and 
 for drawing his field-guns, if further hostilities had 
 to be carried on. These Kafirs soon spread about, 
 and in search of cattle a party of these appears to 
 have visited two farms, situate between the Umlaas 
 and the Llovo rivers (now forming part of the 
 Umlaazi location), and there meeting two very 
 respectable farmers, Van Rooyen and Oosthuysen, 
 who were known for their very peaceable disposition, 
 murdered them in cold blood, but refrained from
 
 164 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 any act of violence to their wives and children, 
 who escaped to the camp of the emigrants, and 
 filled it with dismay and horror at the idea that 
 the Kafirs had been incited to commit these murders 
 upon the farmers. Colonel Cloete, on hearing this 
 report, at once issued a public notice, solemnly dis- 
 avowing having given even an implied sanction to 
 such excesses ; but at the same time warned the 
 emigrants that it was quite impossible for him to 
 prevent these outrages, so long as they continued in 
 open rebellion against Her Majesty's authority. 
 
 The latter were, however, so disconcerted by these 
 murders, and they gave rise to such a state of panic, 
 that all those farmers who were still residing on their 
 homesteads at once fled with their families and flocks 
 to this town of Pietermaritzburg, which became the 
 scene of the utmost confusion. 
 
 The Volksraad held an extraordinary meeting on 
 a Sunday in the church-building (the court-hall being 
 considered too small to hold the whole of the public), 
 to take into consideration the present aspect of 
 affairs. Mr. Boshof was called to the chair, but 
 it was quite impossible for him to preserve anything 
 like regularity in their proceedings. The most 
 violent attacks and recriminations ensued, which 
 occupied the whole day, until, towards the approach 
 of the evening, the strength of the loudest declaimers 
 being somewhat exhausted, Mr. John van der Plank 
 (who, with Mr. Mesham and Thomas Sheers, were 
 the only Englishmen who had been allowed to be
 
 v.] RESOLUTIONS OF THE VOLKSRAAD 165 
 
 at liberty) proposed a written resolution to the 
 effect : 
 
 "That in the present state of affairs it was expedient 
 and necessary to propose to Col. Cloete the following 
 terms of peace : 
 
 " i. That there should be granted a general amnesty to 
 all emigrant farmers who had engaged in these hostilities. 
 
 "2. That Col. Cloete should put an end to, and support 
 them in, any attack from the Kafirs." 
 
 The chairman thereupon ordered the doors to be 
 closed to the public, and having put these resolutions 
 to the Volksraad, they, by a large majority, adopted 
 them as a basis of negotiation with Col. Cloete, and 
 appointed a deputation, consisting of the Chairman, 
 Mr. Van der Plank, Mr. Zietsman, and two more 
 of the Council, to proceed to D' Urban to enter upon 
 the terms of this pacification, but so impressed were 
 the Council, and even their chairman, of the succour 
 they were to receive from the King of Holland, 
 and of the effect which their petitions, entrusted to 
 Mr. Smellekamp, were to have, that the deputation 
 was directed first to make their stand on the sub- 
 mission they had proffered of this country to 
 Holland, conceiving that this would be held even 
 by Col. Cloete as a bar to any treaty with Her 
 Majesty. 
 
 The deputation met Col. Cloete at Cowie's Hills, 
 whither he had already advanced with a small party, 
 but such were the difficulties of obtaining cattle 
 for transport that on that score alone he could not
 
 166 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 possibly have made a further advance. There the 
 chairman (Mr. Boshof) opened his negotiations, but 
 on mentioning the difficulty of their position by 
 their submission to the King of Holland, Col. Cloete 
 at once dismissed this plea with ridicule, and stated 
 that he had already prepared in writing the only 
 terms which he was willing to grant them. These 
 were read to them, and the deputation did not 
 appear to object to their tenor, but stating that 
 they could only be sanctioned by the Volksraad at 
 their special meeting, they suggested that by Col. 
 Cloete's presence at Pietermaritzburg this was likely 
 to be accomplished far more readily and satisfactorily 
 than by constant deputations or correspondence. Col. 
 Cloete at once adopted that suggestion, both with 
 a view of bringing these matters to a speedy issue, 
 by showing them this mark of his confidence and 
 power, and furthermore (and indeed chiefly) with a 
 view of obtaining by ocular proof and inspection a 
 thorough knowledge of the country and of the 
 roads and passes from the bay to this town, re- 
 garding which they v were all at the camp in the 
 utmost ignorance. 
 
 Col. Cloete accordingly soon followed the deputa- 
 tion to this place, accompanied by Lieut. Napier 
 as his aide-de-camp, Lieut Fuller of the Engineers, 
 and Lieut Maclean of the Artillery. He was re- 
 ceived with every mark of respect, and a meeting 
 of the Volksraad was specially convened for the 
 5th July, 1842, when they formally tendered to
 
 v.] AN IMPORTANT DECLARATION 167 
 
 Col. Cloete the following written deed of submission, 
 signed by Mr. Boshof, as their chairman, and twelve 
 members of the Volksraad. It was to this effect : 
 
 "We, the undersigned, duly authorised by the emigrant 
 farmers of Pietermaritzburg, Natal, and the adjacent country, 
 do hereby tender for them and ourselves our solemn declar- 
 ation of submission to the authority of Her Majesty the 
 Queen of England. 
 
 "And we do further accept and subscribe to the follow- 
 ing terms that have been required : 
 
 " i st. The immediate release of all prisoners, whether 
 soldiers or civilians ; 
 
 " 2nd. The giving up of all cannon in our possession, 
 those taken as well as others, with the ammunition and 
 stores belonging to them ; and 
 
 " 3rd. The restitution of all public and private property 
 in our possession, which had been confiscated. 
 
 "Signed by J. Boshof, President, and 12 members." 
 
 Upon this document being delivered to Col. Cloete, 
 the guns which had been brought up here being 
 surrendered, and the prisoners, who had undergone 
 a strict, and occasionally a severe, imprisonment in 
 the court -hall for six weeks, being immediately 
 released, Col. Cloete granted them in writing the 
 following terms, viz. : 
 
 " i st. Under the authority of His Excellency the 
 Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good 
 Hope he agreed to grant them : 
 
 " i. A general amnesty or free pardon to all persons 
 who have been engaged in resisting Her Majesty's troops 
 and authority, with the exception of Joachim Prinsloo,
 
 i68 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 A. W. Pretorius, J. J. Burger, Michael van Breda, and 
 Servaas van Breda, whose cases were to be left for the 
 special consideration of his Excellency the Governor." 
 
 Colonel Cloete, however, after signing and inter- 
 changing these documents, became so satisfied that 
 Andries W. Pretorius, although then their military 
 commander, had so powerfully exerted his influence 
 to bring about this pacification by satisfying the 
 great majority of the utter hopelessness of further 
 resistance, that he withdrew his name from the list 
 of the proscribed, leaving the four others to await 
 His Excellency's decision. 
 
 He further declared, 
 
 "2. To respect all private property, whether houses, 
 goods, or chattels. 
 
 " 3. That the emigrant farmers were at liberty to return 
 unmolested to their farms, with their guns and horses. 
 
 "4. That the farmers would be protected against any 
 attack of the Zoolahs or native tribes. 
 
 " 5. That the tenure of their lands would not be inter- 
 fered with, but must be left for the final determination and 
 settlement of Her Majesty's Government. 
 
 "6. That the existing administration and civil institu- 
 tions, under acknowledgment of Her Majesty's supremacy, 
 shall not be interfered with till the pleasure of Her Majesty 
 shall be known. But that the Volksraad was not to 
 extend any jurisdiction to Port Natal, which was to be 
 placed for the present under the exclusive control of the 
 military commandant of Her Majesty's troops. The limits 
 of Port Natal being defined by the Umlazi River to the 
 west, the Umgane to the east, and a line along the ridges
 
 v.] A SATISFACTORY SETTLEMENT 169 
 
 and crest of the Berea Hills, joining those two rivers to the 
 north. 
 
 "7. That the Kafirs shall for the present remain in the 
 unmolested occupation of the grounds upon which they 
 were upon the arrival of Her Majesty's troops, subject to 
 such future arrangements as the Government may find 
 necessary to make for general security. 
 
 "8. That the port and custom dues remain to the 
 Crown, and are to be left at the disposal of Her Majesty's 
 Government." 
 
 The principal and most effective force under Col. 
 Cloete's command, consisting of the 25th Regiment, 
 being urgently required for India, was thereupon 
 immediately embarked on board of the Southampton, 
 in which Col. Cloete also returned to Cape Town, 
 leaving the command of Port Natal and the country 
 within the limits of the Berea, as heretofore defined, 
 and as entirely excluded from any interference from 
 the Volksraad, under the command of Capt. Smith. 
 
 The whole of the proceedings of Col. Cloete were 
 entirely approved of by His Excellency, and subse- 
 quently by Her Majesty's ministers, and no one, 
 possessed of a dispassionate and unprejudiced mind, 
 can fail to appreciate how satisfactorily, in the space 
 of two weeks, he had accomplished the settlement of 
 this very difficult question, and saved this country, as 
 well as Her Majesty's arms, the sad consequences of 
 an unnatural civil war. 
 
 But there were not wanting in and about the camp, 
 and among the persons who had undergone the
 
 i;o SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 hardships of imprisonment, several who deeply 
 regretted that no opportunity had been afforded 
 them of satisfying or (rather) glutting their feelings 
 of revenge. These represented the settlement as 
 not only inconclusive and unsatisfactory, but as 
 also keeping up a spirit of enmity towards the 
 emigrant farmers. They made every little complaint 
 the theme for a renewal of hostilities with them, 
 as all supplies having to be brought from Port Natal, 
 some intercourse was necessarily kept up with this 
 town and Port Natal. The circulation by the 
 Volksraad of their title deeds to different farmers, 
 which had been struck off on a small American 
 press at the Umlazi station many months before the 
 outbreak of hostilities, and which, prefaced by styling 
 the Volksraad " The Hon'ble Volksraad, as having 
 Supreme Power in the Government of the Republic 
 of the Dutch South African Emigrants at Natal," 
 was made the text of a violent and angry corres- 
 pondence between Captain Smith and the Volksraad, 
 and matters were gradually leading both parties to 
 such an estrangement that no doubt they would soon 
 have ended again in open hostility but for my arrival 
 as commissioner for this district in the beginning of 
 June, 1843, of which I shall now proceed to detail 
 the circumstances. 
 
 In discussing with Mr. Boshof and some of the 
 most enlightened members of the Volksraad the 
 manner in which the final arrangements for the 
 settlement of this district could be best effected
 
 v.] APPOINTMENT OF A COMMISSIONER 171 
 
 (for neither Colonel Cloete nor His Excellency the 
 Governor had at that time any authority to enter 
 upon any definite arrangements involving the per- 
 manent occupation of the country), they had 
 suggested that the best mode of attaining that 
 object would be by the appointment of a special 
 Commissioner, with whom these matters could be 
 finally settled ; and Colonel Cloete conveyed this 
 their wish to His Excellency Sir George Napier, 
 who, in transmitting an account of all these stirring 
 events to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies, also referred to that suggestion of Her 
 Majesty's Government if it should be determined 
 upon to take formal possession of the country. 
 
 Nine months were, however, allowed to pass, leaving 
 all these matters in a state of the most painful 
 suspense ; and indeed an opinion was getting rapidly 
 prevalent that Her Majesty's Government would 
 still eschew all interference in the administration 
 of this country, when, on the ist May, 1843, I 
 received a note from His Excellency Sir G. Napier, 
 stating that he had just received an important 
 despatch on the subject, and, having determined 
 to offer me to go to Port Natal as Commissioner, 
 he wished me to come and peruse the despatch. 
 I immediately repaired to Government House, and 
 upon its perusal was so forcibly struck by the liberal 
 and enlightened policy which Lord Stanley (then 
 Secretary for the Colonies) had laid down for the 
 settlement and future administration of this district,
 
 172 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 that I expressed myself very confident of the result 
 of a mission which would announce such principles 
 to the inhabitants ; and I willingly gave up tem- 
 porarily my profession, and accepted the commission, 
 little aware, however, of the additional difficulties 
 which at that very moment were arising within this 
 district to oppose or prevent the attainment of such 
 an object. 
 
 A meeting of the Legislative Council was called 
 for the 4th May, at which His Excellency read an 
 able minute, setting forth the substance of the 
 Secretary of State's despatch; and on the I2th of 
 May my official appointment was announced in a 
 proclamation, which fully set forth the extent of 
 my authority and duties, and the conditions ex- 
 pressly required from the inhabitants before they 
 were to be considered entitled to the privileges 
 vouchsafed to them by Her Majesty's Government. 
 
 The Cleopatra frigate soon after brought me to 
 this place, when, on landing at the bay, I was 
 informed by the commandant that a fortnight before 
 the Dutch schooner Brasilia had again made her 
 appearance off the bar, having the notorious Mr. 
 Smellekamp and a clergyman of the Dutch Re- 
 formed Church and a schoolmaster on board, and 
 wishing to communicate with the emigrants, but 
 that he had refused them all intercourse with the 
 shore, and had ordered the vessel away with all 
 on board, at which he, Major Smith (for the defence 
 of the camp had earned him a brevet majority),
 
 v.] HIS MEETING WITH THE BOERS 173 
 
 understood that- great excitement prevailed at 
 Pietermaritzburg. I felt the necessity of im- 
 mediately checking that ebullition, and I sent off 
 instantly an express to the Volksraad announcing 
 my arrival, and on the third day after my landing 
 arrived at Pietermaritzburg. Mr. Boshof, Mr. Ziets- 
 man, and two or three others came to meet me on my 
 approach to the town, and in the evening I received 
 the visits of some of the members of the Volksraad, 
 with whom I made the arrangements for holding a 
 meeting in the court-hall. The next morning on 
 entering the court-room I found about 400 or 
 500 persons assembled in and around, almost closing 
 up every approach towards it, even every window. 
 Mr. Stephanus Maritz, sen., presided on the occasion, 
 and to the meeting I opened my commission and 
 gave an outline of the duties upon which I was 
 about to enter. After being listened to with great 
 attention for nearly an hour that I addressed the 
 meeting, a notorious character, Anton Fick, arose, 
 stating that in the name of the "public" he held 
 a document, which he desired to present to me. 
 On asking him the nature of the document he stated 
 that it contained a resolution not to enter into any 
 negotiations with me, until they (the public) had 
 had intercourse with the persons on board the 
 Brazilia, and had ascertained the replies from the 
 King of Holland and his ministers as to their 
 relations with that country. 
 
 I at first declined receiving or hearing any such
 
 174 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 document read, but finding the meeting much excited 
 on the subject, I agreed to its being read, under the 
 express condition of my being at liberty to answer it 
 directly, if I deemed it advisable ; and with this 
 stipulation he proceeded to read a long, rambling 
 statement of all the grievances and hardships of the 
 emigrants to obtain possession of this country, full 
 of complaints at the conduct of Major Smith in not 
 allowing their clergyman and schoolmaster to join 
 them, nor even to allow them to hear the replies 
 from Holland to the treaties they had proposed, 
 etc. ; the whole ending in a series of resolutions ex- 
 pressive of their determination not to enter into any 
 arrangements with me until these functionaries were 
 restored to them, and they had communicated with 
 the Brazilia. 
 
 I thereupon answered these resolutions immedi- 
 ately by pointing out that, at my departure from 
 the Cape, nothing had been known of the Brazilia 
 visiting this coast ; that the angry tone of their late 
 intercourse with the commandant had, no doubt, led 
 to his prohibiting any communication with the vessel, 
 but that his proceedings were necessarily unknown to 
 the authorities at the Cape, and that I had, as Com- 
 missioner, no concern in these matters, except to 
 assure them that if the Brazilia had touched at the 
 Cape no doubt an authority would have been given 
 to these functionaries to land; and I further pointed 
 out the extreme folly of expecting any support from 
 the King of Holland, with the hope of which they
 
 v.] ACTIVITY OF THE WAR PARTY 175 
 
 were still so impressed. This proposal from the 
 " public " having been thus set at rest, I addressed 
 myself to the Volksraad, and requested of them to 
 know how and in what manner they would signify 
 their acceptance or rejection of the conditions I 
 had laid before them ; when their chairman, after 
 due consultation on that point, declared that there 
 were only at that moment some half-dozen members 
 of the Volksraad present, that the decision of such 
 an important question required their full attendance, 
 and that their ordinary quarterly meeting being fixed 
 for the first week of August, they desired an ad- 
 journment of the question till that date, when a 
 full attendance of all the members would be specially 
 called for. 
 
 This appeared so reasonable that I at once as- 
 sented to that adjournment, intending to devote the 
 intermediate time in inspecting and registering farms 
 and lands in and about D' Urban, from which the 
 influence and authority of the Volksraad had been 
 expressly excluded by the treaty with my brother, 
 Sir Josias Cloete. 
 
 I, however, remained here (at Pietermaritzburg) a 
 few days longer to explain more fully to the most 
 respectable inhabitants the policy of Her Majesty's 
 Government ; and during that time I received the 
 undoubted information that the "war party" here 
 (at the head of which Commandant Gert Rudolph 
 had placed himself) had sent expresses forthwith into 
 the present Sovereignty and Transvaal country,
 
 176 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 representing that they were about being attacked 
 by Her Majesty's troops, and strongly urging the 
 commandants of those districts to be here with all 
 the armed force they could collect by the beginning 
 of August, when they expected an outbreak of 
 hostilities ; and at the same time I received a 
 memorial signed by the principal inhabitants of this 
 town, intimating their dread of these hostilities, and 
 soliciting the support of the Government against 
 any violence which they apprehended in case they 
 were to show their loyalty to the Government or 
 disapprobation of these violent proceedings. This 
 intelligence I immediately transmitted to His 
 Excellency, and returned to D'Urban, where the 
 registration of lands fully engaged my time during 
 the months of June and July, when on the 2ist 
 July, Her Majesty's steamer Thunderbolt (the first 
 Government steamer employed upon our coast, and 
 subsequently lost on Cape Receif) arrived at Port 
 Natal with a detachment of the 45th Regiment and 
 two guns, which His Excellency had despatched 
 immediately on the receipt of my communication as 
 to my first reception here, and the expected meeting 
 in August. 
 
 With this accession of force I had flattered my- 
 self that Major Smith would have been enabled to 
 advance upon this town before any burgher force 
 could have arrived from behind the Draaksberg; 
 that he might thus have imparted such a confi- 
 dence in the inhabitants, in and about the town, as
 
 v.] COMMISSIONER AND VOLKSRAAD 177 
 
 to ensure their presence at the meeting undeterred 
 by the menaces of those who were bent upon war ; 
 but Major Smith declined, on what the Czar 
 terms " strategic grounds," making the advance ; 
 and his determination (although at the time deeply 
 regretted by me) only tended in its results to lead 
 to a far more satisfactory conclusion of this political 
 drama. 
 
 I had, however, determined personally to be 
 present here, and I accordingly intimated this in- 
 tention to the Volksraad, and arrived on the 6th of 
 August on the Uysdorns hill.* I was soon met by 
 an advanced guard of some twenty men, and near 
 the town by about eighty or a hundred more 
 mounted persons, all, however, unarmed, but on 
 reaching my residence at the house of Messrs. 
 Behrens (now part of the present Colonial Office), 
 I was waited upon by Commandant Mocke and five 
 or six other commandants, and about twenty field- 
 cornets from behind the Draaksberg, who, with about 
 800 or 1000 men, had marched into the town a few 
 days before and had encamped on the market-square, 
 where about twenty waggons were ranged, containing 
 all their arms, ammunition, and supplies. The com- 
 mandants, severally, at once offered me a guard for 
 my personal protection, which I, however, civilly 
 declined, expressing my entire conviction that I 
 
 * This hill is about five miles from Pietermaritzburg, remarkable 
 for being densely covered with the thorny "mimosa," and where the 
 clan of " Uys" had made their first encampment. 
 
 N
 
 178 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 needed no such protection ; but I certainly found 
 the town in a state of confusion and excitement, 
 which it is quite impossible to describe. 
 
 The proceedings of the Volksraad had commenced 
 the day before my arrival, when, under the influence 
 of the "war party," the commandants and field- 
 cornets from beyond the Draaksberg had insisted 
 upon holding a "combined" Council of delegates from 
 the two districts on this and that beyond the moun- 
 tain (as explained in my first lecture) ; and that this 
 combined Council should consist of sixty members, 
 for the palpable object thus to give a preponderating 
 number of votes on any question to their numerous 
 party. This they had succeeded in carrying, and 
 the moment they had been elected and taken their 
 seats the notorious Mr. Fick commenced a personal 
 attack upon Mr. Boshof of the most virulent 
 character, charging him with having betrayed their 
 Council, as they termed it, and with having falsified 
 a document (referred to in my previous lecture), 
 by which the members of the Volksraad had 
 tendered their submission to Her Majesty's authority 
 in July, 1842. 
 
 It appeared that on that occasion Mr. Boshof, 
 having been the chief (if not the only) person who 
 could fitly embody their resolutions in writing, had 
 had the labour of drawing out and engrossing all 
 the documents, when some duplicates or triplicates 
 having been required of this treaty, one or two 
 of the country members, who were anxious to leave
 
 v.] THE VOLKSRAAD DIVIDED 179 
 
 the town and return to their families, had signed 
 one of the copies of the document in blank, which 
 Mr. Boshof subsequently had to fill in. 
 
 This had maliciously been perverted into his 
 having got some members to sign a document of 
 which they knew not the contents, and was made the 
 handle of the most malignant attacks upon his 
 person and character ; but, fortunately, the members 
 whose convenience he had consulted in taking their 
 signatures before he had been able to make all the 
 copies were present, and at once completely ex- 
 plained and refuted this base calumny ; while 
 Mr. Boshof's whole career was so unassailable that 
 all these objections were overruled, and he was 
 allowed to take his seat in the Council, where they 
 were well aware that he could not fail to exert a 
 commanding influence. 
 
 One entire day was occupied with this preliminary 
 wrangle, and the parties broke up late at night to 
 recommence their deliberations the next morning 
 early. During that night, however, a party of the 
 most violent and unprincipled ruffians among them 
 held a secret meeting in one of the huts about the 
 "vley"* in this town, where they resolved upon 
 coming armed to the meeting of the Volksraad the 
 next morning, there to bring about a scuffle or out- 
 break, in the course of which they would make an 
 attack upon (or, in plainer language, assassinate) 
 Boshof, Pretorius, and two others, whom they con- 
 
 * A swampy part of the town, at that time almost uninhabited.
 
 i8o SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [I.ECT. 
 
 sidered the principal heads of the peace or sub- 
 mission party. Andries Pretorius, who on that 
 occasion proved himself the true benefactor of this 
 country, and who by his scouts kept a watchful eye 
 upon all the proceedings of every party, got very 
 early intelligence of this plot, and he accordingly 
 came to the meeting also secretly armed and sur- 
 rounded by numerous and powerful clans ; and as 
 the business of the meeting was about to commence, 
 seeing the party mustering, whom he knew had been 
 hatching this atrocious conspiracy, he addressed the 
 meeting in a strain of impassioned extemporaneous 
 eloquence not unworthy of Cicero himself, and 
 hardly surpassed by the latter in his first "Catilin- 
 aria," which, if worked up by a Sallust or Livy, 
 would have handed down his name to posterity as 
 a great orator ; in the course of which he informed 
 the chairman and the meeting of a foul conspiracy, 
 which he knew had been planned against the friends 
 of peace and good order, and that he could at once 
 point out the principal ruffians ; but he disdained 
 to hand down their names to everlasting infamy, 
 and (looking to the knot where they were chiefly 
 collected), stated that their looks already betrayed 
 the guilt of their consciences ; that he dared them 
 to show the arms which he knew they were secretly 
 hiding in their bosoms ; that if force and violence 
 were intended he and his friends were fully prepared 
 to repel it ; but if not lost to all sense of shame, he 
 advised them to hide their diminished heads, and to
 
 v.] WISE COUNSELS PREVAIL 181 
 
 retire from a conflict where reason and temper were 
 required and not brute force, and thus save them- 
 selves from the everlasting infamy which would 
 attach upon their names if they once commenced 
 upon any act of open violence. 
 
 Never were the following lines of the immortal 
 poet more applicable than to the position in which 
 these persons then appeared : 
 
 " Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, 
 And thus the native hue of resolution 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; 
 And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
 With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
 And lose the name of action " : 
 
 for not one ventured to answer the challenge. The 
 whole of that clique, who soon betrayed themselves 
 by their manner and countenance, silently dropped 
 off from the assembly, and the meeting subsided 
 at once into more order and decorum than had been 
 hitherto observed. Stephanus Maritz, sen., parti- 
 cularly distinguished himself by the temper, tact, 
 and judgment which he displayed on that memorable 
 occasion : he very adroitly got a preliminary question 
 to be mooted in how far the inhabitants from beyond 
 the Draaksberg had a right to vote on this question, 
 viz., whether they were to be affected by any arrange- 
 ment with me, as they had not been parties to the 
 treaty with Col. Cloete ; and a deputation from the 
 Volksraad waited on me at Mr. Behren's residence, 
 where I was anxiously waiting the result of this
 
 182 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 meeting to obtain a formal answer to a question, 
 " How far my authority was to extend, or how far 
 Her Majesty meant to assert her supremacy over 
 this country?" Although I was then but a few 
 yards from the court hall and square where those 
 exciting events were taking place, I was naturally 
 kept in ignorance of what was passing at the very 
 moment. As I had determined, as yet, not to take 
 any part in those proceedings, having only informed 
 the chairman that I was here ready to answer any 
 questions they might wish to put, and thus not being 
 aware of the exact purport and object of the question 
 when put to me, I yet candidly informed them that 
 by my instructions the future boundaries of this 
 district had been left entirely to my decision and 
 report ; that I was, however, fully aware that Her 
 Majesty's Government did not wish in any way to 
 extend her authority over vast extents of country 
 where an effectual protection to life and property 
 could not be secured to the inhabitants, and that 
 I did not therefore hesitate to declare at once that 
 I was fully prepared to recommend that the extent 
 of this district should be bounded on the north by 
 the natural Quathlamba range of mountains, and not 
 to extend beyond it. 
 
 This answer had a great effect upon the delibera- 
 tions of the Volksraad. A resolution was thereupon 
 put and carried, declaring that, as the inhabitants 
 beyond the Quathlamba or Draaksberg mountains 
 were not to be affected by any of my proceedings,
 
 v.] WITHDRAWALS FROM THE VOLKSRAAD 183 
 
 their representatives now here had no right to vote 
 on questions which did not affect them ; and some 
 of the commandants and representatives from beyond 
 the Sovereignty even joined in that resolution, seeing 
 that they would have considerable difficulty in carry- 
 ing their original intention. The second day's pro- 
 ceedings then closed late at night by the whole of the 
 members who had taken their seats as representing 
 the Winburg and (now) Sovereignty territory, with- 
 drawing from the Volksraad ; and Commandant 
 Mocke, accompanied by De Kock, Du Plooy, and 
 several other field-cornets, called upon me the same 
 evening to bid me farewell, Mocke declaring with 
 a bitterness of feeling (which clearly betrayed the 
 disappointment and vexation he felt) that he never 
 again would have anything to do with Natal and 
 its affairs, that he had been grossly deceived by the 
 representations he had received, and that he would 
 now order his men peaceably to withdraw. This 
 order seemed to meet with the most implicit 
 obedience. The next day passed by in their making 
 preparations for their departure, and the follow- 
 ing day the whole of that division, about 700 or 
 800 strong, wended their way over the town-hill 
 on their return to the Sovereignty, encountering 
 great hardships on the road from snowstorms and 
 scarcity of provisions. 
 
 On the third day of the meeting of the Volksraad 
 its members were thus reduced to the twenty-four 
 members representing the Council for this district
 
 184 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 only ; and the calm and temperate tone adopted at 
 that meeting seemed at once to give promise 
 of a peaceful and satisfactory conclusion to their 
 deliberations. 
 
 Dr. Poortman happened to have received a letter 
 from some friend in Holland, in which, alluding to 
 the letters brought over by Smellekamp, the writer 
 informed him of the delusion which had been prac- 
 tised upon them here ; and after this letter had been 
 submitted to the closest scrutiny by the post-mark 
 being examined, no doubt remained as to its genuine- 
 ness, and they appeared at last to become satisfied 
 that all hope of succour or support from Holland 
 was at an end, when they took into consideration 
 the terms of Lord Stanley's despatch of the I3th 
 December, 1842, which I had brought with me, and 
 of which I had made a translation, so far as to show 
 the sound reasoning and the liberal policy by which 
 Her Majesty's Government were actuated in their 
 adoption of this territory. 
 
 I had caused several copies to be made of this 
 extract, which I had circulated among them, and a 
 perusal thereof will, even now, no doubt, interest 
 my auditors, and confirm the opinion I had formed 
 on that subject. 
 
 One part of that despatch is to this effect, viz. : 
 
 " The question then remains, in what manner to deal with 
 the district and the numerous population thus brought again 
 into submission, and under allegiance to Her Majesty. 
 
 " Various courses may be pursued, the supremacy of the
 
 v.] LORD STANLEY'S DESPATCH 185 
 
 British crown having been established : the existing popu- 
 lation might be permitted to remain and conduct their own 
 affairs, withdrawing the British troops, and thus neither 
 exercising practical control over them, or affording them 
 efficient protection. 
 
 " They may be removed and compelled to return under 
 the pressure of an overwhelming military force, such as 
 would leave no alternative but those of submission or 
 extermination. 
 
 " The emigrants may be summoned to return within the 
 settled limits of the colony of the Cape, deprived of all 
 protection, in the event of their refusal, against the hostility 
 of the Zoolahs and other tribes, and of the Kafirs within 
 their own boundaries, and further, if deemed expedient, 
 cut off from all supplies by sea, and all regular and uninter- 
 rupted communication by land ; or, lastly, they may be taken 
 under the protection of the British crown, their district 
 recognised and adopted as a British Colony, and such insti- 
 tutions established, under British authority, as Her Majesty 
 may think fit. 
 
 " All these courses are open to adoption, and all require 
 thus to be maturely and carefully weighed. 
 
 "Two other courses, indeed, there are, to neither of which, 
 however, could Her Majesty's servants for a moment listen: 
 the one, to admit the independence of the emigrants, and 
 to disclaim all responsibility respecting them ; the other, to 
 permit them to come under the protection or dominion of 
 any foreign power. 
 
 " i. The first course of the four to which I have adverted 
 is open to very obvious objections. Virtually, though not 
 nominally, it would be conferring independence on the 
 emigrants, and the British Government would, in the face 
 of the civilised world, make itself responsible for the con- 
 duct of its subjects, whom, nevertheless, it neither assumed 
 
 N 2
 
 186 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 to control by legislation, nor to protect by military support. 
 I fear, moreover, that in the present state of the population, 
 many of their acts, whether towards each other, towards the 
 native tribes within their limits, or towards those who sur- 
 round them, might be such as the British Government could 
 neither approve nor permit; that disunion and jealousies 
 among themselves would require the intervention of some 
 supreme authority, and that Her Majesty could not safely 
 entrust the emigrant farmers with the unchecked manage- 
 ment of the Kafirs within their territory, nor repose entire 
 confidence in the moderation and temper with which they 
 might repel the aggressions or avenge the occasional depre- 
 dations of the border tribes. 
 
 " 2. I confess, if there were any reasonable probability of 
 inducing the body of the emigrants to return within the 
 settled limits of the colony, under your government, either 
 voluntarily or after a reasonable time, by such methods of 
 compulsion as I have already indicated, such would be 
 the result, which, as you are already aware, Her Majesty's 
 Government would most willingly see accomplished. 
 
 " But you and Col. Cloete concur in representing, in the 
 strongest terms, the impossibility of inducing any consider- 
 able numbers of these emigrants voluntarily to return to the 
 colony for the sake of British protection ; and in your des- 
 patches of the 25th of July and the 24th of August you 
 assign very strong reasons why, on this subject, no inter- 
 mediate mode of compulsion should be adopted. 
 
 " Her Majesty's Government have carefully weighed the 
 arguments which you have urged and the difficulties which 
 you have suggested in opposition to such a measure, and I 
 am bound to acknowledge that they appear to us to be 
 almost, if not entirely, conclusive. 
 
 "But it appears to us that there are reasons at least 
 equally strong against the third course suggested, that of the
 
 v.] LORD STANLEY'S DESPATCH 187 
 
 employment against the Boers of a force sufficient to compel 
 their return, or to exterminate them. 
 
 " That such a course is within our power, there can be no 
 doubt ; but notwithstanding all the faults of which the emi- 
 grants have been guilty, I cannot be insensible to their 
 good qualities, nor to the past hardships which they have 
 undergone; nor can I reconcile it to my sense, either of 
 humanity or policy, to employ a large British force in the 
 extirpation of a body of industrious colonists, professing 
 allegiance to the British crown, and inviting the savage 
 tribes surrounding them to join in the exterminating pro- 
 cess. Measures so extreme could be justified only by a 
 necessity which I am happy to think does not in this case 
 exist. 
 
 " There remains then only to be considered the question 
 of the recognition of the territory of Port Natal as a British 
 colony, or part of a British colony. 
 
 "The Commissioner will be authorised to call together 
 the principal emigrant farmers and others, and inform them 
 that Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to bury in 
 oblivion past transactions, and desirous of being enabled to 
 rely upon their present assurances of dutiful obedience and 
 loyalty, is anxious to place the institutions of the colony 
 upon such a footing, consistent with the maintenance of 
 her royal authority, as may be most acceptable to the 
 bulk of her subjects. The Commissioner is therefore to be 
 authorised to invite the unreserved expression of their 
 opinions and wishes, in respect to the judicial and other 
 local institutions, under which they may desire to be placed, 
 with an assurance that such expressions, when submitted to 
 Her Majesty, shall receive Her Majesty's most favourable 
 consideration.
 
 i88 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 " He will cause it to be distinctly understood, however, 
 that this authority does not extend to the question of legis- 
 lation ; on which Her Majesty reserves to herself the most 
 entire freedom of action. 
 
 " I think it probable, looking to the nature of the popula- 
 tion, that they will desire those institutions to be founded 
 on the Dutch, rather than on the English, model, and how- 
 ever little some of those institutions may be suited to a 
 more advanced state of civilisation, it is the desire of Her 
 Majesty's Government that in this respect the contentment 
 of the emigrants rather than the abstract merits of the 
 institutions should guide our decision." 
 
 The principles thus laid down as to the future 
 policy of Her Majesty's Government were so sensible, 
 and approved themselves so entirely to their own 
 wants and wishes, that the meeting resolved at once 
 to adopt them ; but a difficulty then arose as to the 
 manner in which this adoption should be penned, 
 and a deputation accordingly again waited upon me, 
 expressive of their desire to know how their sub- 
 mission had best be worded. I at once referred 
 them to the proclamation of His Excellency Sir G. 
 Napier of the I2th May, which, indeed, only em- 
 bodied the precise terms of Lord Stanley's despatch, 
 and informed them that no deed of submission would 
 be accepted by me which did not embrace and ex- 
 press their entire acceptance of the three conditions 
 set forth in that proclamation, and I referred them to 
 these words, as set forth in that proclamation, viz. : 
 
 "It is also necessary that the Commissioner should 
 most explicitly make known to the emigrants, that what-
 
 v.] THE TERMS ACCEPTED 189 
 
 ever may be the institutions ultimately sanctioned, these 
 conditions are actually essential : 
 
 " i. That there shall not be, in the eye of the law, any 
 distinction or disqualification whatever, founded on mere 
 distinction of colour, origin, language, or creed, but that 
 the protection of the law, in letter and in substance, shall 
 be extended impartially to all alike. 
 
 " 2. That no aggression shall be sanctioned upon the 
 natives residing beyond the limits of the colony, under 
 any plea whatever, by any private person, or any body of 
 men, unless acting under the immediate authority and 
 orders of the Government. 
 
 " 3. That slavery in any shape, or under any modifica- 
 tion, is absolutely unlawful, as in every other portion of 
 Her Majesty's dominions. 
 
 " You will take care that it be distinctly understood that 
 these three conditions are indispensable preliminaries to the 
 permission which it is proposed to give to the emigrants to 
 occupy the territory of Port Natal, and to enjoy therein a 
 settled government under British protection ; and I trust 
 that no difficulty will be found in obtaining the willing 
 acquiescence of the emigrants in stipulations so reasonable, 
 and in our own judgment not more called for by humanity 
 and justice, than essential to the peace and good order of 
 the district." 
 
 Another deputation soon after followed, expressive 
 of the entire concurrence of the Volksraad in the 
 second and third conditions, but stating that they 
 still thought that the first clause should be modified 
 in some shape ; it was evident from this that they 
 were still inclined to suggest some special reserva- 
 tion in regard to the rights or liberties of the Kafirs,
 
 igo SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 and to lay the foundation for separate class-legisla- 
 tion for these ; but I repelled all idea of such a 
 nature by at once declaring that I would not admit 
 the slightest departure from those terms, and at 
 length towards the evening the chairman, together 
 with a deputation from the Council, handed me the 
 following declaration, which expressed in the follow- 
 ing words their entire and unconditional acceptance 
 of all the terms prescribed by His Excellency. 
 The document, as translated, runs thus : 
 
 " PlETERMARITZBURG, 8//4 August. 
 
 "SiR, We, the undersigned members and representa- 
 tives of the Volksraad, having had in consideration the 
 proclamation of His Excellency the Governor, dated i2th 
 May last, do hereby declare to have agreed to the condi- 
 tions set forth in the sixth article of the said proclamation, 
 and to accept the same. 
 
 Signed by, 
 
 J. MARITZ, President A. J. SPIES 
 M. J. POTGIETER P. G. HUMAN 
 
 P. R. OTTO J. A. KRIEL 
 
 P. M. ZlETSMAN M. A. VAN AARDT 
 
 B. POORTMAN G. C. VlLJOEN 
 
 M. J. PRETORIUS GERT SNYMAN 
 
 J. A. ClLLIERS H. J. VAN DEN BERG 
 
 G. R. VAN ROOYEN A. Z. VISAGE 
 
 G. J. NAUDE M. PRINSLOO 
 
 C. F. ROTMAN C. A. RUTHMAN 
 
 L. J. MEYER N. J. S. BASSON 
 
 G. F. POTGIETER J. BODENSTEIN, Sec. of 
 
 P. R. NEL the Volksraad. 
 
 "Addressed to the Hon'ble H. CLOETE, 
 
 Her Majesty's Commissioner."
 
 v.] ACCEPTING THE INEVITABLE 191 
 
 It will be thus seen that this stormy meeting 
 held in this town in August, 1843, after being 
 protracted for three days, had ended in all the 
 twenty-four members of the Volksraad unanimously 
 signing this formal deed ; and when it is considered 
 that although Pretorius, Boshof, Zietsman the elder, 
 and several others of the most respectable inhabitants 
 who had no seat in the Volksraad, had yet expressed 
 their entire concurrence in this Proclamation, no 
 doubt can be entertained that this solemn deed of 
 submission to, and recognition of, Her Majesty's 
 authority had been obtained by the deliberate and 
 unanimous voice of all those who had really any 
 stake or interest in the country ; and with every 
 friend of humanity it became a matter of heartfelt 
 satisfaction, and of gratitude to the Great Disposer 
 of human affairs, that this had been brought about 
 by a perfectly free and unbiassed judgment of the 
 constituted authorities at the time, without any 
 threats or pressure from without; but I cannot 
 close this lecture without recording my sincere 
 acknowledgment that this peaceable and satis- 
 factory termination of the broils of the inhabitants 
 with the Government had thus been chiefly effected 
 by the influence of (the now deceased) Andries 
 Pretorius, of Stephanus Maritz, of Mr. Boshof, of 
 Dr. Poortman, and the Zietsmans, father and son, 
 who proved themselves true friends of the welfare 
 of this country, which (despite many difficulties 
 with which it has had to contend) has made
 
 192 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 during these last twelve years a steady progress 
 in social, agricultural, and commercial improve- 
 ment. 
 
 These persons chiefly opened the eyes of their 
 countrymen to the delusion under which they had 
 long laboured, either as to their power of self- 
 government and independence, or the still more 
 vain hope of foreign support ; and I trust I may 
 now venture to express my sincere thankfulness 
 to them for the aid they afforded me during those 
 trying scenes. 
 
 You have now been informed of the true state 
 of things in this district from its early formation 
 until the formal submission of its inhabitants to 
 Her Majesty's authority ; you will perceive how 
 errors and faults, committed on both sides, threat- 
 ened at one time to plunge this country into 
 an interminable civil war, and how this was 
 most providentially averted, chiefly by the in- 
 fluence of reason and good sense actuating the 
 minds of the leading men in this community, 
 who became fully impressed that Her Majesty's 
 Government, bound to assert its authority and 
 dignity on the one hand, was yet inclined to 
 confer upon them every advantage consistent with 
 true liberty ; for liberty (we jurists know) does not 
 consist in doing everything any individual in 
 society pleases, but only in doing that which is 
 not contrary to law and higher authority " nisi 
 quod vi aut jure prohibeatur " ; and I cannot give
 
 v.] A NEW GOVERNOR 193 
 
 you a more striking proof of the effect which the 
 dissemination of those principles of Her Majesty's 
 Government produced, even upon those who, "with 
 curses loud and deep," had broken up from the 
 deliberations of the Volksraad, and had returned 
 to their homes in the Sovereignty, than that four 
 months after these occurrences had taken place I 
 was agreeably surprised by a deputation arriving 
 here, headed by the two most influential inhabitants 
 of the Modder and Caledon rivers, Van den Heever 
 and Overholster, who presented me a memorial, 
 signed by 500 actual landholders in that district, 
 soliciting that I might also extend my labours to 
 the country from the Draaksberg to the banks of 
 the Orange River, and that a very large majority 
 of the inhabitants there were willing also to sub- 
 scribe to the same terms as the inhabitants of this 
 district. 
 
 I at once informed them that I had personally 
 no objection to proceed to their country and arrange 
 matters there in the same way as I was doing here, 
 but that the decision on this memorial must rest 
 altogether with the Governor of the Cape Colony, 
 to whom the memorial would be transmitted. This 
 I accordingly did ; but in the meantime " a new 
 king arose in Egypt who knew not Joseph," or, in a 
 plainer language, another Governor (Sir Peregrine 
 Maitland) had come out and superseded Sir George 
 Napier, whose period of holding a government, 
 under the Queen's regulations, had long expired.
 
 194 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. 
 
 This Governor, who probably felt no such deep 
 interest in these matters or countries as his pre- 
 decessor, or had received more stringent rules to 
 carry out, simply replied "that the application 
 could not be entertained." 
 
 It is therefore vain now to indulge in speculations 
 how the affairs of the Orange River Territory would 
 have proceeded if the same policy had been followed 
 out towards them ; but the following little anecdote 
 will show the zeal and prudence with which that 
 deputation had performed the trust confided to 
 them. Some days before their arrival at this 
 place we had heard a report that a deputation 
 was on its way here, but that they had been 
 stopped and waylaid by some of the " Ultra- 
 Radical party" behind the mountain. On their 
 presenting themselves to me I alluded to this 
 report, and begged to be informed whether there 
 was any truth in it, when old Overholster replied 
 that there was some truth in it, that the signing 
 of this memorial and its object were necessarily 
 known throughout the country, and that at the 
 Sand River Drift (which they were obliged to cross 
 on their way here), an armed party from the neigh- 
 bourhood had surrounded them, and declaring them 
 "traitors" to their country had positively and vio- 
 lently threatened to attack them unless they 
 delivered up the memorial to them. But Overholster 
 proceeded : " We had also anticipated and provided 
 for such an occurrence, for after a show of resistance
 
 v.] THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE 195 
 
 we somewhat reluctantly took out of the front chest 
 of my waggon the memorial which had been placed 
 there, and which they carried off in triumph ; but 
 at the same time we had had a duplicate prepared 
 of the same document, and signed by all the 500 
 landowners as the other ; this duplicate I kept in 
 the bedding of my ' katel,' and now deliver with 
 its seals quite intact." 
 
 This little incident shows at least the earnestness 
 with which they had set about to have the same 
 boon conferred on them as had been granted to the 
 inhabitants of this district ; and the latter would 
 be ungrateful indeed if they failed now to acknow- 
 ledge and be thankful for the very many blessings 
 which have been vouchsafed to them as a com- 
 munity during the last twelve years. 
 
 I fear, at least, that I am not only deeply indebted 
 to those influential persons whose names I have just 
 given as the real benefactors of their country ; but, 
 independent of this feeling, I could not but be 
 sensible every day during the momentous events 
 by which I was surrounded, that there was a 
 Divinity throughout, watchful of the interests of this 
 favoured country, and whose right hand was then, 
 and has ever since been, protecting it from the 
 horrors of the savage wars by which the Cape 
 frontier and the Sovereignty have been afflicted ; 
 that here, at least, during all those years, neither 
 war, famine, nor pestilence has afflicted the country ; 
 but, on the contrary, with whatever difficulties the
 
 196 SUBMISSION TO THE CROWN [LECT. v. 
 
 first introduction of a settled government may have 
 been beset, it has slowly but surely progressed in 
 the development of every resource from which the 
 true prosperity of a country depends. 
 
 Everywhere around us we perceive striking signs 
 of improvement, both in our social, moral, agricul- 
 tural, and even political relations ; and the ines- 
 timable blessing of peace, which we have so long 
 enjoyed, only requires to be continued to bring these 
 advantages into full maturity. 
 
 As I shall probably within a few days terminate 
 all further connection with the Natal district, in 
 bidding you an affectionate farewell I may, then, 
 be permitted, I trust, to express a hope that you 
 may not only long continue in the enjoyment of 
 those blessings, but that, by your public acts as a 
 community, and by your conduct in the relations 
 of private life, you may render yourselves worthy 
 of the continuance of those blessings from the 
 Divine Disposer of events. 
 
 Esto ptrpetua I 
 
 PLYMOUTH 
 WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, PRINTERS
 
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