The next day the ship was off Rio, and immediately sent her boats for
provisions and supplies; the passengers did not land, as the captain
stated that he would not stay an hour longer than was necessary, and on
the second evening after their arrival they again made sail for the
Cape.
The gulls were flying in numbers astern of the ship, darting down and
seizing everything edible which was thrown overboard, and the
conversation turned upon aquatic birds.
"What difference is there in the feathers of aquatic birds and others?"
inquired Alexander: "a hen, or any land bird, if it falls into the
water, is drowned as soon as its feathers are saturated with the water."
"There is, I believe, no difference in the feathers of the birds,"
replied Mr Swinton; "but all aquatic birds are provided with a small
reservoir, containing oil, with which they anoint their feathers, which
renders them water-proof. If you will watch a duck pluming and dressing
itself, you will find it continually turns its bill round to the end of
its back, just above the insertion of the tail; it is to procure this
oil, which, as it dresses its feathers that they may carefully overlap
each other, it smears upon them so as to render them impenetrable to the
water; but this requires frequent renewal, or the duck would be drowned
as well as the hen."
"How long can a sea-bird remain at sea?"
"I should think not very long, although it has been supposed otherwise;
but we do not know so much of the habits of these birds as of others."
"Can they remain long under water?"
"The greater portion of them cannot; ducks and that class, for instance.
Divers can remain some time; but the birds that remain the longest
under water are the semi-aquatic, whose feet are only half-webbed. I
have watched the common English water-hen for many minutes walking along
at the bottom of a stream, apparently as much in its element as if on
shore, pecking and feeding as it walked."
"You say that aquatic birds cannot remain long at sea,--where do they go
to?"
"They resort to the uninhabited islands over the globe, rocks that
always remain above water, and the unfrequented shores of Africa and
elsewhere; there they congregate to breed and bring up their young. I
have seen twenty or thirty acres of land completely covered with these
birds or their nests, wedged together as close as they could sit. Every
year they resort to the same spot, which has probably been their
domicile for centuries,--I might say since the creation. They make no
nests, but merely scrape so as to form a shallow hole to deposit their
eggs. The consequence of their always resorting to the same spot is
that, from the voidings of the birds and the remains of fish brought to
feed the young, a deposit is made over the whole surface, a fraction of
an inch every year, which by degrees increases until it is sometimes
twenty or thirty feet deep, if not more, and the lower portion becomes
almost as hard as rock. The deposit is termed guano, and has, from time
immemorial, been used by the Peruvians and Chilians as manure for the
land; it is very powerful, as it contains most of the essential salts,
such as ammonia, phosphates, etcetera, which are required for
agriculture. Within these last few years samples have been brought to
England, and as the quantities must be inexhaustible, when they are
sought for and found, no doubt it may one day become a valuable article
of our carrying trade. Here comes Mr Fairburn; I hope he intends to
continue his notices of the Cape settlement."
"They have interested me much, I must confess; he appears well
acquainted with the colony."
"He has had the advantage of a long residence, and during that time an
insight into all the public documents: this you may be certain of, that
he knows more than he will tell."
As soon as Mr Fairburn joined them, Alexander requested him to continue
his narrative, which he did as follows.
"You must not suppose, Mr Wilmot, that because the English had now
possession of the colony, everything went right; governors who are
appointed to the control of a colony require to be there some time
before they can see with their own eyes; they must, from their want of
information, fall into the hands of some interested party or another,
who will sway their councils. Thus it was at the Cape.
"It is true that much good had already been done by the abolition of
slavery and the emancipation of the Hottentot; but this was effected,
not by the colonial government, but by the representations of the
missionaries and an influential and benevolent party at home. The
prejudices against the Hottentots, and particularly the Caffres, still
existed, and were imbibed by the colonial authorities. Commandoes, or,
as they should be more properly termed, marauding parties, were still
sent out, and the Caffre was continually oppressed, and, in defiance of
the government orders, little justice could be obtained for the
Hottentot, although his situation was somewhat improved.
"I will give one instance to show how the rights of the Hottentots were
respected by the Cape authorities in 1810,--previous to the
emancipation, it is true, but still at a time when the position of the
Hottentots and their sufferings had been strenuously pressed upon the
colonial authorities by the government at home.
"When the conduct of the Dutch boors had roused the Caffres and
Hottentots to war, there were three brothers of the name of Stuurman,
Hottentots, who were the leaders. Peace was at length restored, which
was chiefly effected by the exertions of these men, who retired
peaceably with their own kraal to Algoa Bay; and the government, being
then Dutch, appointed Stuurman as captain of the kraal. This
independent horde of Hottentots gave great offence to the Dutch boors,--
the more so as the three brothers had been the leaders of the Hottentots
in the former insurrection. For seven years they could find no
complaint to make against them, until at last two of his Hottentots, who
had engaged to serve a boor for a certain time, went back to the kraal
at the expiration of the term, against the wish of the boor, who would
have detained them; the boor went and demanded them back, but Stuurman
refused to give them up; upon which, although justice was clearly on the
side of the Hottentots, an armed force was despatched to the kraal.
Stuurman still refused to surrender the men, and the armed force
retired, for they knew the courage of the Hottentots, and were afraid to
attack them.
"By treachery they gained possession of Stuurman and one of his brothers
(the other having been killed hunting the buffalo), and sent them to
Cape Town, from whence, against all justice, they were sent as prisoners
to Robin Island, where malefactors are confined. They made their
escape, and returned to Caffre-land. Three years afterwards, Stuurman,
anxious to see his family, returned to the colony without permission.
He was discovered and apprehended, and sent as a convict to New South
Wales; for the government was at that time English.
"Such was the fate of the first Hottentot who stood up for the rights of
his countrymen, and such was the conduct of the English colonial
government; so you will observe, Mr Wilmot, that although the strides
of cruelty and oppression are most rapid, the return to even-handed
justice is equally slow. Eventually the gross injustice to this man was
acknowledged, for an order from the home government was procured for his
liberation and return; but it was too late,--Stuurman had died a
convict.
"I have mentioned this circumstance, as it will prepare you for a
similar act of injustice to the Caffres. When the colony was in
possession of the Dutch, there was a space of about thirty thousand
square miles between the colonial boundary (that is, the land formerly
possessed by the Hottentots) and the Great Fish River. This extent of
thirty thousand square miles belonged to the Caffres, and was the site
of continual skirmishing and marauding between the Dutch boors and the
Caffres.
"In 1811 it was resolved by the colonial government that the Caffres
should be driven from this territory, and confined to the other side of
the Great Fish River. This was an act of injustice and great hardship,
and was proceeded in with extreme cruelty, the Caffres being obliged to
leave all their crops, and turned out with great and unnecessary
slaughter.
"It may be proper, however, to state the causes which led to this Caffre
war with the English. At this time the colonial governor had entered
into negotiations with a Caffre chief of the name of Gaika. He was a
chief of a portion of the Caffres, but not the principal chief, and
although the English treated with him as such, the Caffres would not
acknowledge his authority. This is a very frequent error committed in
our intercourse with savage nations, who are as pertinacious of their
rights as the monarchs of Europe. The error on our part was soon
discovered, but the government were too proud to acknowledge it.
"It so happened that the other Caffre chiefs formed a powerful
confederacy against Gaika, who, trusting to the support of the English,
had treated them with great arrogance. They fought and conquered him,
carrying off, as usual, his cattle. As this was a war between the
Caffres, and confined to their own land, we certainly had no business to
interfere; but the colonial government thought otherwise, and an
expedition was prepared.
"The Caffres sent forward messengers declaring their wish to remain at
peace with the English, but refusing to submit to Gaika, who was only a
secondary chief, and whom they had conquered. No regard was paid to
this remonstrance; the English troops were sent forward, the Caffres
attacked in their hamlets, slaughtered or driven into the woods, 23,000
head of cattle taken from them, of which 9000 were given to Gaika, and
the rest distributed to the Dutch boors, or sold to defray part of the
expenses of the expedition.
"Deprived of their means of subsistence by the capture of their cattle,
the Caffres were rendered furious and reckless, and no sooner had the
expedition returned, than they commenced hostilities. They poured into
the frontier districts, captured several detached military forts, drove
the Dutch boors from the Zurweld, or neutral territory, and killed a
great many of our soldiers and of the Dutch boors. All the country was
overrun as far as the vicinity of Algoa Bay, and nothing could at first
check their progress."
"Why, it really does not appear that the colonial government, when in
our hands, was more considerate than when it was held by the Dutch,"
replied Alexander.
"Not much, I fear," said Mr Fairburn.
"The councils of the Caffre chiefs were at that time much influenced by
a most remarkable personage of the name of Mokanna. In the colony he
was usually known by the sobriquet of `Links,' or the left-handed. He
was not a chief, but had by his superior intellect obtained great power.
He gave himself out to be a prophet, and certainly showed quite as much
skill as ever did Mahomed or any other false prophet. He had often
visited Cape Town, and had made himself master of all that he could
acquire of European knowledge.
"This man, by his influence, his superior eloquence, and his pretended
revelations from heaven, was now looked up to by the whole Caffre
nation; and he promised the chiefs, if they would implicitly obey his
orders, he would lead them to victory, and that he would drive the
English into the ocean. He resolved upon the bold measure of making an
attack upon Graham's Town, and marched an army of between nine and ten
thousand men to the forest bordering on the Great Fish River.
"According to the custom of the Caffres, who never use surprise or
ambush on great occasions, they sent a message to the commandant of
Graham's Town, stating that they would breakfast with him the next
morning. The commandant, who had supposed the message to be a mere
bravado, was very ill prepared when on the following morning he
perceived, to his great astonishment, the whole force of the Caffres on
the heights above the town.
"Had the Caffres advanced in the night, there is no doubt but that they
would have had possession of the place, and that with the greatest ease.
There were about 350 regular troops and a small force of Hottentots in
Graham's Town, and fortunately a few field-pieces. The Caffres rushed
to the assault, and for some time were not to be checked; they went up
to the very muzzles of the field-pieces, and broke their spears off
short, to decide the battle by a hand-to-hand conflict.
"At this critical moment, the field-pieces opened their fire of grape
and canister, and the front ranks of the Caffres were mowed down like
grass. After several rallyings under Mokanna, the Caffres gave way and
fled. About 1400 of the bravest remained on the field of battle, and as
many more perished from their wounds before they could regain their
country. Mokanna, after using every exertion, accompanied the Caffre
army in their flight."
"It certainly was a bold attempt on the part of the Caffres, and showed
Mokanna to be a great man even in the failure."
"It was so unprecedented an attempt, that the colonial government were
dreadfully alarmed, and turned out their whole force of militia as well
as of regular troops. The Caffre country was again overrun, the
inhabitants destroyed, without distinction of age or sex, their hamlets
fired, cattle driven away, and when they fled to the thickets, they were
bombarded with shells and Congreve rockets. Mokanna and the principal
chiefs were denounced as outlaws, and the inhabitants threatened with
utter extermination if they did not deliver them up dead or alive.
Although driven to despair, and perishing from want, not a single Caffre
was to be found who would earn the high reward offered for the surrender
of the chiefs."
"The more I hear of them, the more I admire the Caffres," observed
Alexander Wilmot; "and I may add--but never mind, pray go on."
"I think I could supply the words which you have checked, Mr Wilmot,
but I will proceed, or dinner will be announced before I have finished
this portion of my history."
"The course adopted by Mokanna under these circumstances was such as
will raise him much higher in your estimation. As he found that his
countrymen were to be massacred until he and the other chiefs were
delivered up, dead or alive, he resolved to surrender himself as a
hostage for his country. He sent a message to say that he would do so,
and the next day, with a calm magnanimity that would have done honour to
a Roman patriot, he came, unattended, to the English camp. His words
were, `People say that I have occasioned this war: let me see if my
delivering myself up will restore peace to my country.' The commanding
officer, to whom he surrendered himself immediately forwarded him as a
prisoner to the colony."
"What became of him?"
"Of that hereafter; but I wish here to give you the substance of a
speech made by one of Mokanna's head-men, who came after Mokanna's
surrender into the English camp. I am told that the imperfect notes
taken of it afford but a very faint idea of its eloquence; at all
events, the speech gives a very correct view of the treatment which the
Caffres received from our hands.
"`This war,' said he, `British chiefs, is an unjust one, for you are
striving to extirpate a people whom you have forced to take up arms.
When our fathers and the fathers of the boors first settled on the
Zurweld, they dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed the same
bills, their herdsmen smoked out of the same pipe; they were brothers
until the herds of the Amakosa (Caffres) increased so much as to make
the hearts of the Dutch boors sore. What those covetous men could not
get from our fathers for old buttons, they took by force. Our fathers
were men; they loved their cattle; their wives and children lived upon
milk; they fought for their property; they began to hate the colonists,
who coveted their all, and aimed at their destruction.
"`Now their kraals and our fathers' kraals were separate. The boors
made commandoes for our fathers; our fathers drove them out of the
Zurweld, and we dwelt there because we had conquered it; there we
married wives; there our children were born; the white men hated us, but
could not drive us away; when there was war, we plundered you; when
there was peace, some of our bad people stole; but our chiefs forbade
it.
"`We lived in peace; some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was
quiet; Gaika stole; his chiefs stole; you sent him copper; you sent him
beads; you sent him horses, on which he rode to steal more; to _us_ you
only sent _commandoes_. We quarrelled with Gaika about grass;--no
business of yours; you send a commando; you take our last cow; you leave
only a few calves, which die for want, and so do our children; you give
half the spoil to Gaika; half you kept yourselves.
"`Without milk; our corn destroyed; we saw our wives and children
perish: we followed, therefore, the tracks of our cattle into the
colony; we plundered, and we fought for our lives; we found you weak,
and we destroyed your soldiers; we saw that we were strong, and we
attacked your head-quarters, and if we had succeeded, our right was
good, for you began the war; we failed, and you are here.
"`We wish for peace; we wish to rest in our huts; we wish to get milk
for our children; our wives wish to till the land; but your troops cover
the plains, and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot distinguish the
men from the women, and shoot _all_. You wish us to submit to Gaika;
that man's face is fair to you, but his heart is false; leave him to
himself; make peace with us: let him fight for himself; and we shall not
call upon you for help; set Mokanna at liberty, and all our chiefs will
make peace with you at any time you fix; but if you still make war, you
may indeed kill the last man of us, but Gaika shall not rule over the
followers of those who think him a woman.'
"If eloquence consists (as it does not in the English House of Commons)
in saying much in few words, I know no speech more comprehensive of the
facts and arguments of a case than the above. I am sorry to say it had
no effect in altering the destination of Mokanna, or of obtaining any
relief for his countrymen, who were still called upon to deliver up the
other chiefs _outlawed_ by the government."
"I before remarked the absurdity of that expression," said Mr Swinton;
"we outlaw a member of our own society and belonging to our own country;
but to _outlaw_ the chiefs of another country is something too absurd; I
fear the English language is not much studied at the Cape."
"At all events, every attempt made to obtain possession of these
_outlawed_ chiefs was unavailing. After plundering the country of all
that could be found in it, leaving devastation and misery behind, the
expedition returned without obtaining their object, but with the
satisfaction of knowing that by taking away 30,000 more cattle, they
left thousands of women and children to die of starvation. But I must
leave off now. The results of the war, and the fate of Mokanna, shall
be the subject of another meeting."
"We are much obliged to you, Mr Fairburn, for the interesting narrative
you have given us. It is, however, to be hoped that you will have no
more such painful errors and injustice to dwell upon."
"As I before observed, Mr Wilmot, it requires time for prejudice and
falsehood to be overthrown; and until they are mastered, it cannot be
expected that justice can be administered. The colonial government had
to contend with the whole white population of the colony who rose up in
arms against them, considering, from long habit, that any interference
with their assumed despotism over the natives was an infringement of
their rights.
"You must also recollect how weak was the power of the colonial
government for a long time, and how impossible it was to exert that
power over such an extensive country; and to give you some idea of this,
I will state what was the reply of some of the Dutch boors to the
traveller Le Vaillant, when the latter expressed his opinion that
government should interfere with an armed force to put an end to their
cruelty and oppression.
"`Are you aware,' said they, `what would be the result of such an
attempt?--Assembling all in an instant, we would massacre the half of
the soldiers, salt their flesh, and send it back by those we might
spare, with threats of doing the same thing to those who should be bold
enough to appear among us afterwards.' It is not an easy task for any
government to deal with such a set of people, Mr Wilmot."
"I grant it," replied Alexander; "and the conviction makes me more
anxious to know what has been since done."