THE ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA,—CONTINUED.
The details of our barbarisms toward the Hottentots, Bushmen, and
Griquas, in the last chapter, are surely enough at this late period of
the world to make the wise blush and the humane weep, yet what are they
compared to our atrocities towards the Caffres? These are, as described
by Pringle, a remarkably fine race of people. “They a are tall,
athletic, and handsome race of men, with features often approaching
to the European, or Asiatic model, and, excepting their woolly hair,
exhibiting few of the peculiarities of the negro race. Their colour is
a clear dark brown. Their address is frank, cheerful, and manly. Their
government is patriarchal, and the privileges of rank are carefully
maintained by the chieftains. Their principal wealth and means of
subsistence consist in their numerous herds of cattle. The females also
cultivate pretty extensively maize, millet, water-melons, and a few
other esculents; but they are decidedly a nation of _herdsmen_—war,
hunting, barter, and agriculture being only occasional occupations.
“In their customs and traditions there seem to be indications of their
having sprung, at some remote period, from a people of much higher
civilization than is now exhibited by any of the tribes of Southern
Africa; whilst the rite of circumcision, universally practised among
them without any vestige of Islamism, and several other traditionary
customs greatly resembling the Levitical rules of purification, would
seem to indicate some former connexion with a people of Arabian,
Hebrew, or perhaps, Abyssinian lineage. Nothing like a regular system
of idolatry exists among them; but we find some traces of belief of a
Supreme Being, as well as of inferior spirits, and sundry superstitious
usages that look like the shattered wrecks of ancient religious
institutions.”[68]
One of the first of this race, whom this amiable and excellent man
encountered in South Africa, was at Bethelsdorp, the missionary
settlement, and under the following circumstances:—“A Caffre woman,
accompanied by a little girl of eight or ten years of age, and having
an infant strapped on her back above her mantle of tanned bullock’s
hide. She was in the custody of a black constable, who stated that
she was one of a number of female Caffres who had been made prisoners
by order of the Commandant on the frontier for crossing the line of
demarcation without permission, and that they were now to be _given
out in servitude_ among the white inhabitants of this district. While
the constable was delivering his message, the Caffre woman looked at
him and us with keen and intelligent glances, and though she very
imperfectly understood his language, she appeared fully to comprehend
its import. When he had finished she stepped forward, drew her
figure up to its full height, extended her right arm, and commenced
a speech in her native language, the Amakosa dialect. Though I did
not understand a single word that she uttered, I have seldom been
more struck with surprise and admiration. The language, to which she
appeared to give full and forcible intonation, was highly musical and
sonorous; her gestures were natural, graceful, and impressive, and
her dark eyes and handsome bronze countenance were full of eloquent
expression. Sometimes she pointed back to her own country, and then
to her children. Sometimes she raised her tones aloud, and shook her
clenched hand, as if she denounced our injustice, and threatened us
with the vengeance of her tribe. Then, again, she would melt into
tears, as if imploring clemency, and mourning for her helpless little
ones. Some of the villagers who gathered round, being whole or half
Caffres, interpreted her speech to the missionary, but he could do
nothing to alter her destination, and could only return kind words to
console her. For my part, I was not a little struck by the scene, and
could not help beginning to suspect that my European countrymen, who
thus made captives of harmless women and children, were, in reality,
greater barbarians than the savage natives of Caffraria.” He had soon
only too ample proofs of the correctness of his surmise. This fine race
of people, who strikingly resemble the North American Indians in their
character, their eloquence, their peculiar customs and traditions of
Asiatic origin, have exactly resembled them in their fate. They have
been driven out of their lands by the Europeans, and massacred by
thousands when they have resented the invasion.
The Hottentots were exterminated, or reduced to thraldom, and the
European colonists then came in contact with the Caffres, who were
numerous and warlike, resisted aggression with greater effect, but
still found themselves unable with their light assagais to contend with
fire-arms, and were perpetually driven backwards with shocking carnage,
and with circumstances of violent oppression which it is impossible
to read of without the strongest indignation. Up to 1778 the Camtoos
River had been considered the limit of the colony on that side; but at
that period the Dutch governor, Van Plattenburgh, says Pringle, “in the
course of an extensive tour into the interior, finding great numbers of
colonists occupying tracts beyond the frontier, instead of recalling
them within the legal limits, he extended the boundary (according to
the ordinary practice of Cape governors before and since), adding,
by a stroke of his pen, about 30,000 square miles to the colonial
territory.” The Great Fish River now became the boundary; which Lord
Macartney in 1798, claiming all that Van Plattenburgh had so summarily
claimed, confirmed.
It is singular how uniform are the policy and the modes of seizing
upon native possessions by Europeans. In America we have seen how
continually, when the bulk of the people, or the legitimate chiefs,
would not cede territory, the whites made a mock purchase from somebody
who had no right whatever to sell, and on that title proceeded to drive
out the real owners. In this case, Plattenburgh, to give a colour of
justice to his claim, sent out Colonel Gordon in search of Caffres
as far as the Keiskamma, who conducted a _few_ to the governor, who
consented that the Great Fish River _should_ be the boundary. The real
chief, Jalumba, it appears, however, had not been consulted; but the
colonists the next year _reminded_ him of the recent treaty with his
tribe, and requested him to evacuate that territory. Jalumba refused—a
commando was assembled—the _intruders_, in colonial phrase, but
the real and actual owners, were expelled: Jalumba’s own son Dlodlo
was killed, and 5,200 head of cattle driven off. This was certainly
a wholesale beginning of plunder and bloodshed; but, says the same
author, “this was not the worst—Jalumba and his clan were destroyed by
a most infamous act of treachery and murder; the details of which may
be found in Thompson and Kay.”
It was on such a title as this, that Lord Macartney claimed this tract
of country for the English in 1797, the Cape having been conquered by
us. It does not appear, however, that any very vigorous measures were
employed for expelling the natives from this region till 1811, when it
was resolved to drive them out of it, and a large military and burgher
force under Col. Graham was sent out for that purpose. The expulsion
was effected with the most savage rigour. This _clearing_ took up about
a year. In the course of it Landdrost Stokenstrom lost his life by
the Caffres, and T’Congo, the father of the chiefs Pato, Kamo, and
T’Congo, was butchered by a party of boors while he lay on his mat
dying of a mortal disease. The Caffres begged to be allowed to wait
to cut their crops of maize and millet, nearly ripe, arguing that the
loss of them would subject them to a whole year of famine;—not a day
was allowed them. They were driven out with sword and musket. Men and
women, wherever found, were promiscuously shot, though they offered
no resistance. “Women,” says Lieutenant Hart, whose journal of these
transactions is quoted by Pringle, “were killed _unintentionally_,
because the boors could not distinguish them from men among the bushes,
and so, to make sure work, they shot _all_ they could reach.” They
were very anxious to seize Islambi, a chief who had actively opposed
them, for they had been, like Plattenburgh, treating with _one_ chief,
Gaika, for cession of claims which he frankly told them belonged to
_several_ quite independent of him. On this subject, occurs this entry
in Mr. Hart’s journal:—“Sunday, Jan. 12, 1812. At noon, Commandant
Stollz went out with two companies to look for Slambi (Islambi), but
saw nothing of him. _They met only with a few Caffres, men and women,
most of whom they shot._ About sunset, five Caffres were seen at a
distance, one of whom came to the camp with a message from Slambi’s
son, requesting permission to wait till the harvest was over, and that
then he (if his father would not), would go over the Great Fish River
quietly. This messenger would not give any information respecting
Slambi, but said he did not know where he was. However, _after having
been put in irons, and fastened to a wheel with a riem_ (leathern
thong) _about his neck_, he said, that if the commando went with him,
before daylight he would bring them upon 200 Caffres, all asleep.”
Having thus treated a messenger from a free chief, and attempted
to compel him to betray his master, away went this commando on the
agreeable errand of surprising and murdering 200 innocent people in
their sleep. But the messenger was made of much better stuff than the
English. He led them about on a wild-goose chase for three days, when
finding nothing they returned, and brought him back too.
Parties of troops were employed for several weeks in burning down the
huts and hamlets of the natives, and destroying their fields of maize,
by trampling them down with large herds of cattle, and at length the
Caffres were forced over the Great Fish River, to the number of 30,000
souls, leaving behind them a large portion of their cattle, captured by
the troops; many of their comrades and females, shot in the thickets,
and not a few of the old and diseased, whom they were unable to carry
along with them, to perish of hunger, or become a prey to the hyenas.
“The results of this war of 1811 were,” says the Parliamentary Report
of 1837, “first, a succession of new wars, not less expensive, and
more sanguinary than the former; second, the loss of thousands of
good labourers to the colonists (and this testimony as to the actual
service done by Caffre labourers, comprises the strong opinion of Major
Dundas, when landdrost in 1827, as to their good dispositions, and
that of Colonel Wade to the same effect); and thirdly, the checking of
civilization and trade with the interior for a period of twelve years.”
The gain was some hundreds of thousands of acres of land, which might
have been bought from the natives for comparatively a trifle.
In 1817, those negotiations which had been entered into with Gaika,
as if he were the sole and paramount king of Caffreland, were renewed
by the governor, Lord Charles Somerset. Other chiefs were present,
particularly Islambi, but no notice was taken of them; it was resolved,
that Gaika was the paramount chief, and that he should be selected as
the champion of the frontiers against his countrymen. Accordingly,
we hear, as was to be expected, that the very next year a formidable
confederacy was entered into amongst the native chiefs against this
Gaika. In the league against him, and for the protection of their
country, were his own uncles, Islambi and Jaluhsa, Habanna, Makanna,
young Kongo, chief of the Gunuquebi, and Hintza, the principal chief of
the Amakosa, to whom in rank Gaika was only secondary. To support their
adopted puppet, Col. Brereton was ordered to march into Caffreland. The
inhabitants were attacked in their hamlets, plundered of their cattle,
and slaughtered or driven into the woods; 23,000 cattle carried off,
9000 of which were given to Gaika to reimburse him for his losses.
Retaliation was the consequence. The Caffres soon poured into the
colony in numerous bodies eager for revenge. The frontier districts
were overrun; several military posts were seized; parties of British
troops and patroles cut off; the boors were driven from the Zureveld,
and Enon plundered and burnt.
This and the other efforts of the outraged Caffres, which were now
made to avenge their injuries and check the despoiling course of the
English, were organized under the influence and counsel of Makanna,
a prophet who assumed the sacred character to combine and rouse his
countrymen to overturn their oppressors: for not knowing the vast
resources of the English, he fondly deemed that if they could vanquish
those at the Cape they should be freed from their power; “and then,”
said he, “we will sit down and eat honey!”
In this, as in so many other particulars, the Caffres resemble the
American Indians. Scarcely a confederacy amongst those which have
appeared for the purpose of resisting the aggressions on the Indians
but have been inspired and led on by prophets, as the brother of
Tecumseh, amongst the Shawanees; the son of Black-Hauk, Wabokieshiek,
amongst the Sacs; Monohoe, and others, amongst the Creeks who fell at
the bloody battle of Horse-shoe-bend.
Makanna had by his talents and pretences raised himself from the common
herd to the rank of a chief, and soon gained complete ascendency
over all the chiefs except Gaika, to whom he was opposed as the
ally of the English. He went amongst the missionaries and acquired
so much knowledge of Christianity as served him to build a certain
motley creed upon, by which he mystified and awed the common people.
After Col. Brereton’s devastations he roused up his countrymen to a
simultaneous attack upon Graham’s Town. He and Dushani, the son of
Islambi, mustered their exasperated hosts to the number of nine or ten
thousand in the forests of the Great Fish River, and one morning at
the break of day these infuriated troops were seen rushing down from
the mountains near Graham’s Town to assault it. A bloody conflict
ensued: the Caffres, inflamed by their wrongs and the eloquence of
Makanna, fought desperately; but they were mown down by the European
artillery, fourteen hundred of their warriors were left on the field,
and the rest fled to the hills and woods. The whole burgher militia of
the colony were called out to pursue them, and to ravage their country
in all directions. It was resolved to take ample vengeance on them:
their lands were laid waste—their corn trampled down under the feet
of the cavalry, their villages burnt to the ground—and themselves
chased into the bush, where they were bombarded with grape-shot and
congreve-rockets. Men, women, and children, were massacred in one
indiscriminate slaughter. A high price was set upon the heads of the
chiefs, especially on that of Makanna, and menaces added, that if they
were not brought in, nothing should prevent the total destruction
of their country. Not a soul was found timid or traitorous enough
to betray their chiefs; but to the surprise of the English, Makanna
himself, to save the remainder of his nation, walked quietly into the
English camp and presented himself before the commander. “The war,”
said he, “British chiefs, is an unjust one; for you are striving to
extirpate a people whom you forced to take up arms. When our fathers,
and the fathers of the Boors first settled in the Zureveld, they
dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hills; their
herdsmen smoked together out of the same pipes; they were brothers,
until the herds of the Amakosa increased so as to make the hearts of
the boors sore. What these 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 on our fathers. Our fathers drove them out of the Zureveld.
We dwelt there because we had conquered it. There we married wives, and
there our children were born. The white men hated us, but they 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. Your
treacherous friend, Gaika, always had peace with you, yet, when his
people stole he shared in the plunder. Have your patroles ever, in time
of peace, found cattle, runaway slaves, or deserters in the kraals of
_our_ chiefs? Have they ever gone into Gaika’s country without finding
such cattle, such slaves, such deserters in Gaika’s kraals? But he was
your friend; and you wished to possess the Zureveld. You came at last
like locusts.[69] We stood; we could do no more. You said, ‘Go over the
Fish River—that is all we want.’ We yielded, and came here. We lived
in peace. Some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was quiet—the
chiefs were quiet. Gaika stole—his chiefs stole—his people stole. You
sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent him horses—on which he
rode to steal more. _To us you sent only commandoes!_
“We quarrelled with Gaika about grass—no business of yours. You sent
a commando.[70] You took our last cow. You left only a few calves,
which died for want, along with our children. You gave half the spoil
to Gaika—half you kept yourselves. Without milk—our corn destroyed,
we saw our wives and children perish—we saw that we must ourselves
perish. We fought for our lives—we failed—and you are here. Your
troops cover the plains and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot
distinguish the men from the women, and shoot all.[71]
“You want us to submit to Gaika. That man’s face is fair to you, but
his heart is false; leave him to himself, and _we_ shall not call on
you for help. Set Makanna at liberty; and Islambi, Dushani, Kongo, and
the rest, will come to make peace with you at any time you fix. But if
you will 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.”[72]
It is said that this energetic address, containing so many awful
truths, affected some of those who heard it even to tears. But what
followed? The Caffres were still sternly commanded to deliver up their
other chiefs; treachery is said to have been used to compass it, but in
vain; so the English made a desert of the whole country, and carried
off 30,000 head of cattle.[73] Makanna was sent to Cape-Town, and
thence transported to Robben Island, a spot appropriated to felons and
malefactors doomed to work in irons. Here, in an attempt with some few
followers to effect his escape, he was drowned by the upsetting of the
boat, and died cheering his unfortunate companions till the billows
swept him from a rock to which he clung.[74]
The English had hitherto gratified their avarice and bad passions
with their usual freedom in their colonies, on those who had no
further connexion with them than happening to possess goodly herds
under their eye; but now they turned their hand upon their _friend_
and ally, Gaika. Having devoured, by his aid, his countrymen, they
were ready now to devour him. Gaika was called upon to give up a large
portion of Caffre land, that is, from the Fish River to the Keisi and
Chumi rivers—a tract which added about 2,000 square miles to our own
boundaries. This he yielded most reluctantly, and only on condition
that the basin of the Chumi, a beautiful piece of country, should not
be included, and that all his territory should be considered neutral
ground. Gaika himself narrowly escaped being seized by the English in
1822—for what cause does not appear,—but it does appear that he only
effected his escape in the mantle of his wife; and that in 1823 a large
force, according to the evidence of Capt. Aichison, in which he was
employed, surprised the kraals of his son Macomo, and took from them
7,000 beasts. Well might Gaika say—“When I look at the large tract of
fine country that has been taken from me, I am compelled to say that
_though protected, I am rather oppressed by my protectors_.”[75]
This Macomo, the son of Gaika, seems to be a fine fellow. Desirous
of cultivating peace and the friendship of the English; desirous of
his people receiving, the benefits of civilization and the Christian
religion; yet, notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the alliance
which had subsisted between the English and his father, his treatment
at the hands of the Cape government has always been of the most
harsh and arbitrary kind. He has been driven with his people from one
location to another, and the most serious devastation committed on
his property. Pringle’s words regarding him are—“He has uniformly
protected the missionaries and traders; has readily punished any of
his people who committed depredations on the colonists, and on many
occasions has given four or five-fold compensation for stolen cattle
driven through his territory by undiscovered thieves from other clans.
Notwithstanding all this, however, and much more stated on his behalf
in the Cape papers, colonial oppression continues to trample down this
chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot.” The same writer gives the
following instance of the sort of treatment which was received from the
authorities by this meritorious chief.
“On the 7th of October last (1833), Macomo was invited by Mr. Read to
attend the anniversary meeting of an auxiliary missionary society at
Philipton, Kat River. The chief went to the military officer commanding
the nearest frontier post, and asked permission to attend, but was
peremptorily refused. He ventured, nevertheless, to come by another
way, with his ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and delivered
in his native tongue a most eloquent speech at the meeting, in which he
seconded a motion, proposed by the Rev. Mr. Thompson, the established
clergyman, for promoting the conversion of the Caffres. Alluding to the
great number of traders residing in Caffreland, contrasted with the
rude prohibition given to his attending this Christian assembly, he
said, in the forcible idiom of his country—‘There are no Englishmen
at Kat River; there are no Englishmen at Graham’s Town; they are all
in my country, with their wives and children, in perfect safety, while
I stand before you as a rogue and a vagabond, having been obliged to
come by stealth.’[76] Then, addressing his own followers, he said—‘Ye
sons of Kahabi, I have brought you here to behold what the Word of God
hath wrought. These Hottentots were but yesterday as much despised and
oppressed as to-day are we—the Caffres: but see what the GREAT WORD
has done for them! They were dead—they are now alive; they are men
once more. Go and tell my people what you have seen and heard; for such
things as you have seen and heard, I hope ere long to witness in my own
land. God is great, who has said it, and will surely bring it to pass!’
In the midst of this exhilarating scene—the African chief recommending
to his followers the adoption of that Great Word which brings with it
at once both spiritual and social regeneration—they were interrupted
by the sudden appearance of a troop of dragoons, despatched from the
military post to arrest Macomo for having crossed the frontier line
without permission. This was effected in the most brutal and insulting
manner possible, and not without considerable hazard to the chieftain’s
life, from the ruffian-like conduct of a drunken sergeant, although not
the slightest resistance was attempted.”[77]
It should be borne in mind by the reader that this Kat River
settlement, where Macomo was attending the meeting, is the same from
which he had been expelled in 1829, and in which the Hottentots were
located, and, as I have already related, were making such remarkable
progress. Macomo had therefore not only repassed the boundary line
over which he had been driven, and the repassing of which the
government would naturally regard with great jealousy, knowing well
what injury they had done him, and which the sight of his old country
must forcibly revive in his mind, knowing also that they were at this
moment planning fresh outrages against him. This meeting took place in
October, 1833, and therefore, at that very time, an order was signed
by the governor for his removal from the lands he was then occupying;
for the Parliamentary Report informs us that Sir Lowry Cole, before
leaving the colony for Europe, on the 10th of August, 1833, signed an
order for removing the chief Tyalie from the Muncassana beyond the
boundaries; and in November of that year Captain Aichison was ordered
to remove Macomo, Botman, and Tyalie, beyond the boundary; that is,
beyond the Keiskamma, which he says he did. Capt. Aichison stated in
evidence before the Select Committee, that he could assign no cause
for this removal, and he never heard any cause assigned. But this was
not the worst. These poor people, thus driven out in November, when
all their corn was green, and that and the crops of their gardens and
their pumpkins thus lost, were suffered to return in February, 1834,
and again, in October of that year, driven out a second time! Colonel
Wade stated in evidence, that at the time of their second removal, 21st
of October, 1834, “they had rebuilt their huts, established their
cattle kraals, and commenced the cultivation of their gardens.” He
stated that, together with Colonel Somerset, he made a visit to Macomo
and Botman’s kraal, across the Keiskamma, and that Macomo rode back
with them, when they had recrossed the river and reached the Omkobina,
a tributary of the Chumie. “These valleys were swarming with Caffres,
as was the whole country in our front as far as the Gaga; the people
were all in motion, carrying off their effects, and driving away their
cattle towards the drifts of the river, and to my utter amazement the
whole country around and before us was in a blaze. Presently we came
up with a strong patrol of the mounted rifle corps, which had, it
appeared, come out from Fort Beaufort that morning; the soldiers were
busily employed in burning the huts and driving the Caffres towards the
frontier.”
Another witness said, “the second time of my leaving Caffreland was
in October, last year, in company with a gentleman who was to return
towards Hantam. We passed through the country of the Gaga at ten
o’clock at night; the Caffres were enjoying themselves after their
custom, with their shouting, feasting, and midnight dances; they
allowed us to pass on unmolested. Some time after I received a letter
from the gentleman who was my travelling companion on that night,
written just before the breaking out of the Caffre war: in it he says,
‘you recollect how joyful the Caffres were, when we crossed the Gaga;
but on my return a dense smoke filled all the vales, and the Caffres
were seen lurking here and there behind the mimosa; a patrol, commanded
by an officer, was driving them beyond the colonial boundary.’ (This
piece of country has very lately been claimed by the colony.) I saw
one man near me, and I told my guide to call him to me: the poor fellow
said, ‘No, I cannot come nearer; that white man looks too much like a
soldier;’ and all our persuasions could not induce him to advance near
us. ‘Look,’ said he, pointing to the ascending columns of smoke, ‘what
the white men are doing.’ Their huts and folds were all burned.”
Such was the treatment of the Caffres up to the end of 1834,
notwithstanding the most forcible and pathetic appeals to their
English tyrants. Dr. Philip stated that, speaking with these chiefs
at this time, he said to Macomo, that he had reason to believe that
the governor, when he came to the frontier, would listen to all
his grievances, and treat him with justice and generosity. “These
promises,” he replied, “we have had for the last fifteen years;” and
pointing to the huts then burning, he added, “things are becoming
worse: these huts were set on fire last night, and we were told that
to-morrow the patrol is to scour the whole district, and drive every
Caffre from the west side of the Chumie and Keiskamma at the point
of the bayonet.” And Dr. Philip having stated rather strongly the
necessity the chiefs would be under of preventing all stealing from the
colony as the condition of any peaceable relations the governor might
enter into with them, Botman made the following reply: “The governor
cannot be so unreasonable as to make our existence as a nation depend
upon a circumstance which is beyond the reach of human power. Is it
in the power of any governor to prevent his people stealing from each
other? Have you not within the colony magistrates, policemen, prisons,
whipping-posts, and gibbets? and do you not perceive that in spite of
all these means to make your people honest, that your prisons continue
full, and that you have constant employment for your magistrates,
policemen, and hangmen, without being able to keep down your colonial
thieves and cheats? A thief is a wolf; he belongs to no society, and
yet is the pest and bane of all societies. You have your thieves,
and we have thieves among us; but we cannot as chiefs, extirpate the
thieves of Caffreland, more than we can extirpate the wolves, or
you can extirpate the thieves of the colony. There is however this
difference between us: we discountenance thieves in Caffreland, and
prevent, as far as possible, our people stealing from the colony; but
you countenance the robbery of your people upon the Caffres, by the
sanction you give to the injustice of the patrol system. Our people
have stolen your cattle, but you have, by the manner by which you have
refunded your loss, punished the innocent; and after having taken our
country from us, without even a shadow of justice, and shut us up to
starvation, you threaten us with destruction for the thefts of those to
whom you left no choice but to steal or die by famine.”
What force and justice of reasoning in these abused Caffres! what
force and injustice of action in the English! Who could have believed
that from the moment of our becoming masters of the Cape colony such
dreadful and wicked scenes as these could be going on, up to 1834,
by Englishmen. But the end was not yet come; other, and still more
abominable deeds were to be perpetrated. Another war broke out, and
the people of England asked, why? Dr. Philip, before the Parliamentary
Committee, said,— “The encroachments of the colonists upon the
Caffres, when they came in contact with them on the banks of the
Gamtoos river; their expulsion from the Rumfield, now Albany, in 1811;
the commandoes of Colonel Brereton, in 1818; our conduct to Gaika, our
ally, in 1819, in depriving him of the country between the Fish and
Keiskamma Rivers; the injury inflicted upon Macomo and Gaika, by the
ejectment of Macomo and his people, with many of the people of Gaika,
from the Kat River, in 1829; the manner in which the Caffres were
expelled from the west bank of the Chumie and Keiskamma, in 1833, and,
subsequently, again (after having been allowed to return) in 1834;
and the working of the commando system, down to December, 1834,—were
sufficient in themselves to account for the Caffre war, if the Caffres
are allowed to be human beings, and to possess passions like our own.”
To all this series of insults and inflictions were soon added fresh
ones.
“On the 2nd December, of this very year,” continued Dr. Philip, “Ensign
Sparkes went to one of the Chief Eno’s kraals, for the purpose of
getting some horses, supposed to have been stolen. Not finding them
there, he proceeded to take by force a large quantity of cattle as an
indemnity. This proceeding roused the dormant anger of the Caffres;
they surrounded his party, and manifested an intention of attacking
it. They did not, however, venture upon a general engagement, though
one of them, more daring, and perhaps a greater loser than the rest,
wounded Ensign Sparkes in the arm with an assagai, or spear, whilst
the soldiers under his command were busily employed in driving the
cattle out of the bush. Macomo no sooner heard of this affair, than he
gave up of his own property, to the colony, 400 head of cattle, and
went himself frequently to visit the young man who had been wounded,
expressing great sorrow at what had occurred. This conduct was highly
praiseworthy, as it was evidently for the sake of preventing any
misunderstanding, but more especially so, because the deed had been
committed, not by one of his people, but by a Caffre belonging to Eno’s
tribe. On the 18th of the same month, a patrol under Lieut. Sutton
seized a number of cattle at one of Tyalie’s kraals, for some horses
alleged to have been stolen, but not found there. On this occasion the
Caffres seem to have determined to resist to the last. An affray took
place, in which they were so far successful as to retake the cattle.
Two of them were, however, shot dead, and two dangerously wounded, one
of whom was Tyalie’s own brother (not, however, Macomo), who had two
slugs in his head. An individual residing in the neutral territory,
referring to this affair, thus expressed his opinion: ‘The system
carried on, and that to the last moment, is the cause the Caffres could
not bear it any longer. The very immediate cause was the wounding of
Gaika’s son, at which the blood of every Caffre boiled.’”
According to the evidence of John Tzatzoe, “every Caffre who saw
Xo-Xo’s wound, went back to his hut, took his assagai and shield, and
set out to fight, and said, ‘It is better that we die than be treated
thus.’”
The war being thus wantonly and disgracefully provoked by the English,
Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, marched into the territory of
the Caffre king Hintza, and summoned him to his presence. The king,
alarmed, and naturally expecting some fresh act of mischief, fled,
driving off his cattle to a place of security. He was threatened with
immediate proclamation of war if he did not return; and to convince
him that there would be no dallying, Colonel Smith immediately marched
his troops into the mountain districts where Hintza had taken refuge,
was very near seizing him by surprise, and carried off 10,000 head
of cattle. Hintza, now, on sufficient security being given, came to
the camp, where the various charges were advanced against him, and
the following modest conditions of peace proposed,—that he should
surrender 50,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, and emancipate all
his Fingoe slaves. There was no alternative but agreeing to these
terms; but unfortunately for him, the Fingoe slaves, now considering
themselves put under the patronage of the governor, and knowing
how fond the English are of Caffre cattle, carried off 15,000 head
belonging to the people. The people flew to arms—and Hintza was made
responsible. The governor declared to him that if he did not put a stop
to the fighting in three hours, and order the delivery of the 50,000
head of cattle, he would hang him, his son Creili, and his counsellor
and brother Bookoo, on the tree under which they were sitting.[78]
Poor Hintza issued his orders—the fighting ceased, but the cattle did
not arrive. He therefore proposed to go, under a sufficient guard, to
enforce the delivery himself. The proposal was accepted, and he set
out with Col. Smith and a body of cavalry. Col. Smith assured him
on commencing their march, that if he attempted to escape he should
certainly shoot him. We shall soon see how well he kept his word. They
found the people had driven the cattle to the mountains, and Hintza
sent one of his counsellors to command them to stop. On the same day
they came to a place where the cattle-track divided, and they followed
that path, at the advice of Hintza, which led up an abrupt and wooded
hill to the right, over the precipitous banks of the Kebaka river. What
followed we give in the language of Col. Smith:—
“It had been observed that this day Hintza rode a remarkably fine
horse, and that he led him up every ascent; the path up this abrupt and
wooded hill above described is by a narrow cattle-track, occasionally
passing through a cleft of the rock. I was riding alone at the head
of the column, and having directed the cavalry to lead their horses,
I was some three or four horses’ length in front of every one, having
previously observed Hintza and his remaining two followers leading
their horses behind me, the corps of Guides close to them; when nearing
the top, I heard a cry of ‘Hintza,’ and in a moment he dashed past
me through the bushes, but was obliged, from the trees, to descend
again into the path. I cried out, ‘Hintza, stop!’ I drew a pistol, and
presenting it at him, cried out, ‘Hintza,’ and I also reprimanded his
guard, who instantly came up; he stopped and smiled, and I was ashamed
of my suspicion. Upon nearing the top of this steep ascent, the country
was perfectly open, and a considerable tongue of land running parallel
with the rugged bed of the Kebaka, upon a gradual descent of about two
miles, to a turn of the river, where were several Caffre huts. I was
looking back to observe the march of the troops, when I heard a cry of
‘Look, Colonel!’ I saw Hintza had set off at full speed, and was 30
yards a-head of every one; I spurred my horse with violence; and coming
close up with him, called to him; he urged his horse the more, which
could beat mine; I drew a pistol, it snapped; I drew another, it also
snapped; I then was sometime galloping after him, when I spurred my
horse alongside of him, and struck him on the head with the butt-end of
a pistol; he redoubled his efforts to escape, and his horse was three
lengths a-head of mine. I had dropped one pistol, I threw the other
after him, and struck him again on the head. Having thus raced about a
mile, we were within half a mile of the Caffre huts; I found my horse
was closing with him; I had no means whatever of assailing him, while
he was provided with his assagais; I therefore resolved to attempt to
pull him off his horse, and I seized the athletic chief by the throat,
and twisting my hand in his karop, I dragged him from his seat, and
hurled him to the earth; he instantly sprang on his legs, and sent
an assagai at me, running off towards the rugged bed of the Kebaka.
My horse was most unruly, and I could not pull him up till I reached
the Caffre huts. This unhorsing the chief, and his waiting to throw
an assagai at me, brought Mr. George Southey of the corps of Guides
up; and, at about 200 yards’ distance, he twice called to Hintza, in
Caffre, to stop, or he would shoot him. He ran on; Mr. Southey fired,
and only slightly struck him in the leg, again calling to him to stop,
without effect; he fired, and shot him through the back; he fell
headlong forwards, but springing up and running forwards, closely
pursued by my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Balfour, he precipitated himself
down a kloof into the Kebaka, and posting himself in a narrow niche
of the rock, defied any attempt to secure him; when, still refusing
to surrender, and raising an assagai, Mr. George Southey fired, and
shot him through the head. Thus terminated the career of the chief
Hintza, whose treachery, perfidy, and want of faith, made him worthy of
the nation of atrocious and indomitable savages over whom he was the
acknowledged chieftain. One of his followers escaped, the other was
shot from an eminence. About half a mile off I observed the villain
Mutini and Hintza’s servant looking on.”
Such is the relation of the destroyer of Hintza, and surely a more
brutal and disgusting detail never came from the chief actor of such a
scene. England has already testified its opinion both of this act and
of this war; and “this nation of atrocious and indomitable savages,”
both before and since this transaction, have given such evidences
of sensibility to the law of kindness as leave no doubt where the
“treachery, perfidy, and want of faith,” really lay. At the very
time this affair was perpetrated, two British officers had gone with
proposals from the governor to the Caffre camp. While they remained
there they were treated most respectfully and honourably by these
“irreclaimable savages,” and dismissed unhurt when the intelligence
arrived of Hintza’s having been made prisoner. What a contrast does
this form to our own conduct!
The war was continued after the event of the death of Hintza, until the
Caffres had received what the governor considered to be “sufficient”
punishment; this consisted in the slaughter of 4,000 of their
warriors, including many principal men. “There have been taken from
them also,” says a despatch, “besides the conquest and alienation
of their country, about 60,000 head of cattle, almost all their
goats; their habitations everywhere destroyed, and their gardens and
corn-fields laid waste.”[79]
The cost of this war to the British nation, is estimated at 241,884_l._
besides putting a stop to the trade with the colony amounting to
30,000_l._ per annum, though yet in its infancy. If any one wishes
to know how absurd it is to talk of the Caffres as “atrocious and
indomitable savages,” he has only to look into the Parliamentary
Report, so often referred to in this chapter, in order to blush for our
own barbarism, and to execrate the wickedness which could, by these
reckless commandoes and exterminating wars, crush or impede that rising
civilization, and that growing Christianity, which shew themselves
so beautifully in this much abused country. It is the wickedness of
Englishmen that has alone stood in the way of the rapid refinement of
the Caffre, as it has stood in the way of knowledge and prosperity in
all our colonies.
“Whenever,” says John Tzatzoe, a Caffre chief, who had, before the war
at his own place, a missionary and a church attended by 300 people,
“the missionaries attempt to preach to the Caffres, or whenever I
myself preach or speak to my countrymen, they say, ‘Why do not the
missionaries first go and preach to the people on the other side; why
do not they preach to their own countrymen, and convert them first?’”
But the very atrocity of this last war roused the spirit of the
British nation, awakened parliamentary investigation; the Caffre
territory is restored by order of government; a new and more rational
system of policy is adopted, and it is to be hoped will be steadily
persevered in.