to join for the purpose of invading and pillaging the interior districts, when in the course of these nefarious transactions he was arrested, sent to the Cape, and finally banished to Robben Island, from whence he effected his escape, was recaptured, and eventually transported to Botany Bay.

Such was the man who, under the high-sounding title of the "Last of the Hottentot Chiefs," is represented as an object of sympathy and commiseration, by one of that lengthened string of mendacious writers, whose calumnies, falsehoods, and fictions have so long misled the British public, and encouraged in a certain class that spirit of mistaken philanthropy, the cause of so much subsequent waste of blood and treasure.

To revert to the visit of General Janssens to the Eastern frontier; after having invested Claas Stuurman with the bâton of office, and establishing him, as has been seen, on the Camtoos River, he next obtained an interview at the Sunday River, with T'Slambie, Congo, Habana, and other chiefs of those Kaffir tribes, who had now to all appearance permanently located themselves in the Zuureveld. The General clearly pointed out this infringement of the treaty which had fixed the great Fish River as the boundary of the two countries; and after exhorting them to retire in peace beyond the colonial limits, threatened in the event of non-compliance, to have recourse to compulsory measures.

The fear of Gaïka was as usual, urged as an excuse, but this difficulty was removed in a subsequent conference with that chief, who promised to offer them no further molestation, and the invaders then agreed to return to their own territories.

The Zuureveld at this period, in consequence of Kaffir encroachments had been-as already stated-abandoned by its former colonial inhabitants, who, on the strength of the recent arrangements, were now under penalty of forfeiture, enjoined to repair to their respective locations; but the Kaffirs were there before them! In fact, T'Slambie had never quitted the province, and the Dutch government, embarrassed by a fresh war with England, possessed not the power of carrying into execution their threats of forcible expulsion.

Such a succession of robberies and murders were now constantly committed, that those colonists who had returned to their dwellings were again obliged to seek safety in flight; and in 1806 (when the Cape of Good Hope again became an English possession) the Eastern province was once more apparently occupied by the tribes of T'Slambie, Congo, and other Kaffir chiefs, who seem at that period to have established themselves in undisputed possession throughout the Zuureveld.

In 1811, Sir John Cradock, having a considerable force at command, and wearied by their continued and repeated depredations, determined on making a grand effort to eradicate these barbarians from the colony. Colonel Graham was accordingly placed at the head of some regular troops, and aided by a large commando of Burghers, succeeded during the course of the following year, in driving the Kaffirs beyond the established boundary of the Great Fish River.

In the performance of this duty, Colonel Graham displayed a stern. decision and firmness of purpose, which by the "Exeter Hall” party has often been falsely and unjustly stigmatised with inhumanity and cruelty; nay, persons bearing the name of Englishmen, have, in their injudicious advocacy of the Kaffirs, been so completely lost to all sense of decency

and shame, as even to palliate a most treacherous massacre of the colonists, which took place in the course of this war; and so unmindful of truth as to implicate, not only the settlers, but also British soldiers in the "indiscriminate slaughter of women as well as men, whenever found, and even though they offered no resistance."†

This base calumny as regards the British soldier is beneath notice, whilst Sir John Cradock's proclamation, issued in 1813, would appear fully to justify the colonists from so foul an imputation, for in this document the governor of the Cape of Good Hope declares "his heart-felt satisfaction that he had not discovered amongst the inhabitants any one instance of cruelty, oppression, or prevailing misconduct."

The severe lesson they had lately received from Colonel Graham, was however, lost upon these "irreclaimable barbarians," for under the administration of Lord Charles Somerset, who succeeded Sir John Cradock in the government of the Cape, the Kaffirs again proved so troublesome as to require his lordship's presence at the frontier, whither he repaired in 1817, had an interview with Gaïka, with whom a treaty of alliance was formed, on the express condition that all the cattle and horses stolen from the colony should be immediately restored.

Shortly after this event, Gaïka being attacked by his uncle, and old enemy, T'Slambie, was defeated with great slaughter at the Debe Flats, when the latter immediately renewed his depredations on the colony. This irruption, coupled with Gaïka's application for assistance from the British-an expectation founded on the late treaty with him— caused the hostile expedition, which in 1818 was sent into Kaffirland under Colonel Brereton, the result of which was the capture of 23,000 head of cattle, 9000 of which were given to Gaïka, and the rest distributed amongst the frontier colonists, as a slight compensation for recent, and former unpunished robberies committed on them by the Kaffirs, chiefly belonging to T'Slambie's tribe.

The commando of 1818 has, by those enemies of their fellow-countrymen, those writers who so falsely apply unto themselves the misnomer of "philanthropists," been stigmatised as a wanton act of aggression, and as fully justifying the great Kaffir invasion of 1819; whereas, if the circumstances which led to Colonel Brereton's expedition be duly considered, it can only be regarded in the light of a pure act of retributive justice, equally called for by the repeated and unceasing aggressions of T'Slambie, Congo, and other tribes in alliance with them, as well as in consequence of the appeal made to us by Gaïka, with whom we had so lately contracted a friendly alliance.

"That the policy of the colonial government at this period was of a mild and benevolent cast may be proved from a variety of sources," which, if referred to, will fully tend to show such allegations against the British government, the colony, and colonists in general, to be false and groundless.

That of the Landdrost Stockenstrom, who with his followers was murdered by the Kaffirs, after having been invited by them to a friendly conference.-See the Missionary Brownlee's account of this transaction, in appendix to Thompson's work on Southern Africa.

† See Pringle's "South African Sketches," p. 95.

See Dr. Philips' "Researches in Southern Africa," vol. i., p. 257, which Mr. Pringle misquotes in order to justify the Kaffir invasion of 1819.-See Pringle's "South African Sketches," p. 96.

The above opinion, repeated nearly verbatim in a very recent work* on the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, as applicable to our then existing relations with the Kaffirs under Lord Macartney's government, is equally relevant to all our subsequent transactions with that people; however, time and dearly-bought experience but too clearly prove, that our future policy in dealing with this turbulent and dishonest race, ought to be, to use the words of the author above quoted, "inflexible, prompt, and decisive," for that, according to Kaffir interpretation,-"forbearance is weakness, indecision a want of courage, and liberality a want of understanding."

To return to the course of our narrative: scarcely had the troops composing Colonel Brereton's expedition been withdrawn, than the united tribes of T'Slambie, Congo, and Habana, with many of Hintza's people, poured anew into the colony in such overwhelming force, that the smaller military posts were abandoned, two detachments of the 72nd, under the command of Captain Gethin and Lieut. Hunt were cut off, the missionary stations were burnt, and the whole Eastern Province was over-run and devastated as far as Algoa Bay.

The Kaffirs on this occasion were nominally commanded by Dushani, the son of T'Slambie, but in reality led on by an impostor of the name of Makanna, who, assuming pretensions to supernatural knowledge and power, together with the character of a prophet, promised shortly to drive the English into the sea.

At the head of 10,000 Kaffirs, Makanna next made a desperate attack upon Graham's Town, which was resolutely defended by Colonel Willshire,† with about 250 British troops and a few Hottentots. Colonel Willshire repulsed the assailants with considerable slaughter, and followed them into their own country; nor were any proposals of peace listened to, until the surrender of Makanna, and the abandonment by the Kaffirs of the territory between the Keiskamma and Great Fish Rivers, appeared to have insured for the colony some degree of future peace and tranquillity.

This "ceded" territory was, by the terms of the treaty, to be occupied by neither colonists nor Kaffirs, but exclusively appropriated for such military posts as we might there choose to establish, forming thus an intervening belt between the industry of civilisation, and the plundering habits of the most matchless barbarism; nor can the least doubt be entertained of the perfect justice of such a precautionary measure, and of what

Bunbury's "Journal of a Residence at the Cape of Good Hope." Thompson, the Missionary Brownlee, and the Poet Pringle appear to have been this author's chief authorities in the relation of our transactions with the Kaffirs, and they have caused him to take perhaps rather a one-sided view of the question, which he seems to admit in the following passage:-"In what relates to disputed questions of colonial policy, and especially to the character and treatment of the Kaffirs, some inconsistency may be observed between the opinions expressed in my journal and those in the chapters subsequently written. I went out to the Cape strongly prepossessed in favour of the views entertained on those subjects by what is called the religious' party, or that of the missionaries; and it was only by degrees that my prejudices yielded to a more intimate knowledge of the real state of affairs, and to the influence of subsequent events." It is only to be regretted that in the compilation of this very interesting work, the author should not have referred also to such writers as Moody, Godlonton, Chase, and others, who would have afforded him a very different view of affairs.

t Now Major-General Sir Thomas Willshire, who so greatly distinguished himself at Khelat.

may be considered as a rightful acquisition of territory in a purely defensive warfare.

Owing to the constant recurrence of outrages and depredations on the part of the Kaffirs, the whole Eastern frontier, and more particularly the Zuureveld (now called Albany), was at this period, again nearly denuded of colonial inhabitants, and notwithstanding repeated assurances of protection for the future, backed by the additional safeguard of the "Neutral Territory" intervening between them and their plunderers, no persuasions could induce the Boers again to occupy their oft-abandoned locations.

To prevent, therefore, this fine extent of country from becoming a desert, as well as to provide a population, which-by constituting its defence would likewise prove a shield to the rest of the colony-the scheme of sending out large numbers of British emigrants was now suggested, and shortly afterwards carried into effect under the administration of Sir Rufane Donkin, who, during the temporary absence of Lord Charles Somerset, had been invested with the government of the Cape.

Not only was this emigration sanctioned and countenanced by the authorities at home, but Parliament granted the sum of 50,000l. to carry it into execution, and during the course of 1820 nearly 4000 settlers were landed at Algoa Bay.

"From the tenor of the government circulars, it was generally supposed by the emigrants that they were to be settled around the port, but on their arrival, to their annoyance, they learned that their ultimate location was fixed above 100 miles in advance, a discovery more particularly unpalatable when they found that their transport thither was to be at their own cost."*

It is therefore evident that the emigration of 1820, was intended as a future safeguard against Kaffir invasion, and those who found themselves thus thrust unawares and contrary to their expectations into the breach, surely had a right to claim every protection and encouragement from the government which had placed them in such a precarious position.†

Far different, however, was the case; and every expedient which an ill-judged policy could devise, appeared to be brought into play to ruin the infant settlement and blast the hopes of the colonists.

The great mistake was made at first starting, of considering the territory of Albany as adapted for arable purposes; under this erroneous impression, small lots of ground were assigned to the settlers, who lost much capital, time, and labour in endeavouring to raise corn on ground only adapted for rearing sheep and cattle; next, the frontier was denuded of troops, and consequently of protection against the Kaffirs, who readily availed themselves of this circumstance to renew their depredations, whilst government, most unaccountably swayed by the false representations of the religious party and miscalled philanthropists, issued

* From Chase's " Cape of Good Hope," p. 81. See also "The State of the Cape of Good Hope" (1822), by a Civil Servant.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 12th of July, 1829, made the speech depicting this land of promise, which led to the emigration of 1820, when Mr. Hume went so far as to say that, "If men, under certain circumstances (meaning able-bodied paupers), were unwilling to emigrate, it might even be advisable to transport them without their consent."-See "State of the Cape of Hope in 1822." By a Civil Servant.

the most absurd decrees, prohibiting all sort of retaliation on the part of the colonists, as well as any attempts to retake by force, the property of which they were constantly deprived by these incorrigible banditti; in short, whilst withdrawing military protection virtually abolishing its only substitute: the "commando system."

Meanwhile the so-called "religious," but in reality canting, hypocritical party was, at home, so completely in the ascendent, that backed by the mendacious representations of a set of traitorous coadjutors in the colony, they succeeded in causing a deaf ear to be turned by the authorities to all the just complaints of the settlers; and the latter period of Lord Charles Somerset's administration was marked by the most puerile system of policy and concession, together with the most ridiculous and contradictory enactments as regarded the nature of colonial relations with their barbarous neighbours-all emanating from those calumnies and misrepresentations, so unaccountably listened to and believed at home, and which had so completely blinded the authorities as to the real nature of existing relations with the native tribes.*

Nor was the least of the many errors committed at this period, that of allowing some of Gaïka's Kaffirs, under his sons Macomo and Tyalie to occupy-although on sufferance-part of that ceded territory, which had -as I have already shown-been wrested from the Kaffirs as a punishment for the depredations they had committed on the colony in 1819, subsequently proclaimed by Sir Rufane Donkin as a portion of our territories, and wisely appropriated for the establishment of military posts and as an intervening barrier to prevent the otherwise unavoidable collision between the colonial population and their pilfering neighbours.

At the time of the final departure of Lord Charles Somerset, the pernicious system above alluded to was in full force. He was in 1829 succeeded in the government of the Cape of Good Hope by General Bourke, whose special instructions appear to have been still to act towards the Kaffirз on the "soothing" system, which he the more readily fell into, from being himself of a particularly mild and forbearing disposition.

Amongst other "conciliatory" measures now in vogue, was that most baneful one of making periodical presents to the chiefs, on the restoration by them of any plundered colonial property. This species of tribute, instead of acting as a prevention to cattle lifting, proved, on the contrary, a most effectual encouragement to the same, as the chief, in order to be entitled to the promised reward, was naturally prone to encourage the

commission of the theft.

The prohibition on trade and intercourse between the colonists and Kaffirs was now abrogated,† and whilst our traders were allowed to enter Kaffirland for the purpose of traffic with the natives, the latter had free access to the colony, whither they flocked in numbers, under the plea of offering their services to the farmers, whom they, however, generally in the end, robbed with impunity, under the safeguard of a late decree, prohibiting the latter from making use of fire-arms, or other deadly weapons in the recovery of stolen cattle!

See Godlonton's "Account of the Kaffir Irruption of 1834-35;" also Chase's "Cape of Good Hope," pp. 84, 85, &c.

† By an unrepealed old Dutch ordinance, the penalty incurred by the infringement of this prohibition was no less than death.