If They Light On A Field Of Wheat
In Their Way, An Army Of Locusts Could Not Make A Cleaner Sweep Of The Whole
Than They Will Do.
It is questionable whether they ever return,
as they have never been seen as a returning body.
Many perish
from want of food, the country to which they have migrated
being unable to support them; the rest become scattered over the colony;
and in such a wide country there is no lack of room for all.
It is probable that, notwithstanding the continued destruction by fire-arms,
they will continue long to hold their place.
On crossing the Orange River we come into independent territory
inhabited by Griquas and Bechuanas. By Griquas is meant
any mixed race sprung from natives and Europeans. Those in question
were of Dutch extraction, through association with Hottentot and Bushwomen.
Half-castes of the first generation consider themselves superior
to those of the second, and all possess in some degree the characteristics
of both parents. They were governed for many years by an elected chief,
named Waterboer, who, by treaty, received a small sum per annum
from the colonial government for the support of schools in his country,
and proved a most efficient guard of our northwest boundary.
Cattle-stealing was totally unknown during the whole period
of this able chief's reign; and he actually drove back, single-handed,
a formidable force of marauding Mantatees that threatened
to invade the colony.* But for that brave Christian man, Waterboer,
there is every human probability that the northwest
would have given the colonists as much trouble as the eastern frontier;
for large numbers among the original Griquas had as little scruple
about robbing farmers of cattle as the Caffres are reputed to have.
On the election of Waterboer to the chieftainship, he distinctly declared
THAT NO MARAUDING SHOULD BE ALLOWED. As the government
of none of these tribes is despotic, some of his principal men,
in spite of this declaration, plundered some villages of Corannas
living to the south of the Orange River. He immediately seized
six of the ringleaders, and, though the step put his own position in jeopardy,
he summoned his council, tried, condemned, and publicly executed
the whole six. This produced an insurrection, and the insurgents
twice attacked his capital, Griqua Town, with the intention of deposing him;
but he bravely defeated both attempts, and from that day forth,
during his long reign of thirty years, not a single plundering expedition
ever left his territory. Having witnessed the deleterious effects
of the introduction of ardent spirits among his people,
he, with characteristic energy, decreed that any Boer or Griqua
bringing brandy into the country should have his property in ardent spirits
confiscated and poured out on the ground. The Griqua chiefs
living farther east were unable to carry this law into effect as he did,
hence the greater facility with which Boers in that direction
got the Griquas to part with their farms.
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* For an account of this, see Moffat's "Scenes and Labors in South Africa".
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Ten years after he was firmly established in power he entered into a treaty
with the colonial government, and during the twenty years which followed
not a single charge was ever brought against either him or his people;
on the contrary, his faithful adherence to the stipulated provisions
elicited numerous expressions of approbation from successive governments.
A late governor, however, of whom it is impossible to speak without respect,
in a paroxysm of generalship which might have been good,
had it not been totally inappropriate to the case, set about conciliating
a band of rebellious British subjects (Boers), who murdered
the Honorable Captain Murray, by proclaiming their independence
while still in open rebellion, and not only abrogated the treaty
with the Griquas, but engaged to stop the long-accustomed
supplies of gunpowder for the defense of the frontier,
and even to prevent them from purchasing it for their own defense
by lawful trade.
If it had been necessary to prevent supplies of ammunition
from finding their way into the country, as it probably was,
one might imagine that the exception should not have been made
in favor of either Boers or Caffres, our openly-avowed enemies;
but, nevertheless, the exception was made, and is still continued
in favor of the Boers, while the Bechuanas and Griquas,
our constant friends, are debarred from obtaining a single ounce
for either defense or trade; indeed, such was the state of ignorance
as to the relation of the border tribes with the English, even at Cape Town,
that the magistrates, though willing to aid my researches,
were sorely afraid to allow me to purchase more than ten pounds of gunpowder,
lest the Bechuanas should take it from me by force. As it turned out,
I actually left more than that quantity for upward of two years
in an open box in my wagon at Linyanti.
The lamented Sir George Cathcart, apparently unconscious of what he was doing,
entered into a treaty with the Transvaal Boers, in which articles
were introduced for the free passage of English traders to the north,
and for the entire prohibition of slavery in the free state.
Then passed the "gunpowder ordinance", by which the Bechuanas,
whom alone the Boers dare attempt to enslave, were rendered quite defenseless.
The Boers never attempt to fight with Caffres, nor to settle in Caffreland.
We still continue to observe the treaty. The Boers never did,
and never intended to abide by its provisions; for, immediately on
the proclamation of their independence, a slave-hunt was undertaken
against the Bechuanas of Sechele by four hundred Boers, under Mr. Peit Scholz,
and the plan was adopted which had been cherished in their hearts
ever since the emancipation of the Hottentots. Thus, from unfortunate
ignorance of the country he had to govern, an able and sagacious governor
adopted a policy proper and wise had it been in front of our enemies,
but altogether inappropriate for our friends against whom
it has been applied.
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