Part 21

There was a marked difference in disposition between the Dutch-speaking and the English-speaking colonists. The former, being cattle-breeders by descent through several generations, were strongly attached to country life, and disliked residence in a village or town, where they seldom remained longer than a few hours. Restraint of any kind was exceedingly irksome to them, even the slight restraint of conforming to urban conditions. Their ideal of a happy life was a life on a farm where a man could look north, south, east, and west, and see nothing that was not his own, where a few fruit trees and vines provided him with peaches and oranges, apples and grapes, and a little garden, irrigated from a running stream or a fountain, yielded him all the vegetables he needed, and where his horned cattle, horses, and sheep throve and increased. Cry down such a life as one will, call it unprogressive, devoid of culture, wanting in refinement, destructive of energy, it cannot be denied that it was a happy life and one that brought man into closer communion with nature and with God than if he passed his existence in a town or a village. Except in the most secluded districts there is no longer room for such a life in South Africa, though some there are even in the more fertile parts who strive to cling to it still, but in the fourth decade of the nineteenth century it was the ideal which nearly every Dutch-speaking colonist in the eastern districts of the Cape settlement kept constantly before his eyes.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The English settler as a rule viewed life differently. He disliked a lonely country home, where there was no opportunity of exercising his spirit of enterprise, where the means of giving his children an education in books were lacking, and where companionship with his species was uncertain and scanty. He preferred to reside in a town, where he would have greater scope for his abilities, and where he could have more of such comforts and enjoyments as he desired. There were indeed Englishmen to be found among the leading farmers, but the great majority of them were traders or mechanics. Besides this in most cases they had not the means to purchase stock to commence cattle-breeding with, even if they had the disposition to do so, and they had no heart to face the privations that many a Dutch-speaking youth underwent as a matter of course to obtain a few sheep and cows to make a beginning with. An Englishman could not, for instance, live almost entirely on game for years, as they often did, to spare their domestic cattle and allow them to increase. And so in Albany a town speedily rose, which contained a large proportion of the British settlers, and which was by far the most important centre of population in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony. Grahamstown it was called, and it was as purely English as if it stood in Kent or in Sussex.

[Sidenote: Causes of Discontent.]

For several years there had been great discontent throughout the settlement. In England the party that wished to undo the errors of the past, to atone for the crime of slave-trading in which earlier generations had been deeply involved, and to make strenuous efforts for the elevation of the coloured races, sunk in barbarism and heathenism throughout the world, had been steadily growing in numbers and in influence until at length it had become the dominant power in the state. Its leaders were earnest well-meaning men, but they did not realise that improvement to be most effective should be gradual rather than sudden. They acted as did the men of the French revolution, and in both cases an enormous amount of misery was the immediate consequence, though as time went on the good that they did gradually came to surpass the evil which was at first the result of too much haste. They did not study the condition of things in South Africa, and the parliament at Westminster applied laws to this country that were quite unsuitable to it.

They placed the Hottentots on a perfect political equality with the European colonists and refused to sanction a vagrant act, thereby creating a host of idlers and wanderers, that only time and missionary effort could reduce to order. They emancipated the slaves of a sudden, paying one-third of their appraised value as compensation, and by doing so brought utter ruin upon many of the best families in the country and deep distress upon nearly all. The gradual emancipation which the colonists favoured they rejected, simply because it would take a generation to work out, though all possible protection against ill-usage of the slaves could have been secured under it, and the negroes as a whole would have been better prepared for freedom.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

There were other causes of dissatisfaction among the Dutch-speaking colonists. The suppression of their language in courts of law and official documents was one. Another was the change of land tenure from leases renewable yearly to perpetual quitrent, necessitating heavy charges for surveying and much larger annual payments. This measure, by giving security of tenure and permitting transfer on sale, was undoubtedly beneficial, but the frontier farmers and graziers, accustomed to the old system, regarded the new one as a plan for extorting money from them, especially as in most instances the charges for surveying were paid years before the issue of titles. The great extent of the magisterial districts prevented the government officials from explaining the real object of such changes to the farmers, and this could not be remedied for want of funds.

Still another cause of dissatisfaction was owing to the swarms of barbarians that of recent years had entered the colony from the north and the east, who were a menace to the cattle farmers, from whom they demanded food which, if not given at once, was taken by force. These barbarians were the remnants of various Betshuana tribes that had been nearly exterminated in the wars that originated with Tshaka and Umsilikazi,[89] to whom was added a large section of the Tembu tribe driven westward by Matiwane, himself a fugitive from the Zulu spears. The government did what it could, without actual violence, to induce these invaders to remove beyond the borders, but without success, and public opinion in England would not admit of sterner measures being resorted to, such as the cattle farmers desired.

But more than all that has been mentioned, the greatest cause of irritation was due to the tone of the missionary and so-called philanthropic press. By it the farmers were vilified as if they were cruel tyrants who treated the coloured people as mere animals, and all their misfortunes, which were diminished to next to nothing, were alleged to be due to themselves. Extracts from books and pamphlets of this tone found their way to the farms and were discussed whenever individuals met, until a general feeling of indignation was aroused. By no one was it disputed that in South Africa, as in all other countries of the world, there were violent men to be found, and that instances of extreme cruelty to coloured dependents could be pointed out; but that a whole community should be branded with infamy on account of the misdeeds of a few individuals seemed to be as unjust as if the inhabitants of London should be termed murderers because occasionally a terrible crime was committed there.

[Sidenote: Causes of Discontent.]

And now in the closing days of 1834 a calamity more dreadful than any that preceded it had overtaken the English settlers of Albany and the Dutch-speaking farmers of Somerset, and had reduced them all alike to a condition of the direst distress.[90] Without notice, without anything that a European can regard as sufficient provocation, great bands of Xosas suddenly crossed the border and spread over these frontier districts, murdering all the male inhabitants who had not time to escape to places where they could defend themselves and their families, burning their farmhouses and outbuildings, and driving off the horses, horned cattle, sheep, and goats. The whole frontier, with the exception of Grahamstown and a few of the most important villages which were left like oases, was reduced to an absolute desert. Seven thousand individuals, the majority of whom had previously been in comfortable circumstances, were reduced to such destitution that the government was obliged to supply them with food, or they must have starved.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

By dint of great exertion the burgher forces, with two regiments of British infantry and a strong contingent of Hottentots, drove the Xosas out of the colony and reduced them to partial subjection in the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers. A British and colonial army penetrated the country beyond the Kei, captured some thousands of cattle, and released the Fingoes from subjection to the Xosas. These Fingoes were the remnants of tribes that had lived in Natal, where they were all but exterminated in the wars of Tshaka. They were brought westward, and were located chiefly in what is now the district of Peddie, that they might become a kind of buffer between the colonists and the Xosas. Then the territory between the Keiskama and Kei rivers was proclaimed a British possession, under the name of the Province of Queen Adelaide.

Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, enjoyed the esteem and affection of a great majority of the colonists, English and Dutch-speaking alike, in a larger degree than any one before him had done, and Colonel H. G. Smith, who was stationed at King-Williamstown as the governor’s representative in the new province, was deservedly popular with all but a few persons of malignant disposition. A more energetic man never lived, nor one who had the happiness of the people committed to his charge more at heart. The Xosa chiefs were permitted to govern their dependents in their old way, though they were now officially termed British magistrates, fieldcornets, &c., but they were supposed to act under the supervision of English commissioners, and the most serious crimes were legally punishable only after trial before European courts. Missionary effort was encouraged, and respectable traders were permitted to settle at selected stations, but traffic in munitions of war or in intoxicating liquor was strictly prohibited.

[Sidenote: Plans of Sir Benjamin D’Urban.]

There were no colonists so simple as to believe that this measure would immediately put an end to depredations by the Xosas, or that it would in some almost miraculous way turn barbarians suddenly into civilised men. But it was generally supposed that under the circumstances then existing this system was better than any other that could be adopted, and that it really offered some hope that in course of time a great improvement in the condition of the Xosas might take place. A small section of the missionary party thought differently, however, as in their view the system placed too much restraint upon the black people. With this trifling exception Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s plans in general were heartily approved of by nearly every frontier colonist, though many of them feared that the settlement of the Fingoes on the border might prove to be a mistake.

Looking back now after the experience of three-quarters of a century, we can say positively that Sir Benjamin D’Urban’s policy was wise and benevolent. It might have been better if the Fingoes had not been located where they were, but this was at the time the best thing that could be done with them. We can see too that Colonel Smith was over confident in his influence with the people,--he even believed that he could depose the chiefs at his will,--for he did not know, as we do, the cause of the fidelity of the commoners to them. But upon the whole things were working well, infinitely better indeed than ever before as far as the European colonists were concerned, while the blacks were in a position where improvement was much more easy than it had previously been.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The party in power in England, however, was decidedly of opinion that a great wrong of some kind or other must have been done to the Xosas, or they would not have made war upon the colony. The white people, consequently, must have been at fault. Lord Glenelg, then secretary of state for the colonies, in whose hands the destiny of South Africa was at the time, held this opinion, and issued instructions that British rule was to be withdrawn from the Province of Queen Adelaide, all the land east of the Fish and Kat rivers be abandoned to the Xosas, and treaties of friendship be entered into with the chiefs as independent and sovereign powers. An officer who was not favourably regarded at that time by the farmers, though in later years he performed eminent services for the country, was appointed to carry out these measures, and it was announced that he would leave England at once. When this information reached South Africa, the last ray of hope died out in the hearts of the Dutch-speaking farmers in the eastern districts of the Cape Colony, and there was a general resolution to abandon the land of their birth and seek a new home somewhere beyond the border. The British government had repeatedly announced its fixed determination not to enlarge its domain in this part of the world, so they believed that upon their removal they would be free and independent.

The enormous destruction of human life in the wars of Tshaka and Moselekatse had left wide tracts of land in South Africa almost--in some instances quite--uninhabited, and although the extent of these wastes was unknown, the farmers were cognisant of the fact that there were unoccupied areas where, they thought, they might settle without doing wrong to any one. One of these nearly vacant tracts was the country called Natal, which at that time was taken to signify the land between the Tugela and Umzimvubu rivers, the Kathlamba mountains and the sea. It was the most beautiful and most fertile part of South Africa, rising in steps from the ocean to the great wall that bounds the interior plain, and thus embracing a variety of climates. It was abundantly watered by the rains driven up from the Indian ocean, and was well drained by rivers and rivulets that carried the surplus moisture to the sea. Every one who saw the land spoke of it with enthusiasm, as being one of the fairest regions on earth, and one of the best adapted to make comfortable homes in.

[Sidenote: Condition of Natal.]

Some forty Englishmen had settled on the shore of the inlet called Port Natal, where they made a living chiefly by hunting elephants and buffaloes and trading with the Zulu chief for ivory. Some of them were living more like barbarians than civilised men, and were the only acknowledged heads or chiefs of little bands of fugitives from Zululand, who placed themselves under the white men’s guidance and protection. A petty chief named Umnini, who with a few followers lived in a thicket adjoining the Bluff, and who had concealed himself during the Zulu invasions, was also a dependent of the white people.[91] On the 23rd of June 1835 fourteen of these men under the guidance of Captain Allen F. Gardiner, recently of the royal navy, who was then on a visit to the country with a view of preparing for the establishment of missions among the Zulus, signed a petition to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, requesting him to forward it to the authorities in England, asking that the territory might be annexed and a proper government be established in it. They estimated the number of Bantu inhabitants at not less than three thousand.[92] As some of these men were hunters who knew every inch of the country, this number might be accepted as at least approximately correct, though from the observations of others perhaps five or even six thousand would be more accurate.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

This low estimate is supported by such an amount of trustworthy testimony that only those who refuse to accept any evidence that is in conflict with their prejudices can reject it. Nathaniel Isaacs’ _Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal_, two volumes, London, 1836,[93] and Gardiner’s _Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa_, London, 1836,[94] support it in general terms. Mr. Henry Fynn, who lived in Natal from 1824 to 1834, writing in 1838, says: “The number now under the management of the Europeans at Port Natal amounts to nearly six thousand souls, who would all be massacred if the Europeans were to be withdrawn from the Port.”[95] All the documents of the next five years in which mention is made of the number of black people in Natal agree with it. Only a few years ago Mr. G. M. Rudolph, when giving evidence before the last Native Affairs Commission, stated that he did not think there were more than three thousand natives (_i.e._ Bantu) in Natal when he as a boy nine years of age went there with the first voortrekkers. A party of farmers, one of whom was Pieter Lavras Uys, travelled through Kaffraria in 1834 with fourteen waggons to Port Natal, and after thoroughly inspecting the uplands as well as the coast belt and the harbour, returned to the Cape Colony highly satisfied with the country as a desirable locality to migrate to.

[Sidenote: Betshuana Refugees.]

Of the vast regions north of the Orange river that had been swept nearly clean by war the farmers knew very little except from the statements of Betshuana refugees, whose intelligence was vague and often contradictory. No one of them seemed to know anything beyond the fate of the particular tribe or clan to which he belonged, and there was always so much that was fabulous mixed with their accounts that in general no credence was given to them. Then they could only be spoken to through interpreters, who were rarely obtainable and whose knowledge of any other language than their own was usually very defective.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

This was the condition of things on the frontier of the Cape Colony when the emigration of the Dutch-speaking farmers commenced, an emigration without parallel in any other dependency of Great Britain. The farmers formed themselves in little bands and moved away together, under the leadership of an elected commandant, whose authority, however, was very limited.

The first band to leave the colony with the intention of never returning to it had as its head a man named Louis Triegard, fifty-three years of age, who had been living in the district of Somerset. He was the grandson of a Swede, who came to South Africa in the service of the Dutch East India Company, and married here in 1744. His father, Carel Johannes Triegard, was one of those farmers of Bruintjes Hoogte who in 1796 were most opposed to the recognition of British authority in Graaff-Reinet, and he inherited his parent’s prejudice in this respect. He was married to Martha Elizabeth Susanna Bouwer, and had a family of five children.

Triegard had received only an elementary education from an itinerant schoolmaster, just sufficient to enable him to write a letter or keep a journal in such a way that his meaning could be made out, but his understanding was by no means defective. He had a passionate temper, though he was usually able to keep it under control. Among the farmers he was regarded as a wealthy man, and his establishment was much larger than those of his neighbours.

In June 1834 Louis Triegard moved away from the district of Somerset, and camped out for a time on the banks of the White Kei river, beyond the border of the colony. According to the declaration of one of his slaves, who ran away from him there, and who appeared before the civil commissioner of Albany at Grahamstown on the 10th of September, he had previously purchased from a storekeeper in that place one large and two small kegs of gunpowder, which he had taken with him. On the banks of the White Kei about thirty emigrant families were then living, among whom were those of Adriaan de Lange, his four sons Adriaan, Hans, Robert, and Gerrit, Frans van Aardt, Hans van der Merwe, and Sybrand van Dyk. Triegard had three female and seven men slaves, but the others had only five slaves among them all. While in the colony Triegard was a mild master, but when he got beyond the border his conduct changed, and he became harsh.

[Sidenote: Conduct of Louis Triegard.]

On the 21st of November 1834 the civil commissioner reported that all of Triegard’s slaves and four of the others had run away and reached Grahamstown safely, only one, belonging to Frans van Aardt, remaining at the White Kei. By removing them beyond the border, their masters had forfeited their right to them,[96] so they were all declared emancipated without any further action, and were permitted to take service as free persons with any individuals in the town who might care to employ them.

At the close of this year the sixth Kaffir war commenced, and the Rarabe clans held out until September 1835. When negotiations for peace were being conducted, the chief Tyali stated that Louis Triegard had persuaded the Xosas to continue hostilities so long, but there is no other positive evidence to this effect. It is difficult to believe that he would have tried to bring evil upon his own countrymen, but there is the incriminating fact against him that he moved northward with the notorious robber captain Jalusa, who carried on a career of violence and indiscriminate plunder until his entire band of between a thousand and twelve hundred individuals, with only eight exceptions, was exterminated in September 1836 by the Basuto of Moshesh. The authorities on the frontier in the meantime, being convinced that he was doing much harm, but being unable to arrest him in his retreat beyond the border, were making secret inquiries into his conduct and movements, of which very likely he came to learn, for early in September 1835 he crossed the Orange river and became the leader of the first band of emigrants into the then unknown interior.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

He had with him his wife and four children, his son Carel with wife and two children, Pieter Johannes Hendrik Botha with wife and five children, J. Pretorius with wife and four children, G. Scheepers with wife and nine children, H. Strydom with wife and five children, an old man named Daniel Pfeffer who made his living as a schoolmaster, and a Frenchman named Isaac Albacht, who had a coloured woman as a consort and five children.

This party was joined before it crossed the Orange river by another of equal size, consisting of Jan van Rensburg as leader, with wife and four children, S. Bronkhorst with wife and six children, G. Bronkhorst the elder with wife and one child, G. Bronkhorst the younger with wife, Jacobus de Wet with wife, F. van Wyk with wife and two children, P. Viljoen with wife and six children, H. Aucamp with wife and three children, N. Prins with wife and eight children, and M. Prins.

Together they had thirty waggons. After crossing the Orange they continued their course northward, travelling just as suited their inclination or convenience until they reached the place now known as Potgieter’s Rust, in the Zoutpansberg, where they arrived in May 1836. In passing through the vast almost uninhabited waste beyond the Orange river they had escaped the observation of Moselekatse’s warriors, and had met so few blacks that they considered themselves quite secure. The men hunted game constantly on horseback, and had seen vast areas of land suited for settlement, but as they wished to open communication with the outer world through Delagoa Bay, they had gone on until they believed themselves to be in the latitude of that port.

[Sidenote: Fate of Rensburg’s Party.]