Part 29

[98] Since the publication of my _History of South Africa_, a journal kept by Mr. Erasmus Smit from the 15th of November 1836 to the 31st of January 1839 has been brought to light and in 1897 was printed in Capetown. It forms an octavo pamphlet of one hundred and eight pages. Mr. Smit, a native of Amsterdam, had once been a lay missionary in the service of the London Society, later a schoolmaster at Oliphants Hoek, and was married to a sister of Mr. Gerrit Maritz. He was a man of fifty-eight years of age and infirm in health, but he joined his brother-in-law’s party, and left the colony with it, being engaged to perform religious services in the camp. During the stay of the emigrants at Thaba Ntshu he was exceedingly jealous of the reverend James Archbell, Wesleyan missionary there, whom he suspected of a design of wishing to supplant him. On the 21st of May 1837 Mr. Retief appointed him religious instructor of the emigrants, whereupon he ordained himself and thereafter administered the sacraments and performed all the duties of a clergyman. I have found nothing in his journal that enables me to add to the account of the emigration given in my _History_, but there are in it a few remarks that are of assistance to me in the preparation of this paper.

[99] The actual separation into two distinct communions, as we see them to-day, had not then taken place, but the principles underlying the movement were already at work, and had been for many years. There was not as much difference between the two parties as there is in the English episcopal church between the high and the low sections, but it was sufficient to cause those with common sympathies to keep together as much as they could.

[100] See pages 451 to 455 of Volume III _Geslacht Register der Oude Kaapsche Familien_, published at Capetown in 1894. The family Uys in 1836 was a very large one, and was widely spread over the Cape Colony.

[101] See page 302 of the printed volume of records entitled _The Kaffir War of 1835_.

[102] This refers to the following occurrence. During the war, while Uys was in the field, a complaint, afterwards proved to be frivolous, was made against his wife to the nearest special magistrate for the protection of apprentices, who issued a warrant, and she was taken to Port Elizabeth to be tried. Upon her innocence being clearly established she was liberated, and an action was then brought before the circuit court against the special magistrate for false imprisonment. The chief justice, who was the circuit judge, and before whom the case was tried, condemned the special magistrate to pay the costs, but these were defrayed for him out of the district treasury, on the ground that otherwise he would be deterred from doing his legal duty when complaints were made to him.--See Chase’s _Natal Papers_.

[103] Sir Benjamin D’Urban provisionally extended the boundary of the colony to the Kraai river, and on the 6th of November 1835 Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Somerset, who visited the north-eastern districts as an agent of the governor, issued a notice that Stephanus Petrus Erasmus was to be fieldcornet of the newly annexed ward. In September of this year one hundred and sixty families were reported to be living on the Stormberg spruit and the Kraai river. See the D’Urban papers in the South African Public Library. A full account of the massacres and robberies by the Matabele will be found in my _History of South Africa_.

[104] See his _Fifty Years of the History of the Republic in South Africa (1795-1845)_, published in London in 1899, Volume II, pages 23 to 28.

[105] I am unable to add to or amend the accounts of these events given by me a quarter of a century ago in my _History_, except in one particular. The number of men and boys murdered at Umkungunhlovu on the 6th of February 1838 (page 318, volume ii, _History of South Africa since September 1795_) should be sixty-seven, not sixty-six, and to the names should be added that of Pieter Retief, junior. This is found in Mr. Boshof’s list, but not in most of those made shortly after the event. These vary from each other, and some trouble must be taken to verify many of the names. In a letter from Magdalena Johanna de Wet, widow of Mr. Retief, to her brothers and sisters, dated at Pietermaritzburg on the 7th of July 1840, published in Mr. Preller’s work, she mentions the murder of her son Pieter Retief with his father, and also of Abraham Greyling, her son by a former marriage, at the same time.

[106] For the particulars see my _History of South Africa since September 1795_, Volume II, pages 323 to 326.

[107] The difficulty of giving a reliable account of all the details of this event is insurmountable, as it is impossible to reconcile the narratives of those who took part in it with each other. I give therefore only the leading features. Readers who may imagine that every incident should be obtained by thorough research are requested to consult the different statements given by Mr. Bird in his _Annals of Natal_, and to believe that others consulted by me long before the publication of that work are equally as conflicting.

End of Project Gutenberg's Willem Adriaan Van Der Stel, by George McCall Theal