Chapter X: Part 10

The small district of Albany was an exception to this general statement. It was occupied chiefly by British settlers, who had originally plots of ground only one hundred acres in size allotted to them, but these had proved insufficient for the maintenance of a family, and most of them had been abandoned. Those that remained occupied had then been enlarged, though not to the extent of the great cattle-runs which the older Dutch-speaking colonists considered necessary for their subsistence.

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.]

At the Zoutpansberg they halted while the young men explored the country around, which they considered admirably adapted for stock-breeding and agriculture. They were in ignorance that Moselekatse’s kraals were only four hundred kilometres or two hundred and fifty English miles to the south-west, and of the ferocity of the Matabele they likewise knew nothing, or they would not have been so satisfied with the locality. They were almost at the mouth of a lion’s den, and yet were so utterly careless that in July 1836 the families composing Rensburg’s division, consisting of forty-nine individuals, left the others with the object of proceeding to Delagoa Bay to open up communication and trade with the Portuguese who had recently rebuilt a fort there. From that time nothing definite is known of these people. A report reached Triegard some months afterwards that they had all been murdered by a band of Magwamba robbers, and this was confirmed in later years by the accounts of various blacks, but just when and where it occurred could never be ascertained.

It was commonly believed in the Transvaal Republic a generation later, and the newspapers circulated the statement widely, that in August 1867 a white man and woman, who spoke no language but that of the Eastern Bantu, and whose habits were those of barbarians, were sent to Commandant Coetzer, of Lydenburg, by a Swazi chief who had obtained them from the Magwamba. They could tell nothing of their history except that they believed they had always lived among Bantu; but as they had never seen other whites that they could remember, it was concluded that they were the sole survivors of Rensburg’s party, and that they were very young when their relatives were murdered. For some time they had lived as man and wife, and had two children when they were handed over to Commandant Coetzer. This was the tale generally accepted as correct at the time, but the man and woman believed to be Europeans were in reality albinos of pure Bantu blood.[97]

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

From a journal kept by Triegard, a fragment of which, commencing on the 25th of January 1837 and ending on the 1st of May 1838, has fortunately been preserved, the history of those who were left behind at the Zoutpansberg is known. On the 11th of May 1837 Triegard wrote to the authorities at Lourenço Marques that the party was in great want of clothing and ammunition, and asking if horned cattle, wethers, wool, and hides would be received in barter. They were then seven families of forty-six souls, only nine of whom were males capable of bearing arms. This letter was sent by Gabriel Buys, accompanied by a Knobnose black named Waiwai. Buys was a son of the notorious freebooter Coenraad du Buis, who had fled from the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony many years before, and after carrying on extensive depredations in Southern Betshuanaland, at the head of a band of ruffians, had become afraid that ministers of justice might be sent to apprehend him there, so had moved on to the Zoutpansberg and become the first European resident in the present Transvaal province. As he had done at the Keiskama he did in his new home in the north: he took to himself a harem of Bantu women, by whom he had numerous children. Among these were Gabriel and an elder brother named Doris, who attached themselves temporarily to Triegard’s party, and as they spoke Dutch and Setshuana, were of great service. Doris remained behind as interpreter and general servant when Gabriel proceeded to Delagoa Bay with the letter.

[Sidenote: Life at the Zoutpansberg.]

They had over five hundred head of horned cattle and a flock of sheep and goats, the care of which occupied most of their attention. Game was plentiful, and they obtained some millet and sweet cane from the blacks who were thinly scattered about in their neighbourhood, so that there was no want of plain food, but the women missed greatly such articles as coffee and sugar. The men had accustomed themselves to the use of millet beer, and Triegard was always pleased to receive a calabash filled with it as a present from the head of a Bantu kraal, using the precaution, however, of requiring the donor according to the custom of the barbarians to take the first draught. As they had used all their lead, they cast bullets of copper and of tin, both of which metals were obtainable, though no information is given as to how or through whose means they were procured. Occasionally, though very rarely, they were able to get in barter a piece of calico that had passed through the country from Delagoa Bay, being handed on from one clan to another for sale. It is interesting to read in Triegard’s journal that, rough a life as they were leading, they observed Sunday as well as they could, and that a school was kept for the children. It is to be noted also that even in this little party there was a spirit of disagreement, and that Triegard’s leadership, owing to the feeling of absolute equality among the different heads of families, was hardly even nominal, much less real.

On the 7th of August Gabriel Buys and the Knobnose Waiwai returned from Delagoa Bay. No one there could read Triegard’s letter, but the Portuguese officer in command of the fort, understanding that the emigrants wished to visit him, sent two black soldiers to show them the way. Accordingly on the 23rd of that month they broke up their camp, and set out on the journey to the coast, with the intention, however, of returning and settling permanently in the goodly locality they had found. From Gabriel Buys and the men who accompanied him they obtained only a vague idea of the distance they would have to travel or of the obstacles in their way. They were in reality about three hundred and thirty-six kilometres or two hundred and ten English miles in a straight line from Lourenço Marques, which lay almost due south-east, for without knowing it they had gone fully a hundred and ninety kilometres farther north than its latitude. So far they had enjoyed excellent health, as after passing the Stormberg they had been on the high plateau, and travelling from south to north they had not met with any serious obstacles. They were now to have a very different experience.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

They travelled past the mountains, since so famous as the strongholds of the Bapedi, where Sekwati, who was then a very petty chief, was living, and who sent them a kindly greeting. They came next to the great range, which lay between them and the coast terraces, where trouble of no ordinary kind was before them. The black Portuguese soldiers had traversed the range on foot, and had no conception of waggon traffic, so they were absolutely useless as guides. A road had to be made, and they managed to obtain some Bantu labourers by paying them in sheep, but when it was completed it was just passable in most places and so dangerous at one spot that some of the party rather than venture on it preferred to take their waggons to pieces and lower the separate parts down the face of a precipice.

In the mountains their cattle were attacked by the tsetse, an insect a little larger than a common fly, but though they had once before suffered loss from this destructive pest, they did not pay much attention to it at first. They were doubtful of its being the same as that they had formerly seen, but soon their oxen began to pine away and die, when they found themselves in a deplorable condition. Still they pushed on, and by dint of almost superhuman exertions, managed to get through the Lebombo, the last range on their way. The cattle were dying fast, when on the 8th of April 1838, to their great joy, they were met by a messenger from the commandant of the Portuguese fort at Lourenço Marques. This messenger had come up the river Umbelosi in a boat, and had brought a present of provisions, rum, medicines, and even some articles of clothing, which were most acceptable.

[Sidenote: Suffering at Delagoa Bay.]

Triegard now transferred his ivory and other heavy effects to the boat, and with his lightened waggons pushed on to the fort, which he reached on the 15th of April 1838, two hundred and thirty-five days after leaving Makapan’s Poort at the Zoutpansberg. The party then consisted of fifty-seven individuals, namely five married men and their wives, two widowers, one widow, eight lads over sixteen years of age, fourteen lads under sixteen years of age, four girls over sixteen years of age, seven girls under sixteen years of age, four half-caste children of Albacht, and seven Betshuana and Bushman servants.

The Portuguese received them with much kindness, though they were required at first to give up their guns. These, however, were soon restored to them, and whatever could be thought of to make them comfortable was done. Triegard informed the commandant of the fort that he had left the Cape Colony because the frontier had been ruined by the Xosas, the slaves had been set free by the English, and the government desired to make soldiers of the Afrikanders. It was evident that they could not return to the Zoutpansberg, but they had not decided what next to undertake when they were attacked by fever. The first to die was old. Daniel Pfeffer, who expired on the 21st of April, at the age of 78 years. He was followed on the 29th of April by P. J. Hendrik Botha, who was 37 years of age. Next came Louis Triegard’s wife, who died on the 1st of May. When she fell ill the Portuguese commandant had her carried into the best room in the fort, and his own wife tended her day after day with the utmost kindness until she died. With a great cry of anguish over his terrible loss Triegard closed his journal, and no particulars can be ascertained of occurrences during the next fifteen months that the party remained at Lourenço Marques. Months of intense suffering, physical and mental, they must have been, of this there can be no doubt. Actual hunger may have been averted by the kindness of the Portuguese officers, but the resources of these good people were very limited, and such food as was obtainable must have consisted mainly, if not entirely, of millet and other produce of the gardens of the Bantu.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

Their number was constantly diminishing by fever, till at length the emigrants who had settled in Natal, hearing where and in what condition they were, chartered the schooner _Mazeppa_ to proceed to Delagoa Bay to their relief, and in July 1839 the remnant of the party, consisting of Mrs. H. Botha and five children, Mrs. G. Scheepers and five children, Mrs. J. Pretorius and two children, three young men, and seven orphan children, were landed at Durban. One young man, son of Louis Triegard, had gone to Mozambique in a Portuguese vessel before the _Mazeppa_ reached the bay, but in the following year he managed to travel overland to his friends in Natal. Thus of the ninety-eight individuals who formed the first party of emigrants all had perished except the twenty-six who reached Natal in a state of utter destitution.

II.

PIETER LAVRAS UYS.

[Sidenote: Progress of Emigration.]

The second party to leave the colony was under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, and consisted of farmers whose religious tendencies were towards the separatist--equivalent to the Scottish Covenanter--section of the church. They migrated chiefly from the Tarka. A full account of their wanderings and actions, of their sufferings from the Matabele and their heroic conduct until Moselekatse was compelled to flee northward to the territory now called Rhodesia, together with the adventures of the party from Colesberg under Carel Cilliers that joined them is given in my _History of South Africa_, and it is unnecessary to repeat it here.

The third party was under the leadership of Gerrit Marthinus Maritz, and went from the neighbourhood of Graaff-Reinet. It was much larger than the one under Potgieter. On the 2nd of December 1836 these parties, who were then in the neighbourhood of Thaba Ntshu, attempted to establish a government and elected a court of justice, with Maritz as landdrost or president. Various small parties and even single families now arrived, and joined either Potgieter or Maritz according to the section of the church that they preferred.

The next large party was headed by Pieter Retief, and went from the Winterberg. On the 17th of April 1837 a meeting of the emigrants was held in the camp of Maritz,[98] when Pieter Retief was elected administrative head, but he was not then installed in office, as the section under Potgieter took no part in the proceedings, and the others hoped that they might be induced to join in course of time. Potgieter and Maritz had quarrelled, and from this time forward harmony among the emigrants was rarely seen.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

On the 6th of June 1837 Mr. Retief was formally installed in office as governor and commandant-general, a volksraad of six members was elected and entrusted with full legislative power, and a provisional constitution of nine articles was adopted. Whether these proceedings were not premature may be open to doubt. The number of emigrants north of the Orange was then not very great, many more were known to be on their way, and for these few to exercise the power of modelling the future government and appointing the chief executive officer seemed unjustifiable to most of those who arrived afterwards. There was no question as to the ability of Pieter Retief and his fitness for the highest office, but that he should be appointed to it by a section of the community and the others be required simply to concur was regarded as a grievance.

Mr. Retief’s first proceeding proved him to be a man of tact. He actually succeeded in inducing Hendrik Potgieter, the representative of the separatist or Covenanter section of the church, to meet in a friendly manner Gerrit Maritz, the representative of the larger section of the church,[99] a man accused by his opponents of ambitious views and not very conciliatory in demeanour. It is true that these men had once fought side by side, when Maritz generously assisted the other to recover the spoil taken by the Matabele in August 1836 in their murderous onslaughts on the camps north of the Vaal, but the constitution of mind of the Covenanter seems to differ from that of other men so much as to make concord difficult except under unusual circumstances. It need not be asked whether his views are more or less praiseworthy than those of his neighbours, but it must be admitted that as a rule he looks upon most matters from a different standpoint. And so the good feeling between the two leaders brought about by Mr. Retief was only temporary, and from the first Potgieter resolutely declined to give in his adherence to the political faction led by Maritz.

[Sidenote: Progress of Emigration.]

The fifth large party arrived at Thaba Ntshu at this time. It was under the leadership of Mr. Pieter Jacobs, and went from the district of Beaufort West, being composed largely of families connected with the Slachter’s Nek insurrection. These people joined the adherents of Retief and Maritz, though they continued to form a separate camp.

Next to cross the Orange was a large party from Oliphants Hoek, under the leadership of Pieter Lavras Uys, though his father, Jacobus Johannes Uys, was nominally its head. The old man was nearly seventy years of age, and the party was entirely composed of his immediate descendants and connections by marriage. It is of Pieter Lavras Uys, and the part he took in the emigration, that the remainder of this paper will deal, the information being largely drawn from the documents contained in the D’Urban collection.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

He was descended from Cornelis Uys, who with his wife and three children migrated from Leyden in Holland as colonists at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the Dutch East India Company was sending to the Cape settlement as many industrious families accustomed to agriculture as it could obtain. Dirk, one of the three children of Cornelis, was born at Leyden, but grew up in South Africa, and in 1722 married Dina le Roux, daughter of a Huguenot refugee from Provence. The fifth child of this marriage, Cornelis Janse by name, in 1766 married Alida Maria Swart, and from this union eleven children were born, the second of whom, Jacobus Johannes by name, in 1793 married Susanna Margaretha Moolman. When grown up, this Jacobus Johannes Uys went to reside in Oliphants Hoek in what became later the district of Uitenhage, and there in 1797 his third child, Pieter Lavras, was born.[100]

Any one who will take the trouble to watch the career of South African students at European universities, say at Leyden or Edinburgh, will find that they occupy prominent places in their classes. The sons of men whose ancestors for many generations had received very little education from books on their farms are found intellectually able to compete in study with the sons of Europeans who have long enjoyed the greatest facilities for acquiring knowledge. This is a most hopeful sign for the future of South Africa. If with vastly increased knowledge our young men only adhere to the sterling virtues and strong confidence in God that characterised their ancestors, there need be no fear for this country in the time to come.

It is true that there are in South Africa many poor white people, some of whom seem to have lost both the power and the inclination to raise themselves in the social scale. But with education, industrial training, and opportunities to acquire property, the great majority of these would undoubtedly rise again, and the residue are at least more capable of improvement than the unemployables in a European city. In all countries of the world there are weak-minded people of different degrees of imbecility, but in South Africa the number of these is very small, and white men and women with criminal instincts are almost unknown. If an average be taken the old colonists need not fear a comparison of intellect with the inhabitants of any country in Europe.

[Sidenote: Character of Pieter Uys.]

Pieter Uys was of the best stamp of man to be found in South Africa. He had not the advantage of a university training or even of a good school education, but he had the capacity of drawing information from every source within his reach, and putting it to the best use. He could write a letter or draw up a document in clear and concise Cape Dutch, and he was acquainted with what was going on over the sea. His upright conduct, his religious convictions, and his kindly disposition caused him to be held in general esteem, not only by his Dutch-speaking neighbours, but by the English settlers of Albany, with whom he was brought into close contact during the Kaffir war of 1835.

When the farmers were temporarily released from duty in the field in order to get crops in the ground, he found himself so thwarted by the unruly conduct of the apprentices, late slaves and Betshuana refugees alike, that he addressed a memorial to the authorities, representing the insufficiency of the existing laws for their correction, and praying for the interference and protection of the government.[101] It was impossible for Sir Benjamin D’Urban to give him any relief, but even if it had been otherwise, he would probably have left the colony, for he had been charmed with the appearance of Natal, the almost uninhabited territory that he had visited in the preceding year.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

It is impossible to give even approximately the number of those who had left the Cape Colony before this time. The government called for returns from the civil commissioners of the different districts, and in July 1837 these officials reported that one thousand and sixty-seven persons had left and two hundred and sixty others were about to follow. But these numbers are certainly much too low, though the estimate of Mr. Uys given in his letter of the 7th of August is probably too large.

It was the intention of the party under Uys to proceed to Natal, but not to attempt to go through Kaffraria. He had found such difficulties in travelling there in 1834 that he thought a better road might be found by moving northward over the Orange river, and then seeking a pass through the Drakensbergen that would lead him to the beautiful land below. This was the route that he followed, and at the beginning of August 1837 he and his party were on the northern bank of the Great river, without having met with any accident on the way. On the 7th of that month he addressed a letter to Sir Benjamin D’Urban, of which a literal translation made for the governor’s use and preserved among his papers is given here _in extenso_:

RIGHT “Orange River, 7th August 1837.

“SIR,--I beg to submit to your Excellency a statement of what I
have observed since I left Capetown and set out on my journey
beyond the Orange river. I there met more than three thousand
persons, lately inhabitants of the Colony, who have left their
country and gone to a foreign land, even to a desert. I have spoken
to many old men amongst them, with the view of ascertaining their
reasons for leaving their native country, and they give the
following as the principal causes:

“1. The laws made for this colony by Parliament, however
inapplicable to the people and their condition, must be implicitly
obeyed.

[Sidenote: Causes of the Emigration.]

“2. We were put to great expense for the measurement, of our farms
prior to their grant, and for a small farm must pay an annual rent
of from forty to two hundred rixdollars. (£3 to £15.)

“3. All power of domestic coercion of our apprentices in our houses
and on our farms has been taken away from us, which has brought the
apprentices into such a state of insubordination as to expose us to
the risk of the loss of property and even life. Neither have we the
right to defend ourselves against these people who live at our
expense, and if they think proper go to a magistrate and make a
false oath, without witnesses, upon which we are seized by black
and white constables, in the same manner as murderers, and brought
before the court, to the great injury of our reputation; whilst if
they lose their cause, then the costs are paid from the government
chest, to which we must pay heavy taxes annually; and if we are
condemned, we must then pay a fine out of our own pockets or be
sent to prison. On this point your Excellency is aware how I myself
was treated in the late Kaffir war and whilst I was in presence of
the enemy and my property left unprotected;[102] which vexatious
treatment has also had great influence on many of the inhabitants.

“4. The, slaves who were our property, who cost us much money, and
for whom we paid every government due, have been taken from us upon
an appraisement made by order of Parliament, and have become free
for a third part of the money at which they were valued, and our
power of maintaining order and discipline having been taken away,
the masters and mistresses are scandalously treated.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

“5. The last Kaffir invasion is also one of the causes. The Kaffirs
have for many years murdered and plundered the inhabitants, and
government has always held out hopes of improvement in this
respect, if we would remain at peace with them; and now, to crown
the whole, we are accused of being the cause of the war, and must
lose all our cattle, as well as put up with our other losses.

“I have stated but a few of the points upon which the greatest
stress is laid by the colonists who have emigrated. To state every
point would go too much into detail; but these will be sufficient
to show why the people are discontented.

“The inhabitants asked for a vagrant law, but that was refused.
They asked for power to punish their insubordinate apprentices, but
this was also refused. Many of them prayed to be relieved from
taxes for the first year after the war, but this was not acceded
to. Their waggons, oxen, and horses were used for the purposes of
the war, but they received no satisfactory remuneration. Several
other things are also stated, too many to be mentioned here.

“I hope your Excellency will be convinced of the truth of what I
have here said, and I do not doubt that if it had been in your
power, our country would now be in a prosperous state; but, as it
is, our country is ruined, for we see that everything taken by you
from the enemy has been restored to them, which will more encourage
them.

“To make the country yet more unfortunate, we see with astonishment
a governor who could do much good by the existing laws, and we see
other persons, such as missionaries and other prejudiced writers,
who are believed, whilst what this governor writes is not attended
to.

[Sidenote: Political Attitude of Uys.]

“We address memorials to the governor and to parliament, but we
find no change. Now we see the mischievous effects to the
inhabitants, and we are thus obliged to quit the colony. It is not
our fault that we leave our native land; we have begged and prayed
for a change, and none is made. We therefore emigrate, but we
shall, notwithstanding, not yet separate ourselves from our
respected governor, who endeavoured to do us good; and whenever we
can be of any assistance, we shall not fail to afford it.

“If I can be of any use to your Excellency, or any report of mine
be of service to a governor whom I so much esteem, I shall spare no
trouble; and I remain, etc.

RIGHT “P. L. UYS, Commandant.”

The political position, or the attitude assumed by Pieter Uys and his party towards the emigrants who had preceded them, was one of independence. As well he thought might he assert authority over Mr. Retief as Mr. Retief over him. The time had not yet come for framing a constitution, which should be deferred until the tide of emigration had slackened, when it could be done with the consent of the whole body of the people, and not merely of a small section of them. Accordingly on the 14th of August 1837 a series of resolutions were drawn up and signed, placing their attitude clearly before their countrymen. These resolutions literally translated were as follows:

RIGHT “Caledon River, 14th August 1837.

“Resolutions adopted by us, the undersigned travellers and exiles
from the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, now on our journey
between the Orange and Vet rivers. We make known to our countrymen
in advance with what object and intention we have undertaken our
journey, and that our unanimous wish is:

“1. To select the country called the Bay of Port Natal as our
seaport.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

“2. To inspect the extent of country joining the same inland, as
far as we shall deem necessary.

“3. That we have placed ourselves under certain chiefs as field
commandants, as protecting leaders over us, to investigate and
redress all grievances that may take place on our journey.

“4. We place our dependence on the Allwise Ruler of heaven and
earth, and are resolved to adhere to the sure foundation of our
reformed Christian religion, entertaining the hope that when we
have reached the place of our destination we shall live a better
and safer life.

“5. As regards the establishment and execution of legal authority
as exercised by some of our countrymen, we must unanimously declare
that we entirely disapprove thereof; and we shall only regulate
ourselves in the wilderness by the old burgher regulations and
duties, and all differences which may arise shall be adjusted in
accordance with those burgher regulations.

“6. We have come to the final determination not to submit to any
laws that may have been established by a few individuals, and which
we conceive have a tendency to reduce us from a state of banishment
to a state of slavery.