Boer History1838 in South Africa: Napier, Retief’s Massacre, Weenen, and Blood River
Napier’s Oaths, the Euphrates, and Fraser’s Camp — January–February 1838
On the 20th of January Major-General George Thomas Napier arrived in Table Bay in the Indiaman Euphrates, with two sons and two daughters. His commission was dated the 4th of November 1837. He was taking over from Sir Benjamin D’Urban, who had held the castle since January 1834 and had been told by Earl Glenelg that he might retire whenever it suited his convenience. Glenelg had reversed D’Urban’s Province of Queen Adelaide: on the 5th of December 1836 the colonial line had been put back to the Fish and the Kat, and the Xhosa chiefs had been treated as independent parties to treaties. Napier took the oaths of office on the 22nd. He was 54, usually courteous and kindly, though irascible when provoked, and he had not held an important civil post before. He came with a strong impression that the colonists were disposed to oppress the coloured people, and with a conviction that Glenelg’s principles were just and politic. His wife and Charles Bunbury came with him. A few months later he was created a knight commander of the Bath, of which order he had been only a companion when he arrived. D’Urban remained in South Africa; the castle changed hands without a shot. That is why January opened with a new soldier in the oaths: London wanted the Fish held under Glenelg’s treaties, not under the abandoned province. [3] [4]
When he arrived the eastern frontier was such that the colonists feared war would break out again at once. The Gaikas were threatening the Gqunukhwebe with a raid unless they restored cattle placed under their care during the last war; the Rarabe in general were constantly assailing the Mfengu; the colonists were being plundered. In 1837 the 98th regiment had been sent home, and the force on the border was too weak to prevent outrages. On the 19th of February a party of Cape mounted riflemen rose in mutiny at Fraser’s camp, a post between Grahamstown and Trompetter’s drift on the Fish. 16 Khoikhoi soldiers fired at their officers seated in the mess-room, and Ensign Crowe was killed. It became known that the chief Umkayi was in league with the mutineers. Prompt measures captured the rebels; 13 were condemned to death. Napier regarded the sentence as unduly severe; the 2 ringleaders were shot by their former comrades, and 7 others were banished to Robben Island. The mutiny mattered because the coloured regiment was the main mounted force left on a line Glenelg would not let the colony cross, and because an alliance between those soldiers and a Xhosa chief would have opened the Fish at once. [3] [4]
The governor felt it his duty to visit that part of the colony as soon as he could, and on the 22nd of March he left Capetown for the frontier. At Port Elizabeth an address attributed the state of affairs to the ruinous and mistaken policy pursued toward the Xhosa. In his reply he said that he had accepted the government in the conviction that the former system was erroneous, and that he had come out determined to support the system pursued by the lieutenant-governor in accordance with instructions from the secretary of state. As he went on, his views changed. He found the Xhosa plundering almost with impunity, because the white people were obliged to observe the treaties which the black people paid no regard to. The military line selected by Captain Andries Stockenstrom he judged the worst that could have been adopted, and one that would need a much larger force than the line of the Keiskama and Tyumie. Diplomatic agents were already posted beyond the posts: Captain C. L. Stretch with the Gaikas at Block Drift, and Henry Francis Fynn with the Tembu. Napier visited the Kat river settlement with Stockenstrom, its founder, and said that if he had created it he should fancy he had done enough for one man’s life. The tour mattered because the man sent to uphold Glenelg’s system was, within weeks, asking London for more troops to make that system work. [3] [4] [4]
The Deed of Cession and the Hill of Executions — 3–6 February 1838
Nearly 1000 waggons had crossed the Drakensberg in the weeks after Sikonyela’s cattle were taken. The emigrants spread themselves along the Blauwkrans and Bushman rivers, and Pieter Retief prepared to visit Dingane again to deliver what had been recovered. Retief had been chosen governor of the emigrant parties at Winburg on the 6th of June 1837. In November he had sat in Dingane’s isigodhlo and been told that Natal would be ceded if about 700 cattle stolen by Sikonyela’s Batlokua were brought back. That condition had been met. Many urged him not to venture a second time into the Zulu king’s power. Gerrit Maritz offered to go with only 3 or 4 others. Retief objected to anything that might lead Dingane to suspect that they distrusted him. Some 60 of the best men offered to accompany him; several allowed their sons — boys from 11 to 15 — to go also. Thomas Holstead went again as interpreter. About 30 Khoikhoi servants led spare horses. George Biggar remained at the Bushman river as his father’s agent. That is why a second ride was mounted in February: the paper for Natal was supposed to follow the cattle, and Retief would not send a small party that looked like fear. [3] [4] [7]
They arrived at Ungungunhlovu on the 3rd of February. Dingane said he was highly satisfied, regretting only that they had not brought Sikonyela bound to be put to death. He asked for firearms and horses taken from the Batlokua; he appeared satisfied when told these had been restored to their owners. As before, the farmers were entertained with dances and sham fights. A whole regiment of young warriors had reached the great place only the previous evening. Retief, resting under a large tree outside the entrance where saddles and guns were piled, was approached by a messenger demanding that the horses and guns be given up; he showed his grey hairs and bade the messenger tell his master that he was not dealing with a child. On Sunday the 4th nothing very noteworthy took place. Toward sundown on Monday another regiment of young warriors passed the reverend Francis Owen’s buildings. The shouting and the blows of knobkerries on oxhide shields were blood-curdling. Young William Wood said to Jane Williams, “You will see that they will kill the Boers tomorrow.” [3] [4] [7]
The day after their arrival Dingane asked Owen to draw up a document to show that he had given the farmers a country to live in. Owen drafted a paper in English which met with Dingane’s approval after it had been explained. The document received his mark, was signed by witnesses, and was handed to Retief. It transferred to the emigrants for their perpetual property the place called Port Natal, together with all the land from the Tugela to the Umzimvubu river, and from the sea to the north, as far as it might be useful and in his possession. Grants covering the same ground had previously been made by Tshaka and by Dingane himself to Farewell, Fynn, King, Isaacs, and Gardiner. Under no circumstances would such a cession in Bantu custom mean more than permission to occupy during the lifetime of the reigning chief. The paper still mattered, because Retief treated it as a title, and because 10 months later it would be taken from a bag on the hill of executions. [3] [4]
On the morning of Tuesday the 6th of February Retief and his party prepared to return, and went to take leave of Dingane, whom they found surrounded by warriors. Great care had been taken to show them that according to Zulu custom no one could approach the chief armed; when requested to leave their guns outside the kraal, they did so without suspicion. They were pressed to seat themselves and drink beer handed round freely. Dingane suddenly called out “Seize them.” Holstead exclaimed “We’re done for,” and added in Zulu “Let me speak to the king.” Dingane waved his hand and called repeatedly “Kill the wizards.” Holstead drew his knife and mortally wounded 2 assailants before he was secured. One farmer also succeeded in killing a Zulu; the others were seized before they could spring to their feet. They were dragged to the hill where executions were commonly performed and murdered by having their skulls broken with knobkerries. Retief was held and forced to witness the death of his companions before he was murdered. His heart and liver were taken out and buried in the path leading from Natal to Ungungunhlovu; no other mutilation of the bodies took place, nor was their clothing removed. [3] [4] [7]
There perished that morning 66 Europeans, among them Retief, Holstead, several Pretorius, Klopper, Brits, Scheepers, and Oosthuizen names, and boys who had ridden with their fathers. The servants who had been sent for the horses were surrounded and put to death; one nearly made good his escape by fleetness of foot, but was run down. While the massacre was taking place Owen sat in his hut. Dingane sent word that the farmers were being killed because they were wizards, but that he need not fear for himself. Mrs. and Miss Owen, Jane Williams from Wales, Mrs. Hulley and her 3 children, and William Wood were with him. A Zulu rushed up while Owen was reading in the shade of his waggon with a message not to be frightened; almost before it was realised a maidservant said, “Look, they are killing the Boers now.” In the course of half an hour their struggles were over. A few hours after, the reverend Mr. Venable and his interpreter James Brownlee arrived; when they learned what had happened they thought it best to say nothing of the mission orders they had come to have countermanded. All the American missionaries then retired to the port. The 6th mattered because the governor of the emigrants, the interpreter who spoke Zulu, and the boys who had ridden with their fathers were dead in one morning, and because the paper for Natal was still on the hill. [3] [4]
Weenen, the Lagers, and the Women Who Would Not Leave — February 1838
At noon on the same day that Retief’s party were killed some 10000 Zulu warriors marched toward Natal, intending to fall upon the Europeans before they could hear what had happened. Having formed themselves into several bands, at early dawn on the morning of the 17th of February they burst upon the encampments near the present village of Weenen, which has obtained its name — wailing or weeping — from the events of that day. Tambusa and Salela headed the columns. They crossed near the junction of the Tugela with the Mooi, and the blow fell on waggons between the Mooi and Bushman rivers, on the Blauwkrans, and on small lagers further along the Bushman. Men, women, and children were murdered; every European in that part of Natal must have met this fate had not 2 or 3 young men escaped, who hastened to inform the parties farther on. These at once formed lagers with their waggons. Hardly had they time to effect this arrangement when they were assailed; in no instance were the Zulus able to penetrate the lagers, though great numbers perished in the attempt. That is why the 17th named a village: the waggons that had not yet been drawn into a circle were destroyed, and the name recorded the weeping. [3] [7]
At one place on the Bushman river they persevered for a whole day. The farmers’ ammunition was nearly exhausted when a shot from a three-pounder, ploughing through a mass of the assailants, struck down several of their leaders, which caused the remainder to retire. In the defence of the lagers the women were nearly as serviceable as the men, by loading spare muskets for their husbands and brothers. As soon as the Zulus retired, the farmers hastened to learn the fate of their friends in front. With few exceptions all who had not time to take shelter in lagers had been murdered. Their cattle had been swept off; household goods destroyed; waggons broken to pieces and burned for the iron in them. Beside the ruins lay the corpses of men and women, boys and girls, in some cases horribly mutilated. A few individuals had been left for dead but subsequently recovered. Among these were two girls, Johanna van der Merwe and Catherina Prinsloo, about 10 or 12 years of age; one had received 19 and the other 21 stabs of the assagai. They were tended with care and recovered, though they ever after remained cripples. In another place, on a heap of corpses, lay the mangled remains of George Biggar. [3] [7]
The number of white men thus cut off without warning was 41. 56 white women, 185 white children, and about 250 coloured servants also perished. The survivors, after ascertaining the full extent of their loss, held a consultation. One or two proposed to withdraw from the country; they were put to shame by the women, who declared that they would never leave Natal till the blood of their relatives was avenged. What had happened, said one, was in punishment for their sins, but let them call upon God and He would certainly help them. After that the discussion was not what was expedient but what it was their duty to do. The resolution they arrived at was that they ought to punish the murderers of their friends. For this they were then too weak, but they were not left long without assistance. [3] [7]
Commandants Andries Hendrik Potgieter and Pieter Lavras Uys, upon hearing of these events, hastened across the Drakensberg. Potgieter had led the Tarka party out in 1836 and had broken Mosega in January 1837; Uys had come up from the colony with his own following. The Englishmen at the port, having ample proof from the fate of Holstead and George Biggar that they were in the same danger, offered to attack Dingane with their people from one direction while the farmers did the same from another. After Retief’s death Maritz became the head of the parties in Natal, and they desired that he should command the expedition. Neither Potgieter nor Uys would serve under him, nor would one of these serve under the other. At last it was arranged that Maritz should remain in charge of the lagers, while Potgieter and Uys should proceed against Dingane, acting in concert, but each having independent control over his followers. The arrangement mattered because a divided command was about to ride into a country Dingane knew, against numbers he could choose. [3] [4]
Italeni, the Tugela, and the Comet at the Port — April 1838
Early in April the two columns set out. That from the port consisted of about 20 English traders and hunters, the same number of Khoikhoi, and from 1000 to 1500 blacks, nearly all fugitives from Zululand. The expedition was nominally under Robert Biggar; in reality each white chief, such as John Cane and Henry Ogle, had absolute authority over his own people. Four days after leaving the port they reached a Zulu kraal from which most of the men were absent. They secured the whole of the cattle, variously estimated from 3000 to 7000 head, and a considerable number of women and girls. Cane’s people raised a quarrel with Ogle’s as to the division of the spoil; a combat with sticks took place in which the latter were badly beaten. The English leaders saw they could not proceed farther until the plunder was disposed of, and they returned to Natal. That first ride showed why the port column was a poor ally: there was no single command, and a cattle quarrel turned it back before it ever saw Dingane’s army. [3] [7]
In the meantime Potgieter and Uys were advancing toward the Zulu capital. Between them they had 347 men. Dingane could bring into the field at least 100 times their number. For 5 days their march was unopposed, the country appearing to have been abandoned. On the 11th of April they came in sight of a division of the Zulu army, which they attacked impetuously, and were drawn into a skilfully planned ambuscade at Italeni. Before them were two parallel ranges of hills, between which was a long defile; Uys’s division was in advance. In the narrowest part of the gorge they found themselves surrounded. They could not fall back rapidly after firing and again load and charge, as had been their mode with Moselekatse on the open highveld. The horses of Potgieter’s division became almost unmanageable through the din of shields. The farmers directed all their fire upon one mass of the enemy, and, having cleared a path by shooting down hundreds, rushed through and escaped, leaving led horses, baggage, and spare ammunition behind. [3] [7]
The loss of the farmers was 10 men: Pieter Lavras Uys, Dirk Cornelis Uys, Joseph Kruger, Frans Labuschagne, David Malan, Jacobus Malan, Jan Malan, Louis Nel, Pieter Nel, and Theunis Nel. Commandant Uys was assisting a wounded comrade when he received a stab from an assagai. As he fell he called to his followers to leave him and fight their way out, for he must die. His son Dirk Cornelis, a boy of 15, was some distance off; looking about he saw his father on the ground and a Zulu in the act of stabbing him. The youth turned his horse and rode to help his parent, but could only die at his side. Party feeling afterward ran so high that there were not wanting those who attributed the disaster to mismanagement on Potgieter’s part. Italeni mattered because the open-ground tactic that had worked against Moselekatse failed in a gorge, and because one of the two independent commandants did not come out of it. [3] [7]
The Englishmen at the port were about to leave for the second time. Neither Ogle, nor his people, nor his partisans, would go again. The second expedition consisted of 17 Englishmen, about 20 Khoikhoi, and 1500 blacks, of whom between 300 and 400 were armed with muskets, again nominally under Robert Biggar. A few miles south of the Tugela they came upon a Zulu regiment which pretended to take to flight, left food cooking on fires, and even threw away shields and assagais. The Natal army pursued, crossed the Tugela, took possession of a kraal on the northern bank, and then found it had been drawn between the horns of a Zulu army fully 7000 strong. The battle on the 17th of April was one of the most desperate contests that had taken place on that soil. Three times the Natal army beat back the regiments that charged upon it. A strong Zulu reinforcement came in sight; another rush cut the Natal army in two. 4 Englishmen, 2 or 3 Khoikhoi, and about 500 blacks got through the river; the other division was entirely surrounded. Whole masses went down before the withering fire before a rush of a regiment, with another in reserve close behind, carried everything. 1000 Natal blacks had perished, and probably 3 times that number of Zulus. 13 Englishmen lay dead: Robert Biggar, Henry Batts, C. Blanckenberg, William Bottomley, John Cane, Thomas Carden, John Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Richard Lovedale, Robert Russell, John Stubbs, Richard Wood, and William Wood. [3] [7]
After this victory Dingane’s army marched leisurely to Durban. Fortunately the Comet, a small vessel bound to Delagoa Bay, was lying at anchor there. The American missionaries, except Mr. Lindley who had volunteered to remain behind and report, had left in a vessel bound to Port Elizabeth. Owen and his family, with Lindley and the surviving residents of Durban, took refuge on board the Comet at night and on one of the islands during the day. The blacks retired to the thickets. The Zulus remained at the port 9 days, destroying all the property they could find, leaving not even a dog or a fowl alive. They then returned to Ungungunhlovu. Some 8 or 9 Englishmen — among them Alexander Biggar, Henry Ogle, Daniel Toohey, Charles Adams, Robert Dunn, and Richard King — resolved to try their fortune once more, left the island, and sought out the blacks in the thickets. The missionaries and the remaining traders sailed in the Comet to Delagoa Bay, where fever attacked them, and Charles Pickman died. From Delagoa Bay they proceeded to the Cape Colony. Of the missionaries, only Lindley, Dr. Adams, and Mr. Aldin Grout saw Natal again. The Comet mattered because without her the remaining English at the bay would have had nowhere to sit while Dingane’s army spent 9 days on the Point. [3] [4]
Landman at the Port, the Winter of Distress, and Napier’s Proclamation — May–October 1838
Commandant Potgieter with his adherents also left Natal. He had the country purchased from Makwana, and that abandoned by Moselekatse, to fall back upon. A large party recrossed the Drakensberg with him. On the 16th of May an officer sent to make inquiry by the civil commissioner of Colesberg met them 2 days’ march on the inland side of the mountains, moving toward the Sand river. There they remained until November, when they proceeded onward to the Mooi river and formed on its banks the first permanent settlement of Europeans in the territory later called the South African Republic. To the town which they built there they gave the name Potchefstroom in honour of their chief. The secession was more than compensated by the arrival at Natal of fresh parties from the Cape Colony. The largest consisted of 39 families from Olifants’ Hoek under Carel Pieter Landman. Potgieter’s withdrawal mattered because Natal lost the commandant who would not serve under Maritz, and because the highveld gained a town named for him before the year closed. [3] [7]
In May Maritz’s camp was visited by Fieldcornet Gideon Joubert of Colesberg, and Jacobus Nicholas Boshof, first clerk to the civil commissioner of Graaff-Reinet. Joubert’s object was to induce the emigrants to return to their former homes. Boshof had leave of absence to visit his parents at Swellendam; for proceeding to Natal on this occasion he was dismissed from the service by Napier, but shortly afterwards he threw in his fortunes with the emigrants. Both drew up reports upon the condition of the people and the country. The emigrants were found resolute to remain in Natal and to punish Dingane as speedily as possible. Landman had been sent on a mission to the port, near which, in compliance with a request of the English settlers, a camp was about to be stationed. At this time there were in Natal about 640 male Europeans capable of bearing arms, and 3200 women and children. Joubert’s visit mattered because Capetown still counted the people beyond the Berg as British subjects who could be talked home, and because the numbers he found were not a remnant too small to stay. [3] [4]
On the 16th of May Landman, with the concurrence of the few remaining Englishmen at Durban, issued a proclamation taking possession of the port in the name of the “Association of South African Emigrants.” He appointed Alexander Biggar landdrost and William Cowie fieldcornet. Biggar, suffering under great depression of spirits consequent on the loss of his sons and his entire property, did not care to perform the duties; a few weeks later L. Badenhorst was appointed landdrost in his stead, and after a very short tenure was succeeded by F. Roos. In July Napier issued a proclamation inviting the emigrants to return to the Cape Colony, promising redress of well-founded grievances, stating that they could not be absolved from their allegiance as British subjects, and informing them that whenever he considered it advisable he would take military possession of Port Natal. He had previously announced that the determination of her Majesty’s government was to permit no further colonisation in this part of Africa, nor the creation of any pretended independent state by any of her Majesty’s subjects, which the emigrant farmers continued to be. Proclamation and announcement alike fell upon deaf ears. Landman’s paper and Napier’s paper were the same argument from opposite sides: who had the port, and whether a British subject could found a state by crossing the Berg. [3] [7]
In August Dingane’s army attacked the camp on the Bushman river again, and on 3 successive days endeavoured to force an entrance, but on each occasion was compelled to retire with heavy loss. Only one farmer, Vilodman by name, was killed. Most of the emigrants were at this time in great distress from want of proper food and other necessaries, so much property having been destroyed and so many cattle swept off. Disease, in the form of low fever, broke out among them, probably induced by insufficient nourishment and clothing; many must have perished if supplies of medicine and other necessaries had not been forwarded by their countrymen at the Cape. This winter was long remembered as the time of the great distress. Landman was now the nominal head of the emigrants in Natal, for the health of Maritz had broken down, though he lingered in life until early in October. The winter mattered because the lagers held, the cattle did not come back, and the man who had headed Natal after Retief did not live to see Pretorius arrive. [3] [7]
In November Joubert was sent by Napier to Natal to ascertain the condition and number of apprentices with the emigrants who were entitled to freedom on the 1st of December, and to demand that they should be allowed to return with him. He found no difficulty in carrying out his instructions. Most of the apprentices had been set at liberty; when this was not the case they were without exception offered the choice of returning with Joubert or of remaining as servants with wages. Nearly all preferred to remain, so that Joubert brought back only 8 men, 11 women, and 21 children. The count mattered because the 1st of December was the day slavery’s apprenticeship ended in the colony, and because Napier needed to show that the people who had crossed the Berg could not take that labour with them as property. [3] [4]
Pretorius, the Vow, Blood River, and Charters at the Point — November–December 1838
While Joubert was engaged in this mission Andries Willem Jacobus Pretorius arrived in Natal and was elected commandant-general. He had visited the country on a tour of inspection just before the massacre of Retief’s party, and had been so well satisfied that upon his return to Graaff-Reinet he and his friends resolved to remove to it. He was a man of considerable wealth and of high character. His family traced its descent through many generations to Jan Pretorius, son of a clergyman at Goeree in South Holland, who had arrived at Capetown in the early days of the settlement. Like most of the farmers of that day he had received very little education from books; in bible history he was as well versed as his remote ancestor could have been. At this time he was in the noontide of life, being but 39 years of age, and in full vigour of mind and body. That is why November changed the command: Maritz was dead, Potgieter had recrossed the Berg, and a Graaff-Reinet man who had seen Natal before the massacre now had the numbers and the waggons to try Dingane again. [3] [4]
Early in December a strong commando was ready to take the field against Dingane. It was under Pretorius as commandant-general, Landman being the officer next in rank. Guided by experience, the farmers determined to take a considerable number of waggons and some artillery with them for defensive purposes. Alexander Biggar, whose grief for the loss of his sons was inconsolable, joined the burgher army with a small party of Natal blacks to act as scouts. Altogether 464 men mustered, exclusive of the commandants. The Tugela in its lower course being impassable at this season, Pretorius resolved to cross it near the Kathlamba. Every night a lager was formed by drawing the waggons up in a circle and lashing them together. There was no song, no jest heard in that camp, but prayers were poured forth and psalms were sung at every halting place. Italeni had taught them not to ride into a gorge without a circle they could hold. [3] [4] [7]
Danskraal, a few miles north-east of the present town of Ladysmith, was reached on the 7th of December. It was resolved that the entire army should take a vow that if God granted them victory they would build a church and set aside a thanksgiving day to commemorate the event. Pretorius first spoke to Sarel Cilliers about this solemn vow and asked him to address the commando, which he did. On Sunday the 9th Pretorius called Landman, the aged P. Joubert, and Cilliers to his tent on the ceremonies; religious services were then performed in 3 tents set apart for the purpose. On the 10th and 11th smoke signals were observed on the hills; the thick grass was set on fire so that boulders and ravines could be seen and ambuscades detected. On the 11th the Buffalo was crossed at the ford later called Landman’s Drift. Pretorius set captured Zulu women and children at liberty, gave them a white flag with his name on it, and sent word that if Dingane would restore the guns, horses, and other property taken from the encampments they were prepared to come to terms; otherwise they were ready to continue hostilities. On 3 occasions the scouts brought in captured Zulus, and Pretorius sent these with the same offer. Dingane’s reply came in the form of an army. The vow mattered because the commando bound itself, before it saw the river, to a church and a day if it lived. [3] [7]
An army 10000 or 12000 strong attacked the camp at early dawn on Sunday the 16th of December. The camp was on the bank of a river which here formed a long and deep reach, giving complete protection on that side. Another side was well protected by a water drain, then dry, with steep banks about 14 feet in height, which opened into the stream. The Zulus attempted to force an entrance by sheer pressure of numbers on the two open sides, and they persevered for 2 full hours, notwithstanding the terrible havoc created among them by the fire of the artillery and of the farmers’ guns. At last they concentrated their strength on one point, when Pretorius led a body of horsemen out and attacked them in the rear. This movement decided the action; the Zulus, finding themselves between two fires, broke and fled. There were 400 or 500 in the water drain and along the bank of the river, and these were all shot down. The farmers had 3 men slightly wounded, Pretorius himself being one of them. They estimated the number of Zulus lying dead around the camp at over 3000. The ground was covered with corpses and gore, and even the water was discoloured. From this circumstance the stream received the name Blood river. The 16th mattered because a lager lashed in a circle, with a river and a drain on two sides, did what Italeni’s gorge had not: it held until a sortie could break the press. [3] [4] [7]
On the 17th the commando moved forward, and on the 21st reached Ungungunhlovu, when it was found that Dingane had set fire to his capital and had fled with his army to the thickets and ravines skirting the Umvolosi. The first man to enter the still burning kraal was Jacobus Uys, brother of the late commandant, and next to him young Jacobus Uys, the late commandant’s son; Cilliers was not far behind. On the hill outside they discovered the skeletons of Retief and his companions, who 10 months before had fallen there. The bodies appeared never to have been disturbed since the day of the massacre; even the riems with which the victims had been dragged were still attached. All the skulls were broken. The skeleton of Retief was recognised by fragments of clothing and a leather despatch bag suspended from the shoulder. In this bag was found the deed of cession of Natal, written by Owen, in a perfect state of preservation. After the interment of the remains, Pretorius sent a patrol of 280 horsemen in pursuit. Toward evening another body of Zulus closed them from behind; in crossing a swollen rivulet the enemy got among them and killed Alexander Biggar, 5 emigrants — Gerrit van Staden, Barend Bester, Nicholas le Roux, Marthinus Goosen, and Jan Oosthuizen — and 5 of the Natal blacks. When the commando reached the Buffalo a patrol fell in with a herd of 4000 or 5000 cattle guarded by only 100 men; the guards were shot and the cattle seized. The bag mattered because the paper of the 4th of February came off the hill on the 21st of December, after the river had been named. [3] [7]
Without instructions from England, in November Napier took the responsibility of sending a company of the 72nd highlanders and a few artillerymen to close the harbour of Natal. These troops were embarked at Port Elizabeth in the merchant ship Helen; a little coasting vessel named the Mary conveyed the stores; the brig-of-war Leveret accompanied the expedition. Major Samuel Charters was in command, and Theophilus Shepstone went as interpreter. In a proclamation the governor announced that the occupation was temporary and purely military, not partaking in any degree of the nature of colonisation or annexation. The harbour was declared closed against all trade except such as should be carried on under special licence of the Cape government. After the landing of the troops, on the 4th of December Charters proclaimed that he had taken possession of the ground surrounding the inlet within 2 miles of high-water mark, and declared martial law in force within these limits. There was standing near the Point a substantial stone store, recently erected for Mr. Maynard. The commando that fought on the 16th was already in the field when the highlanders stood at the Point. Charters’s landing mattered because Napier’s July warning was made good without a despatch from Glenelg, and because the port Landman had proclaimed in May was now under martial law for 2 miles from the water. [3] [4]
Apprenticeship Ended, Peddie, Stockenstrom’s Court, and Twenty-three Village Schools — 1838
The farmers in the western districts, left almost without servants by the termination of the apprenticeships on the 1st of December, necessarily underwent much hardship; but they speedily learned to accommodate themselves to the new order of things. Slavery had ceased on the 1st of December 1834; the four years of apprenticeship that followed were the interval in which former slaves still had to serve, and 1838 was the year that interval ran out. Many more than formerly turned their attention to the breeding of merino sheep, and the production of wool rapidly increased. On the 19th of June Napier met the Gqunukhwebe chiefs Pato, Kama, and Kobe at Fort Peddie. They were in such fear of an attack by the Gaikas that they were ready to promise anything in return for substantial support. Stockenstrom gave them a good character, upon which Napier entered into a supplementary treaty establishing a defensive alliance. They bound themselves before making war to submit their disputes with other clans to the arbitration of the British authorities; they were to be protected from attack, and in case of a sudden raid they were to be permitted to take shelter on the colonial side of the Fish. With the Rarabe chiefs he had several interviews. Maqoma claimed the valleys at the sources of the Kat as his property and asked that the Khoikhoi be expelled; the request could not be complied with. He warned them that if they did not restore stolen cattle traced to their kraals, or give up others equivalent in value within 1 month, he would send an armed party to enforce the demand. Peddie mattered because Glenelg’s treaties had left the Gqunukhwebe exposed to the Gaikas, and because Napier’s answer was a defensive alliance he had not been sent to make. [3] [4]
On the 18th of May he wrote asking Glenelg to apply to parliament for compensation to the farmers for their losses, pointing out that if a faulty system had caused the war the imperial government alone was responsible, as the colonists had no voice in the matter. He hoped for a grant to make good a portion of the 350000 pounds worth of property which had been taken from them. Glenelg declined. During this visit he had a very unpleasant duty to perform by sitting as a judge at the trial of the officer next in rank to himself. On the 19th of December 1837 Glenelg had directed him to constitute a court to investigate the charge of Stockenstrom having once shot a Xhosa boy, and to preside in it. He associated with himself Major Charters and Captain the honourable Richard Dundas of the ship-of-war Melville, and on the 21st of May opened the inquiry at Grahamstown. The court sat daily, Sundays excepted, until the 6th of June. They all found that during the operations of the commando under Captain Fraser in December 1813 Stockenstrom had shot a Xhosa who was trying to conceal himself under driftwood in the bed of the Blinkwater, but that the person was armed with assagais and between 16 and 25 years of age, so that the deed was a lawful military act; they fully and honourably acquitted him of having shot an unarmed boy in a cold-blooded or cruel manner. They also acquitted Messrs. Campbell and Van Ryneveld of conspiracy. As soon as the inquiry was concluded Stockenstrom requested leave of absence to proceed to England to place his resignation in Glenelg’s hands, and announced that he intended never to return if he could find bread for his family in Europe. The court mattered because the lieutenant-governor who had made the treaties of December 1836 was cleared of murder and then asked to be allowed to go home. [3] [4]
Upon Napier’s arrival he found that D’Urban had contemplated a reform in the system of public education, and that an exhaustive report upon the country schools had been prepared by Colonel Bell. The free schools established in 1822 were still open, though they had long ceased to maintain as high a position as in earlier years. In 1838 there were in the whole colony 23 village schools of that class, with salaries not exceeding 40 pounds a year, 5 pounds extra for every 10 pupils over 20, and small fees from parents able to pay. There were 17 Moravian clergymen, 15 of the London mission, 10 Wesleyan, 6 Rhenish, 1 Berlin, 1 Paris, and 1 of the South African missionary society, all intent upon instructing the children of the negroes, mixed breeds, and Khoikhoi. The South African college in Capetown was in receipt of 200 pounds a year from the treasury. The eminent astronomer Sir John Herschel was residing at Feldhausen — later called the Grove — in Claremont, where an obelisk marks the position of his 20-foot reflecting telescope. Napier asked him for an opinion upon a system suitable to the country; on the 17th of February Herschel furnished a memorandum, and the principles in it were afterwards acted upon. On the 19th of February John Fairbairn addressed the governor in a letter Napier regarded as of almost equal value. In March Herschel returned to Europe. In Algoa Bay John Thornhill had purchased the wreck of the Feejee and driven piles round it; as it remained firm, in March he formed a company to build a jetty. On the 22nd of August the Cape of Good Hope marine assurance company, in 50 shares, commenced business in Capetown. On the 7th of February a meeting of Grahamstown inhabitants assessed a rate for the current year under the municipal ordinance: the rateable property being valued at 12000 pounds, a sixpenny rate was imposed. [3] [4] [4]
On the 23rd of May Jonkheer Jan Willem Janssens, who had held the castle for the Batavian Republic and had signed Papendorp, died in The Hague, survived by his second wife Sara Louise Hartsen. On the 9th of November a paper between Adam Kok and Andries Waterboer assigned land west of a line from Ramah on the Orange to Platberg on the Vaal to Waterboer, Cornelis Kok being ignored; it was a division between two allies while Abraham and Adam fought for the succession at Philippolis after the elder Adam Kok’s death. During the winter several Xhosa were killed or wounded when in the act of driving off stolen cattle, and for a short time depredations became less numerous; they were soon resumed on the same scale as before. On the 12th of July Napier wrote to Glenelg asking for 3 regiments of the line, the Cape mounted rifles reduced to 480 rank and file, and half a company of artillery, to be stationed on the frontier to prevent the ruinous stockstealing. The Xhosa, he added, had no excuse, as on the part of the colonists the treaties had never been infringed. Duncan Campbell, civil commissioner and resident magistrate of Albany, retired on a pension in this year. The 1st of December left the western farms almost without servants; the 12th of July left Glenelg with a request for 3 regiments from the governor sent to prove that those regiments would not be needed. [3] [3] [9]