Boer History1843 in South Africa: Cloete, Natal, St Lucia Bay, and the Napier Treaties
The Brazilia of the 8th of May, Cloete’s Proclamation of the 12th, and the Flight of Mawa — May–June 1843
On the 13th of December 1842 Lord Stanley instructed Sir George Thomas Napier to send a commissioner to Natal. Napier was governor of the Cape. After the fighting at Congella in May 1842 and the landing from the Conch in June, British troops held Port Natal, but London had not yet said whether the Queen would take the country as a colony. Stanley now told Napier that the Queen approved the amnesty, that the inhabitants were taken under her protection, and that they would keep all lands actually occupied for 12 months before the commissioner arrived. Revenue from land and customs would vest in the Queen and be spent only on civil government. The commissioner was to collect information and opinions, not to make final arrangements. Three conditions were essential: that there should be, in the eye of the law, no distinction or disqualification founded on mere difference of colour, origin, language, or creed; that no private person should be allowed to attack people beyond the colony unless acting under government orders; and that slavery in any shape should be unlawful. The despatch reached Capetown on the 23rd of April 1843. That is why this year opened with Major Thomas Charlton Smith still at the port, and with the volksraad at Pietermaritzburg waiting to learn whether Natal would become a British colony under those three conditions. [3] [4]
On the 12th of May Napier issued a proclamation appointing Advocate Henry Cloete her Majesty’s commissioner for the district of Port Natal, and announcing that this district, according to such convenient limits as should be fixed, would be recognised and adopted by the Queen as a British colony. Cloete was a Cape barrister and a member of the legislative council. He was the brother of the colonel who had landed from the Conch under the Southampton’s guns in June 1842. On the 10th of May the reward of 1000 pounds, put on the 11th of August 1842 for J. Prinsloo, J. J. Burger, S. van Breda, and M. van Breda, was withdrawn. The proclamation mattered because it told the farmers that the Queen was taking Natal, and that the three conditions in Stanley’s despatch were not open to bargain. [3] [4]
On the 8th of May the schooner Brazilia had again anchored in the roadstead. She was from Rotterdam, with a clearance for Mauritius, but her real destination was Natal. She had come the year before with Johan Arnaud Smellekamp as supercargo, and the farmers had taken her for a promise of help from Holland. On Smellekamp’s return the government of the Netherlands declined to countenance any act that could be read as encouraging the emigrants to resist British authority, and threatened to enforce its laws against subjects who took part in hostilities against a friendly power. Baron Kattendycke gave that assurance to the British representative at the Hague. A copy was printed in South Africa and circulated by the Cape government. The emigrants treated the paper as a forgery. A society formed at Amsterdam, the commission for supplying the religious wants of the inhabitants at Natalia, directed by a committee of Dutch reformed clergymen with Jacob Swart as its guiding spirit, engaged a young licentiate named Ham and a schoolmaster named Martineau as pioneers. A small trading company was also formed, Swart and Ohrig being leading men in it. The Brazilia was engaged a second time, with Smellekamp as chief director, Mr. and Mrs. Ham and Martineau, who were to place themselves at the disposal of the volksraad, and an assistant trader who was to set up a store at Port Natal. When she cast anchor, Skipper Reus and Smellekamp went ashore, but Smith would not let them speak to anyone except himself and his officers. Lieutenant Nourse of the Fawn went on board and examined her cargo, meaning to detain her if he found munitions of war. Nothing of the kind was found. The skipper and director were allowed back to their vessel after being told that Smith would permit nothing to be landed unless they produced a clearance from a Cape port. The refusal mattered because the farmers read it as proof that the Hague paper was false, and that Smellekamp had something important to tell them. [3] [7]
The Brazilia then sailed for Delagoa Bay, where Mrs. Ham died. The schoolmaster had died on the passage out. Smellekamp and Ham landed at Lourenço Marques with their personal property and some cases of books sent by the Amsterdam commission, and the Brazilia went on to Java to look for a market for her cargo. [3] [7]
Another matter causing great excitement was an influx of Zulus. Panda, on suspicion that some of his subjects were conspiring against him, had put his brother Koko to death, had caused his brother’s wives and children to be killed, and was proceeding against all whom he suspected, when a great rush was made into Natal. In 8 or 10 days it was calculated that no fewer than 50000 people of both sexes and all ages crossed the Tugela to be under the white man’s protection. The principal fugitive was a chieftainess of high rank named Mawa, from whom this inroad is commonly called the flight of Mawa. Panda sent messengers to Smith to demand that the fugitives be compelled to return, and that the cattle they had taken with them be given up. Smith refused both. He was horrified at the cruelty done to Koko’s family, and announced that he would protect Mawa and her people. 50000 strangers were wandering up and down Natal. Wherever the pasture suited them, or a locality took their fancy, they settled for the time being. In terror many of the farmers left their homes and sought safety in Maritzburg. They wanted a commando called out to clear the country: the fugitives, they said, should be sent back to Zululand, located there in a district by themselves, and Panda told that if he molested them the farmers would punish him. Smith threatened to assist the fugitives if force was used against them, so the farmers were stopped from taking action. The flight mattered because it put 50000 people onto Natal farms just as Cloete was coming to ask the volksraad to accept a colony in which colour was not to be a disqualification in law, and because Smith’s protection of Mawa made a commando impossible. [3] [7]
The Meeting of the 9th of June, Mocke from the Mountains, and the 8th of August — June–August 1843
On the 5th of June Cloete and his secretary, C. J. Buissinne, arrived at Natal. Cloete had studied at Leiden and in England. He found the emigrants in a state of unusual excitement. On the 8th there was a mass meeting of burghers at Pietermaritzburg, at which it was resolved, almost unanimously, that no negotiations should be entered into with the English commissioner before Smellekamp had been communicated with at Delagoa. On the 9th the commissioner met 400 or 500 of the inhabitants of Maritzburg. The Raad Zaal was crowded, chiefly by women; outside stood those who could not get in. Cloete, robed and bearing the insignia of his office, read his commission and Napier’s proclamation of the 12th of May, and spoke for about an hour on the advantages of a settled government under the English flag. When he had concluded, a farmer named Anthonie Fick rose and read the resolution adopted the day before. Immediately there was an uproar, which did not cease until the meeting dispersed. Mrs. Smit, wife of the infirm clergyman Erasmus Smit, was the most conspicuous person in the room. A little later in the day Cloete received a letter from the secretary Bodenstein, informing him that the volksraad had adjourned until the first Monday in August, to allow of deputies and the public from beyond the Drakensberg being present. The adjournment mattered because it gave the armed parties from Winburg and Potchefstroom time to ride in before anyone answered Stanley’s three conditions. [3] [4] [7]
When Cloete reached Maritzburg, the machinery of the emigrant government, with the exception of the volksraad, was at a standstill. There was not a sixpence in the treasury. The salaries of the officials, petty as they were, were months in arrear, and there was no prospect of any of them being paid. Since the loss of the customs and the port dues, receipts had been next to nothing. In all the country there was only one individual, an infirm man of mixed descent, doing duty as a policeman. The landdrosts gave judgment when cases were brought before them, but they had no means of enforcing their decisions, so their sentences were in most instances disregarded. Cloete had by this time discovered that some of the best men in the country were prepared to accept the proposed government as the only alternative from anarchy. There was hardly one who had been in office who did not candidly admit that the republic of Natal was a failure. Jan Philip Zietsman, then landdrost of Maritzburg, described the utter impotency of its officials. Joachim Prinsloo, Bernard Rudolph, A. W. Pretorius, J. N. Boshof, C. P. Landman, and L. Badenhorst all gave the commissioner information to the same effect. His notices posted in public places had been torn down or defaced. [3] [4]
Cloete thereupon returned to Durban and asked Smith to occupy Maritzburg with 250 soldiers, so as to support the well affected, before the meeting of the volksraad. The major considered that it would be imprudent to march inland with fewer than 500 men, and as he had not so many under his command, he could not comply. The commissioner wrote to Napier, and 200 rank and file of the 45th regiment, being all that could be spared, were sent from Capetown in the Thunderbolt, which reached Natal on the 21st of July; but the governor’s opinion was against the proposed military movement, so it did not take place. In the mean time the commissioner called on the inhabitants of Natal to send in their claims to land, with particulars of occupation, so that Stanley’s intentions could be carried out. The majority ignored him, and very few returns were sent in. He reported that there were 450 erven in Maritzburg, most of them built upon or cultivated, but after ample time claims to only 120 had been made. Beyond the Umzimkulu he believed there were no farms occupied then or during the previous 12 months, though he ascertained that some situated there were registered in the title book kept by the volksraad. The returns mattered because Stanley had promised only land actually occupied for 12 months, and most of the erven in the town were not even claimed. [3]
By the end of July armed bands of farmers from beyond the mountains began to arrive at Maritzburg. Cloete ascertained that there were no fewer than 14 distinct parties, numbering altogether some 10000 souls, who did not acknowledge the authority of either the volksraad or the adjunct raad. The two largest of these independent parties were under Commandants J. G. Mocke and Greyling. On this occasion several of these communities claimed the right of taking part in the proceedings, on account of their South African blood. Mocke arrived at Maritzburg at the head of 200 armed men, and was followed by 8 or 10 others, each with a small band of adherents. On the 30th of July the commandants who were most opposed to submission, believing that there would be perfect unanimity with their views, wrote to Cloete inviting him to be present at Maritzburg on the 7th of August, and pledging themselves for his safety. This letter was signed by Commandant-General Gerrit Rudolph, Commandants Jan Kock, J. G. Mocke, J. P. Delport, and 18 others. Pretorius wrote separately, assuring him of personal safety. On Saturday the 5th of August the commissioner arrived at Maritzburg from Durban, and found 600 or 700 armed men in the town. The volksraad was to meet on the 7th. At the close of 1842 24 members had been elected as usual for the ensuing year, but 8 of these had never taken their seats. Among those 8 were Boshof and Pretorius. The 16 members met on Monday the 7th, and were joined by 2 of those who had previously abstained from taking part in the proceedings. The commandants from beyond the Drakensberg then demanded that an entirely new volksraad of 36 members should be elected by the whole of the emigrants. To this the 18 members objected, and they refused to resign; but they passed a resolution to allow the emigrants from beyond the mountains to fill up the number to 36. [3]
At this stage Mocke, finding his party less powerful than he had expected it to be, withdrew from the deliberations, heaping abuse upon his opponents. The commissioner feared every moment that blood would be shed, for several hundred armed men, violently agitated, were quarrelling with each other, some stamping their guns upon the ground amid an uproar of voices. The ferment was at length allayed by the expostulations of Pretorius and Prinsloo, and at a late hour of the night the crowd dispersed, after an arrangement by which the volksraad was made up to 32 members, namely 24 for Natal and 8 for Winburg and Potchefstroom. On the morning of Tuesday the 8th the enlarged volksraad met, and Stephanus Maritz was chosen president. At his instigation a discussion was brought on as to how far the people beyond the mountains would be affected by any arrangement with the commissioner, and it was observed that they had not been parties to the agreement with Colonel Cloete in the preceding year. A deputation was sent to the commissioner’s lodgings to ask him how far the Queen intended to assert her authority, to which he replied that he could not say, but that he intended to recommend the Drakensberg as the future boundary of Natal. The members for Winburg and Potchefstroom then determined to withdraw, as they said the settlement of the question would not affect them. The deliberations were continued with incessant clamour. At length a resolution was adopted offering to surrender absolutely and unconditionally a strip of country along the coast, if the commissioner would receive it with defined limits; but when this offer was made he stated that he had no power to accept such a cession, and that the Queen’s government alone could decide finally upon the question of boundaries. The proceedings were next interrupted by a mass meeting of the women of Maritzburg. A formal deputation from the standing committee of the ladies, headed by Mrs. Smit, waited upon Cloete: she declared that in consideration of the battles in which they had been engaged with their husbands, they, the women, had obtained a promise of a voice, and that they would not be silent now. Rather than submit to English rule again they would walk out by the Drakensberg, barefoot, to die in freedom. The commissioner went into the court-room where they were assembled, and found every means of getting out closed against him. For 2 hours he was obliged to listen to an impassioned harangue from Mrs. Smit. After this interruption the volksraad proceeded with its debates, and, recognising that resistance was out of the question, resolved upon endeavouring to obtain the best terms possible. A deputation waited upon the commissioner and informed him that the members were unanimous in their decision to submit to the Queen’s authority, if only the first of the three conditions laid down as essential in Stanley’s despatch could be modified. They were quite prepared to agree to the second and third of those conditions in letter and in spirit, but they saw insurmountable difficulties in the way of carrying out the first — that there should be no distinction in law founded on colour. Cloete replied that it was beyond his power to make the slightest departure from the letter of the conditions. The volksraad then gave way to necessity, and with only one dissentient voice resolved to submit. As evening was setting in the members forwarded a declaration to the commissioner, in which they agreed to accept the three conditions. The declaration was signed by J. S. Maritz, president, M. G. Potgieter, P. F. R. Otto, P. H. Zietsman, B. Poortman, W. S. Pretorius, S. A. Cilliers, G. Z. Naude, G. R. van Rooyen, C. P. Botma, L. J. Meyer, E. F. Potgieter, P. R. Nel, A. F. Spies, P. G. Human, J. A. Kriel, W. A. van Aardt, G. C. Viljoen, Gerrit Snyman, H. S. van den Berg, A. L. Visagie, M. Prinsloo, C. A. Botma, and N. J. S. Basson. The paper of the 8th mattered because it ended 5 and a half years of Boer occupation of Natal as a republic, and because the first of Stanley’s three conditions — no distinction of colour in the eye of the law — was accepted without change. [3] [4] [7]
Fort Napier, the Volksraad of the 4th of September, and Cloete to Panda — August–September 1843
On the 9th of August the whole of the farmers from beyond the mountains left Maritzburg to return to their homes, denouncing in bitter language those who they said had betrayed the cause of liberty by their submission to the English government. Many of the inhabitants of Natal were in the same frame of mind, and the subscribers to the declaration and those who thought with them were subjected to so many insults and annoyances that it became necessary to move troops to Maritzburg for their protection. On the 31st of August Major Smith with 200 men and 2 guns arrived and took possession of a commanding hill at the west end of the town, where he formed a camp which in course of time developed into Fort Napier. The most determined among the farmers now abandoned their homes again, and moved over the Drakensberg, so that at the close of the year there were not more than 500 emigrant families left in Natal. That is the highest computation, and is that of the reverend Abraham Faure, who made a pastoral tour through Natal at this time at the instance of the Cape government. The reverend Mr. Lindley’s computation at the close of 1843 was 365 families. During the years 1841, 1842, and 1843 Lindley performed in all these districts 1383 baptisms, 573 confirmations, and married 97 couples. Fort Napier mattered because it put a British camp on the hill above the town that had just signed Stanley’s conditions, and because the trek over the Drakensberg left Natal with a few hundred families instead of a republic. [3] [4]
It was arranged that until the appointment of officials by the English government the volksraad should continue to act as before, and that it should make known the wishes of the inhabitants as to the future administration of the country. On the 4th of September the discussion on this subject closed, and Cloete was requested by letter to recommend that Natal should be constituted a colony distinct from that of the Cape of Good Hope, with the machinery of government as simple and inexpensive as possible. The volksraad desired that there should be a legislative council of 12 members, elected by the burghers for 2 years, 6 to form a quorum; that no one should be entitled to vote unless he was in possession of landed property to the value of 150 pounds, a resident in the country for 6 months, and able to read and write the English or the Dutch language; that the governor should have power to sanction or reject laws enacted by the council, those approved of to have immediate effect; that the landdrosts should have jurisdiction without appeal in criminal cases to the extent of sentencing to a fine of 30 shillings or 14 days’ imprisonment, and in civil cases of less value than 30 shillings; that the landdrosts with 2 heemraden should have jurisdiction without appeal to a fine of 5 pounds, a month’s imprisonment, or 25 lashes, and in civil cases of less value than 5 pounds; that courts of landdrost and heemraden should hold monthly sessions; that a circuit court composed of 2 or more landdrosts and 2 or more heemraden, with a jury of 9 persons, should sit once in 6 months to try more serious cases; that no sentence of death, transportation, or imprisonment for more than 2 years, should be executed without the governor’s fiat; that the governor should have a right of mitigation or remission of punishment; that the governor with 2 or more members of the executive council should sit once in 3 months as a court of appeal in civil cases; that with the exception of local enactments the laws should be those of the Cape Colony; that the language of the courts of law should be Dutch, except where the majority of the inhabitants of a district spoke English; that the inhabitants of each district should every 2 years nominate 8 persons, of whom the governor should select 4 as heemraden; that landdrosts should be elected by the people of their districts, but be confirmed by the governor, who should have power of rejection; that all inferior officers should be appointed by the governor alone; that every town or village, at the request of the inhabitants, should be constituted a municipality; that religion should be free, that there should be no state church, but that all should be entitled to protection; that education should be provided for by the legislature; that all grants of land made by the volksraad should remain undisturbed; that trade should be permitted with all nations, except the bordering tribes until laws could be framed to forbid the sale of guns and ammunition; that paper money should not be forced into circulation; that there should be no compulsory military service; that the inland boundary of the colony should be the Drakensberg until the people beyond were willing to come under the Queen’s authority; and that the immigration of paupers should be prohibited. The letter mattered because it asked London for a Natal distinct from the Cape, with Dutch in the courts and the Drakensberg as the inland line — a line that would leave Winburg and Potchefstroom outside the Queen’s colony. [3] [7]
The all-important subject of the recent influx of refugees from Zululand came next under discussion. Every emigrant in Natal felt that the question really was whether the country was to become a white or a black settlement. Its discussion occupied the volksraad 2 days, and resulted in a request to the commissioner to recommend that the refugees should be removed over the Tugela and the Umzimvubu, with the exception of such as should choose to take service, no farmer, however, being permitted to engage more than 5 families. The volksraad then adjourned. Cloete as his next proceeding resolved upon paying Panda a visit. On the 18th of September he left Durban with that object, accompanied by his clerk Buissinne, an interpreter Joseph Kirkman, a guide D. C. Toohey, and Gerrit Rudolph and Henry Ogle, who went out of curiosity. The visit mattered because Panda still claimed the country to the Tugela, and because the flight of Mawa had left Natal with tens of thousands of his subjects whom Smith would not send back. [3]
The Buffalo Boundary, St Lucia Bay, and the Proclamations of September and October — September–October 1843
On the 1st of October Cloete had an interview with Panda, and found him prepared to comply with everything proposed. The Zulu chief must have felt that his position at the time was similar to that of Dingane in the early days of 1840, and that it would be dangerous to refuse anything asked of him. Dingane had been driven out after Blood River; Panda had been installed with Boer help, and now a British commissioner was at his kraal with Natal already proclaimed a Queen’s colony. The commissioner proposed a new boundary between Zululand and Natal, namely the Umzinyati or Buffalo river from its source to its junction with the Tugela, and thence the Tugela to the sea, instead of the Tugela along its whole course. Panda consented without demur, and on the 5th of October an agreement to this effect was drawn up in writing and was formally signed and witnessed. The new boundary gave to Natal a large and valuable tract of country, but a portion of it was occupied by natives. In making this agreement the independence of the Zulu tribe was assumed, and after this date the authorities of Natal never spoke of Panda as a vassal or treated him as one. The Buffalo line mattered because it moved Natal’s northern border off the Tugela and onto a river that took in the Klip River country, and because it treated Panda as an independent chief, not as a subject of the Queen. [3]
On the same day, and by another formal document, the shores at the mouth of the Umvolosi river and the bay of St. Lucia were ceded by Panda to the Queen, but the extent of land was not defined. The commissioner’s object in obtaining this cession was to prevent any foreign power from acquiring a harbour in the neighbourhood of the new colony, as well as to keep the farmers from renewing their efforts to obtain a seaport, for after the loss of Natal many of them declared their intention of opening a communication with the outside world through St. Lucia Bay. On these grounds the cession was subsequently confirmed by the imperial government, but Panda was informed that there was no intention of forming a settlement there. The arrangement making the Tugela and Buffalo rivers the northern boundary of Natal was also confirmed by the secretary of state, who at the same time directed that the Drakensberg should be the inland boundary, and that communication with the country beyond that range should be discouraged and as far as possible prevented, as the British government could not be responsible either for the conduct or the protection of anyone there. After leaving Panda’s kraal, Cloete inspected St. Lucia Bay, and then returned to Durban, where he arrived on the 21st of October. The cession mattered because it shut Holland, or any other flag, out of a harbour north of Natal, and because it shut the farmers who were leaving over the Drakensberg out of a port of their own. [3]
On the 28th of September Napier issued a proclamation placing Natal in the same relationship as any other British possession to the Cape Colony. Its exports were to be free of duty. Its imports were to pay the same duties as in the Cape Colony. This proclamation was supplemented by another issued on the 3rd of October, fixing the duty on Cape wines at half that payable on wines from foreign countries, and on spirits at 2 shillings a gallon. The port dues were raised from threepence to 3 shillings a ton. On the 21st of November the first civil servants of the new colony were appointed by Napier. They were Samuel Woods, collector of customs, and George Prestwich, tide waiter. Woods was found dead in his room shortly afterwards, and William Swan Field was then appointed collector of customs. The number of blacks in the colony — that is the former republic and the land between the Tugela and Buffalo rivers — was estimated by Cloete at this time to be at least between 80000 and 100000. He recommended that they should be collected together in defined locations, and placed under the authority of superintendents. The proclamations mattered because they tied Natal’s customs to the Cape before any governor of Natal had been named, and because Cloete’s count of 80000 to 100000 people was the number that the locations of later years would have to hold. [3]
Smellekamp and Ham were all this time at Lourenço Marques. The former wrote to the volksraad at Maritzburg that they need not expect aid from Holland, but in December Joachim Prinsloo, Gerrit Rudolph, Cornelis Coetsee, and a youth named Bezuidenhout left Weenen on horseback, and rode to Delagoa Bay to have an interview with him. Prinsloo had been excepted from the 1842 amnesty; the 1000 pound reward on his head had been taken off on the 10th of May. Smellekamp informed them of the position taken by the government of the Netherlands, and advised them to abandon Natal and move north of the 25th parallel of latitude, where the company which he represented could open a trade with them either through Delagoa Bay or some port farther up the coast. At Lourenço Marques 3 of the party were taken ill with fever, from the effects of which Coetsee died when endeavouring to return, and Prinsloo 14 days after reaching home. Soon after this Ham abandoned all hope of being able to serve the emigrants, and left Lourenço Marques in a vessel bound for Table Bay. The remainder of his life was spent as a clergyman in the Cape Colony. The ride mattered because it closed the Holland hope that the Brazilia of May had kept alive, and because Smellekamp’s advice pointed the emigrants north of Delagoa, not back to Natal. [3]
Winburg, Colesberg, and the Treaties with Adam Kok and Moshesh — January–December 1843
North of the Orange the year opened under arms. After Natal had been taken in June 1842, a great number of the emigrant farmers had recrossed the Drakensberg. In the neighbourhood of Philippolis there were henceforth two strong parties: one under Michiel Oberholster, well disposed towards the British government, the other under Mocke, bitterly opposed to it. Lieutenant-governor Colonel Hare had moved more than 850 men to Colesberg in December 1842. On the 2nd of January 1843 he issued a proclamation to Mocke and his people, offering pardon to any who would retract and declare their allegiance, the ringleaders only excepted. Not a single Boer went in and sought the proffered pardon. On the contrary, as soon as it was received, a protest was sent back, signed at Winburg on the 9th of January by 22 names of the adjunct raad, requesting that if the troops had to come across the Orange, his Honour would consider what results this might cause, for by this step much innocent blood would again be shed; they would never allow the scene of murder at Port Natal to be renewed; twice they had already been under arms and had settled it without bloodshed; by whom were the threats of the nations occasioned, if not by the missionaries. Napier with the troops remained at Colesberg during the month of January. As there appeared to be no exigency calling him nearer to the Orange river, there was nothing to be done but to return to the Eastern Province. In order to maintain the awe which it was supposed this military display had created, he stationed at Colesberg 300 men under Major Lamont and then commenced his southern march. On the journey, in consequence of the disaffection at Cradock, he stationed there 50 men, and then arrived in Grahamstown on the 13th of February. The proclamation of the 2nd mattered because it offered pardon north of the Orange on paper, and because not one name came in; the Winburg protest of the 9th told Hare that the adjunct raad would treat a crossing of the river as a renewal of Natal. [3] [4]
The fires in Orangia continued to smoulder. According to Oberholster, Mocke and his adherents moved, in January, to the Elands river near the foot of the Drakensberg, where they were said to await troops which were coming to their assistance from Holland. Let the people who wish to become English, said Mocke, have their way, but inform such persons that it has been ordained by the Council of Pietermaritzburg that they cannot expect to see their success and prosperity; the King of Holland has interested himself in our case and laid the same before France, and has declared us free; the Queen will not trouble us. In February Hendrik Potgieter from the Mooi river interviewed Moshesh and the Barolong chief Moroko at Thaba Ntshu. He asked each of them whether they were still his friends. They answered, yes, but friends of the English also. Asked further if they would prevent the English from passing through their countries, they both answered, no, the roads are open and free for all to pass through. Nothing came of this. In January Pretorius convened a meeting at Thaba Ntshu of the chiefs along the Caledon, and renewed with them the old agreements of peace and friendship. From the first appearance of the English troops in Natal his attention had been directed to the far north, where alone he believed the emigrants would be left to themselves. [3] [4]
On the 26th of August Adam Kok asked, in a letter written by his missionary, for the alliance with the Colony which had been denied his father. On the 5th of October 1843 two treaties, one with Moshesh, the other with Adam Kok, were signed by Napier in Capetown, and were witnessed by Mr. John Montagu, secretary to government, and the other officials present. They were of the same nature as the treaty concluded with Waterboer in 1834, most of the clauses being identical in them all. There were, however, one or two important differences. In Moshesh’s treaty the limits on all sides of the country acknowledged to be his were defined, while in Adam Kok’s only the southern boundary, from the neighbourhood of Ramah to that of Bethulie, was mentioned. Adam Kok was promised a yearly subsidy of 100 pounds in money, the use of 100 stand of arms with a reasonable quantity of ammunition, and a grant of 50 pounds a year to the London society for the maintenance of a school. Moshesh was promised 75 pounds yearly, either in money or in arms and ammunition, as he might choose. Both were to be faithful friends and allies of the Colony, to preserve order in their respective territories, to assist the colonial authorities in apprehending banditti and recovering stolen property, and to apprise the colonial authorities of any intended predatory or hostile movement. On the 16th of October Hare sent the documents to Mr. Rawstorne, civil commissioner of Colesberg, who proceeded to Philippolis with one treaty, and his clerk, James Walker, was sent to Thaba Bosigo with the other. Adam Kok signed his on the 29th of November, with his secretary and his missionary as witnesses, and Moshesh affixed his mark to his on the 13th of December, in presence of his brother Moperi, his chief warrior Makoniane, and the reverend Messrs. Casalis, Arbousset, and Dyke. In the treaty with Moshesh the territory acknowledged to be his was bounded by the Orange river from its source to its junction with the Caledon, and by a line about 25 to 30 miles north-west of the Caledon from the district of Bethulie to the country occupied by Sikonyela’s Batlokua. The treaties mattered because they made Kok and Moshesh allies of the Cape, with arms and a yearly subsidy, while the white farmers living on the same ground were told they could not throw off their allegiance. [3] [4]
The treaties exasperated the emigrant farmers more than anything that had occurred since they left the colony. Adam Kok’s Griquas were as much British subjects, they said, as themselves, most of them having been born under the British flag; yet the independence of these people was acknowledged, and they were admitted to the position of allies and furnished with arms, while white men with exactly the same claims to freedom were told that go where they would they could not throw off their allegiance, except that while living in the territories of coloured chiefs they were under the jurisdiction of such chiefs. One and all they refused to subject themselves to the puppet sovereigns set up by the treaties. There were at the time more than 1000 emigrants along the Riet river, in the very heart of the territory claimed by Adam Kok, who would gladly have seen a government established there under the British flag, if they could be allowed equal rights with the blacks. 258 heads of families among them signed a document in duplicate, and deputed two of their number — Willem Jan Oberholster and Lukas van den Heever — to convey it to Maritzburg and deliver it to Cloete. In this memorial they stated their willingness to submit to the Queen’s authority on the same terms as those offered to the emigrants there. After recounting the history of their settlement north of the Orange, they stated that it was not their intention to deprive the coloured people of anything, but it was their wish that measures should be adopted to give rights to white people also. When passing through Winburg the deputation was stopped by some of Mocke’s party, and one copy of the memorial was seized, but as it was not suspected that it was in duplicate, Oberholster and Van den Heever were able to carry out their mission. No action, however, was taken upon it by the British authorities. Moshesh through his missionaries complained that the whole of the territory occupied by the clans of Moroko and Gert Taaibosch was not included in his dominions. Moroko, Peter Davids, Carolus Baatje, and Gert Taaibosch, on the other hand, complained that the treaty gave either the whole or portions of their districts to Moshesh, and inflicted a far more ruinous stroke of injustice upon them than any they were ever likely to suffer from the emigrant farmers. Through the reverend William Shaw they asked that it should be rectified by excluding their ground from it. In 1843 a station was founded by Mr. Maitin at Berea, and in the same year a station named Bethesda was begun among Moshesh’s people. 14 years had now elapsed since the arrival of the pioneer French missionaries in the Lesuto. The memorial of the 258 mattered because it asked for the same terms Natal had just accepted, and because London took no action, leaving Kok’s paper in force over the Riet. [3] [4]
Montagu, the Road Boards, Convicts, and Ichaboe — April–November 1843
In February a transport bound to Mauritius put into Table Bay with the reserve battalion of the 12th on board, and the governor took the responsibility of detaining the troops to garrison Capetown, and adding the second battalion of the 91st to the force on the frontier. On the 1st of May the 45th arrived from Cork to relieve the 75th, which enabled the governor to allow the 12th to proceed to Mauritius. In July the skeleton of the 75th embarked for England, about 250 men belonging to the regiment having taken their discharge in the colony. The 7th dragoon guards, 332 strong, arrived from England within the same week, and were at once sent to the frontier. The artillery and engineer force was also strengthened. The troops in the colony now consisted of 4 battalions of infantry — namely the two of the 91st, one of the 27th, and one of the 45th — a regiment of dragoons, the Cape mounted rifles, and a number of artillerymen and engineers. Even with the large force which could now be stationed on the frontier it was found impossible to prevent depredations. On the 23rd of April John Montagu arrived from Van Diemen’s Land and took over the duty of secretary to government from John Moore Craig. He applied himself to the public debt with the closest attention, and having ascertained that there was a large amount of revenue many years overdue, he set about collecting it with an intensity of purpose from which even pity for the distressed was absent. He succeeded so well that upon the expiration of Napier’s tenure of office the debt was almost extinguished. Montagu’s arrival mattered because the secretary’s office, not the frontier command, was about to recast the roads and the convict labour of the colony. [3]
Shortly after Montagu’s arrival he turned his attention to the thoroughfares, and drew up a plan which received the approval of the governor, the legislative council, and the secretary of state. It provided for the creation of a central board of commissioners of public roads, to consist of 3 official and 3 unofficial members, to be appointed by the governor. This board was to have power to levy rates not exceeding a penny in the pound of the value of landed property, it was to have the right of making use of any public lands required for main roads, it was to have control of such convict labour as the governor should see fit to transfer to it, it was to have the proceeds of tolls and ferries, and was to employ upon roadmaking such grants of money as the legislative council might make. Divisional boards, subordinate to the central board, and composed of the civil commissioner and 4 members elected triennially by owners of landed property worth 100 pounds, were to have power to levy rates for the construction and maintenance of branch roads. An ordinance to this effect was issued on the 22nd of November 1843, and on the following day Montagu, Harry Rivers, Charles Cornwallis Michell, John Bardwell Ebden, Frederick Stephanus Watermeyer, and Joseph Busk were appointed commissioners of the central board. All able-bodied convicts, except those sentenced to very short terms of imprisonment, were now massed at 2 stations, one convenient of access from the eastern districts, the other similarly situated as regards the west. The cost to the country of each convict was found to be less under this system than under the old, and their labour was of very much greater value. Montagu was especially in favour of that part of the main road from Cape Town to Grahamstown which descends the famous Cradock pass in the high mountains of the George district, and of making the convicts work in gangs of 80 or 100 at stations on mountain passes distant from any township. As a preliminary to the construction of the Cape-to-Grahamstown road, the governor, on the 11th of November, instructed Dr. Stanger to make a running survey of the whole route. During 5 years 1559 evil-doers had been under the new restraint at the different stations; of these 979 had been at different times discharged, many with shortened sentences; no less than 1452 pounds 8 shillings and 8 pence had been earned by them for their good conduct and diligent work. The ordinance of the 22nd mattered because it put the main roads under a Capetown board with a penny rate and convict gangs, and because the East would pay that rate on roads it did not yet have. [3] [4]
In the East the same ordinance did not still the complaint. Considerable emphasis was laid on the necessity for a road board in the East, which should be quite separate from the one in the far west, inappropriately called the Central Road Board. The greatest indignation and anger were levelled at this organisation for its injustice in the appropriation of the road rates which all landowners were called upon to pay: it was shown that the western districts took the rates and the eastern districts kept the holes. Bridgeless rivers, when full, or down as it is called, necessitated at times a wait of many days until the water had subsided sufficiently to allow all to wade through, and always terrible toil and perhaps cruelty to the poor oxen which were exerting their last ounce of strength. On the 22nd of November that eastern protest was on the table in the same week as the ordinance itself. [4]
Guano had recently been introduced into Europe, and was then worth 9 pounds 5 shillings a ton in the English market. A firm in Glasgow and another in Liverpool at once sent out a number of vessels, most of which reached the African coast before the close of 1843. The first to arrive was the barque Douglas, whose master, Benjamin Wade, on the 11th of November took possession of Ichaboe for the Queen of England. The islet is a rock less than a mile in circumference, the highest point of which is only 30 feet above the level of the sea. Large deposits were also found on other islets in the neighbourhood, but on none was the bulk so great as on Ichaboe. Shipping stages were erected, and the fleet was laden. The speculation proved so successful that many people were drawn to the coast. Except by the unauthorised act of Captain Wade, Ichaboe was not annexed. The taking of Ichaboe mattered because a rock off the west coast, with guano at 9 pounds 5 shillings a ton, was now claimed for the Queen without an ordinance, while Natal’s harbour was being tied to Cape duties by proclamation. [3]
Tola, Block Drift, Kruisvallei, and Port Elizabeth — 1843
During the early months of 1843 the pillage of the colony was leading to such exasperation of the farmers that the governor resolved to make an example of the most notorious robbers. There was a clan of the Imidange under a captain named Tola, whose kraals were between Fort Beaufort and the abandoned fort Willshire. These people prided themselves upon being the most expert stocklifters in the country, and their reputation in this respect was so widespread that they were joined by many clever and aspiring men from other parts. Tola thus rose to be a chief of importance among his fellows, though the farmers of Albany were wont to stigmatise him as the greatest scoundrel at large. The other chiefs assured Hare that they had no sympathy with him, and would punish him for his misdeeds if he were not so strong. An arrangement was then made with Sandile that a body of troops should assist to chastise the offender, he promising to aid with the whole of the Gaika clans. Accordingly on the 7th of June 1843 4 divisions of soldiers, in all 600 men, under the general direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Somerset, marched from Grahamstown towards Tola’s kraals. At the same time Theophilus Shepstone, who in February 1839 had succeeded J. M. Bowker as diplomatic agent with the Fingos and Gunukwebes, marched from Fort Peddie with a Fingo contingent to attack the marauder from the south. Sandile with the Gaikas was to have cut off his retreat northward and eastward. But when the soldiers reached the kraals of Tola they found that he and his people had fled eastward to the Kwelegha river, and so far from the Gaikas assisting, it was apparent that they were prepared to protect the robbers against seizure, and that a further advance of the troops would be the signal of a general war. The Fingos pursued some distance, but were then recalled, and the military force retired, taking with them 500 head of cattle, the only trophy of this inglorious expedition. The cattle were distributed at Fort Beaufort to the principal sufferers from robberies, and the soldiers went back to their posts. On the 23rd of June the lieutenant-governor had a conference with the Rarabe chiefs at Fort Beaufort, when he remonstrated with them upon their treacherous conduct. As usual, they were quite ready to upbraid themselves for the past, and to make ample promises for the future; but on both sides the proceedings were regarded as a farce. Yet this was the method by which what was called peace was preserved under the modified Stockenstrom treaties. The march of the 7th mattered because 600 men came back with 500 cattle and no chief, and because Sandile’s failure to close the road showed that a general war was being postponed, not prevented. [3] [4]
At this time — June 1843 — the Gunukwebe captain Kama, the most orderly and honest of all the Xhosa chiefs, foreseeing that a general war must soon take place and not wishing to be involved in it, abandoned the country near the coast and with his people moved to the neighbourhood of the Lesuto, where he was provided with a location by Moshesh. His removal from the vicinity of Fort Peddie was an intimation of the part he knew his brother Pato would take in the coming struggle. At the beginning of October the lieutenant-governor had another meeting with the chiefs; this time at Block Drift. It was a big meeting. There were present Maqomo and his son Kona, Eno and his sons, and the other Rarabe captains. It appeared to be indisputable that the robbers were becoming every day more daring and that force was now substituted for cunning. Beacons and posts at Fraser’s Camp, Botha’s Post near the Kat river, Grass Kop near Fort Brown, and Dan’s Hoogte on the road to Fort Beaufort proved useless: nearly every time any one of them was used, usually in the very early morning, there was a mist which prevented the fire being seen at any distance. Kama’s move and the Block Drift meeting mattered because they showed, on the same frontier as Tola’s empty kraals, that the modified treaties of 1840 were not stopping the thefts, and that at least one captain was leaving before the war he expected. [3] [4]
About half the congregation of Tulbagh, after petitions for the removal of the reverend Robert Shand had been sent to England in vain, resolved to secede, and on the 21st of January 1843 at a public meeting carried their decision into effect. They then established what is still known as the Kruisvallei congregation, which is identical with the Dutch reformed church in doctrine and forms of service, but is not represented in the synod. The reverend H. A. Moorrees became its first minister, commencing duty on the 6th of August. No aid was given by the government to the new congregation. Napier had expressed himself as most anxious to free the church from the trammels of secular interference in all spiritual or purely ecclesiastical matters, and accordingly in November 1842 a number of rules and regulations were drawn up by the synod, which were attached to an ordinance passed by the legislative council and confirmed on the 8th of November 1843. This ordinance repealed De Mist’s regulations of the 25th of July 1804, as well as all other previous laws affecting the relation of the church to the state, and invested the general assembly or synod of the Dutch reformed communion with the power of regulating its own internal affairs. The synod was to consist of all acting ministers and of an acting or retired elder elected by each consistory except that of Capetown, which was entitled to elect 2 elders. It was to assemble in Capetown every fifth year on the second Tuesday in October, and was constituted the highest court of appeal in the church. Next to it in order came the presbyteries, then 5 in number: Capetown, Tulbagh, Swellendam, Graaff-Reinet, and Albany. The ordinance dispensed altogether with the governor’s approval of the choice of elders and deacons. The Ecclesiastical Ordinance of 1843 put a stop to such disputes as that which had divided Tulbagh. Sidbury’s English church was opened for service; towards its cost 735 pounds had been raised by voluntary contributions and 200 had been given by the S.P.C.K., leaving a debt of 338 pounds. The Dutch reformed church at Uitenhage was flourishing; in fact it was undoubtedly the best in the Eastern Province at that date. The ordinance of the 8th mattered because it took the Dutch reformed church out from under De Mist’s 1804 rules and out from under the governor’s hand in the choice of elders, and because Kruisvallei had already shown what happened when that hand could not remove a minister. [3] [4] [4]
367 emigrants landed at Port Elizabeth in the year, against 184 in the year before and 55 in 1841. The Kowie Navigation Company had been promoted to trade direct with Cape Town and Mauritius without having to send everything through Port Elizabeth; the capital of 6000 pounds in 500 shares was soon subscribed, and two vessels suited to this trade, the British Settler and the Chanticleer, reached the Kowie towards the end of 1843. Port Elizabeth was fast becoming the chief — or only — port in the East, notwithstanding the enterprise at the ill-fated Kowie. In August a gale blew down Graham’s Tree, the mimosa under which Colonel Graham and Andries Stockenstrom had decided upon the site of Grahamstown in 1812, and it was suggested that a monument of stone should be erected in the High Street on the spot. Up to 1843 4500 pounds had been spent upon the Port Elizabeth jetty; it then extended into the sea 352 feet, was carried upon 160 piles, and was properly decked. In April Andries Theodorus Spies took lands near the Biggar’s Berg, about 14 miles from the present Dundee; during the erection of his homestead the natives who were working for him told him that Panda was not satisfied with his settlement at that place. Pretorius, remaining in Natal after the 8th of August, gave as instances of the manner in which the blacks were favoured two cases in which he was personally interested: a location had been formed between his farms Welverdiend and Rietvlei, respectively about 6 and 12 miles from Maritzburg, and thus these places, upon which there were improvements, were becoming of little value. He estimated the black immigrants to be then not less than 100000 in number. [3] [4] [4] [4]