Part 4 (1/2)
”Why, it really does not appear that the colonial government, when in our hands, was more considerate than when it was held by the Dutch,”
replied Alexander
”Not much, I fear,” said Mr Fairburn
”The councils of the Caffre chiefs were at that tie of the name of Mokanna In the colony he was usually known by the sobriquet of 'Links,' or the left-handed He was not a chief, but had by his superior intellect obtained great power He gave himself out to be a prophet, and certainly showed quite as much skill as ever did Mahommed or any other false prophet He had often visited Cape Town, and had made hie
”This man, by his influence, his superior eloquence, and his pretended revelations from heaven, was now looked up to by the whole Caffre nation; and he promised the chiefs, if they would implicitly obey his orders, he would lead thelish into the ocean He resolved upon the boldan attack upon Graham's Town, and marched an army of between nine and ten thousandon the Great Fish River
”According to the custoreat occasions, they sent athat they would breakfast with hi The coe to be areat astonishhts above the town
”Had the Caffres advanced in the night, there is no doubt but that they would have had possession of the place, and that with the greatest ease
There were about 350 regular troops and a small force of Hottentots in Graham's Town, and fortunately a few field-pieces The Caffres rushed to the assault, and for some time were not to be checked; they went up to the very muzzles of the field-pieces, and broke their spears off short, to decide the battle by a hand-to-hand conflict
”At this critical rape and canister, and the front ranks of the Caffres were s under Mokanna, the Caffres gave way and fled About 1400 of the bravest remained on the field of battle, and as ain their country Mokanna, after using every exertion, accoht”
”It certainly was a bold attereat man even in the failure”
”It was so unprecedented an atteovernment were dreadfully alarmed, and turned out their whole force of ular troops The Caffre country was again overrun, the inhabitants destroyed, without distinction of age or sex, their hamlets fired, cattle driven away, and when they fled to the thickets, they were boreve rockets Mokanna and the principal chiefs were denounced as outlaws, and the inhabitants threatened with utter extermination if they did not deliver theh driven to despair, and perishi+ng frole Caffre was to be found ould earn the high reward offered for the surrender of the chiefs”
”The more I hear of them, the more I admire the Caffres,” observed Alexander Wilo on”
”I think I could supply the words which you have checked, Mr Wilmot, but I will proceed, or dinner will be announced before I have finished this portion of my history”
”The course adopted by Mokanna under these circuher in your estimation As he found that his countrymen were to be massacred until he and the other chiefs were delivered up, dead or alive, he resolved to surrender hie to say that he would do so, and the next day, with a calnanimity that would have done honor to a Rolish camp His words were 'People say that I have occasioned this war: letofficer, to whom he surrendered himself, immediately forwarded him as a prisoner to the colony”
”What becaive you the substance of a speech made by one of Mokanna's head lish camp I am told that the imperfect notes taken of it afford but a very faint idea of its eloquence; at all events, the speech gives a very correct view of the treatment which the Caffres received from our hands
”'This war,' said he, 'British chiefs, is an unjust one, for you are trying to extirpate a people whom you have forced to take up arms When our fathers and the fathers of the boors first settled on the Zurweld, they dwelt together in peace Their flocks grazed the same hills, their herdsmen smoked out of the same pipe; they were brothers until the herds of the Amakosa (Caffres) increased so much as to make the hearts of the Dutch boors sore What those covetous et from our fathers for old buttons, they took by force Our fathers were men; they loved their cattle; their wives and children lived upon an to hate the colonists, who coveted their all, and aimed at their destruction
”'Now their kraals and our fathers' kraals were separate The boors made commandoes for our fathers; our fathers drove them out of the Zurweld, and elt there because we had conquered it; there we married wives; there our children were born; the white men hated us, but could not drive us ahen there e plundered you; when there was peace, some of our bad people stole; but our chiefs forbade it
”'We lived in peace; some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was quiet; Gaika stole; his chiefs stole; you sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent him horses, on which he rode to steal more; to _us_ you only sent _corass;--no business of yours; you send a commando; you take our last cow; you leave only a few calves, which die for want, and so do our children; you give half the spoil to Gaika; half you kept yourselves
”'Without milk; our corn destroyed;our wives and children perish; we followed, therefore, the tracks of our cattle into the colony; we plundered, and we fought for our lives; we found you weak, and we destroyed your soldiers;that ere strong, and we attacked your headquarters, and if we had succeeded, our right was good, for you began the e failed, and you are here
”We wish for peace; ish to rest in our huts; ish to get milk for our children; our wives wish to till the land; but your troops cover the plains, and swaruish the men from the women, and shoot _all_ You wish us to submit to Gaika; that man's face is fair to you, but his heart is false; leave hiht for himself; and we shall not call upon you for help; set Mokanna at liberty, and all our chiefs will make peace with you at any time you fix; but if you still make war, you may indeed kill the last man of us, but Gaika shall not rule over the followers of those who think him a wolish House of Co much in feords, I know no speech uments of a case than the above I a the destination of Mokanna, or of obtaining any relief for his countrymen, ere still called upon to deliver up the other chiefs _outlawed_ by the government”
”I before remarked the absurdity of that expression,” said Mr Swinton; ”we outlaw ato our own country; but to _outlaw_ the chiefs of another country is soe is not much studied at the Cape”