rendering effectual assistance to the many sufferers, for it was obvious
that hundreds of pounds would not be sufficient to succour the infant
colony.

In this extremity God's opportunity was found. The hearts of men and
women far away, at Capetown, in India, and in England, were touched by
the story of distress; generosity was awakened and purses were opened.
Men such as HE Rutherfoord of Capetown, the Reverend Doctor Philip, the
Reverend W Shaw, and others like-minded, entered heartily into the work
of charity, and eventually some ten thousand pounds were distributed
among those who had suffered. To many this was as life from the dead.
Some who would never have recovered the blow took heart again, braced
their energies anew, and ere long the wattle-and-dab cottages were
rebuilt, the gardens replanted, and the lands cultivated as before.

The existence of the settlement was saved, but its prosperity was not
yet secured. The battle had gone sorely against the valiant band of
immigrants, and very nearly had they been routed, but the reinforcements
had enabled them to rally and renew the fight. Still, it _was_ a fight,
and much time had yet to come and go before they could sit down in the
sunshine of comparative peace and enjoy the fruits of their industry.

Meanwhile the oppressions and mismanagements of the Colonial Government
went on as before. It were useless in a tale like this to inflict
details on our readers. Suffice it to say that in the distribution of
lands, in treaties with the Kafirs, in the formation of laws for the
protection of Hottentots and slaves, in the treatment of the settlers, a
state of things was brought about which may be described as confusion
worse confounded, and the oppressed people at last demanded redress with
so loud a voice that it sounded in England, and produced the Royal
Commission of Investigation already referred to in a previous chapter.

The arrival of the gentlemen composing this Commission followed close on
the Floods of 1823. The event, long looked for and anxiously desired,
was hailed with a degree of eager delight scarcely to be understood
except by those who had gone through the previous years of high-handed
oppression, of weary wrangling and appeal, and of that hope deferred
which maketh the heart sick. Expectation was raised to the highest
pitch, and when it was heard that the Commissioners had reached Capetown
preparations were made in Grahamstown to give them a