FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>  
commission, appointed by her Majesty the Queen, consisting of Major Hogge and Mr. Owen, had not then commenced their investigations. There were some Kaffirs in Cape Town, sent in as witnesses, but did not see them. The following is Barrow's description of this people: "They are tall, robust, and muscular, and distinguished by a peculiar firmness of carriage. Some of them were six feet ten inches, and so elegantly proportioned that they would not have disgraced the pedestal of the Farnese Hercules." Further on, he states: "The natives of Kaffraria, if taken collectively, are perhaps superior, in point of figure, to the inhabitants of any other country on earth; they are indeed exempt from many of those causes which, in civilized society, tend to debilitate and impede the growth of the human body. Their diet is perfectly simple, their exercise conducive to health, and the air they breathe salubrious. Strangers to the licentious appetites which frequently proceed from a depraved imagination, they cheerfully receive the bounteous gifts of nature, and when night sways her ebon sceptre o'er the scene, 'Sweetly composed the weary shepherd lies, Though through the woods terrific winds resound, Though rattling thunder shakes the vaulted skies, Or vivid lightning runs along the ground.'" After that read the opinions held of them in Cape Town. I make the extracts from the published debates of the Legislative Council of the colony, in assembly there. The Secretary to Government says: "We have before us the most remarkable fact, that hundreds of these people on the frontier, who had lived with the farmers, many of them ten or twelve, and even a greater number of years, suddenly, and without the _smallest provocation_, turned round and murdered them, or turned them out of their houses with hardly a rag upon them, destroyed their property, and walked over to the enemy." Hardly a man who speaks of them, that does not complain of their pilfering propensities; the farmers grievously as regards their sheep. There were at one time some 800 rebels at Fort Hare; a great number were allowed to depart. Some 3 or 400 were thrown into a regiment and armed; 50 only of the 800 were convicted. This black regiment became so dangerous, after all the confidence bestowed upon them, that their officers would not go out with them, fearing more to be shot by their own men than the enemy. Shortly after they were found sending amm
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>  



Top keywords:
farmers
 

people

 

regiment

 
turned
 
Though
 
number
 

murdered

 

frontier

 

twelve

 

suddenly


smallest
 
greater
 

provocation

 

Secretary

 

opinions

 

ground

 

vaulted

 

lightning

 

extracts

 

published


remarkable
 

Government

 

Legislative

 
debates
 

Council

 
colony
 
assembly
 

hundreds

 

grievously

 

dangerous


confidence

 

bestowed

 
convicted
 
officers
 

Shortly

 
sending
 

fearing

 

thrown

 

speaks

 

complain


pilfering

 

Hardly

 
destroyed
 

property

 
walked
 
propensities
 

shakes

 

allowed

 
depart
 

rebels