In sullen disgust at his reception in Graham’s Town, or rather his non-reception by Sir Henry Pottinger, Pretorius had resolved on abandoning the districts under our Government, and the example of such a man was not lost on his neighbours. From the difficulty of communication between the immediate scene of Sir Harry Smith’s proclamations, and the disaffected Boers, no positive assurance of better prospects had reached them, till he in person offered himself as their friend. A spot on the banks of the Tugala River was named as a place of conference, and a great many farmers assembled there, requesting Pretorius to address his Excellency on the subject of their grievances, which he did in such a way as to excite the sympathy of all who heard him.
The result of this conference was a Proclamation announcing “the Sovereignty of the Queen of England over the territories north of the Orange River, north to the Vaal River, and east to the Draakenberg, or Quathlamba, Mountains.” The Boers, to a man, declared their readiness and anxiety to return to the farms they had forsaken; those further off were invited by proclamation to leave “their miserable locations among the Draakenberg Mountains;” and the arrangements respecting quit-rents, judicial authority, grants of land, etc, were met with satisfaction by the whole population assembled to hear and understand them.
The Tugala stream being impassable, the Governor returned to Pretorius’s camp, and was there detained some days. On his way back, his Excellency had to ford a passage which, from the rains, had become a deep stream. The people provided a strong horse for him, and assisted themselves, in getting the travelling waggon, “Government House” as they called it, through the waters, which threatened to sweep it away. The indefatigable Governor at last left Pretorius in the rain: and, after crossing many drifts, forded a dangerous mountain-stream, called the Blue Krantz River. At the Great Bushman’s River, he found a party under Captain Campbell, C.M.R., and Lieutenant Gibb, R.E., who had brought a float from Pietermaritzburg. By these means the Mooi and the Umgeni Rivers were passed, and his Excellency reached Natal.
Many of the inhabitants had ridden out fifteen miles to meet their “friend.” The proclamations had satisfied every one of Sir Harry Smith’s desire to make all parties justly and permanently happy, and the town was the scene of general rejoicing.
After remaining a day or two at the Lieutenant-Governor’s, his Excellency left Natal for Cape Town, on the 12th of February; landed at the Buffalo mouth, from H.M. steamer “Geyser,” on the 15th, and on the 19th reached Graham’s Town. On the 1st of March he made his entrée into Cape Town, amid the acclamations of the people and the rejoicings of his friends, and the day closed with illuminations throughout the town. One of these was worthy of remark: it was a small transparency representing the “Hero of Aliwal” leading the aged Boer to his own seat!
One point has been gained by the miseries of the last two years—the Colony has attracted the attention of the whole of the civilised world; its resources have been brought into notice; and, finally, a Governor has been appointed, whose mind is unprejudiced, whose head is clear, whose heart is honest, and whose powers are unshackled.
While this work has been preparing for the press, we have been startled by the melancholy intelligence of another outburst in Kaffirland. The cause is traced to the deposition of Sandilla from his high estate of Paramount Chief of the Gaikas.
In perusing the foregoing work, the reader will do me the justice to acknowledge that although I have been sanguine in my hopes of peace, I have never for one moment swerved from my opinion of the Kaffir. From first to last I have denounced him as incapable of honest feelings—as an irreclaimable savage. No sooner were the Rifle Brigade removed from the Colony, than the wild beast began to show his claws. We have already received the grievous news of death and devastation to a painful extent, and all we have to rest upon at present is the certainty that no one knows better than Sir Harry Smith how to deal with these misguided wretches, and to hope that the final result will not be detrimental to the true interests of either the Kaffir or the emigrant.
The following is a summary of what may be called the first chapter of the present war in Kaffirland.
Sir Harry Smith having summoned Sandilla to a conference, of the Gaika tribes with the British Governor, Sandilla chose to absent himself: his adviser and supporter in this affair was, no doubt, his brother and chief councillor, Anta, a man already noticed in this work. Upon this Sir Harry Smith deposed Sandilla, and nominated his mother Sutu; the “Great Widow” of Gaika, in her son’s stead. Sandilla and his friends resented this, especially as Sir Harry had declared the chief’s land confiscated, and, in spite of all former oaths of allegiance, they treated the Governor’s messages with contempt.