“Another victim has fallen a sacrifice, not to the bullet or the assegai, but to the bodily hardships and anxiety of mind undergone during the war. The Colony has lost a friend by the death of Mr Mitford Bowker. For several years he held the appointment of Resident Agent to the I’Slambie tribes; but after his retirement from this office, he became a sheep-farmer, and for ten years suffered from the depredations of the savage. He was one of those brave settlers who stood by his homestead till ‘the word had been given to kill,’ remaining on his farm, with his family, till the last moment. Forming a little encampment near a kloof, he and his brave brothers, with a small body of steady friends, were attacked by the enemy, whom they kept in check, losing one of their number, of the name of Webb, Mr Bowker himself being struck by a ball. At last, from the smallness of the force, they were compelled to break up their encampment; and then, Mr Bowker, although long and decidedly opposed to the policy of Sir Andries Stockenstrom, accepted the appointment of Commandant of part of the force under the latter officer. Worn out in body and mind, and ruined in fortune, he finally sought shelter under a brother’s roof, and died at the age of forty-five, leaving a wife and children, with the good name their father bore as their sole inheritance.
“In a sketch which I have read of his life, he is spoken of as belonging to the aristocracy of England, ‘being related to Lord Redesdale’ through his mother’s family. Mrs Bowker’s eight sons may be considered among the props of the Colony, and to their mother they owe an education which has enabled them to fill the position of British settlers with credit; and, it might have been, with eminent success. From a stirring mother of a numerous and thriving family, assisting all in their industrious occupations, and cheerfully sharing their toils, anxieties, and difficulties, I hear it stated by her intimate acquaintances that Mrs Bowker has become a broken-hearted woman. What a reward after more than twenty years’ patience, perseverance, and good example! As an honourable close to the outline I have quoted of Mr Mitford Bowker’s life, I have to add that he was not merely ‘a relation of Lord Redesdale’s,’ but of our own dear English Miss Mitford—God bless her!
“In the record of a war, where troops and settlers are united in the field, and where each among the latter has a stake at issue beyond mere worldly fame, the settler claims an equal place with the soldier, and honourable mention when he deserves it. Alas! within the last twelve months how many have ‘died and made no sign,’ who, with hearts crushed under the weight of sorrow and anxiety, and toil-worn and dispirited, have sat down at last, awaiting their release from present misery, in dull, absolute despair! ‘Ha!’ exclaimed the Kaffir scouts one day from the hills, ‘ha! ha! Umlunghi, we will put the cold hand upon you!’ Truly, they have kept their word, in more ways than one. Those who fell in the first engagements have escaped a year’s anguish, and much ‘hope deferred.’ Let us trust that those who die now, like Mr Bowker, leaving his widow and children mourning for him on his desolate land, may at least close their eyes on the dawning of a bright horizon.”
I must not omit to mention the death of another settler, Mr Philip Norton, holding the temporary rank of Captain in the Graham’s Town Hottentot Levy. Here we have the same record of misery, the same tale of slow fever induced by the fatigue, exposure, and privations incidental to the state of this frontier at the present juncture. Driven from his home, a year before, by the rush of the Kaffirs, his premises were fired, his flocks were scattered, and he was obliged to take up arms in the common defence. At the age of seven-and-twenty, this young man, who commenced his career with every prospect of success, dies the victim of the late disastrous war, leaving a young widow and four little children to mourn his loss.
Part 2, Chapter XV.
Capabilities of the Colony.
“April 20th, 1847.—To-day is the anniversary of our sad intelligence from the Amatolas, with its list of killed and wounded. It is a singular fact that the Kaffirs themselves dislike to be questioned concerning the remains of poor Captain Bambrick, but have no hesitation in speaking of other sufferers.
“Within the year we have heard of the death of the late Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope. Major-General Hare died on board the ‘Essex,’ four days after leaving this country for England. He, indeed, may be considered as one of the principal victims of the war. Long ere the irruption burst forth, he should have been at home. In 1845, finding his health declining, he expressed desire to be relieved from the duties of his appointment, and it is most deeply to be deplored that his wishes were not complied with at once. When he was called to the field, all ideas of self were laid aside; and who shall say what the gallant soldier suffered, in mind and body, at the very moment the cheers of encouragement burst from his lips? Whatever may be said of his political career, when Lieutenant-Governor, the difficulties he had to contend with would, if explained, be sufficient excuse for many errors set down as wilful. He is dead! and it is a pleasure to recall his many excellent qualities. If he was not the man for South Africa, let it be remembered that, during the most eventful period of his government, he was here against his will, and that, having led his old corps against the ungrateful Gaikas, whom it had been his chief fault to trust and treat too kindly—when, I say, he had headed the 27th once more, with honour to himself and them, he left the field, debilitated from fatigue and anxiety; and it was not until the mountains of the land in which he had suffered so much had faded from his sight, that ‘he turned his face to the wall,’ in the cheerless cabin of that restless ship, and died of a broken heart; for such, in fact, his disease may be pronounced.”