1838
In February, 1838, some of the provisional recruits, stationed at Fort Peddie, laid the foundation of a serious mutiny, which was fortunately discovered by some old soldiers of the corps, and immediately reported to Captain Murray of the Seventy-second Highlanders, commanding the post, and the ringleaders were secured. A party of these men having marched to Fraser’s camp, on route to head-quarters, they fired upon their officers in the night, when Ensign Crowe, a provisional officer, was killed. This alarming circumstance appeared to endanger the character of the corps; but the investigation instituted by Major-General Sir George Napier, and the proceedings of the general court-martial on the trial of the ringleaders, clearly proved, that no blame was to be attached to the officers, nor to the established members of the corps: in August, his Excellency the Governor was pleased to recommend a permanent augmentation of three companies to the corps.
1839
The augmentation of the corps was carried into effect in March, 1839, when the six companies of the Cape Mounted Riflemen were placed under the command of Colonel Henry Somerset: their head-quarters had been removed in the previous November, from Cypher Fontein to Graham’s Town, from which period they have been actively employed along the frontier, occupying seventeen posts.
1840
In October, 1840, his Excellency Major-General Sir George Napier inspected the corps, and afterwards, addressing the officers and soldiers, expressed his unqualified approbation of their conduct since he quitted the frontier in 1838, and of their efficiency in every respect.
The Cape of Good Hope, where the services of the Cape Mounted Riflemen have been of signal advantage to the settlers, forms an interesting and important portion of the British dominions, and is capable of becoming a particularly valuable colony. On approaching this part of Africa, the immense mass of naked rock called Table Mountain, rising to the height of three thousand five hundred feet, with its summit covered with a fleecy canopy of clouds, forms a conspicuous object; and on a plain, sloping downwards from the mountain, stands Cape Town, the capital of the colony, which is defended by a castle of considerable strength.
The colony is bounded on the west and south, by the Atlantic and Southern oceans; on the east, by the Great Fish River, which separates it from Kafirland, or Caffraria; on the north by a vast chain of mountains which form a barrier between it and the Bechuanas and other independent tribes that stretch into the interior. The colony is between five and six hundred miles long, and its breadth varies from two to three hundred miles; it contains about one hundred and twenty thousand square miles. The leading features consist of three successive ranges of mountains, running parallel with each other to the southern coast of Africa. Between the first range (called Lang Kloof, or Long Pass) and the sea, there is a belt of land varying from twenty to sixty miles in breadth, covered with a deep fertile soil, watered by numerous rivulets, well clothed with grass and a beautiful variety of trees and shrubs, and yielding an abundance of grain and pasturage. Between this range and the second, called Zwarte Berg, or Black Mountain, there is another belt of land of about the same average breadth, but of greater elevation, and containing patches of fertile land interspersed in large tracts of arid desert; on these spots are a number of grazing farms, which produce fine horses and horned cattle. Beyond the Black Mountain, at an interval from eighty to a hundred miles of elevated ground of a barren character, rises the highest range of mountains in Southern Africa, called Nieuwveldt Gebrige, the summits of which are generally covered with snow. In this extensive territory, forming, as it were, a succession of terraces rising above each other, much barren land exists, interspersed with many spots of extreme fertility, producing, in their wild state, plants and flowers distinguished by the elegance of their forms and colours. The colony is capable of much improvement, and of maintaining a much larger population than that by which it is occupied. The principal of the rural occupants are wine-growers, corn-farmers and graziers; the first reside in the immediate vicinity of the Cape; they produce wine of ten or twelve different kinds, and that called Constantia, has obtained considerable reputation; brandy also forms a staple product among them, but both articles admit of improvement. The corn-farmers reside, generally, a few days’ journey from the Cape, and the fertility of the soil enables them to reap good crops of wheat, barley, rye, maize, peas, beans, and on some occasions they bring quantities of aloes to the Cape, for which they obtain a good price. The graziers occupy the more remote districts of the colony, and have large flocks of sheep, some of them remarkable for immense tails; this breed is, however, gradually becoming extinct; the Saxon, Merino and other fine-wool breeds having been introduced with great advantage; the graziers have also great quantities of horned cattle. Fruits of various kinds are produced on the west coast of the colony in as great perfection as in any part of the globe. The Hottentots are the chief labourers of the colony, and are a patient submissive race; when trained as soldiers they prove an useful and efficient class of men.
Extensive measures have been adopted to diffuse the advantages of civilization, and the blessings of Christianity among the tribes of this part of Africa; schools have been introduced, and missionary stations formed, and the results have been most favourable to the progress of humanity. In this respect the colony offers a field for the efforts of philanthropy of a most interesting character.