“We returned to Mr. Rex’s with the intention of setting out early on the following day, on a visit to that part of the great forest lying between the Knysna and the Gawkamma, called the Levenbosch. Mr. Rex had recommended this place as best calculated to supply the demands made by the Navy, now that the entrance of the Knysna had been found practicable, as the timber might be brought down to the west ford with ease.
“This part of the forest lies upon the western slope of the range of hills, and there are none of those precipitous ravines which intersect the country in almost all other directions; so that an admirable timber road would soon be formed from thence to the river; even by dragging the logs as they were cut over the hard soil of which the surface of the intervening ground is formed, the distance from the Knysna being only five miles. We accordingly began our excursion on the morning of the 18th. We found in the forest timber of every size and description, but particularly the Stink wood so much required for naval purposes. I shall reserve what we have to say on the subject of timber in general for a chapter intended to be devoted to that purpose, confining myself for the present to a brief account of our journey, and to a description of the impressions made upon us by the first view of this extraordinary country. I quite concurred with Mr. Rex in the opinion that whatever establishment I might be permitted to form, for the purpose of procuring timber for the Navy, should be in the Levenbosch; and I decided accordingly upon placing it there; having the timber carried to the west ford, and from thence floated down to the east ford, the place intended to embark it from; where also I proposed to have a depôt of timber, and a slip for building vessels.
“We found here a few wood-cutters with their huts on the skirts of the wood; they were employed in sawing planks and cutting beams for household purposes. It is impossible to conceive a more wretched degree of mismanagement and want of energy than this little settlement offered to our observation. In the first place it was made at an unnecessary distance from the forest, in consequence of which, the trees when felled, were brought to the pit with much more labour and expence than was needful. In the next place, in order to procure a beam of nine inches square, a tree of eighteen inches diameter when stripped of its bark was taken and lined out, leaving the beam required in the very heart of the tree, and cutting off all the strength in the side slabs. These again became offal wood, in consequence of the manner in which they were taken off; not being sawn, but chopped as Robinson Crusoe is described to have prepared his plank.
“One of the Boors who had set up his party here, had come unprovided with the means of supporting them; depending as he said upon finding a supply of corn in the neighbourhood; although he must have known, that the inhabitants never grew sufficient for their own use. He was obliged in consequence to take his slaves, his wagon, and his oxen a journey of five days to procure what he wanted; and at the end of this period he was equally unsuccessful; for without any previous enquiry he proceeded to the Gauritz River, in order to get a load of corn from a relative, which he expected to have at a low price. The relative had none to spare, and with great difficulty he got a supply elsewhere. To this expedition of ten days in time, was to be added the injury done to his cattle and wagon in passing such formidable places as the Traka de Vrow, the Kayman’s Gut, &c. He acknowledged to have lost two of his oxen. Such improvidence was but too frequent among the Boors.
“On our way to the woods I observed two small patches of wheat, apparently in excellent order, but lying at a great distance from each other. On enquiry I found that they both produced a fair amount of crop; that the spots had not been selected on account of any particular quality in the soil; but that the whole of the plains over which we were passing to the forest was of the same description, and might with a very little trouble be made equally productive; and yet there was neither energy nor judgment sufficient among these people to induce them to devote the labour of their slaves and cattle, for one week in the year, to growing corn here, instead of passing many weeks on the road in search of it.
“In passing the Knysna this day, both Colonel Warre and his Hottentot had a narrow escape. We were fording the river on horseback, and the Colonel and his man having diverged a little from the direction in which the others of the party were following the steps of their guide, both disappeared; the top of the Colonel’s hat, and the floating carcase of his attendant only appearing above water. We had scarcely time to feel alarmed, when they were seen to emerge from the river, and to gain the bank. They had fallen into a deep hole, of which many exist in the bed of the river, and render it very dangerous to strangers. A smart gallop of some miles soon dried their clothes again, and restored the Colonel at least to comfort; that of the Hottentot probably had never been interrupted.”
The narrative of the journey closes here, and though that journey terminated, as has been already stated, under circumstances so distressing to a parent’s mind, the observations which were made during its progress, and the information which was gained, were not lost sight of afterwards or neglected. Sir Jahleel brought back with him strong convictions of the importance of the Cape as a Colony; while at the same time the misery which he had seen in some of the settlers, and the general want of that, without which earthly prosperity is but a very doubtful advantage, led to long and reiterated efforts for the improvement of the Colony, both in a religious and commercial view. And these efforts might have been attended with the happiest effects, had they been appreciated and received as they ought to have been.
Perhaps it is not saying more than is due to the profession to which he belonged, that if ever patriotic feelings were really and effectively developed, it was among the officers of the Navy at the close of the last war. Accustomed to traverse the whole surface of the globe in their country’s cause; conscious that the character, the interests, the security of their country were entrusted to them individually; they looked at every thing in this connection, and considered how it might be turned towards the public good. The dream of universal empire never crossed their minds, but the hope of universal influence was unquestionably theirs; and while the liberties of the world seemed to find their best defence from the flag of Britain, it was not unnatural that men thus formed, and educated in their country’s service, should identify the world’s welfare with the extension of their country’s power, and think that every increase of British influence was a fresh security for the happiness of mankind.
The Journal which has been just presented to the Reader is no inadequate exhibition of the spirit which was at that time so characteristic of the British Navy, and which made every officer alive to the means of enlarging or strengthening the resources of his country.
Sir Jahleel perhaps may be thought to have had an official duty to perform; and to have been required as Naval Commissioner to remark on the resources which the colony included, and which might be called for by the Arsenal at Simon’s Town. But it is evident that his views were extended beyond any such temporary advantage; and that he delighted in describing the resources of the colony, while regarding it as a constituent part of the empire, as offering fresh fields for the diffusion of the power and influence of Great Britain, and of the numberless blessings connected with the principles which seem belonging to that influence. He anticipated the moment when the varied surface of its territory might be brought into cultivation by the energy and intelligence of British settlers, and a fresh field for the manufacturing industry of the mother country might be opened in the prosperity of the colony. He saw what the country was, its natural advantages and capabilities; and he wished to see those advantages improved, and those capabilities employed, by the introduction of an active, intelligent, and well principled population. Above all he looked forward to a time, when under the influence of the gospel, and through its stated ministrations, that wilderness might be made to blossom as a rose, and the desert be like the garden of the Lord. He saw that the settlers scattered as they were along the line of coast, and surrounded as they were with a redundancy of the means of subsistence, were still, if contemplated in a higher sense, like sheep scattered in a wilderness, cut off by distance from all opportunity of religious observances, and separated from every influence that could restrain or regulate their inclinations. The occasional insight that he had gained into their domestic arrangements, supplied a painful contrast with the external welfare of their condition; and he brought back with him the conviction, that no real improvement of the Colony could be effected, unless something was done for the moral and religious improvement of the people. His feelings naturally led him to look to the Church of England, as the agency by which this good work should be undertaken; and it would have been well for the Colony, if the Church of England had had the power of extending its influence so far; or if the Government of the mother country would at once have given to the church, the power of amalgamating and uniting to herself, the distant dependencies of the Empire. Had the suggestions which Sir Jahleel Brenton then addressed to the Bishop of London been adopted, had some large and comprehensive scheme for the religious organization of the Colony been introduced, it is hardly necessary to say, that the affairs of the Cape of Good Hope would have stood on a very different footing from that which they occupy now; and that the painful and insurrectionary movements which have retarded its advance, and which have sown widely and deeply the seeds of future trouble, might have probably been avoided. Had schools and churches been generally built, and provided for at the time of which we write, the population of the country would by this time have assumed a more stable and advanced character. Settlers of a superior quality, and in larger numbers would have been attracted to the Colony. The old inhabitants would have been more attached to the British Government, and the Hottentot population would have been reclaimed. The transition from slavery to freedom in their case would have been more completely accomplished, and with less disturbance to the prejudice of the Boors. The influence of law would have been generally felt throughout the province, and civilization would have proceeded more rapidly, while it was pressed on principles which all could recognize, and which all felt to be beneficial to themselves.