The principal productions of the Cape are grain of all kinds, and the grapes from which the Constantia wines are made. The specimen of wheat which I saw, was certainly superior to any I had ever seen in the United States, and an intelligent merchant there informed me that it is considered the best in the world. From the number of pounds he said it would weigh to a bushel, and its clean large grain, should think it the most profitable to the grower.
When we were at the Cape, the Kaffir war was dragging its slow length along. The troops had been pushed into Kaffraria, and the latest news from the scene of operations appeared in the Government Gazette, published by authority on the 22d April, 1852. Dispatches had been received from camp up to the 4th of that month. Major-General the Hon. George Cathcart, with the local rank of Lieutenant-General, having superseded Sir Harry G. W. Smith, was in command. The campaign was on the Kei, and Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre, 73d regiment, following a spoor of cattle, had captured 1,220 head of Gaika cattle, mostly cows, and fifteen horses.
He had several skirmishes with the enemy, who came forth in considerable numbers to protect their herds. Major Armstrong's passage of the Kei, and charge, is spoken of in warm terms of commendation. In this affair the Kaffirs numbered about 500, of whom 100 were mounted. The gallant Major's command, including himself, was 100; with these he crossed the river under a heavy fire, and dispersed five times his number.
A general order had been published at head-quarters, King William's Town, dated 6th April, 1852, in which the Commander-in-Chief congratulates the army on the prospect of a speedy termination of the war, and states that the troops then occupied every stronghold in the Amatolas, and it was impossible the enemy could retain a footing, so closely was he pursued in every direction. Notwithstanding this cheering announcement, I fear this Kaffir war will resemble in its pursuance and general features our Florida campaigns, although the officers engaged in it will receive more credit than our own; and if their duties are arduous in chasing the Hottentots over mountains, and through rugged defiles, yet they have the advantage of a healthy field of operations, and can bivouac on the mountain ridge, or amongst the green valleys, whilst our troops had to seek their damp beds amidst the miasmatic everglades, or more pestiferous marsh. Again, the Kaffirs do occasionally make a stand, and some very severe actions have taken place between them and the British troops.
This war was caused by a rebellion of a portion of the Hottentots of the Kat River settlement, at Fort Beaufort, and the Theopolis Missionary establishment, in Albany. It is supposed to have originated because of the application of stringent vagrant laws, and from apprehensions of being again forced into slavery. It is carried on on the eastern frontier of the country. The above are the surmised causes, but there are thought to have been other motives. A representative from one of the eastern districts, stated in his place in the Legislative Council, that he considered the rebellion to be a national movement, that all the documents found in the rebel camps were exhortations to stand up in the defence of their nation. "General Orders" had been found which had been scattered over a country 500 miles in extent, and these call upon the colored men to unite and drive the white men into the sea, "of which they are the scum."
Sir Andrew Stockenstrom, from the Kat River settlement, called the rebellion "a Riddle," and the Hon. John Montague, Secretary to Government, ascribes the hostile feelings of the Hottentots, to an idea that they are to be made slaves. One gentleman asks in relation to the subject: "What do we know of the rebellion? Why it was only the other day that an officer of the Government was brought to Cape Town, a prisoner for rebellion!"
A 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.