This and the other efforts of the outraged Caffres, which were now made to avenge their injuries and check the despoiling course of the English, were organized under the influence and counsel of Makanna, a prophet who assumed the sacred character to combine and rouse his countrymen to overturn their oppressors: for not knowing the vast resources of the English, he fondly deemed that if they could vanquish those at the Cape they should be freed from their power; “and then,” said he, “we will sit down and eat honey!”
In this, as in so many other particulars, the Caffres resemble the American Indians. Scarcely a confederacy amongst those which have appeared for the purpose of resisting the aggressions on the Indians but have been inspired and led on by prophets, as the brother of Tecumseh, amongst the Shawanees; the son of Black-Hauk, Wabokieshiek, amongst the Sacs; Monohoe, and others, amongst the Creeks who fell at the bloody battle of Horse-shoe-bend.
Makanna had by his talents and pretences raised himself from the common herd to the rank of a chief, and soon gained complete ascendency over all the chiefs except Gaika, to whom he was opposed as the ally of the English. He went amongst the missionaries and acquired so much knowledge of Christianity as served him to build a certain motley creed upon, by which he mystified and awed the common people. After Col. Brereton’s devastations he roused up his countrymen to a simultaneous attack upon Graham’s Town. He and Dushani, the son of Islambi, mustered their exasperated hosts to the number of nine or ten thousand in the forests of the Great Fish River, and one morning at the break of day these infuriated troops were seen rushing down from the mountains near Graham’s Town to assault it. A bloody conflict ensued: the Caffres, inflamed by their wrongs and the eloquence of Makanna, fought desperately; but they were mown down by the European artillery, fourteen hundred of their warriors were left on the field, and the rest fled to the hills and woods. The whole burgher militia of the colony were called out to pursue them, and to ravage their country in all directions. It was resolved to take ample vengeance on them: their lands were laid waste—their corn trampled down under the feet of the cavalry, their villages burnt to the ground—and themselves chased into the bush, where they were bombarded with grape-shot and congreve-rockets. Men, women, and children, were massacred in one indiscriminate slaughter. A high price was set upon the heads of the chiefs, especially on that of Makanna, and menaces added, that if they were not brought in, nothing should prevent the total destruction of their country. Not a soul was found timid or traitorous enough to betray their chiefs; but to the surprise of the English, Makanna himself, to save the remainder of his nation, walked quietly into the English camp and presented himself before the commander. “The war,” said he, “British chiefs, is an unjust one; for you are striving to extirpate a people whom you forced to take up arms. When our fathers, and the fathers of the Boors first settled in the Zureveld, they dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hills; their herdsmen smoked together out of the same pipes; they were brothers, until the herds of the Amakosa increased so as to make the hearts of the boors sore. What these covetous men could not get from our fathers for old buttons, they took by force. Our fathers were MEN; they loved their cattle; their wives and children lived upon milk; they fought for their property. They began to hate the colonists, who coveted their all, and aimed at their destruction.
“Now their kraals and our fathers’ kraals were separate. The boors made commandoes on our fathers. Our fathers drove them out of the Zureveld. We dwelt there because we had conquered it. There we married wives, and there our children were born. The white men hated us, but they could not drive us away. When there was war, we plundered you. When there was peace, some of our bad people stole; but our chiefs forbade it. Your treacherous friend, Gaika, always had peace with you, yet, when his people stole he shared in the plunder. Have your patroles ever, in time of peace, found cattle, runaway slaves, or deserters in the kraals of our chiefs? Have they ever gone into Gaika’s country without finding such cattle, such slaves, such deserters in Gaika’s kraals? But he was your friend; and you wished to possess the Zureveld. You came at last like locusts.[69] We stood; we could do no more. You said, ‘Go over the Fish River—that is all we want.’ We yielded, and came here. We lived in peace. Some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was quiet—the chiefs were quiet. Gaika stole—his chiefs stole—his people stole. You sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent him horses—on which he rode to steal more. To us you sent only commandoes!
“We quarrelled with Gaika about grass—no business of yours. You sent a commando.[70] You took our last cow. You left only a few calves, which died for want, along with our children. You gave half the spoil to Gaika—half you kept yourselves. Without milk—our corn destroyed, we saw our wives and children perish—we saw that we must ourselves perish. We fought for our lives—we failed—and you are here. Your troops cover the plains and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot distinguish the men from the women, and shoot all.[71]
“You want us to submit to Gaika. That man’s face is fair to you, but his heart is false; leave him to himself, and we shall not call on you for help. Set Makanna at liberty; and Islambi, Dushani, Kongo, and the rest, will come to make peace with you at any time you fix. But if you will make war, you may indeed kill the last man of us; but Gaika shall not rule over the followers of those who think him a woman.”[72]
It is said that this energetic address, containing so many awful truths, affected some of those who heard it even to tears. But what followed? The Caffres were still sternly commanded to deliver up their other chiefs; treachery is said to have been used to compass it, but in vain; so the English made a desert of the whole country, and carried off 30,000 head of cattle.[73] Makanna was sent to Cape-Town, and thence transported to Robben Island, a spot appropriated to felons and malefactors doomed to work in irons. Here, in an attempt with some few followers to effect his escape, he was drowned by the upsetting of the boat, and died cheering his unfortunate companions till the billows swept him from a rock to which he clung.[74]
The English had hitherto gratified their avarice and bad passions with their usual freedom in their colonies, on those who had no further connexion with them than happening to possess goodly herds under their eye; but now they turned their hand upon their friend and ally, Gaika. Having devoured, by his aid, his countrymen, they were ready now to devour him. Gaika was called upon to give up a large portion of Caffre land, that is, from the Fish River to the Keisi and Chumi rivers—a tract which added about 2,000 square miles to our own boundaries. This he yielded most reluctantly, and only on condition that the basin of the Chumi, a beautiful piece of country, should not be included, and that all his territory should be considered neutral ground. Gaika himself narrowly escaped being seized by the English in 1822—for what cause does not appear,—but it does appear that he only effected his escape in the mantle of his wife; and that in 1823 a large force, according to the evidence of Capt. Aichison, in which he was employed, surprised the kraals of his son Macomo, and took from them 7,000 beasts. Well might Gaika say—“When I look at the large tract of fine country that has been taken from me, I am compelled to say that though protected, I am rather oppressed by my protectors.”[75]
This Macomo, the son of Gaika, seems to be a fine fellow. Desirous of cultivating peace and the friendship of the English; desirous of his people receiving, the benefits of civilization and the Christian religion; yet, notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the alliance which had subsisted between the English and his father, his treatment at the hands of the Cape government has always been of the most harsh and arbitrary kind. He has been driven with his people from one location to another, and the most serious devastation committed on his property. Pringle’s words regarding him are—“He has uniformly protected the missionaries and traders; has readily punished any of his people who committed depredations on the colonists, and on many occasions has given four or five-fold compensation for stolen cattle driven through his territory by undiscovered thieves from other clans. Notwithstanding all this, however, and much more stated on his behalf in the Cape papers, colonial oppression continues to trample down this chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot.” The same writer gives the following instance of the sort of treatment which was received from the authorities by this meritorious chief.